LEXX - Cult TV Show Overview
Weird Science Fiction Starring Brian Downey and Xenia Seeberg
Sep 28, 2009
Lexx (1997-2002) first appeared in the form of four feature-length tele-movies in 1997. Subtitled ‘Tales from the Dark Zone’ each episode guest-starred an actor fondly remembered by fans of cult movies in a pivotal role. Barry Bostwick, Brad in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, appeared in ‘I Worship his Shadow,’ while his fellow Rocky Horror alumni Tim Curry turned up in ‘Supernova.’ Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) lent his otherworldly presence to ‘Eating Pattern’ and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) guested in the last movie ‘Gigashadow.’
LEXX Becomes a Series
LEXX followed the adventures of a group of misfits after they inadvertently find themselves in charge of the most powerful destructive force in the two known universes. The LEXX is a massive living spaceship, a fusion between technology and insect, with the power to destroy entire planets.
The crew consists of cowardly Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey), a security guard responsible for betraying the resistance to the tyrannical His Divine Shadow. Xev/Zev, a love slave played first by Eva Habermann, then by the remarkable looking Xenia Seeberg. Kai (Michael McManus) is an undead assassin with the worst haircut in the history of television. 790 is a sexually jealous decapitated robot head.
Although it never progressed beyond cult success in Canada, the US or the UK, LEXX found favour in Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe. The sheer oddness of the show created enough buzz to reassemble the production for a season of standard length 45 minute episodes. Season Two ran for twenty episodes, though it is perhaps indicative of the uncertainty surrounding the production that no season ran for the same amount of time. Season three saw LEXX cut down to thirteen episodes while the fourth and final season twenty-four episodes were commissioned.
LEXX – the Anti-Star Trek
LEXX mixed together a variety of sensibilities. Idiosyncratic, darkly humorous, with a bleak view of human nature, LEXX was also overtly sexual with many plots being motivated by the need for erotic gratification. Co-creator Paul Donovan’s childhood viewing of shows like The Beverley Hillbillies, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the original Star Trek had a huge influence on LEXX. In fact LEXX is best described as Star Trek directed by Ken Russell for people with a twisted sense of humour.
Together with writers Jeff Hirschfield and Lex Gigeroff, Donovan created the anti-Star Trek. Captian Kirk is an all-American golden boy, a JFK in space. Star Trek may have been written by liberal idealists, but despite its multi-national crew the show mirrored American foreign policy during the 60’s, to act as the policeman of the world(s) and further their own interests. In contrast LEXX portrays its version of the Federation as being totalitarian, destroying entire cultures and imposing their laws upon them.
LEXX is Subversive
Despite its inventiveness LEXX remains an acquired taste. Paul Donovan admits that he spent a lot of time apologising for making the show. The apparent lack of seriousness and the emphasis on sexuality seemed to alienate many people. LEXX certainly lacked the portentousness of many of its contemporaries, Babylon 5, or the various post Next Generation incarnations of Star Trek. However hidden behind the camp perversity, the black-hearted comedy and the nudity was a pessimistic worldview that marked LEXX out as being one of the most subversive shows ever made.
The crew of the Lexx repeatedly stumble across governmental or religious institutions that are absurd and corrupt. Seemingly righteous men turn out to be hypocrites, tyrants, or often just completely insane. Paradisiacal planets or areas are ruined by coming into contact with the LEXX’s crew. By the end of the series they have inadvertently brought destruction to good and bad alike, including the planet that by their own reckoning is the most evil they have ever visited, Earth.
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