Xena: Warrior Princess-Season 2-Part 2 (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Menu Animation & Audio Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	465:32
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (25:43) Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Michael Hurst Gary Jones
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Lucy Lawless Renee O'Connor Ted Raimi Hudson Leick
Case	?
RPI	$69.95	Music	Joseph Lo Duca

    This second half is by far the stronger half of the series. It contains some excellent episodes, in both comedic and dramatic respects. For Him The Bell Tolls is one of the best comic episodes, while the season closer, A Comedy Of Eros, shows Xena at its strongest - quirky and humorous. There are also some good dramatic episodes in this half, with both A Necessary Evil and The Price showing exactly how good Xena can be. The stand-out episode, however, is definitely Lost Mariner - a dramatic episode that manages to not only get its point across very effectively, but does it in a way that is entertaining, and dramatically satisfying.

    The following are the episode synopses for this second half of the series. As with the first half, they are difficult to write without creating some spoilers, so you have been warned.

• Destiny (41:55) - Xena saves a group of travellers from an attack, but is badly injured in the process. While Gabrielle desperately tries to get to a healer in time, Xena remembers her past - a past that included a meeting with a young Julius Caesar.
• The Quest (42:25) - As Gabrielle takes Xena's body home to be buried with her brother in Amphipolis, she is intercepted by a group of Amazons who convince her that Xena should receive a full Amazon funeral - including cremation. It goes without saying that Xena's spirit is none-too-happy with this turn of events, and she takes over the body of Autolycus (the great Bruce Campbell) to help steal her own body back, and to get the ambrosia necessary to bring her back from the dead. Unfortunately, the new queen of the Amazons, the devious Velasca, thinks that possessing some ambrosia (the food of the gods) for herself is a good idea, and pursues Gabrielle and Autolycus in their quest to find it. As a special note, this is the first time that Xena and Gabrielle share an open-mouthed kiss - even if it is by proxy.
• A Necessary Evil (42:28) - Now a god, Velasca embarks on a journey of destruction, but as she is a new god, she weakens after using her powers to wreak damage. There is only one person who can stand up to Velasca - the now immortal Callisto (Callisto's immortalisation, and imprisonment, is a story thread that occurs in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - which, sadly, is not yet available on DVD). Xena frees Callisto, but works on a plan that should trap both Callisto and Velasca for all eternity.
• A Day In The Life (42:27) - This quirky and humorously toned episode is basically what its title suggests - a day in the life of Xena. As such, it goes into slightly more detail than is usually covered (eating, sleeping, walking, etc). There is, as always, an adventure to liven up the day - this day Xena takes on the army of war-lord Zagreas, and the biggest, meanest giant to ever walk the earth, Gareth. Not too bad for a day's work.
• For Him The Bell Tolls (41:59) - While Xena is off working security for a good king, Gabrielle is left to wander the countryside on her own, and to her great displeasure, runs into Joxer. Determined to help people without Xena, Gabrielle finds a village under attack, but as she starts to go to their aid, she is passed by Joxer who sweeps in with dashing skills, and animal magnetism, to save all the women. It seems that Joxer is under the influence of a spell from Aphrodite, who is fighting with her son Cupid over a relationship he set up.
• The Execution (42:26) - Meleager the Mighty is in trouble - again! This time, he has been convicted of murder in the court of a judge known the land over for fairness and adherence to justice. While Gabrielle is convinced of his innocence, Xena is not so sure - and seems to be proved right when Meleager confesses to the crime. But is all what it seems? There may be forces at work that are not immediately visible.
• Blind Faith (42:29) - While on a shopping excursion, Gabrielle is kidnapped by a cocky blond warrior who proceeds to goad Xena into a fight, wishing to become the man known for killing Xena. After Xena proves that she is not easily beaten, the warrior - Palaemon - reveals that Gabrielle has been delivered to a king to be his new bride. Unfortunately for Gabrielle, it seems the king is not looking as lively as he once was.
• Ulysses (42:26) - Xena and Gabrielle rush to the aid of a man fighting warriors on a beach, only to find the man is the legendary Ulysses, king of Ithica. It turns out that Poseidon is not overly happy with him for blinding his Cyclops (let's not get into the twisting of Greek myth here), and is attempting to keep him away from his home. Xena decides to help out by aiding Ulysses in his journey home, but finds herself falling in love with him.
• The Price (42:28) - Trapped by the fierce and primitive armies of the Hoard, Xena takes control of an army in an attempt to save herself and Gabrielle. The control sits too well with her and presently she is ruling the army with the kind of iron-fisted authority and blind cruelty she was known for in her plundering days - and only Gabrielle seems to see the change.
• Lost Mariner (42:27) - Xena and Gabrielle are in a ship-wreck, following which Gabrielle is rescued by being pulled aboard the ship of Cecrops, the lost mariner. Any who board the vessel that has been cursed by Poseidon are doomed to spend the rest of their days on the vessel, or else die attempting to escape it. Determined to help, and fully aware of the curse, Xena boards the ship to help free Cecrops and his crew from their terrible punishment.
• A Comedy Of Eros (42:32) - While a strange episode on which to end a season, it is still a very strong one, featuring the return of Jay Laga'aia as Draco. Cupid's baby son has flown away from home and taken one of Cupid's bows with him - and is wreaking havoc by shooting everyone and everything in sight, causing some very strange feelings of affection.

