Queen of Swords is a Canadian action–adventure television series set in California during the early 19th century that ran for one season from 2000 to 2001.
The series premiered October 7, 2000. After filming had been completed on 22 episodes and the first eight episodes were broadcast, the series was cancelled.
Plot In 1817, a young Spanish aristocrat, Tessa Alvarado, returns to Spanish California after the death of her father and finds her home in ruins, her father's manservant reduced to stealing. The town where she was born is run by a militaristic governor who abuses his power, resulting in the miscarriage of justice and the poor living conditions of his subjects.
Upset about the state of her birthplace and the murder of her father, Tessa's path is revealed to her in a mysterious dream where her father comes to her and talks of his murder, his hidden gold, and of his "avenging angel". She will take up arms to protect the people from the town's governor and to avenge her father's death. To protect those she loves, Tessa fashions the persona of the masked "Queen of Swords".
Tessa thus embarks on two different lives: Tessa Alvarado, the foppish heiress, and the Queen of Swords, defender of the poor and oppressed against the corrupt local government.
Characters Tessa Alvarado/Queen of Swords (Tessie Santiago). Doña María Teresa (Tessa) Alvarado, born in California and sent by her father, Don Alvarado, to Madrid at the age of seven to further her education. In her early twenties, Tessa has been taking fencing lessons from Maestro Juan Torres (Anthony De Longis), when she learns of her father's death and returns to California to take over her father's hacienda. The Queen is never depicted as physically stronger than her opponents, winning by being more skilled or using the element of surprise and when the odds are too great, running away to fight another day. Marta (Paulina Gálvez), a gypsy employed to look after Tessa when she arrived in Madrid to live with her uncle, aunt, and three cousins. She returns with Tessa and keeps her feet on the ground with home truths about her life and destiny. Marta has great knowledge of the tarot. The Queen of Swords name comes from one of Marta's tarot cards. Colonel Luis Ramirez Montoya (Valentine Pelka), son of a lowly diplomat and a wealthy mother. The corrupt and tyrannical governor of Santa Helena, ruthless and cares little for human life other than his own. He believes in executions without fair trials, enslaves the poor people of the town, and blackmails the powerful Dons and has the knowledge to hold Grisham and Vera under his thumb. Captain Marcus Grisham (Anthony Lemke), an American deserter who escaped execution for killing his commanding officer during the War of 1812. His own self-interests test his loyalty to Montoya on a number of occasions and the mission of ridding Montoya of the troublesome Queen of Swords, which his soldiers have a hard time accomplishing due in part to the inaccurate single shot weapons. Señora Vera Hidalgo (Elsa Pataky), the young and unfaithful trophy wife of Don Hidalgo (Tacho González) with a dubious past. Friend of Tessa, lover of Captain Grisham, and spy for him and Colonel Montoya. Don Gaspar Hidalgo (Tacho Gonzalez), along with Tessa's late father, is one of the richest and influential among the Dons. Dr. Robert Helm (Peter Wingfield), an English doctor employed by Montoya to tend his soldiers and local citizenry who believes in saving lives rather than taking them after his experiences as an officer in the Napoleonic Wars. He has little patience for Tessa, believing her to be a spoiled member of the nobility and less for the Queen of Swords, despising her because of her use of violence and willingness to kill. Helm's relationship with the Queen of Swords intensifies throughout the series as events throw them together in life-threatening situations.
As in the theme song "Behind the Mask", all the characters have secrets to hide, which are explored over the 22 episodes.
Production
Casting Almost immediately after signing with an agent, series star Tessie Santiago went to her first professional audition, an open casting call that Fireworks Entertainment was conducting in a nationwide search for the lead role. Though a blonde with light skin and light eyes, Santiago dyed her hair black a week before the audition to look more "Hispanic". Her audition led to several callbacks, with a final test screening in Los Angeles, California, and she won the lead role of Tessa Alvarado.
The part of Colonel Montoya was written specifically for Valentine Pelka by David Abramowitz, who phoned Pelka in October 1999 to offer him the part, subject to approval by the other show producers.TV zone special; # 40 sword and sorcery special page 89 interview with Valentine Pelka
Abramowitz met Peter Wingfield at a Highlander convention in November 1999 and offered him the parts of Doctor Helm or Captain Grisham. Wingfield chose the doctor as a part with more mileage and more challenging.TV zone special; # 40 sword and sorcery special pages 84-85 interview with Peter Wingfield
Filming Director of photography Alwyn Kumst used Super 16mm film, which has a slightly smaller widescreen aspect ratio to 16:9.
The series was filmed May 3, 2000 to December 12, 2000, in Spain, principally at Texas Hollywood, Almería and the surrounding Tabernas Desert with coastal locations at San José near Almería. The Alcazaba of Almería was used as Madrid and the gardens as Don Hidalgo's hacienda garden. The Western buildings of Texas Hollywood were also used for the series, with the Western jail serving as the Spanish jail, and one of the large Western buildings was converted into a sound stage containing the living quarters of both Senorita Alvarado and Col. Montoya.
