written by Joel Metzger
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 16
SD: “Dangerous Prey” — Joel gets to play with the Amazons again?
Joel: Yeah. We wanted to do something with Tsianina Joelson playing Varia again. Rob was on vacation when we started and we came up with a somewhat similar, but completely different story. It was similar to the story of Elian Gonzalez who wound up being claimed by two countries - Cuba and the U.S. A warlord has a child by an Amazon and he comes to claim his daughter. Xena then has to get the daughter back from the warlord because she's supposed to be a queen of the Amazons. Varia joins Xena on this mission. It was basically a giant rescue story.
The secret was that, every step of the way, Xena was training Varia to become queen only Varia doesn't know this. Varia was still a hothead as she was in the aired version. It was a real Mr. Miyagi-type, mentor/protege dynamic, “this is the lesson of patience,” “this is the lesson of clarity,” etc. We based the whole mission on something we called the six Amazon Truths. At the end of every encounter there was a lesson. Course Varia had a hard time with patience. (laughing)
When they rescue the young girl, we think she’s going to be the queen and ta da! It’s actually Varia who was being trained and these were all the tests. Which was similar to the story we finally went with.
Rob came back from vacation and liked some parts of the story, but not others.
SD: So it was off to rewrites?
Joel: We had a story meeting and Mike McDonald, one of the producers at the meeting, said something that reminded me of a story I’d read in high school called “The Most Dangerous Game.”
SD: Can you give me a synopsis of that story?
Joel: Sure. It’s a short story written by Richard Connell. A Russian Prince, in exile, has nothing better to do than hunt humans. A man falls overboard and washes up on this island run by the prince and discovers he's the prey. It’s been translated many times in movies and TV.
The only thing I took directly from the story was Morloch saying, “The gods make some men poets, they make some men seers. They made me a hunter.” That was such a great line. Richard Connell used different jobs in his version of the line, but the idea was the same. Morloch thought his being a hunter came from God and it was his only purpose.
SD: You had to have a villain who was a challenge for Xena.
Joel: Right. As we talked before, that’s the key to finding a good villain for this show. He/she has to put Xena in real jeopardy. And Morloch was as skilled as Xena because this is all he does, how he spends every day of his life. He’s been trained since birth to hunt and kill and fight. At the end, he says to Xena, “I will beat you because I really enjoy this and you don’t. Eventually you will get tired and then I will win.”
SD: When Xena turned and walked away, was she luring him into her plan?
Joel: Exactly. Here’s what I was trying to do. I purposely painted this guy, in his description and dialogue, so that he was always in control - cool, smooth, superior. He was icy, bored with everything. When they’re fighting on top of the tower, Xena realizes the only way to beat him is to refuse to fight hoping he’ll blow his top. He becomes a spoiled brat, “What do you mean you won’t fight me?” He can’t get what he wants, loses his edge, makes a mistake and gets skewered. Xena outsmarted him. She realizes his Achilles Heel is that the very thing he thinks will make him win - loving the battle - will make him lose when she takes it away from him.
SD: “How dare she!”
Joel: Right. His obsession is to have the perfect fight.
SD: And she was giving him a good run for his money.
Joel: Yeah, she thinks, “I’ve been giving this guy what he wants all along. Even though I’m a good fighter, the way to win is to walk away.”
SD: Renee O’Connor directed this episode. Did that have an impact on how you wrote it?
Joel: We kept her out of the story as much as possible so she could concentrate on the directing. She was only in the beginning and the end. She wanted more traps for Marga in the beginning to emphasize what Morloch was. So I wrote a whole bunch for her, but the budget wouldn’t cover them.
SD: Ah, well, that ole budget again, (laughing) Was having that message to the Amazons written on Marga’s leg a substitute for all the traps they had to cut out? A way to show how bad he was?
Joel: Originally, in the first couple drafts, Morloch carved the note with a knife on her back! It was deemed a bit too gruesome, so we took it out. We went with a note on parchment tucked into her outfit. Just showing the words on her leg was a good compromise.
SD: Instead of showing the actual carving, just looking at the finished product on her leg left the viewer with a subliminal image of what had been done to her.
Joel: Yeah.
SD: Compromise - making the behind-the-scenes video really drove home for me how big a part compromise plays in the making of a show or movie. There are so many people and different factors involved that the art of compromise is a necessity for working in this business.
Joel: You learn to let go. (laughing) There are budgets to follow, time constraints, censors, the needs of the cast and crew trying to do the best for their own department or their own take on the story or characters. You fight for what you think is right, but if you’re gonna go home and cry because you didn’t get your vision…
SD: Right. It applies to everyone - the writer, actor, director, soundman, lighting person - everyone involved.
Joel: And then you get to the editing stage and Rob, as the executive producer, has to make the decision to cut out something that was just beautiful because of the timing of the show — you've only got 44 minutes. There’s no leeway.
SD: Raczar, Rack-zar? I can’t say that right, (laughing) Where did you get that name?
Joel (chuckling): Ra-zar. We knew the prince was from Upper Scheherazadistan. Which, obviously, I made up from Scheherazade. Which the actor pronounced perfectly! Morloch was from a place like Transylvania. I went on the web to look for names and found an East European wedding band and the singer’s name was Raczar. I thought it sounded cool, but no one ever pronounced it right. (laughing)
SD: For what could have been a dorky lieutenant role, that character made himself a real presence. Did you know the actor, Craig Hall, was from Renee’s scene study group?
Joel: No, I didn't. He was great.
SD: He gave the role an intelligence, a vulnerability. But the character disappeared!
Joel: We had to cut some of his scenes. I felt his character was important because this despicable prince has all these trappers and hunters working for him. Morloch doesn’t care if they get mowed down as long as he gets his prey. In every successive scene, he puts them in terrible danger until two of them burn in the forest fire.
