Lexx

[kg redhead]

The tyrants who rule the Light Universe pass their essence onto their successor upon their demise, while their still-conscious brains are kept in a vault; their chief resource is Lexx, the most-powerful mobile weapon in the universe, which can only be commanded only by the keeper of the hand-key. The previous incumbent wiped out the Brunen-G race, except for Kai, whom he kept in a state of amnesiac suspended animation, to be revived by proto-blood for short periods and used as an assassin. Into this background comes anti-hero Stanley Tweedle, an ignored non-entity clerk, who misses an appointment and is branded a criminal. In the dungeons, overweight Zev has been convicted of not fulfilling wifely duties, and is being transformed into a gorgeous, svelt love-slave. Meanwhile, captured terrorist Thodin, due for public execution, escapes with his gang's help, and causes chaos, setting into motion Tweedle's accidental theft of Lexx and new ownership of the hand-key, Zev's escape with her new body and the characteristics of a giant reptilian attack worm but before mind-wipe (which goes instead to a robot head), and Kai's release to combat the terrorists before his memory returns! Tweedle, Zev, the lovesick robot head, Kai, and the stolen tyrants' brains head off in Lexx to vaporise tyrant planets and find a place for themselves in the Dark Universe, while searching for a supply of proto-blood before Kai expires...

[kg redhead]

LEXX is a science fiction TV series that follows the adventures of a group of mismatched individuals aboard the Lexx, "the most powerful destructive force in the two universes" from which the show takes its name. The Lexx is a living spacecraft, shaped like an insect. It is capable of destroying planets with ease, and eats the debris as fuel. The Lexx is on the trail of His Divine Shadow, and vice versa.

The series is a Canadian/German co-production, with some additional funding from Britain's Channel 5. Because it was not made for a US network it includes a lot more sexual innuendo (and, at least in the early episodes, nudity) than US audiences are generally accustomed to. As of 2002, the show was intermittently shown on the SciFi Channel.

LEXX was co-produced by Salter Street Films, later absorbed by Alliance Atlantis.

[kg redhead]

The crew of the Lexx includes:

* Security guard 4th class Stanley H. Tweedle, agent of a failed rebellion and, by accident, captain of the Lexx.
* Zev (later Xev) Bellringer of planet B3K, a half cluster lizard, renegade love slave.
* 790, a robot head that received the love slave programming meant for Zev, first loving Zev, then in later series, Kai.
* Kai, last of the Brunnen G, an emotionless, undead Divine Assassin.
* The Lexx itself, with which Stanley regularly interacts.

The crew of the Lexx is motivated largely by fear, lust, and 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 series 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 Lexx is a bioengineered, Manhattan-sized, planet-destroying, living starship in the shape of a giant wingless dragonfly. It was grown from organ collections used on the Cluster, the seat of the Divine Order. Its original intent was for use by His Divine Shadow as a terror weapon to force the surrender of a group of "Heretic" worlds that had rebelled. This plan was foiled when the crew commandeered it to escape from the Cluster.

The mechanics of the Lexx are quite simple. The 'key' is an intangible living thing that allows whomever is hosting it to captain the Lexx. Commands are carried out by voice of the captain, however on the bridge there is a hand beacon that appears to confirm important orders, like destroying a planet. The Lexx acknowledges commands and often comments with a droning, simple male voice; for example, "As you command, Stan."

The Lexx needs to eat constantly to stay alive and useful, and can land on a planet's surface to scoop up suitable organic foodstuffs. The moral dilemma of destroying inhabited worlds for Lexx's functioning and survival is a recurring plot theme. The Lexx also uses this matter and reprocesses it into usable items for the crew, like edible food.

The Lexx also hosts a contingent of smaller bioengineered ornithopter-like craft called "moths", which the crew periodically use – in air or space – for short-range travel or to go where the Lexx may prove unwieldy.

[kg redhead]

There were four series of LEXX. The first consisted of 4 two-hour TV movies (sometimes screened as eight one-hour episodes), alternatively titled Tales from a Parallel Universe. However, some episode guides do not list the 2-hour movies as a series but confusingly list the subsequent seasons as the first through third.

The second season consisted of 20 hour-long episodes with an overall story arc concerning an evil scientist called Mantrid who wants to convert all material in the universe into "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 an enigmatic and cheerful evil being known as Prince, who may be the Devil.

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 somehow head of the ATF) and several other old adversaries have arrived there too. Between them, Prince and the Lexx manage to demolish large chunks of the Earth, including the city of Ottawa (a Canadian metonymical in-joke), before the climactic final episode.