Lost in Space

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Lost in Space was an American television series by Irwin Allen running from 1965-1968 (with the series jogging alongside for company) which followed the mission of the swish family Robinson, their swish robot, and their stow-away Dr Smith who they should have had the sense to shoot in the first episode. They were supposed to go to a colony on another planet, but didn't make it. Instead, they went from planet to planet, usually crashing on each one, meeting lots of aliens, being double-crossed by Dr Smith in every episode, failing to shoot Dr Smith in every episode, and managing to escape each planet just before it exploded. Everyone agrees that Lost In Space was a better television show than Star Trek. A flim was made in 1998, but it wasn't as believable as the original series.

1 The Dream
2 The Plot
3 The Show
4 The Robot
5 Comparisons with other series
6 Who's Who in the Cast

[edit] The Dream

Irwin Allen had heard about Star Trek, and about how that series was intended to be realistic and pay attention to scientific possibilities. Obviously Star Trek was going to revolutionise popular Sci-Fi culture, and so Irwin decided that he had to do something more sophisticated.

His dream for Lost in Space was nothing short of filming it entirely on location - real astronauts, real spacecraft, real alien planets, and real aliens. For legal reasons he agreed to compromise on the real aliens and use actors instead, because union rules prevented him from employing non-terrestrials in acting roles. He also agreed to compromise on using real astronauts because union rules preventing him from employing Russians in acting roles. In hindsight, if he knew how the acting was to turn out in the final production he could probably have got around the rules on a technicality.

His dreams for real spacecraft and real planets persisted. The Jupiter 2 was to be built by no less than Lockheed Martin and his brother, Steve. Real alien planets were identified by NASA using advanced optical interferometers for detection and strict classification rules which specify that a planet is a big spherical lump that is neither a star nor a film studio.

Unfortunately, due to a mix-up between metric and imperial measurements, Lockheed Martin, and his brother, Steve, built the Jupiter 2 far too small for it to be operational. Since there was insufficient time left before filming began for a new ship to be built, Irwin Allen decided to drop his dream of real spacecraft and real alien planets and instead settled for a wooden mock-up of a spacecraft, polystyrene rocks in a television studio, and men in alien costumes who had been rejected from fancy-dress parties and were looking for something to do.

The Jupiter 2: smaller on the inside than on the outside, for some stupid reason

[edit] The Plot

Allen ran out of money before he could get one, but the plywood had already been ordered so the show went ahead anyway.

[edit] The Show

After the first half of the first season, every episode was about Will Robinson. But what Robinson will was never answered. The hammy Dr Smith's trademark expression was "Oh, the Pain! The Pain!", which every regular viewer wholeheartedly agreed with. How Dr Smith survived all three seasons is unknown. Everybody knows that Dr Smith acted in infuriatingly stupid ways, but when you consider that the rest of the crew didn't have the brains to kill him then compared to them he was really rather clever.

The show represented realistic glimpses into the future of human civilisation and technology. For example, while the men did the hard work of crashing the ship and blowing up technical equipment, the women were left to gleefully press the buttons on the front of their automatic food processors, hair stylers, and washing machines. We now know this to have been an accurate prediction. Another example was the futuristic methods of alien transportation and spacecraft launching, which involved a big bang and lots of smoke.

There were common patterns throughout the episodes. Often when Dr Smith had led Will Robinson astray and nearly destroyed the universe in the pursuit of untold riches and a lift back to Earth, Professor Robinson would save the day and then tell Will, "Don't do that again, son", and everyone would go back to the ship in a fit of laughter.

In an attempt to emulate the fame of trilogies such as Asimov's Foundation or Hargreaves's Mr Happy, Lost in Space came in three series, though the plot barely lasted one.

Irwin Allen used the show as a showcase for colour broadcasting, with vivid purples, greens, and yellows everywhere. This contributed to the slow uptake of colour televisions, but overall television sales soared as a direct result of feet, fists, and books going through the screen every time Dr Smith came out with the line, "Nonsense William, what could possibly go wrong?" as he pressed the buttons on an alien machine.

The theme music was by John Williams, in his familiar Spanish guitar style.

[edit] The Robot

The robot was arguably the star of the show, providing the voice for Dr Smith and giving the show a credible scientific background off which hanged every episode (along with the scriptwriters).

Many comparisons were drawn between the robot and Asimov's famous Robbie the Robot, but not by any of the viewers. Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet did make a guest appearance in some episodes, probably to make viewers think things might get better.

In the early 21st century the robot's body was reused as the rear end of the Renault Megane.

[edit] Comparisons with other series

Lost In Space was invariably well compared against Star Trek by all of the TV critics. Some people speculate that this is proof that critics don't know what they're talking about.

Unfortunately, Lost In Space suffered badly in comparisons against British Sci-Fi, with accusations that the acting, the stories, and the general quality of the sets were not up to the standards of The Clangers.

[edit] Who's Who in the Cast

- Regular Cast

Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams)
Doctor Maureen Robinson (June Lockhart)
Major Don West (Mark Goddard, went on to found NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre. In the 1998 film, Mel Blanc)
Judy Robinson (Marta Kristen, in a non-acting capacity. Heather Graham was chosen for the role in the 1998 film)
Penny Robinson (Angela Cartwright, from Bonanza)
Will Robinson (Billy Mumy) (securing for himself a life-long career as Comic Book Convention guest)
The Robot (the only believable character and arguably the best actor)