ORBzine - 2001.03 Television Review: Lexx

Season 2

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 1] Mantrid
Reviewed: 12th December 2000

This is an ensemble piece set on a futuristic starship [called Lexx, like Farscape but with originality instead of muppets. Of course, it's nowhere near as good as the other show [fewer characters with less depth, I suppose]. The ship's talking AI is reminiscent of Blake's 7 , however.

This episode starts with a brief synopsis of Season One. There was a war between humans and a species called the Insects, which the humans won with the help of the Lexx. One of the crew, a dead assassin named Kai, persuades the others to retrieve a dormant insect and then seek out the title character - a disembodied genius.

As it turns out the insects are not as defeated as the humans believed, and we see the set-up for a new major villain this Season.

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 2] Terminal
Reviewed: 19th December 2000

Stanley Tweedle accidentally gets his heart punctured, and the others have to get him medical attention. Zev gets off with the surgeon, but he is more interested in her ship ...

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 3] Lyekka
Reviewed: 9th January 2001 - Tuesday

Stephen McHattie guest-stars as the leader of a group of space-faring rednecks from a planet named Potato-hole. Also, this is the first appearance of Xev [the new, X-rated Zev], played by the babelicious Xenia Seeberg .

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 4] Luvliner
Reviewed: 16th January 2001 - Tuesday

The crew are feeling horny, and when they encounter a subspace broadcast advertising a floating brothel they immediately head over there. However, advertising can misrepresent the product - and as in the episode Terminal, some villains try to steal the Lexx!

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 5] Lafftrak
Reviewed: 23th January 2001 - Tuesday

The Lexx turns up at a planet where society is dominated by television. Failure to keep ratings high means you get terminated ...

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 6] Stan's Trial
Reviewed: 30th January 2001 - Tuesday

Stan's past catches up with him. His incompetence in a previous job resulted in Season One's arch-villain destroying 100 inhabited planets, and the sadistic bisexual Prosecutor wants to execute him personally.

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 7] Love Grows
Reviewed: 18th March 2001 - Sunday

Stan picks up a distress signal from Planet Orgasmos, where the horny women need men to serve their lust. Naturally he makes full haste to rescue them. Xev is so frustrated she is even willing to shag Stanley!

Meanwhile, some white trash space-truckers encounter a subspace anomaly ... Their ship gets eaten by the Lexx, and they get contaminated by their toxic cargo. Within 60 hours they will all die ...

This episode is stranger than most: the term is gender-swop!

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 8] White trash
Reviewed: 20th March 2001 - Tuesday

We find out what happened to the newcomers at the end of the previous episode. There are rednecks on the Lexx, and they're cannibals! Maury Chaykin guest-stars as Paw, the head of the Clan.

Lyekka ( Louise Wischerman ) is still aboard, but in a dormant state.

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 9] 791
Reviewed: 25th March 2001 - Sunday

Lyekka ( Louise Wischerman ) needs to eat, so the crew take her to a crashed spaceship. 790 [the severed robot head] discovers the decapitated corpse of a male cyborg, and decides to make a new man of himself. This has disasterous results, and we get a set-piece based on the climax of Alien.

Lyekka's attack is now in the form of gelatinous polymorphic goo, as opposed to the Dream fulfilment used in previous episodes.

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 10] Wake The Dead
Reviewed: 27th March 2001 - Tuesday

The Lexx picks up a group of teenage suvivors from a penal colony. They tell tales of a serial-killer called the Kid-Carver, an obvious reference to the cliches of the slasher-movie genre. And sure enough ...

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 11] Nook
Reviewed: 2nd April 2001 - Monday

The crew of the Lexx find a remote colony, and go down to explore. The colonists are monks, and because they are clones they have literally never seen a woman before in their lives. Xev finds this to be a great opportunity!

However, as always in this kind of story something bad happens. Mysterious murders are committed, as in Name of the Rose ...

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 12] Norb
Reviewed: 8th April 2001 - Sunday

The ship takes aboard an orphan boy, Norb, who is not all he appears to be. An old enemy comes a-calling. Yes, the season's arch-villain [who appeared in the first few episodes but hasn't been around for the last few] is back. His one-armed flying drones infest the Lexx, ripping it apart to build more of themselves. Can Stanley and the others save their ship?

This is the first mention of 790's brain cube.

