Characters 101 – The Gift Bearer

Each month this blog has feature a character from one of the SFF productions.  This month I’m going to talk about everyone’s favorite inanimate object – Berry from The Gift Bearer, played by the talented Sherman Stasheff.

However, these character profiles are a lot of work and I always seem to dread them.  Also I doubt anyone really reads them, so this is going to be the last one.  Next month we’ll have a new month post category in place of this – which will be a lot more fun for everyone.  Tune in to the fourth Monday of next month to see what it is!

Berry is the magic statue named The Gift Bearer in the TV show of the same name.  Although the statue is officially gender-neutral the characters in the show (and me) tend to refer to it as a “he”, so that I’ll be referring to him throughout this post.  He is the adorable sidekick to the Silverstone sisters and almost always travels on their adventures with them. 

 Although his primary purpose is a plot device, he is probably the most adorable plot device you’ll ever meet.  Although he is just a statue, he has a very distinct personality and finds ways to communicate with his friends even though he can’t speak or move when they are looking at him.

His nickname – Berry – was given to him by Minerva since always calling him “the Gift Bearer” was too clunky and calling him “the statue” depersonalized him.  He had enough of a personality that he needed a real name so it became Berry.

History

Berry appears in very beginning of the first episode (albeit inside a box), delivered to the Silverstone sisters by a mysterious visitor dressed in an ambiguous disguise to mask his or her true identity.  The box is addressed to “Aunt Camilla” with no address or other clues as to where it came from. Since at that point the sisters have been pretending Camilla is living with them for legal reasons, the truth is that for all the sisters know she’s probably dead.  So why someone sent her the box containing Berry is a mystery.

When the sisters open the box and discover the statue, they are baffled and Peri asks to keep it because it would make a great jewelry holder (or a doorstop), the other agree and Peri using it to hold her jewelry unknowingly leads to it creating a gold ball that allows the sisters to travel through time and starts off all the adventures.  Without Berry the show wouldn’t happen, he’s the catalyst for everything, which is why the show is named after him.

Once the sisters realize that the statue is magical, they decide to research it to see if they can find out what it is and what it’s called.  Their research leads them to a legend about an ancient Egyptian statue of Baste known as The Gift Bearer.  They discover all this in Episode 3, and rather than cut and paste the dialogue, I’ll just insert the scene:

Vaunting, the author of the only book on The Gift Bearer, is an interesting character (in both versions of the second season) who eventually makes an appearance in the show, since they do have a way to time travel.

But, how was the statue really made?  What imbued it with all it’s magic?  Why was it made?  The true, detailed history of The Gift Bearer was included as a long monologue and artistic flashback sequence in the original second season of the show, but when the season was scraped and completely rewritten there wasn’t room for the speech or any of the information surrounding it. As I said, the speech is long, so I’m going to include it at the end of this post.  It’s told in the style of a myth or legend being passed down through oral tradition and it gets pretty grisly at the end, so if you’re easily offended then don’t read it.  Google Phoenician Sacrifice if you’re wondering whether or not you have the stomach for it before proceeding.

Appearance

“It was a metal statue, about a foot tall, in the shape of a cat standing on two legs and using the long, curved tail as a third leg for balance.  The arms were sculpted close to the body down to the elbows, than reached out holding a large round tray with small curved sides in front of it.  The head stood tall and proud, with triangle ears erect as if listening intently.  Carved oval eyes with detailed pupils where flecks of white and yellow were still visible watched them silently as if full of childish curiosity.  The eyes led down to a nose that stood out a few centimeters and sat on top of round carved whiskers that looked like cherub’s cheeks.  The mouth was carved in an innocent line that hinted at a smirk.  Around its neck was a beaded collar of three long lines that ended in an amulet that resembled a perfume or ointment jar and rested lightly on the tray where it was molded to its chest. 

The statue stood on a rectangular base a quarter of an inch thick that began shortly before its toes and ended where the tail touched the base.  The tail then continued into a mischievous curl .  Flecks of faded red, green, and blue paint speckled the body and face as if it had once been garishly painted.  The metal was tarnished and had a very slight green tint in places, but was mostly an orangeish brown.”

