Lost in Space

Plot synopsis:
In October 1997, 32 years in the future from the perspective of viewers in 1965, the United States is about to launch one of history's great adventures: man's colonization of deep space. The Jupiter 2 (called Gemini 12 in the unaired pilot episode), a futuristic saucer-shaped spacecraft which owed its design to the Fifties sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, stands on its launch pad undergoing final preparations. Its mission is to take a single family on a five-and-a-half-year journey (altered from 98 years in the unaired pilot) to a planet orbiting the nearest star, Alpha Centauri (the pilot show had referred to the planet itself as Alpha Centauri), which space probes have revealed possesses ideal conditions for human life.
The Robinson family, supposedly selected from two million volunteers for this mission, consisted of Professor John Robinson, played by Guy Williams, his wife, Maureen, played by June Lockhart, their children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Penny (Angela Cartwright), and Will (Billy Mumy). They are accompanied by their pilot, U.S. Space Corps Major Donald West (Mark Goddard), who is trained to fly the ship when the time comes for the eventual landing. Initially the Robinsons and Major West will be in freezing tubes for the voyage, with the tubes opening when the spacecraft approached its destination. Unless there is a problem with the ship's navigation or guidance system during the voyage, Major West was only to take the controls during the final approach and landing on the destination planet, while the Robinsons were to strap themselves into contour couches on the lower deck for the landing.
Other nations are racing to colonize space, and they would stop at nothing, not even sabotage, to thwart the United States's effort. It turns out that Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), Alpha Control's doctor, and later supposedly a psychologist and environmental control expert, is moonlighting as a secret agent for one of those competing nations. After disposing of a guard who catches him on board the spacecraft, Smith reprograms the Jupiter 2's B-9 environmental control robot, voiced by Dick Tufeld, to destroy critical systems on the spaceship eight hours after launch. Smith, however, unintentionally becomes trapped aboard at launch and his extra weight throws the Jupiter 2 off course, causing it to encounter a meteor storm. This, plus the robot's rampage which causes the ship to prematurely engage its hyperdrive, causes the expedition to become hopelessly lost in the infinite depths of outer space.
The Robinsons are regularly placed in danger by Smith, whose selfish actions and laziness endanger the family frequently. After the first half of the first season, Smith's role assumes less sinister overtones, although he continues to display many character flaws. In "The Time Merchant" Smith shows he actually does care about the Robinsons, when he travels back in time to the day of the Jupiter 2 launch, with the hope of changing his own fate by not boarding the ship, so allowing the Robinsons to start the mission as originally planned. However, he learns that without his weight altering the ship's course, the Jupiter 2 will be destroyed by an uncharted asteroid. So he sacrifices his chance to stay on his beloved Earth, electing to re-board the ship, thus saving the lives of the family and continuing his role amongst them as the reluctant stowaway.
The fate of the Robinsons, Don West and Dr. Smith is never resolved, as the series unexpected cancellation left the Jupiter 2 and her crew literally on the junk-pile at the end of season three.

Tags: absurd, psychedelic, sci-fi

Review:
However the first season had action packed space adventure, a crash landing, jet packs, laser rifles, the chariot, scary monsters including the Cyclops and fantastic music by John Williams, (the best music ever created for TV in my opinion.) The Jupiter Two sets are still fantastic and believable today, including the fabulous creation of the Robot.
STAR TREK certainly utilized elements of whimsy but not to this degree ...I think especially of an example such as the space circus episode,or the wonderful episode in which Dr. Smith turns slowly into a stalk of celery (an acting tour de force, by the way...)...Stunning use of archetypes such as the innocent young lad, the brave companion and the cowardly uncle...many have complained of the cardboard quality of the so called "main characters" of this series, but what an interesting use of them.
The familiar characters included the Robinson family (John, Maureen, Judy, Penny, and precocious Will), the testy, short-tempered space pilot (Major Don West, played by Mark Goddard), the sinister, cowardly stowaway (Dr. Smith, played to perfection by Jonathan Harris), and of course the ship's robot, played by diminutive actor Bob May. The entire group took off in their ship Jupiter 2, and promptly gotwell, lost in space.The first season (1965-66) was in B&W and was very dark and serious in tone.
There were lots of colorful characters and absurd situations, with a few standout episodes, including my all-time favorite "Trip Through the Robot".The third season (1967-68) left all logic and coherence behind, emphasizing silly situations with Will (Billy Mumy) and Dr. Smith always in peril.
However, this season also included "The Anti-Matter Man", which was imaginative, dark, and very disturbing at times.With "Lost in Space", I suppose you either love it or hate it.
