'Lexx' appeal: A deeply underrated sci-fi classic that was equal parts Farscape, Star Wars, and Red Dwarf

What would Star Wars be like if Darth Vader was possessed by an insect, Luke Skywalker became a walking corpse, and the Death Star got hijacked by the worst person you know?

The answer is Lexx, a bizarre-but-brilliant sci-fi TV series that ran for four seasons between 1997 and 2002. This forgotten show shared DNA with Red Dwarf, Star Trek, and other sci-fi media, yet it was such a unique spectacle that it deserves better than to be lost to the sands of time.

Lexx followed the exploits of a mismatched, fugitive starship crew: security guard Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey), part-lizard love slave Zev/Xev Bellringer (Eva Habermann / Xenia Seeberg), reanimated assassin Kai (Michael McManus), and robot head 790 (Jeffrey Hirschfield), who was alternately obsessed with the latter two.

They fled the evil Divine Order on the Lexx, a sentient, dragonfly-shaped planet-killer accidentally bonded to the chronically cowardly Stan. A black comedy at heart, Lexx takes a familiar sci-fi set-up and flips it on its head.

"The heroic cops, the salt 'n' pepper buddy cop team… I've always wanted to see the scene where they hit the innocent bystander and everything just goes wrong," explained Paul Donovan, who co-created the show with Jeffrey Hirschfield and the late Lex Gigeroff. "The possibility that a security guard becomes captain of the most powerful force in the two universes, it's that kind of thinking."

Stan was the closest the show had to an audience proxy, the sole voice of reason. In practice, that meant whenever the Lexx detected a mysterious signal, Stan's instinct was to blow up its source. It was Zev (or Xev as she later became) who suggested actually investigating it. "Xev almost becomes the moral voice of the crew," Seeberg points out, though her yearning for Kai (everyone loves a moody dead guy) led her astray on a few occasions.

And Kai, the undead assassin rocking a beehive? Prophesied to end the Divine Order, he was largely indifferent to Xev's feelings and their collective predicament. He had the least in the way of personal development, but actor McManus was adamant he not be another sci-fi character in search of humanity.

"No, no, no, you wrote him dead, he stays dead, I ain't going to do this Data thing," he said, referring to Star Trek: The Next Generation's infamous android. To its credit, the show rarely went there. But he did dispense magnificent pearls of wisdom, like "Being dead means not having an opinion," and "The dead do not poo."

"We wanted to get away from the heavy, preachy, moralizing sci-fi of shows like Star Trek: TNG, which in my view took all the joie de vivre out of the original series," Gigeroff said. "There was a sense of fun in the original series, and I think we wanted to try and create three characters as distinctive as Kirk-Spock-McCoy with Kai-Stan-Xev (plus a robot head).

Lexx certainly wasn't short on levity, with gags ranging from the satirical (a former intergalactic cannibal becoming the Pope) to the reassuringly low-brow (the Lexx's insectoid food pipes spattering a mysterious fluid onto Stan's plate).

But it wasn't just the humour that made Lexx shine; as a joint Canadian/German production, it had a character all its own. On top of the show's ear-pleasing blend of accents, the costume design was on a whole other level; Barbarella meets Mad Max meets an explosion in a fancy dress shop.

The cast deserved medals for playing it straight, including guest star Barry Bostwick, who hadn't worn an outfit like that since The Rocky Horror Picture Show. There were no knowing winks to the camera, no pause for an unseen audience to chortle at Stan's misfortune. So when the show did dial up the drama, you were right there with the Lexx's hapless crew.

Above all, Lexx was wildly unpredictable. Episodes either bucked sci-tropes or dialled them up to 11. Wherever you suspected the show was going, you were usually wrong; very little was off-limits for Lexx. That included killing the aforementioned innocent (and some not-so-innocent) bystanders in some wickedly gruesome and unexpected ways.

Outdoing Star Wars' Empire for pure evil, Lexx's Divine Order murdered the populace of 20,000 planets to resurrect an ancient, semi-dormant insect that was pulling its strings.

The show's solution to Zev's original actress leaving was to have a new Zev - Xev - reconstituted from the partially digested remains of three potato-obsessed astronauts. And, in a nod to nanotech panic, Season 2's big bad was a self-replicating cloud of drone arms controlled by The Human Centipede's Dieter Laser. That's just a tiny sample of the unpredictability and absurdity Lexx brought to the small screen.

How were Lexx's creators able to bring all this ridiculous saga to the small screen, without a Disney+ size budget? Production company Salter Street Films supplemented the superb prop and costume design with extensive use of green screen and CGI.

Viewed today, its mid-budget sci-fi aesthetic comes off as quaint but charming. But back in the '90s I was absolutely transfixed by its warped universe. So were a great many other people and, while the show is less remembered today than Farscape or Stargate SG-1, it was a major success at the time.

Lexx wasn't without its flaws, however. The show concluded with Season 4, and Donovan explained back in a 2001 interview that another was never on the cards. "Sci Fi would probably accept a fifth season, but we made it clear to them that we are not planning one. We are worried that if Lexx continues, there is a good possibility of the creativity being exhausted."

But despite some superb performances, that last series felt strained. Lexx reinvented itself each season, and Season 3 — set on the planets of Fire and Water — didn't outstay its welcome at 13 episodes. Season 4, however, had a massive 24 episodes, and though its finale was on point, there were multiple episodes where Lexx was treading water.

So, 23 years after the show's final episode aired, is it time for the Lexx to fly again? As much as I love the show, no. Convection appearances aside, the cast and producers appear to have moved on. A nostalgia-for-nostalgia's sake reboot, meanwhile, would no doubt struggle to replicate Lexx's surreal storytelling and unapologetic strangeness.

Instead, it's best to appreciate Lexx for what it was: pure lightning in a bottle, even if the bottle was suspiciously and inexplicably sticky. There's nothing quite like it, and never will be again. If you've the slightest interest in sci-fi, you owe it to yourself to take a trip with the crew of the Lexx.

Lexx is available to watch via Amazon Prime Video, Plex, and various other streaming services.