LOST IN SPACE-GHOST IN SPACE

GHOST IN SPACE
WRITER-PETER PACKER
DIR-DON RICHARDSON (uh-ho--this combo with Packer is dire!)
NARRATOR: Last week, as you recall, we left Professor Robinson working by a mysterious, ghostly swamp, out of which was soon to come the most terrifying challenge ever to confront our space family.
TEASER--not fully recapped--MISSING CHARIOT MOVING AND STOPPING AND UNLOADING SEQUENCE---
The sign reads: DANGER--KEEP AWAY--IONIZED GAS---JOHN ROBINSON. John has a wood stake in the ground, then hits it with a rock. Gas comes up from the stake spot and gathers around John. John falls and chokes. Smoke covers him as he lies on the ground, almost completely unseen due to the gas. Smith and Will put a can down by the Chariot. Don is worried but Smith says, "Professor Robinson is a reflective man who likes to take his time." Don realizes Smith knows this means less work for him with John gone. Will checks and then calls Don loudly. Will runs to John. Don arrives, "Will! Get back to the Chariot!" Will coughs and falls to his knees. Don also coughs. He and Will pulls John over to a rock but there is still mist. Suddenly it is gone--due to poor effects I guess. They didn't move him far. John is awakened by the two. Will has his hand behind his dad's head. John says, "I guess I forgot to read that sign. C'mon, let's get back to the drillsite." Smith feels they are wasting their time, "Geographically speaking detronium ore cannot exist in the presence of inorganic terrain." John tells Smith to take the dynamite to the hole for blasting at drillsite 5. It will save them time if there is nothing up there to use for fuel. John and Will talk Smith into taking Will along--he knows the way. Smith says, "Very well, lead on." Will knows a shortcut to Drillsite Five--through the bog. He and Penny found a safe path through it. Smith will not go that way. Will tells him the climb the long way is steep. Smith cons Will, sending him back to the Chariot for a spare drill head--he left it under the back seat of the Chariot and John might need it. Smith doesn't want them to get madder at him. Will says, "Well, you haven't been very encouraging." Smith tells him he speaks his mind and lets the chips fall where they may. Smith takes the dynamite and trips. He uncaps it and throws it and the cap into the bog with a fuse and runs past the sign. The area shakes and there is a blast. Don tells Will and John that felt off beat. When Smith returns they will pack up and go. John tells Will he doesn't need the drillhead even though Will found it. Will seems to know he was conned and stares out from the drillsite toward where Smith was. Night---WE SEE THE TWO MOONS OF THE PLANET--and clouds. NOTE: One book mentions THE SPACE CROPPERS as the only episode that we see the two moons--this is not true--we see it first in GHOST IN SPACE. Trees fall by themselves. There are also three toed footprints which imprint into the ground--something invisible is on the move!
ACT ONE
Night--Maureen has the auto dress maker out, is measuring Penny for a dress as the girl stands on a stool. Judy is in a new outfit, "How do I look?" Penny's is not finished yet but she admits she is growing so fast it will probably be too tight before it's done. Smith arrives and asks Judy, "What on Earth have you got on, Miss?" Maureen tells him she felt they were all due for a change. He needs scarlet red for his ouija board. Maureen has lipstick red but it won't do. He picks up his shirt and tells Maureen it is not suited for his Greek athlete like body; he throws it and also tosses to Judy another shirt--which is short sleeved--that slides out of the maker, "Incredible." Penny runs to Smith by the ramp of the Jupiter II and asks about his ouija board as John, Will, and Don come romping out of the ship. Smith wants to contact his Great Uncle Thaddeus. Will tells Penny that Dr. Smith is just fooling her, "There's no such thing as spirits." Smith says he is entitled to his opinion, "...but if your sister Penny prefers to adhere to mine, I shall defend to the death her right to do so." Don tells Smith to get some red lead in the tool locker; Smith will use it even though it is utilitarian. Later, the board is painted with a "goodbye" on top. Smith tells them his Aunt Matilda or Patilda taught him well but was better at making the boards than he. Smith is in his regular black shirt with the vee neck. The others all wear their older clothes, too, including Judy. Smith needs to pick someone to participate in the splendors of the universe's mysteries as he puts it. He denies Don's request to help; Maureen laughs; Smith picks Penny. "Vital energy, sympathetic heart." Maureen fears it may frighten Penny but the girl tells her mom she is not a baby and to think of it as a scientific experiment. Penny asks John who replies: "Well, science has been interested in psychic phenomena for some years and there are some things they