IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

GUEST STARS, CAST & CREDITS
TV GUIDE PROMO
AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
SYNOPSIS by Bluesong
COMMENTARY by Kym Masera Taborn
WHIMPERS, MURMURS, AND A LOVE GONE TOO FAR
CHANGING TIMES
HIGHLIGHTS
MORE THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR
SHOOTING SCRIPT DIFFERENCES
TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER
WHOOSH! ARTICLES
LINKS


GUEST STARS
Danielle Cormack (Ephiny)
Ray Woolf (Marmax)

CAST
Tony Billy (Mitoan Warrior)
Andrew Binns (Hippocrates)
Harriet Crampton (Hysterical Woman)
Edith (Runner)
Simon Farthing (Democritus)
Geoff Houtman (Gangrene Man)
Paul McLaren (POW Leader)
Adam Middleton (Blind Soldier)
Charles Pierard (Thessalian Guard)
Ron Smith (Galen)
Deane Vipond (Head Wound Man)

CREDITS
Written by Patricia Manney
Edited by Jim Prior
Directed by T.J. Scott

TV GUIDE PROMO
Caught in the middle of a fierce war, Xena and Gabrielle aid the wounded inhabitants of a healing temple, then try to mediate talks between the warring factions.

AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION

1st RELEASE: 07-29-96
An AA average of 3.9
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(10) HERCULES with 4.6
(21) XENA with 3.9
(25) STAR TREK: DS9 with 3.7

2nd RELEASE: 09-16-96
An AA average of 4.3
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(12) STDS9 ranked 12th with 4.5
(13) XENA, HERCULES, and BAYWATCH tied at 13th with 4.3

3rd RELEASE: 05-18-98
An AA average of
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:

SYNOPSIS :

This synopsis is by Bluesong.

Xena and Gabrielle walk through a forest where a civil war is taking place. Gabrielle suggests they take the southern route, which is safer, because not even Xena can stop a war (oops! Gabrielle says she needs to learn when to shut up!) However, X&G come across Ephiny (from the Amazon tribe in HOOVES AND HARLOTS, episode #10), who is with child from Phantes, the centaur, also from HOOVES!). Phantes has been killed.

Xena goes ahead to find a safe place for Ephiny to have her baby; she sees a soldier on a horse go after a foot soldier, pulls out her chakram, and saves the foot soldier. The guy on the horse goes down; Xena takes him and Ephiny to a "healing temple" where Hippocrates is learning to heal from an old man named Galen. Xena turns the temple into a triage unit; Gabrielle plays nurse. At one point Galen tries to have Xena taken away because she's desecrating his temple. Xena saves several people using her healing skills; two men come in at once, and she loses one of them.

A soldier comes in, sees Gabrielle and says his little boy is still outside the temple. Gabrielle goes out of the temple to get him; then we see Gabrielle and a soldier brought in. Gabrielle has wounded the soldier who hurt her, but not mortally; Gabrielle, however, is wounded badly and is having a lot of trouble breathing.

To complicate matters, the fighting descends upon the temple, and the walking-wounded are evacuated. Ephiny finally gives birth -- a breech, and Xena delivers a little centaur (strange looking creature!). At the same time, Gabrielle starts having convulsions, and then she stops breathing. Xena says no! No! NO! and says she can't die, and then she says maybe Gabrielle needs some air. Hippocrates tries to tell Xena to let Gabrielle go, and Xena says she won't, and she starts beating on Gabrielle's chest, screaming "Don't you leave me!" and she's sobbing (yes, sobbing!), and then Gabrielle gasps and she's back, and Xena pulls her into her arms and kisses her on the forehead.

The show ends with Xena and Gabrielle walking away, Gabrielle looking rather unsteady.

COMMENTARY:

A show held back because of its violence! A show by a purveyor of cartoon violence which attempted to make a statement that was "Yes, war is indeed hell"! A show filled with great aspirations and many failures! Yes! A normal XWP episode.

