Yep, I've seen that too. Candidly, though, if there'd been a hole that big in the ship it never would have landed for it would have been thoroughly wrecked long before with no one left alive...at least in a more realistic scenario.
Revisiting Lost In Space...
- Thread starter Warped9
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If you have to watch any more episodes, go for "The Anti-Matter Man" (link to it on Hulu) which is one of the few episodes that gives John Robinson something to do and is vaguely "Mirror Mirror" like with evil John, Don and Robot from an "opposite" universe. Smith has a very little to do in the episode at all, which is refreshing.
Here's a funny bit of trivia, Hill Street Blues star Daniel J. Travanti (Capt. Frank Furillo) appeared as a space hippie in the 3rd season LIS episode "Collision of the Planets"!
You know that Lost in Space Episode got me to thinking if Roddenberry plagiarized the idea to make the TOS episode Mirror, Mirror where the Kirk visits the alternate universe?
The LIS epidosde first aired February 16, 1966. The TOS episode Mirror, Mirror aired Oct 6, 1967. Interesting coincidence.
It would be interesting to see Irwin's pitch for LIS. We're so familiar with Roddenberry's pitch for Star Trek, and it's apparent from the get-go that Roddenberry had some specific ideas in mind in terms of setting, stories and overall tone. Although there were some wacked ideas that fortunately didn't fly there's quite a lot of detail in GR's pitch that makes it evident he gave his idea quite a bit thought in developing it. And a lot of Star Trek, particularly the first season, is very much in line with Roddenberry's initial take. Of course, it's not exact as others came along and contributed to it and more likely helped make it better.
LIS' unaired pilot is interesting, but I have to say I didn't like the idea of them abandoning the ship and becoming wanderers on the planet. In that respect what they did in the series was better, such as it was.
LIS' unaired pilot is interesting, but I have to say I didn't like the idea of them abandoning the ship and becoming wanderers on the planet. In that respect what they did in the series was better, such as it was.
Jerome Bixby wrote "Mirror, Mirror" (both story and teleplay); the episode was his idea, not Gene Roddenberry's. "Mirror, Mirror" was very loosely based on a short story Bixby had written years earlier, "One Way Street," first published in December and January of 1953/1954.
It's possible that the Lost in Space episode in question ("The Magic Mirror") had an influence on the episode, but plagiarized? That seems like a stretch, although I must confess I haven't seen "The Magic Mirror" (or at least, don't remember it).
I watched a little bit of it on Hulu and you know what's interesting to me is how wrong production designers get what the future may look like.
Firstl, what's up with incomprehensible flashing lights on at space control?
Also, didn't anyone think that by 1997 studio TV cameras may look a little different than they did in 1965?
It's amusing that in the past they thought people would routinely being using jet packs.
Wardrobe also got the future of fashions completely off.
^^ Yeah, but there's nothing unusual about that. People's perspectives are shaped by their times. And we're not talking about SF writers here, but television producers and writers and the like. Also space and space travel was a big thing back then with the U.S. and Russian space programs really going at getting out there. It was very much in the public's mind.
Remember that SF isn't about predicting the future. It's about imagining a future.
And everyone was doing flashing lights.
Remember that SF isn't about predicting the future. It's about imagining a future.
And everyone was doing flashing lights.
Meh, some get it better than others. I'd argue that 2001 a Space Odyssey got the future more right than most - other than of course the time line we'd have a permanent base on the moon.
But in terms of the 'feel,' and generally the production quality of the sets in terms of thinking forward they did a real great job.
William Self, formerly of Fox, tells an interesting story about how Lost In Space almost didn't make it on the air. It's the first few minutes of this interview segment.
If you're interested in seeing an actual shooting script, here's The Keeper Part One.
If you're interested in seeing an actual shooting script, here's The Keeper Part One.
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2001 was also rather conservative in some respects, or perhaps I should say restrained. And it was doing serious minded science fiction rather than escapist fantasy sci-fi. There is room and appetites for both.
I haven't seen it in a while but it always seemed the women were stuck on domestic duty. That was probably the most dated aspect of the show.
Growing up my dad would always let me know that Steve Austin's arm and legs should rip from his body, that the General Lee would be destroyed if it made those jumps and that the Robinsons would space Dr. Smith if it were real.
Growing up my dad would always let me know that Steve Austin's arm and legs should rip from his body, that the General Lee would be destroyed if it made those jumps and that the Robinsons would space Dr. Smith if it were real.
I haven't seen it in a while but it always seemed the women were stuck on domestic duty. That was probably the most dated aspect of the show.
