'Xena': "Now go away from this place and don't
come back - or you will suffer the wrath of Xenerr. Raar!" Villains:
"Urgh!" (they run away) 'Xena' (to tax-collector): "Be not afraid - I'll
not harm you. Take me to your leader! We've got some things to discuss..."
And why was Meg making the sign of the deformed rabbit when she said "Be
not afraid"? - Is this some sort of Thrassian symbol of peace?
Unfortunately, saying that this was the high point of the ep implies that
it was all downhill after that - and I'm afraid, for me, this was basically
true... The rest of the ep was a bit on the ho-hum side - not awful, or
anything, but rather pedestrian, with the plot somewhat mechanical and
predictable, and too few moments that were really funny or really dramatic.
I think, for me, this was the weakest of all the 'look-alike' eps - perhaps
precisely because they didn't really exploit the potential of the swapping
and confusion between the LL's, as they did so well in the earlier eps
(IMO, at least - I know some people never liked the 'look-alike' eps at all
- but I found some of the funniest moments came from Xena being put into
the place of her alters, and vice-versa... so shoot me - I thought Big
Business was hilarious too, and I'm not even much of a fan of Bette Midler
or Lily Tomlin).
I did like it when Joxer stuck up for Meg: "Meg has had a hard life, and
she needs our help! Now I'm asking you as a friend - lay off her!" I've
always supported the idea of Joxer and Meg as a match, since they seem well
suited. But I'm not sure whether or not I can really see this ep furthering
that agenda - it all seems very temporary and open-ended... So I've got a
nasty feeling they're just going to drop Meg, and that the next time we see
Joxer, he won't even mention her. I could be wrong - I hope I am, since I
don't approve at all of this sort of cavalier and arbitrary treatment of
characters. Why can't Meg and Joxer just find a kid (or two) to
legitimately adopt (heck, with all the mayhem that goes on, there must be
plenty of orphans who need a good home), and settle down to run an inn and
raise their family... or something?
I thought it was a bit hard on the poor pussycat when Auto threw the
grappling iron out of the window!
I have to admit I can see what people mean when they complain about Lucy's
portrayals of Meg and of Evil Xena having quite a bit in common - but
perhaps that isn't as unreasonable as it might at first seem. They both had
"hard lives", in different ways, and a certain similarity between Evil
Xena's psychopathic, feral madness and Meg's crazy bravado and slightly
pathetic self-assertion, coupled, in both cases, with ill-hidden
self-loathing, is perhaps not entirely inappropriate at all...
OK, why did Gryphia conceal the fact that the baby had been stolen? How
could she know that the thieves weren't ruthless villains? Was it just
because she suspected that Meg, a woman, had made off with the child, that
she covered up his absence?
So now the Scythians make "double latch locks", eh? The last time we saw
them, they were fearsome warrior riders, laying waste the countryside
(until they got gippy tummies) in ISAIH.
"Um. Well. Xena is this warrior. She goes around righting wrongs and s..aving people. It's all pretty sappy, but she seems to get her kicks out
of it." Well summed up, Auto! (Well at least he skipped the "singing songs"
part...)
I liked Auto's come back in the dungeon, when the old man said he was
trying to steal the crown and he was sure to fail: "Oh, and I was doing so
well!"
That thing Auto wore in the dungeon was a variant of the one Xena had in
The Debt - they actually used those things in China... not sure about
ancient Greece, though!
I found the "Raising Arizona" thing a bit hard to take, to tell the truth.
But then I didn't really like Raising Arizona itself. Don't get me wrong -
I can sympathise with going gaga about babies... I'm onto grandchildren
now, and yes, there's something almost more wonderful than anything in the
world about giving your all for a child, and what you get back from them.
But somehow this plot, and Raising Arizona itself, for me, had the leaden
ring of pathos over exploited and the charms of quirkiness pushed too far.
And what was with that child?? Sometimes it looked about 6 months, and
other times it was more like a 3 year old! How many actual kids did they
use? It looked like four or five different ones at least, to me.
Of course, given that "the key" had existed for 20 years (as we were told
several times), presumably this child never grew...
Considering how well he normally fights, didn't it seem a tad odd that
Autolycus couldn't hold his own against Meg?
I could have done without the gratuitous Joxer abuse in the market-place,
and I didn't really find the "baby in the chariot" thing particularly
diverting. But then I have to confess, I always found the Three Stooges
*utterly* unfunny - so I guess my sense of humour diverges widely from that
of TPTB in some areas.
