Queen of Swords

[fenris]

I originally posted the following on the Current tv thread;

There was a syndicated cable series screened in America in 2000/2001 entitled Queen of Swords, that received some coverage at the time in magazines such as Xpose and TV Zone. Although clearly unoriginal, it sounded fairly intriguing, and I've always hoped that a UK channel would eventually purchase it.



An international co-production filmed in Spain with a multi-national cast, Queen of Swords was clearly an attempt to jump on the female-fronted action/fantasy bandwagon that had been created by shows such as Xena, Buffy, La Femme Nikita and Highlander: the Raven. For their series' premise, the producers shamelessly took the period-setting and concept of Zorro and simply gave it a sex change. Therefore, the title character in Queen of Swords was a masked female freedom fighter in early 19th century California, dressed all in black and taking a sword to the oppressive regime of the corrupt Governor.

In fact, I'm sure I recall reading that the owners of Zorro unsuccessfully tried to sue the producers of Queen of Swords for copyright infringement.

The most familar face amongst the cast was British actor Peter Wingfield, who played the local doctor. From what I've read on-line about the show, his character was a reluctant ally of the Queen, secretly patching her up after her frequent skirmishes with the Governor's soldiers. Best known for playing Methos in Highlander: the Series, Wingfield is currently a regular in Holby City.

Queen of Swords only lasted one season, but apparently has since built up a small cult following in the States, due to re-runs. Anyway, I've just found out that the series is being shown on the Zone Thriller channel on Saturdays - and the final episode is being screened this coming weekend. Bugger.

I'll just have to hope that they repeat it from the beginning.

Well, I subsequently discovered that after screening the final episode of the series last Saturday, a repeat run of the show immediately started on Sunday (!). Here are my thoughts on the first episode, entitled 'Destiny';
The initial installment of any show is always spent setting up the series’ premise and setting, introducing the main characters, and establishing their relationships with each other. ‘Destiny’ achieves all this in an unremarkable but workmanlike fashion.

Queen of Swords is set in 1819, when California was still a Spanish colony. Upon hearing of the sudden death of her rich land-owner father, Maria Teresa ‘Tessa’ Alvarado returns from Madrid, having been sent there to be educated over a decade earlier. She soon realises that the colony is under the oppressive thumb of Colonel Montaya, and her father was murdered so his land would go to ruin and Montoya could seize it under the pretense of claiming non-paid taxes.

Cue a somewhat heavyhanded dream sequence, in which the ghost of her father urges Tessa to become an ‘avenging angel’ and ‘bring justice to the land’. Most people would put such an experience down to eating cheese before going to bed, but it’s all the motivation Tessa needs to create a costumed identity based on a Tarot card, and go riding around at night beating up the Colonel’s soldiers.

The most surprising thing about Queen of Swords is that – considering at first glance it appears to be a mainstream show aimed at a family audience – just how strikingly gritty it is. The pre-title sequence has the heroine’s father badly wounded and desperately fleeing for his life, only to get shot in the back. And before we reach the first commercial break, we see another poor sod getting graphically filled full of holes by a firing squad. Then there’s a scene in which Montoya’s chief henchman, American mercenary Captain Grisham, is seen grappling naked in bed with his mistress, the wife of a wealthy businessman. A carefully placed crumpled sheet may protect both actors’ modesty, but there’s an eye-opening amount of skin on display, plus it’s rare to see such openly sexual activity in a pre-watershed series.

