What have they done to the colours?!

My sister still has the original 1992 video and it is by far superior. Whoever was responsible for the colours on this version should have lost their job - they are not the original colours from the film. Maurice's eyes have been coloured green instead of black, the west wing has been brightened so much it is no longer mysterious and I HATE IT when they put sequences that weren't in the film in the movie, as they did with 'Human Again' This is NOT the film I saw! This scene should have been an extra. They did the same with The Lion King. Thank God The Little Mermaid wasn't messed about with. Restorations should simply preserve what was in the original release, not mess about with it like this. A great shame as it is a fabulous film. I wonder if the 2-disc red box set was better?

DVD not superior quality

Obviously as a made for TV change over there is an expected difference in quality of picture but not this bad. There are red and green lines appearing on more than 2 discs and the sound although supposedly 5.1 is not in anyway superior to the video version.

Well presented in a fold out box the DVD version is only superior in the amount of space it takes on your bookshelf.

Alright for a boxset

The box itself is slim and folds out with the 3 Xena disks inside. I was pleasantly surprised with the presentation because it really was slightly more than I expected for a simple small boxset. There's a nice inlay picture of Xena and Gabrielle which poses a sort of irony when considering the dark areas their relationship will enter during this half of the season.

Despite this, no effort has been made to include any special features. None. Not so much as a few subtitles. So in that sense, the boxset is severely limited. There aren't any scene selections for individual episodes either. The menus however, aren't bad. The theme tune is played as well as fire burning in the background whilst you navigate the small menu. But things like this should come as standard nowadays, and you are left with the feeling you haven't really got what you paid for; not when some other DVDs for TV shows are packed with featurettes and freebies. A sacrifice you shall have to make however, if you want Xena in digital quality.

As Xena was fairly out of the time when widescreen was made popular even for mainstream television, the episodes are only viewable in standard 4:3 ratio. The picture quality itself is without fault, and I sometimes found myself forgetting that I was watching a simple episode and not a motion picture movie.

As far as I can tell, series 3 - part 1 holds some of the darkest storylines in the whole Xena storyline. And those of you keen on the subtext between Xena and Gabrielle may feel torn due to the events. But notable moments include the guilty look from Gabrielle at the"hicky" comment, right down to the tears Xena sheds when she hears Gabrielle's last plead for forgiveness at the end of"Maternal instincts". There are some beautiful moments of acting as well as intriguing storylines, but ultimately, there are the odd scenes which aren't exactly a boost to the credibility of Xena: Warrior princess and you may wish you hadn't saw them.

But overall, a must-have to anyone building up the wonderful Xena collection.