Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!
I'm 8 in and I find it a very YA show aimed at tweens and teens. It’s a whole lot of Disaster Porn where someone has to be in arbitrary danger all the time, even when doing such bland things as setting up a balloon. I largely like the cast, but the characters feel paper thin… I don’t know what motivates almost anyone except Don and Maureen and "Smith". The episodes all feel padded and the pacing is often too slow. And the everyone keeping and overhearing and sharing secrets thing is just tedious.
I want to like the show but if it doesn't markedly improve at the climax of the season there won't be another season for me.
I watched the first two, and it's pretty good. That's how you revive a show. Of course LIS didn't start off cursed with a sizable hardcore fan base conditioned to accept and defend any clumsy, half-hearted crap that has their favorite brand name slapped on it.
I got into one thread (and got out again) when a guy started complaining there weren't enough weapons. I understood his premise (defense on an unknown planet) but it soon became "but muh gunz!", and another poster looked him up and, yes, he owns a gun store.
And so many fanbois whining that it wasn't like it was when they were kids. Of course! They weren't making a 1960s show!
And then are the people saying, "Too many feminists! Maureen is a bitch!" and so on. Really???
Okay, finished the series! Random thoughts time.....
I really like the style of the Jupiters and Chariots, especially the color-coded markings. I think we saw orange (J2), red (J11), and blue (J4) markings. Anyone know of a list of known Jupiters their colors?
Speaking of the Chariots, how many were there per ship? And how many working vehicles did the production have? I'm assuming they switched out graphics for different scenes.
The Jupiters have RV popouts!
I like all the main characters (much more than most of the Expanse crew), except for "Dr Smith". I wanna push her out an airlock. Which I suppose speaks favorably on Posey's acting, although I was surprised nobody else picked up that something was "off" about her earlier.
There seems to be some timescale weirdness in just how fast their engines are. From what West said, it sounds like he's been back and forth to Alpha Centauri several times, which would definitely put them into an FTL category. Although the way it was framed in the flashbacks (especially one very late one) made it sound like they were just regular rockets (albeit very efficient ones).
I don't think they were using the alien drive as it was shown (like a wormhole) in the first and last episodes, because they didn't seem to know what they were seeing.
Why did none of the other colonists investigate the alien crash site? Especially at first when they thought they weren't under a time crunch, seems like at least some of them would be interested or available.
The colonists were all working to get back to the Resolute, but where's it going to go? I'm not sure they know how to reverse how they got there.
I'm gonna miss Vijay. I kinda liked him, as clueless as he was! Maybe they'll have occasional cuts to the Resolute in the future. Seems kind of a waste to develop him and all those other characters just to drop them all at this point.
They have a very convenient reason for having artificial gravity going forward!
Sorry for double posting, but I just remembered where I've seen the Resolute's captain before! He was in The Mummy Returns as the airship captain Izzy! "You shot me in the ass!"
There was one Chariot per Jupiter space craft. It appeared that they had at least 3 working Chariots in one scene, but that could have been VFX and camera/prop placement magic. I haven't seen any good behind-the-scenes production videos, something that I would love to view. Perhaps well get some eventually with a DVD release.
i find her, like the rest of the family, interesting. They all have baggage at this point - Maureen and Judy, certainly. The obvious aspects of it revolve around John, but one wonders what the flashpoints between those two would be if stepdaddy had stayed behind on Earth.
And those folks (not you) complaining about the old Dork Family Robinson being turned into a "dysfunctional family" for the sake of edginess are completely wrong.
I don't gravitate toward dark reinterpretations of old stories, but showing family relationships in a more rounded and realistic light is not that at all - "grimdark" (stupid kindergarten neologism) and "escapism" in TV is not a binary choice. There's no real engagement and certainly no drama to be had in the Shiny Happy People version of the Robinsons.
These characters and the ways they interact are far more carefully and successfully drawn than most of what I see in genre entertainment now.
You know what irks me? They are scientists, technician and so on but they use the Imperial System (even on the board instrumentation!).
I know that the real reason is they don't want thrown their American audience into panic with meters and Kilograms, still it's incredible annoying hearing a supposed scientist saying things like "the instrumentation weights xxxxx pounds".
Although I look at this as the best implementation of the original Lost in Space concept yet, I have one major quibble: Will Robinson in 1964 was a genius with math, electronics, computer programming, and robotics. He was the original boy-genius hacker a full decade before such a thing actually existed. In this version, he was dumbed-down to the point of becoming a liability. There's no reason he had to be a genius, but it was one of the things that made the family special. They did a nice job contemporizing the women of the Jupiter Two (as did the 1998 movie) -- Judy's original bio was pretty insulting -- but did it have to come at the expense of the coolest kid in the history of SF?
