f you haven't yet seen Lexx, don't be fooled by the start of the fourth season premiere--in which the story starts out from the very landlocked point of view of the American president and his advisors. As the president bumbles his way through an initial greeting with the leader of the alien craft spied on Earth's sensors, the alien, in turn, is trying to figure out just what he doesn't like about the "bad" planet.
The alien, as it turns out, is none other than the unlikely one-time thief and captain of the Lexx, Stanley Tweedle (Downey)--who was revived from death at the end of season three. And he's itching to do something about the bad, little blue planet on his viewscreen. After all, all he wanted was to find a nice, hideaway beach location, someplace with lots of nice eye candy of the two-legged variety. But no, he couldn't get a straight answer from the out-of-his-league president, who fumbled
his way through a ridiculously large set of prepared answers on cue cards.
The only thing keeping Stanley from blowing up the little blue planet is the fact that, in last season's finale, "Heaven and Hell," he'd lost the key to the Lexx when he died. The Lexx, of course, is a Manhattan-sized, sentient, destructive insectoid space vessel with a penchant for blowing up planets and feeding on their resources.
The season premiere, appropriately titled "Little Blue Planet," picks up where last season left off, when the Lexx was last seen hurtling through space toward Earth.
Stanley feuds with the infuriating yet sexy Xev (Seeburg), whose hand now contains the key to the Lexx (it was transferred from Stanley's hand to hers upon his death). Meanwhile, the president sends a space shuttle up with a notorious death row killer--whose mission is to kill the inhabitants of the mysterious craft above and disable the threat to Earth.
Laughter, the final frontier
As a season opener goes, "Little Blue Planet" does well for both established fans and newcomers alike. The story is very accessible, with enough clever tidbits and innuendoes tossed in along the way that those who happen upon the series for the first time will find few barriers to understanding the action in full.
Even the motley crew of characters comes through clearly--Stanley, the insecure and inept captain who feels validated by the power commanding the Lexx can yield; Xev, the ravenous, part-lizard love slave; and Kai (McManus), the 6000-year-old assassin who's already dead. Even the uninitiated will be suspicious of the evil glint in the eye of the president's advisor (previously known as Prince, played by Bennett).
The unique style of the Canadian-produced series--which at times looks part MST3K, part classic Star Trek, and part Babylon 5 (thanks to the prevalence of CGI)--results in a show that entertains, without ever taking itself, or its brand of fantastical sci-fi, seriously. Which is why it actually works well, even when juxtaposed with the wicked sense of humor that's evident in this particular episode.
