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Deepwater Black Mission Genesis

Awakening

Deepwater Black / Mission GenesisA young woman named Yuna awakens from cryogenic sleep aboard a ship that’s lurching unpredictably through space. Other cryogenic containers open gradually, revealing the rest of her crewmates, though none of them – including Yuna – can remember their names or their shipboard functions at first.

Yuna and a young man named Reb regain enough of their memories to realize that their ship is being attacked, and manage to evade the attack by jumping into hyperspace – but whoever is firing on them continues the pursuit, and they can’t run forever. The others begin to recall their jobs: Zak is a cybernetics expert, and immediately sets about trying to repair the onboard computer and its holographic interface, Gen. Lise is medically trained, while the aggressive Bren comfortably steps back into his function as the ship’s security chief. Gret seems to be the crew’s communications expert. But all of them will have to remember how to do their jobs quickly in order to survive the next attack…

written by Bill Taub
based on the Deepwater novels by Ken Catran
directed by George Mendeluk
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: Gordon Michael Woolvett (Reb), Nicole de Boer (Yuna), Jason Cadieux (Bren), Julie Khan (Gen), Craig Kirkwood (Zak), Sara Sahr (Lise), Kelli Taylor (Gret)

Deepwater BlackNotes: Aired in the U.S. as Mission Genesis on Sci-Fi Channel, this series – based on a series of young adult SF novels by Canadian writer Ken Catran – was partially bankrolled by Sci-Fi Channel and was billed as the first Sci-Fi Channel original series. The cast is filled with faces familiar to viewers of Canadian-produced drama series (a category that also crosses over with many later Sci-Fi Channel original series). The television series diverges from the books in everything from minor story details to major elements such as the characters’ names. Composer Fred Mollin had previously scored such Canadian-produced TV series as Friday The 13th: The Series (and some of the later movies from that franchise), Forever Knight, TekWar and episodes of the new Outer Limits.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deepwater Black Mission Genesis

Lullaby

Deepwater Black / Mission GenesisAfter surviving their first challenge from a hostile ship, the young and still amnesiac crew of Deepwater Black continues trying to remember anything – including how to fix the onboard computer, Gen. They’re surprised when Gen puts in an appearance shortly after Zak short-circuits her console, but she’s not herself. Gen insists that the entire crew resume cryo-sleep in one hour, and begins depressurizing sections of the ship in preparation. Even without their memories, everyone knows something is wrong, but with Zak locked out of Gen’s diagnostic program, they can’t get her to slow down her rush to put them back to sleep. Exploring the ship to look for another console, Gret suddenly has a flash of memory – and that memory includes the knowledge that she, and everyone else on board, is a clone.

Deepwater Blackwritten by Jeff Copeland and Barry Pearson
based on the Deepwater novels by Ken Catran
directed by Don McCutcheon
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: Gordon Michael Woolvett (Reb), Nicole de Boer (Yuna), Jason Cadieux (Bren), Julie Khan (Gen), Craig Kirkwood (Zak), Sara Sahr (Lise), Kelli Taylor (Gret)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deepwater Black Mission Genesis

Legacy

Deepwater Black / Mission GenesisThe ship is nearly wiped out in a tachyon storm, with the lack of a clear chain of command nearly getting the crew killed. Bren is sent into the bowels of the ship to reroute power, but is distracted when he finds a message tape with his name on it – along with the words “for your eyes only.” After the immediate crisis, Bren returns to his quarters to watch the message: a top secret communique from the original Bren’s military commanding officer, informing him that he may have to take command at a critical moment. But the message is vague enough to make Bren think that his time is now, and he begins planning an armed takeover; after all, the lack of discipline on the bridge is dangerous, and it’s in everyone’s best interests. Yuna and Zak, conducting repairs outside the ship in the shuttlecraft, are stranded outside the shields, and Bren chooses this moment to relieve Reb of command by force, stunning him and taking him off the bridge. The more his crewmates resist his command, the more paranoid Bren becomes. Lise discovers that the message tape was coated with a mind control drug developed by the military, but by the time Bren finds out that he’s out of control, it may be too late for Yuna and Zak.

