Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 1]
The Reluctant Stowaway
Shown 15 Sep 65
On the 16th of October, 1997, the Space family Robinson prepare to fly to Alpha Centauri.
They have been chosen from among two million volunteers
to become space pioneers on the nexly-discovered exo-planet.
The male lead, Prof. John Robinson (Guy Williams -
I Was a Teenage Werewolf
) is a manly scientist played by the actor best known for the starring role
in the Zorro TV show a few years previously.
His wife is the perfect 1950s-style housewife.
They have two attractive teenage daughters, and a young son.
As the show was aimed at children,
the boy is meant to be relatable to the audience.
The ship has an unexpected intruder.
It is the man who invented the term Special Guest Star - Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
). He was not in the original pilot episode.
As a result, all his scenes had to be edited into the existing footage.
This meant that the story had to be stretched over the first five episodes.
Smith has been paid by a rival country to sabotage the ship.
He reprograms the robot to do it for him.
Unfortunately for him he gets trapped aboard, as an unintentional stowaway.
The Robinsons are in cryo-tubes,
where they are meant to spend the next five years.
The ship's course puts it directly into the path of an uncharted meteor storm.
Smith has to wake up the pilot, Don West,
who then blames him for taking the ship off-course.
Ground Control decides that the ship has passed beyond the limits of Earth's galaxy,
by which they presumably mean solar system, and is now hopelessly ... Lost In Space!
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 2]
The Derelict
Shown 22 Sep 65
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) tries to repair the robot.
Dr Robinson is not happy about this,
because Smith is technically a stowaway.
The ship encounters a strange space-ship.
Smith hopes it was sent by his employers,
while the others assume it is an alien vessel.
Instead of using a tractor beam, it opens up like the SPECTRE ship in
You Only Live Twice
and swallows the Jupiter two.
The alien ship seems derelict and abandoned, so the men suit up and explore it.
Luckily there is an oxygen-rich atmosphere.
When Major West tells Smith not to get lost, the response is Never fear.
Obviously where the famous catch-phrase came from.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 3]
Island in the Sky
Shown 29 Sep 65
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) has got the robot fixed, and tests it by playing chess.
However, he convinces Dr Robinson that it is not ready
to be used for planetary exploration.
Ironically, for a 1960s SciFi show aimed at children
they actually have something right.
The use of non-human devices for exploration is now mainstream.
Robinson goes out to do the recon work himself.
Of course, he gets in trouble.
Smith points out that, with one fewer adult male aboard,
they can now safely try to reach Earth again.
He is as much as confessing that it is his presence
which has marooned the ship.
His plan is to send a rescue mission back for Robinson when they reach Earth,
but that would take days (or much longer) and Robinson has neither food nor water.
Major West and Mrs Robinson insist that they land the ship and rescue Robinson.
The children are not allowed a vote in this matter,
although they would probably side with their mother.
Smith is coerced into going along with the rescue attempt.
He now plans to kill the others, one at a time.
Of course, he is not man enough to do it himself
so he orders the robot to do it.
The Robinsons explore the planet in their version of the moon rover.
It is called the Chariot,
and it matches the caterpillar tracks of an M-113 armoured personel carrier
with the passenger compartment of a 1960s VW minibus.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 4]
There Were Giants in the Earth
Shown 06 Oct 65
The crew settle down to colonise the new planet.
The men go off to do manly things like fixing the Chariot.
Will Robinson (Bill Mumy -
Babylon 5
) may be the youngest, but he does some science and shooting as well.
The females do the domestic stuff,
like sorting out the food supply.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) turns out to be an expert chef.
Combined with his English Recieved Pronunciation accent
(which covers the actor's native New York City accent)
this may be a subtle implication that he is homosexual.
After all, he does not have a love interest in the show.
However, in all fairness this was intended as a childrens' show
and there is no concept of the Feminist Agenda in it.
Dr Robinson and Major West go exploring.
They discover that there are hostile life forms in the area.
One is a massive troglodyte,
filmed using 1960s blue-screen technology.
The SPFX actually looks almost decent,
because it was filmed in black and white.
Also, it is not over-used like in
Land of Giants
.
The Robinsons decide to head south for the winter.
Dr Smith insists on staying with the spaceship,
and the robot stays with him.
Yes, he is written out of the story
and the show reverts back to the original cliched intent.
The space family Robinson camp out for the night.
Will plays the guitar - the actor later became a professional musician.
Romance hots up between Major Don West (Mark Goddard) and Judy Robinson (
Marta Kristen
).
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 5]
The Hungry Sea
Shown 13 Oct 65
Will and Penny discover an ancient burial chamber.
Yes, the planet was once inhabited by a humanoid civilisation.
However, this discovery is completely ignored and forgotten about.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) works out what the planet's problem is.
It follows an elliptical orbit that will take it too close to the sun.
He contacts the Robinsons over the radio,
but they do not believe him.
Then he sends the robot to tell them in person.
Somehow it arrives at their position in double-quick time.
The ice has melted, and the frozen plain is now a sea.
Luckily the Chariot is amphibious.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 6]
Welcome Stranger
Shown 20 Oct 65
The planet is visited by another human - a Texan named Hapgood (Warren Oates).
He is a space cowboy, played by an actor best known for playing regular cowboys.
His ship was launched on 18th June 1982, and sent to explore Saturn.
Unfortunately he has spent the last decade and a half wandering the stars.
Dr. Robinson wants to get Hapgood to take Will and Penny back to Earth.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) agrees to help, but his intention is to leave the children
and go home in their place.
The strange parasitic soil creatures of the planet make a comeback.
They feed off bacteria on the ship's hull,
and grow to enormous size.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 7]
My Friend, Mr. Nobody
Shown 27 Oct 65
The men go off to drill for radioactive materials,
which they want to turn into atomic fuel.
After all, it has been established that the planet has an elliptical orbit
and they should try to get off it as quickly as possible.
They take Will with them.
Penny feels left out, so she goes exploring by herself.
Penny discovers a mysterious cave.
Inside it, an unseen creature talks to her.
She nicknames it Mr. Nobody.
Everyone else thinks it is her imaginary friend.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) follows Penny, and discovers the cave is full of diamonds.
He plans to blow the place up and take the gems,
even if it means killing Penny and the alien in the process.
Will later mocks Penny (and inadvertently Dr Smith himself)
when he says that only girls like things that have no practical use.
He is unknowingly implying that while manly men like engineering,
women (and womanly men) like shiny and attractive things.
Of course, Smith cares only for the financial value of the diamonds,
and has done enough engineering work to assemble the robot at least twice.
Again, it seems that a modern viewing of this show
is tainted by a post-Feminist viewpoint.
This show brings new meaning to the phrase
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 8]
Invaders from the Fifth Dimension
Shown 03 Nov 65
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) is abducted by explorers from the Fifth Dimension.
They need to obtain a computer to install in their damaged craft.
Unfortunately the kind they need is a humanoid brain.
Smith convinces them that his will not suit their needs.
However, they put a slave collar on him
and force him to bring one of the Robinsons with him.
Will has gone collecting rock samples.
He has a geiger counter with him, as befits the space-age era.
Smith takes the boy to the aliens.
Major Don goes looking for them, using a jet-pack.
Or rather, using stock footage of a real-life rocket pack pilot on location in a desert.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 9]
The Oasis
Shown 10 Nov 65
This episode actually has a bit of continuity with previous episodes.
Because of the planet's elliptical orbit,
they are approaching the sun again and must conserve water.
Also, Penny's space-chimp pet Debbie is still around.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) uses twenty gallons of the drinking water to have a shower.
Everyone else is less than happy about him bringing them closer to death because of this.
Of course, Smith blames everyone else.
He is what Mrs Robinson calls an Injustice Collector.
This makes sense in a modern Social Justice context -
not because he is stale, male and pale
but because he is a closet homosexual
and thus feels excluded from their heteronormative society.
Dr Robinson suspects there may be water in nearby hills.
The plan is for the whole family to walk there with buckets.
A better idea would be to send the robot to explore,
possibly with Smith (since it was his fault).
The show takes a
Land of Giants
twist. Remember when Bruce Banner turned into
The Incredible Hulk
? Well, the space-clothing in this show is much better than Banner's,
because it does not tear no matter how big the wearer grows.
Perhaps this is another reference to a previous episode.
After all, the massive troglodyte could have started out man-sized
and then eaten a few of the enlarging fruits.
Maybe the poor thing was vegetarian,
and lived entirely on those fruit.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 10]
The Sky is Falling
Shown 17 Nov 65
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) discovers an alien probe.
It turns out that the planet is being scouted by aliens
from a more technologically advanced civilisation.
For example, they have molecular transportation.
Ironically, the aliens actually WANT to settle there
while the Robinsons only landed there by accident
and are struggling to survive.
The Robinsons are an optimistic bunch.
However, Smith is a far more cynical individual.
He starts a whispering campaign to blame the aliens for everything.
Will and the aliens' son are playing together.
The alien boy falls ill, because (as in
War of the Worlds
) aliens have no immunity to human diseases.
When the boys do not return home,
the two sets of parents each assume the worst of each other.
The alien boy's father, Rethso (Don Matheson -
Land of Giants
), seems just as capable as Professor Robinson.
Will Smith's intolerance of illegal aliens end in violence and bloodshed?
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 11]
Wish Upon a Star
Shown 24 Nov 65
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) is exiled from the Jupiter Two.
He goes to live in the hull of a crashed alien starship.
While there he discovers a piece of alien technology that can do two incredible things.
Firstly it can read minds, so it discovers what the user's wish is.
Secondly it can produce the item that is wished for.
Smith offers to share his discoveries with the others.
They may have treated him badly in the past,
but they are eager to let him buy his way back.
All except square-jawed father-figure Professor Robinson,
who knows that you get what you pay for
and there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 12]
The Raft
Shown 01 Dec 65
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) experiments with a new idea for a balloon-assisted rocket launch.
He certainly seems to be better at this than his father.
Unfortunately, Will seems to have miscalculated the amount of fuel involved.
The experiment fails, and now the Jupiter Two does not have enough fuel to take off.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) keeps himself busy by writing a book about his experiences.
He actually dictates it - not into a compact hand-held dictaphone,
but a desk-top reel-to-reel tape recorder from the 1950s.
Yes, despite this being a sci-fi show the designers did not think it through too much.
