Which made me realize it's not a bad movie, I'm just not the target audience. I loved the book, both the look and the tone, which were not captured in the movie.

Apparently that was intentional according to this article

https://screenrant.com/the-electric-state-tone-change-books-joe-russo-response/

Shadow Fleet is the internet's premier Star Trek roleplay set in the year 2403. We've been in operation since 2007 and have gained popularity year on year. Our community is like a family, we welcome roleplayers of all experience levels. Come say hello on our Discord to find out more.

We offer our players:

- An Active and Large Community from across the world
- High activity, with 20+ new posts daily
- Adherence to canon and the prime Star Trek Universe (currently at Picard season 3)
- Authentic Chain of Command, with progression milestones for commissioned and non-commissioned routes
- The chance to earn 'IC' and 'OOC' awards and merits
- Experienced and talented Game Masters
- A Friendly and Welcoming community
- A new civilian Simm

We look forward to roleplaying with you. Live long and prosper!

Suggestions of scifi novels about surviving in alien wilds. To sums it up, the protagonist is on an alien planet trying to survive the wilds of it and the vicious alien animals and beasts in it. Thanks to all in advance.

Nihilistic absurdity 1990's show of force with LEXX

The Unsettling "Otherworldliness" of Lexx

Artificial intelligence, monetary systems, and even ethical frameworks – these are all weighty topics, but sometimes, profound philosophical insights can emerge from the most unexpected corners of pop culture. Consider Lexx, the cult sci-fi TV series from the late 1990s. To many, it's a campy, low-budget space opera, known for its bizarre aliens, dark humor, and over-the-top theatrics. Yet, beneath the surface absurdity lies a pervasive, unsettling atmosphere – an "otherworldly vibe" that’s difficult to define, but deeply palpable. This essay argues that this "eerie vibe" of Lexx stems from its unintentional, yet powerfully consistent, portrayal of a nihilistic universe – a cosmos where life is cheap and experience is meaningless, characterized by radically diminished intrinsic value. And, surprisingly, this seemingly lightweight sci-fi show becomes a potent case study when viewed through this lens,revealing profound truths about the nature of value, meaning, and the human condition.

Deconstructing the "Lexx Vibe" - Manifestations of Valuelessness:

The unsettling atmosphere of Lexx is not accidental; it is meticulously constructed through a series of stylistic and thematic choices that consistently undermine any sense of inherent worth or meaningful connection. The "odd overacting," often bordering on grotesque caricature, creates a sense of emotional hollowness. Characters emote with heightened intensity, yet their feelings often seem disconnected from genuine experience, performative rather than authentic. Joy, grief, fear, desire – all are acted out with theatrical exaggeration, yet lack the grounding of genuine human emotion, becoming mere gestures in a cosmic void.

This performative emotionality is further amplified by a pervasive “dissonance and indifference” that permeates the Lexx universe. Characters frequently display a jarring lack of empathy, reacting to suffering and death with a casualness that borders on sociopathic. Brutality is commonplace, and life is often depicted as cheap and expendable. Death, when it occurs (and it occurs frequently and often absurdly), is rarely treated with genuine grief or lasting consequence. Individuals are dispatched with a shrug, their lives as fleeting and insignificant as dust motes in the vastness of space. Even deeply personal relationships seem fragile and transactional, lacking the anchor of genuine care or lasting commitment.

To truly grasp this pervasive valuelessness, consider the scene in Season 2, Episode 3, "Lyekka": the crew of three Idohoan astronauts, described as space farmers from Potatohoe, who are devoured alive by Lyekka (the sentient plant creature) in her first episode. In a moment of grotesque absurdity that encapsulates the Lexx vibe, these astronauts are depicted laughing hysterically as they are eaten, even joking about the ‘delicious’ flavor of their own limbs as they are consumed. Adding to the bizarre nature of the encounter, Lyekka's consumption of these astronauts is followed by an equally absurd act of "gratitude" – she revives the recently deceased Zev, transforming her into Xev, supposedly as thanks for the Lexx crew allowing her to stay. This scene is more than just dark humor; it’s a distillation of the show's core nihilistic vision – a universe where even the most horrific and absurd forms of death become fodder for black comedy, and individual suffering is reduced to a meaningless spectacle. There is no soul-searching, no ethical reckoning, no sense of profound loss or violation – just laughter in the face of utter annihilation. This chilling detachment highlights the complete erosion of intrinsic value within the Lexx universe, where even the most fundamental human imperative – self-preservation and the aversion to suffering – becomes absurd and hollow.

