written by Melissa Blake
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 24
SD: You knew the show before you wrote for it.
Melissa (laughs): Just a little bit.
SD: And why was that - for those who don’t know what your job was?
Melissa: I put in six good years at Renaissance. I came in as an assistant in post-production under Bernie Joyce’s tutelage. After a year, I got a phone call from Sue Binder, the office manager of Renaissance. She asked if I'd have any interest in being Rob's assistant. And I said, “Rob who?” (laughs) I knew who Rob Tapert was, but I figured there was no way Sue was asking me to be his assistant! Brad Carpenter had that position.
She told me Brad was going to become their head of marketing and licensing. Rob was in New Zealand, as usual, so I went and interviewed with Sue. I ended up taking the job without actually having met him. I'm sure I had run into him once or twice dropping tapes off at the main office, but we’d never had any conversations. He probably didn't know my name. (laughs) I was in the office a good month or two, working as his assistant, before I met him. When he came back. I said, “Hi, I'm your new assistant.” (laughs) It was wild.
At that time, we were in the old building and Rob and I shared a tiny office. My desk was actually in his office. I thought, “God, if this doesn't go well.”
SD: Those were the bungalow offices?
Melissa: Yeah. That tiny, cramped space. When you're working in such close quarters, you really gotta like each other. (laughs) Fortunately, Rob's a great guy and we developed a fantastic relationship. I worked with him for the next five years.
SD: Had you done any writing before “Soul Possession”?
Melissa: I started writing for Renaissance on Jack Of All Trades, Bruce Campbell's show. I wrote three episodes for that series.
SD: Had you done any writing before that?
Melissa: I got my college degree in screenwriting. You don't need a degree to write and it isn't something that can necessarily be taught. It was a major I chose on a whim when I went to college.
SD: You weren’t interested in writing before that?
Melissa: Not necessarily. It was more like, “I'm bad at math, terrible memory for history, what’s left?” I found a screenwriting course in the college catalog and thought it sounded interesting. Writing had been my forte in school. And I always loved wordplay. It piqued my curiosity. I watched a lot of TV growing up, but never once thought about what went into making a TV show.
SD: How did you come to write your first Jack script?
Melissa: I had written a spec script. If you're trying to get into the industry, you get an agent and write a sample script of a current show. I decided to try writing an Ally McBeal script. It was more of an exercise for myself because I hadn't done any writing since graduating from college. It was an experiment to get back into it. I wasn't planning to do anything particular with the script.
My roommate at the time was Mike McDonald who was Sam Raimi's assistant and then became a producer and development executive for Renaissance. He, as my roommate, knew that I was working on something. He gave the script a read, liked it and mentioned to Rob and the other writers that maybe they should give me a shot. It was so big of Rob to give me that chance. When you know someone in a certain capacity, it's hard to envision them otherwise. It was a great leap of faith for him to do that. I think he was nervous, but they said to come in and take a shot at it. So I walked from my desk to the conference room one day and sat in on a story meeting that I was now a part of. (laughs)
SD: In your regular job, did the scripts pass through you? Did you have a chance to read them?
Melissa: Oh yeah. I tried to read everything - all the drafts, the new pages. Even when Rob was in New Zealand, everything also came to my desk for him. I would pop in on story meetings. I always knew what they were working on.
SD: So you did three Jack scripts?
Melissa: Yes. I absolutely adored that show. I was so sad it was cancelled. It was so much fun. I think Bruce is hilarious. After that, I wrote two Cleo's (Cleopatra 2525). I was working on the story for a third one when that show got the axe. If Jack had gone into a second season, they were talking about putting me on staff. Bruce was calling me up and saying, “We gotta get you off Rob Tapert’s desk.” (laughs) Everyone was so supportive and it was great to be able to do as much as I did. By the time I started the third Cleo, I had decided to leave the company and pursue writing full-time which was a very hard decision to make after having been Rob’s assistant for so long. I cried so much that day. (laughs) It was not only the place that launched my writing career, it was where I met my soon-to-be husband, Bob Orci. I had incredibly personal ties which are so hard to break. Everyone was so close. It was such a blast. Even though I was gone, they called me in to do more scripts. Rob asked me one day to come in for Xena.