Deepwater Blackwritten by Jeff Copeland
based on the Deepwater novels by Ken Catran
directed by Don McCutcheon
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: Gordon Michael Woolvett (Reb), Nicole de Boer (Yuna), Jason Cadieux (Bren), Julie Khan (Gen), Craig Kirkwood (Zak), Sara Sahr (Lise), Kelli Taylor (Gret)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Lexx Season 2

Mantrid

LexxDespite the defeat of the Gigashadow, His Divine Shadow has one last trick up his sleeve – he has taken Kai as his host body. Kai reanimates himself and insists on returning to the Light Universe via an extremely risky maneuver to create a new fractal core bridging the two universes. Kai plans to retrieve one of the enormous insect larvae left over from the Gigashadow’s destruction to extract more protoblood from it – or so he says. Stan and 790 experience a rare moment of complete agreement when they both suggest blasting the larva that Kai retrieves back into space. Kai suddenly presents Stan and Zev with a new mission: to find Mantrid, His Divine Shadow’s imprisoned bio-vizier. Mantrid’s knowledge was critical to the Divine Order, but his knowledge and ambition were both dangerous enough that he was kept alive but imprisoned. When they reach the distant world where Mantrid has languished for centuries, Stan and Zev are horrified when Kai offers Mantrid passage on the Lexx. Using his independent floating self-replicating “arm” drones, Mantrid embarks on an experiment to transfer his consciousness to the more powerful insect body. But under the Divine Shadow’s influence, Kai attacks Mantrid and instead transfers the Shadow’s consciousness to the insect – and the prospect of a new insect race hunting down all human life is imminent, unless Zev can convince Stan to destroy the planetoid while she and Kai are still on it.

Season 2 Regular Cast: Brian Downey (Stanley Tweedle), Eva Habermann (Zev), Michael McManus (Kai), Xenia Seeberg (Xev)

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan
directed by Cristoph Schrewe
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Dieter Laser (Mantrid), Holger Kunkel (Mantrid’s Assistant), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Chris Duffy (Captain), Burgandy Code (Navigator), John Davie (Rockhound)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Lexx Season 2

Terminal

LexxWhen awakened from cryostasis with the wrong reanimation sequence, Kai unexpectedly fires his brace at Stan, mortally wounding him. In an attempt to save his life, Zev convinces Stan to surrender the key to the Lexx and then freezes him in Kai’s cryochamber. Zev sets 790 to the task of finding medical help for Stan, and his search leads them to MedSat, a hospital space station. When the medical space station’s receptionist refuses help due to a lack of insurance, Zev orders Lexx to destroy the planet that the station orbits, and immediately Stan’s case is assigned to the station’s top doctor. After he saves Stan’s life, the doctor takes Zev to dinner, where he tries to convince her to give him the key to the Lexx; when she refuses, he knocks her out and takes her to an operating room while his underlings capture Kai and 790. When Zev comes to, she is given one last chance to give up the Lexx’s key – and when she refuses, she is tortured to the point of death, initiating the transfer of the key.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeffrey Hirschfield
directed by Srinivas Krishna
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Simon Licht (Dr. Kazan), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Oliver Stern (Dr. Funz), Barbara Geiger (Dr. Veezra), Eva Ebner (Mrs. Deebee), Errol Shaker (Administrator), Ian T. Dickinson (Berg), Tatiana Alexander (Nurse)

Note: This is Eva Habermann’s final appearance in the role of Zev.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Lexx Season 2

