| Lexx | |
|---|---|
The opening credits to Lexx |
|
| Format | Science fiction, Dramedy |
| Created by | Paul Donovan |
| Starring | Brian Downey Eva Habermann (season 1–2) Michael McManus Xenia Seeberg (season 2–4) Jeffrey Hirschfield Tom Gallant |
| Country of origin | Canada United Kingdom Germany |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 61 (Including Season 1) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | Season 1 (2 hrs. approx.) Season 2 – 4 (45 minutes approx.) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Global Television Network Sci Fi Channel Five CHUM Television's Space |
| Original run | April 18, 1997 – April 26, 2002 |
| External links | |
| archived 2002-02-28 Website | |
Lexx is a science fantasy television series that follows the adventures of a group of mismatched individuals aboard the organic space craft Lexx. They travel through two universes and encounter planets including a parody of the Earth.
The series is a Canadian and German co-production, with some additional funding from Britain's Five. Not originally produced for a US network, the series features more sexual innuendo and nudity than audiences in the United States are generally accustomed to seeing in non-premium programming. The Sci Fi Channel purchased the series from Salter Street Films and began airing versions of Season 2 episodes for United States' audience in January 2000.[1]
Lexx was co-produced by Salter Street Films, later absorbed by Alliance Atlantis. In Canada, Lexx aired on the Alliance Atlantis-owned Showcase network.
The series was primarily filmed in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) and Berlin (Germany), with additional filming on location in Iceland, Bangkok (Thailand), and Namibia.
Contents |
The crew of the Lexx is motivated largely by fear, lust, and insatiable hunger — factors which gradually came to dominate the storylines more and more, eventually making Lexx famous for its sexual themes and often bizarre storylines. Each episode in the later seasons takes the crew through another stage of their journey through chaotic, hostile universes without any legitimate authority while exploring the relationships between the protagonists and their individual histories.
The crew of the Lexx includes:
The main characters of the series are the Lexx and her crew. The crew consists of the captain of the Lexx, Stanley H. Tweedle, the loveslave Zev/Xev,the undead former assassin Kai, last of the Brunnen-G, and the love-crazed robot head 790. Together they are looking for a new home. The background conflict of the series is the war between Mankind and the Insect Civilization, in which each side seeks the annihilation of the other. It was foretold to Kai that one day he will destroy the last remnant of the Insect Civilization.
The plot unfolds across a time span of over 6,000 years. Kai's death (or undeath) occurs roughly 2000 years before the beginning of the events of the series. For the first two seasons, each episode is focused on space travel and usually one different planet; The last two seasons focus on a single location for each season, used for all episodes. At the beginning of Season 3 the crew spends about 4,000 years in cryostasis. In Season 4, the Lexx reaches our Earth in the present.
Stan, Zev and Kai accidentally steal the Lexx, the most powerful destructive weapon in the two universes. After successfully fleeing from the Cluster, the main planet of the League of the 20,000 Planets, they are looking for a new home.
Kai needs protoblood to live outside of his cryochamber. Looking for protoblood, the Lexx returns to the Cluster to learn that a huge insect survived. This insect had controlled The Divine Order and His Divine Shadow in order to eat all human inhabitants of the 20,000 planets. The insect then begins a metamorphosis into the Gigashadow. Gigashadow produces protoblood. With the help of Zev, Kai manages to fill up his store of protoblood. Kai places the cluster lizard Squish in the brain of the insect and thus is able to destroy it.
The main conflict of the second season is the fight against Mantrid, the former biovizier of His Divine Shadow. The crew had inadvertently helped him transfer his mind into a machine in the first episode of the season while accidentally fusing it with a remnant of His Shadow. Mantrid's goal is to transform all matter in the Light Universe into Mantrid Drones.
In the meantime the crew keeps getting into difficult situations and is usually rescued by Kai. At the end of the season they destroy Mantrid. Unfortunately the Light Universe is also destroyed. The crew flees into the Dark Zone.
