User Reviews

"The Raft", admittedly, is a nostalgic favorite in that it was the very first episode I ever watched as a child. It was a recording (off of TBS) on a VHS tape borrowed from my uncle. So it made an impact even if it might not be considered one of the best episodes of the first season. As a child, I admit that I responded to the pairing of Will and Dr. Smith, but as an adult I felt right the opposite when reevaluating the series.

In "The Raft" there is enough emphasis on the *entire family* instead of just Will, Dr. Smith, and Robot that personally satisfied me now. John and Don are at work trying to come up with propulsion experiments using plasma as their replacement for fuel used up by Will during his tests to set off a small rocket carrying a message of help for the Robinsons to whoever might encounter it in space. Meanwhile Will inspires John and Don to modify a tank on the Jupiter into a small space vessel, with Don volunteering to pilot it, in the hopes of finding help out in space. Smith sees it as his chance to escape from off the "obnoxious" planet, and a key word ("Cast off") told to Robot sets off the makeshift ship with Will accidentally trapped inside with him, the two seemingly lifting off into space! Lucky for them and the Robinson family the ship doesn't have the power to escape the orbit of the planet, landing back on the surface. Of course Smith thinks they have made it back to Earth despite Will's correct assessment that there wasn't enough time. Back on the planet, a two-headed furry creature leads them into a grassy-walled trap, with the two hoping for an escape plan, but the only exit is a double-walled "door" guarded by their captor. While the ship was left with a beacon beep continuously looping to signal the Jupiter 2 to its location, John and Don have trouble finding it due to so much terrain to cover. But Will realizes Smith has a walkie-talkie to hopefully contact his dad.

I thoroughly enjoyed the nice sentiment treated to Don by the Robinsons, and to my everlasting dismay will never understand why those who wrote for the show the rest of the way abandoned his romance with Judy. It wasn't a chemistry problem, but, all the same, those responsible for the creative side of the show simply decided to not pursue the obvious. Just the same Maureen has a sweet moment with Don, telling him how they feel about him, and there is a warm chat between Maureen and John outside looking into the sky; both provide fine character moments. I also liked how John involves Maureen in his propulsion science and progress. I wished she were more involved in his work on the ship, but this episode is particularly special in following all the cast during the attempts to find a resolution behind a potential liftoff from the planet. The failures plaguing them and Dr. Smith's snide comments against them certainly provide some heated moments…Smith's "audio book" covering the "exploits of galactic castaways", from his perspective obviously, just chides the likes of Don who find his pompous critique of their inability to solve liftoff issues less-than-constructive. From Will's attempts to send off a "message in a bottle" to the experimental propulsion tests, the efforts to get off the planet are nicely story-driven without too much juvenile excess disrupting the serious direction. After this, the show began to submit itself to a less than serious sci-fi approach, giving way to camp and buffoonery.

There's just too much wrong with this story for me to give it more than a 6.

The episode opens with Will Robinson using fuel to blast messages into space that he calls the "Shipwrecked Sailor Expiriments". Instead of messages in a bottle, he's putting messages in rockets, hoping the someone will find them messages and, hence, the Robinsons.

In doing that, Will uses up the fuel supply that Major West had been hoarding.

As a result, John and Don come up with an alternative fuel using plasma.

The story is Okay up to this point, but it gets clunky from here. Suddenly, we are presented with a a combustion chamber that John and Don pulled from the engine room (how did they get it out of there? It's too big to fit through the doors leading in and out of the ship). They modify the chamber and make it into a rocket. They attach a helium balloon to it (interesting that the Jupiter 2's calculated to the fraction of an ounce weight included one of those and a supply of helium). The helium balloon will lift the chamber and then the rocket fuel they made will take Major West back to earth where he can get a rescue mission.

Dr. Smith messes everything up and inadvertently traps Will with him when he plans to head to earth himself. Among the "dangers" they encounter is a two-headed beast that looks like skunk cabbage that wants them to tend his garden. I guess this was the first "Great Vegetable Rebellion".

