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Review for "Foiled Plans" (XWPVS 8.8)
by: David J. Duncan
Über fiction has formed an important part of the Xena fandom for several years. While it has taken many forms, one can never forget how TPTB spawned it with "The Xena Scrolls" and "Soul Possession," documenting the adventures of Drs. Melinda Pappas and Janice Covington. Appropriately, the XWPVS brings them into the framework with "Foiled Plans," providing both a way of tying strands together from the previous Season 8 episodes and giving us a sequel to the episodes above.
The teaser introduces us to the situation at large. Mel and Janice meet with Clive Thomas, a British Intelligence Agent, concerning some recently discovered scrolls in England. He reveals that Gabrielle may have written them. Accordingly, the authorities need Mel and Janice to interpret them. The ladies debate about Thomas' motives. As they do, they realize that everyone is looking for the Fountain of Youth from XWPVS 8.4 and decide to go after it before the Nazis can find it. Among other things, the scene demonstrates the distinction between Mel's lady like approach and Janice's direct way. Ties are established to earlier episodes in a subtle fashion as well.
Act I brings the picture into focus. The first major scene shows an Englishman handing the map over to a Nazi who double crosses him. Meantime, Mel and Janice discuss the situation with the scroll. Then Thomas pays them a visit, offering them a pardon from the American and British governments for their assistance. The offer bothers Janice who decides to break into Thomas' room and take the plane tickets from him. At this point, they hustle to the airport and take off into the night, heading for the Bahamas. Once again, we see that even though Mel and Janice are friends, their thinking on situations differs. However, they are a team and succeed together.Act II shifts the scene to the Bahamas where the Nazis and our heroines run into each other. As airport security back in England arrests Thomas, delaying him for the time being, Mel and Janice have time to set their strategy and act on it. After more bantering on their individual styles, Janice decides to break into yet another hotel room where they find a large manila envelope. Ironically, as they do so, the Nazis break into their room, shredding clothes and taking Mel's journals. When Mel and Janice realize what has happened, they move to a new room and discuss new plans. (Again, this is another point where they diverge; this time in the way they dress.) At this point, Janice admits they need help and discusses a new plan with Mel. With this scene, the audience has met the story's main actors and awaits the plot's development.
Act III moves the plot further along with great detail and movement back and forth between the two sides. After the Nazis kidnap Mel, Janice and Thomas go after them. As they sail for the island where the Fountain is located, Janice starts to trust him. Meantime, Mel resists her captors' efforts to interrogate her about the journals. They threaten her and take her below deck. During the "discussion," Mel changes into Xena once again. After she beats her captors up, she escapes from the boat and swims to the island. As in the Xena scrolls, our favorite Warrior Princess emerges to assist Mel with her adversaries. However, even this aid isn't enough to help her against the Nazis who recapture her on the island after a freak ricochet shot wounds her. Interestingly enough, Janice has flashbacks as well. She shares memories with Gabrielle. While these images are hazy, they establish a tie nonetheless. With several intriguing plot developments, the reader anticipates Act IV's conclusion.
Act IV maneuvers the audience through several turns, weaving its way to the story's finish. As Janice and Thomas hunt for the fountain, the Nazis hunt for them. Hearing a shot in the distance, Janice and Thomas separate, agreeing to meet up later. The Nazis capture him in the jungle. Meanwhile she has more visions, guiding her to the spot where Xena had discovered the fountain millennia earlier. With a makeshift staff (nice touch ), she discovers the shaft leading to the spring and sets explosives. However, when Thomas fails to return, she goes after him and Mel. Once at the Nazis' camp, she takes the journals and Mel's journals before returning to the jungle and waiting for her enemies to return. Even as she does so, Mel (or rather, Xena) and Thomas free each other but wait for their opportunity as well. In the ensuing fight, the heroines assist each other, defeating the Nazis. After securing the enemy, they return to the fountain site. There, they handle two more adversaries but Thomas is shot in the process. The story wraps up well with Thomas still alive and the "mystery drink" in the flask.
"Foiled Plans" delves into several issues in depth. At several points, the authors study the relationship between Mel and Janice, establishing their link as being on par with Xena and Gabrielle's. In addition, each character has a connection to their ancestor, albeit on different levels. The flashbacks were well done, painted in deftly yet subtly. I like how Mel and Janice both grew and developed as the story progressed. While they and Agent Thomas have differing individual styles, they came together as a team at the end. As noted earlier, the ties to the earlier episodes flowed well. The writers did more than offer the audience a "clip show". Rather, the clips embellished the story's development.
There is one place where the story might have been better: the Mel/Xena and Janice/Gabrielle links. During the fights on the Nazis' ship and the enemy camp, Xena directs the action not Mel. (For more on this concept, refer to the previous Mel and Janice eppies noted above.) Accordingly, the dialogue should have reflected that change. It might also have been interesting to see Gabrielle take over for Janice at the end. Especially given Janice's character growth in all areas, that event would make for an interesting story in the future. Given the depth of writing throughout the rest of the text, this concept would lend still more quality to it.
Other than that point, "Foiled Plans" provides yet another great installment in the Xena Virtual Series, reminding us all of how the gen and über parts of the Xenaverse function together as a whole.
Thanks for sharing.
Review: Episode 8.8 - Foiled Plans
by: 41 Cyg
A reasonably good effort. I give it a 7.6 (1 to 10 scale). I tend to be harder on uber stories, since, being roughly in the present, there are many more opportunities for me to notice differences between the Xenaverse and the historical record (or present times). I'm glad to see Melinda Pappas and Janice Covington back in action. It's interesting to see how different their actions are from those of Xena and Gabrielle, while at the same time being eerily similar.
