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Welcome back, friends! I hope you didn't suffer too heavily from withdrawal, and aren't too broken up that - as the prophets say - "the end is nigh."
Comparisons to other clip shows are inevitable. I think the framing story holds the episode together more coherently than, say, Punch Lines. I don't, however, think that it rates quite as highly as the definitive Xena Scrolls. In the early twenty-first century a group of rabid Xena fans decide the world needs heroes again - and who better than the Warrior Princess and Battling Bard? Using genetic material found in hairs recovered from the cave where the Xena Scrolls were found, they clone the duo. They imprint the personalities using clip montages, awaken the pair, and... well... would it be fair to say that wackiness ensues? This whole plot is thrown into turmoil by the appearance of Alti, who is actually the scientist responsible for cloning the pair. She tries to awaken "Evil Xena" in order to discredit the legend. It ends up turning into a junkyard fight that ends up killing Alti - while Xena and Gabrielle get blown up. (Or do they? The final sequence certainly implies they survived the inferno, which raises a question or two in my mind.) Anyhow, the overall plot is kind of forgettable; with the number of clip montages present the story doesn't get much real development. That really isn't a problem, though - the real joy in this episode comes from the in-jokes and one-liners that abound. The three Xena fans are each stereotypes of certain sub-groups. Alison Wall plays the subtext-loving Gabfan Clea (who gets upset when the bard's hair gets cut). Since her premiere character of Minya is the original pre-Mycenaean fangrrl it is only fitting she be reincarnated in a twenty-first century version. Polly Baigent (last seen as a Xena-double in The Play's the Thing) plays Polly, the foil to Alison's Clea. Polly is a kick-butt, take-no-prisoners fan of the buff, tough, Warrior P. It becomes clear that their opinions on subtext are... divisive. Finally, newcomer Ian Hughes (at least, I don't remember him from any previous episodes) plays the token guy; a Joxer fan that seems devoted to the T&A aspects of the main characters.
The copyright of the article Review: Send In The Clones in Hercules & Xena is owned by Josh Harrison. Permission to republish Review: Send In The Clones in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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