The title role of Tessa/the Queen is played by Tessie Santiago, in what was her first acting role. While she doesn’t give a particularly outstanding performance, she provides everything that the role requires.
Tessa’s Tarot reading friend, servant and sounding board is Marta (Paulina Galvez), and several times during the episode she seems to be giving long lingering looks at the heroine. I can’t help but wonder if the producers were hinting at a sexual subtext between the two, aiming for the same kind of following that Xena and Gabrielle enjoyed. I’ll have to see if this is maintained throughout the series.
The character of Montoya (Valentine Pelka) is treated in a refreshingly realistic manner. Normally in an adventure series such as this, the chief villain would be a snarling dictator or swaggering thug, blatantly exploiting his power (Keith Allen as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the BBC’s recent Robin Hood is a prime example). However, Montoya is portrayed as a charming politician, maintaining a veneer of respectability and deniability, and taking care to be seen as operating within the law. Anyone who opposes his regime is either framed for non-existent crimes and executed, or killed in a convenient ‘accident’. Accordingly, Pelka (Kronos in Highlander: the Series) gives a mannered performance as Montoya, with only an occasionally subtle hint of menace.
More openly villainous is Grisham (Anthony Lemke), a former soldier who fled America as a fugitive wanted for murder, and is now employed by Montoya to do his dirty work. Lemke is clearly enjoying himself playing such a nasty individual, and as a result Grisham is the most impressive character in the first episode.

In conclusion, Queen of Swords is unremarkable, unoriginal, and somewhat clichéd. The scenes of Tessa moping by her father’s grave have already gotten tiresome, especially as they couldn’t have been that close in the first place, considering that he shipped her off halfway around the world for over ten years. But it rattles along at a nice pace, has some decent action sequences on a TV budget, and is enjoyable enough. Provided the quality of the first episode stays constant throughout the series, this might turn out to be an entertaining and highly watchable little show.

[fenris]

Episode #2: 'Death to the Queen'.

A very impressive second instalment that skillfully subverts or overturns many of the cliches of the action/adventure genre. In such series, the scriptwriters normally make things easy for themselves by portraying the villains and/or their henchmen as complete buffoons, always making fundamental mistakes, underestimating the hero(ine), and therefore allowing him or her to foil their evil schemes each week, avoid capture, and generally run rings around them.

However, in Queen of Swords, principal bad-guys Montoya and Grisham are written as highly intelligent and shrewd opponents (even their underlings are extremely capable), plus they are well trained, experienced soldiers. Tessa on the other hand is new to all this resistance fighter/vigilante business, and this episode demonstrates that instead of being an immediately successful and unbeatable heroine, always destined to save the day, she still has a lot to learn, with her early victories due more to luck than judgment.

Following the Queen's antics in the opening episode, instead of just dismissing her as a minor nuisance, Montoya considers her to be a potentially serious threat, and gets Grisham to set a trap. The inexperienced Tessa walks right into it, and ends up cornered on a coastal cliff top. Outnumbered, surrounded, and already badly wounded, she throws herself off the cliff into the ocean in near-suicidal desperation. In any other series, the villains would smugly assume she had perished. Not here. Grisham immediately orders his men to painstakingly search the coastline for any evidence of her coming ashore. Even when a piece of her costume is found in the surf, Montoya and Grisham decide to remain cautious and consider her as still being alive and dangerous unless her body washes up on the beach.

Needless to say, Tessa has survived. But by the end of the episode she will have escaped capture and death by a hair-width on a further two separate occasions, and both times she is saved not due to her own actions, but because of the direct intervention of others. Refreshingly, she is clearly a talented amateur trying to punch above her weight, instead of an always-resourceful and unfailingly victorious heroine.

Brit actor Peter Wingfield makes his debut in 'Death to the Queen' as the newly arrived Dr. Robert Helm. He immediately has great chemistry with Tessie Santiago, both when she's playing Tessa and her alter-ego, the Queen. But particularly enjoyable are Helm's scenes with Montoya - the doctor sees straight through the Colonel's charming front the moment he claps eyes on him. Montoya is clearly aware of this, but the colony is in such dire need of a medical practitioner that he has no choice but to endure the subtle verbal barbs that Helm sends his way.

Regarding the subtext between Tessa and Marta, it's made quite clear that Marta feels substantially more than loyalty and friendship towards her employer. And the conflicting waves of emotions that Marta experiences during this episode are also well handled: grief when she hears that the Queen of Swords is dead, relief when Tessa turns up alive, and then frustration and anger that Tessa almost got herself killed.
It's also revealed that Marta has psychic powers, in a quiet but effective scene in which she takes Helm's hand and glimpses his violent past as a veteran of the Napoleonic wars;
"These are not a doctor's hands. So much blood... so much death."

