Lost In Space: The Complete Second Season
Lost in Space is the tale of the Robinson family and is loosely based on Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss, the tale of a family shipwrecked and stranded on an uninhabited Pacific island. Indeed the original working title was "Space Family Robinson".
Lost in Space is the tale of the Robinson family and is loosely based on Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss, the tale of a family shipwrecked and stranded on an uninhabited Pacific island. Indeed the original working title was "Space Family Robinson".
However, our Robinsons aren't seafarers at all and are in fact pioneers of space travel in the future of 1997. Along with their pilot, Major Don West, they're planning to take their revolutionary new spaceship, the Jupiter 2, to the third planet in the Alpha Centauri system in a brave new colonization venture. Unfortunately for them, the ship has been sabotaged by the bungling Dr. Smith, who has also managed to get himself trapped aboard. When Smith's handiwork with the robot takes effect, the ship is thrown wildly off course and they find themselves "Lost in Space"!
Season Two comprises 30 episodes over eight discs and sees a continuation of the crew's attempts to repair the ship and continue their journey to Alpha Centauri. All the while they encounter a weekly diet of diverse aliens and the increscent plotting of the devious Dr. Smith who's main desire is to get back to Earth. The zany mix of adventures includes pirates, thieves, androids, robots, western gunslingers, Amazon warriors, a giant bird, a circus, a dragon, a Scottish ghost, a magician, a boxing match, monsters, lots of treasure and Thor, the Norse god of thunder. What more could you ask for…
Review
Well this takes me back to my youth, hearing cries of "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" and "Oh the pain, the pain!". I'd be about 11 or 12 when this aired in the UK and it was compulsive viewing for boys of my age. Channel 4 showed it again in the eighties but my memories of the original are still pretty good.
Created by Irwin Allen, who also gave us such television series as Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, The Time Tunnel and Land Of The Giants, Lost in Space is a classic of the genré and was only really superseded once Star Trek came along.
Most of the storylines centre on the two youngsters Will and Penny, played by Billy Mumy and Angela Cartwright. Along with Dr. Smith, played by Jonathan Harris, and The Robot, they get into an ever-amazing set of adventures with only a passing acknowledgment to the laws of physics and absolutely no logical explanations for anything that happens. What's amazing is the fact that the crew tolerate Smith at all. Almost every week, he gets everyone into trouble in order to further his own ends but the next episode, there he is again, somehow trusted enough to do it all over again.
The series was really aimed at kids and upholds all the morals of 1960s America. Mom and Dad are the squeaky clean and wholesome parents. Daughter Judy is pretty much an airhead and Major West is an upright kind of guy with romantic intentions towards her but he'd never think of stepping out of line. Will and Penny are normal kids who always get into trouble but the real star is Jonathan Harris, sadly deceased, who gives an excellent performance every time as the cowardly, deceitful and conniving Dr. Smith. Other than Harris, the acting is pretty average - Guy Williams, now deceased, was better known for his role as Zorro. June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristin and Angela Cartwright had cameo roles in the later 1998 movie version of Lost in Space and even Bob Tufeld got into that as the voice of the robot again. 30 years later, Billy Mumy returned to a major science fiction role as Lennier in the excellent Babylon 5.
The picture is presented in its original 4:3 television aspect ratio and the transfer is pretty good given that it's over 30 years old. The colours are bright and vibrant, well it is taken from a 1960's NTSC master and colour was new then, and there's no obvious artefact other than a few flecks now and then. As for visual effects, you won't find any CGI or sophisticated animatronics here - just good old-fashioned camera tricks, lights, smoke effects and polystyrene rocks. Oh and of course, there's the Robot, an amazing piece of effects wizardry for its time.
The sound is the original mono track, delivered via Dolby Digital 2.0, which is perfectly adequate for the age of the material and it's clear and clean. All of the scenes were shot on two indoor sets so there's no real need for anything more sophisticated, although even stereo would have been nice. The main title theme tune was written by John Williams of Star Wars and Superman fame and it's very catchy.
There's not much more to add - it's camp, it's fun, it's wacky - a great mix!
Extras
There's not a lot of extra material in the package, which is arguably reasonable given it's age, but what there is all on Disc Eight and comprises radio interview material played over a rolling stills gallery of production images...
Guy Williams and June Lockhart Interview - an eight and a half minute interview with mom and dad Robinson. Dick Stroud is the man asking the questions but it sounds like the two stars are in different rooms so it's probably a composited piece. The material is interesting enough, concentrating on their earlier careers, but nothing special.
Jonathan Harris Interview - Dick Stroud again, talking to Jonathan Harris about his personal life and his role as Dr. Smith, the real star of the show. This is by far the better of the two interviews and lasts just over seven minutes.
Overall
This is sixties sci-fi at its best and this second season was one of the primary vehicles that helped introduce colour to the American television public so you get to see the bright and garish colours of early NTSC.
There's not much in the way of extra material but you get thirty, 50-minute episodes over the eight disks and that's enough to keep you occupied for quite some time.
This is must have addition to the collection of any of the series' fans or fans of camp science fiction. If you're into the original Star Trek episodes or like movies such as Forbidden Planet, then you'll love this as well.
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