haven't been able to explain." Smith tells him the child will be perfectly safe. He takes her too near the table the others are at--where Will and Don scoff and laugh. They put their fingers on the glass over the ouija board but it doesn't work. Maureen tells Will to stop laughing and Will says, "I can't help it, Mom, it's just so silly," (reviewing the second and third seasons perhaps?). Smith takes Penny further away. Don says, "Give my regards to your Aunt Matilda." Judy says, "You hurt his feelings--you could've given the benefit of the doubt." Don asks, "Again?" Maureen says, "You know when I was a little girl, we found a ouija board in my grandmother's attic. No one knew what to do with it, not even my grandmother. I'm afraid things like that are quite obsolete in the world of computers." Don agrees Dr. Smith is obsolete but says, "Then again, I'm not really sure what world Dr. Smith really belongs in." Penny and Smith set up the board between them as they sit on two rocks. They stare at the glass. Smith tells her not to ask questions, "Concentrate, missy." He tries to Uncle Thaddeus. Wind shakes a bush, the glass moves, and the bush makes a moaning noise and flies off out of the ground. The glass breaks apart and the board flies up. Penny screams and runs. Smith follows, panicked as well. Penny runs to the others and tells John, who blames Smith for creating some kind of illusion despite Smith's cut finger from the broken glass. Thaddeus didn't like it here and in he was very powerful in life, powerful, nice and spry on the surface--but pugnacious underneath; an iron hand in a velvet glove, he would throw things around when he wasn't pleased. Don believes there is a scientific explanation for it and goes to bed, promising to tell Smith what it is in the morning. Smith agrees with Don about bed. When the others go in, John tells Smith, "Uhh, Dr. Smith, there may be a scientific explanation for this and there may not be but right now we've got far too many problems to cope with without worrying about your Uncle Thaddeus." He leaves Smith to say, "The pain, the pain."
Late night--Robot broadcasts, "Warning, warning!" The others come racing up in their night robes and pajamas, Maureen and Penny with their hair down and out; Smith wearing a night cap, long dress top, and slippers. John asks the Robot for a reading. Robot says it does not compute, has a new genetic code, and is due north, velocity of light, is 65 meters away. The garden tables turn over by themselves and fly all around. A table hits the window which makes John instinctively pull Maureen back. Smith tells them this is what they are getting since the Major scoffed at the spirits. He orders the Robot to describe it, "Invincible, indestructible, and irresistible!" Smith moves to go out. Maureen says, "Oh, Dr. Smith, don't you think he's a little too violent right now?" Smith has to go out, he tells her. He does and starts to talk to the force but a very large boulder loosens up and comes flying right at him. Smith ducks and falls away from it as it flies, passes him, and knocks down a tree!
ACT TWO 
John and Maureen go out and help Smith up; Don comes out also. They look at the smashed gardens. The sun comes up; Smith says, "Goodbye Uncle Thaddeus." John and Don wonder about twisters but it can't be. Maureen wonders too and Smith says, "I've done my best to explain it to you, Mrs. Robinson." Don finds the toe prints of a three toed monster which Smith feels is just "some nocturnal denizen of this planet seeking food." Don wants breakfast and Maureen feels until they clean up this mess, they will have to eat all their meals inside. Don fools with Smith, asking about detailed instructions about having put the blasting pack into the hole marked with an arrow and metal cap--which there isn't. Smith tells the truth. John and Don question him some more. The energy of the explosives combined with the bog elements which are ionized created the force (a monster? a man like thing? or just the invisibility--just the invisibility might be believable). Don tells Smith from now on he's gonna be swimming in that bog every night. When they leave, Smith pines, "I can't swim." In their new space fatigues, Don and John move through the bog. Don says, "Smith just won't cooperate even it means getting off this planet." John wants to make Smith spend the night in the bog but Don doesn't really want Smith's cooperation, "I'd just like to scare him enough to keep him off out of our hair until we've got enough fuel to get going." John finds footprints which go in both directions. They want to set off more explosives (why?) and stay here to see what that will do. Smith comes up to the control room wearing his new white shirt and holding a candle. Judy, Penny (with her hair in pig tails), Will, and Maureen are all in their new fatigues. Smith wants to hold a seance to which Maureen says, "A seance here in outer space?" 
They all go outside. Robot has a guitar. Smith sits at a round glass table and asks for Maureen to allow the children too also and to join in herself. He says to her, "To you I shall say There are more things in Heaven and Earth..." Maureen says, "Dr. Smith, both John and I believe there are certain psychic phenomena that can't be explained but this..." Maureen allows the children to sit and start the seance--they all hold hands in a circle, sitting around the table. John and Don hear heavy and loud footsteps. John shoots at a tree which falls apart in a blast. The footprints come closer and soon they are hit by an invisible force which punches them both down. The punch sounds seem almost like a toy cap gun sound. Don and John get up and run off. More footprints follow them but first, some force picks up John's warning sign and smashes it to pieces.
ACT THREE
Robot plays the guitar and sings a song which Smith and soon the children, urged by the Doctor, sing too--something about If A Buddy Has A Buddy Such As I. Smith tells Penny that was excellent--but they all sang. He talks about not breaking the eternal circle. Smith keeps shhh-ing Maureen and the laughing of the kids, "Shhh, Madam, you will ruin everything with your unfriendly vibrations." Smith asks for a sign that he is being heard. In answer, John runs in and yells, "Everybody back in the ship!" Don is behind John. Penny gasps, "What?" John repeats, "Back in the ship!" Smith complains but is punches quite comically. Robot starts warning, "Warning! Warning! Unidentified object behind you, warning. Unidentified object in front of you, warning, unidentified object beside you! Warning!" John ushers the others to the ramp, "Into the ship, hurry!" Robot wheels off past Smith who runs to Don, "Warning!" Smith tries to stop Don from shooting Thaddeus but Don tries to explain it again but is punched down. John grabs Don, "Don, inside!" The two run in, Smith following as the door closes, "Wait for me!!" Smith goes below, John tells Judy to take the children below and Don to turn on the forcefield. Robot loses power and everything else loses power. When the thing leaves, Maureen points as the lights come back on, "Oh look," she says. Robot says, "Where was I?" The force eats energy which the Robot says, "That of course does not compute." He will need an energy recharge.
Day--Smith mocks Don and John's cage which they make for what Don calls a destructive, primitive force. Don calls Smith a parrot as Smith keeps going on about his uncle. Their test on the box--a small globe of energy inside and a trap sliding door (the left overs of the Keeper's box he left Smith in)--works. John tells the complaining Smith, "I'm in command here," also mentioned somehow he can't see himself using a ouija board. Night-the cage catches something; Robot in the Control Room warns all, "Unidentified object caught in trap." John and Don run up, followed by Smith. Maureen and Judy glide up on the elevator; Will and Penny follow the men, using the ladder. Robot gives over four more warnings! The cage is moving. Smith calls it a poltergeist--they have offended the demons. Will suggests the silly idea of putting rope around the cage and letting the force out to see what it looks like--which dopey John agrees to do--but in the morning. Smith tells them, "I could materialize him," but doesn't since he is so angry. When Don tries to tell Smith one last time it is not Thaddeus, Smith says, "The ignorance of science," and also mocks Don, "Yes, Major, it's mass and energy and..." 
Later that same night--Smith goes to Will's cabin and says, "Psss," and Will is stunned when Smith opens the door. Smith is wearing a monk-like garment robe with hood and holding a lantern. Will jumped, "I thought you were Uncle Thaddeus." In this monk arraignment, Thaddeus will recognize him more readily. Smith wants Will to show him the path through the bog to placate an army of hosts amassing to attack them. Will says, "He's not a ghost." Smith huffs, "They do not like to be called ghosts." Smith gets Will to agree; Will says, "Mom did say to keep an open mind about it." Will takes off his shirt as Smith tells him to hurry and leaves the area of the room. Will puts on his new space shirt. Soon, the two are moving through the misty bog. Smith puts his lantern on a tree, "Ahh, the dangers I face for that family." Unknown to him, the force smashes out of the cage, makes the Robot lose power, and escapes--the footprints start again--toward the bog this time.