Professor Robinson (Guy Williams - Zorro) cannot manufacture more fuel.
Instead he decides to use Will's idea on a larger scale.
They build a balloon, and put a life-pod with a rocket motor underneath.
Unfortunately, Dr Smith decides to interfere.
Dr Smith and Will Robinson end up trapped on the space capsule,
and land on a strange planet.
Smith is certain he is back home on Earth,
although they are in a remote area with no people or signs of technology.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 13]
One of Our Dogs is Missing
Shown 08 Dec 65
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) joins his father and Major West on an away mission.
With the masculine characters gone,
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and the women are left to run the ship.
Of course, Mrs Robinson is in charge.
A pity that she does not have an official rank to acknowledge her status.
Dr Smith is portrayed as cowardly,
but he is wise enough to be cautious.
Mrs Robinson insists on investigating a nearby meteorite strike.
Something breaks into the Jupiter Two while it is unguarded,
and rips open some tin cans containing food.
The girls discover a puppy dog running it around.
Penny wants to keep it as a pet.
She already has the chimp, but it is strangely absent this week.
There is also a hairy beast-man running around.
Mrs Robinson and Judy read the Professor's scientific journal.
In it, he suspects that something on the planet creates mutants.
This would explain why there is a different monster every week.
Dr Smith takes the robot and Will Robinson on a hunting expedition.
This seems to be the first time that trio set off on a mission together.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 14]
Attack of the Monster Plants
Shown 15 Dec 65
Once again, Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) gets exiled from the Jupiter Two.
Just as last time, he makes an incredible scientific discovery.
This time it is a plant that duplicates things.
The Robinsons start mining for Detronium,
the fuel for their space ship.
Major West taunts Smith by claiming they may not have enough fuel to take everyone home.
Of course, Smith tries to get leverage to get himself a guaranteed place on the ship.
Penny's pet chimp is back, but the puppy from the previous episode is strangely missing.
Judy (
Marta Kristen
) goes missing, then turns up again - acting strangely.
Is she a duplicate, like a Pod Person from
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
? Nobody seems to notice the difference.
Of course, Dr Smith discovers the truth - and turns it to his advantage.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 15]
Return from Outer Space
Shown 29 Dec 65
It turns out that the alien family who tried settling nearby were called the Taurons.
They left a matter-transporter device behind when they left.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) decides to use it to travel home to Earth.
Strangely, the alien device accepts verbal commands in the English Language.
It somehow knows where Earth is,
and is also calibrated to deliver Will to somewhere that has the same time zone as the Jupiter Two.
Will ends up in a town in the American MidWest.
He wants to phone the General at the launch centre,
but the phones in the town are all relics from the Edwardian era.
Did the machine dump him a hundred years back in time?
Apparently not, the locals have heard of the Space family Robinson
but have long given them up for dead.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 16]
The Keeper (1)
Shown 12 Jan 66
The Keeper (Michael Rennie -
The Day The Earth Stood Still
) arrives on the planet and introduces himself.
He speaks perfect English, the first alien on the show to do so.
His home is ten million light years away,
so either he meant ten thousand or he is from another galaxy.
The Keeper's mission is to collect two members of every species in the universe.
Presumably he wants a breeding pair,
but when Major West and Judy (
Marta Kristen
) prove reluctant recruits he settles for Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and his sister Penny instead!
The Keeper uses his magic staff to mind-control his victims.
For some reason it works on Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and the children, but not the others.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 17]
The Keeper (2)
Shown 19 Jan 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) tries to steal the alien ship.
Of course, messing with the controls of an alien starship is a very bad idea.
Even worse, this has a massive zoo full of alien creatures aboard.
The result is not dissimilar to the climactic scene in
Cabin In The Woods
.
The planet is now filled with hundreds of dangerous alien creatures.
For example, Professor Robinson and Major West encounter a massive iguana,
photographically enlarged like in
One Million BC
. This is a good set-up for the show,
as it would provide a reason to have a different monster every week.
The show already has a story set-up about mutants,
but there has been no specific mutagen identified as cause of the mutations.
The Keeper is something of a sexist.
Mrs Robinson announces that men and women are equal on Earth.
However, the Keeper reminds her that women do not wage war or make laws.
Certainly, Mrs Robinson and her daughters are stuck with domestic chores.
Is he actually an early Second Wave Feminist,
implying that women should serve in the military or the legislature?
Certainly there were women in such roles in the decades before this show was made.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 18]
The Sky Pirate
Shown 26 Jan 66
Another alien ship lands a mile or so from the Jupiter Two.
The good news is that the newcomer is a human male.
The bad news is that he is a space pirate.
He even has a robotic parrot on his shoulder!
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) secretly orders the robot to kill the space pirate.
The robot complains that its prime directive forbids the taking of human life.
Yes, this is a reference to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.
However, in this case the robot's prime directive can be verbally overritten
by orders from Smith.
The pirate, Captain Tucker (Albert Salmi -
Empire of The Ants
) starts to bond with Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
). The character is basically a pastiche of Charles Laughton's portrayal of Long John Silver.
However, Will is a very impressionable young man -
look at how he accepts everything Smith says at face value.
The Pirate gets Will to swear the Pirate's oath,
which he probably made up on the spot.
In all fairness, this is actually quite a good deal for Will.
He gets to live the adventurous life of a pirate,
without chores or lessons or bossy big sisters.
We discover a bit more about the timeline.
The Robinsons left Earth in 1997.
Tucker, states he was born in 1858 and abducted by aliens in 1876.
He escaped and stole their ship.
Unfortunately the aliens are still after him.
Tucker has no idea how to repair the starship he stole.
As a result, he needs the Robinsons to repair it for him.
They have no expertise in engines either,
but this is a great opportunity for them to learn.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 19]
Ghost in Space
Shown 02 Feb 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) makes a Ouija board so he can talk to the spirit of his Great Uncle Thadeus.
He holds a seance,
and despite being cynical the Robinsons participate.
The Jupiter Two is menaced by an invisible monster,
similar to the Monster of the Id from
Forbidden Planet
. They still have the cage that Smith was imprisoned in by The Keeper last week,
so they set it up as a trap for the creature.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 20]
War of the Robots
Shown 09 Feb 66
Last week the Robinsons encountered an invisible monster,
similar to the Monster of the Id from
Forbidden Planet
. Now, Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) discovers and re-activates ... Robbie The Robot!
The Robinsons' robot is instinctively mistrustful of the newcomer,
who he insists is a Robitoid rather than a proper Robot.
Everyone else welcomes it,
because it is more sophisticated and can perform better than the old robot.
Nobody bothers to ask where it came from,
who built and programmed it or why they left it there.
Of course, nobody asks where Penny is either -
despite there being no sign of her for the whole episode.
The only human who is unhappy with the Robitoid is Will.
He bonds with the old robot, and tells it to call him by his first name.
It is unhappy about being abandoned by its family,
and appears to have a mindset similar to that of a domestic dog.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 21]
The Magic Mirror
Shown 16 Feb 66
The Jupiter Two is hit by a bad thunderstorm.
Unfortunately Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) did not bother to put up the storm arrestors (lightning rods?).
His problem is not merely that he is a selfish villain,
because that could be forgiven if he was actually competent.
However, he is also a lazy bumbling idiot.
Also a hypochondriac, but that is the least of his flaws.
Smith is sent out to find Penny and her pet space-chimp,
who have stayed out in the storm.
Presumably they did not notice
the weather had taken a turn for the unbelievably bad.
They discover a mirror that is made of solid platinum.
The next day, Penny is playing near the mirror again.
The mirror is a portal, and on the other side is a mysterious boy
(Michael J Pollard - Dirty Little Billy).
He lures the space-chimp in with a space-banana.
For some reason, it can come and go but the boy and Penny cannot.
Smith thinks that he hallucinated the whole thing.
Unfortunately, he is Penny's only hope of rescue.
Or, since this show was aimed at a childrens' audience,
she may be his only hope of rescue.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 22]
The Challenge
Shown 02 Mar 66
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) discover an alien boy named Quano (Kurt Russell -
Guardians Of The Galaxy 2
) who has been sent there by his father (Michael Ansara -
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
).
It has been a few months since Will has had a boy of his own age to play with.
It is good for him to have some healthy competition.
However, Quano is somewhat stern and unlikeable.
He has been sent to the planet to prove himself to his father,
and he selects Will Robinson as a worthy opponent.
The boys have to compete in a set of challenges.
As always, all Dr Smith cares about is getting back to Earth.
He wants to hitch a lift with the aliens,
and tries to get Will to throw the match.
However, Will puts his own ego above the idea of saving his family!
Quano's father is an alien Emperor.
They have a higher level of technology than the Earthlings,
even if their dials are analogue instead of digital.
However, the Earthlings seem to have the edge in physical competition.
The final test is a fencing duel.
The swords carry at least fifty thousand volts,
so for regular humans this would be a duel to the death.
Luckily Quano's father does not not want to risk his son,
so he insists on the fathers taking their sons' places.
Strangely, Professor Robinson has the amazing sword-fighting skills of Zorro himself!
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 23]
The Space Trader
Shown 09 Mar 66
A mysterious trader (Torin Thatcher -
Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
) arrives and sets up camp near the Jupiter Two.
He has everything the Robinsons need.
Perhaps too conveniently.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) wants to buy a food supply.
The only thing he can offer for trade is the robot.
Of course, the Robinsons get quite upset about this.
Despite being an apparent sociopath,
Smith is actually keen to stay on good terms with Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
). As a result, he goes back to the trader and attempts to buy the Robot back.
Smith prides himself on being cunning.
However, he learns that no good deed goes unpunished.
He does not bother to read the small print in a contract,
and finds himself the Trader's property.
Well, if a sentient robot can be sold as property
then a human being can sell himself into slavery too.
The Trader intends to take Smith off-world with him.
The Robinsons want Smith to stay with them.
Even more strangely, Smith wants to stay with them too.
Normally Smith would be keen to get a ride in a starship,
in the hope of getting a lift back to Earth.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 24]
His Majesty Smith
Shown 16 Mar 66
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) discovers a crown that will choose the new ruler of an alien world.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) has obviously not learned his lesson from last week.
He volunteers to become King of the aliens.
They are only interested in a male ruler,
so that makes half the Robinsons ineligible.