XWP is nothing if it doesn't take the moral high ground and when it does let itself go, you get some of the best preachy hokiness this side of the television screen. From its grainy cinema verite techniques (later used to even more jarring affect by director TJ Scott in the next season's GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN) to its high melodrama at the contrived death and revival of Gabrielle, DOCTOR is a trip not to be taken lightly.

The show was until the airing of A DAY IN THE LIFE (#39) the most popular fan episode. Although only released twice, it was being constantly shown at XenaFests and XenaGatherings across the world. The show had some mythos attached to it as well. Lucy Lawless referred to the filming of this episode in her legendary first e-mail to her internet fans. It was written on her birthday on March 29, 1996 and it is reproduced below in its entirety:

"Thanks very much you guys for your letters and best wishes, especially all you hard core nutballs who've been around since the dawn of time. I'm afraid I can't write back personally to anyone, but I do get your notes eventually and I am personally going to demand my own furking Pez dispenser when I'm a star and my own Winebago (which is kind of a joke where I come from - like "I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Demille "). I am especially fond of our internet troll who, despite being an egomaniacal misogynist, serves to keep my feet firmly on the ground. So don't get your knickers in a twist over negative comments, okay?

"I've just finished the single most intensive and fulfilling week's filming of my career. The episode is "Is there a Doctor?" and I dedicate my efforts in it to all you regular Xenites - with special thanks to Renee O'Conner [sic], my brilliant acting mate and a truly amazing woman, as well as TJ Scott our marvelous director whose star is going to go supernova in feature films before too long.

"Lucy

"P.S. - I am having a terrific birthday, thank you all, and I can honestly say I have never been happier in my life."

Another stand out moment of this episode revolves around the scene where Xena invents CPR in her desperation to revive the dead Gabrielle. On January 30, 1996, in the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, Robert Tapert leaked this about the infamous scene when he was asked about exactly what was going on between Xena and Gabrielle. The pertinent part of the article is quoted below:

"'All I can say about that,' says Tapert, 'is that Gabrielle satisfies her every whim.' And this bombshell is sure to have Xena- philes glued to their sets: In a coming episode, Xena gives Gabrielle mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. 'We haven't even told the studio yet,' he said."

[The whim part was an allusion to the WARRIOR...PRINCESS (#15) ending when Gabrielle asks Xena, "You had people waiting on you hand and foot, fulfilling your every whim" and Xena continues, "Hey, that's what you're here for."]

This leak inspired debates and heated conversations on the internet and other electronic chat areas once it was published.

RETURN OF EPHINY. We find out that Ephiny did more than just help save Phantes life, but married him and bore his child as well. Tough luck that Phantes was brutally murdered on the way to find a more tolerant city to raise his family. Since the Centaur and Amazons story line have been used as a parable on race relations, it looks like the writers took the logical step and stepped up the social tension by making it out in the open that there is interspecial sex being pursued in the Xenaverse and that babies can be made from it. This mimics casually and accelerates the social process that inter-racial and inter-ethnic assimilation takes in some neighborhoods. First the "outsiders" move in. If they are lucky, they are eventually accepted -- just as long as they are not having any sex with the "insiders". Then, inter-dating starts to happen. Slowly it is accepted as well, just as long as they don't start having children (most of us have heard the great advice "Don't have kids, it would be cruel to them to live in this society"). Finally, the last process is where the insider/outsider union has produced a family and it becomes apparent to the neighborhood that **that** family is not that much different from any other family in the area. It is then that assimilation enters its last stage. The Amazons and Centaurs are at the beginning of this stage when Velasca represents the last wave of rejection to the inevitable assimilation of Centaurs into the Amazon culture in THE QUEST and A NECESSARY EVIL. Ephiny represents the pro-assimilation forces looking to the future, while Velasca represents the conservative, separatist force attempting to return to the past.

HIPPOCRATES AND GALEN. This week we get two young male thangs to liven up the show. Democriticus gets to be the token male who is attracted to Gabrielle and then gets it and Hippocrates gets to have an "intellectual" relationship with Xena. Galen, a respected medical scholar, gets shafted big time by being represented as the "old fogey"

DIRECTOR TJ SCOTT. TJ , TJ , oh TJ. What a guy. TJ Scott has only directed four episodes for XWP, yet his corpus of work has made an indelible mark on the Xenaverse.

Scott's first direction for XWP was BEWARE GREEKS BEARING GIFTS (#12). Extremely conservative compared to his later episodes, GREEKS did introduce the new and improved Martin Guerre, oops, I mean Perdicus. GREEKS had the distinction of being the highest rated XWP episode until toppled by INTIMATE STRANGER (#31) some nine months later.

DOCTOR was Scott's sophomore effort. He began to demonstrate his playful nature with cinematography and camera movement. Grainier than usual and using cinema verite techniques, Scott achieved a very focused and yet surreal picture of a pre- Mycenaenean M*A*S*H unit. Joining and leaving his scenes mid-action and having the camera follow the characters around gave the feel of the audience watching something off the evening news.

GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN (#28) was Scott's crowning achievement. He went overboard with the camera technique but it was a silly episode about a silly subject, so we can over look his failures and concentrate on that fact that although the episode was heavy-handed and too much like the final project for a film-school class on blurring and arty editing, it at least tried to do something different. Only really three shows stand out thus far from a cinematographical /editing viewpoint in XWP: ALTARED STATES (#19), DOCTOR, and GIRLS; the latter two of which are pure T.J. Scott directions.

RETURN OF CALLISTO (#29) saw the return of Scott to a less annoying and less intrusive camera technique. This was clearly following his more sedate and controlled GREEKS style of direction. And is it any wonder? It is the swansong of Martin Guerre, oops, I mean Perdicus.

VIOLENCE AND MORE VIOLENCE. DOCTOR was held back because it was considered too violent. It was cut for violence and then was not released until July 29, 1996, way into the doldrums of summer re-run season. This easily was the reason for the poor showing that the episode made in the ratings. The first season of XWP had two extra episodes. The holding back of DOCTOR may have attributed to the airing of two episodes which may have been originally planned for the 2nd season. This is karmically balanced by the fact that two episodes filmed in anticipation of being shown in the 2nd season have been held back to air in the third season (THE FURIES and BEEN THERE, DONE THAT).

DOCTOR AS PROPAGANDA? DOCTOR was aired for the third time after the third season conclusion, SACRIFICE II, where viewers were left with the distinct impression that Gabrielle bit the dust. DOCTOR is known chiefly for the "Xena reacting to Gabrielle's death" scenes. Was DOCTOR aired at that time to help whip up a "Oh no Gabrielle is dead" frenzy for the summer?

WHIMPERS, MURMURS, AND A LOVE GONE TOO FAR

12-14-98. On the USA Thanksgiving Day XENA/HERK marathon (Thursday, 11-26-98), Lucy Lawless did pre-recorded bits between the shows. For the DOCTOR break, she said, "Let's find out what the next ep is [handed envelope by person off camera]. Thank you [looks at off camera person a look up and down]. Va va va voom! Ok. Is There a Doctor in the House. The network was a little put off by the amount of blood that appeared in this episode. There was this great scene where Xena gets to cauterize a leg using a shield over a hot flame, and we had to cut it out, but you know, you could see the steam going. This was one of my absolute favorites from the first series, and I'm still very proud of it. Here we go." Also during a DOCTOR break (approximately 11:30am), Ms. Lawless said, "The chakram was actually a real weapon and it was launched off the finger [Lucy demonstrates by twirling her index finger up in the air] because, of course, it was terribly sharp. Well, we experimented with the terribly sharp ones and it didn't go down very well, so we modified it and came up with the old frisbee throw chakram."

01-31-98. Danielle Cormack at the Burbank II Con (01-17-98) when asked what was her most embarrassing moment on XWP was, she said, giving birth to a centaur baby!!!

01-02-98. From Sharon Delaney's talk at Valley Forge (10-04-97): DOCTOR was held back because of the censors. The scenes that were cut were cut due to the graphic 'ER' aspects of the episode. An example was a scene in which Xena cauterized the man's leg after it was cut off.

CHANGING TIMES

Changing Times is by Debbie White.

DOCTOR (#24) is an interesting episode (but then, aren't they all?). Xena learns the price of her pride, her limits, how much she cares for Gabrielle. Gabrielle learns how to go on despite the pain of healing others and shows how much she cares for others. Despite all of this, the story mainly is around Marmax. It really is the story of how he learned that war and killing is not the answer.

EPHINY: I don't despise you. But you've got to think of the children. Is bloodshed all you want them to know?

The Changing Xena

ANNOUNCER (teaser): A warrior who would not fight the war, but was determined to end it.

Gabrielle states that someone has to stop this civil war and Xena takes it on as a challenge. In TIES THAT BIND (#20), she stops a war by taking over the army. In SINS OF THE PAST (#01), she takes on the entire raiding party in order to stop it. In DEATH MASK (#23), she pits the raiders against the soldiers before making Cortese stop it. Fighting is Xena's style, but without a nudge from Gabrielle, Xena refuses to take sides and fight. Maybe it was because she had Ephiny to take care of and fighting would not be safe. In any case, Xena discovers their companion is the general of the Mitoans. She knocks him unconscious, stabs him in the shoulder, then takes him (and Ephiny and Gabrielle) to the healing temple of his enemy.

Xena sees the head priest simply praying for healing and nothing much else getting done, so Xena takes over. The Mitoans are being left to dead, so Xena gets to use her skills on one of them to prove she can heal people. She calls Gabrielle over to help, then orders two under-priests to help her, which they gladly do. She then goes on to do tracheotomy, identify gangrene and amputate the leg, invent CPR, know what to do about concussions, know to use cobwebs to stop the bleeding, stitch up wounds, set and brace broken bones, re-inflate lungs, and use hypnosis to help do a C-section. Xena even gives away her sword to be used as a brace in her effort to heal everyone. She says she learned healing on the battlefield, but either she has had more learning than that (how many C-sections do you do on a battlefield?) or she invents cures rather quickly and effectively.

While doing all of this healing, she is forced to admit her limits. One patient dies. The head priest points that out to Xena and Xena responds that he simply lost too much blood. The priest says, "You can't heal that, can you?" to which Xena admits sadly, almost guiltily, that she cannot. Later, Xena gets the under-priests to help with the other patients in the temple. When one goes to help a dying patient, she tells him that the patient is too far gone. She tells him that he has to pick who lives and who dies. She again admits she cannot help them all, and she can only pick and hope that she is picking the right ones.

In the end, Xena realizes her pride may have killed her best friend. She thought that she could protect Gabrielle from everything, so she takes her straight through a war-torn area just so they did not have to take the long route. When Gabrielle returns to the temple wounded, Xena at first is so frantic that she cannot think of what to do. She gets some control and starts stitching up Gabrielle. She even understands and respects Gabrielle's code enough that she keeps Gabrielle's attacker alive. Still, she blames herself for Gabrielle's wounds.

Xena also finds out how much Gabrielle means to her. Gabrielle suddenly goes into convulsions and dies. Xena freaks out, but still thinking decides to blow air into Gabrielle's lungs. When it does not work, Marmax tells Xena to let her go. For a moment it looks like Xena might, then absolute refusal comes across her face. There is no doubt this woman is ready to go to Hades and back if she has to in order to revive Gabrielle. Xena yells at Gabrielle, pleads with her, even pounding her on the chest. With one last hard pound, Gabrielle is revived and Xena grabs her close and holds her. I rather wonder how they convinced Xena to ever let her go again.

The Changing Gabrielle

GABRIELLE: Life is only what you make of it.