SD: Was this specifically for “Soul Possession”?
Melissa: Yes. This story was Rob’s idea. It came out of the fact that he wanted to do an episode for the fans that would answer a big question that had been gnawing at them since the end of the third season. How did Gabrielle get out of the lava pit? What the hell transpired down there? (laughs) How did Gabrielle walk back into Xena's life. Rob really wanted to answer that question for them.
SD: Did you know this show would air right before the finale?
Melissa: I knew we were down to the last five episodes. They had the other episodes pretty well set.
SD: They were also making substitutions for scripts at this time. When the Sappho musical didn't work out, they added “Many Happy Returns.”
Melissa: Which I also had a part in writing. It was written by Liz Friedman and Vanessa Place. By that time, the Xena writing staff was down to just R.J. and, maybe, Joel. Rob and R.J. were working on the finale which was consuming all their time. They brought me in to do a draft of “Many Happy” after Liz and Vanessa did theirs. Ordinarily, R.J. would do a pass of the script, but he didn’t have the time. That was a fun episode. (laughs)
SD: Now we’re up to “Soul Possession.” What did they give you to work with? What story did they want to tell?
Melissa: The components I knew needed to go in were: Rob was intent on answering the “Gabrielle in the lava pit” question and how she got out of it. He really wanted to bring back the characters from “Deja Vu all Over Again,” Annie, Mattie and Harry. The whole idea of the lava pit was so dark and adding those characters meant there had to be a delicate balance between a serious back story and a screwball modern-day story.
Rob also wanted to incorporate Ares as a way to have Kevin Smith in the series one last time. I had to piece all three ingredients together. For Kevin Smith, I came up with the idea of having Ares marry Xena.
SD: It would be very useful to have Ares around to perform something miraculous.
Melissa: Yeah. And Ares marrying Xena would be the furthest point you could take their relationship. He’s been trying to get her back all along. So I had to piece all three ideas together. Oh and Lucy wanted to reprise her role as Meg one last time. She was one of Rob’s favorite characters, too.
SD: Who put Meg in the whipped cream outfit?
Melissa: I believe that was me, but I credit production with truly pulling it off. And Lucy, of course. (laughs) I pitched them the bachelor party scene which was a perfect opportunity for Meg to come out of the cake. The scene was in and out, in and out. Lucy has such fun with Meg and gets so much mileage out of her. (laughs)
SD (sings): “Who's my little bubba, my little bubba?”
Melissa (laughs): That was all Lucy.
SD: Not only did you try to answer a fan question with this episode, but you also brought the fans into the story.
Melissa: Yes, we did. That can be delicate, too. We had the press conference - C.H.A.K.R.A.M. - Center for the Historical Accuracy of Key Research in Ancient Mythology. I made that up. (laughs)
SD (laughs): You must have worked hard on that acronym.
Melissa (laughs): I did! I think I wrote in the script that one of the reporters was from the official Xena fan site. Rob got permission to use the name Whoosh.
SD: The professor was named Dr. Frederick Delaney. Who came up with that? (laughs)
Melissa (laughs): Me. That was totally intentional.
SD: Rob called me and the first question he asked was, “Do you mind if we use your name?” I said, “Fine.” Then he said, “Do you mind if you’re a man?” I said, “No problem.” And then he said, “Do you mind if we make you a geek?” (laughs) He spaced it out one at a time. I told him he could do anything he wanted. It was such a kick to be mentioned on the show.
Melissa (laughs): Oh, my God!
SD: And there was a Barb Binder.
Melissa: That was for Sue Binder.
SD: Joxer was in both the modern-day and the back stories.
Melissa: With Gabrielle gone, Xena had to be traveling with someone familiar and Joxer was the obvious choice. And he knew what happened to Gabrielle so Xena didn’t have to explain it. They were the two who were most distraught over what had happened.
SD: Joxer was really sweet in this episode. The scene where Joxer gave Xena the “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” was so touching.