Smith claims that on his mother's side he is Irish,
and recalls an old proverb that the Irish were decended from Royalty.
However, he seems ignorant of the ancient Keltic tradition
that a King would rule for a limited time,
and then become a human sacrifice.
Yes, they took term limits for government positions very seriously back then!
The aliens besiege the Robinsons.
The Robot stands guard, and uses his Danger, Danger! warning for the first time.
The replacement Smith decides to be neutral.
All he offers is his thoughts and prayers.
Yes, just what the US Republican Party offers to the victims
every time there is an act of domestic terrorism in their country.
Well, now we know where they got it from.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 25]
The Space Croppers
Shown 30 Mar 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and the children put some mementos in a time capsule
for future generations of explorers to discover.
One of them is the booster from the rocket-belt.
Yes, it looks like they will not be re-using the stock footage of the jet-pack again.
Smith's dictated autobiography is included.
The planet has two moons, and both of them are full.
No sooner has Smith realised that than they are attacked by a werewolf.
The Robot chases the monster off.
However, Professor Robinson refuses to believe Smith's story.
He does not even ask the robot for info on what happened.
Instead he orders Smith to go and catch the beast.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) tags along for the adventure.
The Robinsons have new neighbours again.
This time it is a family of space hillbillies
that appear to have emerged from God's Little Acre.
Smith tries to sweet-talk the matriarch,
a lonely widow-woman named Sybilla (
Mercedes McCambridge
). Meanwhile, the woman's daughter Effra (
Sherry Jackson
) takes a liking to Major West.
He plays hard-to-get,
which unfortunately averts a cat-fight between her and Judy.
Smith's plan is to join the space-croppers
and let them take him as far as Earth.
Of course, he is willing to lie and decieve them -
although it never occurs to him that they might also be lying to him.
In comparison, Major West does not trust the aliens.
However, Smith is the only one actively trying to get a lift back to Earth.
This explains why he is at the centre of every story.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 26]
All That Glitters
Shown 06 Apr 66
Once again, the manly men head off and leave Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) with the women.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and the Robot accompany Professor Robinson and Major West.
Their story will be told in the next episode.
Meanwhile, Mrs Robinson is very clearly in charge of the colony.
Penny befriends an escaped convict.
He is an interstellar burglar named Ohan (Larry Ward).
He leaves her a valuable item he stole -
the key to finding the greatest treasure in the universe.
Ohan is pursued by a dictatorial space cop
named Officer Bolix (Werner Klemperer - Hogan's Heroes).
He is a Tauran, like the alien family in
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 10] The Sky is Falling.
However, he has been trained to speak English.
This is because the space police are expecting a lot of contact with Earthlings.
They have a file on the Robinsons, and a large one on Doctor Smith.
Smith does not bother trying to hitch a lift back to Earth.
Instead he goes after the treasure.
First he faces a question reminiscent of the story of Solomon,
when he had to choose between wisdom and wealth.
Later he finds himself with the curse of Midas,
only he turns things to platinum instead of gold.
When he discovers that he cannot eat or drink anything,
he suddenly begins to care about other people.
But when something bad happens to Penny,
Smith is genuinely distraught.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 27]
The Lost Civilization
Shown 13 Apr 66
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and the Robot accompany Professor Robinson and Major West in the Chariot.
Unfortunately they drive into the Valley of Volcanos,
and get caught in an eruption.
They are being observed by a stranger who looks like Ming the Merciless.
It turns out that the explorers have timed their trip
to coincide with one of the times when the planet is near its sun.
As a result, they drive across a desert hundreds of miles away from the Jupiter Two.
They did not even think to check the air conditioner was working,
or to specifically program the Robot to detect drinkable water.
Even undrinkable water can still be used for coolant purposes,
and warm air can be used to create a wind-chill effect,
but neither of these facts occurs to the Professor and the Major.
They stop in some caves for shelter from the sun's rays.
Will goes deeper, in order to find drinking water.
The men go looking for him, and find some ancient Assyrian carvings.
Are they linked to the mysterious tomb they found in
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 5] The Hungry Sea?
Will and the robot discover a sleeping princess in the cave.
Will does the necessary, and wakes her with a kiss.
Unfortunately this is all a ruse, to trap the rescuer.
An alien civilisation lives in the caves.
Their massive army is in suspended animation.
Now they are awakened,
and the target of their first invasion is the rescuer's homeworld.
The other part of the trap is that Will must marry the princess.
He protests, and holds up 1950s gender roles as a major issue.
After all, he is too young to have a job
and therefore he cannot financially support a wife!
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 28]
A Change of Space
Shown 20 Apr 66
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) take a trip together.
They discover yet another alien starship.
Will takes a trip in the starship by himself.
When he returns, he looks the same
but he has become more mature and intelligent.
Yet when Smith takes a trip,
he only becomes more physically mature.
Finally the ship's owner turns up.
Unusually the creature is not a humanoid and does not speak English!
Luckily the Robot quickly manages to tranlate.
Lost In Space [Season 1, Episode 29]
Follow the Leader
Shown 27 Apr 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) has lost a laser pistol in a cave.
Professor Robinson enters the cave in order to recover the weapon.
It is more precious to the expedition that the Crown Jewels,
because there are a lot more precious stones than hi-tech weapons lying around.
There is a cave-in, and Robinson is trapped.
It is his own fault, because he knew Smith was a coward
who could not be trusted to save him.
However, at least Smith had the decency to go and get help.
Robinson discovers an underground tomb from a lost civilisation.
The inhabitant is the mummified body of an alien warrior named Kanto,
and its ghost-like essence possesses Robinson.
Apparently this alien is not native to this planet,
so is unconnected to the other underground alien civilisation.
When Robinson returns to the Jupiter Two,
the others think his abrasive new personality is caused by PTSD.
Smith claims to be a Doctor of medicine,
and attempts to serve as his psychiatrist.
Luckily, the Robot is somehow programmed to detect if someone is possessed.
The alien's plan is to get off-world.
It has Robinson order the family to start making fuel for the Jupiter Two.
Major West and the women confront Robinson.
Once again, Guy Williams shows off his Zorro-style swashbuckling skills.
Dr Smith is left as father-figure of the children.
This leaves the Robot as the new matriarch,
and it hen-pecks poor Dr Smith as he cooks breakfast for the kids.
The final sequence, the teaser for the next episode's storyline,
is in glorious technicolour.
Yes, after only one Season of old-fashioned monochrome
the show has now made the switch to colour.
Let's hope the SPFX look as good as they do in the more forgiving black and white format.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 1]
Blast Off Into Space
Shown 14 Sep 66
This is the show's first full Season in glorious technicolour.
The crew all look very nice in their brightly-coloured costumes.
Despite all their manual labour,
their clothes are free from dirt or grease or wrinkles.
But nobody ever said this show was meant to be realistic.
Don and Judy are mining for starship fuel.
Unfortunately the planet is hit by a series of quakes.
It turns out that the quakes are not natural.
They are due to blasting caused by an old prospector.
If he looks familiar, that is because he is Strother Martin
and he has played such roles in many Wild West movies.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) becomes curious about the substance the prospector is mining.
It is Cosmium, a mythical element that is the source of all life.
Professor Robinson's plan is to put the Jupiter Two in orbit.
Once the planet disentigrates, there will be no gravity well to hold them back.
Thus they will be able to travel to Alpha Centauri.
They quickly achieve an estimated 50% of light velocity,
and accelerate to nearly lightspeed itself.
This might take them a few years,
but if they have suspended animation they have nothing to worry about.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 2]
Wild Adventure
Shown 21 Sep 66
The Jupiter Two is out in space again.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) wants to return to Earth, and he actually has a good point.
Cowardice aside, the Robinsons have had to abandon much of their survival gear.
Also, they have made many scientific discoveries
and they should make a report back to Earth.
Smith's first attempt to change course is by blackmail.
When this fails, he resorts to sabotage.
Unfortunately this means they lose most of their fuel supply.
Luckily there is a barge of space-fuel nearby.
Don suits up for EVA, but when he is out he thinks he sees a figure.
Also, someone has already drained most of the fuel.
It turns out that there is a beautiful green-skinned woman (
Vitina Marcus
) living in outer space,
and for some reason she has become obsessed with Dr Smith.
Of course, he is too greedy to fall into a honeytrap.
His only lust is for wealth and power, not for female flesh.
Smith eventually manages to get the ship back into the Earth's solar system.
Unfortunately the Earth is on the other side of the sun,
and the pilot is somehow unable to steer around it!
The Jupiter Two finally gets close enough to Earth to achieve radio contact.
There is no time lag, so either they are incredibly close
or they have a form of sub-space communication.
In all fairness the show does not have much in the way of scientific accuracy.
The characters use the word galaxy to describe a single star system!
The Robinsons have a chance to return to Earth.
However, to do so they must abandon Smith to an uncertain death.
Major West is willing to make the sacrifice,
but Mrs Robinson talks her husband into humanitarian action.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 3]
The Ghost Planet
Shown 28 Sep 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) get a radio message from a traffic controller.
Smith assumes she is on Earth,
and adjusts the ship's trajectory to land on her planet.
When they land on the mysterious planet,
Professor Robinson refuses to let anyone leave the ship
until they know for certain what is outside.
He threatens to have Smith clapped in irons and reduced to a diet of hard tack and water.
This may be a reference to one of Harris' previous roles -
as a convict transported to Australia in the Alan Ladd movie Botany Bay.
Smith ends up enslaved and forced to do hard labour.
However, it is not the Robinsons that are responsible.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 4]
Forbidden World
Shown 05 Oct 66
The Jupiter Two escapes the mysterious planet from the previous episode.
However, the ruling A.I. fires a nuclear missile at them.
They take evasive action,
but the explosion causes them to crash-land on the planet's surface.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) get set out to explore the planet.
They are captured by a strange man
who dresses like a hobo but claims to be an officer in the local army.
Smith ends up poisoned with a liquid explosive.
The others keep him at a safe distance from them and the ship,
because he has the explosive power of fifteen sticks of dynamite.
This is only the equivalent of about a pint of gasoline,
but it is easily enough to do lethal damage in a confined space
like the ship's interior.
Smith should be grateful,
for he has finally gotten peace and quiet - and a break from work.
Instead he complains of loneliness.
Will plans to save Smith by getting a cure from the alien.