One scene that was cut was a mutiny by these men. One of them stands up and says, “This She Devil will track us down and we’ll all die! I will not die for you!” Morloch puts his hands on the man’s cheeks, snaps his neck and quells the mutiny. It sets the tone for the fact that Morloch doesn’t care how many people die.
This begins to weigh on Raczar - his men are dying.
SD: This was more than he planned on?
Joel: Yeah, yeah. His conscience is bothering him. You see the wasted human life because of Morloch's obsession. This also heightened the stakes for Xena. The longer he lived, the more people were in danger. For Raczar it became a case of “How long do I let my men die for him?” And, “Am I going to die?”
Another scene that was cut was when they finally trap Varia in the net after Xena flings her over the forest. Morloch wants to torture her and Raczar stands up to him saying, “We don’t want her, we want the other one. Why not let her go?” Morloch slaps him and Raczar realizes he’s in as much danger as his men. Varia escapes the net and fights Raczar. It’s Xena’s protegee versus Morloch's. Varia wins and asks if he has any last words. Raczar says, “Just kill Morloch.” If you remember, earlier in the episode, Xena says to Varia, “You've got to know when to fight and when the fight is over.” So Varia spares Raczar’s life. That’s part of her learning to be queen. She’s been out for blood the entire episode and this is where she learns this man doesn’t need to die. She matures at that moment. All that had to be cut for time.
SD: Was Morloch hunting people before and Raczar was helping him and the only reason Raczar was saying, “I've had enough” is because Morloch was not only hunting others, now he was killing his own people?
Joel: That's exactly it.
SD: That doesn’t make Raczar look very good. “It’s okay to hunt people I don't know, but now you’re hunting my friends.”
Joel: Yeah... it wasn’t in the episode, but the back story for Morloch is that, for example, he’d been to China killing Shaolin monks. He’d been hunting all over the world.
There's a point in the story where Morloch says, “This is like a camping trip. I have no challenge.” The camera was supposed to pan along the inside of the tent and we would see heads of antelope, rhinos and then we see human heads. And then, after Xena kills Morloch, we see Raczar and his men heading off and the last image is Morloch’s hunting tent blown apart. You see all the trophies and the last head is Morloch’s. What poetic justice.
SD: Were there any other scenes cut?
Joel: When I was writing the story, it reminded me of Die Hard, one man against a bunch of bad guys. If you remember, Bruce Willis’ character was able to send little messages to taunt the villain. I had a version of that. Morloch has these hunting dogs. The first time he hears about Xena, he sends his three best archers after her to see if she’s worth his attention. If they can kill her, she wouldn’t be great prey. If she kills them, then he knows she’s got something.
Xena whops the three archers and ties the three bows to the dog who then returns to his master, dragging the bows behind him. I think maybe the trained dogs didn’t fit in the budget. But I liked Xena taking a dig at Morloch.
SD: Xena tossing Varia through the air?
Joel (laughing): I don't know if you can make a catapult out of a tree, but that’s Xena.
SD: And how would Morloch know where to have his net set?
Joel: Ah, they’re playing chess and keeping an eye on each other. Each trying to stay one step ahead. You think he’s two miles away, but he’s actually spying on her all the time.
SD: What was the greatest challenge for you as a writer in this episode?
Joel: Morloch wants the greatest fight of his life. He’s throwing things at Xena, but if at any point she dies, the thrill is over. How do we get these two, playing chess as we said, but never being face to face. Once they get together, they’re going to fight, one will win and the show is over. The challenge in every scene was, “Why doesn’t she just fight him?” That’s where Varia came in. Xena had to protect her and that meant staying away from Morloch.
The irony is that Morloch keeps trying to kill Xena, but he doesn’t really want to succeed too soon. He wants the ultimate, orgasmic fight at the end.
SD: I see the part Varia played in this. She could step into a trap meant for Xena.
Joel: Exactly. Xena has this less experienced girl with her. She’s a hothead. She gets hurt. And Xena knows, although we don’t, that Marga intends for Varia to be queen. Xena has to keep her alive. But it was hard keeping them apart.
SD: That was a heck of a forest fire.
Joel: I’ll tell you a story about when I realized this was a completely different series than I have ever worked on before. Normally, you’re always looking to cut costs. The writer is saying, “Let’s do this and this.” And the producer responds, “We can do about a quarter of that.” You’re always encouraged to think small. This was my third script for Renaissance, but I was still really new to the staff. We were trying to figure out how Morloch could herd Xena into coming to him. And Rob says, “How about a forest fire?”
SD (laughing): The executive producer suggested a forest fire?!
Joel (laughing): Yeah! I was thinking of little things and he’s saying let's set the entire Amazon forest on fire. I was blown away. Then I said, “How do we get Varia over the fire?” Rob answered, “Xena pulls down a tree and catapults her over the fire.”’ Then he added, excitedly, “Morloch catapults a cargo net and catches Varia in midair!” I just couldn’t believe it. No matter what I came up with, he always had something bigger in mind. Which is the opposite of every other show I’ve ever been on. I thought, “They’ll never shoot all this.” But they did!
SD: They even set part of a forest on fire.
Joel: Yeah! But as I was typing the scene, I thought they’ll never do it. That’s why Xena's different. Rob always shot bigger than I could imagine and it always looked great.
SD: They could have used stock footage for the fire, but Renee said they actually set a portion of the park on fire.
Joel: They sure did. I was wondering how they were going to do this. I thought maybe there would just be smoke blowing through the woods. I was amazed any place would let them burn trees. And how they did it. It’s ironic that Rob prefers TV over movies. He thinks “big screen,” but he likes the challenge and variety of a new show every week.