BOUNDHEAD

Letter from Paul Donovan

Making LEXX

A note from creator, writer, director and executive producer Paul Donovan

What can I say about LEXX?  I seem to spend a lot of time defending myself for making the show. I accept that watching such shows as The Beverly Hillbillies, Star Trek(the original series) and Monty Python's Flying Circus wrapped my teenage brain. Spending too much time watching these types of shows also had a negative effect on my academic progress, which I suspect was the case with many other students who also never got that Ph.D.

As an older person and partial adult, I now can see that what attracted me to these series at the expense of my school marks was their creative originality and the passion of their makers for the shows'characters and content.Unlike too many of today's shows, they were not the product of a marketing committee or a focus group. They were made by passionate storytellers.

In making LEXX, like making anything for television, we were always compromising. We never had enough money. The shooting schedule was, at seven(and sometimes six)days per episode, way too short. We did far too many ambitious special effects and as a result would spend a few days on sequences that really needed weeks. Scripts often went into production full of compromises, both creative and practical. We shot it in Halifax,Nova Scotia, which has some unique advantages, but also many disadvantages, such as a production infrastructure still in its infancy.

But in spite of all this, I think we made a few great shows with many great moments. LEXX always spoke with a unique voice, distinct from the Hollywood mainstream. Almost everyone involved with the series knew that they were doing something different, something special, and maybe something crazy. It was often very moving the way the cast and the crew would rise time and time again to seemingly impossible challenges.

Some days I would walk into the studio and from a catwalk high above, I would simply stand there and stare down with awe at these people running about in that huge dark space, building this crazy dream called LEXX. It felt good.

Paul Donovan
Halifax, Nova Scotia 

シーズン4のDVD最終巻のspecial featuresに収められているLEXXの生みの親であるポール・ドノヴァンの回想録です。どなたか英語に堪能な方、翻訳していただけないでしょうか。ウェブ上の自動翻訳は惨憺たるものでした。