Getting inside a robot’s head

[DalekTek790]

“I’m far more than just a robot.
Far, far more.”

Well, now that I’ve written detailed psychological profiles of Stan, Kai, and His Divine Shadow I’ll move on to the head man. 790 is another complex and intriguing Lexx characters, and (I think) the most amiable. I feel sympathy for 790 in a way I can’t for any other Lexx characters. All he wants out of life is love, and all he gets is hassles. The four major Lexx characters all have tragic histories, but 790’s is the least explored (and this lack of information has forced me to indulge in a little speculation). His is a tragic love story. 790 is a human psyche that was fractured and buried beneath metal and circuitry. He was once a human who was sentenced to dismemberment for some transgression against the Divine order or the League of 20,000. A piece of the human’s cerebral tissue was placed inside a Cluster drone to supplement its electronic functions, and 790 was forced to live a life without emotion performing menial and repetitive tasks for the Divine Order. He had no memories of his life as a human (and apparently still doesn’t), and didn’t even know that part of his brain came from a human. 790’s past was cut off from him by the cruel scalpel of the Divine Order. His humanity was awakened by Zev, and the emotions that had been suppressed showed through, magnified tenfold. 790 received the love slave programming that was meant for Zev Bellringer, and fell instantly in love with her. The programming made his brain cube dominant over his robot brain. All the emotions from his human life came flooding back, not just love but anger, fear, jealousy all came pouring out like a Pandora’s box. 790 was not programmed to handle these feelings, not as a Cluster drone or as a love slave. The parts of his brain that would regulate his emotions were cut away long ago. That is why he is maladjusted and overemotive.

I thought before that the Cluster lizard devouring 790’s body symbolized further disconnection from his human past. But recently something occurred to me: it may not be his body. The heads of robot drones like 790 can be regularly detached from the bodies to interface with other equipment. Bodies could get shuffled around randomly, and 790 may have been given the body of another cyborged human. So the consumption of his human body could represent a severing of his ties to the Cluster. It is interesting to note that, in all of 790’s compliments and love poetry he never once (as far as I can remember) makes any mention of Zev’s Cluster lizard part. I would say that maybe that’s because the love slave programming was only set for mundane humans, but the reprogrammed 790 makes frequent reference to the fact that Kai is dead. Having one’s body eaten would be a very traumatic experience, and it’s entirely likely that he doesn’t want to think about lizards after that. The latent Cluster lizard component in Zev may have been a frightening and disquieting concept to him, and he preferred not to think about it. Maybe he even subconsciously feared that he would be consumed by her. Perhaps 790 needed to block Zev’s lizard nature out of his mind in order to love her fully.

790 has spent a lot of his life being used. He was a machine performing menial tasks on the Cluster, but was freed of his forced servitude. But the Lexx wasn’t much more nurturing of an environment. 790 continues to be treated like a machine, used for the purposes of the crew with little regard to his feelings. Kai is incapable of emotion, but his last love, Zev/Xev had no such excuse. Recall Zev’s first interaction with 790. Presumably, the lusticon would’ve sounded some kind of alarm or activated a security response if nothing had been present to receive the second part of the love slave treatment, so Zev placed 790’s head where hers would have been had she not escaped. She didn’t give any thought to the effect that could have on the unfortunate robot, and she just walked away even after he had pledged himself to her eternally. 790 was an instrument in her escape. The next time she showed any interest in him was at a later phase of her escape. He had tracked her down in his green chariot for emotional reasons, but her next use of the robot was just as unaffectionate as the first. She thought the disembodied Cluster drone could open the door for her. At least she didn’t toss him away when he couldn’t. Later she uses him to bash Stan in the head, give the Lexx the coordinates for the Heretic safe point, and then to scan for Kai’s planet. She treats him more like a laptop computer than a lover. 790 loved Zev, she meant everything to him, and she treated him like a machine, like he was just some useful gadget there for her convenience without any feelings of his own. But 790’s devotion to her was unwavering in the face of cruel rejection and neglect. He went on to serve Zev as loyally and unquestioningly as the Divine Order, and without much more rewards. Zev was disinterested with 790 because he was incapable of pleasing her sexually, and ignored the emotional benefits he had to offer. Rejection can be a very very troubling thing, especially to one as fully devoted as 790. Add that to the list of the robot’s psychosocial stressors.

790 doesn’t get much better treatment from his other shipmates, but that’s only natural. Kai has lost his emotions, and his idea of a friend is essentially just someone he has to protect. And Stan and 790 have an ongoing rivalry. 790’s hatred of Stan has more than one possible cause. He may have been programmed to look down on security guards since he was of a higher rank (I can see 790 as outranking Stan). Or it could be 790’s unfamiliar feelings of jealousy that made him hate the only fully functional male on board the ship. But the fact that he’s a robot is part of the cause of 790’s unpopularity. Kai has less intellectual capabilities than 790, but is treated more like a human than him. 790 has less visual/superficial characteristics that would classify him as human than Kai, and his mental characteristics do not overcome this in the eyes of others.

790 seems to be somewhat self-centered, considering anyone besides himself and Zev (and later Kai) to be unimportant. This could stem from his long work for a system that benefited him in no way. The sudden return of free will allowed 790 to think about himself rather than the whole, the Divine Order, the system. His high consideration of himself could be something like overcompensation. His lack of a body would also be no minor stressor. He is frustrated by his near complete lack of physical power. This comes through as hostility toward those he must depend on.

Cruel fate again toyed with 790’s mind when the Lexx came into the orbit of Fire and Water. He was thrown off the bridge and badly damaged. When repaired, the love slave programming reset itself and 790 fell in love with Kai and was adapted mentally to please him. Since 790 is programmed to think and act like a woman, and believes itself to be a woman, lacking any distinguishing sexual characteristics that would assign it to either gender I will consider 790 to be a her from Fire and Water on. Kai, of course, cannot reciprocate her feelings, and 790 is as lonely as ever. This also erased much of 790’s memory prior to the accident, and retrograde amnesia further troubled the robot’s personality. 790 has had a sort of kinship with Kai, even before the love slave programming was reset. To her, Kai may be like looking in a mirror. Both were tragically stripped of their humanity by the Divine Order and became uncharacterized components of the system, instruments of His Shadow’s will. But some things are inverted. 790 is a machine that behaves like a person, Kai is a person who behaves like a machine.

790 has sustained considerable damage over the last 4336 years, and her system has accumulated a number of glitches. Because of this, and the aforementioned stressors, she has an erratic and almost unpredictable personality. 790 is neurotic.

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“Exterminate!” -Dalek warrior, The Daleks: Episode 4-The Ambush

“Feel the power of the dark Crystal!” -skekTek the Scientist, The Dark Crystal

“I will love you forever!” -drone #790, Lexx 1.1: I Worship His Shadow

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