Several people have said this - we watch Lexx for the characters rather than the much-vaunted special effects. After all, we've all seen films with wonderful SFX and abysmal plot and characters: we've also seen the opposite. If the story is great and we like the people, we'll endure less than perfect effects (in fact, given a really great plot and characters we can even ignore the bad effects!) That being said, the series would lose an awful lot of its overall impact if the effects weren't there - but then, we'd never know about it!

      "I also agree with you that in the third episode [Eating Pattern] most characters show a peculiar behaviour which just won't fit the image I have of them. I just have the feeling that the creators wanted to put every absurdity they could think of into this film (most of them are funny, no doubt). As a consequence, they seem to have forgotten how they depicted the characters in [the other episodes]. Our (anti-)heroes just appear a bit shallow here - I'm missing the subtle nuances of the other episodes."

       And I think everyone knows my opinion of Eating Pattern already.......!

Tribs (Scotland):
       ".....Have you considered the eternal struggle between Matriarchy (e.g. the Brunnen-G) and Patriarchy (the Divine Order)? (This also crosses over into real life - paganism vs. "modern" faiths; female vs male.....) The bad dudes are seemingly always male-orientated (wife-banks, love-slaves) with few exceptions - and even the female officers are either masculine or androgynous in appearance!
       On the other hand, people like the Brunnen-G appreciate beauty and wear their hair long...... And Thodin wears a skirt. He also "gives birth" symbolically - BugBomb coming out of him, his transference of the Lexx key: even the mode of his captivity is egg-like (possibly a pagan symbol, since Thodin, being the leader of the Heretics, is therefore effectively a leader of the pagans.....)"

       I confess I hadn't considered it - but it's a fabulous idea! And a perfectly valid interpretation. Anyone else want to add to this aspect of the debate? Please??

Eva (Germany):
      "To your article on the Brunnen-G culture I would like to add the question, why did they abandon that - should I say innovative? - way of dying in the "burst of life" when they reached their new homeworld? Especially as they seem to be rather traditionalistic in some repects (you mentioned the hairstyle). And I think they must have given it up, for had a similar device been in use in Kai's lifetime he presumably would have known about it and thought twice before entering the chamber.
       So did they lose the technology on their journey? Was their population decimated after the Insect Wars and the journey into the Light Universe, so they couldn't afford people going 'just for fun' to the circular saw? Did they decide that starting a new life on a new planet was enough of a challenge and they didn't need that thrill anymore? Or did they simply realise it was not such a nice way of leaving the world?"

       Re: the infamous "burst of life" and whether it would have been in use during Kai's lifetime - remember, his memory was completely wiped by His Shadow, and is only slowly coming back to him. If the burst of life had been used on New Brunnis (my own title - I have no idea what the world was actually called....), he wouldn't remember anyway - and when Zev disappears into the chamber he remembers that the bird symbol = the burst of life, but tells Stan that he can't remember what that is. Nevertheless, I think his hesitation when he suggests that he and Stan should follow Zev indicates that he maybe has some vague misgivings about going in, so perhaps he is beginning to remember....
       The question about whether the Brunnen-G took the burst of life technology/ideology with them when they left the DarkZone is a fascinating one. I would suggest - tentatively - that they probably did, at least initially. Their technology seems to be very much based on precepts alien to the usual computer-technology portrayed in sci-fi, and I believe that to start with they would stick with what they knew (and, as you say, they do seem very traditionalistic....)

The Klaagyans

Tribs (Scotland):
       "Eating Pattern - connections with vampirism as well as parasitology? It's just that these vampires use a food-processor....."

       I love it!!!

Splarka (US):
       "I have some theories on the discrepancy between Zev's age and that of her husband... "At this rate you will be eligible for the wife bank in 6 years".. I think it's not so much that the groom was young, but that Zev was old. More of a 'suitable age' thing. Parents said "ok, son needs wife, we'll get him one at the wife bank", and Zev was just the right level and price range for them...maybe?"