The Lexx is running out of food and must fly slowly to conserve energy. 790 computes that it might take thousands of years until they reach an inhabited planet. The crew enters cryostasis to survive the voyage. After 4,000 years in cryostasis, they reach the twin planets Fire and Water. The entire third season takes place on these two planets.
The crew meets people they knew from the Light Universe, but these survivors can not remember their past in the parallel universe, though their personalities are still the same. Fire is ruled by the charismatic Prince. Water doesn't seem to have a ruler. The inhabitants of both planets live in isolated towns. On Water they live on islands in a huge ocean and on Fire there are big towers divided by desert.
Prince wants to win the crew over to his side, especially Xev. The Prince tests their sense of morality through various temptations. The crew is frequently separated, forcing them to act individually. After jumping from the Lexx to the surface of Fire, Kai has trouble functioning normally without the other crew members. On Water, deep beneath its surface, Kai encounters his soul essence which awaits rebirth. Stanley dies and a trial is held over the destination of his soul. All his bad decisions are weighted against his good deeds and he is sentenced to eternal punishment on Fire.
At the end of the season both planets Fire and Water are destroyed, and Stan's soul is set free and is able to return into his body, though he can not remember what happened to him on Fire. The souls of all inhabitants of Fire and Water are also released, and travel to a planet that looks like Earth.
The fourth season has satirical and political undertones. Among the topics parodied are the President of the United States, armed Southerners, suburban housewives, reality TV, arrogant actors, vampire legends, American patriotism and secret government organizations.
The Lexx travels to Earth looking for food. It is located in the very center of the Dark Universe and the crew assumes that it must be a very dangerous place. The President of the United States accidentally destroys Orlando, and frames Cuba for the act to justify his destruction of that nation.
The crew again meet several people they knew from the Light Universe, and from Fire and Water. Only Prince is able to remember his life on Fire.
Kai's soul is stuck because he is undead, and he decides to die to release his soul. To do this, he must regain his mortality. He plays chess with Prince to regain mortality and wins, but Kai remains dead.
The Earth is threatened by a being that resembles Lyekka. The crew finds out that the fake "Lyekka" destroyed all human life on her way through the Dark Zone. Kai decides to destroy the asteroid that is the source of the entity. Prince keeps his promise and restores Kai's mortality. Minutes later, Kai finally dies destroying the asteroid, saving all inhabitants of the Dark Zone.
Lexx, the most powerful spaceship in the two universes. |
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| First appearance | I Worship His Shadow |
|---|---|
| Launched | The Cluster |
| General characteristics | |
| Auxiliary craft | Moths |
| Armaments | The 'Ocular Parabola': small collapsible satellite dish like devices that cover the majority of The LEXX's forward face resembling the eyes of a dragonfly. They generate energy particles that can be released as a wave or later as a focused ring. The device is powerful enough to be a planet killer. |
The Lexx is a bio-engineered, Manhattan-sized, planet-destroying bioship in the shape of a giant wingless dragonfly and also reminiscent of male genitalia. It was grown by ingesting organ collections from the protein bank on the Cluster, the seat of the Divine Order, for use by His Divine Shadow. The Lexx was originally intended as the ultimate deterrent: the threat of a weapon that could instantly obliterate any planet would keep the remaining "Heretic" worlds of the Light Universe in line, and those that refused to capitulate would be summarily destroyed to reinforce the point. This plan was foiled when the crew commandeered it to escape from the Cluster.
The most important function of the Lexx is its ability to destroy entire planets with a single, high-powered blast. Its only weapon is initiated by command from the captain only, followed by a highly dramatic sequence when the Ocular Parabola found on the surface of its eye tissue flips from a smooth surfaced dome into a complex array of satellite dish-like structures. Huge amounts of yellowish-orange particles are released en masse from the array and focused by Lexx's nervous system to a point just above its mouth. Once focused, the particles burst into a massive, forward-moving, planar wave which expands ahead of the Lexx exponentially until colliding with an object of sufficient mass to disperse it, usually a planet. The wave instantly vaporizes smaller ships without losing momentum. Though the Lexx is designed to destroy entire planets, it can fire less intense blasts to hit smaller targets; however, the smallest area it seems capable of destroying is roughly the size of an entire city such as Ottawa.
