User Reviews

What a strange mess this episode is! At least the usual planet set has been spiced up a bit, but what a plot! A mysterious ice princess thaws out of a rock, and she's being pursued by a silver-colored Mexican bandito. Does this make any sense at all? Apparently, he's trying to extort ransom money from her abduction, but the LOS crew (minus John/Maureen/Penny) thwart him at every turn. At the end, she merely raises her arms and teleports herself back to her planet, thus rendering the entirety of the action a waste of time. Will asks the question that was probably asked by the producer when he read the script, and which every viewer is now asking: "If she could do that, why didn't she just do it earlier?" He gets a non-answer from the Robot, thus admitting the giant plot hole.

Another amazing bit of idiocy is that the Robot can become drunk if someone pours alcohol into his system. It's a great gag but totally out of character (like the robot falling in love a few episodes earlier). Don and Judy, left more or less by themselves, continue to act as brother and sister without a hint of romance.

Gerald Fried becomes the fourth composer commissioned to write a new score for season 3, and as with the three previous, it's a lightweight bit of fluff with virtually nothing that can be used in succeeding episodes. (There's a parody of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" during a fight between Don and Chavo, and some faux-Mexican themes.)

Another dud, as season three descends into darkness.

Castles in Space is excellent for about the first 20 minutes then rapidly descends into an utter mess. The last 30 minutes resemble a very bad Shemp Three Stooges short.

I elevated the rating to a "4" because of the first 20 minutes, the "3-D look" of the set; the music; and the phenomenal Will & Judy duet of "Sloop John B", with Will on guitar.

The first 20 minutes (which rate as a 9):

Major West, Judy, Dr. Smith, Will and The Robot are on an assignment. The focus will remain equally on them. They are stationed at a campsite. Dr. Smith's clumsiness causes some trouble.

We are treated to the Will & Judy duet of "Sloop John B", with Will on guitar. This scene is a true gem! Too bad this is included in this rarely seen episode.

Dr. Smith inadvertently thaws the ice princess and a space ship arrives, apparently with someone after the ice princess.

So far, we have the potential for an excellent episode. It is played straight with a solid balance of comedy.

Then the bottom falls out:

The alien "Chavo" is an all silver, painful stereo-type of a Mexican bandit. Some may say it is no more ridiculous than some of the "historical" characters from other campy episodes. In terms of being ridiculous, that may be accurate. However, too much of it is offensive.

If Chavo was played within reason (i.e. Jimmy Hapgood or even Captain Alonzo P. Tucker), this would have worked fine.

Add to that, The Robot gets drunk and acts like an imbecile; A mannequin/ dummy suddenly appears from one of the tents; Dr. Smith's impersonation of the mannequin fools Chavo. If that is not enough, we have a violent knife fight, with Don in serious danger. But a few seconds later, Will is concerned about Chavo!

Will has an inadvertently very funny line at the end, when the ice princess disappears. He says, "Why didn't she just do that in the first place, instead of letting us get into all that trouble with Chavo?".

In short, going for a spaghetti western of sorts, with a silver skinned kidnapper, Pancho, after an ice princess, who never speaks except for when she finally leaves (disappearing like Bewitched or Jeannie, of course).

The stage is given to Pancho (there is only the one kidnapper, don't know why the description says there are two).

Strangest is when a dummy is dressed to fool pancho, she is dressed like la senorita, which the ice princess looks nothing like.

Pancho gives some interesting dialogue to listen to here, which is about the episode's only saving grace.

But this episode is also noteworthy for Billy Mumy and Marta kristen's rendition of Sloop John B, the Beach Boys song of course, with Mumy on guitar, around the campfire.

And how many people in '97 (but this was three years later, 2000) would be singing Sloop John B around campfires? NONE!!!!

Of course a lot of this episode is silly; but that is what I though made it so enjoyable when I saw it the first time it aired. I wonder how many of the critics of it have seen it through the eyes of a child at the time? Irwin Allen change many parts of it, as was revealed in books about the worlds Allen created in such TV shows as "The Time Tunnel" "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," "Land of the Giants," and of course, "Lost in Space." The series began with a much darker theme, clearly the character Smith was to be seen as just an all out villain, and it was planned he would be killed off. However after the episode, "The Oasis," if not sooner, it was clear that Smith had morphed into a comic villain who was a coward to the core, and capable of just about anything, as well as bumbling anything he attempted to do seriously.

Now what has this to do with this episode? Precisely this: Allen changed several scripts because he viewed it as a "Children's Program"... he used those very words, as both Williams and Goddard became frustrated with how silly some of the plots were becoming. It was, by this episode, a well established "comic/sci-fi" for CHILDREN. This didn't mean adults couldn't enjoy the campy fun of the show, but to expect this to be on the level of Drama found in Star Trek, would be unrealistic on the part of the person watching. A LOT of shows in this era were campy: Batman (really?) Gilligan's Island, The Munsters, The Addams Family, Xena Warrior Princess. If you liked campy shows, you enjoyed them for their entertainment value and that's the way I saw all of the Lost in Space episodes. (with the exception of the first 5, by 6, 7, and 8, it was morphing and by 9 (The Oasis,) there was no doubt!

Now everybody today gets in a tither over Chavo. I liked him. Oh, he presented the usual dangers that always were steered clear of on LIS, And as far as his "representing" Mexican Americans -- Did Ralph Kramden represent Bus Drivers? Did Ed Norton represent anyone who worked in sewers? And on this show, did the disreputable Dr. Smith represent all doctors? I don't get the generalization of characters, especially in comedies, or tours de FARCE. Alberto Monte, clearly a Hispanic American played the role with no reservations. This was made over half a century ago and back then people didn't get as "offended" as they do by everything today. Incidentally, My grandfather was Cuban, I have nothing bad to say about this with regard to stereotypes. It was an entertaining, yes in many ways ridiculous, episode... but as seen through a child's eyes in that era, one I thoroughly enjoyed. And yes, I can still enjoy the reruns of it today--and I have them on DVD so I don't have to worry about syndication censors.

Finally, the duet sung by Marta and Billy around the campfire was thoroughly enjoyable. Mumy was a talent since he was about 3 or 4 years old, and by now he was playing guitar very well. Anyone assuming that nobody would try to make the most of their trials while trying to find a way back home by singing around a campfire assumes far too much. Sometimes such desperation is alleviated by letting it all hang loose and singing a happy tune like "Sloop John B." which is a happy way of expressing "I wanna go home". No big deal at all. I LIKED it!