Sci Fi’s ‘Lexx’ marvelously weird, offbeat

And now for something completely different, even by far-out Sci Fi Channel standards.

“Lexx,” which debuts at 10 tonight on the cable network, is named for a living, Manhattan-sized, dragonfly-shaped bug that has been genetically altered for use as a spacecraft. Lexx’s inept captain is Stanley Tweedle, a low-level security guard whose right hand, for some reason, is the only thing that can operate the massive ship. His crewmates are a love-struck robot head, an insatiable love slave and a 2,000-year-old dead assassin.

This crew’s mission, rather than altrustically helping other civilizations, is to find a body for the sarcastic robot head 790, artificial blood for Kai, the assassin, and sex partners for Stanley and Zev/Xev, the love slave (played by two different actresses at various times this season.) So they’re not your usual spacefarers.

Topping the unknown cast is Brian Downey as cowardly Stan, who just wants to find a nice beach and some good food and female companionship. Less developed are one-note Xev (Xenia Seeberg) and the mysterious Kai (Michael McManus).

“Lexx,” based on a series of underground movies produced under the umbrella title “Tales from a Parallel Universe,” is marvelously weird and offbeat, and makes Sci Fi’s similar multispecious tale “Farscape” seem almost straightforward in comparison.

Sci Fi isn’t helping viewers, scheduling a later episode as its debut tonight, then an earlier episode next Friday. Chronology is a good thing, people, especially with a convoluted storyline. So interested viewers should catch “Rated Lexx,” a kind of primer set to air at 9 tonight, to have any hope of keeping the “Lexx” mythology straight.

Still “Lexx,” a Canadian-German production, looks like it will be worth the work for those who like their science fiction with a twist. Sci Fi is to be congratulated for continuing to push the envelope with its original programming.