This is the description of the statue when the girls first pull him out of the box in the novelization (yes, I’m a dork) of the first two episodes (it will be finished a week from never, but it’s pretty good so far). 

The statue communicates through pantomime which often incorporates costumes and props which leads to nicknames for the various outfits like he’s a Barbie doll or action figure:

 

His “skin” becomes darker in season 2 for a reason that I won’t go into involving a stupid idiot professor in an arts class (I think), but that’s okay.  Berry disappears for five episodes for various reasons, so when he comes back I was able to explain his darkened appearance (because I felt like I needed to) as him getting a tan while on vacation.  Which is kinda funny if you think about it. 

Personality

The best word to describe him is mischievous.  Berry is a little guy/girl/it with a big personality.  He loves to play tricks on people, such as creating the gold ball in the first place.  When the sisters figure out how the ball was created they try to use the same technique to get the statue to make an instruction manual.  The statue proceeds to create everything but what they need, though he knows darn well what they want. 

Berry is rather picky about who he works for.   The statue itself controls the magic he contains so if he doesn’t like you, he won’t work at all.  Minerva is often wacky, goofy, and funny so the statue warms up to her very quickly and starts making things appear without her needing to put stuff on his tray, almost as if reading her mind. He also likes to hang out with Peri, who’s a party girl, and when he stops trusting Minerva (when she turns bad), he starts snuggling up to Peri and chooses her to be his “handler” instead.

Because the sisters treat him like a person, not an object, he adores them and helps them whenever they can.  He guides them to Xavier when he’s kidnapped, he provides medicine, walkie-talkies, and weapons when they need them, and even offers himself as a weapon to protect Minerva when she’s in danger from one of Drake’s people.  It’s worth noting that Berry never warms up to Atlanta and she’s never really seen holding him or interacting with him because she sees him as just an object and never as an individual.

If he doesn’t like you, or doesn’t trust you then you need to watch out.  When Victor Drake (a sorcerer and shape shifter) tries to trick Minerva by pretending to be a wounded Xavier, she asks Berry for some aspirin.  Berry can see through the magic and knows exactly who it is, so instead of aspirin he gives her rat poison.  When Drake makes a fake statue after the real one disappears, Berry makes it whack him in the head, then giggles – which is actually a really creepy moment.

He feels emotions like anyone else – when he’s happy he shows it with gifts, when he knows someone is sad he tries to cheer them up as in Episode 10 when Minerva is really depressed about being betrayed by people she loved, he reminds her that he is still there for her by making a rose appear on his tray.  When he feels betrayed he gets angry and hurt.

  When he tries to tell Minerva through objects (rat poison) and actions (making her hit “Xavier”) that Drake is trying to trick her, she doesn’t understand and yells at him for being mean.  This makes him disappear and he punishes her for her betrayal by not returning for several months.  He only returns after she has been kidnapped by the Echelon to help the others rescue her.

Although we don’t see it in the TV show, since it was only in the original second season, Berry can feel pain.  There is a scene where Minerva is trying to teach Drake how to make Berry work for him (for complicated reasons) and Berry’s being picky:

MINERVA:  It's depressed.

DRAKE:  How can you tell it's depressed from a beret and a cigarette?!?

MIENRVA:  It's in French poet mode!  Trust me, it's depressed!  And it's tired -- it needs a break and so do I!

DRAKE:  It's been five days, Minerva -- we're not getting anywhere!

 MINERVA:  It doesn't like you!  There's nothing I can do about that!

DRAKE:  Talk to it!

MINREVA:  I've tried!  It won't listen! 

DRAKE:  IT'S A F**KING STATUE!!  It should do what I tell it to!!!

            (the cigarette flies into the shot and hits Drake.  He glares at the statue, then grabs the statue and starts slamming it into the table and cursing at it.  Minerva finally manages to get him to stop and grabs the statue away from him, petting its head soothingly.  She frowns as her fingers get wet when she pets its face, she looks more closely then glares at Drake as she holds it close)

MINERVA:  It's crying!

DRAKE:  It can't cry!  It's a statue! 

MINERVA:  Until you learn that it's more then it appears to be you're never gonna be able to use it!  Now apologize!

