10 follows 1, but only on a computer

I decided to watch some episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess Season One, made in 1995-1996. This picaresque TV show, filmed in New Zealand, is still good fun.

In Episode 1 Xena, a mighty and ruthless warlord, has decided to give up her life of violence and crime.

Then Xena comes across slavers attempting to carry off the women from a village. She picks up her weapons again and begins a life of doing good, starting with seeing off the slavers.

Xena and Gabrielle, from Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts.

One of the women she rescues is Gabrielle, a naive but spirited village girl who dreams of adventure. Gabrielle leaves home to follow Xena, and so the TV series is born.

Over 134 episodes Xena and Gabrielle roam the Earth fighting evil and defending the weak.

This usually involves a lot of humour, super powers, extremely unlikely stories and a total warping of history as we know it.

Season 1 puzzler

I’ve watched the series, and random episodes, several times, one way and another, but as I worked my way through Season 1, Disc 1 of the Region 2 and 4 (UK and New Zealand) edition I started to feel very puzzled.

In Episode 1 Xena and Gabrelle meet. Then in the next episode they’re having an adventure with Amazons and Centaurs that I felt sure came later in Season 1. Plus Gabrielle had suddenly become much more confident. I remembered her gradually developing through the series. Odd.

Next up was an episode involving an underground organisation rebelling against a tyrant, followed by the Trojan Horse event as the Greeks left Troy.

This didn’t accord at all with my dim memories of the beginnings of the series, so I checked the box. Those were the episodes listed on the cover.

Clips from unseen episodes

Disc 2 began with what amounts to a kind of clip show, where Gabrielle is recounting their deeds, as part of a competition for Bards. Now I was really confused, as the stories are all taken from episodes, but they weren’t episodes I had seen yet in this viewing cycle.

It’s how you order things

Gabrielle from the Season 6 final episode, Friend in Need II.

After consulting Whoosh.org, Birthplace of the International Association of Xena Studies, all suddenly became clear. The episodes had been recorded to disc sorted by episode number, and using strict computer sorting order, where 1 is followed by 10, 11, 12 … 18, 19 and then 2!

Here’s the episode listing for part of Season 1, according to Whoosh, beginning with the episode number:

• (01) Sins of the Past
• (02) Chariots of War
• (03) Dreamworker
• …
• (09) Death in Chains
• (10) Hooves and Harlots
• (11) The Black Wolf
• (12) Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts
• (13) Athens City Academy of the Performing Bards

The episodes I watched on Season 1, Disc 1 were:

• (01) Sins of the Past
• (10) Hooves and Harlots
• (11) The Black Wolf
• (12) Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts

How ridiculous! No wonder I was confused. The episodes were recorded to disc totally out of story sequence. That’s why one minute Gabrielle was a naive yet optimistic villager and the next a somewhat competent beginning warrior.

If I’d never seen this TV show before I’d be totally at sea, especially as I’d finally reach the last episode of Season 1 (#24), only to then see episodes 3 to 9.

Disclaimer: these DVDs are official, commercial DVDs I bought from a reputable source, not some pirated rip-off version.

Be careful with automated sorting, especially if you’re responsible for committing files to disc.