An interesting idea, this - an entire (small) automated planetoid devoted to producing TV shows for mass consumption. And what dreadful TV shows as well! Nearly as bad as some of the mind-rotting rubbish we have on Terra..........
It's a pity more wasn't made of the subject matter, although I must confess that the idea of forcing 'failed' contestants to become part of the studio audience is appealing. I can think of several Terran artistes whose performances would be infinitely improved by their decapitation.......
The story follows the usual formula - Stan gets hen-pecked - sorry, 'persuaded' - into going down to the planet, they get captured, Kai comes to the 'rescue' and gets incapacitated in the process, Stan ends up being the true hero, the planet gets destroyed. Ho hum. But at least Xev wasn't tied up (or down) in this episode. I shall be grateful for small mercies.....
I'm still waiting to be impressed by the much-vaunted special effects. So far the most dramatic sight in the series is the Lexx completely overshadowing TV world. It might have been better for the creators to have concentrated on plot and character development instead.
And on the subject of characters, I'm really beginning to hate 790. His single-minded, yowling fixation on Xev is unrelievedly boring, and he seems to serve no purpose whatsoever. Please, somebody, kill him off.......
I'm in two minds as to what to think about this episode. In the context of the preceding episodes, it's not too bad at all, although not up to the standard of Lyekka (or the pilot films, of course - Eating Pattern excepted). But then again, the overall idea (the extreme and overwhelmingly ludicrous lengths to which the human species is prepared to go to "win") is a serious one, which Lafftrack touches on in passing but does not address - which is probably just as well given the trivial, flippant nature of the series. At the same time, it doesn't really advance the characters (or what passes for the "story") either. It's a curiously cold episode, and feels somehow unfinished. I find myself, yet again, left thinking "So what?".
The opening sequence is an homage to the attack on the Death Star in Star Wars.
So Kai remembers enjoying playing with balloons. Is this one of his own memories or one of the memories he absorbed from the last Divine Shadow?
I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the Beans aren't particularly interested in the science behind what they have created, but I still can't help but wonder how the studio audience (how Kai, for that matter) can talk once they've been decapitated - without larynx or lungs....... Nice trick if you can pull it off.
And on that subject, are the studio audience the ultimate 'talking heads'.......?
There's something very chilling about the fact that TV world is the only planet left in this system (Liber and Leester ('Free Lister'?) - if I've caught the names correctly - having destroyed each other in a ratings war). What a noble monument to human crassness and stupidity......
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