This is not a fan page. 

So, got that out of the way. Now let me explain what this tape is all about... Some time ago, quite some time ago, I ran into a webpage where someone listed his 'Xena tapes'. Quite literally, the person in question had collected all Xena episodes on video tape, and he couldn't be bothered to buy the DVD's or download and reorganise his tapes.

What I couldn't figure out is why he would list his list of tapes on an Internet page... It just didn't make sense. What did make sense, however, is that he discussed some story arcs of the Xena series, and that is what triggered this page. This page is about 'The Xena Tapes' as well. Not his tapes, and not exactly tapes, but it's the idea that counts. (Nope, I don't recall the link to the man's page, sorry.) But I couldn't quite get myself to build yet another fan page...

Weirdly enough, I did run into another reference, this time a quote from a movie, where some geek (which is a honorific title as opposed to 'nerd') would do his job as long as he would have his Xena tapes...

That did it. I had to build my own 'Xena Tapes'.

Still, this isn't a fan page. (Would you believe it?)
 

Xena vs. Hercules.

Unles you've been living under a rock, you must have heard about Hercules, an older television series, featuring muscles, scantily cladded ladies, and lots of (badly :-)) choreograped fights. It was popular, back in the days (jeez, am I getting old or what) and spawned another series, called (insert appropriate drum roll) 'Xena'.

What makes it interesting is that, although Xena was a spin-off, both series actually ran simultaneously, and there was quite a bit of interaction between the two series. Characters of either series showed up in the other. Hercules touched upon the (perhaps not so) almighty nature of the gods, and Xena ended up in a lesbian love afair.

All regular stuff for a rainy Saturday afternoon I guess.
 

But what about those tapes?!? What is on them?

Well, there are no tapes. But you guessed that already. In fact, there's only a list, available as a web page and an excel file. And all I did was compile it... You see, I wanted to get the most out of the Xena series, and for the maximal experience I decided to throw in all relevant Hercules episodes. (Now that was a bit of a problem, as I wasn't planning on watching all episodes, only to compile a list of all episodes that I needed to watch... Not good...)

In the end, I decided to do this: I would take all Xena episodes, and insert in-between, in the appropriate places, Hercules episodes.

The Hercules episodes / story arcs that I included were:

• all featuring Xena
• all considered 'essential' to the Hercules story line
• all featuring gods / godesses that met their untimely end
• all mentioned often in 'best episode' or 'best story arc' lists on the different forums
• all those I downloaded by accident :-)

As such, this page is a bit of a joke. I'm pretty sure nobody will ever end up here, so perhaps I'm the same as that one geek / nerd / fan who put up his list of Xena tapes on the Internet... (That's a rather sobering thought. You know what, the very first person who drops me an email on bluez@xs4all.nl will be mentioned by name, if he or she dares. No takers yet :-) And as a final note: I did not have time yet to watch any of these 'tapes'...