Abilities

 

He’s a magic statue so obviously he can do magic.  Lots o’ magic!  His primary ability is to make objects appear and disappear (including himself), in order to communicate, help, hinder, or just be funny.  This is the first ability we see and is obviously the most prevalent.

When Peri decides to use him as a jewelry holder, she sets three objects on his tray – a watch, a gold ring, and a set of car keys.  When she returns, she discovers a gold ball on the tray in place of those objects.  Berry combined them and created a time travelling gold ball (watch=time, car keys=travel, and gold ring=gold circle=gold ball.)  The assumption is that you have to put a combination of items on the tray to make the statue combine them and make something new.  But it doesn’t take long for Berry start producing stuff on his own, regardless of what is on his tray.  It really just depends on his mood. 

A key element to his magic is that he will not make anything while you are looking at him.  You have to look away then look back before getting the object.  The soul of Berry is stuck in statue form and, as an inanimate object, he can’t do anything when he is being watched.  However, that does not include the audience because we see him move a few times in the show when the characters do not.  He can’t move when others are watching, but he can move in some ways.  In Episodes 11 and 12 he peeks around a corner, peers over a file cabinet then drops into the drawer before he’s seen, and so on. In Episode 10, he is flung aside in a fight but when Minerva is in trouble and has no weapons or anything, he flies into her hand and she uses him to bash her captor. 

There is a scene that I always wanted to do, but don’t have the technology for.  I wanted to set up the fact that he can move when no one is watching by having a short sequence where Peri is in her room dancing to some music and behind her Berry is sitting on her dresser.  When she is facing away from him, he starts grooving to the music, swinging his tray around and swaying to the beat.  When Peri senses someone else moving, she stops and quickly turns to see the statue sitting on the dresser, as immobile as he always is.  You can see why I couldn’t do the scene, and unfortunately I can’t put it in the book either – it’s completely visual.

Although he can’t move himself when others are watching, he can move them.  Berry guides the sisters to the Student Center to rescue Xavier by forcing Minerva to move forward as if he’s moving forward, but if she dropped him he wouldn’t be moving at all.  He also makes her move the arm that holding him so he can smack the fake Xavier in the face, and later he forces the fake statue to smack Drake in the face.  So he clearly has telekinetic abilities.

He’s not telepathic because he can’t communicate with his mind, but he can read people very well and see through magic spells.  He immediately knows that Xavier is really Drake in disguise – a magic statue can’t be fooled by magic tricks – and when Minerva has turned evil (through science, not magic) he senses it and won’t go near her, which confuses everyone since Minerva always seemed to be his best friend.  And when Camilla kidnaps him in Episode 8, he bites her when she isn’t looking, but when she has changed and is trying to help the sisters, although he still clearly doesn’t like her, he is willing to help.

Basically if the statue starts acting weird then pay attention because something isn’t right.

And I’m not going to do a relationship section because I’ve pretty much covered it, but I do feel the need to mention one relationship with a main character that wasn’t covered, and that’s Xavier.  There’s only one scene I can think of where Xavier actually holds Berry throughout the entire TV Show.  In the original season 2 he does when he is possessed by the Forces of Darkness, but in the show as it is now, they almost never have physical contact.  At first it might seem because he, like Atlanta, treats the statue like an object, but that’s not entirely true.

He recognizes the statue in Episode 4 and refers to it as “the creepy statue”, which is how he generally seems to refer to Berry in most of the series.  So he acknowledges that the statue has a personality and remarks on it from time to time, but in the end he still sees Berry as an object that only has value to others, not him.  He offers to give The Gift Bearer to Drake who seeks it to gain more power in exchange for him leaving the Silverstone sisters alone forever.  When Minerva finds out she is horribly betrayed, despite his good intentions, because Berry is more than an object, he a friend and has become a part of the family. 

The Legend of the Gift Bearer

            In the dark times in the land of Egypt during famine and drought the kingdom was threatened by war from without and rebellion within.  An alliance was proposed between Egypt and Phoenicia, a young Empire that was growing everyday. 