ACT FOUR
DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL scare music. Smith passes the branches of a tree and gets caught on one. Will helps him off it. He sets up on a rock. We hear wind sound effects as Will urges him to start placating. The monster's feet are now visible as it stalks through the bog. Smith waits for a sign. Will smiles. Smith wants to go back. They move over a range of rock stones which are separated but form a rock path over the white mist. Smith sends Will first--to light the way ahead; Smith almost falls in but Will tells him the bog is not deep just slimy. Smith says, "That does not reassure me." The feet are following them. Smith, afraid, wants to maintain a respectable distance. An effective long shot of the two as they move through the spooky terrain and trees works well. The wind moves a tree which Smith tries to exorcise. Will asks, "Why would a spirit need exercise?" Smith explains, then uses the dagger but misses. He then tells Will to wave around garlic. In the middle of his repeating Smith's incantation, Will sees it is just a dead tree and tiptoes to it to make sure. As Smith gathers up his belongings, Will moves ahead to find the dagger but drops the lantern. Reaching for it, Will falls into the bog. Smith calls Will. Looking for the boy, Smith falls near a tree. The feet move closer and Smith sees them, slowly looks up, "That is you, Will isn't it?" He sees a one eyed mutant-like mummy like distorted man shape with rag like flesh hanging off of it. Smith screams and runs to a rock, throwing things at it, "Get thee hence!" In a panic, Smith yells at it but it comes right up to him, trapping him near a rock. Then it vanishes. Smith finds William's boot, "Oh dear." Smith moves off. He doesn't hear Will calling to him---Will is now invisible and we can see only his footprints as he walks in the boggy mist. "I can't see myself. Gosh, if only I could see myself." Judy finds the thing gone and calls mom and dad up. Don follows. Maureen tells Judy to get Will and Dr. Smith. The three adults go outside. Don figures they fed it enough power to eat its way out. Smith comes back, upset. When they ask if Will is with him, Smith says, "He will always be with me." He tells them Will is in the bog, "The bog. He's in the bog." John and Don go to find him. Maureen faces Smith, "You left him out there, oh, Dr. Smith, how could you?" don and John, in the bog, search for the boy. The monster is jumping around, hunched over, menacing an invisible Will, "No don't!" The sun comes up, the monster vanishes, and Will appears. He didn't hear Don and John calling to him. John tells Will he believes his story of being invisible. "Knowing Dr. Smith, there isn't anything I'd put past his Uncle Thaddeus."
Early morning--Smith is dressed in his white shirt. He sits on a rock, lamenting Will. He will devote his life to service of his fellow man, "That brave little boy shall not have died in vain--a new Zachary Smith shall burst upon the world." Will arrives with John and Don a bit further behind. Smith is scared to his knees, thinking Will is a spirit, "I haven't raised you yet, don't harm me, I've already repented." When Smith touches him, he realizes Will is telling the truth--he is not a spirit. Will found the lantern but lost his boot. Smith quietly whispers to him, he knows exactly where to find it. John and Don watch, eyebrows raised, as Smith takes Will off to find it.
CLIFFHANGER: Smith, Will, and the Robot fish off of a rock embankment near moss and some trees. Smith relives his youth of a barefoot boy fishing off a warm river bank with bees in a blue sky and his cheeks of tan. Robot catches a big fish on his line; Smith takes it and tells Robot to be, "Quiet, you mumbling mass of metal." He will have their finny friend in a moment. Will and Robot continue to warn him but Smith loses the fish. Will and Robot mention how Smith didn't catch anything. Robot says, "As you've said the proof of the pudding is in the eating." As an insulted Smith prepares to leave, Will says, "Oh, we didn't mean anything, Doctor, honest we didn't." Smith sticks his chest out and head up, "He did not get away--I released him." Will smiles and Smith leaves first. Will and Robot leave also and if you look you will see A FLUB as Will trips and almost falls into the water. As they carry the lines and Robot carries the fish they caught, Robot suddenly acts funny which is the way Will puts it. Robot drops all their fish, "Warning! Immediate Danger! My sensors will not accept the possibility of its existence!" Will drops the poles, "Golly!" He moves past rocks, looking upward as he backs up. Behind him, unseen by him as yet, are trees, vines and a small nitch---which contains some kind of alien robot monster. Will starts to turn and sees it. 
