I've always been a Lost in Space fan. From when I was very young when Mr. Keema scared me when he revealed himself, to rediscovering it in the late 80's to watching it now for the memories, the show has always entertained me. At my younger age, I loved Season 2. As a teen, I loved Season 3 and now, I find that Season 1 was simply the best. On a whole, the series is a classic.
Season 1 opens with 5 dramatic and suspenseful episodes that rival some of the best sci-fi / adventure stories out there. While this isn't "good" science, it is fun. Despite a road bump with "Welcome, Stranger", the first half of Season 1 was very dramatic in its impact. The family had to find food, shelter, water at the same time as battling the unknown and sometimes hostile creatures. Then, the show takes a lurching turn with The Sky Pirate and rarely looks back. From that point on, the focus of the show was "comedic villain" of the week and how Will, Smith and the Robot deal with plot. Despite the format change, the remaining first season episodes still had a lot of charm and excitement to them.
Season 2 picks right up where Season 1 ended, by keeping the "comedic villain" of the week. Despite a 3 episode stretch where you can feel a return to pure adventure, it takes the "comedic villain" of the week formula and adds on farce.
Adventure was at the forefront of Season 2. The opening episode, Blast of Into Space is an episode that rids us of the villain early to focus once again on the plight of their situation. "Wild Adventure", the best of Season 2 and one of the strongest of the series, is a great space bound adventure getting them close to Earth.
From the middle of Forbidden World on, the adventure element was nearly gone and we had fun, comical episodes. The first half of Season 2 is arguably the best. "Prisoners of Space" gave us a break from the visiting villain and while a flashback show, it was fairly riveting for the series. After that, we enter a stretch of bland yet still entertaining episodes. "The Golden Man" featured horrible masks and beach ball bombs but it was one of the stronger shows of the season.
The 2nd 1/2 of the season features 4 stinkers yet in their own way, they are charming. From "The Questing Beat" through "The Space Vikings", we are treated to space fantasy at its most absurd. "The Cave of The Wizards" features some genuine emotion from Smith toward his feelings for the Robinsons and a teaser about a possible lift off from the planet. And two great Robot episodes, "Trip Through the Robot" and "The Mechanical Men".
Season 3 of Lost in Space had a very ambitious start. You could feel the excitement of the new direction the show tried early in this season. From the exciting and grand new theme to actually going into space more often, Season 3 did start out very well.
The third season features some of the best episodes of the third season and a few approach the best or at least the most ambitious of the entire series. We start out with the action packed "Condemned of Space" where we see the Robinson's lift off, dodge a comet, loose the Robot in Space and come across a frozen prison. We move on to "A Visit to a Hostile Planet" where we feature one of the best of the series (though logic is out the window) where our crew returns to Earth of the Past. And even when stuck on a planet for a while, they to attempt new fresh ideas, most notably some bonding between Don and Smith in "Space Primevals." Bad creature effects aside, "Space Creature" gave us one of the deepest Lost in Space episodes to date.
It would seem that toward the middle of season 3, that the writers milked all they could out of the return to action and adventure and had to settle back to farcical fantasy and the results not very good. We get three episodes in a row that pretty much sign the death certificate of the entire series; "A Day at the Zoo", "Two Weeks in Space" which features the Jupiter 2 as a resort for fugitive aliens, complete with a cash register and badminton equipment, and "Castles in Space. If it weren't for the excellent "The Anti-Matter Man", the show could have ended there.
The final stretch of the Lost in Space series is definitely schizophrenic. We get the excellent "Target: Earth" where a group of uniform creatures want to learn to be individuals. Then we lurch over to "Princess of Space". Later we get "The Flaming Planet" had a decent story but the subplot about the radioactive plant was enough to curdle lunch milk a million miles away. "Fugitives in Space" was a different episode that actually felt fresh, despite the weird court they had. Enough has been said about the "Talking Carrot", so we won't even go there. And because of "bad behavior" from the filming of that episode, we rarely see Guy Williams or June Lockheart this season." The Promised Planet" is far from the best ever but it is one of my favorites mainly due to the absurdity of it all.
