Lost in Space

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See also Lost in Space (disambiguation)

Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series produced between 1965 and 1968 by television producer Irwin Allen. Allen based his space adventure series on a Gold Key comic book Space Family Robinson, as well as the classic adventure novel Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. Image:Lost In Space.jpg

1 History
2 Characters and cast
3 Cast trivia
4 Analysis
5 Music
6 Spin-offs
7 Episodes
8 Lost in Space in several languages
9 External links

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History

The show initially experienced some legal challenges. Ib Melchior, a notable science fiction writer, had conceived what was essentially the same idea (but with different characters) years before either the television series or the comic book. He had called his version "Space Family Robinson", which was also the original production name for Lost in Space. Although legal action went nowhere, Ib Melchior was hired as a consultant on the "Lost in Space" movie as a way of recognizing his original idea.

Lost in Space followed Allen's basic philosophy that TV was supposed to be fun, as opposed to educational. His series, including Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants, were all very fast paced and exciting, often at the expense of logic.

The series ran for three seasons on CBS, from 1965 to 1968 and it was famously bought by the network after they rejected a competing sci-fi series that was offered to them — Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek.

The first season was filmed in black & white and was more serious in tone when compared to the two seasons that followed. It chronicled the adventures of the Robinson family starting in the year 1997, a group of Earth pioneers whose mission to colonize Alpha Centauri almost ends in disaster after a saboteur attempts to destroy their space ship.

The second and third seasons were produced in color, and were more whimsical and fantastic in tone.

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Characters and cast

Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams) is the commander of the Robinson family expedition. He is an expert in astrophysics and applied planetary geology as well as an ordained Minister.

Doctor Maureen Robinson (June Lockhart) is John's wife, and a trained biochemist. She is the mother of their children, Judy, Penny and Will.

Major Don West (Mark Goddard) is the pilot of the expedition's spacecraft, the Jupiter 2. Don is romantically interested in Judy, and inherently distrustful of Dr Smith.

Judy Robinson (Marta Kristen), Penny Robinson (Angela Cartwright) and Will Robinson (Bill Mumy) are the three children in the expedition. Of the three, Will is the most noteworthy – he is the youngest, brightest and a particular friend of Dr. Smith and the Robot.

Doctor Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), ostensibly a specialist in environmental and intergalactic psychology and a Space Corps colonel (but in fact an enemy agent), is in charge of preparing the Robinson party. His attempt to sabotage the mission saw him stranded aboard as a "reluctant stowaway", from which the pilot episode takes its title.

The Robot, a Model B-9 Environmental-Control Robot, which had no given name. However, in the third-season episode entitled "The Time Merchant," it was shown in its packing crate, and the crate was labeled ONE General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental ROBOT, with the G, U, N, T, and E, and all letters in ROBOT in red capital letters, while all the other letters were black; some have suggested that this was supposed to convey the acronym GUNTER; see these screen shots. The Robot was designed by Robert Kinoshita, and performed by Bob May in a suit built by Bob Stewart, with voice by Dick Tufeld, who was also the series' narrator.

Debbie, Penny's pet Bloop. A chimpanzee like creature known for making "bloop" noises.

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Cast trivia

Image:Dr-Smith-oxygen-mask-1966.JPG

Bill Mumy has remained active in show business and comics. For several years he scripted an authorized Lost in Space comic book for Innovation Comics. The intention was that the comic reflect the more serious tone of the first season episodes, but this was somewhat undercut by artwork that sexualized Judy and Penny, prompting some exasperated notes from Mumy in the editorial pages. The comic also established a romantic triangle between Judy, Penny (now depicted as someone in her late teens), and Don that was not present in the original series. Innovation comics discovered that Lost in Space was their best selling comic, outselling all their other comics combined. The series lasted for about a year and a half, and ended when Innovation comics went out of business.

Jonathan Harris portrayed Professor Jones in the animated series Freakazoid. The name, the voice, and the lines he was given were obvious riffs on Dr. Smith role.

The Robot has inspired a dedicated fan base, many striving to build their own: B9 Robot Builders Club Since the series conclusion, hobbyists around the world have built at least 15 detailed full-size replicas of the Robot, although the original outfit still exists in deteriorated condition.

