Star Trek/Lost In Space: Any Difference?

Don't compare TOS and LIS, compare TOS and Irwin Allen's masterpiece: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The resemblence is remarkable. And if you compare Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Season 1) to TNG it could be actionable in a court of law.

I'm a huge defender of Roddenberry but he had to borrow some of the elements from Voyage for TOS.

 

How so? Most of the writing and preproduction of "The Cage" took place prior to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's premier in September of 1964.

 

Both shows were loosely based on the US Naval command structure. They were bound to be similarities.

 

It sounds like you are referring to the TNG edited-on-video problem, not Star Trek.

CBS wasn't the sole reason UFO was canned. While CBS had it on late at night (that's where I saw it as a kid) the show was aired on Saturday mornings on London Weekend Television and apparently not aired consistently.

 

To be fair, most TV sci-fi were not "hard sci-fi" productions, and like the novels of old, used whatever was the most fantastic situation to excite audiences.

Lost in Space suffered weekly violations, but the overall thrills of giant, one-eyed beasts hurling boulders, planets with smoke rising above its surface like a burning object within a oxygen atmosphere, and a ship with more interior than the exterior frame would allow (TARDIS, anyone?) offered a thrill some dry, "hard sci-fi" production would not.

It may something about the culture (depending on your point of view), but as far as 1960s sci-fi productions go, a film like 2001--with so many of its technical projections based on real science and the budget to pull it off--was nowhere near as popular as Lost in Space to the general population.

 

Apparently, there are many elements in "Forbidden Planet" that 'inspired' Gene Roddenberry, but where he borrowed too much, IMHO, is revealed by the mind power stories we've seen in both pilots for Star Trek, i.e. "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

In the field of treknological speculation there is of course one difference: Franz Joseph Schnaubelt liked "Lost in Space" but was no fan of Star Trek.

IMHO, he should have been doing the blueprints for the Jupiter 2
from "Lost in Space" and then, some passionate Star Trek fan should have taken the inspiration to do blueprints of the Enterprise and a technical manual.

 

Well, someone should find a way to believably fit the 2 1/2 decks of the Jupiter 2 into that small hull! I've seen many a J2 blueprint over the years, and none justify so much room within the hull.

 

If I correctly recall, when Bill Mumy helped script the plots for Innovations "Lost in Space" comic published in the 90s, in story it was established that a fair percentage of the the Jupiter's technology was based upon the reverse engineered hardware of an alien vessel having crashed on Earth and then "appropriated" by a mega-corp named, ahem, Allen Industries. Maybe the aliens whose tech we copied had partially mastered "relative dimensions in space" in addition to a compact hyperdrive.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

From what I'd heard, it had a bigger following in the UK per capita than it did in the USA. Back then, the aim was to appeal to the US market because of the enormous audience potential. CBS was a critical part of the equation, as it was the only network broadcasting the show. Most kids I met who liked sci-fi in 1971 didn't even know that UFO existed let alone was canceled. Thankfully it went into syndication shortly thereafter and that changed. I remember a few sci-fi get-togethers where UFO and Star Trek were the popular shows, despite that they weren't airing new episodes. It was just my personal impression that UFO could have done better had more people been aware of it. CBS screwed up on the demographic and aired it in too late a time slot, in addition to cutting corners on marketing.

 

If anyone cares...I once emailed either Mumy or his publicist, I have no idea who actually got it, to ask why he didn't play his older self in the LiS movie. He said, "They never asked."

Which is stupid. That they wouldn't think to ask.

 

I read a very different account on that issue.

SUPPOSEDLY, Jonathan Harris was asked to cameo, but as the "Nu" Smith's "commander" who double crosses him (the hologram communication). Harris stated he was not interested unless he appeared AS Smith. Mumy, in an act of friendship, decided to pass on his offer as well.

Again, that's just what I read and I'm sure Christopher will gun down the anecdote with unabandoned glee.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

I'm not sure about Mumy, but you're spot on about Jonathan: "Either I play Smith or I don't play."

Actually, I'm glad Bill wasn't older Will. It would have pulled me right out of the film.

 

I suspect quite a few Sci-Fi shows have done better in the UK than in the US when differences in population size are factored in.

 

I'm kind of like Ssosmcin; sci-fi was my thing. I watched LIS, ST, UFO, 1999, Galactica, Rogers, Man From Atlantis, Logan's Run, Quark, SMDM, The Bionic Woman, various others, and as an adult all the ST spinoffs and the Galactica remake.

Comparing STAR TREK to LOST IN SPACE, Mark Goddard (Maj. Don West) said in an interview once, "Their show came from the head and our show came from the heart." (I'm quoting from memory, but that's very close to it.)

Regarding the impossibility of fitting the roomy Jupiter 2 interior into the sleek and beautiful exterior, the most common blueprint solution is to increase the diameter of the saucer, from the apparent 50 feet to something around 100.

On my hard drive at home, I have a ton of web-found J2 blueprints and CGI renderings, some of which are gorgeous.

 

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR_TBlE0Bho[/yt]

 

Given the fantastic job Franz Joseph did on the original blueprints, I think things worked out just fine. He truly blazed the path for all the blueprinters that followed.

His blueprints were an act of love for his daughter, who was a fan.

 

Agreed! Whatever their differences with the actual sets and miniatures, the FJ Blueprints were a masterpiece of sci-fi art. As a kid I got literally hours of pleasure pouring over them and imagining myself aboard the ship.

FJ made a lot of money on the Blueprints and Technical Manual. So much so that the Roddenberrys regretted giving him publishing permission for free (as I read somewhere, can't recall where). This was before TMP got greenlighted, and FJ was getting rich at the very time the Rodd's were going broke.

 

I have no idea what could have qualified these as a "masterpiece of sci-fi art", definitely not the main sensor-deflector dish that appears to lead straight to the swimming-pool of the Enterprise.

As an adolescent I spent hours getting frustrated that none of the interiors (except for the bridge) matched the original studio sets, despite FJ using The Making of Star Trek as his prime reference which did include the studio set plan from Season Two on (at least I'm finally getting rid of my frustration by working on accurate deck plans).

IMHO, the only things that do qualify as a "masterpiece of sci-fi art" were the David Kimble TMP blueprints and his 3D-cutaway of the movie Enterprise. Now that was some passionate work, an act of love for Star Trek.

Bob

 

Before we condemn FJ, I think his ship's bowling alley should be taken into account as a mitagating factor.

I can't stay online long this morning, but I look forward to seeing your version of the ship. At first glance, I'd say it's a very daring departure to put a circular corridor in the secondary hull. Maybe even a tough sell.

Regarding David Kimble, from what I read on the Net he was very unhappy with how the publisher cheated him out of royalties for that cutaway poster. He had done a vast amount of work on it, time he could have spent on paying jobs, and then ended up making nothing financially even though the poster sold well. That's a real shame.

 

I found the sets used on The Empath to have a kind of Lost In Space quality about them. Devices with lots of little flashing lights and dark cavernous spaces in between them.

One of my favorite "impossible scenes":