Bernadette Joyce Movies

It sure looked like curtains for Xena: Warrior Princess at the end of the series' fourth season, what with both Xena (Lucy Lawless) and her traveling companion, Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), being crucified by the Romans, the fulfillment of a prophecy by the evil shamaness Alti (Claire Stansfield). But given the amazing recuperative power of our heroines, both of whom had spectacularly arisen from the dead on previous occasions, it came as no surprise during season five that reports of their permanent demise were highly exaggerated. But though Xena and Gabrielle are eventually restored to the land of the living, they still have their share of trials and tribulations. Impregnated under mysterious circumstances, Xena gives birth to a daughter named Eve, an "immaculate conception" tied in with Gabrielle's devotion to the martyred prophet Eli (Tim Omundson). It soon develops that Eve has been targeted for extermination by the Olympian Gods, the result of a prophecy that the girl's birth would be the beginning of the end of the Gods' rule over Earth. As for Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), she is afforded the opportunity to ascend to the throne of Queen of the Amazons -- but this honor may require her to inflict heavy and horrible punishment upon her old friend Joxer (Ted Raimi). Joxer truly becomes "old" rather suddenly two-thirds of the way through the fifth season -- in fact, in one fell swoop 25 years pass by, during which both Xena and Gabrielle are in a state of suspended animation, frozen in a block of ice. Upon thawing out, the ladies discover that their old adversary Ares (Kevin Smith), God of War, has a powerful new ally: Fierce female warrior Livia, "The Bitch of Rome." Xena is disheartened to learn that Livia is none other than her own, grown-up daughter Eve (Adrienne Wilkinson), with whom she may be forced into mortal combat for the good of humankind. As in past years, season five bade goodbye to some familiar characters while introducing new ones. The most significant farewell was that of Joxer, who dies at Livia/Eve's hands. But the spirit of Joxer lives on, figuratively speaking, in the form of his stalwart son, Virgil (William Gregory Lee). Also in the tradition of previous seasons, the fifth-year run of Xena: Warrior Princess ended with a cliffhanger. This time around, Xena engaged in hand-to-hand combat against the Olympian Gods, with the fate of all the combatants remaining in the balance until the beginning of season six. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season three of Xena: Warrior Princess ended on a tragic note, with Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), friend and chronicler of reformed warrior Xena (Lucy Lawless), sacrificing her life so that her daughter, Hope -- the incarnation of pure evil -- would not be resurrected. Given the series' mythological zeitgeist, however, viewers could take comfort in the fact that Gabrielle would ultimately be restored to life thanks to the diligence of the faithful Xena, thereby launching a fourth season of fanciful sword-and-sorcery adventures. As usual, quite a lot was packed into the season's 22 hour-long episodes. The death of Amazon Queen Ephiny placed the wide-eyed Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) on her predecessor's throne, thereby introducing a new character: rebellious teenaged Amazon Amarice (Jennifer Sky), whose relationship with Gabrielle was nearly a carbon copy of Gabrielle's relationship with Xena. Also seen for the first time during season four is Eli (Timothy Omundson), a Messianic shaman whom the ladies met during a journey to India. Eli will ultimately emerge as Gabrielle's spiritual mentor -- not to mention the figurehead in a pacifistic, monotheistic cult that will in later seasons bring down the literal wrath of the Gods. And just as Amarice and Eli were making themselves at home, the series bade farewell to Bruce Campbell as Autolycus, self-proclaimed King of Thieves. The more suspenseful and terrifying episodes of season four were offset with excursions into pure comedy. One of the more noteworthy lighter installments was the season's final episode, in which we were introduced to mixed-up modern-day incarnations of Xena, Gabrielle, and warrior wannabe Joxer (Ted Raimi). Withal, however, an ominous pall hung over the entire season, thanks to the grim prognostications of Xena's old nemesis, the evil shamaness Alti (Claire Stansfield). With her dying breath, Alti conjured up a horrific vision of Xena and Gabrielle's grisly execution and the hands of the hated Romans -- a prediction that not only came true, but also provided the "cliffhanger" which assured that loyal (and very worried) Xena fans would return for season five. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season three of Xena: Warrior Princess was the series' most eventful 22 episodes to date -- as well as the most mobile, with Xena (Lucy Lawless) and her friend and chronicler, Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), traveling far and wide, from the British Isles to the far-off Orient. It is, in fact, during the ladies' odyssey to the land of "Chin" that the viewer learns more secrets of Xena's checkered past, including her "debt" to the philosopher Lao Ma -- and the birth of a son we never knew she had. In the season's lighter moments, teenaged warrior wannabe Tara (Shiri Appleby) tries to supplant Gabrielle as Xena's traveling companion. And everyone suffers from the comic intrusions of aspiring warrior Joxer (Ted Raimi), capricious Goddess of Love Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings), and self-proclaimed King of Thieves Autolycus (Bruce Campbell). On the darker side, war god Ares (Kevin Smith) continues to be