Meanwhile, the Robot has forgotten its Prime Directive -
even though it was referred to in at least two episodes in the previous Season.
Now, the Robot is willing to detonate Smith
in order to remove the potential risk to the Robinsons.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 5]
Space Circus
Shown 12 Oct 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
), the Robot and the children are sent exploring.
The purifier machine needs cobalt-magnesium ore.
Our heroes discover their new neighbours -
an alien circus, run by some human-looking types.
The Ringmaster agrees to put on a show for the Robinsons.
After all, they need rehearsals to stay in practice ... and they will work for food.
Unfortunately without the purifier machine,
the Robinsons' food-plants will die and everyone will starve.
Smith tries to perfect a song-and-dance routine,
so he can join the circus himself.
Luckily for him, Will Robinson turns out to have actual telekinetic powers.
Yes, with the encouragement of Fenestra (
Melinda O. Fee
), the show's psychic, he learns to make objects appear.
Smith volunteers to act as Will's agent and manager,
in exchange for half his earnings and a free trip back to Earth.
However, he learns never to trust a space-carnie!
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 6]
The Prisoners of Space
Shown 19 Oct 66
A mysterious box appears near the Jupiter Two.
It is powered by solar energy,
and picks up ultrasonic radio waves.
This communications device informs the Robinsons
that they are indicted by the Galactic Tribuneral of Justice.
An electrified fence, made of transparent plastic sheeting, appears around the perimeter.
The accused are called to testify, one at a time.
They step onto a molecular transporter,
and are beamed to a fog-bound version of Stonehenge.
The alien court get testimony via a machine that reads the subject's mind.
Of course, the characters' memories consist of clips from the first two episodes.
This is technically not a clip show -
the clips are a small part of the overall storyline,
and not stuffed in just to pad out the episode's running time.
Strangely, Dr Smith is not mentioned in the indictment.
He offers to wear a wire on behalf of the Tribuneral
in exchange for a free trip back to Earth,
but his willingness to cooperate is seen as an attempt to bribe the court.
However, after a few of the group have been interviewed
Smith's name is added to the list of persons of interest.
Smith's first plan is to escape.
He gets Will and the Robot to help.
Nobody considers that the aliens might feel that assisting a fugitive is a crime,
nor that they would believe in collective punishment.
Smith must return and face the court.
But are the Robinsons and Major West prepared to purjor themselves
and claim that Smith is not guilty by means of insanity?
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 7]
The Android Machine
Shown 26 Oct 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) discovers an alien vending machine in the desert near the ship.
He starts to play around with it,
and accidentally creates a female android.
She is a product of the technology of the Andromeda civilisation,
and volunteers her services as tutor for Will and Penny.
Yes, of all the opportunities of learning about alien civilisations
this one goes to the children rather than the professional explorers.
Everyone seems to like the android woman.
All except Smith, that is.
He tries to get the aliens to take her back.
Unfortunately they refuse to accept returned goods,
and when they discover he cannot pay they take action against him.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 8]
The Deadly Games of Gamma 6
Shown 02 Nov 66
Some more humanoid aliens visit the planet.
This time they are competitors in an interstellar sports contest.
The Games Master wants Professor Robinson to compete
as the Champion for Earth, but Robinson refuses.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) offers to persuade Robinson to participate,
on the same terms as when he wanted to be Will's agent/manager in
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 5] Space Circus.
When both Professor Robinson and his son refuse to participate,
Dr Smith finds himself talked into competing as Earth's Champion.
However, there is a more sinister agenda behind the Games.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 9]
The Thief of Outer Space
Shown 09 Nov 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) are out in the desert when they get mugged by an Arabian Nights-style thief.
Unfortunately, when they get back to the Jupiter Two, nobody else believes them.
Will gets captured by the thief.
Just like the time he got captured by the space pirate in Season One,
Will gets a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome.
The Thief launches a raid on the Jupiter Two.
Once again, Professor Robinson shows off his zorro-style sword-fighting skills.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 10]
Curse of Cousin Smith
Shown 16 Nov 66
Penny and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) go bird-watching together.
Their bickering invokes 1950s gender roles.
Then they see a strange space-ship fly overhead
and drop some cargo crates by parachute.
There is also a man, clad as a riverboat gambler.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) recognises the stranger as his cousin, Colonel Smith.
Somehow, they managed to end up on the same planet together.
How the Colonel left Earth
and hitch-hiked around the Galactic Federation is not explained.
The family reunion is not a happy one.
Grandma Smith put a clause in her will
that her fortune would go to the last surviving heir
Ever since then the Smiths have been killing off their relatives
in the hope of becoming the last one alive.
Colonel Smith calls in backup,
in the form of a gambling syndicate he owes money to.
Professor Robinson has to outwith the gamblers in a game of chance.
He plays the shell game, and makes them guess which cup the ball is under.
But does he play the game straight, or does he palm the ball?
He refuses to tell his wife, which implies
he may be more ruthless and crooked than his nice-guy persona indicates.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 11]
West of Mars
Shown 30 Nov 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) has been press-ganged into moving ore on a mining rail track.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) drops by to give him some dessert he saved from dinner.
An alien spaceship arrives, with a humanoid who calls himself Space Enforcer Claudius.
He is in pursuit of a outlaw named Xeno.
Somehow Dr Smith knows that the alien term Super-swift means fast-draw,
and they have wandered into a pastiche of the Wild West genre.
Xeno turns out to be physically identical to Smith,
even though they are meant to be different species.
Xeno forces Smith to change clothes with him,
and then hand himself over to Claudius.
Will Robinson cannot decide if the man in custody is Dr Smith or not.
Not that it matters,
because he always teams up with whatever space pirate he meets.
Smith tries to make the best of the situation,
and offers to bribe Claudius to take him back to Earth.
Unfortunately Earth is off-limits to the Space Enforcers,
because it is outside the Galactic Federation they serve.
Instead they crash-land on another planet.
Back on the Robinsons' planet, the robot soon discovers that Xeno is a fake.
His cigar-smoking, gun-toting ways make him easy to tell from the real thing.
However, the Robinsons accept him anyway.
The Galactic Federation seems a barbaric place.
Anyone who makes a confession automatically waives their right to a trial.
Worse, there are many cruel and unusual punishments
for anything deemed a super-crime.
When there are two suspects for the same crime
they must face trial by ordeal - basically torture.
Somehow the Robot is programmed with the Galactic legal code,
so it knows the Galactic Federation's laws.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 12]
A Visit to Hades
Shown 07 Dec 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) discovers a golden lyre, and tries to play it.
The robot tries to warn him - it is the key to an alien prison.
The place is modelled on the Xian version of Hell,
and the warden is dressed like the devil.
Smith is subjected to a memory scan that illustrates his earlier crimes,
although we are spared a clip show.
The Devil is only interested in Smith's petty crimes like theft,
not his sabotage attempts or murder.
He even offers Smith a second chance, if he destroys the golden lyre.
Unfortunately it can only be done by someone pure of heart,
and Smith falls far short of that ideal.
The Devil visits the Robinsons' camp,
posing as a human and calling himself Morbus.
He befriends Judy,
but Smith accidentally sends them both back to Hades.
Finally Judy has something to do in a story,
even if it is to act like a homesick brat
and get treated like a damsel in distress.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 13]
Wreck of the Robot
Shown 14 Dec 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) get menaced by three faceless aliens in bowler hats.
The aliens want the robot, but will not say why.
Back at the Jupiter Two,
Judy is speed-growing lettuces and Mrs Robinson is folding laundry.
Professor Robinson jokingly states that he is only meant to do masculine chores,
such as mowing the lawn and clearing out the garage.
However, he helps out with the laundry - a stereotypically female shore.
The aliens pay an unwanted visit on the Jupiter Two.
Of course, the Robinsons knew this was a risk but they did not activate the force-field
or even take turns standing guard with one of the guns.
The aliens abduct the robot.
They have familiar catch-phrases, like
Resistance would be futile and Might makes right.
After the aliens take the robot apart,
Will puts it back together again.
Next thing that happens is the Robinsons' machines turn against them.
Even the hose-pipe must have electronics in it,
because it attacks Judy Robinson.
If this all sound a bit like the movie
Maximum Overdrive
, that is because the aliens have the same plan.
They want to remotely control all electronic devices on Earth,
thus rendering the planet defenceless.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 14]
The Dream Monster
Shown 21 Dec 66
The Jupiter Two is hit by a heatwave.
This is reminiscent of Season One,
but back then they were on a different planet that orbited too near the sun.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) gets the blame when the air conditioning goes wrong,
so he voluntarily removes himself from the camp before he gets banished permanently.
Penny befriends an alien scientist who has built a humanoid robot.
His minions abduct the now-homeless Dr Smith,
so they can remove his emotions.
Unfortunately Smith has no virtues,
but he promises to sell out the Robinsons to save himself.
The mad scientist and his artificial man is a trope as old as
Frankenstein
. And the outcome is just as predictable.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 15]
The Golden Man
Shown 28 Dec 66
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Penny discover a strange spaceship.
The pilot remains unseen, and orders them to leave him alone.
Back at the Jupiter Two, Smith orders the women to set up perimeter lights.
There is no mention of the forcefield until the story's climax,
but it seems that the men (including Will) are off on a mission
so the women must rely on Smith and the Robot for protection.
A golden man named Keema arrives, bearing gifts.
He declares that he has come to fight a war.
His world no longer deploys entire armies,
it merely sends the leaders of the warring parties to fight on neutral ground.
They have been raided by hostile aliens named Zeedems,
and as they can no longer afford to pay Dane-Geld they have no option but to fight.
Dr Smith is taken in by Keema's story,
but Penny is distrustful of his slick glossy appearance.
Mrs Robinson points out that there are two sides to every story,
and the truth usually lies somewhere in between.
Since she is in charge of the camp, her word is law.
Once again Judy has something to do in a story,
and once again she is a damsel in distress.
With Will away, this is Penny's story.
She realises that beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
and several other morals suitable for such a fable.
Yes, this story was aimed at children
so the twist is obvious and the morals are basic.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 16]
The Girl from the Green Dimension
Shown 04 Jan 67
Athena, the beautiful green-skinned woman (
Vitina Marcus
) living in outer space, arrives at the Robinsons' planet.
She is followed by a blue-skinned barbarian - Urso, her ex-lover.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) is unhappy about having a female stalker,
but is happy enough to play her along
and give her some of the ship's fuel supply.