    This is possibly the strongest collection of Xena episodes there is. From here on in, the series became overly aware of itself and its status, and also decreased in dramatic effectiveness, although the third season is still very good. Bring it on!

Video

    Presented at 1.33:1, the original aspect ratio, this transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The episodes in this half are generally sharp, although there is often a constant presence of low level grain. The episode A Necessary Evil is the best of this collection, being almost entirely free from grain (is it coincidence that the technically most impressive episodes are the ones featuring Callisto?), and actually being quite sharp and clear. Shadow detail is also good throughout this second half, showing some very nice detail in the night scenes. As there are quite a number of night scenes, the good shadow detail is a bonus. There is no low-level noise present.

    Colours are again good, and this half of the production does not seem to be as weather-affected as the first half. The lush green New Zealand forests are breathtaking in their beauty, while the snowy mountains are a bright contrast, and the highlights of costumes and sets are all rendered well.

    The biggest problem with this second half of the series is the collection of encoding errors. The first occurs at 5:39 of episode The Quest, and is a small amount of obvious image break-up, possibly caused by a digital tape drop-out. There is some inconsistency in colour, with the image seeming to lose one of the colours entirely for a short period of time at 31:48 during episode The Execution (although this could well be source related). Also during that episode, at 38:20 and again at 38:39 there is some very obvious picture break-up (the first instance accompanied by a loud audio pop). Finally, during episode Ulysses the same strange break-up (it looks very much like a tape tracking error, although not quite) occurs at 16:30. Additionally, there are a few occasions, such as during episode Lost Mariner at 15:37, when the wires used for the stunts have not be correctly removed and flicker in and out of view (although this is obviously a source issue). While this may seem like a long list of problems, the few seconds for which they occur, when taken in the context of over seven hours of material means that they are only slightly annoying. There are a number of instances of aliasing during this second half - certainly more than the first, most likely due to the increased sharpness - but again in the context of the overall length they are infrequent and almost all minor. Only from 37:55 to 38:15 during episode The Execution does any aliasing really become evident. As with the first half of the season, there are a few small film artefacts, but none are really distracting.

    There are no subtitles present on these discs.

    The first two discs in this half are dual layered with two episodes per layer, while the third is RSDL formatted with the layer change taking place at 25:43 between Chapters 4 and 5 of episode Lost Mariner. The layer change is again well placed on an ad break fade-to-black.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This second half has the same solitary audio track as the first, being the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (at 224 Kbps).

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times. There are never any problems with hum as occurred in the first series, and there are never any problems with mixing. When the picture problems occur at 38:20 during episode The Execution, they are accompanied by a loud pop. While it is probably not enough to damage home-theatre equipment, it is still very distracting.

    Audio sync is generally spot on, although there are a few occasions when it slips out, being from 2:39 to 2:42 in Destiny and at 1:54 of Lost Mariner. These are the only occasions where it is a problem, and out of the seven hours plus of material, it is only a very small part.

    The score is provided by Joseph Lo Duca and is of high quality, belying the low-budget serial TV origins. It is well suited to the material, and in this second half suffers less from the repetitive nature of the series.

    Again, this two channel soundtrack will provide extra information if set to surround decoding, including a few directional effects. Overall, however, the soundtrack is very frontal (although well spaced across the front soundstage).

    The subwoofer has a decent amount of work to do from redirected bass, often backing up the score or the more aggressive effects noises, although there are occasions where some effects noises that should really have extended bass (explosions and the like) are strangely lacking.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Photo Gallery

    The video quality is good, and in general is better than the first half of the season. There are a few problems in the form of some rather obvious encoding errors, and bad visual effects work.

    The audio quality is good - it gets the job done - but is not so good as to be spectacular.

    The solitary extra is pitiful and really should be left off, as it is a total waste of space.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall