The Making Of Star Trek....

[Drone]

Well, not exactly. In the original pilot, the Jupiter 2 was a slower-than-light ship expected to take years to reach its destination, and it drifted for years when thrown off-course. Whe they retooled it for the series and added Dr. Smith as a stowaway, he didn't have a cryochamber to preserve him for years, so they retconned in a hyperdrive so that the J2 could make the interstellar journey in hours.

Where was it mentioned or established that the journey, I assume you mean to Alpha Centauri, would take hours? As Galileo 7 points out the trip in the retooled initial episode was supposed to take 5 1/2 years. What am i missing? Also, I'm not sure the Jupiter 2 was ever cited as having hyperdrive capabilities as it was supposed to function. During the journey to Priplanus, the only time they traveled in hyperdrive was after the Robot did his thing to the astrogator. This seemed to be confirmed by the mission controller? who in speaking to the President, referenced the incredible speed that the ship achieved, putatively only during the Robot's rampage which put them totally out of the range of Earth to locate.

Additionally, in the Sky Pirate, Robinson and West marvel over Tucker's ship, a hyperspace drive vehicle as they describe it, which could get to Earth in seconds. That would also seem to imply that the J2 is not designed to be capable of hyperdrive, except in the extenuating situation when it was out of control.

 

[Christopher]

Well, not exactly. In the original pilot, the Jupiter 2 was a slower-than-light ship expected to take years to reach its destination, and it drifted for years when thrown off-course. Whe they retooled it for the series and added Dr. Smith as a stowaway, he didn't have a cryochamber to preserve him for years, so they retconned in a hyperdrive so that the J2 could make the interstellar journey in hours.

Where was it mentioned or established that the journey, I assume you mean to Alpha Centauri, would take hours?

You misundertand me. It was supposed to take years, but since Dr. Smith was onboard without a cryogenic chamber, it obviously actually took only hours because of the hyperdrive. That's why the hyperdrive bit was added to the reworked story -- since there was no way that a stowaway like Smith, with no cryotube to accommodate him, could've slept for five years.

 

[Kor]

Methinks people are giving "Lost in Space" a little more thought than it really deserves.

Kor

 

[Christopher]

Methinks people are giving "Lost in Space" a little more thought than it really deserves.

Isn't that what the Internet is for?

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Methinks people are giving "Lost in Space" a little more thought than it really deserves.

Kor

May you be trapped in a Jupiter 2 suspended animation tube....with Dr. Smith screaming.

 

[Drone]

Well, not exactly. In the original pilot, the Jupiter 2 was a slower-than-light ship expected to take years to reach its destination, and it drifted for years when thrown off-course. Whe they retooled it for the series and added Dr. Smith as a stowaway, he didn't have a cryochamber to preserve him for years, so they retconned in a hyperdrive so that the J2 could make the interstellar journey in hours.

Where was it mentioned or established that the journey, I assume you mean to Alpha Centauri, would take hours?

You misundertand me. It was supposed to take years, but since Dr. Smith was onboard without a cryogenic chamber, it obviously actually took only hours because of the hyperdrive. That's why the hyperdrive bit was added to the reworked story -- since there was no way that a stowaway like Smith, with no cryotube to accommodate him, could've slept for five years.

Not to beat the proverbial dead horse, but if I take your meaning correctly, the hyperdrive interlude rendered their original destination irrelevant because they obviously traveled so far past it, in whatever direction. Not knowing where they were and needing to land somewhere close by soon to effect repairs, the cryotubes essentially became superfluous. Am I barking up the right tree now?

 

[Nebusj]

Methinks people are giving "Lost in Space" a little more thought than it really deserves.

Isn't that what the Internet is for?

I thought it was for creating Fan Theories that explain how everything is really the dying dream of everybody else.

 

[Christopher]

Not to beat the proverbial dead horse, but if I take your meaning correctly, the hyperdrive interlude rendered their original destination irrelevant because they obviously traveled so far past it, in whatever direction. Not knowing where they were and needing to land somewhere close by soon to effect repairs, the cryotubes essentially became superfluous. Am I barking up the right tree now?

I guess so. The point is, when they reworked the story and added Dr. Smith, they had to sloppily retcon things and tack on a hyperdrive as a dramatic necessity, even though it didn't make sense to include both cryotubes and a hyperdrive on the same ship.

