![]() ![]() ![]() In a series filled with singing brains, outer-space zombies and kaiju-sized women destroying Tokyo, it’s both remarkable and brilliant that they bothered. This became especially important in the show’s later seasons as favourite guest actors began to return in new guises – imagine Star Trek taking the time to explain why so many aliens look like Jeffrey Combs – and helped elevate the show for anyone who’s a fan of coherent sci-fi worlds. The showrunners knew their audience, and almost always took the time to answer those “Why don’t they just…” questions fans find within any narrative. The show’s twisted chronology was meticulously adhered to, and even throwaway gags like the Moth-Builders (lobotomized drones responsible for replenishing the show’s shuttlecraft substitutes) gradually got worked into the mythos of the show. The jerks.Īnd yet, despite regular sweeping changes in its approach to storytelling, Lexx displayed a remarkable dedication to consistency, making sure that the characters couldn’t do anything this week that had been impossible the week before. That is, until the planet they’re visiting that week invariably gets destroyed and they simply sail on to their next destination with little more than an apologetic shrug. As we learn about Stan’s tragic backstory and watch Xev coming to terms with just how much of her life was taken from her, we begin to feel for this bunch of losers who just can’t seem catch a break. (He’s also, depending on your point of view, either comic relief or one of the most insufferable characters in all of science-fiction.) Finally we have the Lexx itself, an amiable, slow-witted superweapon capable of devouring, or simply destroying, whole planets.Īs unsympathetic as these characters are, there’s enough nuance in their portrayal that it’s hard to dislike them for long. Rounding out the crew is 790, a disembodied robot head who winds up obsessively, murderously smitten with Xev. Then there’s Kai, the reanimated corpse of an ancient warrior who’s spent the last two thousand years working as an assassin for the baddies, who’s arguably the most heroic and courageous of the crew – except, as he’s constantly reminding everyone, being dead means he has no particular motivation to do good deeds. Having grown up in a box, Xev can be both hot-headed and naïve, but isn’t above playing Stanley to get her way – often getting the pair of them into trouble as a result. His partner-in-crime is Xev, a former prisoner with the body of a Love Slave and some predatory lizard DNA thrown into the mix, who desperately wants to test-drive her enhanced libido with anyone but Stan. There’s Stanley Tweedle, an amoral security guard – and holder of the only key to the Lexx – who wants to find a nice planet where the female inhabitants aren’t put off by his ineptitude and general cowardice. The secondary motivation for almost everyone on board the Lexx is saving their own skins from those who want to steal the ship for themselves. Very few choose to proudly declare that their protagonists are a bunch of self-absorbed jerks with hardly any positive personality traits, and that’s the way they likes it, see? In a genre jam-packed with noble champions it’s especially refreshing to follow a group who’ll happily lie, cheat and threaten the rest of the universe to get what they want, even if it normally backfires in the end. Plenty of sci-fi shows nowadays claim to have layered, troubled characters anti-heroes with a dark past who need to atone for their mistakes or somehow wash away the trauma that mires them before they can achieve their full potential. What, then, was it that gave Lexx its appeal? No more heroes Clearly, there was something more to the series than skimpy outfits and smutty set designs. The show’s premise – a crew of misfits and criminals aboard a living ship, on the run from an evil empire – was often compared to its contemporary Farscape, but while Lexx was never as well-known in the States its popularity in Europe did at least secure the funding for an episodic series.ĭespite its late-night timeslot and relative obscurity the show amassed a ferociously loyal fandom, mostly established online, and by the time series three was picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel there were any number of webrings and tribute sites, not to mention a Lexx convention to look back on. Lexx was the first commercial success from the Canadian studio Salter Street Films, taking the form of four darkly comic TV movies known collectively as Tales From A Parallel Universe. ![]()
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