Doctor Smith and the Robot did not appear in the first, unaired pilot episode.

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Analysis

Image:TVGuideLostInSpace.jpg

The general public now most recognizes Lost In Space via the memorable, oft-repeated warning lines of the Robot, "Warning! Warning!" and, of course, "Danger, Will Robinson!".

Although it retains a cult following, the science-fiction community often points to Lost In Space as an example of TV's bad record at producing science-fiction (perhaps overlooking the series' deliberate fantasy elements), comparing it to its supposed rival, Star Trek. Ironically, Lost In Space was a modest ratings success, unlike Star Trek, which received poor ratings during its original network TV run.

Many of the series' best episodes revolved around the theme of love as a source of strength when confronting hostile aliens or other threats to the family's survival. As John Robinson says at the end of season one, "Love . . . In all the worlds and galaxies of this universe, there is nothing stronger."

Lost In Space starred several well-known actors. Guy Williams was already a major TV star and had played the lead role in the successful series Zorro; June Lockhart was a well-known actress and had appeared in numerous films since the 1940s, including Sergeant York, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Yearling; she was also well-known to American TV audiences for her role in the Lassie TV series. Angela Cartwright had recently played one of the Von Trapp children in the classic film musical The Sound Of Music and Billy Mumy was one of America's best-known child actors. He was a TV regular by age six and prior to Lost In Space he had already appeared in at least six feature films and had many notable TV credits including Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, where he starred in the classic episode "It's A Good Life", playing a child who suddenly develops terrifying psychokinetic powers. As an adult he was a regular cast member in the Babylon 5 TV series, and one guest appearance on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a spin-off of Lost In Space's rival.

Criticisms of the series have targeted its supposed technical implausibility. Unlike Star Trek, where great care was taken to create a detailed and—to its most devoted fans, at least—believable world of future technology, Lost In Space typically paid far less attention to such matters. For example, whereas the Enterprise is a huge, aircraft carrier-sized starship with a crew of several hundred, the Jupiter 2 is evidently only about the size of a small family home, and yet is capable of transporting a crew of six and all the requisite supplies across interstellar space to establish a colony on another planet.

The series has also been criticized because of the notion that the Robinsons and their pilot would tolerate the presence of an unrepentant backstabber such as Doctor Smith, who repeatedly attempts to betray or undermine them for his benefit. Although Smith is often chastised and even banished at times, the Robinsons always, sooner or later, take him back. "Because he's a human being!" as Maureen Robinson says in one episode.

Many viewers found the show quite beautiful, with full-colour special effects and spacescapes courtesy of the astronomical community. Like all Allen's productions, stylistically, the series was of high quality, featuring eye-catching silver, tapered space-suits, laser guns and a number of spectacular props and sets, including the control cabin of the Jupiter 2. In some episodes, the Robinsons traveled in "the Chariot" (a full-scale tracked exploration vehicle), or in the "Pod" (a small spacecraft modelled on the Apollo Lunar Module), and the characters also on occasion used what was then an exciting new invention, the jet pack. The Jupiter 2 was evidently modeled somewhat on the spaceship C-57D from the classic '50s sci-fi film Forbidden Planet and it included several recognisable props which had been recycled from Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (and which cropped up in several later Irwin Allen series as well).

Although the series' first season took a fairly serious approach, many of the show's second- and third-year episodes were quite juvenile, with stories about space cowboys, space hippies, space pirates, space beauty pageants, and, of course, the infamous episode "The Great Vegetable Rebellion", featuring one of the few intelligent space carrots in cinematic history (two of the show's stars did not appear in the following episode, as punishment for being unable to keep from laughing during the filming of what they saw as a travesty). In fairness, it should be noted that the most famous "space carrot" in cinematic history was James Arness in The Thing from Another World a few years earlier.

The show's shift in tone may have been due to the fact that it was in direct ratings competition at the time with the ultra-campy Batman TV series. (It should be noted that the venerable Star Trek had its own share of space hippies and cowboys.)

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Music

The theme music for the opening credits during the show's three seasons was written by John Williams. Movie trivia buffs have said that echoes of this musical score can be heard in Williams' soundtrack to the movie Jurassic Park.