Look at the recent movie; see how the producer's '90s view had a troubled Will Robinson, and a self-centered Penny, along with a soulless John Robinson who had all the charm of a brick.I am glad that Lost In Space is on DVD as well as video and that people can see a great classic television show.
There was a certain sense of wonder, a certain sense of the fantastic---and a definite 60s vibe of surrealism that crept into every show from "Green Acres" to "Batman" to "Gilligan's Island." And for my money, the best show in TV's greatest decade was "Lost in Space." It's impossible to describe what watching this show was like in the 1960s.
Also like Gilligan's Island, although the group's first priority starts off as finding a way to return to earth, eventually they settle into a kind of domestic tranquility and seem to make peace with their situation of being "lost in space".Of course, rewatching this series over forty years later, it is not quite as great as I remembered it, but it is still great fun and Smith is still a fascinating character.
What the series' creators couldn't foresee is that today people are much more like Zachary Smith than the Robinson family - at least the people in charge of things are..
I too, like many people, wish that "Lost In Space" would have remained a more serious science fiction epic, but the 2nd and 3rd seasons did produce some outstanding episodes like: Blast of into Space, Wreck of the Robot, Collision of Planets, The Colonists, Space Creature, The Anti-Matter Man, Hunter's Moon, and Visit to a Hostile Planet.
Even though people remember Smith, the robot, Will, and their relationship the best, there were plenty of episodes where the main focus was the Robinson family as a whole and their plight.
With its exceptional Sets & Vehicles!-The Jupiter II , Chariot & Space Pod. Lines said like "You Traitor!" will always remain fun for the globe to enjoy -said by the nefarious , Loveable villain Dr. Zachary Smith.
"Lost In Space" was the first big-budget, prime-time science fiction/fantasy action-adventure series for television that originally aired on its Wednesday night time slot in prime-time.
The next two seasons of the series produced 54 episodes in color(Season 2 consisting of 30 episodes and the third and final season 24 episodes)that ran from September 14, 1966 until March 6, 1968 for Irwin Allen Productions/Twentieth Century-Fox Television and the CBS Television Network."Lost In Space" had a top-cast of well known and respected actors that included Guy Williams("The Legend of Zorro"), June Lockhart("Timmy and Lassie"),Jonathan Harris("The Third Man",and "The Bill Dana Show"), Mark Goddard("Robert Taylor's The Detectives",and "Johnny Ringo")and Marta Kristen("The Man From UNCLE"),and two of the best child actors of the era Billy Mumy("The Twilight Zone"),and Angela Cartwright("Make Room For Daddy").Throughout it's impressive three season run and 83 episodes(more episodes than Star Trek on NBC)it was usually the highest- rated show in its time slot(going up against NBC's The Virginian and usually coming in neck to neck with Batman on ABC,believe it or not).
What made the series stand out was it's cliffhangers during the first 2 seasons with the family facing constant peril and danger where it left viewers in suspense("To Be Continue...NEXT WEEK...Same Time, Same Channel)until the next episode and so much more.
Season 2 picks up where the Season 1 left off this time in color with several good episodes ranging from "The Prisoners of Space","Trip Through The Robot",and "The Ghost Planet".
The third and final season of the series saw "The Anti- Matter Man", "Hunter's Moon", "Visit to a Hostile Planet",and "Condemned of Space" stood out as the best episodes of the series.
The worst episodes that came out of Lost In Space's three-year run consisted of the worst of them all "The Great Vegetable Rebellion",and from there the episodes got even worst and some outrageously over the top and ridicious ranging from "The Thief of Outer Space", "The Space Croppers", "Princess of Space", "Castles of Space", "The Questing Beast", "The Girl From The Green Dimension", "Space Beauty", "West of Mars", "The Curse of Cousin Smith",and "Mutiny In Space".When "Lost In Space" was abruptly canceled in the Spring of 1968 after three seasons and 83 episodes the powers that be over at CBS didn't waste any time in finding a replacement on it's Wednesday night prime time schedule for the 1968-1969 season which was the another action/adventure series from creator-producer Ivan Tors called "Daktari" that eventually replaced "Lost In Space"..
It's too bad that so many people only remember the silly episodes like "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" and forget the wonderful ones like "The Hungry Sea", "Island In The Sky", "There Were Giants In The Earth", "The Anti-Matter Man", "Visit To A Hostile Planet", "Return To Earth", "The Sky Is Falling" and on and on.
The surviving cast still gets together for lunch at 20th several times a year.Even "Star Trek" seems to have borrowed some ideas from "Lost In Space".
