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Why was the UK DVD with Luvliner and Lafftrak on it rated 18? When it wasn’t much different to the others…
Does anyone know when Series 4 will be released on video?
In the episode Lyekka, on the planet Potatoho, why were the human heads in the fields? I didn’t understand that bit…
quote:
Originally posted by Raven:
Why was the UK DVD with Luvliner and Lafftrak on it rated 18? When it wasn’t much different to the others…
Just a guess, but I think it may be the large array of sex toys on the wall of Xev’s room aboard the Luvliner. That’s the most questionable thing in either of the two episodes.
–Aleck
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Originally posted by Raven:
In the episode Lyekka, on the planet Potatoho, why were the human heads in the fields? I didn’t understand that bit…
My best guess is that the people of Potatoho are grown in the ground until they reach maturity. But it was a dream induced by Lyekka, so Moss could have just been on an acid trip when he dreamt it
Must have been the Lyekka influence, all those tasty human vegetables…
elmey
quote:
Originally posted by Raven:
In the episode Lyekka, on the planet Potatoho, why were the human heads in the fields? I didn’t understand that bit…
I don’t think that represents what one would actually see if they were to travel to Potataho, I think they are a fantasy element of Captain Moss’ dream. It represents that his garden is like children to him, it’s the thing he cares about most. The Potataho’ens seem to be reduced to primal states in their dreams. E. J. Moss doesn’t even seem human in his dream sequence, he’s just muttering things like “garden good” with weird facial expressions. And the Narcissistic P. T. Bando’s dream has him acting out a superhuman ego while not being capable of any other thought. Only L. L. Boosh (the normal one) seems to be in his right mind in his Lyekka dream. His seems mainly to reflect his feeling that his crewmates are idiots who don’t care about the discoveries they’re making.
I heard on a chat that the idea for the heads in the ground was a recycling of an unused idea for Super Nova.
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Originally posted by DalekTek790:
Only L. L. Boosh (the normal one) seems to be in his right mind in his Lyekka dream. His seems mainly to reflect his feeling that his crewmates are idiots who don’t care about the discoveries they’re making.
Well, that and he wants to be the first person to have sex with someone from outer space.
–Aleck
On the subject of the 18-rating – a friend of mine suggested when we were watching the DVDs that it might have to do with either A) the “rape” of 790 and the implicit rape of Xev, or B) the graphic beheadings in Lafftrack, apparently the BBFC get rather irate about decapitation scenes. One might even say they lose their h[NO! – The management]
Actually, I think the people of Potataho really are “grown” as Moss sees in his dream.
I think the whole episode was setting us up to think of Moss and his crew as being typically human, almost like they’re from Earth, complete with a spacecraft called the Eagle 5.
But then we start getting hints that they are different: Their planet is called Potataho, I recall it is shaped like a potato, and the whole crew seems obsessed with spud-related foods.
Finally Moss’s fantasy reveals to us that the people of Potataho aren’t typical humans at all! They’re grown in the ground (like potatoes) until they reach maturity.
At least that’s my take on it.
I took Moss’s dream to mean that he’s a control freak! That he thinks he knows what’s best for everyone else. He was also mumbling something about “good values”.
Look, it seems to me that Moss is the embodiment of American working-class values. Most people in the early days of the USA were farmers. And farmers value a good hard days work and (self-)righteous living. Even though the USA has become an industrial, service-based economy, there are still those who want “family values” of old-fashioned agrarian society. They are the first ones to frown at you and say, “You shouldn’t do that”, when you do something silly, frivolous, innovative, or intelligent. In other words, they are “Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand”, to quote a certain Canadian progressive-rock band.
I’ve got something else to add that is a little off-topic.
I thought about 2.3 Lyekka and how different it was from the previous two episodes of series II and how totally different it was from series I. I think it was at this point the show opened up to a new level of goofy humor. (Not to mention the premier of Xev! And Lyekka!)
I wasn’t a fan of Lexx at that time. And even though I became a fan at the end of series II, it wasn’t until after the end of series III did I bother to frequent this or any other message board.
What were the fans saying at that time? Judging from the current critics who hate series IV, it seems to me that there would have been similar people outraged and disgusted by the foolish antics of series II! Does anybody recall if there was such a similar hubbub? I bet there were plenty of people whining, “The show is ruined! Oh God help us!”
As I’ve said before, I don’t understand the Lexx fans who insist on taking the story seriously. From the very beginning when His Shadow states that the Brunnen-G shall be punished for being enlightened, I could take none of it seriously! The holographic trials, the nose-launched bug bomb, cluster lizards eating boy scouts. C’MON! None of it can be taken seriously!
[ 19-03-2002: Message edited by: Flamegrape ]
There is a long post ahead, this is because I have recently watched Lyekka twice and it is one of the Lexx episodes I have thoroughly analyzed, and I just can’t say enough about it.
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Originally posted by Sgt. Draino:
Finally Moss’s fantasy reveals to us that the people of Potataho aren’t typical humans at all! They’re grown in the ground (like potatoes) until they reach maturity.
That can’t be true, because the magazine Moss showed the Lexx crew had stylized images of a man, woman, and children just like terran humans (no roots or anything).
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Originally posted by Flamegrape:
I took Moss’s dream to mean that he’s a control freak! That he thinks he knows what’s best for everyone else. He was also mumbling something about “good values”.
That’s also possible.
