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Brigadoom replayed. Barvo! In my first quarter century I would have run from a musical. In my second quarter century I recognize this as a masterpiece. It representated well the immutability of a Lexx universe cycle. “The play is the play.”
(I wonder if G. the Wicked would have liked “Cannibal the Musical”?)
There is a quip from particle physics that all electrons have the same mass and charge because they are all the SAME electron. A view of antiparticles is that they are time-reversed particles. Maybe things bounce off the end of the future and rebound to the past only to rebound again. It does not even take even numbers of particles and antiparticles, maybe…since how do you do a calculus of this infinite process? There can be many infinities. Perhaps some electrons are reflected and perhaps some are transmitted through the end of time to the beginning of time, a temporal potential barrier analogue to quantum wave behavior in a well. It is as if the universe is a particle projector and space and time just the screen. We are a sum of information waves riding back and forth atop a matrix of mass-energy constrained in space-time. We are not even real, in a sense. No more real than Lexx. (Kidding, of course.)
I felt like a Time Prophet watching the future past tonight. Brigadoom made a lot more sense than the first time around. Through the magic of reruns it is as if my electrons propagated from one end of time to the other in a full cycle.
That begs the ultimate question. Lexx has been done. The history of Kai and Lexx are written. We all saw The End, literally. Is it the story of Kai? The story of Lexx? I prefer to think this was the story of an insect on “an intergalactic tour” as much as the story of man. There is not so much difference in the DNA.
But the nice thing is we can experience any segment of the story in time out of time. Bring on the final DVDs.
Have you ever seen Mindwalk? It was a very interesting movie. I remember the scientist describing electrons as “clouds of probability.”Beware, because this movie is the bane of people who can’t stand intelligent movies. No car chases, gunfights, vampires, or techno music soundtrack. Just people talking.
Brigadoom wasn’t that intelligent! 🙂
In fact it was just a bit-o-fun really. It wasn’t my fave episode, but it took the longest time for me to review it – and the time just flew by 🙂
How do you think Brigadoom compares to ‘Once more with feeling’ (the Buffy Musical Episode)?SadGeezer wrote:Brigadoom wasn’t that intelligent! 🙂
How do you think Brigadoom compares to ‘Once more with feeling’ (the Buffy Musical Episode)?So you’d be asking if somebody prefers Kai singing over Spike singing? Tough decision 😉 (Or Willow/Tara/Buffy vs Xev)
But seriously, I enjoy them both for different reasons. With BtVS, it was part of a normal episode – the action was still going on. With Lexx, it was a play they opted to take part in.
I don’t watch Buffy, so I can’t speak to how it’s musical episode compares to Brigadoom. I just wanted to toss out my two cents worth on Brigadoom.
It’s one of my favorite episodes, but I can definitely some of it’s negative points. But I’ll start off with why I like it.
First, let me make a confession. I am what’s known in the fandom as a Kai slut, or drooler if you want to be polite. Those of you that know me are doing this 🙄 and going ” Well, Duh! ” 😛 , but this is for those who don’t know me.
That being said, I realise that a large chunk of why I like Brigadoom is because it’s Kai centered, and therefore eye candy. I freely admit this and make absolutely no apologies for it.
Here’s shallow reason Number 2. The gratuitous use of the Brunnen-G Battle Hymn. It’s catchy as hell, and I love any opportunity to sing along with it. Feel free to play the 790 ” The simple amuse me ” line in your mind here. Yes, I am easily entertained. 😆
As Sad said, in alot of ways it is just a bit-o-fun. Also, I think it was also done to make Michael happy.
I do actually have a few less shallow reasons why I like it.
For one, it’s an expository episode. It not only looks into the character of Kai, but Xev and Stanley as well. It demonstrates basic themes that we’ll see with their characters for the rest of the series. Xev loves Kai in a true sense in that she is willing to die for him or with him. We’re reminded that Kai is destined to be a tragic figure in whether he’s dead or alive. And we see that Stanley, when backed in an extreme corner, will come out fighting with his friends. It sets up the ending of the 2nd season by reminding us that what’s happened before will happen again.
Another reason I like it is that it delves into the Brunnen-G society in a way that the movies did not. And the idea of making it a musical does have some credence when you consider that they are a race of romantic warriors. The Poet Man, and indeed the architecture on Brunnis 1 seem to leads one to believe this is an integral part of Brunnen-G society, so their story should be told in an artsy fartsy way.
Now, here’s my knocks on it.
1) The wardrobe.
Yes, I can see why the Beans chose to kit up a race of Romantic Warriors in festive, bright, even effeminate clothing. It is consistent with the type of people they are as a race. However, the costumes simply hurt my eyes. I can still see an image of Kai burned into my retinas for 2 days after watching Brigadoom.2)The Singing.
