"And have more cute girls," adds Jeff Hirschfield.

"In skimpy costumes," interjects Lex Gigeroff.

Donovan, Hirschfield and Gigeroff are the unholy trio forming the creative force behind one of the most bizarre SF series ever: Lexx. Described by Donovan as, "Dark Star meets Alien meets Beavis And Butthead" its a CGI-ed, space opera extravaganza based on some pretty meaty SF concepts but with its tongue not so much in its cheek, as gorily bursting through it. As Donovan proudly reveals, "When we show it to people, my favourite reaction is, 'This is horrible, why am I laughing?'"

Lexx, a Canadian/German co-production, is the brainchild of Canadian Donovan, an ex-physicist who turned to TV production some years back, setting up his company Salter Street films with his brother. Currently existing as four 90-minute TV movies due to hit the airwaves and video shelves around the world in June (except for in Germany who already have a rush release first edit available on video), with a series of one hour episodes to follow if these go down well, Lexx is effectively Donovan's reaction to "being constantly disappointed" by current SF: "We want Alien and we get Stargate," he says, adding, "We felt the Star Trek thing was a bit burnt out. In the '60s it was cool, but the modern version of it isn't too exciting. And as we're not entirely healthy human beings, we thought, well, we could do something that was cool."

Donovan, Gigeroff and Hirschfield sit in an office in Halifax, Canada while I speak to them by telephone on a conference call. It's a bizarre experience. All attempts to get them to tell me who's speaking when go by the by, and, generally, all three speak at the same time. Indeed, even the simplest of questions is replied in triplicate and punctuated by copious amounts of, um, bawdy humour ("The driving forces behind Lexx? My enormous penis!" reveals Hirschfield) and the lot of them conspiring to run off on bizarre trains of thought, until it's hard to know when they're being serious and when they're taking the piss...

"It's television premiere was in Lithuania," reveals Donovan.

"We haven't actually sold it there," reveals Hirschfield.

"We just started getting e-mails from Lithuania," adds Donovan.

"It must have been pirated," interjects Gigeroff. "They love it."

Or how about when I enquire whether the fact that the show shares a very similar name to one of its writers?

"We come from a city called Halifax," says Donovan. "And the city across the water was formerly called Dartmouth and is now called Lexxville which Lex organised. And now he's trying to change the name of Canada to Lexxland. You go onto the Web and he's making great progress actually. I'm humbled before him myself."

So here's an official warning: not everything you read in this interview could be, well, strictly construed as the absolute truth.