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The sexy cult cable series
Lexx began life in 1997 as a set of four Canadian-German TV coproductions, sci-fi farces about a trio of fugitives in a living spaceship on the run in an unknown galaxy. It's like a twisted parody of the playful but far more serious space opera
Farscape, though
Lexx actually was produced first. Sad sack Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey), a bumbling engineer with bad judgment and worse luck, is the pilot of the most powerful weapon in the galaxy thanks to a fluke accident. And his motley crew includes platinum-blond bombshell Zev Bellringer (Eva Habermann), whose DNA has been altered to contain that of a bloodthirsty cluster lizard; former assassin Kai (Michael McManus), a humorless, dead warrior kept animated for 2,000 years with artificial blood; and a decapitated, lovesick robot head named 790.
The colorful "I Worship His Shadow," the satirical debut of the series, is an absurd fantasy about a rebellion (led by guest star Barry Bostwick, who gamely keeps a straight face while running around dressed in psychedelic Arabian Nights duds) against His Shadow, an immortal emperor who renders his subjects into raw protein for his invincible insectlike spaceship, the Lexx. Directed at a fast and furious pace and crammed with cool CGI effects that make up in ambition and wild design what they lack in polish, it's the show's finest hour and a half, a crazy adventure with a wacky sense of humor. It's obvious the show's producers lavished their care and attention on this pilot, for the balance of the miniseries never again reaches this level of invention and fun, though in moments it comes close. --Sean Axmaker