I also found myself having to adapt to the instinct to like Dr. Smith, even though this version was utterly despicable. Would a single "Bubble-headed booby" have killed anyone?
On the other hand, as much as I hoped for a return to a harmonious family Robinson after the ham-fisted rendering of a dysfunctional family in the 1998 movie, I enjoyed watching this John and Maureen work through their difficulties and become close again.
Although I look at this as the best implementation of the original Lost in Space concept yet, I have one major quibble: Will Robinson in 1964 was a genius with math, electronics, computer programming, and robotics. He was the original boy-genius hacker a full decade before such a thing actually existed. In this version, he was dumbed-down to the point of becoming a liability.
I seriously don't see this. He is shown to be extremely smart. It was his idea to retrieve the magnesium to melt the ice in the pilot. He just was shown to not be great under pressure.
I think that's pretty much a misreading of the character.
He couldn't pass a qualifying test because he panicked in an extreme situation. That has not a thing to do with intelligence and everything to do with - just perhaps - being an anxious ten year-old boy.
As far as his intellect is concerned, he's demonstrated superior observational, reasoning and knowledge since the crash to the extent of saving the entire fucking family by recognizing magnesium and its properties from a distance, RESCUING AN ALIEN ROBOT and bringing the FUCKING ALIEN ROBOT back to SAVE THE ENTIRE FUCKING FAMILY!
Uh...yeah.
Did I mention that Will's smarts and courage saved his entire family?
My earlier comments on this series were, in hindsight, .... harsh.
It was based off the trailer(s) which I'd seen where the look and aesthetic of the show didn't impress me and had too many similar visual elements to the the 1998 movie, namely in the bland, dark, monochromatic color pallet when compared to the original series. It looked like it wanted to be "gritty" and wasn't quite getting away with it they way it wanted.
Having watched the first episode, I walked away impressed and interested. It's good, dramatic and interesting and not quite as "hammy" as I was expecting. I still can't say I entirely get going with the "darker" tone, but the episode worked for me.
I can't say I entirely understand the idea of gender-swapping Dr. Smith when there's already three strong female characters in the show and only two men (if we discount Will.) Would it have been "that bad" for Dr. Smith to remain male? I'm sure this take on Smith is very good -again I've only watched the first episode-, because: Parker Posey, but it just seems like a strange and unneeded change to have made when there's already a good number of female characters to work with. Why add more?
I'll watch the rest of it, barring something happening to turn me off the show, but it passed my expectations on what it was and what it was going for. So, kudos to it.
Parker Posey, but it just seems like a strange and unneeded change to have made when there's already a good number of female characters to work with. Why add more?
I dunno, I'd think they could have found a male actor who would've done a good job but I guess it's possible that she just blew everyone else out of the water. It's just such an..... "iconic" character (of sorts) it's strange to make such a change and usually such changes in updated properties come from a need of more female characters or a more diverse cast. In the gender department I don't think LiS needed this change.
But, I'm a fan of hers and even from the bit of her I got at the end of the first episode, and from what I've seen in reviews, she does a fantastic job, so I look forward to it. Just.. I dunno, I don't get the change.
I can't say I entirely understand the idea of gender-swapping Dr. Smith when there's already three strong female characters in the show and only two men (if we discount Will.) Would it have been "that bad" for Dr. Smith to remain male? I'm sure this take on Smith is very good -again I've only watched the first episode-, because: Parker Posey, but it just seems like a strange and unneeded change to have made when there's already a good number of female characters to work with. Why add more?
Given how many hundreds of TV shows over the decades have had male-dominated casts, I've got no problem with the occasional show having a cast where women outnumber men. I don't see it as something that needs to be justified.
Does Smith have a relationship with Will like in the original? Maybe they felt that modern audiences would read the wrong thing into a morally questionable adult man taking an interest in an underage boy.
Or maybe they considered actors of both sexes and decided Posey was the best choice. Or maybe they just wanted one adult female cast member who wasn't part of the family, in which case it would've been a toss-up between Smith and West.
I think they've indicated in public statements that part of the point was just to reduce as much as possible comparisons of the new actor and her performance to that of Jonathan Harris.
Gary Oldman is said to have struggled with that a bit in getting a handle on his version of the character.
Maybe they'll have occasional cuts to the Resolute in the future. Seems kind of a waste to develop him and all those other characters just to drop them all at this point.
