Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Centaur Mentor Journey

Air Date

Monday May 13, 1996

Production Code

876821

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  6.9 Fair

  Hercules' dying mentor, centaur Ceridian, asks him to stop another of his protégés, fellow centaur Cassius, going to war with humans over a struggle for equal rights. An average episode... hide show

  As with the majority of centaur-related episodes in both this series and 'Xena: Warrior Princess', the theme of racism and equal rights plays an important part.
  
  There are strong parallels to real-life equal rights struggles, with centaurs representing black minorities, and humans representing whites.
  
  This was a fair-to-so-so episode. I found, before I came to re-watch it recently, that my memory of it was a bit hazy, with it burring into one with several other centaur-based tales from the series.
  
  The climax is a bit of a let down, and did not feel all that satisfying and that all the problems had been settled.
  
  All-in-all, a middling episode.

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  Jay-Spacedust Added Nov 21, 2007 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Tony Blackett Ceridian
  • James Townshend Theseus
  • Julian Arahanga Cassius
  • John McKee Gredor
  • Edward Newborn Perdidis
  • Robert McMullen Locus
  • Jonathon Bell Booth Centaur #1
  • Mark Clare Gnoxius
  • John Freeman Smith
  • Ray Bishop Centaur #2
  • Lance Phillips Ripis
  • Fred Craig Mong
  • Marcia Cameon Mira

• Stars

  • Kevin Sorbo Hercules

• Recurring Roles

  • Robert Trebor Salmoneus
Episode Cast and Crew Details »

• Hercules tells Theseus to get some eucalyptus to help Ceridian (eucalyptus does help to open the airways and has antiseptic properties, but is toxic in large quantities). But eucalyptus, which is indigenous to Australia and some of the neighboring islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, would not have been present in Greece at that time. [edit]

• No centaurs were harmed or discriminated against during the production of this motion picture. [edit]

• Salmoneus: (at the entrance of Ceridian's cave) Shouldn't Theseus lead the way?
  Hercules: I spent a good part of my youth here. I could find my way blindfolded. (hits his head on a rock outcrop) Uhn, Of course, I was much shorter back then. [edit]
• Salmoneus: I hope they teach business and marketing concepts at that school. Like, the value of celebrity endorsements, and buy wholesale, sell retail.
  Hercules: You are just full of good ideas, aren't you?
  Salmoneus: Hey, build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your hut, huh? [edit]
• Hercules: (interrupting some centaurs from beating Salmoneus) What's going on here?
  Centaur #1: We were discussing liberal hypocrisy amongst the middle class.
  Hercules: Well, Salmoneus is full of liberal hypocrisy, so you should have a lot to talk about.
  Centaur #2: Enough talk! [edit]

• Theseus was another great Greek hero, and a king of Athens. Like Hercules, he was also half-god; his father was Poseidon. Hercules once saved Theseus from Hades. Theseus had gone with his companion Pirithous to steal Persephone from Hades. But Hades, upon meeting them, tricked them into sitting in the Chairs of Forgetfulness. When Heracles came into Hades for his twelfth task, he freed Theseus but could not liberate Pirithous. When Heracles pulled Theseus from the chair, some of his thigh stuck to it; this explains the supposedly lean thighs of Athenians. [edit]
• The plot line is similar in some ways to the Black Civil Rights Movement in the USA. In particular, the focus on the fountain which centaurs are not allowed to drink from, alludes to the segregated black and white water fountains of the time. The ending, where the centaurs finally drink from the "human" fountain, is a reference to the ending of the novel and TV movie, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, in which the title character, a black woman in the segregated South, does the same thing at a "white" water fountain. [edit]