• 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!

Netflix greenlights new "Lost in Space"

Of all the elements on this show, I think I'm most curious as to where they're going with the "robots".
Are these the sentinels or advance scouts of some hyper-advanced (possibly long extinct?) race, the product of an evolutionary path that lead to a species to abandon their organic bodies in favour of artificial constructs? Do they have a larger purpose or are they von Neumann-like automatons, mindlessly exploring and cataloguing the universe for long dead masters? Could they just be a microscopic part of a universe spanning machine organism, acting as antibodies while the drive cores are like neurons, relaying information back and forth across infinite space.
 
Basically Earth I think did a coverup with the meteor strike and the engine that makes the Resolute able to travel the way it does was part stolen technology from the alien robots.

One of the suits even mentions "we were always worried they'd come back for it" and they were worried that they'd want their things back.

I hope we find out more about this.
That was my take as well.
 
Of all the elements on this show, I think I'm most curious as to where they're going with the "robots".
Are these the sentinels or advance scouts of some hyper-advanced (possibly long extinct?) race, the product of an evolutionary path that lead to a species to abandon their organic bodies in favour of artificial constructs? Do they have a larger purpose or are they von Neumann-like automatons, mindlessly exploring and cataloguing the universe for long dead masters? Could they just be a microscopic part of a universe spanning machine organism, acting as antibodies while the drive cores are like neurons, relaying information back and forth across infinite space.


That is a very interesting imagination there.
 
That is a very interesting imagination there.
I guess I just want them to be something a little more than just "alien robots".
These kind of ideas crop up in a lot of literary sci-fi (Arthur C. Clarke leaps to mind) but you very rarely see it in other genre media.

Also, there's just something about powerful machines who's lethality is matched only by their utter indifference towards lower forms. Machines so vast, ancient and complex that to them, a space faring race would only be barely distinguishable from bacteria. Carl Sagan meets H.P. Lovecraft.
 
Last edited:
Pros:


Better than Discovery (not really great achievement, but...)

A lot of likeable characters (my personal favourites are Penny, Don West and Japanese family; John Robinson most of the time);

A big improvement over original and previous remakes;

A more or less logical story (a little breath of fresh air after DSC);

Some nice space shots;

Dr.Smith are the best villain of 2018;


Cons:


The big one: I don't get it - are they space explorers or Darwin Award nominees?

Little respect to the real world physics, again and again (still better than Trek technobabble);

Spoiler alert: Captain is from the Mirror Universe. Again.


Not cons of pros

Family friendly show? Not so sure. Yes, there no tits, dicks and fucks every five minutes like GoT, but some alien monsters are still scary for the children.


Let's say 6/10
 
To righty conspiracy theorists, truth is "fake news."

Now, on the subject of LIS...

There's something distasteful and vaguely unsettling about the way everyone talks about "the New World" and who does and doesn't get to go there, etc - almost like there should be some kind of Twilight Zone reveal eventually about the place.

"Dont call it home - call it 'Earth," Maureen said as a stern instruction. "It's not your home any more."

The subtext seems to be conformity, elistism, and a disturbing lack of solidarity with humanity - you know, the presumably seven or eight billion souls who will "never see another blue sky" and who don't get to go to the shiny happy place where perhaps Number Twelve Looks Just Like You.

In that context, what makes "Doctor Smith" so troublesome for that brave new world is not that she largely lacks empathy or conscience and is willing to abandon her fellows to protect herself and further her own interests in and of itself - but only the fact that she's freelancing it. ;)
 
I have been a fan of the original 1965-1968 Lost In Space series since I saw it in syndicated reruns as a boy. After the disappointing 1973 animated reboot telefilm, the Stephen Hopkins directed 1998 film and the John Woo directed 2004 WB pilot this Netflix series is a wonderful success for me. I am extremely impressed by the ten episodes of the first season because they have achieved a level of reboot that equals the original series. That is why I regard this Netflix Lost In Space 2018 series to be like J.J. Abrams Star Trek films.

LIS%20Cast%201347%202-24-18.jpg
1965-1968

Hanna%20Barbera%20Video%2009%201-12-12.jpg
1973 animated telefilm

LIS%20Movie%20128%2012-23-11.jpg
1998 film

latest
2004 WB pilot

Lost-in-Space-4.jpg

2018 series
 
Last edited:
I just watched the first episode. And for as much as I despised Star Dreck: Discovery, I freakin' love Lost In Space. It's well written, it's tight, it all works. Not sold yet on the Dr Smith setup, but at this point, I'm willing to go along for the ride. Love what they did with whatever B-9's name ends up being. Compassion as a malfunction? It's been done on Doctor Who, but I'm curious as what they do with it.

Full disclosure; I watched the original series in black and white. Colour brought a revelation and a greater realisation of just how much foam rubber was used in the monster suits.
 
Last edited:
Full disclosure; I watched the original series in black and white. Colour brought a revelation and a greater realisation of just how much foam rubber was used in the monster suits.

The first season was shot in black and white anyway. A lot of fans prefer it to the more garish color seasons.
 
I can't watch the original show any more. Season 1 tends to be as far as I get and maybe a handful of season 2 episodes.
 
The flashbacks were rather pointless I felt after the first couple of episodes. They didn't really add anything substantial to the story.
 
Lost in Space didn't really do it for me. I found it laboured, the characters for the most part didn't engage me and I just didn't gel with it. I did like the Robot and it's relationship with Will, and Parker Posey was outstanding as 'Doctor Smith'. Other than that I felt a bit 'meh' about it, but I'll probably give it another go at some point.
 
I can't watch the original show any more. Season 1 tends to be as far as I get and maybe a handful of season 2 episodes.

I find season 2 pretty much unwatchable. Season 3 has its moments, but overall it's not much better. I'm pretty solidly in the "Season 1 only" camp. Well, season 1 and the Innovation comic from the '90s, which pretty much retconned seasons 2-3 as being Penny's fanciful diary entries only loosely based on their actual experiences.
 
So I went dark until I finished the season. I loved it.

Did people really have a problem with Smith? We found her terrifyingly believable.

And there's really not a bad performance in the show. For a while I thought Penny was my favorite. Then I decided everyone was my favorite. Of course Will is my favorite. Except when John is my favorite. And Don. And so on.

The biggest weakness of the show (other than a dodgy grasp of how water freezes and some other questionable science) was that (I felt) it lost a lot of momentum after Eulogy. After that you waited for the other shoe to drop which distracted you from some otherwise good stories.
 
Episode 10 is a redemption. One of the best of this season. Good to see certain annoying issues resolved.

Still not happy with the long drawn out personal interactions. Just too much time spent on minutia, feeling like filler. Acting for quite a few feels like fan fiction grade. Hopefully they'll get better over time.

So what about that
The one that magically appears in orbit to deliver yet another alien robot? Was it floating in orbit waiting to hunt down another intruding spacecraft? And that alien hijacking of the Jupiter 2's systems... it'll be interesting to see if it was the new robot or the first one that did this.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top