Change Your Image
mgelonec-399-413805
Reviews
Lost in Space: The Android Machine (1966)
A fun episode with wonderful lines from Dr. Smith
This episode is a showcase of great lines from Dr. Smith! In the best of the episodes that Dee Hartford was a guest star in, she plays an android named Verda, who is accidentally ordered by Dr. Smith when he plays around with what he calls an Intergalactic Mail Order Machine.
A wonderful collection of funny lines an sight-gags are entwined with an interesting Verda, who wins over the Robinsons quickly. Unlike other episodes, she really is a good android who even tutors Will and Penny, teaching them about the history of the universe.
Dr. Smith gets increasingly jealous, fearing that the Robinsons prefer her to Dr. Smith and, with limited fuel available, might take her and leave him behind when they mine enough fuel to take off from their planet. He concocts plans to get rid of Verda, which of course backfire on him.
There are 3 hilarious scenes in this episode. The first involves Verda giving Dr. Smith a foot-bath that she, distracted by fauna she is curious about, makes his foot-bath alternately too hot and way too cold! A second involves Verda solving a problem Dr. Smith had been having with a plumbing design of his whereby he was trying to extract water from solid rock. In fixing the problem, she accidentally causes water to pour into one of Dr. Smith's boots. A third is where Dr. Smith, playing again with the mail order machine, accidentally orders a pirate suit that the machine automatically puts on him. The problem is that he cannot remove it and it irritates him even more when the robot cannot figure out how to use the machine to get his original clothes back. "I refuse to be stuck in the molting costume forever!" he quips.
Dr. Smith's woes become even greater when he attempts to summon help from the machine and Mr. Zumdish, a manager, appears. He returns Dr. Smith's original clothes, but he also demands payment for Verda and threatens to punish Dr. Smith for ordering without intending to pay.
The episode is full of solid comic banter involving Dr. Smith, Verda, and the robot. It's an entertaining, enjoyable story!
Lost in Space: The Prisoners of Space (1966)
A great episode with a small weak spot
One of my top-favorite "Lost In Space" episodes, and certainly a standout episode of the 2nd season, which was in my opinion the weakest of the show's 3 seasons. It contains some of the best-written banter between the Robot and Dr. Smith.
In this episode, the Robinsons are suddenly held under the space equivalent of house arrest by being confined to the Jupiter 2 until they are called upon by the Space Tribunal to testify on various crimes committed in out space by the Robinsons. The crimes centered on the first 2 episodes of the series, and include such crimes as causing alien creatures to come out of their hibernation early and thereby shortening their lives.
Since Dr. Smith was not initially placed under arrest, he is initially relieved. However, he gets nervous when he hears that the courtroom has a memory machine which can read the minds of the people who are testifying. He's gets more and more panicked because he's afraid that the memories of the others will reveal the things he did. Not initially placed under arrest because he was not an official member of the expedition, the Tribunal decides that it wants Dr. Smith to testify. He is found guilty of all the crimes that the Robinson's were charged with.
I won't reveal how it ends. Suffice it to say that this episode showcased what "Lost In Space" was capable of when it was written properly.
The only weak spot of the episode is a scene where Will and the Robot help Dr. Smith to escape before he has to testify. It didn't make any sense to have Will and the Robot break the law and risk their own punishment just to help Dr. Smith escape. If Dr. Smith wanted to escape, let Dr. Smith do it himself and take all the risks. I would have left that out and concentrated more on Smith's screaming like a coward as more and more of his actions are revealed through the memory machine. It would have been fun to have been able to hear him try to come up with one lame, stupid excuse after another to "explain" his actions.
The Big Valley: Brother Love (1967)
A good solid episode with superb acting
I have often wondered if this episode inspired Neil Diamond's song "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show", or perhaps the song inspired the episode. The name is one obvious similarity. Many of the lyrics also fit: "And when he lets go half the valley shakes", "Eyes black as coal and when he lifts his face every ear in the place is on him". Besides, look at the original album photo for the song. It shows Neil Diamond standing in front of an old-west, 1800s wagon!
Anyway, Robert Goulet does a fine job as a false preacher whose real plan is to con people out of their money with fake faith healings. He pretends to be a preacher whose traveling salvation show is his church. Gavid MacLeod,who later played the skipper of "The Love Boat" and Strother Martin, a fabulous character actor who was in just about everything that was on TV back in those days round out the guest cast as characters who pretend to be seeking Brother Love's healing power because Strother Martin's character pretends to be crippled (Gavin MacLeod's character pretends to be his brother).
The drama centers around Audra Barkley's falling for the faker. Heath is suspicious of Brother Love and finds out the truth. During the episode, however, Brother Love falls for Audra.