Lyekka

LexxAs Lexx flies through a swarm of space-borne life forms, one of them slips aboard and scans the crew, listening in on one of Stan’s dreams and taking the form of a girl he once (unsuccessfully) asked out on a date. Despite his having just woken up, this incident still registers as unusual enough with Stan to convince him to awaken Kai. The girl, Lyekka, seems to take an instant dislike to Kai, but she’s still perfectly cheerful about it. The Lexx receives a signal from a spacecraft from the planet Potatoho, whose astronauts are venturing into interstellar space for the first time. Stan welcomes them aboard and gives them a tour of the Lexx, and Lyekka expresses an interest in the astronauts as well. When Stanley demonstrates Lexx’s destructive power, he accidentally destroys the Potatoho space capsule. As Stan sleeps, the astronauts explore Lexx, and one of them finds Lyekka lurking on the flight deck. She offers herself to him, and mere moments later, his crewmates can find no trace of him. The same fate soon befalls another of the astronauts, only this time Kai sees it happen – Lyekka reverts to a jellyfish-like form and devours the astronaut. Now, with only one of the astronauts remaining, Kai knows it’s only a matter of time before Lyekka turns to Stan for dessert. But first, Lyekka has a gift for Stan.

In the meantime, the planet Potatoho receives visitors of its own: a swarm of robotic drone arms which attack and completely destroy the planet, with Mantrid’s ship not far behind.

Order the DVDswritten by Lex Gigeroff and Paul Donovan
directed by Stephan Wagner
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Stephen McHattie (Captain Moss), Louise Wischerman (Lyekka), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790 / Bando), Roman Podhora (Boosh)

Notes: This episode marks Xenia Seeberg’s debut in the role of Xev (the same character as Zev, more or less reborn in a new body).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 2

Luvliner

LexxAs Stan, Kai and 790 come to grips with the rebirth of Zev as Xev, the Lexx wanders into the transmission range of a bordello in space called Luvliner. Titillated by its advertisement, Stan and Xev are unanimous in their decision to change Lexx’s course. When they arrive, however, the Luvliner satellite is run down, and its receptionist shows no interest in dealing with the Lexx crew until Stan destroys a nearby moon. Once invited aboard for “free samples,” Stan and Xev are a little let down by Luvliner’s offerings. Worse yet, 790 is abducted by the receptionist, who turns out to have his own perverse tastes in partners. But while the Lexx crew is diverted, pleasantly or otherwise, the Luvliner’s receptionist alerts a bloodthirsty bounty hunters to the Lexx’s presence – and the crew is caught with their pants down.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeffrey Hirschfield and Paul Donovan
directed by Stefan Ronowicz
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Jeff Pustil (Schemmi), Diego Chambers (Aulk), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Ellen-Ray Hennessey (Rissha), Steve Sisk (Flintock), Jeremy Ackerman (Proo), Noah Denby (Varrtan), Paul Day (Consort), Andrew Smith (Man), Rick Collins (Fat Man), Tom Tasse (C.G.), Dave Maddeaux (Male Customer), Angela Vermier (Female voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 2

Lafftrak

LexxIn a distant corner of the universe, a bloody war is waged between the last remaining individual members of two races. Their conflict comes to an end on a transmitter satellite called TV World, where they finally kill each other trying to settle a decade of conflict over which world had better TV ratings. Years later, Lexx follows the continuing unmanned transmissions to TV World, where an intrigued Xev wants to land and explore, dragging Stan and 790 along with her. An automated TV studio still functions on TV World, offering TV-crazed visitors the chance to star in their own TV series, and if the satellite’s unseen audience approves of the “star’s” contributions, the show goes on. If not, the show is cancelled. Xev tries out a salacious sitcom called Boys’ School, while Stan hurls 790 into a talk show and then himself wanders into a sitcom called Girl Time. While Xev thrives with her own natural gift for innuendo, Stan strikes out, winds up in three cancelled shows in a row, and is scheduled for decapitation – after which his head will be kept alive, forced to become part of an entire audience composed of former contestants. When Kai awakens and rushes to assist his crewmates, will his arrival be enough to prevent them from being “cancelled”?