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 13] Twilight
Reviewed: 9th April 2001 - Monday

Stanley is virtually comatose. The others take him to a healing world, formerly ruled by Season One villain His Divine Shadow.

The sole inhabitants are a disfunctional family. Every night the house is besieged by zombies. They have their own robot-head, 792, and a lesbian daughter who takes a liking to Xev.

Lyekka ( Louise Wischerman ) is still aboard. She only pops up when she's hungry ... Meanwhile, Kai feels the need to dance and recite poetry.

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 14] Patches In The Sky

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 15] Woz

This is a parody of The Wizard of Oz

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 16] The Web
Reviewed: 18th April 2001 - Wednesday

The Mantrid drones have destroyed most of the universe. Our heroes realise that the only escape is into the other universe, but they discover that all the cross-over points have been destroyed. Their only option is to go to the centre of the universe, where everything is ... uncertain.

On their way there the Lexx is caught in a giant web. Xev wakes up, and everything is ... strange.

The thing that really stands out about this episode is that Xev takes a shower and we see the side of her breast and nipple. Hey, let's face it - she's the only reason anyone watches the show!

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 17] The Net
Reviewed: 22nd April 2001 - Sunday

This is another version of the previous episode, The Web. It is told from a different perspective, and the ending is slightly different.

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 18] Brigadoom
Reviewed: 23rd April 2001 - Monday

En route to the centre of the Universe, the Lexx discovers a strange ship in space. The crew explores it, and discovers it is a theatre of sorts. The actors are performing a musical based on Kai's life, so Kai and Xev join in ...

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 19] Brizon
Reviewed: 24th April 2001 - Tuesday

En route to face Mantrid, the Lexx takes aboard a dying man. He is The Shadow's Supreme Bio-Vizier, who has kept himself alive by unnatural means. In other words, he is completely untrustworthy. Of course, as Mantrid's mentor he is the only one who can defeat the drones and turn Kai human again.

The face-off between the two evil geniuses is worth waiting for!

Lexx [Season 2, Episode 20] The End Of The Universe
Reviewed: 29th April 2001 - Sunday

Season 3

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 1] Fire & Water
Reviewed: 12th June 2001 - Tuesday

The Lexx, deserted and drifting, is boarded by strangers led by Prince [Nigel Bennett]. They locate Stanley, cryogenically frozen, and defrost him. He explains that Lexx ran out of fuel 400 light-years from the nearest solar system, and has drifted for at least 900 years. Stanley is carted off and used as slave labour on a deadly fixed cycle.

It turns out that the system the Lexx drifted into has two inhabited planets, one a water-world [named Water] and the other a desert [named Fire], constantly at war with each other. The episode ends with Stan on Fire, Kai on Water and Xev on the Lexx.

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 2] May
Reviewed: 19th June 2001 - Tuesday

Prince offers Stan his heart's desire, his girlfriend May, in exchange for the destruction of the Water planet. Stan agrees, and Xev stops in in a not-unpleasant manner.

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 3] Gametown
Reviewed: 26th June 2001 - Tuesday

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 4] Boomtown
reviewed 3rd July 2001 - Tuesday

The villainous Duke uses Kai's moths to deadly effect. First he attacks the Water planet, then he launches a coup on Prince.

The crew of the Lexx go to Boomtown, a Water city where everyone has sex all day every day. Hmm, we're in Season 2 again!

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 5] Gondola
Reviewed: 10th July 2001 - Tuesday

Duke and his second-in-command Fi-Fi get stranded in the desert. Meanwhile, the crew of the Lexx [with living Kai instead of the dead one] balloon across the Fire planet.

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 6] K-Town
Reviewed: 17th July 2001 - Tuesday

Stan and Xev climb up, and explore the city. They meet up with Kai again, and see another familiar face ... an old villain from Season Two!

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 7] Tunnels
Reviewed: 24th July 2001 - Tuesday

Kai is taken to Hog-Town, and assessed by an Inquisition of bureaucrats.

Meanwhile, Stan and Xev follow Prince through the tunnels under Fire's surface, in the hope of rescuing their friend.

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 8] The Key
Reviewed: 31st July 2001 - Tuesday

Our heroes return to the Lexx, and are reunited with 790. Xev decides she wants a turn at being Captain of the ship, and sets everyone to work finding out a way to transfer the key from Stanley Tweedle to her.

