Following the success of the 'pilot' series of the four LEXX movies, a full series of 20 one - hour episodes has been produced by Salter Street Films of Canada in a co-production deal with TiMe Film-und TV Produktion of Germany. For the first two episodes at least, the cast remains the same: Michael McManus, Brian Downey and Eva Habermann. However, Habermann was not able to commit to playing sultry love slave Zev for the whole series. So, the inventive LEXX writers devised a means to explain how Zev becomes Xev with the look of a new actress and a new personality too.

Producer Paul Donovan's search for an actress to join the LEXX cast finally led him to German actress, Xenia Seeberg. Recently, on a visit to London, Seeberg told Cult times that she had never seen the LEXX movies when they aired on German television because she was on location filming in the Canary Islands at the time. Her friends back home had talked to her about the show with such enthusiasm that when Xenia next encountered LEXX she had already gained a favourable impression of the show.

"The next time I heard about it was just before Christmas 1997 when my agent called meand asked me to do an audition for the part of Xev with the Canadian producer and director, Paul Donovan. I wasn't able to do an actual audition for him as I was shooting something else so my agent sent him a tape of a short funny movie that I had done which they liked. The movie, in a way, reminded them of something they wanted for LEXX. I talked to Paul and then he sent me two tapes the first and the third LEXX movies, which I watched, and then I met him at the airport in New York. He asked me how I liked the movies and if I would like to be part of the series. So I said, 'Yes, I guess I would like to.'

"I really like the sense of humour in the movies but I knew that there was a lot more thatthey could develop if they were getting more into it. To me it looked like the four movies were trying to explore, finding something new and seeing what they could do, and now that they had found it they were just improving everything." Part of Xenia's discussions with Paul Donovan focussed on the choice between attempting to duplicate Eva Harberman's portrayal of Zev or taking the character in a slightly new direction."When I took over we decided early on that we wanted to change the character. We wanted to change her look and also I wanted to change a little bit of her personality and give a bit more variety to her character. Eva had played her in quite a straightforward way, which was good, I liked what she did, but Ithought she needed a certain kind of warmth so that the audience can feel with her. I wanted to take her a little bit away from playing just a straight love slave and make her into more of a real person. I also definitely wanted to get more humour out of the character which is something I really enjoy. "The potential for humour was the main reason why I wanted to join the series - I've always loved things like Monty Python, and LEXX seemed to me to have some of the same qualities."

Having accepted the offer of joining the crew of the LEXX, and begun production on the series, Xenia very quickly encountered the challenges of acting alongside invisible visual effects. "My first day of production was in Germany, near Berlin in April 1998 and was actually a day of acting against a blue screen to allow them to insert the computer generated images in post-production. "There has been quite a lot of blue screen acting but not as much as there was in the movies. We actually had some beautiful sets and a lot of them. Every episode had new sets and they were building like crazy. However, my very first day was in front of a blue screen so it started out being very difficult.

"The first episode I shot was Laftrak although it won't be the first one that I'll be seen in. We had to imagine that we were looking at skeletons and people shooting at each other but really there was nothing there at all. I always think that whenever you are working with blue screen it is more like being on stage than doing a television show. " Fortunately, by the time that Xenia joined LEXX the rest of the regular cast were by then old-hands at the art of blue-screen acting, making Xenia's introduction somewhat easier. "I liked them from the very beginning," says Xenia of her fellow performers. "Brian [Downey] is really my buddy and we became good friends. They really accepted me from the very first. They heard a lot about me from Paul Donovan, but I don't know what he told them. So, it was actually easy to join them.

" Principal photography for all 20 episodes of the series is now over. However, Xenia's work was still not complete at the time of her visit to London. "I still have to do some re-dubbing and then I have to complete the German voice-over for the episodes to be shown in Germany. It's scary because I've just got used to the character speaking in English and seeing the character in English and all of a sudden German doesn't seem to fit for some reason. That's my impression anyway, probably the audience will look at it differently... hopefully!"

With the new series only just beginning to air in Canada and on Sci-Fi in the UK, the future of LEXX is as yet unknown. "We're still not sure if there will be another series yet. There's a good chance but we still don't know if it will continue. That will be our Spring time surprise! It depends a little bit on how it will do in the German market since the co-producers are German and Germany doesn't start showing the series until March or April, several months after England, Canada and France. So, we'll just have to wait and see. "I think we all would like it to continue as it was really fun to work on. It was so different than anything else I've done so far, and the other actors say the same thing and I know that they wouldn't mind doing another season."

Xenia's only previous encounter with Science Fiction was for the pop video that she made to accompany her own song. "That was actually more like Barbarella," she admits. 'A few people have said to me now that LEXX is like Barbarella but none of us had ever thought that when we were making the show. Our costume designer has never even seen Barbarella." Although acting is Xenia's first love, her singing comes a close second. Happily she was given an opportunity to combine both of her talents on the LEXX episode Brigadoon - a musical! Unsurprisingly, Brigadoon is Xenia's favourite episode but it was also the most difficult to make. 'As it was a musical we just sang throughout the whole episode. There are bits and pieces that are just spoken but most of it was sung. So, it's a bit scary because we don't know how the audience will react to LEXX as a musical! Fortunately though, it's not one of the first 10 episodes so by the time it goes out they should know enough about the series to accept it."

Although starring in LEXX has been a happy experience for Xenia, she is a little concerned that the casual viewer may come to the wrong conclusions about the show. "Most people when they first look at LEXX just see the sexual aspect of it. Xev has a highly accelerated libido and Stan is always trying to fulfil his needs. So, that is like the main motivation that leads them in to all of their adventures. But, it's not only about that. It's ironic and in many of the episodes there is a message, inbetween the lines, that the audience can pick up on. "Visually LEXX is very intense and there are sexual symbols everywhere. Our whole environment is full of that - all kinds of body parts. I think that that sort of imagery might scare some people away. Or, those things might be what draws people's attention but either way, that's only one part of it."

Judging by its critical success so far, it seems unlikely that viewers are going to be put off LEXX. Certainly it is unique and stands apart from its competitors Hopefully it won't be too long before Xenia Seeberg has the opportunity play love slave Xev again in future series of LEXX.