User Reviews

I don't want to give anything away by way of spoilers, but it's difficult to make comment on plot without doing so. You've been warned.

In this particular episode, among other things, I found the rover crash particularly faulty. One simple solution that to me should have been obvious was to grab the shovels that were seen in the previous episode that the fuel seekers obviously had with them and just dig under the trapped man enough to lower him slightly, and just slide him out without wasting fuel. Flipping the trailer over entirely on its other side, also an option. Judy's decision to put the entire colony at risk for one life should have been overridden the second she uttered it. Also, no real doctor would seal the doom of everyone in order to save one life, especially one that was suffering from such obvious trauma.

Regarding the tar pit scenes - I've noticed that others see this part of the eposide as "filler". I disagree. As written, it appears to be the pivotal moment that brings the Robinson parents back together again as a couple. The "helium voice" joke and laughing at the end after their escape, also a nice touch.

There are many high points in every episode of the series. A line here, a very credible or believable performance there. But it is also marred and riddled with plot holes and poorly-researched writing that causes factual error after factual error. Passing it off as "fiction" isn't an excuse. This legacy of a once-venerable series deserved better in that regard.

The geysers scene lacked in proper execution. Poor storyline progression, the plot "revolves" and doesn't proceed towards a good season ending.

-2 for bad executing -2 for poor storyline progression.

This one is so naive episode... out of whole new planet Dr. Smith finds a broken robot just like that, easy peasy. Naturally, the robot who fell a few hundred feet, she is putting back together. Naturally. Walking out of Tar, the tunnel opens just on the shore, how convenient. Should I go on?

Series started good, don't ruin new seasons with Naive scripts.

It's one thing to have these folks needing to overcome obstacles constantly, but making them even a little bit believable would be nice.

The viscosity of that tar would not have facilitated their escape in that way.

It was the best "I love you" that I saw in my life :)

End of the tar pit scene makes this episode. I won't spoil it for you. We find out the real name of Dr Smith (June Harris). Dr Smith is thinking about the robot -- I think will was a little short sighted disposing of the robot last episode, but I understand. Lots of character development as usual. Dr Smith plays her part beautifully and under the circumstances there is no reason to doubt her sincerity. I hope to see some time travel and advanced tech from Robot and transference of identities would be hilarious. I'm enjoying the vulnerability and adhoc solutions they must come up with to survive. It more real when they are not prepared for every eventuality. And no wonder they don't have everything they need having crash landed and Don stowing Scotch instead of essential equipment LOL.

Are we to believe every time the robot gets a ding in his head (asssuming thats where his CPU or memory is) that it forgets everything? the tarpit scene was pretty good but wouldnt the cavity they were crawling in collapse when he cuts it open, crushing her since she was still under the tar? The helium voice was a nice add.

I liked the episode but that was a terrible decision Judy and Don made with the tank...

It shouldn't have mattered that Judy wanted to save Evan. Victor was in charge and he was the only one that should have made the call, and Judy and Don decided to go against Victor's decision, risking every single colonist's life because of Judy's ego.

And any doctor would have thought that it was unrealistic to save a person being crushed by an object weighing several tons (in same context, of course).

Surely, Judy didn't think that she could save Evan with a first aid kit? Oh wait... His heart stopped twice and they still proceeded to try and save him.

There was another way they could've had a win-win situation.

Why didn't they just flip the tank on the opposite side?

They would've gotten Evan out and they wouldn't have lost the fuel.

So am I the only one who's wondering why didn't they just turn the tanker on its other side? Gravity still works the same on that alien planet, right? If one side has a hole in it, let's turn it on the other side, save the guy who's trapped underneath and wait for a replacement tanker to arrive. Simple. But instead, now both the guy and the fuel is gone, great decision making there.

Or even before that, why did they need to reattach that cable in the most dangerous way imaginable? Why didn't they just stop for a second, quickly get out, reattach the cable, get back in and continue on with full speed? Instead they wasted so much time moving at a much slower - but still dangerously fast - speed, risking that poor man's life in the process.

I'm so annoyed when characters in movies just don't go for the obvious solutions that are staring them in the face and try something completely dumb instead. In my opinion, any film that needs to rely on characters making obviously stupid decisions to keep the plot moving - just to stretch a 5 minute story into an hour long one - lacks a genuinely meaningful and entertaining plot.

