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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Take that! You bubble-headed
booby!
Hey, don't take it personally, I'm quoting from an
early television science fiction classic. Maybe it
was the foil suits or the catch phrases that
captured my attention, but either way "Lost in
Space" became a ritual for me as a child. The
Robinson Family (Guy Williams, June Lockhart,
Billy Mumy, Angela Cartwright, Marta Kristen) and
Major Don West (Mark Goddard) are sent in their
pioneering space mission because of concerns about
over-population on Earth. Their goal is to arrive
at Alpha Centuri within 5 years and look for
inhabitable planets. They'll be unaware of the
passage of time since they'll be in suspended
animation for the duration of the voyage, and
their auto pilot will steer them on their clear
course.
There's one fly in the ointment though: Dr.
Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) has been hired by
a foreign government to sabotage the mission. He
programs their Robot to go berserk 8 hours after
taking off and to destroy the Jupiter 2
spacecraft. But Smith becomes trapped on Jupiter
2, and when the ship goes off course and arrives
smack dab in the middle of a swarm of meteorites,
Smith must wake up West to pilot the ship out of
harm's way.
Like "Star Trek," "Lost in Space" originally was
intended as a five year mission, and like "Star
Trek" it became a three year one. Producer Irwin
Allen pulled the plug when CBS came to him with a
less-than-generous offer for the series' 4th
season.
The first season has a number of stellar episodes,
written by some of the top television writers of
the time (some of them were also bone fide sci-fi
writers). The pilot was originally written by
Shimon Wincelberg ("Star Trek") and Irwin Allen
while many other episodes were written by S. Bar
David (another "Star Trek" alumnus), Barney
Slater, Peter Packer and Wincelberg. Directors
included Nathan Juran ("The 7th Voyage of
Sinbad"), Allen himself (only on the previously
unreleased pilot episode) and other television
directors of the time. The incidental music
included music written for "The Day the Earth
Stood Still" by Bernard Hermann.
While the future isn't what it used to be, "Lost
in Space" still works as fun space opera. The
actors all gave solid performances with television
vets Guy Williams ("Zorro," "Captain Sinbad") and
June Lockhart ("Lassie") leading a great cast.
While the series would later evolve into
silliness, the first season had strong writing and
material to work with. The first five episodes
(which had elements of the original unaired pilot
spread around in them) are still entertaining and
can capture the imagination even if the look of
the series is dated. Actor Jonathan Harris became
an early anti-hero on television, with his
scene-chewing performance as Dr. Smith. Harris
managed to make even the most trite episode fun
with his mixture of ineptitude and comic bungling.
Although he started out as a straight villain
during the early part of the first season, Allen
and CBS recognize the potential for the character
when his popularity zoomed during the latter part
of the season. Actor Bob May's voice performance
as Robot acted as a perfect comic counterweight to
Harris' performance later, during seasons 2 and 3.
The picture quality varies from good to
exceptional. Occasionally the transfers look a bit
dark (particularly during the pilot episode) but
part of that could be the way the show was lit (my
memory doesn't serve me all that well here). On
the whole, though, the picture quality is very
good considering the age of the negatives. One of
the drawbacks of the high resolution aspect of DVD
is the fact that you can see the wires during the
weightless sequence during the first episode, "The
Reluctant Stowaway."
The set includes the original 29 episodes on dual
layered discs with the pilot as a bonus. The pilot
was, of course, eventually aired on the Sci-Fi
Channel during a "Lost in Space" marathon, but
like lots of folks, I missed much of it. Why is
that important? Well, the original pilot didn't
have the characters of Dr. Smith or the Robot
(referred to as Robot B-9 in the initial episode).
Both characters were added at the insistence of
CBS. Lucky for us, since Smith, at least in the
early episodes, acts as a great antagonist and the
Robot becomes his perfect sidekick. Later in the
series both were re-imagined as a comic duo, with
mixed results. Reportedly, the original pilot was
shot in color, although the presentation here is
in black-and-white. Unearthing even a marginal
quality print of the color pilot would have been a
really nice extra to throw into the mix. There's
also the original "Lost in Space" presentation
from the network executives to advertisers
included on the last disc. It's a hoot to watch.
It's our little time machine into the past.
While the extras are spare, the quality of the
boxed set is a good example of how to package
these sets. The series is packaged very nicely in
individual snap cases for each episode, with a
synopsis and basic credits on the back. |