a thorn in Xena's side. Even more disturbing, Gabrielle is impregnated by the demonic god Dahuk, giving birth to a daughter ironically named Hope (Amy Morrison), who literally grows up before her eyes -- as the incarnation of pure evil. Hope ultimately kills Xena's son, Solan (David Taylor), briefly causing a bitter rift between the grieving mothers, and is herself killed -- twice. It is the second demise of Hope which also costs the life of Gabrielle, a tragedy on which Xena: Warrior Princess concludes its third season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season two of Xena: Warrior Princess is noteworthy for several reasons, though two of these stand out above all the rest. The first was the promotion to full "regular" status of the series' principal comedy-relief character, a bumbling wannabe warrior named Joxer (Ted Raimi), who had previously shown up in the first-season installment "Callisto." The second occurred during the two-part adventure "Destiny"/"The Quest," in which heroine Xena (Lucy Lawless) actually died and was brought back to life -- one of several termination-resurrection scenarios which would proliferate in the seasons to come. A potential series-threatening crisis occurred in October 1996, when star Lucy Lawless fell from a horse during a publicity stunt staged for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Suffering a broken pelvis, the actress was forced to sit out several weeks of shooting, necessitating the hastily written episodes "Intimate Stranger" and "Ten Little Warlords," in which Xena's mind and soul was briefly "possessed" by the body of her arch-enemy Callisto (Hudson Leick). Deftly balancing dead-serious episodes (especially those wherein the usually pacifistic Gabrielle [Renee O'Connor] would toy with the notion of learning how to kill her enemies) with delightful excursions into comedy and whimsy (notably "Here She Comes? Miss Amphipolis" and "A Comedy of Eros"), Xena: Warrior Princess wrapped up its second season with 22 highly-rated installments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Created by John Schulian and Robert Tapert, the New Zealand-filmed Xena: Warrior Princess was a spin-off of the tongue-in-cheek "sword and sorcery" series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. As introduced on Hercules, Xena (Lucy Lawless) was a fierce and formidable villainess, the leader of a vast army bent on destruction and devastation. There was some justification for this: As a child, Xena had witnessed the destruction of her home village and the brutal murder of her brother at the hands of a despotic warlord. At first forming her army to protect other peasants like herself, she became consumed with a lust for power and was soon conquering for the sake of being the conqueror. But through her association with the virtuous Hercules, Xena experienced an epiphany, casting off her former evil ways and devoting the rest of her life to making amends to her victims and protecting the innocent -- a task complicated by the many enemies she had made during her Warrior Princess years, who neither forgave nor forgot, and by the unsavory alliances she had forged during those same years. No sooner had Xena "seen the light" than she rescued the citizens of a village besieged by yet another evil warlord. Among those saved was young and beautiful Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), an aspiring "bard" (writer and artist) who became Xena's constant companion, first because she idolized the former warrior princess and was eager to experience adventure first-hand, but ultimately because she was Xena's devoted friend and confidant.
In the course of the series' six seasons, Xena and Gabrielle journeyed through Greece, Italy, Scandanavia, Africa, India, and China, with side trips to the Underworld -- ruled by Xena's erstwhile crony Hades -- and to the future, in which the two heroines found themselves in reincarnated form. Predicated on the theory that anything is possible in a fantasy series, both Xena and Gabrielle were "killed" and "resurrected" on several occasions, and both bore children who grew up to become their nemeses: Xena's daughter Eve (Adrienne Wilkinson) reached adulthood as the much-feared warrior queen Livia, the lover of war god Ares (Kevin Smith), while Gabrielle's offspring Hope (Amy Morrison), whose father was "force of darkness" Dahak, would have to be killed at her mother's hand in order to save Mankind (Xena also had reason to despise Hope; it was she who killed Xena's long-estranged son, Solon). In one memorable instance, Xena briefly assumed the form of another woman -- a metamorphosis necessitated by a real-life accident which sidelined Lucy Lawless for several weeks. Lest this all sound a bit grim and morbid, it must be noted that the series, like its predecessor, Hercules, had a healthy, irreverent sense of humor, as encapsulated by the light-hearted "disclaimers" which appeared at the end of each episode. There was also time to spoof such modern-day phenomena as beauty contests, spaghetti Westerns, Danny Kaye films, theme parks, pro wrestling, Broadway musicals, and even such TV shows as You Are There and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There was also a cheerily contemptuous disregard for the time line of "real" history, with Xena and Gabrielle crossing the paths of Julius Caesar, Ulysses, Genghis Khan, Cleopatra, David and Goliath, Brunnhilde, and many other past "celebrities," both genuine and imaginary. Generally, the series' jocular treatment of Myth, Mysticism, Religion, and Reality was accepted in the spirit in which it was intended; but on one occasion, an angry protest from a Hindu extremist group obliged the producers to remove the fourth season episode "The Way" from the series' rerun package.
