Reviews

My recollection (from decades ago) of The Promised Planet was that is was terrible. But, it is actually excellent. It combines 1967-68 hippie counter-culture vs. Traditional values, with some horror and comedy mixed in.

The story is excellent. Dr. Smith provides great laughs. And Penny arguing with Prof Robinson is quite a sight!

You have to be old enough to remember Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (which overlapped with Lost in Space for one year) to see the similarities between the dance scenes and Laugh-In's dancing. That is the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw that part!

The Robinson's believe they are landing on Alpha Centauri, but have actually landed on an alien planet inhabited by creatures disguised as American hippie teenagers.

They separate Will and Penny from the "olders", which even includes Judy.

Dr. Smith, as usual, joins the aliens. This time with hilarious results as he acts like a 1967/1968 hippie parody!

Prof Robinson is cautious right from the beginning and attempts to restore order to no avail. When part of their memories are erased, they are tricked into leaving the planet without Will, Penny and Dr. Smith. However, Will gives Prof Robinson the antidote which causes them to return to the planet for Will, Penny and Dr. Smith.

PS: There is a mistake made early on by Bartholomew that should have tipped off the Robinson's but didn't get mentioned: Bartholomew claim says that Earth ships had traveled to and from other planets and Alpha Centauri for three years, which means another earth ship would have landed about the same time the Jupiter Two took off. There is no way earth ships could have arrived that quickly.

The only negative is the utterly annoying intercom voice directing Will. Perhaps it was intending to be annoying?

Time Merchant is a very good episode and one of the better Season Three episodes.

This is a Dr. Smith, Will and The Robot AND Prof Robinson episode!

Will's experiment accidentally transports a Time Merchant (Chronos) into a cave with him and Dr. Smith.

Dr. Smith, Will, The Robot and Prof Robinson are transported to the Time Merchants location where he controls time and can send people back in time. Dr. Smith sends himself back to earth on the day of the Jupiter Two lift-off with the plan of staying back on earth.

However, Dr. Smith learns that his added weight did cause them to get knocked off course but actually prevented the Robinsons and Major West from being destroyed by an un-charted asteroid. In a moment of decency, Dr. Smith cannot bare to let that happen and boards the Jupiter Two.

There are many aspects to like about Time Merchant, a few negatives and a major opportunity that was missed.

The positives:

The plot/ concept is excellent; Dr. Smith shows a full range of emotions; excellent action scenes with Prof Robinson; excellent props; most of the comedy works; excellent scenes with Dr. Smith and The Robot back on earth; some great zingers by Dr. Smith.

The Negatives:

A fair amount of "camp" wise-guy remarks sneak in with Chronos, including using a famous Oliver Hardy quote on Prof Robinson (I guess he was Stan Laurel)! And an unfortunate off-color joke about a "winch" by one of the officers on earth.

Major Opportunity Missed:

Prof Robinson and Will see that Dr. Smith originally being trapped on the Jupiter Two saved their lives. And more importantly, Prof Robinson seeing Dr. Smith admitting he was weak but still making sure he and The Robot boarded the Jupiter to save everyone's lives, when he could have been the selfish Dr. Smith and stayed on earth.

That could have been used as a dramatic ending to redeem much of what Dr. Smith has done in the past. And provide a logical explanation of why they would put up with his behavior for the remaining episodes. For continuity, Dr. Smith could keep reminding everyone of his heroics every time he messed things up.

Instead we get a casual dud ending with some goofy back-ground music.

Target Earth is a little better than average episode. It seems to be a re-hash of several other episodes, rolled into one. The stock footage compounds that feel. And too much story is crammed into one episode. That said, it is overall better than average.

Somehow Dr. Smith discovers a way to separate The Robot's upper half from his lower half. It is a great visual special effect. However, it seems to have only been used a cool visual (but has no bearing on the plot).

Bubbling Dr. Smith then launches the Space Pod, with the lower half of The Robot and it lands on an unknown planet.

The aliens make duplicates of the Robinsons and the duplicates fly the Jupiter Two back to earth.

On the plus side, we get to see the duplicates attempt to act like the real crew (it feels a little odd since we just saw that from Prof Robinson and Major West in the previous Anti-Matter Man episode). And Dr. Smith is played as a bumbler, to be sure, but he is not a total coward. He volunteers to go to the Space Pod and also karate chops an alien!