Captain moss’ exact words in his dream are “Uuh…garden. Garden good. Virtues good. Garden is virtue. Cheer up, son. Garden is value. Home, sweet home, Potataho!” I don’t think he’s so virtuous.
Moss seems to be a traditionalist, wanting stasis, while Science Officer Boosh is an idealist, wanting progress. Flight Officer Bando is an egotist, and his values are less clear.
quote:
Originally posted by Flamegrape:
I thought about 2.3 Lyekka and how different it was from the previous two episodes of series II and how totally different it was from series I. I think it was at this point the show opened up to a new level of goofy humor. (Not to mention the premier of Xev! And Lyekka!)
I wouldn’t say Lyekka is goofy, and its ethos isn’t exactly typical of season two. The word I would use is oneiric. There is a dream-like quality to the episode that is sometimes whimsical, sometimes disquieting. The dream sequences are done very well, but really the whole episode is kind of like a dream, with the odd lighting, weird camera angles, and things popping up out of nowhere. Plus that haunting music.
There are also a number of peculiar recurring elements. Water (you hear a splash when Lyekka’s pod penetrates the Lexx; you hear another wet sound, like stirring spaghetti, when the pod attaches to the ceiling and the tentacles deploy, when the Lyekka simulacrum first appears she is covered with amniotic liquid until she creates the “clothing” membrane over her body, Xev is covered with slime when she is “born,” Bando’s dream has no background, but there are big droplets of water surrounding the couple, and everything has a rippled reflection on the floor as if it were made of water or quicksilver; Moss’ dream has him watering plant-children; then there’s the Lyekka “watering” scene and 790’s artificial tears), spirals (the ion veil; Lyekka’s outfit; Bando’s fantasy jacket; one of the illustrations in Moss’ magazine; and the Mantrid drone arms after they “eat” Potataho, an effect seen for the first time in this episode), the colors blue and purple (the background in Stan’s dream is light blue but turns dark purple; the background in Bando’s dream is dark purple but turns light blue, Boosh’s dream has a blue light source shining on him from outside the capsule and the back of the capsule is purple, but both colors disappear when Lyekka enters, and of course in Moss’ dream the sky is blue; the big nebula seen in the first scene with the pods is purple, as are the larger nebulae seen just outside the ion veil; some smaller nebulae are light blue; the ion veil is light blue laced with purple when the Eagle 5 exits, but just blue and white when the Lexx enters; a star cluster seen just before the Mantrid scene is enshrouded by a blue haze; I could go on). Could these be intentional symbolic elements? A dictionary of dream interpretation I found after I had a vivid and disquieting dream (about Lyekka!) says that “To see water in your dream, symbolizes your unconscious and your emotional state of mind. Water is the living essence of the psyche and the flow of life energy.” It goes onto say that hearing water represents pondering of one’s thoughts and emotions. Alternately, a spiral supposedly “indicates that some situation in your waking life is spilling out of control.” I remember Joseph Campbell said something about the symbolism of the spiral, but I don’t remember exactly what and I left the book in my dorm (I’m home for spring break, by the way). Blue represents devotion, tranquility, and optimism, and purple represents devotion and compassion, or deception. I don’t know if any of that is valid or if that was something the makers had in mind when they put Lyekka together, but those elements seem to occur to many times within the single episode to be coincidental.
Oh, and did anyone else notice that those organic structures around Stan’s moth-bed at the beginning look like synapses in the human brain?
And one final thing I noticed: In Stan’s dream, Lyekka is surrounded by a soft glow, like a sort of halo nimbus, which disappears just before she laughs. This seems to be mirrored in the scene in Boosh’s dream where the circular arrangement of lights in the space capsule encircle Lyekka’s head from the angle of the camera’s vision. This may also be continued when the Lyekka simulacrum first appears to Stan, she has light reflecting off her wet hair. And in Bando’s dream there is a strong, unseen source of white light behind Lyekka (the light on Bando is bluish and much duller).
Maybe I’m looking a little too far into this episode.
Flamegrape wrote:
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As I’ve said before, I don’t understand the Lexx fans who insist on taking the story seriously. From the very beginning when His Shadow states that the Brunnen-G shall be punished for being enlightened, I could take none of it seriously! The holographic trials, the nose-launched bug bomb, cluster lizards eating boy scouts. C’MON! None of it can be taken seriously!
The difference is whether or not the show takes ITSELF seriously. Certainly there were funny parts throughout season one and two, but they were almost always done with a straight face. Deadpan humor, it’s called. It seems to me that season 4 does not take itself seriously nearly as often.
While the show takes itself seriously, I can laugh at the funny parts, and still take the serious parts seriously. But when the show stops taking ITSELF seriously, I find it harder to do the same.
You’re saying we shouldn’t take any of it seriously? That it should all simply be viewed as a big joke? I find that hard to do. There are certain parts of Lexx that seem very, very serious to me… and I like it that way!
DalekTek wrote:
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That can’t be true, because the magazine Moss showed the Lexx crew had stylized images of a man, woman, and children just like terran humans (no roots or anything).
Hmmm, that is a puzzler, since all the people growing in the field looked like adults. Yet, my gut still tells me that Moss’s fantasy was closer to Potataho reality than many realize.
This would be a good question to ask the Beans. When do you think we can snag somebody from the show for another chat?
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Originally posted by sgtdraino:
Flamegrape wrote:This would be a good question to ask the Beans. When do you think we can snag somebody from the show for another chat?
soon little weedhopper, soon
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