Getting Lost online

Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) in the last episode of the latest season of Lost.

Lost faith in Lost? Want to know the meaning of it all? No worries - there's a host of material to sate your curiosity in cyberspace. In May, the mysterious Hanso Foundation (the organisation behind the Dharma Initiative) formally launched what the show's producers are calling "the Lost Experience", a concept designed to give fans greater insight into the show's mythologies. Visitors to www.thehansofoundation.org won't find much there this week but those misdirected to www.hansofoundation.org can discuss their theories, share information or buy a T-shirt.

Fact and fiction is also a blur on the the show's first official website, www.Oceanic-Air.com. The home page looks like a typical airline booking site, the slogan at the top reading, "Taking you places you never imagined!" But to the right of the page is a solemn statement from the airline's president, explaining the collapse of the company after the tragedy of Oceanic Flight 815, the fictional carrier that disappeared en route from Sydney to Los Angeles.

"We can tell stories that don't fit in to the sort of the mothership of Lost," explains co-producer and writer Carlton Cuse of the parallel universe they've created online. "There are pieces of the overall puzzle that we'll never get to on the show."

Although New Zealand fans will have to make do trawling the net for enlightenment, fans in the US and Australia can take part in a sort of multimedia treasure hunt, officially known as an alternate reality game (Steven Spielberg's A.I. used a similar marketing concept). Those who pick up on subtle clues during Lost episodes are directed to websites, voicemail, TV and newspaper ads and a novel to find answers.

The game has been so popular that the novel, Bad Twin by Gary Troup, wound up on the New York Times bestseller list. Never mind that the author is a Lost character who died in the plane crash.

Google "Lost" and you'll find more food for thought on thelostexperience.com, thetailsection.com and even driveshaftband.com, a fake website for Charlie's rock band, complete with member bios and articles written about his mysterious disappearance.

And that's not counting the hundreds of forums dedicated to discussing the mythologies and theories of the show.

"You won't have to have any of that information to enjoy Lost," says Cuse. "It's just another place for people who are really into it."