            A marriage between the Pharaoh of Egypt and the eldest daughter of the King of Phoenicia sealed the union of the two kingdoms.  The gods smiled on the royal couple and the Queen and the Pharaoh fell deeply in love.  Queen Nefrure was beautiful and kind, warm and caring and loved her new people.  In turn they grew to love her and Egypt prospered once again.

            And the darkness was lifted from the land of Egypt, but the forces of darkness were not content and roamed the world in search of new strife.  It's shadow fell over the land of Phoenicia and the crops shriveled and the streams ran dry and the seas turned to mud and the fish died and the ships could not sail.  The youngest princess fell deathly ill.

            In his grief and desperation, the King turned to his daughter and to the Pharaoh of Egypt for help.  "Your gods smile on you" he told them, "but ours have abandoned us."

            "They have not abandoned you, father," the young queen told him, "they will save you still."

            And the Queen Nefrure went to the Temple of the Great Goddess Baste, matron of motherhood and ruler of cats, for cats are clever and know how to use the darkness without becoming a part of it.  The goddess would know what to do.

            "The King must make an offering and a sacrifice," she ordered the Queen,  "for your marriage was not just a union of your kingdoms, it was a union of your gods.  And we shall protect that which we have created. 

            Take the offering, that sacrifice, and from it forge a statue in my image.  It's size will be small, but its power great and it shall work for me and mine alone.  It will heal your sister and bring peace and prosperity to your land.  And so long as Egypt shall hold my statue, Egypt's power shall not be matched.  None will harm you, none will defeat you.

            And you and the Evening Star must travel to your home and see your family once again.  I will send my blessing and send my powers with you."

            And they began their journey and the priest of the Temple went with them and proclaimed Baste's greatness in the world outside of Egypt.  And when at last they arrived at the palace of her father, Queen Nefrure made Baste's commands known unto him.

            And he ordered that an offering and a sacrifice be made to the gods of Egypt and the gods of Phoenicia, and it was done as he commanded.  And a shield was brought forth -- a great and powerful shield of monstrous size and intricate design -- a shield worthy of a King.  And the shield was that which the gods had forged for Gilgamesh and the Sumerian's power shown from within.

            And the shield was melted down and a statue forged and the healing began.  But the girl did not recover and the land was still plagued with famine and drought and the darkness remained and laughed at their sorrow.

            And Queen Nefrure knelt in the Temple of Tanit and cried to the Goddess to answer her prayers, and cried that the statue's powers had failed and the Queen had forsaken her people as Tanit had done.

            And the Goddess was angry and the temple shook and the Queen cowered in fear.  And Holy Tanit reminded her that Phoenicia was not Egypt and Tanit was not Baste and the statue itself contained power, but did not live and because of that it could not use its power. 

        For Power, gifted by the Gods, can only be wielded by a force with life, by a mortal soul.

            And the Queen understood and made Tanit an offering and told her father, the King, Baste's words once again and Tanit's wisdom followed. And the King understood and the statue was melted down once more. 

            And innocence was decided and favored by the gods, for the youngest among us are not as fooled by the darkness that corrupts their elders. 

            And a sacrifice was made to the Great Ones -- Ba'al Hamon and Tanit -- and three small children of three years, four years, and five years of age, two girls and one boy, were slaughtered while they slept and a leg of one was severed and separated and a hand of another and foot and a face and so on until all the separate parts assembled one child.  Only the tongue was missing, to prevent the soul from selling its secrets to another force.

            And the child, nearly whole and newly formed, was laid in the cauldron of the shield and melted and become one with the sacred metal. And the children cried and the people prayed.  And the King and the Pharaoh, the Queen and all the court and all the people of Phoenicia begged the gods for mercy and the gods heard and answered. 

            And a new statue was forged in the image of Baste and in it's hands it bore a tray and in its shell it bore a soul, and the soul breathed life into the power of the gods and the statue was transformed and the statue was alive. 

            And the healing began and the princess was spared and the darkness was cast out of the land of Phoenicia and the people rejoiced in the power of the gods.  And the goddess of Baste was immortalized forever in her servant statue. 

 Oh and just for fun, here are some pictures of Sherman (who I still usually call Berry) taking part in activities like Brittany’s wedding and the SFF 15^th Anniversary.