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK SAME TIME SAME CHANNEL 
 
REVIEW: GHOST IN SPACE makes little sense, science fiction wise. We get very little by way of answers---was the monster a mutant of the planet mutated further by the ionized gas of the bog after Smith's blast caused the bog to become some other chemical which also could make a human invisible as well. It would seem it was just another monster from the planet with new added powers and needs due to the ionized bog mixed with the explosives. The monster is apparently just what Smith said it was--a nocturnal creature of the planet which goes away--or inside when the sun comes up. Why do John and Don want to set off more explosives? What kind of chemicals is the bog made of? Why does Will turn back to visibility? Did the monster die from the sunlight at the end or just vanish? Did the new powers of the monster wear off at the end? I sure hope the script wasn't allowing us to believe that the entire body of the monster was created by the explosion and the bog together. It could never happen that way--blasts just don't create things unless the bog had unknown properties; given that the creature was far too evolved to have been just made. We are not given any answers. Smith bringing a candle out of the Jupiter II has been mocked--later many items appear as part of the Jupiter II gear--including a wrestling matt, a large cage, and more. A candle is not all that absurd--what would happen if they landed on a planet and lost their power? Smith's supernatural interest is followed up on later episodes but not as much as in this one---it is an aspect of his character that seems somehow stupid--he was raving about being a scientist in the cliffhanger in THE SKY IF FALLING and the teaser to WISH UPON A STAR--here he sees science as ignorant. At about this time, Smith began to get so overly silly and comically so--it set a trend which the show would never recover from--added to the trend of wild monsters and guest star aliens, competing with BATMAN--and bad science which existed right from THE DERELICT and you have a show that was seriously deteriorating. GHOST IN SPACE wasn't too bad, Smith was silly but not overblown as he would be in THE SPACE VIKINGS, TWO WEEKS IN SPACE, MUTINY IN SPACE, and oh, so many others. At least, here, he is somewhat funny and the alien threat is somewhat scary and mysterious, as well as menacing. I would say at this point, the toll of being lost was taken on Smith's mind--he begins "the pain, the pain" more often, talks to himself more often, and in the next episode WAR OF THE ROBOTS--treats the Robot worse than ever before. After that he seems to really be losing his mind in THE MAGIC MIRROR (after seeming to spy on Penny and Judy in a more evil minded and greedy fashion--and for once, his own status of his own mind is almost right--he's lost it. Perhaps this is where the evil Dr. Zachary Smith was put to rest once and for all. This would mark the beginning of a comical, cowardly, greedy, lovable, annoying, mistake making, supernatural believing Smith who deep down did care for the family more than he knew. More on this later.
NOTE: It is reported that is the last time the Robot plays Will's guitar--perhaps on screen this is true but he does use it in THE GHOST PLANET. 
NEW CLOTHES FOR JOHN: shirt-dark green with yellow undershirt, collar stripe of reddish-orange, red-orange cuff stripes, yellow shirt stripe, and very dark green pants, black boots, black belt. WORN FROM GHOST IN SPACE to THE GALAXY GIFT. In BLAST OFF INTO SPACE, for all the flying jet pack scenes--John wears his old shirt which is from ISLAND IN THE SKY through the first part of GHOST IN SPACE to match the flying scenes stock footage. In BLAST OFF's other scenes--the majority of the hour--John wears this new outfit. 
NEW CLOTHES FOR MAUREEN: Dark green shirt with yellow undershirt, red-orange, yellow stripes on collar and the same color for the cuff stripes, very dark green pants and boots. GHOST to GALAXY.
NEW CLOTHES FOR JUDY: light yellow shirt with red-orange undershirt, red-orange shirt stripe which runs along the entire front, light yellow pants and boots. GHOST to GALAXY. 
NEW CLOTHES FOR PENNY: bright yellow with red stripes, GHOST IN SPACE to FOLLOW THE LEADER. 
NEW CLOTHES FOR WILL: Red-orange shirt, yellow undershirt, yellow cuffs with brown cuff band, black belt, rust pants and black boots. WORN FROM GHOST IN SPACE to THE GALAXY GIFT.
NEW CLOTHES FOR DON: Rust shirt with yellow undershirt, shirt stripes are red-orange on top, yellow on bottom, yellow cuffs, red and orange cuff stripes, black belt and boots, brown pants. GHOST to THE GALAXY GIFT. 
NEW CLOTHES FOR SMITH: For GHOST a beige-white shirt and the old black shirt with white undershirt changed to Black shirt with mustard colored undershirt, red and orange collar stripe, black belt--pants and boots. The white shirt was worn in GHOST, WAR OF THE ROBOTS, and THE MAGIC MIRROR before returning to the black with mustard color. The white-beige top is given to Ohan by Penny in ALL THAT GLITTERS.