My primary interest in the television series Lexx (a German/Canadian co-production, with many of the episodes shot in Halifax) came from learning that none-other-than Jörg Buttgereit (Nekromantik, Schramm) actually directed one of the episodes from the second season, entitled 791.  Currently I have only explored a small number of episodes from this world of oddball madness, in what has to be described as Star Trek on acid!

Debuting on Canadian television in 1997, Lexx began as a four part mini-series, with each part running approximately 90-minutes in length.  The episodes from season one include Lexx 1.0: I Worship His Shadow, Lexx 2.0: Super Nova, Lexx 3.0: Eating Pattern, and Lexx 4.0: Giga Shadow.  All seasons of the show have had various incarnations on DVD.  Here we take a look at the 2010 release of Lexx Season One on DVD from Alliance Films.

I Worship His Shadow introduces the main characters of Lexx and develops the complicated mythos of the series.  In the show's world, there are two universes, the Light Universe and the Dark Zone.  "The Lexx" is a massive (Manhattan-sized) bio-engineered ship grown on an area of the Light Universe called the Cluster, which is dominated by His Devine Shadow.  The Lexx is a planet-destroying ship that resembles a very phallic wingless Dragonfly and is the most powerful weapon of destruction of both universes.  The ship is fuelled by organic waste, namely bodily human remains.  Lexx 1.0 explores how our main protagonist, Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey) becomes captain of The Lexx as well as introducing his comrades.  Zev (Eva Habermann) is an attractive blue-blonde love slave with the mind of a Cluster Lizard (picture the creatures from the Tremors movies and you pretty much have a Cluster Lizard).  790 (Jeffrey Hirschfield) is a robotic head with crude computer screens for eyes and mouth, who has the mind of a love slave and a major infatuation with Zev.  The only other member of The Lexx's crew is Kai, the last of a race called the Brunnen-G.  Kai was killed by His Divine Shadow and turned into a reanimated assassin with a substance called protoblood.  He became a member of The Lexx's crew when a Divine Predecessor (brain of a previous Divine Shadow) gave him his memory back.  Hard to follow?  Don't worry, after watching a couple of the episodes you absorb a greater understanding of this somewhat intricate, eccentric world.  The series follows with The Lexx and its crew looking for a new home as His Divine Shadow desires to get the ship back in his divine possession.

Super Nova, the second episode in the series follows the crew exploring Kai's homeland of Brunnis, in the hopes of finding a way to extend  Kai's undead life.  There they run into a (VHS camcorder quality) holographic image of a character named Poet Man (Tim Curry), and deal with an approaching explosion of the planet's sun.  This episode suffers on many levels but what kills it for me is the character of Gigerotta (Ellen Dubin), a cannibal wearing a retarded looking human skin suit (which would make Ed Gein roll in his grave) that constantly refers to herself in the third person.  Literally hundreds of times we hear her mentioning herself in the third person, even several times in the same sentence.  This is the worst episode of season one, but has a redeeming sequence where Zev bares all for a nude shower scene.

Eating Pattern is by far the best of the bunch with a killer guest appearance by Rutger Hauer (The Hitcher, Blade Runner).  The Lexx is running out of energy and can no longer produce food for the crew.  It is forced to land on what seems to be a baron wasteland, but appears to contain enough organic matter to replenish the ship.  There the group runs into a race of bizarre misfits lead by Hauer.  This episode fits nicely in a post apocalyptic mind frame with a horror/science fictional twist involving a form of sustenance called "pattern".  Even though it is the best of series one, it suffers from a far too wacky other-the-top conclusion.

The Final episode of the series is Giga Shadow in which The Lexx returns to the Cluster (to the reluctance of Tweedle) in search of protoblood for Kai.  This episode guest stars Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Rob Zombie's Halloween) and explores the "cleansing" process for the impending birth of something more sinister than His Devine Shadow, the Giga Shadow.

Lexx is quite possibly the most uniquely warped science fiction series ever made.  Sure, it's hindered by a lot of archaic CGI from 1997, but it also boasts some beautiful matte paintings and set pieces.  Furthermore, it contains some decent gore for a TV series, stop motion,  practical make-up effects and let's not forget nudity.  With a series such as Lexx, at its infancy, it holds its own and, for the most part, overcomes its shortcomings.  If anything, Rutger Hauer's guest starring episode Eating Pattern is worth the price of this release alone.

Alliance Films presents Lexx Season One in its original 1.33:1 full frame presentation with basic Dolby Digital stereo 2.0 sound.  For the most part the picture quality is good with the exception of some dark scenes in Lexx 2.0 that contain some digital noise often found in Blu-Ray releases.  This is rather short-lived though and minimally distracting.  This four disc DVD set contains no supplemental features.

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 DVD SPECS:
 Aspect Ratio: Full Screen 1.33:1
 Region: NTSC R1
 Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0

 SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
 N/A