Some of this was by the great Bernard Herrman (The Day the Earth Stood Still, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) which surprised me as I didn't think he composed music for television.The special effects are very good and some of the monsters are impressive, especially the giant cyclops, (a man in a rubber suit), from the fourth episode (There Were Giants In the Earth).
Some of the monsters in this story are stock footage from fellow Irwin Allen production The Lost World (1960).It would be nice to see another rerun of this series on Channel 4 as I enjoyed it very much.Rating: 5 stars out of 5..
The concept was intriguing: Family (which represents warmth, love and survival) in the environment of Space (cold, vast, mysterious).All through my life, I have never been fascinated by any series or film more than the first five episodes and first season of glorious black & white.
I figure that I must have seen Lost In Space the first time it was re-run in the 70's on Australian television (Channel 10 from memory) and as a kid, it was definitely a show that captured the imagination.Nearly 40 years later, I don't see that greatness.
Johnathon Harris as Dr Smith turning from an almost plausible villainous character to overacting coward didn't help much either.If someone could watch the better episodes that made sense and write an entire new series with those as the core, it could easily become the launching pad for an entire new show like The Next Generation did with Star Trek.I shouldn't be cringing in embarrassment for actors in a show that stopped being made 2 years after I was born..
In its second and third seasons, it was ridiculous and amusing, in a cubist sort of way.LOST IN SPACE was originally intended (to use programming parlance) to be "Swiss Family Robinson in Space." Schlockmeister Irwin Allen got the idea to send a typical American family into space, but get them lost on a deserted planet.
CBS bought the show and took it into production.Soon afterward, the show received a lucky break when another writer- producer sent them a proposal for a show he described as "Wagon Train to the Stars." CBS read the pitch and pulled Gene Roddenberry into a lengthy meeting, where they asked questions about what the ship should look like, what type of music to use and stories he might run.Among other things, Roddenberry told CBS that his music would probably borrow from Bernard Herrman's score for THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and his ship might be based on something like the United Planets Cruiser C57-D in FORBIDDEN PLANET.CBS thanked him for coming in and explained that they already had a show they liked better (their show had kids).
Even six-year-olds realize that won't happen.)Looking for a fix, someone noticed that LOST IN SPACE was about a group of people trying to get home-- and CBS already had a hit show about a group of people in pretty much the same fix.So the evil Dr. Smith got turned into the intergalactic Willy Gilligan, the Robot became Jonas Grumby, John Robinson the brilliant scientist became Roy Hinkley-- and the show became "Cretin's Island In Space." The three women and extra man got swept aside as SMith, the robot and the cute kid had adventures.
My vote is ten, for the importance of this series in my childhood.First DVD1) `The Reluctant Stowaway'  (` O Clandestino Relutante') D: Tony Leader (17 Aug 2004)In the first episode, it is the beginning of the Robinson's family journey to space.
Who knew we LIS fans would have a marathon of merriment almost 40 years later with rewind, forward, pause and freeze frame on another little piece of plastic?Yes, it was genius (as the kiddies today say) to rework the pilot and add the characters of Dr. Smith and the Robot.
What about Dr.Smith (Jonathan Harris)he was something else, rude, lazy, and all he had in mind was getting back to earth no matter what, but I think he was a really good part of this show, and of course who can forget Will (Billy Mumy) and the Robot always on a new adventure ussually thanks to Dr. smith, of course we remember Judy (Marta  Kristen), Penney(Angela Cartwright)and Mayor Don West(Mark Goddard) who I thought would make a move on Judy, but I dont think he ever even kissed her, or maybe I dont remember.All I have to say is that LOST IN SPACE is my first favorite all time sci fi show, of course in the 70s I have to say it is Star Wars!
Lost in Space - First Season - Seventh and Eighth DVDs. Seventh DVD25) 'The Space Croppers' ('Os Semeadores do Universo') D: Sobey Martin (23 Sep 2004) Dr. Smith, Will and Penny are storing some goods in a time capsule, when they hear a howling.
My vote is nine.Eighth DVD (the last one)29) 'Follow the Leader' ('A Voz do Espírito') D: Don Richardson (26 Sep 2004)While trying to recover a laser gun lost by Dr. Smith in a hole in a cave, John Robinson falls and an evil alien spirit called Canto possesses part of his body.
My vote is ten.31) Bonus: Presentation of CBS networkThe DVD offers as a bonus, with Portuguese subtitles, the presentation of 'Lost in Space' series by CBS, including its target public.Now lets wait for the release of the second season in Brazil.
Angela Cartwright & Billy Mumy were attractive to the 8 to 14 year old set, though Angela moved up more into the older teenagers more before the series ended.The robot, the space ship, the aliens were all imaginative & so was the action that Allen came up with in the series which was well produced.