He wants to get her to give him ESP powers.
The Robinsons are the ones who are upset about the idea of a mixed-race relationship.
Worse, Will gets turned green - and his parents want him to be the same colour as them.
If one reads between the lines,
it seems to be a metaphor for 1960s American racial politics.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 17]
The Questing Beast
Shown 11 Jan 67
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) get captured by a knight, Sir Sagrimante,
who is on a quest to fight a dragon.
The Robot explains to Professor Robinson that he could not interfere,
because his Prime Directive forbids him from harming humans
and the knight is classified as a human.
However, the knight is from an alien planet named Antair.
Penny meets the dragon, who has a female voice.
She seems more than a match for the knight, who seems to be a
Don Quixote
figure.
Meanwhile, Will is happy enough to be the knight's squire ...
until he comes to the same conclusion, and becomes disenchanted.
He should be used to such boastfulness,
because his best friend is Dr Smith!
Smith is worried about Will's new-found cynicism.
He talks Sagrimante into going after the dragon
for a glorious fight to the death.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 18]
The Toymaker
Shown 25 Jan 67
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) find an alien vending machine, like in
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 7] The Android Machine.
They sucked into the machine and captured by the toymaker,
who thinks they are robotic toys.
The Celestial Department store's representative teleports himself to the planet.
Unfortunately he has little interest in helping the Robinsons rescue Will and Smith.
Worse, even though the store has the ability to teleport them back to Earth
this is clearly never going to be an option.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 19]
Mutiny in Space
Shown 01 Feb 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) attempts to perform a rain-making experiment.
Of course, it all goes badly wrong.
Smith gets the blame for destroying some machinery.
Instead of getting exiled this time, he gets ostracised.
Even Major West will not speak to him, even to insult him.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) gets captured by Admiral Zahrk of the Imperial Cassiopean Navy,
and gets conscripted as the cabin boy.
The Admiral takes Will, Smith and the Robot as his new crew,
and sets off to catch up with the mutineers - his previous crew.
Professor Robinson finds the Admiral's log-book.
Rather than read it aloud,
he inserts it into the Jupiter Two's machine.
This seems to combine a flat-bed scanner with OCR software,
and an audio output with a voice that matches the handwriting.
Either that or the log-book is electronic,
and instead of reading a written alien language
the computer can read an alien computer language.
On the Admiral's starship,
Smith gets nicknamed Mr Spindle-legs and has to do menial labour.
Will gets promoted from Cabin Boy to Midshipman.
The Robot is Quartermaster,
a senior rank the equivalent of Mrs Robinson's on the Jupiter Two.
Unfortunately the rank goes to the Robot's head,
as he is willing to steer the starship into a dangerous course
on the say-so of the mentally unstable Admiral.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 20]
The Space Vikings
Shown 08 Feb 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) is stuck with babysitting duties as per usual.
He gets the children to rehearse a play he has written about the Norse gods.
Unfortunately the Norse gods then appear.
Brunhilde the Valkyrie takes a liking to Dr Smith.
Unfortunately her ex-lover, Thor,
decides he wants to fight Smith in a duel to the death.
This scenario is not entirely different to the one in
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 16] The Girl from the Green Dimension.
The Robot is unhappy about training Smith in sword-play,
because there is a major risk that he might injur himself
- and that would be a breach of the Prime Directive.
Will tells Smith to use the weapons he is best with -
his wits and cunning.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 21]
Rocket to Earth
Shown 15 Feb 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) is stuck with babysitting duties as per usual.
He gets to play stick-ball with the children and the Robot.
Then he meets a cheerful wizard,
whose display of teleportation scares Smith so much he becomes a recluse.
The wizard turns out to be a genial sort.
His magic is, as Arthur C Clarke's law states,
a highly-advanced level of technology.
He accepts Smith as his apprentice, even though Smith is allergic to rabbits.
Smith has an ulterior motive - to take a rocket-ship back to Earth.
He never considers that the wizard might also have an ulterior motive.
Smith and Will take the rocket-ship to Earth.
Unfortunately they run into the United Defence Command,
whose approach to First Contact with alien species
is to give three verbal challenges on the radio -
and then fire some ground-based rockets to intercept and destroy the UFO.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 22]
The Cave of the Wizards
Shown 22 Feb 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) discovers a cave full of machines and alien wizards.
Nothing to do with the previous episode's cave or wizard, of course.
The aliens choose Smith and give him special powers.
Of course, he never realises that they have their own agenda.
The Robinsons have finally gotten enough fuel to take off.
Yes, this is their one shot at returning to Earth.
They are not to sorry about having to leave Smith behind,
but they realise how important the Robot is.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 23]
Treasure of the Lost Planet
Shown 01 Mar 67
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) is reunited with his favourite Space Pirate, Captain Tucker (Albert Salmi -
Empire of The Ants
). Tucker was victim of a mutiny when his crew fell out with him.
They are after the treasure of Billy Bones,
and it turns out to have been buried on the planet.
Tucker's robot parrot is still his companion.
This leads to an interesting face-off with the Robinson's Robot.
Strangely, the Robot is surprised when the parrot teleports -
yes, it seems to have never seen teleportation before.
The key to finding the treasure is Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) himself.
One of the pirates lists his character flaws:
There never was a man as treacherous and cowardly
and as big a liar and as greedy a glutton ...
Yes, this is a childrens' show so there is no subtlety,
and all the interesting character traits are concentrated in a single token villain
rather than spread out among the entire cast to make them more interesting.
The pirates take Smith and Will to look for the treasure.
It was hidden by Billy Bones, who was from somewhere called Betel Geezie.
Perhaps this is meant to be Betelgeuse (pronounced
Beetlejuice
).
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 24]
Revolt of the Androids
Shown 08 Mar 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) encounter a super-android (Don Matheson -
Land of Giants
). He has a blue body-suit and red cloak,
and a symbol on his chest.
However, he is damaged - the Robot points out that
he cannot leap tall buildings and is not as powerful as a locomotive.
Yes, his costume is a deliberate sartorial reference to
Superman
.
The super-android's chest symbol is IDAK,
which stands for Identify, Destroy And Kill.
His mission is to destroy a renegade android.
Dr Smith decides to make himself IDAK's manager,
in the hope of using IDAK to win sporting events around the galaxy.
Mrs Robinson and Judy discover a strange woman in a silver jumpsuit.
She is the android that IDAK is hunting,
because she ran away from the Celestial Department Store rather than be dismantled.
She manages to convince IDAK not to attack her.
However, the CDS just sends another super-android.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 25]
The Colonists
Shown 15 Mar 67
The Robinsons try to build a series of radio towers.
However, someone sabotages the towers.
Next, a series of force-field posts are installed around the area.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and the Robot discover the person responsible.
She is Niolani (
Francine York
), a catsuit-clad warrior from the Condor Nation.
Females are privileged members in this feminist society,
which is based on the idea that women have virtues and men have vices.
The Condor Nation seeks to colonise the planet,
and they need to build a landing pad.
Why the aliens always choose to land near the Robinsons' camp is necver explained.
Presumably it is on an ideally suited plateau,
like the upper slopes of Kilimanjaro.
The men are enslaved for their male animal strength.
Professor Robinson and Major West do the heavy lifting,
while Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) does a Michaelangelo and paints the ceiling.
Neolani takes a liking to Smith.
Instead of making him artist-in-residence,
she makes him her consort.
For some reason, the Jupiter Two has a stash of plastic explosive.
Will manages to make a bomb, in the hope of destroying the landing site.
Niolani fears she will be subjected to a lifetime of degrading drudgery -
cooking, cleaning, laundry, squalling snivelling children ...
But Mrs Robinson tells her
It isn't a defeat to acknowledge that men are just as good as women.
Equality of the sexes has advantages you may have overlooked.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 26]
Trip Through the Robot
Shown 22 Mar 67
Major West assigns Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) a complicated task, without written instructions.
Poor old Smith gets distracted by Mrs Robinson,
and when he presses the wrong button he causes an explosion.
The Robot's power supply has not been recharged for a couple of weeks.
Yes, his tiny external power pack has enough charge for twenty days!
Unfortunately Professor Robinson decides there is not enough power
in the ship's auxiliary supply for a recharge.
The Robot exiles himself to the Valley of Shadows,
which has been helpfully signposted as dangerous.
He falls over,
and the atmospheric conditions there causes him to grow to an enormous size.
Dr Smith and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) follow the Robot's tracks.
Will convinces Smith to accompany him into the now-massive robot,
in the hope of conducting repairs on it.
However, if they manage to fix it
then they will have to get out before it shrinks to normal size again.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 27]
The Phantom Family
Shown 29 Mar 67
Professor and Mrs Robinson are away on a mission,
or perhaps just to get some alone time together.
While they are away, an alien bombards the Jupiter Two.
The humans there are abducted and replaced with robotic duplicates.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) is the only one of the original humans left.
He makes a deal with the alien, Lemnoc.
If Will trains the duplicates to act like real humans,
so that they are able to train Lemnoc's people how to survive.
The duplicate of Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) seems to malfunction at first.
However, it becomes almost too close to the original.
Will has to choose between getting the original back,
or keeping the easily-trainable duplicate?
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 28]
The Mechanical Men
Shown 05 Apr 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) is a doctor of medicine,
but he invents a new formula of rocket fuel.
The Robot is happy to share credit,
but soon turns his back on Smith when it turns out the fuel is highly unstable.
Smith goes off in a huff,
and falls asleep in the wilderness.
When he wakes up, he finds himself imprisoned
by an army of tiny robots in a scene reminiscent of
Gulliver's Travels
.
Someone sabotages the forcefield machine.
Everyone assumes it was Smith,
despite the fact they have been attacked by hostile aliens every week.
Don says Smith would go to any lengths to prove a point.
However, he ignores the fact that Smith's only long-term goal is to return to Earth.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) reminds them that a man is guilty until proven innocent.
The mini-robots are from the planet Industro.
They offer a prisoner exchange - Dr Smith for the Robinsons' Robot,
who they believe is their leader from a 10,000 year old prophecy.
The Robot is keen to accept his new role as King of the Mechanical Men.
Unfortunately it is a fascist dictatorship,
and Dr Smith's personality matches the job description much better.
The mini-robots conduct a mind-swap.