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 9] Garden
Reviewed: 7th August 2001 - Tuesday

Stanley dreams about Lyekka ( Louise Wischerman ). He wants to settle on the Water planet. However, they have less than 150 hours to get food for Lexx.

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 10] Battle
Reviewed: th August 2001 - Tuesday

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 11] Girltown
Reviewed: 28th August 2001 - Tuesday

Xev's balloon crashes in the desert, and she has to trek across planet Fire. Finally she arrives at a tower, and climbs to the city at the top.

Kai and Stanley take a Moth to the surface and look for Xev. Stanley is captured by the inhabitants of the city - vicious feminazi bureaucrats who think he is Prince.

The men in Girltown are all homosexuals, including one played by Jimmy Sommerville. As one of them asks, why should they be sent to the planet of evil-doers?

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 12] The Beach
Reviewed: 4th September 2001 - Tuesday

Stanley and Kai splash down on the Water planet. Stanley somehow survives, and soon finds himself on a beach between Fire and Water. He is on trial, to decide which planet he should go to. Prince [Nigel Bennet] acts as Prosecutor, and Stanley must defend himself. We get to see several flashbacks, but they are brief and plot-related.

Kai goes straight to the bottom. 790 and Xev try to find him.

Lexx [Season 3, Episode 13] Heaven & Hell
Reviewed: 11th September 2001 - Tuesday

Kai and Xev try to rescue Stanley. However, he ends up where he started at the end of the first episode.

This is the end of the 13-episode Season. However, there is hope for the next Season, because we get sight of the Lexx's new destination ... a small blue-green planet that looks oddly familiar!

Season 4

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 1] Little Blue Planet
Shown 13 Jul 01

Lexx arrives at Earth. But Prince got there first, and he is plotting.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 2] Texx Lexx
Shown 20 Jul 01

Prince takes a BATF space shuttle to commandeer the Lexx.

Kai and Xev visit Texas. They are tracked by the USAAF and nerds led by the black Stephen Hawking.

Xev befriends some rednecks. Kai hangs out with paranoid people. Stanley is caught by Prince.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 3] P4X
Shown 27 Jul 01

The title is a reference to Stargate SG-1 , which uses it as a prefix in planetary designations.

Xev is held prisoner in a Texas Jail run by Craig Charles and Hattie Haydridge, stars of Red Dwarf .

We also get a goth babe and some BDSM.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 4] Stan Down
Shown 3 Aug 01

Stan and the US President plot to kill Director Prince.

Though Stan's plans never work as intended, at least he gets back to the Lexx.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 5] Xevivor
Shown 10 Aug 01

Xev lotteries herself on a Survivor-type TV show. Stanley cheats. The island is invaded by killer robots that look like walking carrots.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 6] The Rock
Shown 17 Aug 01

Stanley is made a King. But his Kingdom is Newfoundland, the island off the Canadian coast. Worse, his evil twin lives there.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 7] Walpurgis Night
Shown 24 Aug 01

The crew stop off at Transylvania. Xev is still in her blue bikini. And when she takes a bath, she even gives a flash of nipple.

The guest cast include 3 goth chicks, an English Dracula, Renfield ...

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 8] Vlad
Shown 7 Sep 01

Vlad is a Fem vamp.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 9] Fluff Daddy
Shown 14 Sep 01

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 10] Magic Baby
Shown 28 Sep 01

The crew return to Lexx via the space shuttle [with help from English Druids].

Kai fights the Final battle with Vlad. However, 1 regular is KIA.

Worse, The Key is MIA.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 11] A Midsummer's Nightmare
Shown 25 Jan 02

Stan and Kai take Xev to the Druids' ceremony [moved to London due to foot and mouth epidemic]. They are all Kidnapped by the Faerie King.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 12] Bad Carrot
Shown 1 Feb 02

Stan and Xev are out of Food. Prince, Bunny and Prez board the Lexx, to escape the carrot probes that have infested Earth.

One of the carrots gets aboard the Lexx, leading to a parody of Alien . Don't worry - Kai gives everyone an anal probe!

We see the Lexx's bathroom. Also, Prince teaches Kai to play Chess.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 13] 769
Shown 8 Feb 02

Kai is running low on proto-blood.

790 makes a deal with Prince on the Lexx. A moth-breeder has the key!

Stan, Bunny and Xev play Truth or Dare.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 14] Prime Ridge
Shown 15 Feb 02

The crew have no key for the Lexx, so they go to the Midwest USA. They get a bin-bag of cash from an ATM, then meet an Estate Agent ( Britt Ekland ). She sells them a house, and they stuff Kai in the freezer. Then they becomne couch-potatoes.