Of Xena's many recurring characters, the best known and most often seen included Xena and Gabrielle's clumsy, wannabe warrior friend Joxer (Ted Raimi); Xena's mortal enemy, the blonde female warrior Callisto (Hudson Leick); troublesome traveling salesman Salmoneus (Robert Trebor); self-proclaimed king of thieves Autolycus (Bruce Campbell); Amazon princess Ephiny (Danielle Cormack), who enabled Gabrielle to join her all-female tribe; teenaged Amazon Amarice (Jennifer Sky), who became to Gabrielle what Gabrielle was to Xena; healer and shaman Eli (Timothy Omundson), Gabrielle's spiritual mentor; and an impressive array of "immortals," including the aforementioned Ares and Hades, goddess of love Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings), sea deity Poseidon (Charles Siebert, who also directed several episodes), and the puckish Cupid (Karl Urban, who also played Julius Caesar). And, of course, the star of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Kevin Sorbo, made a few courtesy calls on Xena. Syndicated in the U.S. beginning September 15, 1995, Xena: Warrior Princess was subsequently telecast in practically every English-speaking country in the world, then went on to virtually every other country where television existed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season one of the weekly syndicated series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys picks up the action where the fifth of the Hercules TV movies, 1994's Hercules in the Maze of the Monsters, left off. Olympian goddess Hera is determined to wreak vengeance upon her husband, Zeus, king of the gods, for the outrageous act of impregnating the mortal Alceme (played during this season by Elizabeth Hawthorne) -- the result of this union being, of course, the mighty half-god, half-human Hercules (Kevin Sorbo). Hera's wrath is aimed specifically at Hercules, whom she punishes by murdering his wife and children. This tragedy causes a near-inseparable rift between Zeus and Hercules, with the latter renouncing his godly birthright and responsibilities and embarking upon his own campaign of destruction and devastation on Earth. Fortunately, Hercules sees the errors of his ways before it is too late, and together with his mortal friend Iolaus (Michael Hurst), he sets upon the first of many journeys to use his super-strength for good rather than evil throughout Greece and the known world. Though Hercules' main mission is to rescue the human race from the pettiness and casual cruelties of the less savory Gods, he also finds time to "reform" a number of Olympian deities, demigods, and monsters who have temporarily taken the wayward path, beginning with the misguided Cyclops.

It is during season one that Hercules meets for the first time Salmoneus (Robert Trebor), an itinerant salesman and erstwhile promoter whose many get-rich-quick schemes do far more harm than good, and whom our hero must periodically save from the consequences of his greed and foolish ambition. Additionally, the mighty muscleman experiences his first conflict with the redoubtable Ares (Kevin Smith), god of war, whose unsavory allegiances and fluctuating loyalties will continue to bedevil the series' "good guys" for the next five seasons. Hercules also has memorable encounters with his childhood sweetheart, the goddess of retribution Nemesis (Karen Witter) -- who, need it be added, more than lives up to her name -- and with gorgeous female blacksmith Atlanta (Cory Everson), a muscular blacksmith who develops a strong attraction to Hercules, the only man who could ever come up to her standards of strength and fortitude. By far, however, the more significant of Hercules' run-ins during this first season are those with the fearsome warrior princess Xena (Lucy Lawless). At first mortal enemies, Hercules and Xena gradually develop a begrudging respect for one another, and by the time the final episode of season one rolls around, Xena has seen the errors of her warlike ways and vows to emulate Hercules by performing good deeds for one and all -- and, hopefully, expunging all the wickedness she has perpetrated in the past. (This plot development proved to be an ideal segue into Lucy Lawless' own starring series, Xena: Warrior Princess.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide