3rd release: 12-21-98
An AA average of 3.7
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) X-FILES 9th with 6.1
(2) ER 12th with 5.1
(3) WALKER TR 19th with 4.0
(4) XENA/BAYWATCH 21st with 3.8
(5) Hercules 3.7
(6) Star Trek: DS9 3.5
(7) Stargate SG-1 2.8
(8) Mortal Kombat 2.7
(9) Earth: Final Conflict 2.3
(10) The Crow 2.2
(11) Honey, I Shrunk the Kids 2.1
(12) Night Man 2.0
SYNOPSIS:
Synopsis by Liz Sheppard
Fight fight fight yadda yadda
yadda. Herc and Iolaus are saving a princess
from thugs, when a thug suddenly dies. Iolaus gets confused. Ares
shows up
and gets really mad. Herc and Ares fight. Alot. Ares gets struck
by
lightning and a hole in the universe opens. A jester followed by
guys on
horses run out of the hole. They take Iolaus away, with the hole
disappering behind them. Herc finds that the jester looks exactly
like Iolaus.
Iolaus is taken to "Hercules", who
punches our blonde sidekick.
"Iolaus" sees Herc and starts
cracking jokes and running around. Ares is
NOT entertained. While "Iolaus" is acting like a chicken, Ares
and Herc get
very confused. Aphrodite "drops" in and explains that Zeus is
dying. Ares
figures that where "Iolaus" came from is what's causing Zeus to
die and
decides to help because he fears for his own life. Aph goes
bye-bye and
"Iolaus" gets scared and runs away. He's scared of Herc, but
finds out that
Herc is the good guy.
Iolaus wakes up in a cell in a
jester outfit. He plays with teeth and
excapes from the cell. He then runs into the bearded "Herc", who
gets mad
at the name of Alcmene and smashes stuff. "Herc"'s getting
married to "Aph".
Iolaus finds the body of the guy that dropped dead. Also good
Herc and good
Iolaus find out that if someone dies in Weird World, they're
other half
dies in the Real World. A fully dressed "Aph" comes in and acts
very
sophisticated. "Aph" tells "Herc" that Zeus is dying. Zeus has
been
poisoned and "Herc" has the antidote. She is too scared to stand
up to him.
A short haired "Xena" who plays with her fake fingernails alot
comes by and
they do some majorly wild foreplay. Kind of like
Break-All-The-Furniture-In-The-Room type of wild. "Herc" takes a
necklace
of "Xena's" for a wedding present for "Aph". "Xena" also has a
bit of Hinds
blood to use on Zeus.
While Iolaus is walking around,
"Ares" the god of love that's dressed on a
white version of his outfit from the last season, minus his
facial hair,
has shown up. "Ares" tells Iolaus to find "Xena's" Hinds blood.
"Ares" is a
lover not a fighter, so he won't do it himself. "Cupid" is the
god of war,
but he's not in this ep.
"Iolaus" is explaining to Herc how
he got there when Aph and Ares show up.
Zeus is getting worse. Ares gets mad at "Iolaus" because he
called him the
god of love. Herc wants to fight Ares to open the portal again,
but Ares
doesn't want to. He plans to take over once Zeus is gone.
"Herc" decides to lower the
population in the prison and releases the
executioner. The executioner does this weird tazmanian devil
thing while
swinging an axe. Not very safe in my personal opinion. Iolaus has
to make
"Herc" laugh in order to save the prisoners. He sings a weird
song that
"Herc" and "Xena" don't like. "Aph" and "Ares" are quite amused.
Since
"Herc" didn't laugh, he orders a prisoner dead. The executioner
kills him.
Iolaus is taken to a cell where he
finds "Joxer", who beats him up.
Baaaaaad Joxer! Once the guard leaves, "Joxer" lets go of Iolaus
and Iolaus
finds out that the "Iolaus" in this world is an assasin. "Joxer"
wants
Iolaus to kill "Herc" at the wedding. Actually, "Joxer" is a good
guy in
this world, he's just not an idiot. They have a meaningful
conversation
about killing in cold blood. Iolaus decides to kill "Herc".
"Iolaus" wants to change his ways
and figures that Herc can help him
change. They realize that if "Herc" dies, then the real Herc
could die too.
