This is part 7.
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One more little film study before the rest starts exploding into its legendary sex and violence, which, if you aren't yet familiar with the Lexx movies and series, is intro'd nicely with an interview at Part 1 - Dark Zone Adventures. Remember how in part 4 I was a little obsessed with all the shadows they created with their lighting and how that played so nicely into His Divine Shadow's theme? This time, if you've got the dvd and can watch this, the shadows and weird lighting with the background sounds brainwash you right onto the Cluster.

Yeah, I got 97 screen shots for this one. Because I love Stanley Tweedle. Because I've felt just as sick to my stomach as that character has, and I'll bet some of you have, too. We may not have been told what he was told, but it may have been terrible for ~us~. And we can see in his face how incredibly awful his day is getting. And we know how it must feel....

As you recall from part 3, Stanley is in very bad trouble and has to report to Correction Center Number 40 after shift change. He's already been demoted to the lowest class (4th) and has accrued 991 demerits. Our scene opens in a hallway with the correction center just ahead. And here our journey with Stanley Tweedle truly begins. That hallway is so cast in shadow that much of Stanley's walk is through dark patches, and ominous shadows are splashed across the floors and walls. As he walks we hear the play of odd chimes and soft gongs (the sounds of time, as it were), footsteps of people crisscrossing without talking, the gears of little mechanical servos buzzing around. It all looks like mechanical interplay, like the whole building is a big wind up mechanism running on a preprogrammed schedule. In the center is a looming desk, and over it an illuminated clock. The scene is clockwork in every sense, like a living piece of artwork. And more subtly you hear the screams of agony coming from somewhere close by, almost like music mixed in with the chimes. There is no escape.

Stan approaches the desk run by a busy looking Class 2 Data Clerk (you can tell by their hats what class they are) and says, "I was supposed to escort a prisoner here, Stanley Tweedle 467329 dash four-three department five-one-one level four." "Yeah?" The clerk just looks at him. Stan starts again- "He is refusing to turn himself in." "Yeah?" "I thought that if you told me what his punishment would be for not showing up, that might help persuade him." "Oh, eh. Give me that number again?" "467329 dash four-three department five-one-one level four?"

Anyone else catch that? One of the numbers is transposed from part 2, when we got this, in case you keep track of bloopers.

"Good morning. Security Guard Class 4, number 47632943, Department 511, Level 4. This is your third wake up call. If you are late, you will receive 7 demerits. You already have 991 demerits."

Ok, so the clerk is typing away, stops, snickers. "If he's not here when we close at watch change, termination order will be issued automatically." Smiles. Seems like a friendly guy, helpful. You can see in Stanley's eyes he wasn't expecting to hear a *termination* order. The clerk goes on- "It's about, uh, 20 minutes." There's that smile again.

"Termination???" This is unbelievable. "That's what it says, termination." Again with that smile. You get the feeling that anything is fine as long as it doesn't affect him. The chimes in the background don't change, but in the mind they start sounding like death knells.

Stanley blurts in shock. "But he's a Designated Data Cooperator, he can't be terminated because he might be needed someday for important information!" He looks and sounds terrified. He was riding along for years on this one fact.

"DDC, eh?" You can tell this man enjoys his job. I couldn't help getting almost frame by frame on his demeanor. "Oh, sorry. That expired five months ago." Stan is stunned to get this news flash.

The clerk keeps going. "Let's see, he's a Level 4, Class 47 Transgression, normally -zzzt- cauterization." Yes, he actually added his own sound effect. Stan looks like he could live with that. "But, he's got 991 demerits and there's a special notation, so it looks like- one to three organs." Delivered with a smile.

"One to three organs???" Stan's shadow lurches up the side of the desk in all directions.

The clerk says, "Yeah. He'll have to donate one to three organs, depending on demand." "Demand?" "Demand for soft organs is red hot right now, so he's pretty well sure to be a triple donor." "But he didn't even do anything, it's just a mixup!" Stan is barely holding back his panic. The background screams become more noticeable here, and the clerk says with his biggest grin yet, "Life's a mixup." Smile, chuckle, laugh. This guy thinks he's a riot. He probably hasn't had a conversation this long in awhile. And he's not getting involved in this one with a 30 foot pole. If he has a clue Stanley is really talking about himself, he's not showing it.