Order the DVDswritten by Lex Gigeroff
directed by Paul Donovan
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Tom Tasse (C.G.), Barbara Schmeid (Slinka), Sandra Keller (Yoyo), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Rosemarie Friedrich (The Wife), Nikolas Artajo (Kid), Thorsten Feller (Liggum), Gabi Fleming (Female Body – Dead), Thomas Arnicke (Bodyguard), Alexander Muller (Bodyguard), Mirko Szabo (Bodyguard), Sebastian Kokot (Bodyguard), Oliver Stolz (Bodyguard), Andrè Haines (Hunted), Mark Owen (Hunter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Lexx Season 2

Stan’s Trial

LexxAll Stanley Tweedle wants right now is to find just the right girl on just the right pleasure satellite and settle down – in an overnight sort of way. But when the Lexx makes a stop at just such a space station, Stan’s dreams are crushed when he is arrested and subjected to an immediate trial. Before serving as a security guard in the Cluster, Stan ferried top-secret biological data around for a resistance movement fighting His Divine Shadow. When Stan let his guard down and was captured, he surrendered secrets that led to the death of billions – and now he finds that an entire movement has dedicated all of its resources to tracking him down and making him pay without even the pretense of a fair trial. But when Stan gets the chance to turn the tables on his accusers, will he show mercy – or simply prove that he’s capable of the murderous acts for which they blame him?

Order the DVDswritten by Lex Gigeroff and Paul Donovan
directed by Srinivas Krishna
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Nina Franoszek (Jihana), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Benjamin Sadler (Nool), Susanna Metzner (Lissha), Peter James Scollin (Guard 1), Harvey Friedmann (Guard 3)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Lexx Season 2

Love Grows

LexxStanley Tweedle takes the art of looking for love in all the wrong places to a new low. While monitoring communications frequencies, Stan sees a distress call from the women of the planet Orgasmo, claiming to need “assistance” from any available men in perpetuating their species. Stan nobly volunteers, tracing the source of the signal and setting Lexx on that course at top speed. However, the signal actually comes from a shipload of bored space truckers hauling a dangerous biological cargo. Lexx slams into their ship, and the toxic substance comes into contact with Lexx’s biosystems, which then ventilate it into the crew quarters. The space truckers themselves survive the crash and wind up inside the Lexx, but both they and those already aboard Lexx begin to experience an unsettling change – gender reversal. Suddenly, before he knows it, Stan can’t get away from Xev fast enough.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeffrey Hirschfield
directed by David MacLeod
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Page Fletcher (Captain Jeben), Janet Wright (Lorca), Sam White (Rexel), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), C.J. Fidler (Nympho 1), Alison McMullin (Nympho 2), Sherry White (Nympho 3), Greg Cormier (Bound Man), Terry Nicholas (First Babe), Lisa Wong (Second Babe), Maury Chaykin (Pa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 2

White Trash

LexxWhen the crew of space truckers goes missing, Stan goes exploring the Lexx and discovers a backwater family of rednecks inhabiting the bowels of the ship. Apparently, they’ve been aboard ever since Lexx left the Cluster – and apparently, this uncomfortably close-knit family of four doesn’t realize that they’re no longer in the Cluster at all. Pa Guleen quickly commandeers the Lexx by strong-arming Stanley, forcing him to turn the ship back toward the family’s home planet. When they arrive, however, Stan, Xev and Kai may learn, rather violently, why their guests were sent to the Cluster in the first place.

Order the DVDswritten by Lex Gigeroff and Paul Donovan
directed by Chris Bould
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Maury Chaykin (Pa), Susan Daltin (Sissy), Dave Carmichael (Junior), Brandon McCarvell (Norb), Jon Kristopher Loverin (Gloodel), Karl Lewis Johnston (Glootus), Christian Murray (Gold Lame’ Man), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Louise Wischermann (Lyekka)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Lexx Season 2

