The Legend of William Tell

- Season 1

(1998)

A malevolent force threatens the peaceful Kingdom of Kale: Shaytana's Eye, the Dark Crystal, from which arch-villains Kreel and his protégé Xax derive their power. At the head of an army of Xaxian Warriors, Kreel and Xax invade the Citadel and murder the King and the Queen, keeping their daughter Vara, as their prisoner. The future of the kingdom is in terrible danger, and its only hope the legendary Crystal Arrow, Talisman of Kale: its strength alone can defeat Shaytana's Eye. Kalem, the super-being of Light as Kreel represents Darkness, must find a hero for the ...

In the new reign of terror Xaxian Warriois have been pillaging the countryside, dispersing and destroying any tribes or villages which remain loyal to the old order. One of the survivors is Drogo - a boy close to Vara's age, descended from the wolf tribe. Drogo encounters the band and leads them to another survivor, the lovely Cyrana, who also joins the group. Will's crossbow has been broken a foolish attempt by Vara to escape; Cyrana suggests the master craftsman Mondar could fix it, and they set off to find him. But however they change their course, Xax remains hot ...

The Lords Xax and Kreel have put a price on the head of William Tell - and are distributing Wanted posters around the villages. As two slaves, Freya and Pieter, are about to be set free by their master Hugo, a Xaxian Captain appears and harshly reminds them that according to a new statute, slaves are necessary to the economy and can no longer be freed. Pieter is to be sent to the mines; the beautiful Freya, coveted by Xax, is sent to the Citadel. Princess Vara escapes from William Tell during a battle with Xaxian Warriors and is befriended by Tyrean nymphs, who are ...

A bold plan of William Tell's to infiltrate the Citadel through his friend, the brilliant horseman Alexim, goes dangerously awry when Leon is caught talking to Alexim in the marketplace, and arrested. Rather than execute Leon immediately, as Xax would prefer, Kreel holds Leon prisoner - as bait, convinced that William will mount a rescue attempt. Will witnesses Leon's arrest and seizes a Xaxian Warrior's death-wand which he takes back to the Shelter with him. Will believes he can tune the death-wand tho his thoughts, but in fact the reverse is true: the death-wand ...

Will has become obsessed with bitter memories of his parents, dead at Xax's hands. Despite Kalem's warning that he must concentrate on his Quest, Will can not leave aside fruitless thoughts of revenge. Kreel has a new plan for subjugating Kale. He is beginning to form a Youth Brigade - "education" the children of the carious regions and villages to form a spy network. One of these is Lucien, a boy of around Vara's age, whose home - the Hidden Valley - is knows to Will of old. The valley can only be reached through a narrow gorge, over which hangs a vast rock known as ...

Life-sized statues of Xax, Lord Protector, have been placed in every village and on every road, to which the Kaleans must pay homage, under pain of imprisonment. The statues are actually a form of surveillance: the eyes of the crystals, relaying images from all over the countryside to Xax and Kreel. Two small children, Tilly and Flynn, are observed making fun of a statue and are dragged away to work in the Mines. The beautiful Lalia, who lost her fiancé Brodam to Xax and believes him dead, also refuses to worship the idol and is taken prisoner - but is rescued by Will...

Kalem, daring to the point of arrogance, transforms herself into a bird in order to spy on Kreel in his stronghold - but Shaytana's Eye senses her, and in the encounter she is badly wounded. She stumbles back to the heroes in a state of shock. In order to restore herself she must drink from the Crystal Stream, which contains her life-spirit. Kalem is far to weak to make the journey herself: Will and the wildcat Aruna must go in her stead, leaving Leon and Drogo to guard Vara and the ailing Kalem. Vara, still troubled by nightmares about the violent end of her parents ...

The Princess Vara has fallen ill. The band is taken in by Harana, a healer and leader of a group that calls itself the Watchers. Tucked away in a bountiful valley that does not appear on a map, the Watchers exist in a pocket of peace and plenty that the battle-weary heroes find difficult to credit can still exist in Kale. Stranger still, Harana and her followers have never heard of Xax and Kreel .... To Xax's exasperation, Kreel is toying with abandoning force as a method to subjugate the peoples of Kale - it is far too inefficient. Harana is the unwitting ...