But Stan doesn't crumble. Even in the face of immediate death and dismemberment, his mind is struggling for a way to deal with this, and to keep acting cool about it. "What organs?" "Usual combo...

...eyeball, kidney, testicle." Another big smile.

Stan looks pretty sick.

"If they want bone they'll take an arm or a leg, but we haven't done a limb cut in days." There's that smile again. So reassuring. "I'd suggest he turn himself in. After all, triple organ's better than a termination, huh?" Almost got a wink there.

Stan makes a flimsy attempt to heh heh back and fails. He just looks sick, there is no way out of this. "May His Merciful Shadow fall upon you," he tries to say but winds up in a whisper, and he can't make his arm go through the salute. The clerk is already typing away, but glances up long enough to give Stan another winning smile, a quickie salute, and looks back down again at his monitor as he grunts out a mangled, "Yeah", which feels like 'Yeah that bogus stuff, I hear ya, but I'm busy, see ya.' Stan is just another dead man talking to him in that hollow place, and there is no way he's going to let that dampen his good mood, which is probably even better now that he feels safer on his side of the desk.

Stan turns and exits dejectedly back out of the correction center, same angle, same shadows, same clockwork going on around him, his horrible moment swallowed up in bureaucracy. I think the glowing clock above their heads and the soft chimes still going on in the background along with the muffled screams and the barred shadows along the floor near the sickly dull red lighting makes a perfect picture for what must be going on in Stanley's head and chest about now. He kicks a servo going by, which flies into pieces, and the person nearest him jumps nearly out of his skin as if nothing that violent ever happens in that place. Or perhaps, because they all tiptoe around the constant violence ripping people apart in the next room. Stan walks into the blackness all alone in a giant crowded trap...

This is part 3.
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Minding Gate 511 is a *boring* job. About the only thing ever going on is prisoner transports docking and unloading, and the only duty is pressing a single button to disable the 'lectro-lock after receiving a docking code.

Stanley H. Tweedle, Security Guard class 4, is spending another boring day on the job, but what else is there? This planetoid is in the very heart of the League of 20,000 Planets, His Shadow's home base which he never ever leaves nowadays. Incoming traffic is more prisoner transports than anything, and Stanley is sure glad he isn't on one of those!

You'd think with all that unencumbered free time Stanley would be a better shot by now.

I know! Awesome weird robot thing, and what's he doing, bouncing ball bearings off its butt? Too funny.  

Suddenly a screen pops up in front of him. "I worship His Shadow." Stanley responds "I worship His Shadow" and salutes.  A bored looking officer says "Prisoner transport fifty-eight-kay-six-zero-three requesting docking beam."  Honestly, I think she finds her job nearly as boring as Stanley finds his, but that is all about to change and leave everyone with something to talk about for a long time.  Stanley replies, "Security code" and prepares to press the 'lectro-lock release button.

She looks incredulous. "Code? No one asks for code anymore." Stan sets a look of grim adherence to the one duty he is supposed to perform, then gives her a look while he waits for the code. She looks back like she can't believe it, then goes through the motions of typing in a code.

Then the way she looks up is priceless, you know she typed in a bogus code and is waiting to see what he'll do.

Stan elaborates a pained grimace and goes through the motion of shutting the button box while he looks down and says "Wrong code", and she indignantly replies "I can't remember the code." Stan tells her "I suggest you try another gate then."

This is where we see the extent Stanley is willing to go to stubbornly defy authority when he can get away with it, because the transport flight path into the Cluster was guided remotely to his gate by a flight path director inside the Cluster. Stanley must know this, this is what he does all day long every day for we don't know how long. (We later find out he's been a prisoner on the Cluster years longer than many prisoners are allowed to live.) The Cluster is a finely tuned well oiled mechanistic society of pure form and function, you don't just shop around for a docking gate that will take you if you don't know the code. The whole interaction could have had this officer as terrified as anyone that she could wind up in deep trouble, given the harshness of the government that we are about to see unfold, and the code is probably in place to prevent saboteurs getting in. (This is very important when you ask later why the Ostral B heretics didn't just don Cluster garb and fly a transport in themselves.)

