Lexx - Vol. 1.4 - Series 1, Episode 4 - Giga Shadow [1997]

Aboard the stolen 10-kilometre-long spaceship Lexx (designed to look like a dragonfly) are the "Dirty Three-and-a-Half": insufferable coward Stanley H Tweedle (Brian Downey), the Edward Scissorhands clone and 2000 years-dead Kai (Michael McManus), decapitated and lovestruck robot head 790 (voiced by writer Hirschfield), and the skimpily wardrobed Zev (19-year-old Eva Habermann). It's with the last of these characters that the show generated its main audience and proved itself totally indifferent to regular boundaries of TV formatting. After four 90-minute-long movies (really just an extended pilot), it took time for a financial commitment to secure a second season. Then Habermann took on other work, leaving the show without its central babe allure. The creators' answer was to kill off Zev and then immediately resurrect her as Xev (Xenia Seeberg) in a manner far more inventive than Dr Who or even Dallas! A disregard both for genre conventions and good taste makes the show a constant series of surprises: by the time of the third season, the expression "anything goes" had long passed being understatement.

On this tape: The four-part first season and the foretold Prophecy (seemingly) come to an end. The resurrection of "His Divine Shadow" into "Giga Shadow" is bad news for the Lexx crew, but it does at least explain the show's logo! After the diversions of the previous episodes "Super Nova" and "Eating Pattern", this is a plot-dense resolution to all that was introduced in the pilot, "I Worship His Shadow". But it is by no means the end of anyone's stories. Stan's embarrassing past is brought to the fore by a pair of fetishistic mercenaries (a sequence debuting in its intended place on this volume), and Kai is challenged by being the Prophecy's fulfiller and by falling for his pet Cluster Lizard "Squish". The episode again dazzles the eye with a chorus of singing brains, and poor Malcolm McDowell in a cameo that wraps him in a gigantic brain. The documentary at the end features a very frank interview with director Robert Sigl and hilarious outtakes from McDowell. The creators promise that however long the show runs they have a planned surprise ending. It should also be noted this volume presents the original "open" ending. --Paul Tonks

This is Lexx at it's best. The climatic confrontation with the ultimate incarnation of His Shadow is incredible to watch, even if it is a little reminiscent of the ending of 'Eating Pattern' Excellent.


Lexx - 1.1 - I Worship His Shadow - Now I understand   August 17, 2000
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

If you saw the series on Channel 5 (and the terrible repeat season) on terrestrial TV, you have got to buy this.

It shows just how much the U.K. presentation was 'shredded'. The story actually makes some sense after seeing this video.

I particularly liked the 'home video' at the end by the creators.

Looking foreward to seeing 1.2 Supernova.


A classic is born   April 15, 2000
This is soooo different to anything else seen on TV. Flying insects, dead assassins, amazing effects and a villian more evil than Darth Vader! The story sets the characters up perfectly but excels even more at giving us a whole universe of strange places to go and characters to meet.

Stanley Tweedle appears to be a genetic coward with the backbone of a worm but even he has his moments of bravery. Zev is presented as a bimbo but quickly establishes herself as much more as she shows no fear what-so-ever. Given her life its easy to understand that she's seen too much to fear anything again. Kai is dead and a ruthless killer but he does have a cool hairstyle and manages to get his memory back.

All in all a very good adventure - just see for yourself :)


Big bugs...Lexx at it's best.   May 11, 2000
The best of the first series...indeed, the best the series has produced so far. This picks up on the leftover threads from the first film, as the crew of the Lexx is forced to return to the Cluster, the planet where it all began, to find a new supply of protoblood, the stuff that keeps Kai, the undead assassin alive. They arrive to find the planet deserted, having been host to some kind of planet-wide genocide. Investigating takes Zev and Kai to the centre of the planet, and the answer to exactly who the body-jumping evil emperor known as His Shadow really is.

This is Lexx at it's best. The climatic confrontation with the ultimate incarnation of His Shadow is incredible to watch, even if it is a little reminiscent of the ending of 'Eating Pattern' Excellent.