A special living energy being known as the "key" is required to control the Lexx, and it will usually only respond to its owner. However, if the ship is in a deficient mental state, it may respond to anyone. A special holographic hand-scanner on the bridge confirms that the captain of the ship possesses the key. The captain then controls the Lexx through voice commands.
The Lexx itself is sentient, but not very intelligent. The show's creators have it compared to a dog. The Lexx often takes orders literally, even when it's not being addressed directly (Stan accidentally orders the Lexx to destroy a planet when he explains its function to some astronauts). It acknowledges commands and comments with a droning, simple male voice; for example, "As you command, Stan." The Lexx has emotions (it actively enjoys destroying planets, for instance, and becomes rather petulant when denied the opportunity), and is, to a small extent, capable of acting of its own accord when in defense of itself. In the final episode of the show, as the Lexx is dying, it tells Stan that he was always its favorite captain, since they both enjoy destroying planets.
Being alive, the Lexx needs to eat. It can digest any form of organic matter, and will usually land on a planet's surface to scoop up suitable organic foodstuffs; however, it is content to simply blow up a planet and feast on the sizable chunks. When denied food, the Lexx can become rather cranky, but will always attempt to follow orders no matter what is happening. The moral dilemma of destroying inhabited worlds for Lexx's functioning and survival is a recurring plot theme, and occasionally Lexx will swallow passing ships without informing the crew. Another means of collecting energy is to "resorb" discarded items left on its floors.
The Lexx has various amenities for the crew, though unusual in their implementation. It has showers which use long, phallic, writhing shower-heads that are activated by squeezing a pair of nearby balls. Food suitable for the crew consists of a blue paste-like substance, which is squirted from phallic dispensers, much to Stan's disgust. Lexx has commodes that use large, waggling tongues for user sanitation. A cryo-chamber is also available, primarily used by Kai to preserve his protoblood supply.
The Lexx also hosts a contingent of smaller bio-engineered ornithopter-like craft called "moths", which the crew often use for short-range travel in space, in a planet's atmosphere, or even within the vast Lexx itself. The moths are insect-like ships (as befits their name), and twitter constantly as they travel. The moths fly themselves, with a joystick used by the occupants only to direct their movement. The moth only uses its wings when in an atmosphere, and has a "jet pack" of sorts on its underbelly when traveling through space. Stan usually sleeps in the husk of one of the dead moths. The Lexx has a crew of moth breeders, zombie-like human slaves re-engineered entirely for moth breeding, to produce these craft when necessary.
When the Lexx arrives on Earth, it becomes pregnant after an encounter with an Earth dragon fly, suggesting that the ship is in fact female even though it speaks in a male voice (in the English-language version; the version shown in Germany gave the ship a female voice). Similarly, when a sex-changing virus sweeps through the ship, the Lexx is affected and develops stereotypical feminine characteristics, suggesting that it is normally male.
The Lexx ages several thousand years during the run of the series, and in later seasons its advanced age and decrepitude following millennia of starvation and neglect lead to it becoming increasingly unstable. In the final episode of the series, Lexx dies, giving birth to a smaller, very Lexx-like ship, the result of a brief union with an insect from Earth. The new ship, dubbed "Little Lexx" by Stan and Xev, imprints upon Stan when he tells it that he is its captain. This causes Little Lexx's key, blue instead of Lexx's yellow, to bind with Stan's right hand.
In the fictional mythos of the television series Lexx, there are two universes: the Light Universe and the Dark Zone. Two of the Season 1 movies and the whole of Seasons 3 and 4 take place in the Dark Zone, while two of the Season 1 movies and nearly all of Season 2 takes place in the Light Universe.