The new Leader, with the Robot's body and Smith's personality,
demands the Robinsons give him their space-ship.
Luckily Dr Smith, despite having the robot's personality,
still has enough of the old Smith's cunning and coniving qualities.
The two sides face off in the first real battle this show has seen.
Mrs Robinson volunteers to fight alongside her husband,
but her orders her inside to look after the daughters.
Will is expected to fight like a man, though.
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 29]
The Astral Traveler
Shown 12 Apr 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) get caught in a thunder-storm,
and take shelter in a nearby cave.
They are trapped by a cave-in.
The Robot, like Lassie (or Skippy the Bush Kangaroo) runs off to get help.
The cave has not been explored before,
so Will goes to look for another way out.
He finds himself in a creepy old castle,
where he is chased by a mysterious seaweed monster.
A nearby plaque is a memorial to a Scottish Laird who was executed in 1497.
It is the mention of Scotland that convinces Will he has arrived back on Earth,
not the fact that the plaque is written in English.
Smith gets rescued from the cave, but there is no sign of Will.
Don suggests that the planet's unstable magnetic field,
combined with the proximity of the electrical storm,
caused a tear in the space-time continuum.
The portal has closed up, and they must work out a way to re-open it.
Will meets the ghost of the executed Laird, Hamish, who delivers some exposition.
They are in the execution room in the basement of Glamis Castle.
Of course, the ghost has no idea of what year it is.
Don manages to rescue Will, but nobody believes his story about the castle.
Well, Dr Smith at least gives Will the chance to provide some evidence.
However, it turns out that Laird Hamish followed Will through the portal.
And for some reason, he has now become human again!
Smith volunteers to accompany Hamish back to Earth through the portal.
Laird Hamish sees through Smith, and calls him treasonous.
However, he promises not to expose Smith to the others,
saying he believes every man will get his own just desserts.
This seems a bit ironic, since Hamish was himself executed for treason.
Also, he does not realise that if Smith dies and becomes a ghost
then they will be trapped together forever.
Unless Smith takes Hamish's place ...
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 30]
The Galaxy Gift
Shown 26 Apr 67
To pass the time, the children have taken up amateur dramatics.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and the robot have been roped in to play parts.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
), despite being the youngest, gets to direct.
Penny befriends an alien named Archon (John Carradine -
). He has the ability to shape-shift into different species,
including an Alphoid from the Galta nebula.
This is a frog-faced biped, like the Zeedem in
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 15] The Golden Man.
Archon is being pursued by the Zaticons -
three mysterious aliens who look identical to the villainous aliens in
Lost In Space [Season 2, Episode 13] Wreck of the Robot.
He entrusts his most valuable possession to Penny.
It is an amulet, and it has special properties.
The Zaticons will do anything to get it.
The Zaticons try to bribe Dr Smith with access to a machine that can teleport him back to Earth.
Of course, he tries to double-cross them.
To test the machine, he sends Penny's pet Debbie the Bloop.
Season 3
This Season has a new opening credits sequence.
Season Two just used the original cartoonish sequence,
albeit in glorious technicolour.
The new version combines faster-paced music
with head-shots of the cast above the names of their characters.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 1]
Condemned of Space
Shown 06 Sep 67
The robot declares that the planet they are on has an irregular orbit,
and that its chemical composition is unstable.
That sounds a lot like the planet from Season One,
which they abandoned shortly before it was destroyed.
Likewise, they now blast off again
and escape from the planet they had camped on.
In space, there is an airlock malfunction.
Yes, Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) is using it when it goes wrong,
but there should be an automatic safety device installed
to prevent inner and outer doors opening simultaneously.
The Robot gets sucked out,
and Professor Robinson has to suit up to save it.
Unfortunately there is no winch to reel him in.
The Jupiter Two discovers an alien space station.
In order to repair the propulsion system,
Professor Robinson and Major West must go board.
The station is filled with frozen humans.
They are convicts, held prisoner by an alien civilisation
that does not believe in rehabilitation.
Instead, they have literally been warehoused - all 9874 of them!
The caretaker is a Robotoid, played by Robbie the Robot himself.
It stalks the corridors, armed with a freeze gun
that looks like a blunderbuss with a built-in fire entinguisher.
The episode ends with the concluding scene -
there is no cliffhanger that leads into next week's episode.
Yes, the structure of the show has been altered for this Season.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 2]
Visit to a Hostile Planet
Shown 13 Sep 67
The Jupiter Two accidentally achieves faster-than-light-travel.
Luckily, it ends up in the Earth's solar system.
Professor Robinson cannot detect any radio signals from his HQ,
so he lands the ship in Michigan near Lake Superior.
The Robinsons calendar says it is October 1999.
However, they discover they are actually in 1947.
Their ship somehow took out the electric grid for two hundred square miles,
although both the civilian radio broadcast system
and private radio receivers are still working.
A public radio broadcast summons all armed citizens to a private house.
The Deputy Mayor has appointed himself Captain,
and even the Sheriff accepts his authority.
Their weapons are hunting rifles,
not so different from military-grade semi-automatic rifles that were used back then.
Their heaviest weapon is a Civil War era cannon that sits on display in the town square.
They plan to capture the Robinsons, who they believe to be alien invaders.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) decides to stay on Earth.
He is not put off by the fact that it is in a relatively primitive state.
After all, with his knowledge of the future he can potentially rise to high rank.
However, Judy points out that he would at best be considered a crank -
just as Cassandra's predictions of the fall of Troy weer always ignored.
Smith disguises himself as the chief of a nearby Fire Department,
and takes charge of the lynch mob.
Professor Robinson tries to convince the locals that his family are Americans.
He tells them that Americans will land on the Moon ... in 1970.
Yes, this show was broadcast BEFORE Neil Armstrong's Moon landing.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 3]
Kidnapped in Space
Shown 20 Sep 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) are on night-watch shift together.
They detect an incoming transmission from an alien source.
Will refers to his father's orders, and says they should ignore it.
Strangely, Smith (a cowardy custard in Season Two) is adventurous.
He replies to the alien, in the spirit of exploration.
The aliens need a doctor to help them, and Smith volunteers.
Will and the Robot both state that Smith is not a real, accredited medical doctor.
Exactly what he is a doctor of is not mentioned -
the Robot first says it is an honorary title,
then later calls him a full-fledged doctor of Intergalactic Environmental Psychology.
He pleads that he is a good samaritan on an errand of mercy,
although the Robot suspects he wants monetary gain.
Yes, he is more like a health insurance bureaucrat than an actual doctor!
The Jupiter Two has a space pod, stowed on the bottom level.
Smith takes it to the aliens' starship, in the Zenion galaxy.
Presumably the term Galaxy is used to describe a solar system.
Somehow, the Zenion galaxty is marked on the Robinsons' star-charts.
The Aliens need Smith to perform brain-surgery on their leader.
If the leader dies, Smith will be executed.
The Robot is conscripted as his male nurse.
The Robinsons try to rescue Smith.
They land inside the Aliens' ship,
which is so large the landing bay can swallow the Jupiter Two whole.
The Aliens are happy to use grenades within the landing bay -
evidently they are concussive rather than fragmentary.
These grenades are similar to anti-tank sticky-bombs from the Second World War,
only for anti-personnel purposes.
The Aliens are from the planet Altair Crusis Two.
They have a massive database that contains all the knowldge in the universe,
and they want to use it to conquer the universe.
Smith is offered the role of personal physician to their leader.
Unfortunately the task is beyond him.
The Robot knows how to save the Leader, but chooses not to.
After all, helping the Aliens to conquer the universe would be wrong.
But his actions will doom Smith, West and Professor Robinson.
Surely this is against his Prime Directive.
The Aliens use their technology to determine
that the person the Robot cares the most about is Will Robinson.
Yes, it would let the adult men die (in spite of his Directive)
but will it sacrifice the young boy?
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 4]
Hunter's Moon
Shown 27 Sep 67
Professor Robinson uses the drop-pod to conduct a solo landing on a new world.
He discovers an alien hunting party.
Their leader, Megazor, must prove his skill as a hunter
in order to be crowned Emperor of his people.
He chooses Robinson with whom to play the Most dangerous Game ...
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) wants to abandon Professor Robinson,
but accidentally causes the Jupiter Two to crash-land.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) goes to plead for his father's life.
The hunt takes place in an exotic outdoor location.
Well, everywhere seems exotic compared to the usual weekly indoors set.
However, this does seem to indicate that the budget has gone up -
probably in order to compete with rival show
Star Trek: The Original Series
.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 5]
The Space Primevals
Shown 04 Oct 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Major West take the chariot to an erupting volcano,
in order to place explosives inside it.
They need to cap it so the Jupiter Two can take off.
Unfortunately they run into some telekinetic cave-men.
The cave-men hold them prisoner, and plan to kill them.
While sealed in a cave togetherm they start to bond.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) persuades the Robot to accompany him on a search.
They find the chariot, despite being on foot.
It is only four miles due south of transmission station two.
Professor Robinson deduces that the missing men have encountered a lost civilisation.
He heads out to join his son and complete the mission.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 6]
Space Destructors
Shown 11 Oct 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and the Robot discover a cave.
Inside is an alien machine,
a fully automated production line that creates androids.
Unfortunately the android it creates is homicidal,
and disables the Robinsons' Robot.
Smith manages to take control of the alien machine.
Soon it is manufacturing androids that look like him,
and he uses them to provide him with food and entertainment.
But when he realises that he can make his own army,
he decides to conquer the universe.
His first step is to take the Robot and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) into protective custody.
Smith programmes the machine to create a super-soldier.
It will have:
the cunning and ingenuity of Napoleon,
the bravery of Alexander the great,
the leadership of Julius Caesar,
the ferocity of Ghengis Khan
and the strength of Hercules.
If this sounds too good to be true, it may well be.
Twenty years later, Cobra Commander in the GI Joe comics
made a similar mistake when he ordered Dr Minderbender to create Serpentor.
Will blames the machine for corrupting Smith.
In response, Smith assures Will a good job in his administration.
Of course, it all goes badly wrong.
Professor Robinson has to take on Smith's army.
Luckily they are dressed as Musketeers and he was Zorro,
so he is able to defeat them all with swordplay.
Finally, this is the closest Smith has ever come to permanent exile.