Melissa: Oh, thank you. After reading a draft of the script, Rob said he really liked that scene. Some redemption for poor Joxer. One thing I distinctly remember is that I wrote the last pass of this script holed up in Rob and Lucy’s guest house in Los Angeles. I had just bought a house and they were doing the termite-tenting thing to it. (laughs) I was homeless. Bob, my boyfriend, was in Mexico working on a movie. I always need a place to be creative. I could write at the Renaissance office like nobody's business even with people running around and phones ringing. I need chaos, for some reason. (laughs) Not quiet.
Being in their guesthouse I was alone, but the creative energy was there. I felt for the first time like a true writer. I had the craziest deadline for this script. I was on the couch, late at night, hunched over my laptop with coffee at my side. I was literally holed up and, every so often, I'd get a call from Chloe Smith in New Zealand requesting changes. They were anxiously awaiting my words half a world away. No pressure there at all! (laughs) What was great was being able to take the script to just about shooting draft myself. I had a lot of creative license. It was fun and challenging.
SD: This was a complicated story, weaving different timelines and different stories together. Could you give me the plot in a nutshell?
Melissa: What we're saying in this episode is that Ares saved both Hope and Gabrielle by appearing in thin air inside the lava pit and snatching them away from doom. He lets Gabrielle live although he sequesters her away somewhere with the promise that her soul was his to keep so she would not be reunited with Xena.
SD: Gabrielle made a deal with Ares to save Hope?
Melissa: Interesting. I hadn't thought of it that way. We were thinking since Hope was carrying Ares' child, that would be his motivation to save her. So Dahak used Ares to save Hope.
SD: After all Hope had put Gabrielle and Xena through, why would Gabrielle want to save Hope?
Melissa: You have to remember how much Gabrielle wrestled with killing Hope at all even when she found out how evil she was. When Xena was telling Gabrielle she had to kill her daughter, there was still that bond between a mother and the child she gave birth to. I think those feelings never left Gabrielle. There's always a hope - sorry, no pun intended - that all the wrongs will be made right. And I think that applies for mothers more than anyone. No matter what transpires, there's that unconditional love and faith.
SD: Renee said that Gabrielle did not mean for her or Hope to go into the pit. She was leaping toward Hope to push her away from Xena's knife because she knew that if Xena killed Hope, Xena would die. That was the deal Ares made with the Fates.
Melissa: Gabrielle hadn't given up hope.
SD: If Gabrielle gave her soul to Ares to keep Hope alive, why, in “A Family Affair,” did she seem surprised that Hope was alive?
Melissa: She wasn’t so much surprised to see her alive as that Hope was in Poteidaia residing with Gabrielle’s family. Gabrielle’s finally found her way back home and, “Oh my God, look who's here!”
SD: Gabrielle had spared Hope over and over again. Why did she finally help Xena kill her?
Melissa: It was just time for her to go! (laughs) No hope left for her.
SD (laughs): That was the same reason Lucy gave me when I asked why Xena killed Callisto in “Sacrifice.” Why didn't Gabrielle explain to Xena in “A Family Affair” how she got out of the pit?
Melissa: They had just found each other after such a long and difficult period of time. No need to go back and relive the past. Just appreciate that they are together again. It was a fresh start.
SD: Why wasn't this missing scroll contract ever mentioned during the fifth season when Ares was after Xena to give him a child.
Melissa: Because the contract was for Xena's soul in her afterlife and beyond. Ares wanted the child here and now.
SD: At the end of the episode, Xena’s spirit came out of Harry’s body and went into Annie's.
Melissa: That was an easy decision to make. You want to see Lucy as Xena fighting Ares. It was a much more interesting fight when it was Lucy. We had to have a few minutes of Ted fighting Ares, but that’s a very different fight. (laughs) Ultimately, you wanted to see the Xena you know and love with Lucy's face.
SD: At the end, Annie and Mattie walk off together. It put Xena and Gabrielle back together in the personas of Lucy and Renee.
Melissa: Right. Having Harry and Mattie married was the same notion, because that was Xena and Gabrielle, for all intents and purposes. That was brought up earlier in the script when the fan commented, upon hearing that Harry and Mattie were getting married, “Finally Xena and Gabrielle are together.” Annie and Mattie walking off together just seemed the natural thing to do.