Gabrielle loses much innocence in this episode. When Ephiny says that Phantes was killed by Mitoans, Gabrielle asks why. When a patient dies under her hands, she does not want to give up. She later asks Xena why he had to die. She goes out to save a little boy and ends up being attacked and almost dies because of it. Again and again she is forced to see the tragedy of war.

Still, she shows her great courage through it all. She follows Xena into a war because she trusts her. When the man dies, Xena tells her she needs to keep on healing people so Gabrielle keeps on at it. When she hears a boy needs her help, she is willing to risk herself to go and get him. When faced with an enemy, she only knocks him out rather than killing him, despite the fact she gets hurt because of it. Finally, she thinks she is going to die, so she summons Ephiny to give her the 'right of caste' before dying. Gabrielle dies and goes to the Elysian Fields, yet has the courage to come back from paradise to help her friend in future adventures.

Gabrielle also shows some of the knowledge she has picked up along her adventures. She is right there handing Xena what she needs, obviously having learned how to assist Xena and heal people more than the few times we have seen before. Not only that, she is starting to understand what stories need to be told. Despite the mild taunting from Marmax, she keeps telling him a story with a moral he needs to learn. She calls Ephiny her sister and is willing to give Ephiny the 'right of caste', acknowledging her connection and responsibility to the Amazons. Gabrielle is starting to come into her own, now, by standing up for what she believes in and by taking responsibility for what she has done.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Xena's methodical discovery of modern CPR techniques.

Xena's skill at caesarian deliveries of centaur babies!

Lots of blood!

MORE THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

11-07-00. From Tory. While waiting around for Sex and the City to start, I flipped over to FX and watched a bit of the Abyss, that other water pic by James Cameron that I haven't seen in a long. long time. The part I watched was the part where Ed Harris (Bud) and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Lindsey) are trapped in some leaky underwater capsule and come up with a plan for swimming back to the main ship. The plan looked awfully familiar, having just watched Coming Home for the third time.

Lindsey decides to let herself drown, figuring that the freezing water will put her into a kind of extended death stasis so she can be revived once they get back to the ship. Sound familiar?

Well..it got even MORE familiar. During the revival scene, I noticed that it played out almost EXACTLY like the revival scene in ITADITH. After some chest pumping and mouth to mouth, Lindsey doesn't wake up. When reviving her doesn't appear to work, one of the characters gently backs Bud off saying something like "come on, man..she's gone, let her go". After a pause, Bud shoves the character aside screaming "No, no!" and then starts giving much more dramatic mouth to mouth and chest pounding screaming "come on, live! Live!" and then the all too familiar "You've never run away from anything in your life". Naturally she comes back and there is a big hugging/crying scene. All it needed was the "You're Aeschlepius (or whatever) come back from the dead."

Really.....Xena staff need to stop going to the video store..really.

01-31-00. From Victoria Finkenstadt. In Is There a Doctor in the House, when Gabrielle died she went to the Elysian Fields, even after she was inducted as an Amazon. But in Adventures in the Sin Trade I, she went to the Amazon Land of the Dead. In Hooves and Harlots, Gabrielle asked what the Amazon's were doing for Terreis, who had been killed. Xena replied that they were sending her to Artemis, their Greek Goddess. So, I guess after they see Artemis, she sends them to the Land of the Dead without going thru Hades. Perhaps Xena should have asked Artemis instead of Hades.

From Constare. 05-31-98. Any of y'all seen the movie "the Abyss" [James Cameron, Director] about the underwater drilling rig starring Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Ed Harris? Now, I *love* the scene in ITADITH where Xena brings Gabby back to life. I think it is one of the most outstanding scenes in the entire series, plus really exemplifies LL acting abilities. But...did you know that scene is...how shall we phrase it...liberally borrowed from that movie? Ed Harris brings MEM back to life, saying almost verbatim the same things Xena says to Gabby. I loved that scene in the Abyss too, so it certainly didn't detract any from Xena. After all, she's the one that discovered CPR, and without it, Ed Harris would never have brought MEM back to life.