[fenris]

Episode #3: 'Honor Thy Father'.

This instalment was directed by Hex's Brian Grant, and contains enough plot for a couple of episodes, with two detailed storylines jostling for space.

The A plot has Tessa being contacted by a deserter from Montoya's army named Raul, who was present when her father died, and is offering to tell all in exchange for a hefty payment. Unfortunately Raul is not to be trusted, but Tessa's obsession with finding out who killed her father blinds her to the danger, and her carelessness leads to Raul discovering that she is the Queen of Swords. Now in possession of information that both Montoya and Tessa want, he attempts to play them against one another and collect payments from both. Luckily, some extremely quick-thinking by Marta manages to preserve Tessa's secret identity, and even though he has betrayed her, the Queen still helps Raul escape from Grisham, who wants to execute the man for desertion. But Raul can't resist one last attempt to get his hands on Tessa's money, and it ends badly for him...

Meanwhile, the B plot follows on from a storyline in the previous episode, when it was established that Montoya is seeking to vastly increase his wealth so that he can afford the mercenaries and weaponry he needs to expand his empire through sheer military force. To this end, he sends a group of soldiers to steal golden artifacts from a Native American burial-ground, resulting in a shaman from the tribe tracking the soldiers back to Montoya's base camp in order to steal them back. And following the revelation in the previous instalment that Marta is psychic, this episode again dips into mysticism, as the shaman clearly has magical powers. However, despite these abilities he gets shot and wounded, and spends most of the episode being rescued and then treated by the Queen and Dr. Helm.

And if that wasn't enough, there's even a light-hearted C plot, as Grisham's married lover, Vera Hidalgo (Elsa Pataky) is recruited by Montoya to act as his spy. Unfortunately for the Colonel, she's not very good at espionage, as witnessed by an amusing scene in which she tries to get information out of Helm with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

With so much going on, there's not much room for character development, but Tessa's blinkered quest to identity her father's murderer is nicely handled. And further elements of Helm's past are intriguing hinted at - we learn that he's a dab hand at breaking and entering, can caper over rooftops in the dark like a cat, and is also an expert lock-picker. But more interesting still is the doctor's angry reaction when Tessa kills a guard who was about to shoot him: Helm coldly tells her that his life isn't worth saving, especially not at the expense of someone else's.

The sexual frankness of the first episode is again in evidence, with Raul attempting to rape Tessa during their final encounter, plus we learn that Grisham has an appointment each week with one of the town's prostitutes.

'Honor Thy Father' closes with an effectively eerie scene, as the shaman returns the stolen artifacts to the burial-ground, and the camera suddenly pulls back to reveal that he's accompanied by a shadowy spirit-version of the Queen that he's (presumably) conjured up to protect the site in future.

Incidentally, the shaman is played by a then-unknown Gael Garcia Bernal, who has since become a respected movie star, with leading roles in Y tu mama tambien, The Motorcycle Diaries, The King, and The Science of Sleep.

[fenris]

Episode #4: 'Vengeance'.

Another episode directed by Hex's Brian Grant, which starts out quite densely plotted, but following some ingenious twists by the writer, it glides admiringly smoothly to a steamlined finish.

While chatting to Dr. Helm, a wealthy ranch-owner is killed in the middle of the street by a crossbow bolt fired by a rooftop-lurking assassin. The victim's son is certain that the culprit is a rival cattle-baron who was in dispute with his father, and he immediately tries to take murderous revenge. But Tessa swiftly realises that the assassin missed, and the true target was actually Helm...

As a result, the rest of the episode centres almost exclusively on Helm and his murky past, to the extent that Tessa (who spends most of the episode in her Queen of Swords persona) is effectively relegated to a supporting role. It's even Helm who resolves the story's subplot, by peacefully bringing to an end (with Tessa's prompting) the son's misguided feud against the rival ranch-owner.