Growing up my dad would always let me know that Steve Austin's arm and legs should rip from his body, that the General Lee would be destroyed if it made those jumps and that the Robinsons would space Dr. Smith if it were real.
Another nitpick about LIS and sci-fi generally. Did the designers of Star ships and the Jupiter II ever hear of circuit breakers?
Every dramatic episode has someone shooting at a console and it exploding with electrical sparks. This was true in ST and LIS.
Now before anyone says it - yea I get the dramatic effect of having explosions but anyone remotely familiar with how to wire shit must be rolling their eyes on the number of electrical fires that occur in the future.
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I watched parts of a couple of episodes today. Don definitely said "assemble the chariot." The show definitely has some well done aspects, especially the family dynamics. There are some really nice, naturalistic scenes, such as when Penny wants to adopt the Bloop and when Professor Robinson has a little man-to-man with Will about the Robot. Also, the space scenes have a cool, mystical aspect to them-- similar to Outer Limits, Star Trek and Forbidden Planet-- complete with mysterious music. That's another thing I like about shows from that era that is missing now; space shows lack that exotic feel.
Sounds like my Uncle Joe. He was quite a killjoy.Growing up my dad would always let me know that Steve Austin's arm and legs should rip from his body, that the General Lee would be destroyed if it made those jumps and that the Robinsons would space Dr. Smith if it were real.
Sounds like my Uncle Joe. He was quite a killjoy.Growing up my dad would always let me know that Steve Austin's arm and legs should rip from his body, that the General Lee would be destroyed if it made those jumps and that the Robinsons would space Dr. Smith if it were real.
I got a little revenge when The Terminator came out, I knew Arnie was a cyborg but Dad didn't and I didn't tell him. He kept moaning loudly in the theater until the reveal.
"Visit To A Hostile Planet" ***
The Jupiter II accelerates beyond light speed and into a time warp that takes them to Earth and the year 1947.
This was more like the better episodes of Season 1. Yeah, there was some silliness, but little truly embarrassing. The story unfolded decently, but I couldn't help thinking that after they'd figured out where and when they were (and not badly reasoned either) I found shortsighted (within context of the story) for them to venture out of the ship in their silvery flight suits without a thought. It never occurred to them, as it did to Smith, that they'd be far less noticeably in less conspicuous attire? Even their 1990's regular clothing we'd seen them wear would have been less obvious. I did like that Maureen Robinson clued in pretty fast that something was amiss when she saw the old style early 20th century telephone.
At the end I liked the rather nice shot of the Jupiter II leaving orbit over Earth.
The Jupiter II accelerates beyond light speed and into a time warp that takes them to Earth and the year 1947.
This was more like the better episodes of Season 1. Yeah, there was some silliness, but little truly embarrassing. The story unfolded decently, but I couldn't help thinking that after they'd figured out where and when they were (and not badly reasoned either) I found shortsighted (within context of the story) for them to venture out of the ship in their silvery flight suits without a thought. It never occurred to them, as it did to Smith, that they'd be far less noticeably in less conspicuous attire? Even their 1990's regular clothing we'd seen them wear would have been less obvious. I did like that Maureen Robinson clued in pretty fast that something was amiss when she saw the old style early 20th century telephone.
At the end I liked the rather nice shot of the Jupiter II leaving orbit over Earth.
Some definite weirdness in this one. They can't raise Alpha Control, so land in Podunk? It would have made some sense if they at least paid lip service to TRY to land at an established base, but as-is it makes little sense that they landed where they did."Visit To A Hostile Planet" ***
The Jupiter II accelerates beyond light speed and into a time warp that takes them to Earth and the year 1947.
This was more like the better episodes of Season 1. Yeah, there was some silliness, but little truly embarrassing. The story unfolded decently, but I couldn't help thinking that after they'd figured out where and when they were (and not badly reasoned either) I found shortsighted (within context of the story) for them to venture out of the ship in their silvery flight suits without a thought. It never occurred to them, as it did to Smith, that they'd be far less noticeably in less conspicuous attire? Even their 1990's regular clothing we'd seen them wear would have been less obvious. I did like that Maureen Robinson clued in pretty fast that something was amiss when she saw the old style early 20th century telephone.
At the end I liked the rather nice shot of the Jupiter II leaving orbit over Earth.
I can sorta buy them wearing their silver suits for landing, but they logically should have shed them upon realizing whence they were.
I thought it was awfully convenient for the radio announcer to give the full date, right down to the year. It would have been better to have the Robinsons piece together when they were by hearing some news event or Maureen seeing a calendar or whatnot.
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