A horrible threat hangs over the Kingdom: but for once it does not issue from Xax and Kreel. The evil sorcerer, the Magus Zadrim, has been working in concert with the scientist Voss to develop a horrifying new strain of a deadly virus knows as the Yttrium Element. Voss has succeeded in rarefying the Element to the point where once added to water it multiples its strength a hundredfold: any living thing coming into contact with the contaminated water will die horribly. Triumphant, Zadrim comes to Xax and Kreel and issues his ultimatum: either they will surrender half ...

Xax has taken a convoy of Warriors out on a hunt - and has a fantastic piece of luck when Will and the band stumble right into his path. They are chased by the horsemen across an open plain, with nowhere to hide in sight. Capture seems inevitable, when out of the mists ahead of them their looms a dark and forbidden castle - which certainly wasn't there before .... With no time to think, the band rolls under the cast gate of the castle just as it clangs shut. Safe from Xax, our heroes discover a new dilemma now faces them. This is the Castle of Doubt, where every good ...

In this episode Will and the band discover that one must be careful what one wishes for, for the wish may be granted ... Fleeing from Xaxian Warriors, Will and the others stumble into the Sacred Valley - a place of startling natural beauty which seems to magically grant their every desire. An image of Kalem appears and tells them the Crystal Arrow has been found and the Quest completed: they are free to pursue their own dreams. Leon finds his old Professor and embarks on the life of study and learning the troubles in Kale interrupted; Drogo finds his father, who he ...

By a remote and beautiful lake a young man, the Sark Darek, has made his camp in the center of a mysterious, Stonehenge-like Ring of Stones. As he tends his fire a warrior from the rival mountain tribe of the Mendicans attacks him - but the Ring of Stones is a magical place, and we see that Kreel and Kalem are fighting psychically through the media of the two young men. A strange blue light fills the Ring; both Darek and the Mendican are suddenly overwhelmed, and shocked and frightened, the Mendican stumbles backward out of the Ring and over the edge of the cliff ... ...

In an attempt to defeat Will and Kalem, Kreel has brought forth the most concentrated evil in the form of the Memlok - creature of the Dark. The shape changing Memlok is sent out into the world in the guise of a pretty servant-girl, Arabella. Arabella is placed in the path of the rebels; they "resuce2 her from Xaxian Warriors and take her back to the Shelter with them. But this time Kreel may have gone too far ... Leon comes to the home of his old friend and teacher, Chow Chu, who tells him in his studies he has found a reference to the Crystal Arrow itself. He ...

Kreel has a plan of diabolical cleverness to finally defeat Will, and turn Kale against the rebel heroes. He has created a doppelganger - Will's mirror image - who is marauding the countryside with a band of Barbarian as henchmen, leaving a trail of murder and destruction in his wake, and all in the guise of William Tell. Kalem does not understand why the tribes have turned against them, but she senses a sinister disturbance in the Eye - and persuades Xax to let her into the Citadel, and close to Kreel, by disguising herself as the startlingly beautiful warrior ...

William Tell is in despair - he believes Kalem is dead, and that without her the Quest is lost. Drogo arrives with news from the Citadel of Xax's impending Coronation. Xax has declared he will go on the Pilgrimage of Kings alone, as the Statutes require ... But when has Xax ever obeyed the Statutes? Will is convinced this must be a trap, and not a very subtle one at that. Aruna, however, has become impatient and angry with Will's passivity since Kalem's "death". Against orders, she goes after Xax - and is herself captured. Will joins a ragged band of prisoners, and ...

With Kalem apparently destroyed, the band dissolved and the leader of the rebels Kreel, no one knows where, assures Xax, that the battle to win the Kingdom is to all intents and purposes won. But super-beings cannot really "die". Will has been eking out a living which seems designed as self-punishment - on a pig farm. Kalem appears to him here and tells him this is no way for a great leader to behave: the Quest for the Arrow is his destiny. Will is incredulous to find Kalem alive, but also angry. He holds her responsible for Aruna's death, and cannot forgive her for ...