Herc trashes the place to get Ares' attention. Aph shows up and
plays dress
up with a statue. Ares shows up with smoke coming out of his
ears. The
brothers "step outside".
Th wedding starts(with "Xena"
changing the statue of "Aph" on the cake to
a statue of herself). "Ares" is the one who marries them. "Aph"
is dressed
in "virginal black" and she's not too thrilled about the wedding.
Iolaus
tries to kill "Herc" but fails and a fight breaks out. Ares and
Herc are
fighting the real world, when the portal opens.
"Joxer" and the rest of the
prisoners break out and add to the fight.
"Xena's" necklace falls off and Iolaus saw that the necklace held
the
Hind's blood. "Aph" and "Xena" have a food fight, while "Ares"
showers the
place with his love rose petels. The executioner is released, but
Iolaus
punches her and reveals her as Gab. "Xena" uses her shoes as the
chakram.
"I guess I have more skills than I thought".
The portal opens and Iolaus runs to
it, with "Herc" following behind him.
Meanwhile, "Iolaus" and Herc run into the portal. Herc punches
"Herc" and
the Iolaus's end up in the correct places. "Herc" is now trapped
in this
black void thing.
Happy ending. Ares -hates- happy
endings. Herc thinks about getting a beard.
COMMENTARY:
The commentary is by (a href=="mailto:bgaynor@compuserve.com">Beth Gaynor
.
Lucy Lawless and Alexandra Tydings get
into a cake wrestle. WHAT was XenaStaff thinking? They could have
sold tickets to that day's shooting and financed the next season
and a half!
Lucy put a WHOLE lot of Meg into that
alternate Xena, didn't she? I loved the incessant giggling and
the swooshy sounds for her finger-wiggling. She gets Line of the
Episode for "I guess I have more skills than I thought" after
caroming her shoe through the wedding party like a chakram.
Lovely Gabrielle cameo! I had
originally heard that Xena and Gab would both be in this
cross-over. Then all the previews, all the mentions, all the
clips showed Xena only. Oh well, says I, I guess the Gabster got
cut. Great unveiling and "did anyone get the number of the Mac
truck?" line. Watching Xena reveal the executioner's entrance
like Vanna White becomes doubly funny when you know it's
Gabrielle she's introducing.
And a clean-shaven Ares! As the disco
god of love! I just really, REALLY wish the two Ares could have
met. Our God of War would have been shaken for months to come.
Worst pun of the month: "And the tooth
shall set me free." Somebody throw some vegetables at Iolaus!
All in all, an episode where most of
the folks involved had WAY too much fun. Those are always a good
time to watch. Break out the popcorn and hit the rewind button!
TALES OF THE HERCAVERSE
01-13-99. From CR. As Iolaus is thrown into jail, he yells "I am not a numeral. I am a free man!". This is a direct quote from the title sequence of the British 1970's TV series 'The Prisoner', featuring Patrick McGoohan as 'Number 6'.
01-13-99. Sharon Delaney at the Phoenix (05/31/98) Convention said that the dialogue during the cake fight between Xena and Aphrodite in STRANGER IN A STRANGE WORLD (H64/405) was ad-libbed: the director just said, "Ok girls, have at the cake."
01-13-99. Michael Levine (director) at the Burbank II (01/98) Convention said that when he asked executive producer Robert Tapert about how the comedy should go in Stranger, he said that Tapert said, when you think you've gone too far, you haven't.
01-13-99. Kevin Smith at the Burbank II (01/98) Convention commented that he always had seemed to play bad guys, and he enjoyed the opportunity to play the "God of Love" in the HERC episode STRANGER IN A STRANGE WORLD. He said they didn't want him to appear too "wussey" so they have him the "lounge lizard/lothario" look.
01-13-99. From Beth Gaynor. Sharon Delaney (official fan club president) at the Cherry Hill NJ (08/98) cited this moment to watch for: In Stranger in a Strange Land, when Xena and
Hercules/the Sovereign are engaged in their... ahem... fun and games, the
Sovereign throws Xena over his shoulder and starts to carry her off. Apparently, Xena's laughter is the real article; Kevin Sorbo wasn't scripted to do that. He just threw it in, much to Lucy Lawless's amusement at the time.