Could the series have been renewed for a 4th season? The ratings were good and the good episodes far outweighed the bad but alas, it was never meant to be. We bid adieu and farewell to a great series and we can only hope we have a decent revival of the series on TV one day.
Season 1 opens with 5 dramatic and suspenseful episodes that rival some of the best sci-fi / adventure stories out there. While this isn't "good" science, it is fun. Despite a road bump with "Welcome, Stranger", the first half of Season 1 was very dramatic in its impact. The family had to find food, shelter, water at the same time as battling the unknown and sometimes hostile creatures. Then, the show takes a lurching turn with The Sky Pirate and rarely looks back. From that point on, the focus of the show was "comedic villain" of the week and how Will, Smith and the Robot deal with plot. Despite the format change, the remaining first season episodes still had a lot of charm and excitement to them.
Season 2 picks right up where Season 1 ended, by keeping the "comedic villain" of the week. Despite a 3 episode stretch where you can feel a return to pure adventure, it takes the "comedic villain" of the week formula and adds on farce.
Adventure was at the forefront of Season 2. The opening episode, Blast of Into Space is an episode that rids us of the villain early to focus once again on the plight of their situation. "Wild Adventure", the best of Season 2 and one of the strongest of the series, is a great space bound adventure getting them close to Earth.
From the middle of Forbidden World on, the adventure element was nearly gone and we had fun, comical episodes. The first half of Season 2 is arguably the best. "Prisoners of Space" gave us a break from the visiting villain and while a flashback show, it was fairly riveting for the series. After that, we enter a stretch of bland yet still entertaining episodes. "The Golden Man" featured horrible masks and beach ball bombs but it was one of the stronger shows of the season.
The 2nd 1/2 of the season features 4 stinkers yet in their own way, they are charming. From "The Questing Beat" through "The Space Vikings", we are treated to space fantasy at its most absurd. "The Cave of The Wizards" features some genuine emotion from Smith toward his feelings for the Robinsons and a teaser about a possible lift off from the planet. And two great Robot episodes, "Trip Through the Robot" and "The Mechanical Men".
Season 3 of Lost in Space had a very ambitious start. You could feel the excitement of the new direction the show tried early in this season. From the exciting and grand new theme to actually going into space more often, Season 3 did start out very well.
The third season features some of the best episodes of the third season and a few approach the best or at least the most ambitious of the entire series. We start out with the action packed "Condemned of Space" where we see the Robinson's lift off, dodge a comet, loose the Robot in Space and come across a frozen prison. We move on to "A Visit to a Hostile Planet" where we feature one of the best of the series (though logic is out the window) where our crew returns to Earth of the Past. And even when stuck on a planet for a while, they to attempt new fresh ideas, most notably some bonding between Don and Smith in "Space Primevals." Bad creature effects aside, "Space Creature" gave us one of the deepest Lost in Space episodes to date.
It would seem that toward the middle of season 3, that the writers milked all they could out of the return to action and adventure and had to settle back to farcical fantasy and the results not very good. We get three episodes in a row that pretty much sign the death certificate of the entire series; "A Day at the Zoo", "Two Weeks in Space" which features the Jupiter 2 as a resort for fugitive aliens, complete with a cash register and badminton equipment, and "Castles in Space. If it weren't for the excellent "The Anti-Matter Man", the show could have ended there.
The final stretch of the Lost in Space series is definitely schizophrenic. We get the excellent "Target: Earth" where a group of uniform creatures want to learn to be individuals. Then we lurch over to "Princess of Space". Later we get "The Flaming Planet" had a decent story but the subplot about the radioactive plant was enough to curdle lunch milk a million miles away. "Fugitives in Space" was a different episode that actually felt fresh, despite the weird court they had. Enough has been said about the "Talking Carrot", so we won't even go there. And because of "bad behavior" from the filming of that episode, we rarely see Guy Williams or June Lockheart this season." The Promised Planet" is far from the best ever but it is one of my favorites mainly due to the absurdity of it all.
Could the series have been renewed for a 4th season? The ratings were good and the good episodes far outweighed the bad but alas, it was never meant to be. We bid adieu and farewell to a great series and we can only hope we have a decent revival of the series on TV one day.