The Light Universe was completely dominated by His Divine Shadow and the League of 20,000 Planets, while the Dark Zone is often referred to as the universe of evil, chaos, and depravity. The Brunnen-G originally lived in the Dark Zone on Brunnis, until their sun was no longer able to support life, after which they moved to Brunnis-2 in the Light Universe. Earth is located at the center of the Dark Zone, as are Fire and Water, planets that are similar to hell and heaven.
Most of the matter in the Light Universe was converted into biomechanical drones (Mantrid drones) by Mantrid, who then caused a Big Crunch by summoning all the Mantrid drones to a single spot in the universe to do battle with the Lexx. Little matter escaped into the Dark Zone, most of it being the Lexx itself.
The Dark Zone is the parallel universe that His Divine Shadow cannot enter. The Dark Zone is referred to as the universe of chaos and disorder. It is also where the crew finds, among other inhabited planets, Earth, where they spend the entirety of the fourth season. At the end of the first movie, "I Worship His Shadow", the Lexx enters the dark zone through a fractal core located using coordinates found inside one of Stanley Tweedle's teeth. The Lexx remains in the Dark Zone during the second and third movies, and parts of the fourth. The Lexx returns to the Light Zone in the first episode of the television series. Following the destruction of the Light Universe (or Light Zone) by Mantrid's drones (at the end the second season), the Lexx is shifted into the Dark Zone where they remain for the rest of the show.
The Divine Order is a fictional religion in Lexx, created by the last of the Insect Civilization as a means of controlling the human population of the Light Universe, and ultimately to use them to destroy themselves (since as stated by His Divine Shadow, being the last of the insects, he alone could not destroy all of humanity). It is ruled over by His Divine Shadow, who gets advised by the previous brains that were inhabited by the essence of the shadow, known as Divine Predecessors.
Another major setting in the world of "Lexx" is The Cluster. The Cluster is at the very center of the Divine Order and is also the planetoid from which Zev, Stan, and Kai escape in the beginning. His Divine Shadow, his Divine Predecessors, and religious leadership rule from The Cluster. The Cluster is the capital of the Divine Order, center of the bureaucracy, and place where all criminals/heretics are taken for punishment (provided they survive the trip). The planet has become an over centralized, overcomplicated mess, with most decisions being automated by an impersonal computer system prone to devastating and/or deadly mistakes at the slightest technological malfunction.
Fire is an inhospitable planet, the entire surface of which is covered in desert and open seas of lava. Even when the sun beats down mercilessly on the desert sands, the ground below is hotter still than the sky above. Fire is said to have no water of its own, and people on the open sands during daylight quickly die. The inhabitants of Fire live in enormous towers, each of which contains a single city. These provide them shade from the sun and possibly keep them cooler by raising them away from the planet's warm surface.
The inhabitants of Water live in several large floating settlements, each of which seems to be centered around some particular pastime. During their stay on Water, the crew of the Lexx visit the settlements of Gametown, for those who like sports; Boomtown, for those who like sex; and Garden, for those who like gardening. Life on Water seems to have been meant to be full of unmarred beauty and contentment, but this is shattered by frequent war parties from Fire, which arrive via hot air balloons through the planets' shared atmosphere.
Earth is a life-bearing planet, half covered with water, in the same orbit as the Fire-Water binary system but on the opposite side of its sun. It is also a "type 13" planet, inhabited by a disorderly human civilization.
During the four Seasons we meet several sentient lifeforms: humanoids, insectoids and plants. Humans also created humanoid robots. They are cyborgs and are designed for specific tasks. All lifeforms in the two universes understand each other, so they seem to speak the same language. The Brunnen G song is the only hint of another language, it is sung in the ancient language of the Brunnen G.
Humans inhabit the Light Universe as well as the Dark Zone. They fight against the Insect Civilisation since ancient times. The goal of the insects is the extermination of mankind. Humans created several governments. Explicitly mentioned are:
790 is a humanoid robot. Originally it possessed a human body, a robot head and a small part of a female human brain. Unfortunately its body was eaten by a cluster lizard early in the first movie, but it can survive even without a body.