At the end of the episode when Gabrielle has recovered somewhat, she sits up to look at Ephiny's spanking new centaur son. When she sits up, her hair spills along her back. Then there is a shot that shows the baby centaur in the distance testing his legs and shows part of Gabrielle's body - her hair is now lying down her chest. When they show a full body shot of Gabrielle again that hair is once again spilling down her back. She sure flips that hair often!!

Spot the thin gold chain around Xena's wrist that slips from under her gauntlet during the revival scene with Gabrielle!

SHOOTING SCRIPT DIFFERENCES

Prepared by SheWho.

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE? By Patricia Manney. Directed by T. J. Scott. Shooting Draft March 8, 1996.

Marmax is described as "older, proud, a complete warrior. Think General Patton." [I think what we got was better.]

In this version of the script, Marmax isn't chasing a soldier when Xena conks him with the chakram; she just sneaks up on him as he prepares to ride away from the rally with his soldiers and zings him.

In the script, Marmax gets suspicious a couple of times about who wounded him. As Xena and the others approach the Temple of Asclepius, Xena tells Marmax he looks like just another foot shoulder to her.

"Marmax looks down at himself and sees his honors gone. He stares accusingly at Xena."

      Marmax: "Did you do this?"
      Xena: "Do what? Hey, I risked my life to save you. Show a little gratitude. Now move it."

Manney's description of the healing temple:

"The temple is a spacious, square area. The centerpiece is an altar, where the giant, marble statute of Asclepius holds out his right hand cupped, while the left holds the rod and serpent. This motif is continued throughout the building. Every inch of space is occupied by the bodies of critically wounded soldiers and civilians, who look like they've been left to die. This is not a pretty sight."

"Our group enters. Gabrielle is stunned by the sight of all this carnage."

... "By the looks of the Mitoan group, they are not receiving any medical care at all."

... "Gabrielle is visibly shaken by all the carnage and ill-treatment of people."

As scripted, Gabrielle is not involved in the first ER procedure (Mitoan with an arrow through his neck). As televised, Xena calls to her and she helps with the compresses, holding them tight while Xena removes the arrow. In the script, when it's all over, "Gabrielle comes over to make the patient more comfortable."

Gabrielle's exclamation -- "Men!" -- in response to Democritus' observation that she's beautiful, is not in the script. (It sounds like a voice-over, and an interesting one at that.)

Some omitted dialogue after Galen reviles Xena's actions as impure medicine:

"Hippocrates and Democritus try to get a moment alone to discuss the miracle they just witnessed. Hippocrates is quite riled up, while Democritus is still concerned."

      Democritus: "Do you think Galen is right? That it's a lower form of healing?"
      Hippocrates: "I don't know if there are higher or lower forms. If it gets the job done, isn't it all the same? If I had to deal with that neck wound, the man would be dead. She knows what she's doing. I can learn from her. I'm going to watch carefully."

"Galen appears behind them."

      Galen: "Watch her all you like. You'll see that her methods lead only to death. But she better stick to killing Mitoans. If she touches one of ours, she leaves. I'm going to find more of our brave Thessalian wounded out on the field."

"Galen leaves."

A depiction of the changing scene a short while later: "The once chaotic temple is now filled with ordered groups of casualties. Near the door is the triage area, for the new and untreated cases. The center altar has become an operating theater, with additional tables for patients on either side. The right side of the room is the recovery ward. The left side has Marmax and the POWs with a few Thessalian guards watching them."

In the pig bladder/bleeding jugular scene, Gabrielle was supposed to get splattered with blood from the spraying jugular until she grabs the compresses that Democritus left her and applies pressure.