Visually, this sense of "cheap self-worth" is reinforced by the show's aesthetic. The often low-budget costumes and sets, while contributing to its cult charm, also inadvertently underscore the sense of artificiality and disposability. Characters are adorned in costumes that often appear flimsy and cartoonish, mirroring the sense that their identities and their very lives are equally unsubstantial and easily discarded. The visual world of Lexx, with its bizarre alien landscapes and often-crude special effects, further enhances this feeling of detachment from any recognizable human value system, creating a universe that feels deliberately “off,” strange, and fundamentally unmoored from any sense of inherent worth or meaning.

The "Lie of Free Will" Framework - Illuminating Lexx's Nihilism:

It is through the lens of this framework that the unsettling "Lexx vibe" becomes truly comprehensible. This framework posits that human meaning, value, and ethics are fundamentally grounded in a “lie” – the subjective illusion of free will, agency, and inherent worth that we collectively construct and believe in, even within a deterministic universe. Lexx, in its own strange and unintentional way, depicts a universe where this “lie” has broken down, or perhaps never even existed, leaving characters operating with radically diminished intrinsic value.

In the Lexx universe, characters exhibit weak self-valuation because they operate in a cosmos where the very foundations of subjective value have eroded. Their motivations seem "performative" rather than "intrinsic" because they lack the deeply rooted belief in agency, purpose, and consequence that underpins genuine human action. Ethics, in such a context, become meaningless conventions, arbitrary social rules devoid of any deeper existential grounding. There is no sense of "existential self-defense" in Lexx because there is no shared "lie" to defend, no inherent value to protect. The characters, adrift in a deterministic void, become mere puppets of instinct and circumstance, their lives as cheap and disposable as their cartoonish costumes suggest, their actions driven by weak, performative impulses rather than deeply felt, self-generated values.

Lexx as a Dystopian Warning - The Importance of the "Lie":

Viewed through this philosophical lens, Lexx transcends its campy sci-fi trappings and emerges as a surprisingly potent dystopian thought experiment. It presents a chillingly vivid depiction of what happens when value collapses, when life becomes cheap, and when experience loses its meaning. In the face of such a nihilistic void, even laughter and sex become hollow, desperate attempts to distract from the underlying emptiness, fleeting diversions in a universe hurtling towards meaningless oblivion.

"lie"—the subjective creation of meaning, value, and agency—is not a delusion to be overcome, but a fundamental human capacity to be embraced and defended. Ethics, in this view, becomes not a set of arbitrary rules, but an act of "existential self-defense," a way of actively creating and protecting meaning, value, and connection in a universe that, in its mechanical reality, offers no inherent guarantees of such things.

The "eerie vibe" of Lexx, then, is not just a stylistic quirk; it’s a philosophical alarm bell. It's a fictional universe that, in its very strangeness and unsettling atmosphere, serves as a potent reminder of the fragility of meaning, the vital importance of subjective experience, and the enduring necessity of the defence of human value that builds our human reality, and protects us from the abyss of valuelessness that Lexx so vividly portrays.

Final Thought:

Perhaps, then, the true, if unintentional, genius of Lexx lies not in its campy sci-fi antics, but in its ability to evoke this profound sense of existential unease. In its own bizarre and unsettling way, Lexx becomes a mirror reflecting back at us the preciousness of meaning, the fragility of value, and the often-unacknowledged philosophical weight of the very "lie" that makes human life, and human ethics, possible in a deterministic cosmos. And in that reflection, we may find a deeper appreciation for the often-underestimated power of our own subjective experience, and the vital necessity of defending the shared meaning that makes our lives, and our choices, truly matter.

You remember everything that has happened since then. You are the only one who does.

That would be so awesome. I wonder if any indie author has written a book with this idea.