The concept of Space Family Robinson was born.The show was to feature the family dealing with life beyond the Van Allen Belt in the late 1990s, and trying to survive as they encountered situations and creatures they had no idea about.With Guy Williams as the patriarch and June Lockhart as his wife, the series gave us Zorro and Lassie's mom in silver flight suits!
Younger sibs Angela Cartwright and Billy Mumy rounded out the family, plus the high tech gadget, the robot, acted by Bob May and voiced by famed announcer Dick Tufeld, and the ship's inadvertent stowaway and special guest star, Jonathan Harris as the infamous Dr. Zachary Smith.Ratings are a double edged sword for a program.
As such, story lines, characters, and behaviors became broader, more colorful (also because LIS switched from a black and white series to color) and sillier, to match what was happening on the successful "Batman." The result was a shift in focus from the family struggling to survive in the harsh realm of another galaxy to three characters: Dr. Smith with his pedantic vocabulary, The Robot who was straight man to Smith (no jokes, please) and Will, who was the smart, sensitive one that Smith could grab at a moment's notice, when there was danger!
This episode has a great moral and ethics message and is certainly one of the best stories of 'Lost in Space'.
I have very fond memories of this as a child coming home from school so I would not miss the start of the show.....My favourite episode was "Trip through the Robot" which was an homage to the movie "Fantastic Voyage." and "Visit to a hostile planet" where they land on Earth only it's 50 years in the past.
'The Addams Family', 'The Munsters', Doctor Who', 'My Favourite Martian', 'Batman', 'Star Trek', 'Bewitched', 'I Dream of Jeannie', 'Dark Shadows', 'I Love Lucy', 'McHale's Navy', 'Green Acres', 'The Avengers', and they are just a few examples of very good to classic shows from that decade.'Lost in Space' may be an uneven show, no this is not one of those rarities where there was not a dud episode throughout.
There was a much better balance of characterisation, and the cast enjoy themselves without going over the top.However, 'Lost in Space' was at its weakest in the second half of Season 3, where it felt like a different show.
I am willing to bet that you will never find words like vicissitudes or pusillanimous in any episode of Star Trek , as you do in Lost In Space throughout it's run.
The point is that even if it was made forty years ago and the special effects are really really (x100) terrible, Smith can't act, and Judy and Don are taking forever to get together, Lost In Space is a great TV show.
There are three things about Lost in space that are Iconic and you don't mess with: The ROBOT, the JUPITER II, and Dr. Smith.
Irwin Allen, 20th Century-Fox and CBS did make a ca$h accommodation with Western and the comic book's title was permitted to change to SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON-LOST IN SPACE; which resulted in a boo$t in the title's $ale$.OUR RECOLLECTIONS OF the series are ones of a sort of a modern day (or futuristic) epic story of more similarity to the Fairy Tale than to Sci Fi. The characters' interaction seems to win out over plots and stories.
From the moment we see the Jupiter 2 on the launching pad , Dr. Smith trying to sabotage the flight of the Robinson family to Alpha Centauri I was hook as a viewer and a fan , but only of the black and white episodes , they only two color episodes I enjoyed , which were The Anti-Matter Men and the Junkyard Planet .The black and white episodes I enjoyed were The Derelict , The Raft and The Oasis , which saw Dr. Smith at his best ,One Of Our Dogs is Missing and My Friend , Mr. Nobody and Attack of the Monster Plants , I did enjoy Return From Outer Space , but it could have been a classic like The City on the Edge of Forever would have been in Star Trek .I give the first season of Lost in Space ten out of ten stars .
Even as a child when this series originally aired in the '60s I loathed and detested it: Cardboard sets, annoying characters (especially the freckle-faced kid and the horribly camp Doctor Smith), unintentionally funny monsters, pantomine villains (like the "space vikings"), dreadful acting, ridiculous storylines (of which "The Great Vegetable Rebellion", complete with carrot monster, was the absolute nadir) ......
Smith was dark, evil, and menacing in those episodes, instead of the effeminate, selfish, and cowardly fool he became.If you are looking for non-Star Trek sci-fi nostalgia from that era, then seek out "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" (which also got quite silly after a while, but never to the level of LIS), "The Time Tunnel", "Land of the Giants", and even "Wild Wild West".
"Wild Adventure", the best of Season 2 and one of the strongest of the series, is a great space bound adventure getting them close to Earth.From the middle of Forbidden World on, the adventure element was nearly gone and we had fun, comical episodes.
And two great Robot episodes, "Trip Through the Robot" and "The Mechanical Men".Season 3 of Lost in Space had a very ambitious start.