The brief fight between Galen's soldiers and Xena in the temple was a bit more creative as scripted: "The two guards move toward Xena. Never letting go of the jugular, Xena slams her foot down on the giant spoon in the cauldron. Boiling rags fly out and land on the guards faces. As they screech in agony, Xena donkeykicks them in the head." In the show, she just kicks them both in the stomach and it's over. [This was one reason my mother didn't care as much for this episode. I said, "Didn't you think that Gabrielle's death scene was great?" She agreed that Lawless was wonderful in that scene, but said she watches the show to see Xena kick b*tt.]

The part where Gabrielle continues to pump the lungs of the dead soldier, begging him to "breathe," finally to be told "Gabrielle, stop, it's over, just let him go," isn't in this version of the script.

More dawning suspicion: When Xena tells Marmax he'd better get over here to help with Gangrene Man, "Marmax looks at his wound, then at Xena and realizes she could have wounded him in the first place."

The amputation scene as written seems a bit more graphic: "Marmax's face is inches away from Gangrene Man's. Democritus comes over with Xena's requests. She places her sword and metal shield in the flame of the torch. The priests look green around the gills. She lifts her sword above her head and chops down. Gangrene Man screams. Marmax holds him down, but is overwhelmed by the man's distress. He can't avoid the man's tortured face. We hear the sound of the burning flesh as the shield hits the wound and see the reactions of the faces of the priests - - a mix of horror, disgust and fascination. Gangrene Man passes out. Marmax sees relief there for the first time. Shaken, Marmax looks up at Xena. They exchange knowing looks. These are two warriors face-to-face with the horrors of battle."

In the script, Gabrielle leaves the temple to find the injured man's friend, not his little boy. As Gabrielle gets ready to leave, Democritus asks her not to go, then says, "Promise me you'll be careful?" [Yeah, buddy, all she needs is a man to remind her of that.] She takes Democritus' hand and says, "Of course I will." Gabrielle has previously accepted his compliments about her soothing ways with a "modest blush".

Xena's soothing of the gravely injured Gabrielle -- "Relax. Relax. You're safe here. You're safe (voice breaking). You're safe now. -- and the hand-holding and hair-stroking aren't in the script. All we get in the script is Gabrielle hauled in on a stretcher and then a "close-up of Xena's horror-stricken face."

In the next scene, Gabrielle tells Xena she's sorry; Xena responds, "Shhh. Just relax. You'll be okay." A little later, when Marmax tells Xena that a girl like Gabrielle shouldn't be brought into a war zone, "Marmax's counterattack on Xena's guilt has hit its mark." Btw, love the little touch of having Gabrielle keep a finger on Xena's hand throughout the whole sewing process. It's not mentioned in the script. I also like the loving smile Xena gives Gabrielle as she leans down to hear Gabrielle call for Ephiny.

There was an additional scene that foretells the change in Marmax's perspective:

"Marmax is checking on his fellow Mitoans. He walks among them and they all reach out an arm in thanks and respect. One arm of a blind soldier gropes out to him. Marmax puts his hand in the blind soldier's and sits down next to him. His eyes have been wrapped with cloth."

      Marmax: "How are you doing, soldier? Do you need anything?"
      Blind soldier (whispers): "Is it true? Is General Marmax really here?"
      Marmax (whispers back): "Yes, he is. What's happened to you?"
      Blind soldier: "A flaming arrow flew by my eyes. The priest said I'd never see again. Thessalian dog! I'll see again. I know it. Hey."
      Marmax: "Yes?"
      Blind soldier: "I want to go back to the front."
      Marmax: "But..."
      Blind soldier: "I want to go. Please let me die with honor."
      Marmax: "I can't..."

"A sudden impact from outside rocks the entire temple," as the catapults have begun firing...

An omitted line that I think would have been great: After Xena tells Ephiny she has a son, Marmax says, "It's beautiful." Xena replies, quietly, to Marmax, "And it could be dead tomorrow if this war rages on."