Unfortunately, the focus on Helm means that we learn more about him than perhaps we should. By the story's conclusion, there's still a great deal we don't know about the Doctor, but what has been revealed is quite substantial, and the character is left slightly weakened as a result.

However, what 'Vengeance' does underline is the solid bond of trust that instinctively exists between Helm and the Queen, despite - or perhaps because of - the fact that they know so little about each other. "I'm not the only one wearing a mask, Doctor" declares the Queen, hinting that they both recognise a kindred spirit.

This episode also expands the character of Montoya, making him much more complex than your usual cliched arch-villain. He's seen happily holding a party for the local children (admittedly those with rich parents, whom he wishes to curry favour with), and it's revealed that he has grown an extensive rose garden, which he lovingly tends himself. And the final scene indicates that he and Helm have achieved a mutually respectful understanding.

[fenris]

Episode #5: 'Fever'.

With this instalment, the writers of Queen of Swords again attempt (only partly successfully) to expand beyond what's normally expected in a family-oriented adventure series. Tessa is faced with a problem that can't be resolved with swordplay, and is left floundering.

A deadly fever is sweeping the countryside, and half of Montoya's army has been struck down, forcing him to press-gang farm workers into uniform. When this policy results in an acquaintance of Tessa's being dragged away from his sick wife and hungry children, the Queen's hotheaded, knee-jerk reaction is to pledge to help him escape - until Marta points out to her naive employer that because of his family, the man cannot go on the run, so he would quickly be recaptured and executed for desertion.

Struggling to find another tactic, Tessa clumsily attempts to use her charms on Captain Grisham, hoping to convince him to release the man. And when that fails miserably she hamfistedly tries to persuade the Captain's lover Vera to use her influence, and again has no success.

The Queen's fighting skills do eventually come into use when Montoya becomes seriously ill, and Grisham (suddenly realising he has a chance to seize the Colonel's position) takes advantage when a desperate man steals vital medical supplies from Dr. Helm, by claiming that the Queen of Swords was responsible for the theft.
We're told via dialogue between Tessa and Marta that this accusation has caused the townspeople to turn against the Queen - an potentially intriguing development - but sadly no evidence of this is seen, and the subplot just peters out.

The remainder of the episode has Helm turning detective, comparing notes and discussing theories with the ailing Montoya, until the two men eventually realise what Grisham is up to. The Queen and Helm defeat the Captain in combat and recover the medical supplies, resulting in a final scene in which all is again well, and everyone is hale and hearty.

Despite the storyline reverting to convention towards the end, the novelty of the early scenes is highly memorable, with Tessa feeling guilty and dumbfounded when confronted by a crisis that she can't solve by simply outfighting a few of Montoya's soldiers. In a key scene, Marta warns Tessa that although the Queen of Swords is giving the oppressed people hope, those same masses are beginning to expect more of their heroine than she can deliver. As Tessa realises her limitations, and the fever continues to spread, it's clear that her fixation with gaining a lone farm worker's release from Montoya's army is merely a self-distracting attempt to put a sticking plaster over a gaping wound.

Alas, the episode ends on a jarring and terribly false note, as it's revealed that despite being fully aware of Grisham's treachery, Montoya has kept the Captain under his employ. The logic given is that the Colonel occasionally finds it useful to have a coldblooded murderer on the payroll, but it's not entirely convincing.

[fenris]

Episode #6: 'Duel with a Stranger'.

A highly-skilled swordsman arrives from Spain, having been hired by Montoya to kill the Queen of Swords. If this wasn't unfortunate enough for Tessa, there are other major complications: the swordsman is Antonio, her childhood sweetheart and the love of her life. Before they were separated (he patriotically went to fight Napoleon's forces, she returned to California because of her father's death) they had planned to marry, and now Antonio wants to continue from where they left off...

Most long-running adventure series have an episode in which a former lover walks back into the lead character's life and rekindles their relationship, whereupon it's revealed that they have become a criminal in the time since the hero(ine) last saw them, and their return is merely part of an illegal scheme or heist. However, as has been proved in previous episodes, the scriptwriting on Queen of Swords is of too high a standard to resort to such easy cliches.