       This is an angle that hadn't occurred to me, but it's a perfectly valid and logical interpretation of the known facts. Furthermore, given what she looked like, it's quite possible that he wasn't the first 'husband' to have rejected her, either (though he was obviously the first one she'd punched. I had wondered about those other two young male faces we peering at Zev through the bars, during her memory probe....) And the idea of Zev being the right 'price' seems highly appropriate, given what little we know of B3K. I still think her husband was perhaps a little young to be married off, however, so maybe it was a combination of these factors.....

Eva (Germany)
       "I also have wondered about Zev's capacity of speaking 'Lizard-language' and I have to agree with you that the Lizards might still attack her if she was the only suitable prey around. That might also explain Zev's reaction to Squish, which is very interesting in itself. What do you make of it? Twice she states that he should better be killed and initially I thought this to be her 'human' reaction to a predator. But on second thought it might as well be her subconcious 'Lizard' reaction (she hisses at him when she first sees him) to a potential (food) rival. Something like: Zev, the 'Alpha Lizard' on board the Lexx? Or is that too far fetched? (But in the animal kingdom there are a lot of examples of rivalry among animals of the same species if they originate from different herds or families. Then of course, one would have to know more about the 'group behaviour' of Cluster Lizards to make a clear statement about that point."

       Your comment on Zev's reaction to Squish being "a subconscious... reaction to a potential rival" is excellent, and something that hadn't occurred to me! I really think you may have solved that puzzle. At the moment I don't know if all the Cluster Lizards have been killed off or if some may reappear in the series, so it may not be possible to find out very much more about them than can be gleaned from the first four episodes. Obviously they can exist reasonably happily together - they are all in the same cage in Ep 1 and don't seem to be fighting amongst themselves, so I'd guess they have some kind of social cohesion - and Squish's reaction to Kai would seem to indicate that there is some sort of mother/child relationship in the first few (days?week?months?) of the new-born's life. It's a subject that definitely deserves a little more consideration - I'll have to re-watch the films with that in mind....

Splarka (US)
       "I think it's possible the other Lizards accept her as an equal or slight subordinate (except Squish, who might see her as an elder). When she first meets full grown Cluster Lizards, she screeches at them, and they aim their attentions at the guards..... Here, she could possibly have said "Stan bad-to-eat, Guards good-to-eat", while the second time, on the Lexx, she screeches at them, and yet Stan runs, I think because there is no one else to Zev can use to distract the Lizards from eating him...."

       An interesting idea, and one certainly worth exploring. The thought of the Lizards accepting Zev as an equal is wonderful, ironic and truly captivating! But I have to confess that my own thought would be that Zev's ability to communicate with the Lizards would not be enough to prevent them attacking her, since humans seem to be the Lizards' principal prey - after all, she still looks human, and sounds human when not screeching... (I wonder if she also smells human? Presumably, given Stan's (and Bog's) attraction to her - unless Cluster Lizards smell good too!). Then again, I think Cluster Lizards are intelligent anyway, certainly enough so to understand human speech, so maybe they'd think that a type of human/Lizard hybrid would be a superior life-form? Of course, I could well be wrong....! Does anyone else have any suggestions?

Tribs (Scotland):
       "When Zev sceams at the Cluster Lizards - could she actually be saying "Frag off, this one's mine!"? After all, even if you are a 3-metre-long Cluster Lizard with sharp teeth and halitosis, would you want to upset Zev??"

Don (US?):
      "From your Zev page: 'When replying to the guard on the prisoner transport, she tells him, in effect, that his opinion means nothing to her - but still HAS to add the epithet 'handsome.... etc etc.'
       The way I took the 'handsome' comment was a sarcastic response to his comment on her being the ugliest woman he'd ever seen. Seemed to be the way he took it, too, because he punished her for it!."

       I think you're right! And thanks for pointing it out. Sometimes I get a little too overly-complicated in my analysis........And it shows she still had spirit if she dared to be sarcastic!