So now we've had a "Joxer-drag"! These people certainly aren't afraid to
take the p*** out of the controversies they create, are they?
Talking of which, I guess this is as good a time as any to point out that
this was absolutely the most Gab/ROC-lite ep ever - she didn't appear at
all, not even as a disembodied voice, a vision, or an arthropod's head...
and not only that, but she wasn't even mentioned once!
Meg said "There was no one to love him, there was no one to hold him, no
one to tell him stories - well I just reckon that's a lousy way to grow
up!" But he wasn't "growing up" was he? I mean, he's been a baby for twenty
years, apparently!
"You gotta hold the back of the head..." Oh come on - this kid is crawling,
and looks as if he should be walking!
"My father, he died when I was really young.." Well he died the night she
was born, according to her previous story!
I suppose the "little lights" story was ok, as pathos goes...
Twenty years they've been looking, and Ormestin and Kryptos never noticed
that there was a large map printed on the baby's blanket?! Mind you, not
that it looked as if that map would be much help in locating the lost door
to the crown anyhow - it appeared to be basically a crude sketch of an island.
And if they hadn't been able to find the darned place in twenty years, how
come Ormestin and Kryptos and Co. turned up at the hiding place about 30
seconds after Auto and Meg and Joxer got there?
I love the way Auto reaches round and produces this *massive* rope and
grappling hook from out of his trousers - obviously he has very special
trousers (a bit like Argo's saddlebags, perhaps...)
But then we had to suffer through more bad Three Stooges schtick with the
grappling iron...
And what did we find watching over the crown of Athena?? Looked mighty like
the Eye of Hephaestus to me!! Maybe Xena tucked it into Argo’s saddlebags
when she left, ready for when she needed to imprison Ares...
OK, King Cleades says he reformed from his bad old ways whilst he was a
baby, because seeing the people of Thrassos through the eyes of a child
changed his perspective - but given that he appears to have been kept in a
chest in a locked room, and seen by no one but Gryphia, the guards, and
Ormestin & Kryptos, how the heck did he see anything to give him this
changed view of the kingdom?
The extra fight at the end really seemed like an entirely arbitrary way of
stretching the script out! Let's see - have a fight, defeat the bad guys,
let them wander off, have a chat, have a fight, defeat the bad guys....
And *what* was with that closing scene - right at the end like this they
throw in the "Meg can't have children" thing? And then, what was that
'giggle in the sky' supposed to mean? I dunno, I start to feel I'm getting
the writer's idea bag dumped on me at this point, rather than a finished
script...
And BTW, Meg's "I can't have children" is utterly anachronistic (not that
that's ever bothered them, I know). Medical science in Ancient Greece was
not up to stating definitively that a woman could or couldn't have
children. I suppose if she *tried* enough with a bunch of different men,
she might come to some conclusions - but even then, the consensus would
probably be that some god or other could likely help her. It just felt like
a modern plot plank borrowed without much thought, to me..
COMMENTARY 4:
01-21-99. Commentary by Videntur.
My favorite episodes of Xena are the serious ones with both
Xena and Gabrielle. However, this episode was pretty good.
The episode showed several personality changes for Joxer and
Meg and it revealed some interesting facts about Autolycus.
Joxer was never one my favorite characters in the plays, but I
have noticed that this season, Joxer has become more serious.
He tends to show a little more thinking capabilities and I have
to admit he ended up making me laugh the way that he kept
referring to the grown King as his kid and his sadness over how
fast they grow-up. Also, we notice that Joxer no longer seems
to have a "love interest" for Gabrielle. He now considers Meg
to be "his girl" and he seems to be very faithful in helping Meg
obtain whatever she wants -even if it means stealing a child.
Meg on the other hand still places action before thought. Meg
justified her theft of the infant King because she felt able to
furnish the child with more love than he would receive in a big
lonely castle.You definitely get the feeling that Meg would make
a great mother and longed to give someone the love that she was
not shown as a child. When she admits to Xena, at the end, that
she can't have children, you begin to see how she might justify
in her mind her theft of the little king no matter how wrong it
was. The problem is that you get the impression that Meg is
capable of doing the same thing all over again. Nevertheless, the
episode showed a loving and caring Meg who would probably
give anything to have a family.
