Entertainment
The Strangest Ship In Sci-Fi Is From The Most Insane Series Of The 90s
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
You can tell a lot about someone by asking them their favorite spaceship. Ask 100 sci-fi fans, and you’ll get dozens of different answers ranging from Star Trek’s Enterprise-D and Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon to the more offbeat, including Farscape’s Moya and that one Whovian who insists the TARDIS counts. If you’re lucky, at least one person will choose the truly bizarre Lexx from the offbeat late 90’s series Lexx.
A biomechanical ship that resembles a wingless dragonfly, Lexx is the most powerful weapon of destruction in the two universes. It can talk, achieve ludicrous speeds, and has a tail, all of which put together make it the weirdest ship to ever appear on a sci-fi series.
The Power To Destroy Planets Used to Find A Date
Lexx (voiced by Tom Gallant) was designed by His Divine Shadow as the tool he would use to wipe out humanity and bring all of existence under the insects’ control. That doesn’t quite work out after hapless security guard Stanley (Brian Downey) accidentally kickstarts the spaceship during an escape and becomes Lexx’s captain. Instead of bringing doom and destruction to the universe, Lexx is tasked to use his incredible powers to find planets of open-minded women. Lexx, the series, is very strange with deep lore stretching back thousands of years, but it’s also very horny.
The biomechanical design of Lexx gives it a unique look on both the outside and the inside, similar to Farscape’s Moya, except it’s considerably more squishy on the inside. Passages are smaller, the crew’s quarters resemble organs, and even the ship controls look like fleshy, bulbous nodules. That’s the controls for everything from the shower to the steering, and the toilets. Instead of a bidet or toilet paper, Lexx’s toilets come complete with a tongue. Yes, it’s a strange show.
Lexx Is The Strangest Sci-Fi Show In History
Lexx isn’t a great series, but it at least dared to do something different within the sci-fi genre by acknowledging sex exists. That part is obvious within a few minutes of watching an episode. Lexx, the ship, though, you’d think would be super-advanced, maybe thanks to an “organic computer” or accumulated hivemind memories from other insectoid ships, but no, Lexx makes Stanley look smart. The courier/security guard turned captain often has to explain simple concepts to the ship, but once he finally understands, he’s willing to do basically anything Stanley wants.
The exception is when it comes time for food. Throughout the run of Lexx, Stanley keeps asking for fancy, exotic foods, and each time, the ship provides goop. There’s no fancy technology creating limitless amounts of food here. Only what the carnivorous ship is capable of producing for the rest of the crew, including Zev (Eba Habermann)/Xev (Xenia Seenburg), the rescued love-slave and later her clone, and Kai (Michael McManus), the thousands-year-old undead assassin. Fast, powerful, capable of feeding and taking care of the crew on the inside, Lexx is, thankfully, a one-of-a-kind ship.
During the four seasons that Lexx was on the air, the quarters and bridge took on different appearances, explained by Lexx himself that he was growing, but in reality, the result of different budget levels for each season, letting the production crew go absolutely wild or, for Season 4, forced to restrain themselves. Throughout it all, Lexx is destroying planets both for noble reasons and Stanley’s selfish impulses, eating other ships and people, and remaining the weirdest ship in sci-fi that could only ever be a part of the strangest sci-fi series.
Entertainment
New rules for the Oscars: AI actors are out of the race
The Academy won’t be handing over the golden statuette to robots anytime soon.
In new rules announced May 1, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has ruled that AI performances are not eligible for an Oscar. Filmmakers can still utilize AI tools in their submitted works, but only human actors and human-authored screenplays will be considered for the body’s highest honors.
The move aligns with AI agreements won during the 2023 Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA strikes and addresses growing tension over the presence of generative AI tools across artistic industries.
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For example, a recent trailer for the upcoming historical adventure film As Deep as the Grave, featuring an entirely AI-generated recreation of the late Val Kilmer, caused widespread furor among fans who recoiled at the on-screen digital likeness. Prior to his death, Kilmer created an AI version of his speaking voice with UK tech company Sonantic. Other celebrities, like Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine, have worked with AI company ElevenLabs to clone their voices, as well.
But while some celebs are getting ahead of their AI counterparts, others are fighting back against nonconsensual deepfakes writ large. Pop star Taylor Swift recently filed for trademark of her voice and image — including the phrase “Hey, it’s Taylor.” — amid a surge of synthetic AI likenesses of her proliferating across the internet, including ones used in data phishing scams.
The Academy announced additional rule changes for international film and acting categories, generating buzz online after several contentious Oscar campaign races in recent years. For non-English films, a country can now have multiple nominated entries instead of the previous limit of one. Similarly, actors can receive multiple nominations in the same category if their performances rank in the top five.
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Artificial Intelligence
Oscars
Entertainment
Instagram will stop recommending accounts that dont post original content
Serial Instagram reuploaders are about to be hit hard in the algorithm, as the platform announces new content ranking guidelines intended to boost original content creators.
Accounts that primarily aggregate content or repost others’ content without meaningful alterations or additions won’t be recommended to other users, Instagram explained in a recent Creators blog post. The platform announced the same algorithmic guidelines for Reels uploads in 2024. Now they’ll apply to photos and carousel posts, too.
“Original content” is defined as “work that you wholly created or reflects your unique perspective,” Instagram explains. That includes original photos and designs, as well as third-party content that is materially edited by the user. “Some examples include adding unique text on the content itself that provides more context than just describing what’s happening, adding creative graphics that offer new information, or using our remix feature to transform the original,” the blog post reads.
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The platform recommends that accounts that frequently reshare content share other users’ posts to their stories, use the repost button, or enable collab posts to avoid being marked ineligible.
Aggregator accounts that are marked ineligible for recommendations under the new guidelines can regain their place in the feed by pivoting to original posts. Instagram says “most” of an account’s posts, carousels, and reels need to feature original content over a 30-day period to have the decision reversed. Users can also remove unoriginal content and appeal the decision.
Entertainment
Apple discontinues cheaper Mac Mini, now $799
Apple just axed its cheapest Mac Mini option, a compact 256GB desktop brain that previously cost Apple shoppers just $599.
First reported by MacRumors, the tech giant’s new lineup starts with the Mac Mini at the company’s $799, 512GB option. The more expensive model runs on Apple’s M4 chip and offers 16GB of RAM, just like the $599 model, but with twice the storage.
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Last week, Apple paused orders of the then sold-out 256GB Mac Mini, hinting at a lineup change. Apple CEO Tim Cook — who recently announced his departure from the company after 14 years — said on a recent earnings call that Mac Mini supply was currently constrained under global manufacturing squeezes and that meeting existing demand may be difficult. Tech companies and AI enthusiasts are weathering a global memory chip shortage, which is expected to worsen over the next year.
Cook himself attributed an increase in Mac Mini orders to the device’s AI capabilities, with the Mac Mini now advertised for its Apple Intelligence processing power. Users have flocked to the portable computer amid a surge in interest in agentic AI after the launch of the open-source AI agent framework OpenClaw (previously known as both Moltbot and Clawdebot).
New rules for the Oscars: AI actors are out of the race
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