If they are truly lost in space, then how could they have programmed the converted chamber to find earth? If they figured out where they were, then how come, when they did lift off that planet to start season 2, they suddenly have no idea where earth is? Skunk Cabbage captors that want to turn humans into gardeners, helium-filled balloons, and the thought that people who have no idea where in space they are but can send Don to earth make this episode not worthy of anything above a 6. It only gets a 6 because the first half is pretty good.

I have mixed feelings about this episode because the episode has two different plot lines present. In the first half of the show, it is all about grandiose engineering efforts from John and Don first regarding plasma fuel (failure) and then producing a sub-ship to send Don back to Earth to get a rescue organized.

Of course that effort is hijacked by Dr Smith who inadvertently traps will to coming along as well. While any chance to see someone get into space is to be applauded, how Will did not notice they were only in a suborbital trajectory is hard to believe. Even harder to believe is that their random flight would bring them back to within a few miles of their campsite. The Skunk Cabbage monster is just the last straw but of course John arrives just in time to rescue them.

I agree that the science in this episode is fatally flawed but you don't watch Lost in Space to gain scientific revelations. Even saying that, the first half of the show has a great conversation between John and Maureen regarding plasma fuel and shortly after that, a probably the best montage of the series showing the preparation of the Space Raft from pulling it out of the engine spaces to outfitting it with instruments and electronics from the Jupiter capped by the John Williams rescue theme from The Derelict. What is really strange is that in ME TV's edited version of the show, ME cuts most of the montage out. I suppose because there is no dialog they considered the section expendable but that is such a huge travesty to the show and to the viewers.

Of course all of this begs the question: if they undoubtedly already had the Space Pod aboard the ship that they would have access to in Season 3, why did they need to create the Space Raft? I guess you could surmise that because of the crashes in the beginning of Seasons 1 and 2, access to the Pod might have been impossible so it might as well have not existed to them in that reality. However, if they had access to the Pod in "Island in the Sky", why did John have to use the Parajets to scout the planet first? Another intriguing possibility is that the Space Raft with further refinements by John and Don off screen became the Space Pod of Season 3.

In any case, I give 8-9 points for the first half of the episode with John and Don doing the best they could to try to save the expedition and 5-6 points for the second half that was a preview of the Dr. Smith and Will centered plots that became the downfall of future seasons of Lost in Space, thus a 7 rating. Also kudos to the thrifty Irwin Allen for re-purposing the VTTBOTS diving bell prop and set to become the Space Raft.

Add Will Robinson and Zachary Smith to the list of famous TV pairs, like Lucy and Ethel, Laverne and Shirley and Patsy and Edina. They go together like milk goes with cereal. However, sometimes the milk is spoiled thanks to Dr. Smith, and their adventures get them into a ton of trouble. That is the case here when through Dr. Smith's machinations, they end up on another side of the planet where they become trapped in a garden where a horrific looking creature seems to intend to keep them permanently to take care of it. Of course, Dr. Snith won't tolerate that, and it's up to Don and John together Smith and Will out of their latest mess.

One thing becomes truly obvious in this episode and that is the resentment growing from Major West towards Dr. Smith, and the rising temperament West is trying to suppress in his desire to knock Smith block off. there are subtle references to the growing romance between Don and Judy, but like the book of the series, it is completely underplayed and never made a major story. As the first time that Will and Dr. Smith are left alone together for a lengthy period of time (practically the entire episode), they must try to come to an understanding, and often it seems that will is much smarter than his older companion. Or at least, he has more courage and common Sense. For example, Smith insists that the planet that they are going to be landing on is Earth, and there is no invitation by the visual of the planet through the team rocket that it is indeed home, sweet home. The fun part really begins by the presence of the creature whom the audience knows from the start is not just some ordinary shrubbery. It's a fun episode but not a classic, entertaining for its purpose, but not much else.