Autolycus was hilarious the way that he went through all that trouble
to steal the stone at the beginning only to be fooled by Meg into
throwing it back. Autolycus also lets you know that he is so infatuated
with Xena that he would even take Meg as a partner (among other
things) if it meant having someone who reminded him of Xena around.
Even when he is explaining to the old woman (who later turned out
to be the queen) who Xena was and what she did (in essence a
"do-gooder") you could sense admiration in his cynicism. At the end w=
hen
the real Xena appears, Autolycus knew right away that it was the
real Xena and not Meg - it took Joxer much longer to realize this.
And then there's our hero Xena who appears at the end to save the day.
I'm impressed the way that Lucy Lawless does indeed give the appearance
of two totally different people (Xena and Meg) but then again I think
Lucy Lawless is an awesome actress. Again we see a sympathetic
Xena who tries to comfort Meg regarding her inability to have children.
This is so unlike the evil Xena that we do indeed see that Xena has
definitely changed since her old days.
All in all it was a good episode which furnished a good laugh and lots of
fun. The characters interacted well with each other and the storyline was
odd and interesting; however, I still will be happy to get back to the
more serious b*tt kicking Xena and her side-kick Gabrielle.
WHIMPERS, MURMURS, AND A LOVE GONE TOO
FAR
01-31-99. The March '99 issue of STARLOG Magazine contains an interview with Bruce "Autolycus" Campbell. Campbell tells us in said interview: [describing his first time directing Lucy Lawless for a "complete" episode, KEY TO THE KINGDOM] "Lucy is more instinctive. She doesn't like specific information, like if you're doing a gag, she doesn't want it explained to her. Just tell her what to do and she'll do it in her own way. You've got to feel out her interpreting. As an actor, I get along very easily with her, she's very professional. As a director, now you're dealing with the show's lead and you have to make sure you're prepared because this is 'their' show."
08-21-98. KEY TO THE KINGDOM reunites Meg and Joxer, who enlist the help of Autolycus to save a baby. This time the homage is RAISING ARIZONA.
07-29-98. Bruce Campbell signed earlier this year to do 11 projects between XENA and HERK. What's the tally so far? Mr. Campbell has done seven out of the 11 so far. Three have aired (HERK's PORKULES, ONE FOWL DAY, and MY FAIR CUPCAKEE), and four are in the can (HERK'S JUST PASSING THROUGH and FOR THOSE OF YOU JUST JOINING US; and XENA's KEY TO THE KINGDOM and TALE OF TWO MUSES). That leaves four more before he has to renegoitate. Also, one of these was to be a pilot with RenPic. We have not heard much about it other than it might involve piracy or pirates. Also, there is a rumor that Ted Raimi would be a significant character in it...but then again, it might just be wishful thinking.
04-14-98. From the Official Bruce Campbell Web site: "Raising Arizona, Xena-style! Auto, Joxer, and Xena-look-alike Meg kidnap a baby from two corrupt rulers. Oh yeah, I'm directing this one too. Tell your friends."
HIGHLIGHTS:
Highlights by Beth Gaynor.
It's dumb, it's silly, but the line of the episode goes to
Meg for "BRAWL!" and the full body slam into Autolycus's and
Joxer's scuffle.
I loved Meg's threat about suffering "the wrath of Xener!",
mispronounced exactly like so many Kiwi accents have
mispronounced it before. Two points for an in-joke the steady
viewers can chuckle over.
WHERE HAVE I SEEN YOU BEFORE?
By Xorys.
So who was who in Key To The Kingdom?
Well I guess most of you (those who've seen both eps, at least) instantly
spotted Paul Willis as Ormestin, even under the *really* bad hair... he is
of course, well remembered as Atyminius, the psychopathic villain who
returns from the underworld in Mortal Beloved. He also played Marcus, the
Magistrate, in the HTLJ ep Mercenary.
You may well also have recognised King Cleades - he was played by Craig
Parker, who we last saw as Sarpedon, the Prince in love, in For Him The
Bell Tolls. He also played a student bartender in the TV movie of Stephen
King's Tommyknockers. Like many Xenaverse actors, he did a stint on the NZ
soap Shortland Street - he played Guy Warner. And he also co-hosted the NZ
TV series Two People, with Theresa Healey.
