Xena: Warrior Princess
10th Anniversary Collection

Sixteen fan-selected favorites—plus a mix of new and old extras—give Xena lovers an anniversary to remember

	Xena: Warrior Princess 10th Anniversary Collection
	Starring Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor
	Anchor Bay Entertainment
	Seven-disc set
	MSRP: $59.98

By Kathie Huddleston

t's hard to imagine that it has actually been 10 years since Xena: Warrior Princess appeared in syndication, creating a whole new type of hero. Not only was Xena a woman, she was far more conflicted character than her counterpart Hercules. There hadn't been such a kickass heroine since Ripley took on the Alien back in 1986. It's no wonder she's inspired so much fan interest or that Anchor Bay would want to put together this collection of "fan-selected" favorites. The Xena: The Warrior Princess 10th Anniversary Collection is a seven-DVD set, and while it's no replacement for the individual season-based DVD collections, it does offer many of the important episodes from the series, along with a few new extras.

Through a mere seven DVDs, Xena's journey for redemption and Gabrielle's separate, but also important, journey of self-discovery are chronicled. While some episodes are certainly more important in the Xenaverse than others, we see the two characters' growth, and interviews with cast and crew provide insight into the decisions that were made that ended up making these characters who they turned out to be.

The set kicks off with the very first Xena episode, "Sins of the Past," which introduces Xena's anguish at what she's done in her past and Gabrielle's determination to join her on her journey. Next up is "Callisto," a character that turned out to be one of Xena's most formidable villains. Season three's "The Bitter Suite" powerfully explores Xena and Gabrielle's "issues" with each other and the loss of their children in a musical episode. Then at the start of season five, Xena and Gabrielle travel to heaven and hell in an epic battle that concludes Callisto's journey.

The next major arc for our heroes comes with "Amphipolis Under Siege," which explores the god's efforts to destroy Xena's child, Eve. Finally in season six, the series comes to an end with the two-parter, "A Friend In Need," as Xena and Gabrielle travel to Japan where Xena pays the ultimate price for the sins of her past.

The DVD foldout-style box set includes 16 fan-selected episodes, along with audio and video commentaries by members of the cast and crew for many of the episodes. Extras include featurettes on the 2005 10th Anniversary Xena Convention; "Xena's Hong Kong Origins"; "Seeing Double," featuring Xena's stunt double; and "'B' Is for Bruce," which takes a look at actor/director Bruce Campbell.

A missed opportunity

Fans will argue endlessly whether the selected episodes are the "right" ones in this 10th anniversary collection. But one thing is certain—this 16-episode collection feels thin, with seasons two and four getting shortchanged because only one episode from each season is included. It's difficult to understand why Anchor Bay didn't just add a couple more DVDs to the collection and raise the price a bit. Then they could have included several more episodes, making this collection much more robust.

Several of the episodes offer previously recorded audio and video commentary by Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor, along with other notables from the cast and crew. While all involved do a nice job on the commentary, there's nothing new here that collectors won't find on the separate collections for each season. Still, there's one point of note. By pulling out select key episodes, the commentary highlights the lesbian subtext that set Xena apart from other action-hero shows. If there was any doubt about the unintentional direction this show went down, there won't be after watching the 10th anniversary collection.

The new material comes in the form of the featurettes, and a couple of them are worth checking out. The best featurettes take a look at "Xena's Hong Kong Origins" and Xena's stunt double, Zoe Bell, in "Seeing Double." These features gives us a real feel for what happened behind the scenes of Xena. The set finishes up with "'B' Is for Bruce," a long, entertaining interview with Bruce Campbell, which covers his career and includes plenty of Xena and Hercules info.

While the other features have their moments, the 10th Anniversary Convention and fan contest winner coverage is weak. More could have been done with these features, especially considering that this is supposed to be a special collection just for the fans.

As for the packaging, the outside box is exquisite and gives the collection a truly rich feel. However, inside the foldout-style box is printed in black and white, and the DVDs themselves don't offer the usual picture that might distinguish each disc.

True collectors will undoubtedly want to include Xena: Warrior Princess 10th Anniversary Collection in their collection, and those who can't afford six seasons of DVDs might find this set a good alternative. Despite the few points of interest, this collection could have been so much more than it is, and that's a disappointment for any Xena fan. —Kathie

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Also in this issue: The Fog and In the Dust of the Stars DVD

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