791

LexxHaving awakened just in time to rid the Lexx of Pa Guleen, Lyekka is hungry once again. Lexx receives a distress signal from a crashed ship on an uninhabited world, and Lyekka insists on accompanying Kai, Xev and 790 on their rescue mission – just in case any survivors happen to be tasty. While exploring the wrecked ship, they find preserved human hearts – and a decapitated cyborg body. 790 immediately fixates on the idea of attaching his head to the body and ravishing Xev, and sets about linking to the body via remote control. Kai discovers a chamber with frozen humanoids – all of them missing their hearts…and time is running out to match the hearts on the bridge with their owners before Lyekka feasts on the helpless prisoners. 790 succeeds in reviving the cyborg body and getting it to do the legwork to attach him, but the body’s residual programming has its own personality – a dangerous one which, with 790 attached, combines the robot head’s lust with a murderous bloodlust. It sends Stan a message to lure him down from the Lexx, and then proceeds to make Stan the unlikely object of its twisted desires.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeffrey Hirschfield and Paul Donovan
directed by Jorg Buttgereit
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Louise Wischermann (Lyekka), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Brian Carter (791 Cyborg), Amy Kerr (Desh), John Dunsworth (Berf), Mike Pellerin (Wern)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Lexx Season 2

Wake The Dead

LexxLexx happens upon a small transport containing five cryogenically frozen teenagers, and Xev boards the ship to investigate – and revive them. Stan’s more than a little irritated by the visitors and their irresponsible attitude. When he catches one of the kids trying to issue the hibernating Kai a list of people to kill aboard the Lexx – basically consisting of everyone else on board – Stan is furious and chases his visitors away. But the crew’s problems only get worse when Kai awakens and remembers those instructions, going on a bloody rampage through the ship. As Kai dispatches the last of the teenagers, Stan and Xev realize that the last of the Brunnen-G must be stopped from killing again – even if it means killing him first.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeffrey Hirschfield
directed by Chris Bould
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Andrew Bigelow (Enox), Andrew Bush (Tad), Patricia Zentilli (Laleen), Nicki Barnett (Canana), Bruce Fillmore (Gibble), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx)

Notes: Patricia Zentilli returned to the show in the semi-regular role of Bunny in seasons three and four.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 2

Nook

LexxThe arrival of a giant insect-like ship in their sky terrifies the population of the planet Nook. Their simple, monk-like existence is further disrupted by the landing of Stan, Kai and the first woman anyone on Nook has laid eyes on in generations – Xev. It turns out to be one of Lexx’s more peaceful planetary stops, as Xev and Kai get to know the natives, and Kai studies their culture – though he expresses surprise that none of the men of Nook have any recollection of having a mother. Indeed, the very knowledge of women is forbidden there – but the same doesn’t hold true for knowledge of sex. So when Xev introduces a markedly heterosexual lifestyle to the monks, she may have set the entire civilization of Nook on a path toward destruction.

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan
directed by Bill Fleming
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Matthew Burton (Randor), Mathias Klimsa (Traygor), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Martin Honer (Older Brother), Tom Strauss (Brother Deal), Philipp De Roche (Brother Stack / Rat 1), Milton Welsch (Rat 11), Adrian Mattiske (Young Copying Brother)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 2

Norb

LexxNorb – a child space pilot rescued from the Guleen family by Kai – encounters a brightly-colored, candy cane-shaped space station which turns out to be an incredibly large number of Mantrid’s camouflaged drone arms. As the drones attach themselves to Norb’s ship, he ejects the pilot’s seat and sends a distress signal. Kai and Xev, in a moth, find Norb drifting alone in space and bring him back to the Lexx. Despite his rescue, Norb is neither friendly nor eager to answer anyone’s questions. After delivering a message – “let the contest begin” – from Mantrid, Norb reveals his true colors: he died in deep space, his body replaced or infested by the drone arms. Several arms manipulating what’s left of Norb’s body scatter inside the Lexx, and while Kai destroys some of them, others escape the reach of Lexx’s internal sensors. When Stan goes looking for the remaining drone, he finds it – and several identical drone arms that it has built in the short time that has passed. Even when Kai arrives to save Stan, it quickly becomes apparent that there are still more of Mantrid’s drones aboard, and they are replicating themselves by the hundred in short order, using Lexx’s own raw material. Stan, Xev and Kai evacuate Lexx in one of the moths as the drones overrun the ship – but now how will they get back into the Lexx?

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan
directed by Paul Donovan
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Dieter Laser (Mantrid), Brandon McCarvell (Norb), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx)

LogBook entry by Earl Green