I've sometimes thought that if I were doing an LiS reboot, I might find a way for Smith to gain access to a cryotube so there'd be no need for the inconsistency of a hyperdrive. Maybe, say, have an additional crewmember who was killed in the Robot's rampage, with Smith then placing himself in that crewmember's vacant cryotube while the Jupiter 2 drifted through space for decades. Of course, that would restrict things if you wanted the ship to be able to travel through space freely rather than be permanently stranded on one planet, but maybe they could come upon an alien hyperdrive later in the series.

 

[Christopher Miles]

"EARTH VICINITY" is 10 parsecs, or 32.6(156) ly, and the "OUTER" is 108 ly, which would be 33.113 parsecs. Why? Dunno, but it seems to be parsec based.

You big silly, a "parsec" is a measurement of time, cuz, y'know, the Millennium Falcon did the Kessel Run in less than 12 of them.

Over the years (sadly) I've thought a lot about Parsec.

So if the Kessel Run is a smuggling run where one is rewarded by avoiding asteroids, gravity wells, and general spacey detritus- Then, perhaps one normally would take a safe route (13 or 14 parsecs). Perhaps the Falcon's drive/hyperdrive and awesome pilot are each something special to make it by traveling a wildly unsafe route which has a measured distance less than 12.

Now my head hurts- I have a pain which is 82 AU's in diameter.

Oh the pain... the pain!

Humph.Now I've gone all Doctor Smithy and stuff.

 

[BK613]

Seems to me that needing cryotubes with a hyperdrive would depend on whether some sort of time dilation occurs aboard the hyperdriven vessel. If the internal frame of reference doesn't experience a slowdown in time relative to the external one, then maintaining the crew in cryotubes might be the resource-conservative choice.

For example, a trip from Earth to Alpha Centauri at 10c would take about 22 1/2 weeks from Earth's POV. If there is no dilation, then keeping six people in the tubes means not needing months and months of food, water etc.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Here's a neat fact about the Lost in Space freezing tubes: they showed up on Star Trek:

After LIS was canceled, Fox apparently made some of its props and set dressings available to other studios, whether for sale or rent I don't know. But these are the actual tubes from the Jupiter 2.

There's even a blink-and-you-miss-it scene with the robot:

 

[Christopher]

For example, a trip from Earth to Alpha Centauri at 10c would take about 22 1/2 weeks from Earth's POV. If there is no dilation, then keeping six people in the tubes means not needing months and months of food, water etc.

Except that in the final episodes, it only took the Jupiter 2 a matter of minutes, hours at most, to be flung far beyond Alpha Centauri. They crashed on a distant planet in episode 3, but the first several episodes were serialized and the action was fairly continuous.

And of course, in the start of season 2 and most of season 3, they traveled from planet to planet without needing the cryotubes. The tubes served a purpose in the original pilot, but in the retconned series version, they were an inconsistency, a relic from an earlier set of storytelling assumptions.

 

[JE Smith]

Come for The Making of Star Trek, stay for 2 pages of Lost in Space discussion.

 

[BK613]

@ Christopher: None of which invalidates the point I made, to wit, FTL in and of itself does not negate the need for cryotubes. If the on-board passage of time is significant, into the tubes you go.

Besides, [McCoy as Spock] to expect consistency in an Irwin Allen production is not logical. [/McCoy as Spock]

 

[Christopher]

@ Christopher: None of which invalidates the point I made, to wit, FTL in and of itself does not negate the need for cryotubes. If the on-board passage of time is significant, into the tubes you go.

In general, sure, one can have SF universes where FTL travel is "slow" enough to require cryotubes. But that is clearly not the case with Lost in Space. My point is that that general principle doesn't work as an explanation for this specific inconsistency, because it doesn't fit the facts established in the show. So pointing out that it's theoretically possible in some context really doesn't apply here.

 

[erastus25]

There's even a blink-and-you-miss-it scene with the robot:

Whoa. I never noticed that before! This post belongs over in the "Hey, I never noticed..." thread!

 

[Drone]

There's even a blink-and-you-miss-it scene with the robot:

Notice that Gem doesn't even look in the Robot's direction. She's well aware that it's only one of the Vian's previous test subjects, removed from its tube to show prospective victims that the Vians weren't kidding around. You see, he used to be Robby the Robot.

 

[Drone]

Christopher, to further piss people off and drain yet more life out of this thread, do you subscribe to the widely discussed theory/retcon that Dr. Smith's personality changed only as the result of the considerable physiological damage done to him in experiencing the initial takeoff thoroughly unprotected from its impact?

 

[Maurice]

Personally, I think Smith's mind snapped when he realized he was probably going to grow old listening to Will singing "Greensleeves" ad infinitum.

 

[Drone]

Well, from his standpoint, better Will than having to tolerate the vocal stylings of the Robot.