01-13-99. From Beth Gaynor. Alexandra Tydings (Aphrodite) at the Cherry Hill NJ (08/98) said that for the grand opening of Aphrodite's cake fight with Xena in the Hercules episode Stranger in a Strange World, Xena and 'Dite had to trade punches. This began Alexandra's complaints that Lucy Lawless gets tons of practice with stage fighting; she described Lucy swinging one punch at her, the director calling out "OK," then switching the angle
around for Aphrodite's punch, which Alexandra tried. And tried. And tried again, never quite getting close enough to look real. "An hour later..." she joked. She also mentioned being tempted to throttle Lucy when she offered the advice to "just relax," much to everyone's amusement. But the day's fun had just begun... now the cake came out. There was only one cake to use in the shoot, so they had to
get everything in one pass and use what they got. "Now bear
in mind *I'm* a goddess," Alexandra reminded everyone as she
pointed out the problems with trying to fight against
someone who gets lots of practice... plays a warrior... and
is TALL. She scrapped the best she could, but described
getting thoroughly outclassed by Lucy's cake-fighting
prowess. Alexandra says that if you listed closely to the
episode, even with all the added sound effects, you can
still hear her laughing. She claims it's nervous laughter
because big ol' Lucy was pounding her so bad. Then she and
Lucy had to twiddle their thumbs for five minutes, covered
in cake, while the film in the cameras was changed to get
some final shots. The eggs and cream in the cake was
curdling on their skin as they waited, no one was willing to
get near them, and that curdled smell, she says, stays with
you for days.
01-13-99. From Beth Gaynor. Alexandra Tydings (Aphrodite) at the Cherry Hill NJ (08/98) was asked what her favorite episodes were. She stated The Apple and Stranger in a Strange World.
01-13-99. From Beth Gaynor. Karl Urban (Eros, Caesar) at the Cherry Hill NJ (08/98), when asked what other episodes of Xena or Hercules he had enjoyed, Urban mentioned A Day in the Life (is there anyone who DOESN'T love that episode?) and Stranger in a Strange World.
10-26-97. Sharon Delaney at the Valley
Forge Con (10-05-97) said that in STRANGER IN A STRANGE WORLD,
Ares is the God of Love and it is an homage to STAR TREK with
Herules having a goatee just like Spock's. Aphrodite will be in
it as well.
10-26-97. TV Guide 11-01-97 writes:
"Xena's Lucy Lawless appears on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
as a not-so-nice Xena lookalike, who's plotting with an equally
rotten Herc lookalike to take over Olympus"
10-17-97. Lucy Lawless in a 09/97 on-
line chat described this crossover episode as where Ares is the
God of Love and she is a gangster's moll, "a cheaper, more low
rent version of Meg. It is Xena 2: In an Alternative Universe."
TV Guide reports that "Lucy Lawless
(of Xena:Warrior Princess) guest-stars as a 1930's style mobster
moll in a parallel universe episode.
Zeus creates a rift in
the Universe and Iolaus is thrown into a parallel universe. Kind
of like the Bizarro world in Superman comics. Everything is
different: Hercules is a baddie in this universe. Everyone is in
it, Aphrodite, Ares, Xena, Gabrielle, Joxer, etc. Xena is on
screen quite a bit. A crossover Hercules. Was originally set for
season opener, but they changed their minds as TPTB are wont to
do! This will show in the November sweeps time.
IOLAUS' SONG
The Soverign is his name.
His game is fear and pain.
He'll watch you die, won't even cry.
He really is insane!
This is really not my trick.
They call me Herc's sidekick.
If this don't work, I'll be a wreck.
And we'll all lose our necks.
His girlfriend Xena's crass.
A heartless witch, no class.
If Zeus was well, he'd cast a spell
and knock them off their a--!
[falling over coffin]
TRIVIA
When Iolaus was singing that song for
"Herc" and "Xena", he tripped over the same coffin that Gabrielle
was placed in, in BLIND FAITH.
TRANSCRIPT
Click here to read a transcript of STRANGER IN A STRANGE WORLD.
DISCLAIMER
No beard-wearing, love-spewing, smooth
talking, Ares
impersonaters were harmed during the production of this motion
picture.