COMMENTS:
A few general comments first. This episode seemed somewhat shorter than average (This is just an impression. I didn't do a page count.). It didn't feel like anything was cut out or rushed, but I got the impression that if it had been filmed, there would have been time for an extra commercial break.
About halfway through the script, I realized Clive Thomas, the British intelligence agent had a Joxer-ish feel to him. He wasn't as clumsy or inept as the original, but he did seem a bit naive and tended to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Can anyone else see Ted Raimi in a bowler with an Oxford accent and maybe a small mustache?
Janice's hair seems to grow quite quickly. This episode directly follows VS7's A Day in the Camp in which Janice's hair was cut short enough for her to pass as a man. Now, as shown by the drawings for that episode, it wasn't a particularly short man's cut, but this episode can't be more than a month (See my comments just below.) after their eluding the American officials, where Janice's hair was still quite short, and Gina's illustrations show her with a season six Gabrielle look - quite a bit of hair growth for so short a time.
Now to some specifics.
Teaser:
The opening scene gives the time as `1945', but I believe this can be narrowed down much closer. As I noted in my comments on A Day in the Camp, that episode had to have taken place around the first week in March (no later than, say, March 10th) and Mel and Janice probably got to Switzerland as soon as they could, since neither the Allies nor the Axis (by then just Germany) were too pleased that the fragment of The Book of Ptah was taken by them. On the war front, Germany had not yet surrendered, but the end and its nearness were apparent to anyone with any sense (Hitler may not have accepted it, but no doubt most, if not all, of the other Nazi leaders were making plans to avoid capture (either by escape or suicide) or trying to get in a position where they could bargain with the Allies for their lives and freedom.). The henchmen who were trying to get to the Fountain of Youth evidently still believed they could get the water back to Berlin, but they too were probably making plans to come out of this ahead if things went bad (by selling their secret to a government or the water to rich private citizens, perhaps). These circumstances put the date at mid to late March, (maybe up to mid April if Mel and Janice had an extended vacation, but I think that by then the Nazis would have had no way of returning to Berlin).
Mel uses some interesting phrasing. One of the scrolls `turned up missing'. Isn't that an oxymoron?
Act I:
The German spy who obtains the map is `Herr Klaus'. Klaus is a first name (short for Niklaus, I believe) and I don't think `Herr' (=`Mister') would be used with that (unless you're someone like Mr. Bill). Klaus might be a last name or an alias, but all of the other operatives on the island are referred to by their first names.
When Warner refers to Stalin as being another possible buyer for the map, the tone of the conversation makes `Comrade Stalin' sound much more true to life.
The phrasing in the stage directions to scene 8 is just right where Janice is described as wearing trousers rather than pants. That would have been the proper term for a woman's garment at that time, if anything other than a skirt would have been considered proper.
The newspaper Janice is reading in the hotel room (the Times of London?) says the Xena Scrolls were found by Doctors Pappas and Covington in 1942. Although the initial airing of The Xena Scrolls gave the date as 1942, I believe it was changed to 1941 in subsequent airings, which makes much more sense, as Greece was occupied by the Axis powers in October 1941 and war with the U.S. started in December of that year.
Is Melinda a Ph,D.? I know Janice is and Melinda's father was, but I don't remember Mel being called Doctor. Of course, even a newspaper as good as the Times is not immune from errors.
Thomas describes their destination as `...just off Bimini....' From the descriptions in Child's Play (episode 8.01), the location of the Fountain of Youth should be in the southern West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago or the Netherlands Antilles), not the Bahamas. And if Thomas' location is correct, `off Bimini' doesn't sound right; Bimini is a fairly small speck. `The Bahamas', as Thomas says later, sounds much better.
Act II:
Janice calls Mel `Miss Mouse'. I'll bet she knows Froggie Wemt a Courtin'.
Even if Hitler got the Fountain of Youth water, I wonder if he should trust his companions. If he appears to be a child, they could exercise parental control over him and run things in his name. Also, if they don't have the native shaman's reversal potion, he could be a child for a dozen years (or more, if they regularly sneak more of the water into his meals).
If Janice's fedora is stuck on the door after she and Mel return from their own break-in, why is she wearing it when they enter the room (Gina's drawing)?
Act III:
Thomas mentions `Our embassy here', but, if they are in the Bahamas, that was a British colony and Thomas' agency would have made contact directly, department to department within the same government. If they were on a non-British island, except for Cuba (which they obviously were not, since Janice wanted `Havana cigars' not `the island special') or Hispaniola, the British would have a consulate, rather than an embassy, since the island would not be an independent country, but a colony.
Act IV:
Even if there were monkeys on the Fountain of Youth island when Xena was there, I'm sure no Caribbean island has wild monkeys now. And, as I said in my comments on Child's Play, they would not be apes.
I liked the scene where Janice flashed back to little Xena trapping Gabrielle, but evidently Gabrielle didn't put everything in her scroll, or the scene didn't make it from the scroll to the screenplay.
In scene 45, the Nazis come upon Janice and Clive's camp, but did they stop long enough to make one? I didn't think so.
Again, Gina's illustrations are great, although I don't think I would call them film noir style (as was mentioned elsewhere in the forum). I particularly liked the close up of Mel when she is on the Nazis' boat. You can see Xena is behind those eyes!
In the forum, MacavityCat mentioned that Talice bailed her out with a great closing scene. I have to agree. Talice did a great job. A beautiful humorous twist. Now I have no doubt that Mel and Janice will be having adventures for many years to come.
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