Not for trying to conquer the universe,
but for putting Will in jeopardy.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 7]
The Haunted Lighthouse
Shown 18 Oct 67
Penny has a new look - a hair-band and a dress.
Well, she is a growing girl.
She meets a Vulcan-looking boy named J-5,
who has been living in a cave near the camp site.
He convinces her to take him aboard the ship.
However, he does not tell her about his invisible pet super-cat.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) offers to make himself useful by giving the boy a medical check-up.
Of course, Smith is not supposed to be a medical doctor any more ...
and the robot can do a better job just by scanning the boy with his sensors.
The boy starts to manipulate Smith by incentivising Smith to take the boy home.
This is achieved with an outlandish tale about how the planet's population are rich
because there are diamonds lying around on the ground.
But if everyone had diamonds there would be hyper-inflation
that would render them all virtually worthless.
The Jupiter Two takes off, but arrives at a Space Lighthouse.
Robinson goes inside and meets the keeper - Colonel Fogey,
an astronaut from Earth who has been stuck there alone for eleven years.
His job is to guide Earth-ships to the system,
presumably to settle on a suitable planet there.
The fact that no ships have stopped off there in over a decade is a bad sign.
He is only three years away from retirement,
but how he planned to get home to retire on Earth is not explained.
The Colonel offers the Robinsons some spare fuel,
so that they will finally be able to return to Earth.
However, the alien boy does not care about anything
except getting back to his own homeworld.
Professor Robinson begins to realise that
the Lightship might not be the answer to his prayers.
The computers are punch-card activated,
which was standard in the 1960s when this show was made
but is out-dated compared to the Robot's verbal interface.
The Colonel has not bothered to use the lightship's systems in years.
J-5 takes the brainwashed Smith, and tries to steal ths ship.
This is the kind of thing Smith himself would have done once,
back when he was villainous rather than a bumbling incompetent.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 8]
Flight Into the Future
Shown 25 Oct 67
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) and Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) accidentally take the pod down to a planet.
The Jupiter Two has crash-landed, but there is nobody in the wreck.
They discover artefacts from the year 2270AD,
indicating that they went through a time warp
and they have lost 300 years of time.
Astronauts arrive - including a descendent of Smith.
The Robinsons were treated as heroes,
but Smith was exposed and reviled as a fifth columnist.
Will manages to solve the mystery.
Last week Penny saved the day from a telepathic threat,
and now it is Will's turn.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 9]
Collision of Planets
Shown 08 Nov 67
Unusually, this episode starts on an alien world
instead of with the Robinsons on the Jupiter Two.
The world is apparently run by an Artificial Intelligence.
It orders a group of space-hippies led by Daniel J Travanti (Hill Street Blues)
that they must destroy a certain planet with a dangerously irregular orbit.
Unfortunately this is the planet that the Jupiter Two crash-landed on.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) discovers one of the boxes of demolition gear.
He opens it, against the Robot's advice.
A whiff of alien gas turns his hair green,
but gives him the strength of twenty men.
He lifts the Robot one-handed, and carries a 500-lb box.
But how long will it last for?
The space-hippies are not the peace-and-love stereotype we think of today.
Instead they are space-bike riding counter-culture types,
eager to challenge authority and get into fights.
Travanti even uses a judo throw on Smith!
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 10]
Space Creature
Shown 15 Nov 67
The Jupiter Two approaches a planet surrounded with strange green mist.
The Robot can detect the composition of the cloud,
which makes his sensors and CPU a lot more powerful than those in the starship.
He informs Professor Robinson that the mist is a living entity.
It is hungry for something, but he cannot determine what that is.
The space creature teleports the crew off the ship,
starting with the females.
Professor Robinson orders Will (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) to search for them.
He goes down into the power core,
the never seen-before bottom level (below the habitation level).
The space creature feeds on its victims' fear.
It discovers that Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) is nice and hateful,
and sends a version of him back to terrify Will.
we get to see the creepy evil Smith from the start of Season One.
In a line reminiscent of
Forbidden Planet,
Smith says that he is Will's Id.
Will tells him You can't scare me with your big words.
As with the events of
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 8] Flight Into the Future,
Will must face the villain and save the day alone.
However, the new power-core set gets a bit of use.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 11]
Deadliest of the Species
Shown 22 Nov 67
The Jupiter Two enters a star system,
and the Robot advises them that the third planet is the most suitable for human life.
Unfortunately they encounter a space capsule
with a quarantine warning from the Zetar Galaxy (solar system?) Law Enforcement.
It follows the Jupiter Two, and lands near them.
The Zetars detect this,
and send a couple of Bureau of Inter-Galactic Law Enorcement (BIGLE) agents.
The BIGLE agents are robotic drones with limited intelligence.
Under the silver face-paint, one of them is Lyle Waggoner - AKA Steve Trevor in
Wonder Woman (1976)
. They besiege the Jupiter Two with a lazer-bazooka,
but the Robinsons have a force-field and a tripod-mounted blaster-cannon.
The Robot explores the quarantined space-pod.
Its inhabitant is a female-gendered Robot,
a concept that makes modern-day viewers examine their attitudes to gender
in the era of transgenderism and gender-neutral bathrooms.
She is a femme fatale, but the Robot is so lonely that he helps her.
The show is all about family,
and the Robot bonds with her on that level.
The femme fatale manipulates the Robot into doing her evil bidding.
At her bidding the Robot holds Will Robinson hostage.
Yes, we get a villain who is so much worse than Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) ever was.
And while the Robot is always suspicious of Smith,
he is eager to obey the femme fatale's orders.
The episode's title is a reference to the Kipling poem,
name-checked by Mrs Robinson, when Smith cannot place it,
about how the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Mrs Robinson then orders Smith to help her and the girls defend the Jupiter Two.
Yes, the females are quite empowered in this show.
A good comparison would be with
Stargate: Atlantis
. Dr Weir is Mrs Robinson, who runs the base
and sends Sheppard (Prof. Robinson) out on missions to bring home the bacon.
Rodney McKay, the cowardly Doctor, is Smith ... Teyla is Penny, and Ronan is the Robot!
Of course, in between these two shows is
Star Trek: Voyager
.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 12]
A Day at the Zoo
Shown 29 Nov 67
Penny meets yet another strange boy.
This one is dressed in animal-skins and cannot speak,
so he is evidently some form of cave-man.
Unfortunately he is an inmate in a space-zoo.
The zoo-keeper, PT Farnum, soon has everyone in his cages.
Except for Professor and Mrs Robinson, that is.
Evidently they are back at the Jupiter Two,
unaware that their family has been abducted.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) keeps the zoo-keeper distracted, while Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) attempts an escape.
Of course, things go wrong.
Will ends up trapped with the zoo-keeper on a desolate planet.
Meanwhile, Smith has lost interest in returning straight to Earth.
He takes over as zoo-keeper,
and takes the space circus on its pre-booked tour.
The aliens' currency will not be much use to him on Earth,
but it could actually be useful to have some around.
The Robot has to obey its memory tapes,
which Smith has imprinted with the show must go on.
Also, erasure of the memory tapes are against its Prime Directive.
Presumably this is in a different clause
from the one about endangering human life.
Can Penny manage to talk the Robot into breaking its Prime Directive?
If so, this means she could also persuade it to kill someone!
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 13]
Two Weeks in Space
Shown 13 Dec 67
The adults are away from the Jupiter Two on a survey mission.
Major West detects an in-coming object
that matches the profile of a class B-7 intergalactic ship.
When contacted by radio,
the newcomers claim to be the Earth-ship Venus Five.
However, Professor Robinson realises that they are lying
and activates the radiation shield in time.
The aliens decide to infiltrate by stealth,
but to continue the bluff they must disguise themselves as humans.
Luckily they have images of what humans look like.
Unfortunately they only have the side profile,
but their machine is somehow able to extrapolate from this.
They can pose as humans,
but the disguise will not work under moonlight
and the planet's atmosphere might prove fatal to them after twenty-four hours.
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) and Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) are in charge of the Jupiter Two while everyone else is away.
When Will detects an incoming radio transmission,
he ignores his father's commandment never to speak to strange aliens.
The caller is Mr. Zumdish, formerly of the Celestial Department Store.
He is now owner and tour operator for Aldruous Functuous Ltd,
and he offers to pay Smith in Deutronium.
Naturally, Smith talks Will into letting Zumdish and the tourists land.
Then he rents out the Jupiter Two as a full-service hotel.
Will and the Robot have to do all the work.
One of the tourists, Non (
Edy Williams
), tries to seduce Dr Smith - and he never gets suspicious.
However, she has little to gain from deceiving him about her affections.
Besides, her male companions are abusive villains.
Perhaps she is sincere in her intentions.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 14]
Castles in Space
Shown 20 Dec 67
Major West and Judy are off setting up a radio antenna for communications.
Nearby, Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) teaches Will how to shoot skeet with a catapult.
Predictably there is an accident.
Worse, Will rats Smith out as being the one to blame.
This does nothing to solve the problem,
and only exacerbates the friction between Smith and West.
The team discover a cave with a frozen alien inside.
She is a beautiful ice-princess.
A silver-skinned alien arrives, looking to take the Princess away.
He is a Mexican bandito type,
including skill as a matador when he has to fight the Robot.
Our heroes must defend the damsel in distress.
The Robot takes Smith on an expedition to free Will,
after the boy gets held hostage by the Bandito.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 15]
The Anti-Matter Man
Shown 27 Dec 67
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy -
Babylon 5
) has found a massive hardback book on Earth's ancient myths and legends.
Where it comes from is not explained -
someone must have packed it away in the ship's hold, but it is massively bulky
and of no apparent practical use for survival on an alien planet.
Will reads it aloud to Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) while they are camping.
Smith is not interested in learning,
and plays no real part in the rest of the story.
Will's myth of the day concerns a mirror universe,
one which contains the opposite versions
of everything and everyone in the original universe.
By incredible coincidence,
the mirror version of Professor Robinson arrives.
His plan is to replace the real Professor,
and leave the alien planet as soon as possible.
The obvious comparison for this episode
is the far superior story Mirror, Mirror in
Star Trek: The Original Series
. In this version, instead of the now-classic goatee beard
the evil counterparts are merely unshaven.
Major West looks like Captain Black, the villain from
Captain Scarlet
. It seems their world is not merely one that parallels the main one,
where similar people had different choices and opportunities.
Instead, they have the directly opposing characteristics.
