Star Trek/Lost In Space: Any Difference?

[Robert Comsol]

"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 agree, not to mention the dozens of lost science fiction cutaways he did not do because of such bad experience.

Bob

 

[ZapBrannigan]

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":

Thanks for the pic; I love those things.

"The Empath" didn't just use the economical (empty) black soundstage trick so often seen on LOST IN SPACE. They also used the actual freezing tubes from the Jupiter 2 interior as Vian set dressing. LIS had been canceled by the time "The Empath" was filmed.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Here's good view of the tubes, indisputably from LOST IN SPACE:

 

[trevanian]

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.

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.

It was on Saturdays at 7pm in the bay area. So the time was right, if not the day (then again, if they were aiming it at 8 year-olds, they'd've been in for the night.) I don't remember network programming as starting at 7pm every night either ... 7:30, after the local news, that I remember. Maybe Disney at 7 was the exception on Sunday? That would suggest it was in syndication ...

Well, maybe I'm full of it. I know UFO was on in 71 ... but I'm wondering if the eps I saw were in 72 ... did it go into syndication immediately? It was on the CBS affiliate, KPIX, I do recall that. My stepdad was crazy about it, I bough him that UFO INTERCEPTOR in metal that had a missile you launched with a cap for the bang effect. He had the thing still in the hard bubble wrap and box up till the early 90s.

Back on topic: The quote I remember reading about Harris turning down the LiS film role was 'I don't do cameos.'

 

[trevanian]

I don't know how Smith and the Robot came into the picture, they weren't in the original pilot reel. Jonathan Harris' constant "Special Guest Star" billing in the main title, for the entire run, must have been orchestrated by a brilliant agent. At the time, the only thing I recognized Harris from was his hotel manager role on The Bill Dana Show.

Before Lost in Space ever arrived though, there was a Gold Key comic book around for a couple of years called Space Family Robinson. They were not the characters of the tv show, but there was a mom and dad and two kids. After the series appeared, some sort of arrangement was made, as the comic was rebranded as Space Family Robinson: LOST IN SPACE, though it still wasn't about the tv show.

Did Ib Melchior have a hand in the comic? I know from a dedicated Allen fan who corresponded with Ib that he had developed a whole Space Family Robinson concept in the early 60s which he claimed Allen appropriated wholesale. It may be that one of those super-researched limited press books about LiS might have info on this.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Did Ib Melchior have a hand in the comic? I know from a dedicated Allen fan who corresponded with Ib that he had developed a whole Space Family Robinson concept in the early 60s which he claimed Allen appropriated wholesale. It may be that one of those super-researched limited press books about LiS might have info on this.

If Allen had simply given his space family a new last name, there never would have been any trouble. But instead, they had a troublesome legal entanglement brought by that existing comic book and we never got a (true-vintage) LOST IN SPACE comic like all the other sci-fi shows got.

Allen could have called them the Space Family Finkelsteins, anything, and it would have been smooth sailing.

 

[trevanian]

Re: your hilarious FINKELSTEINS remark,

Don't give Seth McFarlane any new ideas! (then again, folks who don't want him doing trek for TV might be very happy if he settled for LiS.)

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Thanks, Trevanian.

And here's to you, Mrs Finkelstein.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Awesome robot insert...

The blue console to the right was on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea pretty often as well. Notice the silver handled doors at the bottom: SO not-Trek but very much Admiral Nelson's lab...

 

[Grant]

I loved Trek as a kid, but thought Lost In Space was infantile garbage.

That's all that needs to be said.

 

[Photoman15]

There is The Apple. Which I admit is a flat-out blasting away of the Prime Directive.

Not really. After all, the Triangulan natives didn't build Vaal. Presumably some outside civilization built it and imposed its rule over them. In Kirk's view, he was serving the Prime Directive by eliminating alien interference and restoring the Triangulans' right of self-determination.

"Kirk's view", a humancentric application of values and morals to an alien race is EXACTLY why the PD exists.

Further more, I would have loved to have seen a Star Trek ep where our heroes encounter a completly peaceful, loving nice race....more than willing to help our heroes....who keep slaves. And rather than get mad when our guys start stammering away, they just smile and nod and say, "Well, despite our differences, we're more than willing to extend our hand to you" (We kind of see this in that ENT PD ep, but they focused on that DNA dead-end nonsense)

Then we get to watch the crew argue and say how they should refuse aid ala VOY's "Counterpoint".

The Cloudminders by David Gerrold

 

[mos6507]

Further more, I would have loved to have seen a Star Trek ep where our heroes encounter a completly peaceful, loving nice race....more than willing to help our heroes....who keep slaves.

Well, what is Starfleet's relationship to the Orions? Until Enterprise retconned the Orions in a lame attempt at avoiding controversy, the slavegirls were just that, slaves.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Further more, I would have loved to have seen a Star Trek ep where our heroes encounter a completly peaceful, loving nice race....more than willing to help our heroes....who keep slaves.

STAR TREK went nearly there in "The Cloud Minders."

BUCK ROGERS hit it on the head in "Planet of the Slave Girls."

In all such cases, our heroes are supposed to put their own vital interests aside because somebody else is oppressed.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

BUCK ROGERS hit it on the head in "Planet of the Slave Girls."

Slave girls and Gil Gerard running around in clothes six sizes too small for him deserve one response:

[Dr. Smith]Ohh, the pain...the pain![/Dr.Smith]