*SPOILER ALERT* If you've seen this episode you know its the one where they try to get the fuel they siphoned from a crashed Jupiter back to their camp ground for their own. They used a wench to untrap the guy that got crushed by the toppled fuel tanker, and were worried if they flip it back upright all the fuel would spill from the hole. Well it did start to gush out, and they just stood there and stared at it like it was over. It left open the hole that if they flipped it back upright, they also could have flipped it one more time so that the punctured hole was facing up and no more fuel would have spilled out. Instead they left it upright and all the fuel poured out the side down to the level of the hole.

They left that unclear adn after a couple more scenes just cut back to the group heading back to camp with the injured guy and the team that helped get the fuel from the old tanker siphoned into a new one, and one of the characters even asks "How much fuel so we have left-- Do we have enough fuel to get us of the planet?" The answer was "Not everyone." Well, YES they could have, and for crisis-prepared engineers and doctors, who've had training, and after an argument about losing fuel if they pry the guy out from under the overturned fuel tanker, nobody saw the gallons spilling out the side by the dozen per seconds and thought, "Hey flip it one more time- we have the equipment and literally JUST did it." to save even more fuel?? Those are the kind of little details that writers don't think through. Although the writing is actually good and the show is awesome, leaving little parts like that as complete just feels like lazy writing and a missed opportunity to make the story/scene end as believable as it started- fiction-wise and imaginatively speaking.

SPOILERS

The good:

• Well set up scene of suspense with the buggies trying to outrun the geysers

• Clever and suspenseful escape from tar pit

• Smart and hilarious twist following escape

• Plot is kicked into gear towards climax

The bad:

• Geyser outrun scene was written well but lacked in the execution- the music, direction and cinematography should have created much more suspense

• Another 'trapped underground' dilemma with no real reason for it except for filler

• Idiotic decisions made by characters when attempting to save fuel

• No payoff for death of a character- just excuse for cliché conflict in further episodes

• Obvious set up for predictable clichéd conflict with Dr Smith rebuilding robot

To conclude, it was necessary for motivating the plot towards the season's climax, but was unfortunately very poorly executed. There were a few high points, but those were too insignificant to carry the episode on its merit alone. Overall the writing was predictable, lazy and, intentional or not, at times downright stupid. It was an important episode that felt like a filler episode and legitimately made me angry in places.

This is frustrating as I really want to like this show, but it's been making a few massively annoying choices in the writing department, lately becoming more frequent as the episodes progress. Now they seem to have culminated into one big mutant ball of dumb choices for episode seven. A bit of a shame really!

Overall I'd still say it's a good series, and hopefully the worst is now over.

4/10

Sad that they let a little girl make grown up decisions. No Judy, you do NOT get to make this call. The tank is not moving until we say so. No, your NOT going to risk the lives of everyone here by spilling ALL the fuel . In the immortal words of Mr. Spock....The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the ONE. Now go to your room and stand in the corner before I spank you, you disrespectful insolent child. Other then that, there is some unexpected humor between Maureen and John that had me in tears. Dr. Smith has started to bore me with her childish antics which apparently the rest of the cast can't see. Hope she gets hers.

I think, after seven episodes, I might start to be actively disliking The Robinsons. This time its Judy, with her smug disregard for orders from the mission lead that not only fails miserably, and disregards any training they are supposed to have passed, but then seemingly condemns most of the camp to death on the doomed planet. A fact I might add that the rest of the family are still keeping to themselves. Fortunately, by the end it looks like the rest of the camp are wise to their ways and if they have any sense, will leave the Robinsons behind, when the fire off the fuel they were able to salvage.

There was a repetitive element to John and Maureen's story, as they ended up being trapped underground similarly to how Judy was in the opening episode. I'm really not sure about the science of how they escaped from their predicament... I'd have thought that the tar would be too hot to allow for the "balloon" to work as it does, but I'll give the show the benefit of the doubt (although I'm not sure it's ever earned it).

Dr Smith/June Harris (nice touch) is, for some reason, putting the robot back together. Her endgame remains inexplicable.

Kinda dull and a bit stupid remains "Lost In Space's" default position and this episode is no exception.