But did you recognise the prisoner who told Autolycus the rhyme about the
key... the guy with all the hair and fingernails?? He was played by none
other than Norman Forsey, known to all of us as Princess Diana's dad, King
Lias! Norman also played Casca, the deaf old relative who Xena had to save
from a chariot accident, in Been There, Done That. And over on HTLJ, he
played the seer, Tiresias in The Road to Calydon and The Festival of
Dionysus, and Tersius in The Outcast (which featured Lucy Lawless, as Lyla,
wife of the Centaur Deric).
And what about Gryphia the old nurse? She was played by Yvonne Lawley, who
hasn't been on X:WP before, but she may be quite familiar if you watch
HTLJ... most recently she appeared as the Norn (the fate with the funny
paint) in Norse by Norsevest and Somewhere Over Rainbow Bridge, and
previously she played Alyssa in Atlantis. She was also in Hercules And The
Circle of Fire and Hercules And The Underworld playing "Woman" and "Old
Woman in Market". Interestingly enough, she was in the TV movie of
Tommyknockers along with Craig Parker (King Cleades) - she played Mabel
Noyes. She also did an episode of the Ray Bradbury Theatre (again like many
Xenaverse actors, including Lucy), playing the mother in Some Live Like
Lazarus.
John Stubbs, who played the Tax Collector, has previously been seen as the
Head Guard in the HTLJ ep Resurrection. And Geoff Knight, who played the
Key Guard (the one who spoke), was a Trojan Guard in Beware of Greeks
Bearing Gifts.
Peter Mason, who played a Shopkeeper in The Debt, Billius in The Quill Is
Mightier, and "Owner" in the HTLJ ep The Mother Of All Monsters, was
credited as playing a Drunk in Key To The Kingdom... but try as I might, I
can't spot him at all, so I strongly suspect that his role was edited out.
(If he does appear, could someone please tell me where?)
Oremestin's co-ruler Kryptos was played by Martin Howells, who hasn't
appeared on XWP or HTLJ before, so far as I know, and about whom I know
nothing. Brett Hodginson, who played the Peasant having his taxes
collected, was also a new face.
The ep was written by Eric Morris, who is a completely new writer to X:WP
(and HTLJ)... indeed I can't find any references to anything he has done
before.
On the other hand, the ep was directed by Autolycus himself, Bruce
Campbell. On XWP, Bruce has previously directed The King of Assassins
(hmmm... I think I can see the similarities), and on HTLJ he directed The
Vanishing Dead, What's in A Name? and last week's knockabout spoof, For
Those Of You Just Joining Us.
THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR
These things are by Beth Gaynor.
Sometimes it's those little sounds in the background that
make a comedy episode. This one didn't have a ton of them,
but had a few winners, including the sound of a cat screech
when Autolycus dropped his grappling hook out a window, and
the timely:
"Look! The ruby! It's gone!"
"The ruby! It's back!"
During the staged fight, listen to the nickelodeon version of
the Xena theme song. Perfect!
When did Meg get the shamrock back after throwing it at
Autolycus? It reappears at her hip when they ride after the
chariot.
Watch in the forest as King Cleates walks from Autolycus and
Xena to Meg and Joxer. As he passes behind a tree, the cut
between scenes is just a BIT off - Xena and Autolycus
disappear too early.
Usually the XenaStaff rocks at double effects, but one
looked very wrong this time, when Meg was at the king's
cradle and Xena was standing at the far side of the room.
Xena looked way too small for the distance she was supposed
to be at.
MORE THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR
01-18-99. From E. Diaz. In Key to the Kingdom the guy who played Ormestin is the same guy who played Atyminius in Mortal Beloved.
From Hawk35. When the baby changes into a king, the doors to the vault open to reveal the Crown of Athena and a bunch of jewels. When the doors open, watch the back interior wall of the vault. There is a symbol, a piece of
artwork or something that is the same piece of art (or emblem) that was in Ares' tomb in THE XENA SCROLLS! The exact same piece. This can mean a couple of things. It might mean that they are simply reusing an old prop and hoped we wouldn't catch on. They do it all the time. It also might mean that this emblem actually means something relevant to future eps. It would be worth it to try and learn whether this was a mistake or if it really means something.
TRANSCRIPT
Click here to read a transcript of KEY TO THE KINGDOM.
DISCLAIMER:
No Priceless Porkers, of either organic or ceramic origin, were harmed during the production of this motion picture.