The flashback episode "End of Days" had new material of approximately 22 minutes, which were filmed in Spain, and its interior mine scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios, London.start and end credits of episode
The first episode to be filmed was "Death to the Queen", directed by Jon Cassar, who set the style of the series. The soldiers's uniforms were changed after this episode to resemble a uniform that, more realistically, would have been used in a Spanish backwater community. "Vengeance" was the second episode to be filmed and was directed by Brian Grant. Next Jon Cassar stepped in to direct episode one, "Destiny" which was the third episode to be filmed. "Destiny" was written by James Thorpe using the same sets for the Napoleonic Wars scenes that director Brian Grant was using to film "Vengeance" at the same time. During 2009 personal correspondence with Jon Cassar, this process was clarified as follows: "That is exactly how we shot those shows." He noted that "it takes as long to prep[are] a show as to shoot it. So I directed the first one, [and] while I prepped the third, another director shot the second, then I shot the third. So once I was there I didn't leave until I was done."
Locations
Horses Horse stunt co-ordinator Ricardo Cruz supplied and trained the horses throughout the series which included the Queen's horse, Captain Grisham's white horse, and a highly trained black horse for Colonel Montoya. Cruz, credited as Richard Cruz, had one credited part in the episode "The Witness".
The Queen's horse is called Chico, his real name, mentioned only once in the entire series in the episode "The Pretender". He had two stunt horse doubles, Champion and Escandalo, for different action scenes. His bridle and breastplate were identical to that used by Zorro's horse in the Alain Delon film Zorro (1975) and the U.S. television series Zorro (1990). The film and TV series were filmed in Spain.
The white horse that Grisham rides is named Montero and was the horse ridden by Russell Crowe in Gladiator, a film Ricardo Cruz worked on.
While playing the role of Colonel Montoya, Valentine Pelka rode the horse named Salan. Salan died at the end of filming the series.
Bo Derek, an accomplished rider, chose the horse she would ride in the episode "The Witness" after putting two Palominos through their paces.
Stunts Anthony De Longis was the Swordmaster/Stunt Co-ordinator on the first six production episodes (101-107, not 105). He is not credited in episode 104 because the 'film rushes' from the last sword-fight scene were lost on the way to Canada for processing and editing. So the scenes had to be reshot with French swordmaster Albert Goldberg who is credited with the entire episode.
The Queen of Swords was portrayed by newcomer Tessie Santiago, who provided the voice, close-up face of the character, and character interaction. Anthony De Longis trained Tessie Santiago for two months in pre-production in California in the use of the rapier and dagger in the Spanish mysterious circle (Destreza) style, and use of the whip. He purposely created complicated and extended phrases of rapier and dagger choreography and taught them to Tessie Santiago, as he recognized that, in episodic television, time is always restricted. There was a month off between training and cameras rolling in Spain with only a few days of prep before Santiago climbed to the top of a cliff to shoot her first scene in "Death to the Queen". This was a two-on-one fight scene in 40 mph winds and with a little adjustment and fine-tuning to location and situation, Santiago was able to perform all her own swordplay confidently in this opening sequence.Queen of Swords diary Death page 2 Retrieved 11 September 2013
Three other women helped portray the Queen of Swords. A double stands in for the "star" actor for long shots. This happened in a few instances in Queen of Swords, such as in the shot of the Queen lying on the beach face down in the episode "Death to the Queen", or the shot in the same episode of the Queen's gloved hands being loosened from their bindings. The main character in Queen of Swords required great skill in horseback riding, swordsmanship, the bullwhip, and knife fighting.
Natalia Guijarro Brasseur was originally hired to perform the role of the Queen in scenes requiring specific physical skills. Some of the American producers of the series included the producers of Highlander: The Series, as well as the swordmaster Anthony De Longis. But during initial rehearsals for the series in Spain, before filming began, De Longis and producer Ken Gord recognized that Natalia Brasseur was not as talented with the sword as they needed. This forced Los Angeles-based executive producer David Abramowitz to contact the fencing instructor/actress/swordmaster who had tested and helped producers cast the role of the Queen of Swords, Roberta Brown. Brown was flown to Spain, where she appeared in the first five episodes as sword double for the Queen. She also appeared as Marta in carriage-chase scenes and Mary Rose's sword double in the seventh episode. In the meantime, Brasseur doubled for the Queen in stunt horse scenes and some falls. When the producers found that they needed to use their limited American visas for other guest stars and crew members, De Longis and Brown were dismissed from the series before the first hiatus in filming. The producers brought in French fencer Gaëlle Cohen as a replacement.
Other performers who portrayed the Queen during the series included Mary Gallien (who later became Dr. Mary De Longis) and Mary Jose. In the episode "Hanged Man", male stuntman Curro doubled for the Queen to perform one of the most dangerous stunts in a Western involving a moving wagon and horses, when dressed as the Queen, Curro jumped from the wagon onto the horses then passed under the horses and wagon, grabbed a trailing rope and was dragged along the ground from where he hauled himself back on to the rear of the wagon. This was performed in the style of Yakima Canutt, who had first performed the stunt in the films Stagecoach and Riders of the Dawn.