Mothbreeder are also cyborgs. They were specially designed for mothbreeding and have very limited intellectual capabilities.
The insects are enormous in size. They can survive in space and fought mankind in the ancient Insect Wars. Their goal is the extermination of mankind.
A nameless surviving insect hides on Cluster, the main planet of the League of the 20,000 planets. It rules through the Divine Order and His Divine Shadow over the humans of the 20,000 planets. In the fourth movie of the first season it becomes the Gigashadow.
Physically a human, His Divine Shadow as representative of the Divine Order is controlled by the insect on Cluster. According to the prophecy His Divine Shadow will be killed by a Brunnen G after he leaves the Cluster.
After the death of a Divine Shadow his brain is removed and transferred into a device that maintains his vital functions over hundreds of years. The brains of the Divine Predecessors are stored on large columns. They are able to communicate with each other and with His Divine Shadow. The bodies of the Divine Predecessors are sent to Ruuma. There they live a life similar to zombies.
Lyekka becomes the fourth regular crewmember. She is a carnivorous plant and resembles an early love of Stan. Lyekka is hungry all the time, but she refrains from eating the crew because she likes them. She usually eats additional passengers on board of the Lexx . At the end of Season 2 her pod is attacked by Mantrid drones, and she is thereby doomed to die. She sacrifices herself for the crew and helps to defeat Mantrid.
"Lyekka" in Season 4 is a colony of plants that made it to the Dark Zone. She pretends to be the Lyekka whom Stan once knew in order to win the confidence of the crew. She and her colony are the source of the killer carrots sent to earth. On their tour through the Dark Zone, they devastated all planets they encountered. All life on the planets became extinct. Earth is next. After destroying Tokyo, it comes to a showdown with the LEXX and crew.
The music of the series was written by Marty Simon.
The Brunnen-G song is sung by Cam Hawkins, Marty Simon and Stan Meisner.[2]
The Brunnen-G song is first sung in the first scene of the first episode ("I Worship His Shadow", 1.1) by the still living Kai and his companions trying to defend their homeplanet Brunnis-2. The Brunnen-G song is sung in the ancient language of the Brunnen-G and it is the only hint at a different language in the whole Lexx- Universe. The Brunnen-G on Brunnis in The Dark Zone traditionally sang the song preparing for battles and to assure themselves that it's all about the struggle.
Kai sings the Brunnen-G song in some of the following Lexx- episodes especially in critical and hopeless situations. In the episode "The Rock" (4.6) Kai plays the Brunnen-G song in a pub on the piano and thus creates a jazzy version. At the end of the episode the whole pub sings the song in an Irish folk style.
The last episode of the fourth and last season ("Yo Way Yo", 4.24) derives its name from the Brunnen-G song. Kai sings the Brunnen-G song when he kills the last remnants of the Plant Civilisation.
From the third Season on the Brunnen-G song is the intro of the series.
The episode "Brigadoom" (2.18) is a musical episode. It describes the destruction of Brunnis-2 and the death of Kai. All songs are performed by the actors themselves:
There are four seasons of Lexx totaling 61 episodes. The first season, debuting in Canada on 18 April 1997, consisted of four two-hour TV movies (sometimes screened as eight one-hour episodes), alternatively titled Tales from a Parallel Universe. However, some episode guides don't list the two-hour movies as a series but list the subsequent seasons as the first through third.
The second season consisted of twenty 48-minute episodes, with an overall story arc concerning an evil scientist called Mantrid, who attempts to kill everyone by converting the entire mass of the universe into one-armed Mantrid drones.
The third season comprises 13 episodes in which the Lexx is trapped in orbit around the warring planets Fire and Water, and the crew encounters Prince, the enigmatic and cheerful evil ruler of Fire, who is much like the Devil, though he actually identifies himself as death incarnate at the end of season four. The two planets orbit each other at an extremely close distance, and share a tunnel of atmosphere between them, allowing the inhabitants of Fire to carry out raids on Water to cause chaos. Fire is filmed between the dunes of Namibia and the Gothic architecture of Berlin. Prince reincarnates whenever it suits him. Water appears to have no opposing ruler, and contains a small population of hedonists on floating islands.