So she gets all up in Stanley's face asap to establish that if anyone here is going to get in trouble, it's going to be him. "What rank are you?" "Security Guard, Class 4." "Security Guard, Class 4 SIR. I'm a line major, and I'm ordering you to turn on your docking beam."

Stan clinched me as a Lexx fan with this scene. I saw Lexx air originally on Showtime, they had me at the big bug spaceship, but Stanley sealed my fate with Lexx. Who hasn't been stuck in a ludicrous job wrangling with any kind of management over breaking policy? And Stan is in the heart of darkness, stubbornly sticking up for the only thing he has left to stick up for in his awful life, and that's the one duty he has to perform on his job given to him by the Cluster, who is holding him prisoner. He could have caved and just pushed the button. Who knows whether he'd have gotten in trouble or not. We have no idea whether this kind of thing happened a lot or was something new. We do know that this particular prisoner transport had been diverted from its original destination gate while the officers on board were being awakened out of stasis just prior to entering the Cluster, and that it's very possible this line major was simply caught flat footed and responded inappropriately. At any rate, Stan isn't about to even pretend he cares whether she has any authority, and he certainly doesn't seem like he cares whether there will be consequences. I think it is more he has become so numb with just simply surviving that none of it matters any more to him.

So Stan closes his eyes, shakes his head, still doggedly determined to do his job. "I can't do that." "Why not?" "You've got the wrong code," he says simply while he reaches over for a ball bearing. "I am giving you a direct order, 4th class Security Guard!" She is livid. "I can't help you" Stan almost singsongs while he throws a ball bearing and actually banks this one off the robot's butt and into the restricted vent in the floor, setting off what sounds and looks like machinery damage that starts a fire.

Stan has time for a quick grin at the successful shot before his monitoring officer walks in. Stan quickly scrambles to hide his ball bearings just in the nick of time.

First off, just to get this out of the way, this kid takes his self importance so seriously that I can't help laughing when I see him. You know an evil despot has truly conquered when the younger ones will strut like a big boss in a ridiculous outfit, and, sadly, this young man has grown up so brainwashed in the League of 20,000 Planets that he believes he really does have a position of importance. It throws such a perfect shadow on the Orwellian darkness of this society.

Since I brought up the word shadow, and the show is all about the phrase "I Worship His Shadow", you can get so many metaphors going about it. Any kind of light to any kind of truth is completely blocked for this society by His Shadow, so you can imagine how difficult it would be to stand up for even the simplest truths we ourselves take for granted, like basic human rights and autonomy. As you watch this movie, be keenly aware that there is no choice in these people's lives. Or, there is only the choice to follow and obey, or not. Not always ends badly.

Stanley has a choice. He could do his job, and he does perform it, but with attitude, like Sisyphus, the absurd hero. Stanley is a survivor, he cows down when he has to, but he never loses that sense of injustice that goads his every step, never justifies it away and accepts it. Incidentally, we find out later that Stanley comes from outside the League.

Wow. Ok, sorry about that. So Stanley's young superior struts in and takes the situation in hand. He is obviously aware of everything going on between Stanley and the line major, so you get the impression that his job is to monitor Stanley. I have more to say on that in a minute.

This overseeing officer simply steps up and pushes the button to release the 'lectro-lock without any further questioning, as if Stanley doesn't even matter. "Docking beam is engaged, Sir, and Security Guard Class 4 Stanley Tweedle is presently being entered for correction and punishment himself." The line major seems relieved that it's all over.

The line major is most pleased and says, "I request that he be demoted." "Class 4 is already the lowest." It's hitting poor Stan this is about to get way more serious than getting caught throwing ball bearings. The line major is gloating now- "Then I trust his punishment will be severe." Poor Stan... "That will happen, Sir."