Some gaps: how quickly the Jupiter Two returns to earth (Chicago) and how quickly it returns to the alien planet defies logic (even for Lost in Space). Another huge gap is, it is inconceivable that Will would have left earth! Or why at least Dr. Smith didn't stay. And that by himself, Will could have navigated the Jupiter Two all the way back to the alien planet!

PS: The interactions between Will and Dr. Smith seem a little off, with Will scolding Dr. Smith a few times!

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?".

Space Creature is an excellent episode with just a couple of issues keeping it from a Rating of "10".

After some random comments by Will and Dr. Smith, the Jupiter Two is engulfed by a foggy mist from an alien that feeds on fear. One by one, each member disappears and it transported to the alien's location, where he explains he feeds on fear. There is building suspense throughout and a final showdown and Will defeats the alien.

What works:

The story and suspense are excellent; the balance between all members is very good; The Robot is played straight and logical; Dr. Smith is under control. The scene where the alien takes over Dr. Smith's body and he becomes essentially the old evil Dr. Smith is excellent. There is minimal comedy.

The issues:

Will goes to the Core (third level) of the Jupiter Two. Although there is a theme in LIS where alien ships have exteriors much smaller than their interiors, for the Jupiter Two, this stretches one's imagination.

The alien is eventually depicted as a guy under a sheet! Perhaps a small child would be afraid of that "boogeyman", but it looks ridiculous. With all the various monsters at the LIS director's disposal, why this was selected in unknown.

Flight Into the Future ranks with the very best episodes and has always been one of my favorites.

Dr. Smith "accidentally" launches the Space Pod, sending him, Will and The Robot to a nearby planet. The Jupiter Two follows to rescue them. Once landed, Prof Robinson and Major West search for them on foot.

It turns out to be a plant of illusions. Dr. Smith, Will and The Robot encounter a variety of illusions, until the source is discovered and destroyed by The Robot.

The Robot is played straight, except for a couple of jokes that work fine. Dr. Smith is in excellent form with about one dozen perfectly timed zingers directed at The Robot. And no buffoonery that gets out of hand. Will is also in excellent form, figuring out what to do and demonstrating bravery and not letting Dr. Smith talk him into everything.

Switching scenes between Dr. Smith, Will, The Robot and then Prof Robinson and Major West is very effective.

The optical illusions, including two visiting astronauts and "Judy" are excellent as well.

With Space Destructors we start to drift back to Season Two Batman/ Camp mixed with some positive elements.

Dr. Smith, Will and The Robot discover a cave with a variety of machines that can produce cyborgs. Despite warnings from The Robot, Dr. Smith's greed (sound familiar) results in him creating cyborgs which he thinks will help him take over the universe. Some of this is explained as Dr. Smith has finally lost his marbles and the machine is controlling him.

As with other episodes that would have been excellent if done right, Space Destructors has major "camp" flaws, mixed with excellent parts.

The strong points: The early scene with Dr. Smith running and hiding from a cyborg is hilarious; The cyborg making producing computers and machines; the make-up for the cyborgs; the action scenes with Prof Robinson and Major West fighting the cyborgs; the action scenes with Prof Robinson (Zorro!) fighting the cyborgs; and the final scene where Prof Robinson finally has had enough of Dr. Smith and kicks him out (almost).

The Non-Sense:

The idiotic comedy routine from one of the early cyborgs was painfully stupid; The Robot is basically helpless to do anything until the very end when Prof Robinson instructs him to destroy everything in the cave. Why on earth didn't The Robot take action earlier?

The various historical costumes worn by the cyborgs make it look like an attack from an office Halloween party.

The Space Primevals is a very good episode that could have been much better.

It is a Major West/ Dr. Smith focused story, with very little of the Robinson women.

Major West and Dr. Smith are on a mission in the Chariot to cap a volcano when when they are captured by some primitive caveman type aliens with sophisticated devices.

Some of the highlights include the footage of the Chariot, the action scenes with Prof Robinson and of course Major West and Dr. Smith becoming friends. The cavemen aliens are also well done.

However, the nonsense with The Robot chanting "Boom boom, boom boom...... boom boom BOOM!" and his sudden Houdini like abilities were not needed and mar the otherwise very good story. Same goes for the shrinking of The Robot to toy-size. And the ending really made no sense.