Norb – the scrappy kid last seen in "
White Trash" – returns to Lexx as the emissary of an old enemy.
(U.S. premiere June 23, 2000)
Written and directed by Paul Donovan
| The Practical Approach |
790: The little kid is clearly deranged. I suggest we spare ourselves any further unpleasantness by ejecting him back into space at once.
790: Who will eventually grow into a man who could then become a threat to the perfect love that I feel for you at all times. |
STAN: Kai, what do you think?
KAI: I do not think the way you think, I think |
790 [to Lexx]: You city-sized mass of marginally cognitive insect mush.
STAN: Lexx, say to 790 that he's a stupid robot head and I care for him less than anything in the two universes, biological, mechanical or in between. |
GUEST STARS
Dieter Laser – Mantrid
Brandon McCarvell – Norb
WHAT HAPPENED
Norb's ship flies through deep space. He arrives at a space station that looks like it was designed by Willy Wonka.
Norb contacts the "big fat candy house" and asks to come aboard. He receives no response.
Suddenly, the station begins dissolving.
ANALYSIS
Mantrid is Lexx's answer to the Borg. His arms, like the techno-organic monsters of the Star Trek universe, assimilate everything in their path.
Unlike the Borg, the drones are not interested in "biological and technological distinctiveness." Anything and everything in their path is fodder for the production of more drones.
The arms, as wholly mechanical constructs, aren't scintillating conversationalists like the Borg. They don't waste time threatening assimilation. They simply swarm in and start replicating.
Once upon a time...
One of the first things children learn about stories is that they have a beginning, a middle and an ending. As we grow older, we learn that linear narrative is only one possible way to tell a story.
Even so, it's one thing for a storyteller to construct their story non-sequentially. It is quite another for a network programmer to take a sequential story and re-arrange it in order to attract more viewers.
That is precisely what is happening with the SCI FI Channel’s run of Lexx. As a result, the version of the series available to the U.S. audience goes something like this: late middle, earlier middle, beginning, various parts of the middle needed to fill in the gaps between the beginning and the ending, and eventually – one assumes – the ending.
While Lexx isn't perfectly serial in nature, there are subplots – namely, Mantrid's attacks on other planets and stations that lead up to his confrontation with Lexx in this episode - that carry though the story.
These plot elements tie otherwise non-related episodes together. These elements make more sense when seen in the order the creators' intended.
When the crew watches Mantrid's arms destroy the planet Ruuma in the episode "Twilight", Kai comments, "I believe the game is continuing."
Although it takes place after "Norb", "Twilight" aired earlier in the SCI FI Channel run. As a result, it isn't until we see "Norb" that we understand that Mantrid is playing a destructive game with the crew of Lexx.
Brain cube?
The revelation that 790 has a fragment of human brain is interesting, but it feels like something Paul Donovan threw in to answer the show's critics.
SF fans are a nit-picky lot. There is no doubt that Lexx's creators received no shortage of variations on the question "Why did the love slave treatment affect 790? He’s a robot!"
In the long run, it is easier to confront that question and put it to rest than face it over and over again.
WHAT WE LEARN
790 model robots have a small cube of human brain tissue hardwired into their circuitry. This organic component explains why 790 was affected by his exposure to the love slave treatment and became devoted to Xev.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Where will Mantrid turn up next?
Will Lexx suffer any ill affects after reabsorbing Mantrid's technology?
What will Lexx look like when it finishes growing? Will it become even more powerful?
BLOWED UP!
Mantrid assimilated Space Station Wonka. Lexx destroyed millions of Mantrid drones. But there were no noteworthy explosions in this episode.
TUNE IN TWO WEEKS FROM NOW WHEN
Stan gets more than he bargained for when he enters his own dreams in "Patches in the Sky". Meanwhile, the SCI FI Channel celebrates the Independence Day weekend with a space rock movie marathon.
What do you think? Send your comments to the
editor.
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