The alternate version of Smith would probably be like Ace Rimmer in
Red Dwarf
, but he only appears at the start of the episode.
Since there is nothing villainous or comical for him to do,
this feels like a classic Season One episode.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 16]
Target Earth
Shown 03 Jan 68
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) does something right for a change.
Due to boredom - the mother of invention, as he tells Will -
he modifies the robot so it can split in two at the waist.
Unfortunately the lower half accidentally gets ejected in the space-pod,
which then lands on an alien planet.
Professor Robinson turns the Jupiter Two around to recover the pod.
The alien world is unlike the dusty dry desert worlds the Robinsons usually find.
It has an ocean and a land-mass, to start with.
The aliens contact the Jupiter Two by radio,
and invite the Robinsons to land and retrieve the pod.
Luckily, it landed at the aliens' space-port.
Smith gets sent out to meet the aliens and retrieve the pod.
It turns out that the aliens are all identical to each other.
They may be a species of clone, like the Asgard in
Stargate: SG-1
, or they could be natural single-gender species like in
Enemy Mine
. Whatever the reason, they have decided that diversity is good.
They abduct the Robinsons, create copies of them
and then send them back to Earth in order to conquer it.
This is quite a convoluted plan just to learn about diversity.
Yes, an evil duplicate of Professor Robinson has taken his place,
and only Will can save the day.
This is the second time this storyline has been used in as many episodes.
Smith actually acts in an almost heroic manner.
Unfortunately his agenda is to get home to Earth at any cost,
even if it means sacrificing the Jupiter Two.
Worse, Will's agenda is to get the Jupiter Two back to save his family,
no matter what the risk to Smith or to Earth itself.
Yes, Will is just as ruthless as Smith is when he has to be.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 17]
Princess of Space
Shown 10 Jan 68
This starts aboard a ship from planet Theta.
It has a strange design, the outer pods rotating
but the inner core using artificial gravity.
The captain, Krasbo, is a space pirate -
with anachronistic items like a cutlass and a Georgian wig-wearing minion.
Their crew is mutinous, even if it is composed of robots.
Only the long-lost Princess Alpha can control the robots.
Unfortunately she was lost on Earth as a baby, thirteen years ago.
Krasbo detects the Robinsons on a nearby planet.
Yes, they landed there for some reason and began to explore.
Penny is the right age to be the Princess,
so Krasbo teleports down a pair of shoes so they can do a
Cinderella
pastiche. Penny runs off, so he abducts her and tries to pass her off as such.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) helps out, although the story does not go full Pygmalion.
The Princess's aunt, Duchess Gamma, arrives by teleporter.
She must decide what direction the Anastasia pastiche storyline will go.
This leads up to a full coronation ceremony.
Aunt Gamma is not as nice as she lets on.
Smith may be a fawning toady when he thinks she will appreciate it,
but she plans to get rid of him at the first opportunity.
Likewise, Captain Krasbo falls victim to her wrath.
Their whole society is quite primitive in many respects,
but unusual in others.
When members of their species stop believing in magic,
they turn into robots.
Yes, the mutinous robotic crew were once humanoids.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 18]
The Time Merchant
Shown 17 Jan 68
Will sets up a device to capture cosmic particles.
Instead, he captures a caucasian man in red robes and a turban.
The man introduces himself as Doctor Chronos (John Crawford), a Time Merchant.
He takes Will with him to his own dimension,
and Professor Robinson goes after him.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
), rather than stay alone, follows.
Chronos shows them around his business.
He looks after the reels of tape that govern the control of time.
This means his machines can actually observe and access other time periods.
Smith wants to return to Earth on October 16, 1997.
Unfortunately he has nothing to trade.
This being Smith, he just uses the time portal anyway.
Chronos lets Will and the Professor watch on his screens.
The monochrome screen shows the original events of
Season One
, while the full-colour screen shows the new timeline that Smith creates.
Rather than stow away with the Robot,
Smith decides to stay on Earth and have a celebration feast.
Unfortunately without his extra weight to pull it off-course,
the Jupiter Two will hit an uncharted asteroid.
Yes, Smith unknowingly saved the lives of the Robinson expedition.
Professor Robinson agrees to sign over five years of his life
in exchange for Chronos' help to save the timeline.
They send the Robot back to 1997,
with the intent of forcing Smith aboard the ship again.
Unfortunately the base's Military Police are suspicious of Smith's erratic behaviour.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 19]
The Promised Planet
Shown 24 Jan 68
The Robot detects that a nearby planet is Alpha Centauri,
the original intended destination of the Jupiter Two.
Professor Robinson lands the ship,
and they are greeted by an Honour Guard from the US Military.
Strangely the military crew all appear to be teenagers.
Mrs Robinson assumes that their young age is because
the NASA procedures have changed in the three years
that the Robinsons were away from Earth.
Will and Penny are taken away to be tested.
They get bombarded with verbal tests,
but mostly it is dancing and a strange portrayal of 1960s youth culture.
The adults are kept in a segregated area.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) goes exploring,
and discovers the secret that the locals have been hiding.
Instead of wishing to experience diversity,
like the aliens a few episodes ago,
this time the idea is to experience the sensation of aging.
To keep his mouth shut, the aliens make Smith become a teenager.
Well, they teleport a wig onto his head
and he just begins to act like a stereotype of a teenager.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 20]
Fugitives in Space
Shown 31 Jan 68
This episode starts in Quadrant Five of the prison planet Destructon,
where aliens perform hard labour.
Yes, the old-fashioned idea of putting convicts in suspended animation
must have been abolished.
The Warden has been in command of the prison world for 500 years,
so this new punishment is centuries old.
In other words, the convicts in
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 1] Condemned of Space
must have been there for the better part of a millennium.
Major West drags Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) along with him to help out on a construction project.
Naturally, Smith is more trouble than he is worth.
Then they discover an alien castaway.
The alien makes Smith change jackets with him,
then runs off before the guards can arrive.
The prison guards arrive, and arrest Smith and West for assisting the fugitive.
Smith claims that West was the one who helped,
but the Warden points out that failure to prevent West helping
was actually a felony in itself!
Luckily, the Robot is an expert in the Intergalactic Penal Code.
After he dropped out of pre-Med at university,
he
Smith and West are given a trial at a computer Court.
Yes, both the judge and the jury are computerised.
Will Smith is the defence attorney.
Unfortunately the escaped convict will not testify.
Smith and West are stuck on a chain gang in Quadrant Six,
where the temperatures reach well over a hundred degrees.
Presumably this is in fahrenheit,
because centigrade would kill them.
They must work in exchange for ice.
Of course, the alien convict they are chained to can regenerate
every time he gets killed.
Will and the Robot conspire to help Smith and West escape.
This may be illegal, but the two men were framed.
The warden has a plan.
He wants to let the convict escape,
then follow him so they can find out where his loot is.
The only problem is that the convict has been in prison for 283 years,
and has regenerated a dozen times after being killed attempting to escape.
This means the Warden has already had ample opportunity to employ this ruse.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 21]
Space Beauty
Shown 14 Feb 68
Major West and the Robot are on guard duty at night.
West is knocked out, and the Robot gets short-circuited.
The next morning, nobody thinks this is suspicious.
They did not see the creepy aliens wandering around at night.
PT Farnum, former zoo-keeper in
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 12] A Day at the Zoo,
is now the manager of the Miss Galaxy beauty contest.
His aim to to collect one female beauty from each species,
and then his patron - the ruler of a mysterious rogue planet -
will select the most beautiful by the standards of his own unknown species.
Payment is made in Squandrows,
apparently an alien currency although no exchange rate is given.
Compensation is on the basis of each portrait submission,
so it is reward for quantity instead of quality.
Will uses a spectroscope to analyse the rogue planet,
but the Robot is unable to compute what species the inhabitants would be.
Smith is cynical about Farnum's motives,
perhaps because they have so much in common.
It seems that Farnum's character in this episode is based on Smith's.
Farnum was directed to site the pageant on the Robinsons' planet
because it appartently has a wide diversity of sentient life.
Contestants include a lizard-woman, a fish-woman and a six-armed woman.
The one thing they all have in common is stereotypical femininity,
including such elements as vanity.
Smith agrees to recruit Judy to the Pageant, then goes one further.
He converts the Robot to female gender, and enters her into the Pageant too!
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 22]
The Flaming Planet
Shown 21 Feb 68
The Jupiter Two is back in space again,
only ten million miles from Earth.
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) has brought an alien plant aboard,
under the mistaken belief that it is an orange tree.
Professor Robinson forbade all alien life-forms,
because the potential effects of exposure to cosmic radiation was unknown.
The plant gets exposed, and has to be spaced.
Major West drags Smith along with him to help explore the nearby planet.
Not because Smith has skills or courage,
but because he is completely expendable.
They discover that the planet is inhabited - by one old man.
He is the last survivor of a warrior race,
and his final request is for one of the Jupiter Two's crew to man the rocket control station.
The Robinsons have to choose who to sacrifice.
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 23]
The Great Vegetable Rebellion
Shown 28 Feb 68
Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) takes the pod down to a planet in order to pick some flowers.
Unfortunately the planet's dominant life-form is sentient vegetables.
This is regarded as the worst ever episode of the show,
a real jump-the-shark moment.
The fact that it was aired as the penultimate episode
indicates that the show had reached its three-Season limit.
Basically, at this stage the writers had run out of ideas.
It turns out this was a warmed-over rewrite of an earlier draft of a previous episode.
Luckily, it was not the final episode
so the writers had a chance to redeem themselves
with the ultimate ending to the three-Season show.
Will they pull it off?
Tune in next week - same time, same channel!
Lost In Space [Season 3, Episode 24]
Junkyard in Space
Shown 06 Mar 68
The Jupiter 2 lands on a desolate world.
The Robinsons are running out of food.
Luckily (for himself, if nobody else) Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris -
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
) discovers that the planet has one inhabitant.
This is a junk-man that runs the local junkyard.
Smith trades the ship
- and vital parts of his own Robot
- in exchange for food.
As the Robot starts to die, Will Robinson
is bereft at the thought of losing his mechanical pal.
This is the final episode of the show.
Will the Robinsons finally return to Earth?
Will there be a cliffhanger ending that never gets resolved, as with certain shows (
Blake's 7, Sapphire and Steel
)? Or will it be a generic ending for a generic episode?