In the fourth and final season of 24 episodes, the Lexx arrives at Earth in the year 2000, only to find that Prince (now named Isambard Prince and head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which more or less runs the United States) and several other old adversaries have also arrived there. Between them, Prince and the Lexx manage to demolish large chunks of the Earth — including Orlando, Florida; Ottawa (a Canadian metonymical in-joke);Tokyo and Holland, which the Lyekka eats — before the climactic final episode, televised on 26 April 2002. The Lexx is responsible for the destruction of Fire, Water, Pluto, Mars, Venus, and lastly Earth. Also, Priest, the President of the United States, manages to destroy via thermonuclear bombs the following countries or territories: Cuba, Newfoundland, Vietnam.
Region 1
Acorn Media released seasons 2-4 on DVD in single volume collections as well as complete season sets in 2002-2004. These releases have now been discontinued and are out of print.
On October 7, 2008, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment released season 1 on DVD in the US only.[4]
In Canada, Alliance Home Entertainment has released all four seasons on DVD.
Region 2
Seasons one to three of Lexx were released on VHS and Region 2 DVD in the UK by Contender Limited, although the Season 3 DVDs were initially exclusive to the MVC Entertainment chain of stores and all volumes have since been deleted. Contender failed to obtain the rights to Season 4, which instead went to Momentum Pictures (a subsidiary of Alliance Atlantis). Momentum Pictures has not yet released any DVDs.
MediumRare Entertainment released the complete run of Lexx in a 19-disc boxset in the UK in early 2011.
All four seasons were also released on Region 2 DVD in Germany. Unlike the rest of the world (bar Australia), the German DVDs of season 1 do still appear to be in print as of February 2007[update]. However, the episodes of the first season of the German DVD release were cut to receive a 16 and up rating.
Region 4
Beyond Home Entertainment released all 4 seasons on DVD in Australia in 2007/2008. On May 13, 2009, Beyond Home Entertainment released Lexx- The Complete Series, a 19-disc boxset featuring all 61 episodes of the series in a special collectible tin.
Netflix and Hulu both offer streaming versions of all 61 Lexx episodes. The versions available are the editions edited for U.S. broadcast.
The show's seasons had very different tones. While the original TV movies and the second season were mostly science fiction drama with plenty of dark comedy, the "Fire and Water" season took a more serious tone, while the show's final season — set on Earth in the year 2000 — took many turns into pure farce and introduced magic (as in the episode A Midsummer's Nightmare) and other new elements.
Lexx was shown originally on Global Television Network in Canada, then later picked up by Space, Channel 5 in the UK and then the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States. On Sci-Fi, it aired in the same Friday night lineup as Farscape, and the somewhat similar set-up for both shows (with a misfit crew flying through space on a huge, living starship) was often noted by critics, despite Lexx having premiered two years prior to Farscape. Lexx did achieve some mainstream notice (with Xenia Seeberg as "Xev" appearing on the cover of TV Guide, for instance).
Lexx was voted 23rd in a recent poll by SciFiNow magazine in June 2009 in the '25 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Shows'
There are two versions of Lexx, the European and the American one. One point of difference is in the beginning of the first film: in the American version, there is no scene where Stanley is fooled and captured by Feppo. In the European version, this scene is between the death of Kai and the time when Stanley wakes up on the cluster (2008 years later).
Unlike the DVD edition, the German TV release was re-cut to include some flashback scenes at points where they mattered within the story, and not in the chronological order in which they happened. For example, Stanley's capture by the pirates was shown as a flashback in the fourth episode ("Gigashadow") of the miniseries, whereas the DVD version includes it prior to the Cluster scenes early on in the first episode of the show, somewhat out of context.
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