Accordingly, Antonio is portrayed as a man who still considers himself as deeply honourable. His once-wealthy family has been left ruined and penniless by the wars against Napoleon, and he intends for the substantial reward money for killing the Queen to restore their pristine. Although employed as a hired assassin, he has allowed Montoya to convince him that the Queen is a murderous bandit in order to self-justify his actions.

Unwilling to fight him, Tessa approaches Antonio as the Queen, hoping to appeal to his honour and persuade him that she is no outlaw, but a vigilante fighting against Montoya's oppression - only to discover that the swordsman doesn't care. Even then, Tessa is so blinded by love that she's incapable of seeing that Antonio is no longer the man she once knew.
In fact, he never was. Cleverly, the writers reveal that Tessa has always had a blinkered, rose-tinted view of her lover. A flashback to Tessa and Antonio's time together in Spain reveals that he has always been a deeply flawed and potentially dangerous individual - but she was too much in love to see it.

The episode adds further layers to Tessa's character, reminding us that under the resourceful freedom fighter's mask is a young woman who's inexperienced in matters of the heart, and still has foolish, naive and unrealistic expectations about love and romance. There's also a couple of sequences focusing on Marta, as she uses her charms to obtain information from one of Montoya's soldiers, and a nice scene involving Grisham and Vera, in which she teases him over the fact that his ego has been bruised due to Antonio being a better swordsman than he is.

[fenris]

Episode #7: 'The Witness'.

This instalment notably begins with some continuity carried over from the previous episode: having lost her lover Antonio, Tessa wanders alone around a party, gazing sadly at several young couples. Grisham offers to keep her company (nudge nudge, wink wink) but she sees him off with a few wonderfully waspish remarks.
Walking home, Tessa hears a gunshot, and finds a distraught young man holding a smoking pistol and standing over the body of a dead girl. And this is where her troubles really begin.

The rest of the episode finds Tessa confronted by a situation similar to that in 'Fever' - namely, a problem that can't be resolved by nimble swordplay. In fact, she only appears in her Queen of Swords identity for a few minutes, towards the end of the story.
Following the girl's death, her family angrily demand that the accused man be hanged, but Montoya (eager to be seen representing the law) declares that he will receive a fair trial, with Tessa as the key - in fact, the only - prosecution witness. However, complications soon occur when the defendant's wealthy mother (played by Bo Derek!!) rides into town with a small army of mercenaries, insisting that her son be released immediately, and it soon become clear she's prepared to use threats and direct action to get her way.

Tessa is caught in the middle, between the dead girl's angry and hotheaded family, and the accused's mother and her forces. Meanwhile, Montoya is happy to sit back and take advantage of the unfolding situation: if the mother kills Tessa to ensure her silence, he will simply hang her for murder, and then seize the land belonging to both women.

There's quite a lot of character development in this instalment. After accidentally killing a gunman in self-defence while in her civilian identity, Tessa is genuinely upset, and she reveals to Marta that she regards the Queen of Swords as being an entirely separate personality, possessing confidence and courage that she - as Tessa - lacks.
Regarding Marta, unfortunately it seems the heavy implication in the early episodes that she is in love with her employer has been forgotten. In 'The Witness' she is seen flirting with the local blacksmith, an east-European named Vlad, and is clearly enjoying the attention.
There's also an indication that Grisham - previously portrayed as a very nasty piece of work - is mellowing somewhat. When the accused's mother threatens to tear the town apart if her son isn't released, he actually seems perturbed by the potential loss of life, while Montoya in contrast simply doesn't care.
And Vera actually gets something substantial to do for the first thing in the series, as Tessa learns that she actually saw the victim's death - but she daren't come forward, as her vantage point was a hotel room where she'd just entertained Grisham.

After almost an hour of labyrinthine plotting, the resolution of the story is actually very disappointing. Having learnt from Vera that the girl's death was a tragic accident, Tessa refuses to testify. Montoya backs down, the accused is released, and the victim's previously menacing family simply shrug their shoulders and accept it. Most unsatisfactory.