This is part 2.
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With our hero dead only 6 minutes into the movie, which way do we go? That's right, we skip forward 2000 years.

The first thing we see is The Cluster filling the screen, the home planet to His Divine Shadow, and like it says, capital to the League of 20,000 Planets. Planet watchers may notice this particular planet is a chunk of rock, like an overgrown asteroid or moon, and the Cluster is carved into it and shielded with a ceiling built into the planet's surface. You're also going to notice several other things about The Cluster as the movie moves along- no green things growing anywhere, no open sky besides complete cloud or city cover, and no decor. The Cluster is pure form and function.

The Cluster as Capital City is a sealed and highly monitored compound. These groups of buildings house the Lexx and a complex judicial system. The outer accessways of these rows of big pyramid styled buildings is worker housing for what look like prisoners.

The first person we see sleeps in a tiny box, his only living quarters. He is awakened with propaganda and a computerized image sentences punishment for not reporting for work on time. Note that there is no volume knob or off switch, a scene very much like Big Brother on roids.

"Only a thin dimensional barrier separates us from the festering evil, malignant depravity, and alien chaos of the Dark Zone. The Dark Zone is not separate like two different planets. The Dark Zone coexists in the same space as our universe, in the same place at the same time. The Dark Zone has no rules, no sense, no order. We give thanks to His Divine Shadow for his ceaseless vigilance, protecting our universe of Light and Order from the horrors and disorder of the Dark Zone. We worship His Shadow. Long may he reign."

"Good morning. Security Guard Class 4, number 47632943, Department 511, Level 4. This is your third wake up call. If you are late, you will receive 7 demerits. You already have 991 demerits."

A lot of other people seem to be going through the same thing. A whole lot of people sleep in nothing more than tiny little boxes and literally own nothing but the uniforms on their backs.

Meanwhile, the same obnoxious computerized face, apparently used as an interface for all menial communications, kicks off a redirect alert in a prisoner transport bound for the Cluster. (By the way, nice visual pun, a face as an interface, not sure if that was intentional, but we later realize the weird macabre style doll face most certainly was an intentional slight against humans, once we see the extreme species prejudice in the fourth movie.)

"Due to a bulkhead malfunction, Prisoner Transport 58K603, you are being diverted from Gate 417 Punishment Level 2, to Gate 511." All the numbers are read off individually, like five-one-one.

It is never indicated or even hinted at, but I believe the audience is supposed to realize as the story unfolds that the bulkhead malfunction was a deliberately premanufactured plant by Heretics as part of a much bigger plot. Or it could just be that particular transport had such a famous guest on board that it was diverted directly over for entertainment purposes, but I don't think so, given the plan that was carried out. A lot of things happen in Lexx that are never explained, you either miss it or put the puzzle together on your own, which I feel is a compliment, the film makers assuming that we have brains and don't need to be spoon fed, like so many scifi shows feel the need to do.  Good editing does the work of explaining everything.  

These guards are being awakened out of stasis while the prisoner transport is remotely rerouted into a different flight path among a whole flock of other prisoner transports. All prisoners wind up on the Cluster.

(Incidentally, have you wondered yet why in the world it's called The Cluster? You can look up a definition for cluster and it all looks about right, or you can go a step further... hint- some insects cluster, and rows of egg follicles are called clusters. Season 2 will go into why this might be a better image.) (And if you are remembering that part 1 said the Brunnen G defeated the Insects in the Insect Wars, you get a star on your forehead.)

My first question upon seeing the inside of the prisoner transports is how costly must it be to run all those small vessels from other planets with only a few prisoners in each one. Wouldn't a larger cargo ship carry them all more efficiently?

Two things, slavery and psychology. Cost doesn't matter if you're running a spartan slave society, and keeping prisoners bolted to slabs and isolated into very small groups for processing kills hope and diminishes the success of subversive efforts for rescue.  At any rate, prisoner comfort and human rights aren't a consideration.