Xev becomes stress-counsellor at the CJD Meat-Packing Plant. The locals are just gun-toting losers. Yes, this is a gun-control episode.

Stan pulls 2 women [!!!]. Xev, OTOH, refuses a needy hunk [!!!].

Stephen McHattie is an FBI Agent after Xev.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 15] Mort
Shown 22 Feb 02

Stan and Xev take Kai to the title character, a necrophiliac embalmer.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 16] Moss
Shown 1 Mar 02

Prez and Bunny discover that Prince is back. Well, sort of.

Stan and Xev are captured by Steven McHattie [ X-Files ] and the Remember Waco Militia.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 17] Dutch Treat
Shown 8 Mar 02

Lexx is digesting itself. Kai, Xev and Stan must join Dr Longbore [the black Stephen Hawking]. They leave 790 to die!

The Prez, Bunny and Prince visit Lexx. The President and Bunny try to take over the Lexx.

Is the Doctor an eeevil genius? The mad professor is building a starship.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 18] The Game
Shown 15 Mar 02

Kai and Prince play a game of chess. The winner gets to live. Will Prince get a stay of execution, or will Kai be revived from the Undead?

Kai has never played chess before, but he is a fast learner. Prince has never lost.

The pieces include Stan, 790, and Xev against Prez, Bunny and Vlad. But as pieces are lost, body parts start to disappear. That said, it still makes more sense than the usual die in a dream, die in reality clich�.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 19] Haley's Comet
Shown 22 Mar 02

Four peacenik 20-somethings board the Lexx. Stan wants the bitchy Jennifer Sky lookalike. She wants Kai ... and 790 gets murderously jealous! But then, 790 wants to kill everyone.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 20] ApocaLexx Now
Shown 29 Mar 02

Lyekka II [from the carrot-ship] visits. Stan, Kai and Xev take her to see the Prez.

The Prez is in Vietnam, giving a speech so racist it makes you glad that Dubyah has someone to write his lines for him.

The Lady Pope is there too. and she has plans of her own.

Bunny gets caught in an homage to the 1980s song Camoflage. The others have to take a patrol boat up the river.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 21] Viva Lexx Vegas
Shown November 2005

The President and Bunny leave Stan, Kai and Xev at Las Vegas. Stan tries to nail some hookers, while Xev becomes a lady wrestler on pay-per-view TV. Kai recites poetry.

Of course, the Casino-hotel they are staying at is Mafia-run.

Unfortunately, a Mummy has become reanimated, and is killing everyone who gets in its way. It is wrapped in black bandages, so it obviously has similar origins to the other undead characters, Vlad and Kai!

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 22] Trip
Shown November 2005

Lyekka ( Louise Wischerman ) gave the Lexx crew a series of gifts before they left her at Earth. Predictably, things do not go as expected. Yes, the berries are halucinogenic.

Stan and Xev chase each other round the ship, trying to kill each other. 790 eggs them both on. Apparently Xev has forgotten that she has cluster-lizard fighting skills!

Prince makes a re-appearance. Up to no good, as ever. But what is his agenda?

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 23] Lyekka Vs. Japan
Shown 2nd December 2005

Lyekka's asteroid lands on Japan, as promised. In a homage to Godzilla , a giant Lyekka ( Louise Wischerman ) emerges and starts to eat Tokyo.

Can Kai and Xev kill the giant Lyekka? Can Lexx, now very weak, destroy the asteroid?

Meanwhile, Prince tries to corrupt Stanley aboard the Lexx.

Lexx [Season 4, Episode 24] Yo Way Yo
Shown 9th December 2005

Lyekka's asteroid is eating the Earth. Like Independance Day , there's an attack on ever main city in the world. Therefore the President and Bunny must lead the US Air Force counterattack!

The Afro-American Stephen Hawking guy is just about to finish his preparations. The rocket-ship is built, the cheerleaders selected ... and a world-destroying superweapon has been set up.

Worst of all, the Lexx is dying of old age. It's almost too weak to shoot anything, and is so senile it thinks 790 is the Captain!

Prince makes good his promise. But being a sadist, he does it at the worst possible moment.

ORBzine Lexx: Tales From A Parallel Universe March 2001

TV Movies

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4