The artificial respiration scene is structured somewhat differently in the script (For example, Xena pounds on Gabrielle earlier, then shakes her, which is when Gabrielle comes back). But mostly it's a scene that was obviously driven more by direction and acting than by the words, because the script doesn't come close to imparting what we see. Some omitted words from Xena's desperate monologue: After the first mouth-to-mouth attempt, Xena says "I won't lose you!" Her riveting scream at Hippocratus ("Get away from me! You don't know *anything*!") isn't in this version of the script. Her next entreaty to Gabrielle is slightly different in the script ("You never backed away from anything! You've got your whole life ahead of you. Fight!") from the screen version ("You never ran from anything your whole life. Come on, fight!").

All we get in the script when Gabrielle comes back to life is Xena taking her hand and holding it tight. We get two forehead kisses and some great caresses in the screen version.

In the script, when Xena tells Hippocrates she's made plenty of mistakes, she's glancing toward Gabrielle.

TRANSCRIPT

Click here to read a transcript of IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE? .

DISCLAIMER:

Being that war is hell, lots of people were harmed during the production of this motion picture (but since television is a dramatic medium of make believe, all casualties removed their prosthetic make-up and went home unscathed).

WHOOSH! ARTICLES:

The following WHOOSH! articles discuss this episode:

Virginia Carper, "TheXena tapestry: The Woof and Weave of Myth and History", WHOOSH #07 (April 1997), paragraph 4.

Richard Carter, Jr., "The Hero's Path: Gabrielle as Focal Hero in Xena: Warrior Princess", WHOOSH #02 (October 1996), paragraphs 18, 30.

Kristi Eaton, "Xena: Warrior Princess: Something for Everyone", WHOOSH #09 (June 1997), paragraph 8.

Maria Erb, "Xena is the Mother of Invention", WHOOSH #08 (May 1997).

Anita Firebaugh, "Reactions to Death in The Greater Good and Is Their a Doctor in the House", WHOOSH #03 (November 1996).

Peter H. Huang, "Law and Economics in Xena: Warrior Princess", WHOOSH #02 (October 1996), paragraph 7.

Linda Knighton, "Xena: Warrior Princess: A Native American Perspective", WHOOSH #03 (November 1996), paragraph 19.

Richard LaFleur, "Xena: warrior Princess Quest Update", WHOOSH #13 (October 1997), paragraph 26.

Cathy H. McLain, "Xena and Heathcliff: Classic Byronic Heroes", WHOOSH #06 (March 1997), paragraph 12.

Melissa Meister, "Xena: Warrior Princess Through the Lenses of Feminism", WHOOSH #10 (July 1997), paragraph 11.

Rhonda Nelson, "The Female Hero, Duality of Gender, and postmodern Feminism in Xena: Warrior Princess", WHOOSH #13 (October 1997), paragraph 6.

Stacey Robillard, "Why Doesn;t Renee O'Connor Get More Credit? Or What Have *They* Got Against Gabrielle?", WHOOSH #09 (June 1997), paragraph 8.

Bret Ryan Rudnick, "An Interview with Danielle Cormack", WHOOSH #12 (September 1997), paragraph 49.

Rita Schnepp, "Four Great Characters in Xena: Warrior Princess and China Beach", WHOOSH #06 (March 1997), paragraphs 16, 18.

Steven L. Sears, "Tyldus Interviews Himself: A Response to Last Month's Editorial and Then Some", WHOOSH #11 (August 1997).

Anita Louise Silva, "The Kiss: Xena and Gabrielle", WHOOSH #04 (December 1996-January 1997), paragraphs 9-17, 35.

Diane Silver, "The Shock of Recognition: A Lesbian Appreciation of Xena: Warrior Princess, WHOOSH 11 (August 1997), paragraphs 1-5, 28.

Matthew Steele, "The Making of an Amazon Queen", WHOOSH #12 (September 1997), paragraph 6.

Gregory R. Swenson, "Puritanism, Capitalism, and Transcendentalism in Xena: Warrior Princess", WHOOSH #8 (May 1997), paragraphs 9, 12.

LINKS:

Script