I think it was Sad who once said Kai had a voice like an ashtray. I have to admit, while he does have maybe the potential to become a better singer, as it stands now, he shouldn’t quit his day job. Although to be perfectly fair, Brigadoom was written in 3 days, or something like that, so it’s not like they ever got to really rehearse the songs. I’m sure there wasn’t much practice involved with any of the singing done on Lexx. I thought he sounded much better in A Midsummer’s Nightmare, within a lower vocal range.I tend to like Lexx, warts and all. Sure, Brigadoom bombed with some people and blew others away with it’s perceived brilliance, but it was different and memorable no matter whether you loved or hated it. Of course, I liked S4 too, if that gives you any idea how far my ” warts and all ” philosophy goes. But that’s a whole other can of worms. 😉
I thought it was interesting that Kai and Xev wanted to stay with the pan-dimension theater troupe instead of facing Mantrid. Stanley convinced them to fight. At first, he just wanted to run away to the center of the universe. But when he finally listened to Kai’s story, he knew that taking a stand was better than dying a coward. On the surface, you might have thought that it was a Kai-centric episode. But ultimately, the episode was all about Stan’s change of heart. Kai was indifferent, Xev felt it was all hopeless, but Stan convinced them that challenging Mantrid was the best thing to do.
Go, Stan! Go, Stan! Go, Stan!
U tha man! U tha man! U tha man!
😀 😀 😀I thought it was interesting that Kai and Xev wanted to stay with the pan-dimension theater troupe instead of facing Mantrid. Stanley convinced them to fight.
Over on the other board, we had a thread going ” Let’s hear it for Brian “. At some point I posed the question ” What do you think were Stanley’s finer moments? ” This one was at the top of my list. Stanley isn’t a coward just because he’s got some sense of self preservation, that’s him just using some common sense. When the s@$% really hits the fan, Stan is there for his friends, ready to go down swinging. Stan took out Vlad when Kai had no fight left in him and Xev was certainly in no position to do anything. In Gigashadow, when Zev’s waiting to die in the Moth, and Kai’s floating out in space helpless, here comes Stan like the cavalry in the Lexx. I could go on at length with other examples, but I’ll stop.
Stan is the Man. He’s brave because he has genuine fear, unlike the others, and yet, he has done what needed to be done time and time again. No, I didn’t miss the point of the exercise with Brigadoom. And I am a huge Stan Fan.
My point was simply that as a Kai drooler, I do realize that my perception of Lexx is skewed towards enjoying episodes that have Kai physically in front of the camera, not napping in his box. If this means I have to look at retina burning costumes that even RuPaul would reject as ostentatious, or have to listen to sub par singing, well that’s the price I pay to drool. I know that’s shallow, but it’s just me being perfectly honest.
I liked the look into Kai’s past because he is my favorite character, looks aside. But let’s imagine for argument’s sake that the writers had chosen to tell the story of Stanley’s past as an Ostral B heretic instead of doing Brigadoom. Let’s say they had, I don’t know, maybe used a plot device similar to the pan dimensional theatre in order to acheive Stanley’s change of heart. Let’s say that in this alternate episode, they’re in a place where you can live out your past, but you an also see what you’d like to be different, kind of a take off on the fantasy sequence in Supernova minus the razor ride. This place is outside of time and space, and Xev wants to stay there forever with Kai. Kai, of course, doesn’t care what happens. Perhaps as a result of having past decisions replayed for him, Stanley wants to go down fighting, not spending the rest of his days replaying the past, or running to a coward’s death at the center. Stan convinces Xev that living in a fantasy world with Kai is futile because he still can’t love her the way she wants, and that it is better for her to die by his side than live a hollow, meaningless existence with him. Kai, of course, wouldn’t be hard to convince to be suicidal in the name of a hopeless cause.
You’ve just acheived the same story objective minus an episode full of singing and bad wardrobes. I would have enjoyed that type of episode immensely too. But it wouldn’t likely be one of my favorites if Kai was only on camera for five minutes.
I do appreciate the fact that you’re making sure I don’t miss the finer nuances of Lexx because of a haze of drool clouding my perception. 😀 I see the plot points, I just see them through Kai colored glasses.
This is funny. I think I just demonstrated the Purity Test. I rated a Sadgeezer, one who would argue with a Manic Acedemic endlessly for no good reason. One who misses details and yet seems to enjoy the story more because of it. 😆 That is, if you take that sort of thing seriously. 😉
SadGeezer wrote:Brigadoom wasn’t that intelligent! 🙂
In fact it was just a bit-o-fun really. It wasn’t my fave episode, but it took the longest time for me to review it – and the time just flew by 🙂
I disagree, Brigadoom was a lot of fun!!! And while the songs were in a way rather dumb, dumb, dumb, they were never dull, dull, dull. In fact it was a brilliant pastiche of musicals; brilliantly dumb in a Spinal Tap sort of way. I think Brigadoom was especially influenced by the Sondheim musicals.
The episode had me laughing and smiling the whole way through, and I really admired the courage, or audicity even, it took to make such a thing.
And, as Struedel mentioned, it also served as a clever expository device. Now I often hate blatant exposition (narration, voice overs, that opening text at the start of lots of sci-fi movies, e.g. the year is 2512 and…) but they pulled it off IMHO.
My only major beef with Brigadoom was the over-used reaction shots of the LEXX crew watching the play, especially with Xev — it’s almost as bad as a laughtrack, but not nearly so good as Lafftrack. I felt that they didn’t have enough confidence that we’d be grinning that they had to show her grin. On the other hand, I can understand that they’d want to show the different ways that the crew were reacting to it, but they didn’t need to show it so much! I just wanted to concentrate on the performance (musical)…
BTW Streudel, we should market Kai bibs for all the droolers out there. 😀
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