The musical theme in the first two seasons was a bit "cartoony" matching the opening credit sequence.

In year three, the opening theme was changed (again by Williams) to an exciting faster tempo action theme and featured a pumped-up countdown from seven to one to launch each episode.

The third-season theme was also echoed in the closing credits of the motion picture.

John Williams (then known as Johnny Williams) also composed many of the much-praised background scores for the series, which have been released on CD. He also wrote themes and musical scores for Irwin Allens's The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants.

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Spin-offs

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Cartoon

A Saturday morning animated special one-shot version of Lost in Space was broadcast Sept. 8, 1973 as part of the ABC anthology the Saturday Superstar Movie. Dr. Smith (voiced by Jonathan Harris) was the only character from the original program to appear in the special, along with the Robot (who was employed in flight control rather than a support activity). The spacecraft was launched vertically by rocket, and Smith was not a saboteur.

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Film

In 1998, New Line Cinema produced a feature movie adaptation, starring William Hurt as Professor John Robinson, Mimi Rogers as Dr Maureen Robinson, Heather Graham as Judy Robinson, Matt LeBlanc as Major Don West, Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith and Lacey Chabert as Penny Robinson, Jack Johnson as Will Robinson, and once again Dick Tufeld as The Robot's voice. Angela Cartwright, June Lockhart, Marta Kristen, and Mark Goddard from the original series all had cameos (Lockhart and Goddard interacting with their successors), but Jonathan Harris refused to participate. Bill Mumy was at one point considered for a key role in the film (one that would have allowed him to interact with the new Will Robinson), but another actor was cast instead. (Guy Williams had died some years earlier.)

Lavish special effects were incorporated, and the story was similar to the more dramatic first episodes of the TV series. While marginally successful, audience reaction was mixed and box office results were insufficient to justify a planned sequel. A short-lived series of original novels did follow, however.

The new Jupiter II was launched from Houston in a launch shell, called the Jupiter I, that is an obvious homage to the series spacecraft, complete with rotating propulsion lights. Even with the careful planning that created a spacecraft capable of containing the (rather roomy) interior shown, the creators gave such short shrift to exposition, that audiences were left confused about the purpose of the mission. Earth is deteriorating, and the rescue plan is to colonize Alpha Prime (the only other known habitable planet in galaxy) by sending the Robinsons on a 10 year journey there. Once they arrive, they are to build a hypergate identical to one on Earth through which travel between the planets will be instantaneous. The new Jupiter 2 has a hyperdrive, but without gates (according to the film), travel through hyperspace is random and could drop the ship anywhere in the galaxy. This is, of course, exactly what happens when the ship is sabotaged and the crew must choose between a random flight through hyperspace or plunging into Earth's sun.

One critic failed to see why the Jupiter 2 wasn't filled to capacity with hardware to build a hypergate. This also was given short shrift in the film. During an interview in one of the opening sequences of the film, Commander Robinson tells reporters, "once we have rendezvoused with the research colony on Alpha, I will supervise construction of a second hypergate." Apparently, an entire research colony has already left for Alpha Prime ahead of the Robinson family, presumably with the all of the equipment and engineers necessary to complete the task. Fans of the original series, however, noted the references to the Pod and the Chariot being ruined in the crash of Jupiter II.

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Second TV Series

In late 2003, a new TV series, with a somewhat changed format, was in development in the USA. It was intended to be originally closer to the original pilot with no Doctor Smith, but including the robot. A pilot was commissioned by the WB network, directed by John Woo, produced by Twentieth Century Fox TV and Regency Television, and screened to executives in May of 2004.

The pilot script featured the characters of John and Maureen, but an elder son, David, was scripted, as well as Judy, Penny and Will. There was no Doctor Smith character, but the character of Don West was described as a "dangerous, lone wolf type".

The confirmed cast included Brad Johnson as John Robinson, Jayne Brook as Maureen Robinson, Adrianne Palicki as Judy Robinson, Ryan Malgarini as Will Robinson and Mike Erwin as Don West.

It was not among the network's series pick-ups confirmed later that year.

However, the producers of the new Battlestar Galactica show bought the sets. They were redesigned the next year and used for scenes on the Battlestar Pegasus, as creating whole new sets would have been too expensive.

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