Welcome to Far-Out Friday ever'bloody!.. Today we get Lost In Space with the Robinsons, Major West, Dr. Smith and the Robot. In this season 2 whack-a-doodle adventure, the gang is in the Valley of Shadows (why?) and the Robot is affected by strange forces and it grows to the size of a building! Will and Dr. Smith enter the Robot to try to reverse the process and save it from total destruction... And, screwing this episode all up!
Prissy Dr. Smith is sitting, eating an apple and a banana while Will fields a complaint from the Robot, it's feeling kinda low. It claims that Dr. Smith failed in its maintenance last go round, which is his only freakin' job!!
So, the Robot goes exploring in the Valley Of Shadows for some reason!.. Will and the doctor (of what?) go looking for the damn thing when they find it laying on its back, as big as a house!
Will sez that they have to try and fix the Robot, what else?.. So, they go inside to see what they can see, Will has his tool kit too boot, but, how's he gonna turn a big old nut?!!
Man, to me, this looks like a futuristic McDonald's Funland for kids!
The colors are just insane!! Anyway, Dr. Smith gets himself in a peck of trouble and Will has to pull him out of the... Uhh... Oh yeah,
thing!
Why, if I wuz Freddie Blassie, I'd pile drive that pencil-neck geek!
Great, now look who show up... The Buzz Kills!!
In the meantime, the Robot is all haywire and such, and it's starting to shrink back!!
Well, try and squeeze through... No, wait, it's too small!.. Let's try over here!.. No, we can't go there because... Wait,
what'd you say?.. HELL NO... We ain't gonna hold your fucking hand!!.. Grow up, you freak!!
Wouldn't you know it, they forgot Will. Outside the Robot, dad stretches his arm out as far as he can for Will to grab. But, will the little guy be a little too short and get crushed inside the incredible shrinking Robot? Tune in next week when........
Doh!
Okay, okay, the damn series ain't gonna end here! Get over it.
So, they pick the Robot up just in time for a comical ending. Notice in the first pic, Dr. Smith's in a spot where he doesn't even have to pick up anything!! What a shit!
We end with this comical teaser, so, better tune in next week to see what other problems Dr. Smith gets the crew into! Join us tomorrow for even more cool junk from the Dungeon Gang, right here!!..
LIS fan since 1965 here (though my love of the show primarily involves the first season only), so TRIP THROUGH THE ROBOT is a real groaner/howler to me. I'd say that the one after it (shown in the tag preview), titled THE PHANTOM FAMILY, is far better.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this one caught my eye, it seemed so ridiculous I had to do it -
ReplyDeleteYep, it's the LIS version of FANTASTIC VOYAGE, more or less...with all of the Irwin Allen props crammed into one room...heh!
ReplyDeletePS:
ReplyDeleteHere's more useless information on that red alien in the cliffhanger:
The actor under that mask is Alan Hewitt, the pesky cop Detective Brennan, on MY FAVORITE MARTIAN. He's most famous as the voice of Fred Flintstone! In THE PHANTOM FAMILY episode of LOST IN SPACE, he plays the red alien Lemnoc, and get this: he does in this role an impersonation of Boris Karloff.
Crazy, fun stuff!
Like Kevin, I have a fondness for the first season LiS, and now that they're running them on Me-TV, I've been enjoying them immensely. Last week's episode was "My Friend, Mister Nobody" which is really pretty darn good, especially when Mr. Nobody attacks the Jupiter II and the robot is sent out to do battle. My amazement at the end when the robot literally is found to have been torn apart was incalculable.
ReplyDeleteThis particular episode, as pointed out, is Fantastic Voyage Robot-Style, and serves to highlight that Smith gets them in trouble, Will deals with it, and Professor Robinson and Don show up just at the end, usually to fuss at Will and threaten Doctor Smith. A motif that permeates the second season.
Thanks guys for all the great comments! Always appreciated, makes these posts more interesting with some background info...
ReplyDeleteGlad to learn that Randall and I share our appreciation for first season LIS. It was the first continuing character sci-fi fantasy series to capture my attention as a ten-year-old in the mid sixties, to the point where I didn't dare miss an episode, each Wednesday evening. Only when LIS turned colorfully goofy in the fall of '66, my attention shifted for the most part toward THE TIME TUNNEL, the next focus of my fannish attention and devotion, along with THE INVADERS series.)
ReplyDeleteMy Friend Mr. Nobody is a lovely fantasy story, one of the handful of standouts in the first season, very sweet and gentle in telling the tale of Penny and her "imaginary" friend, an incorporeal being of cosmic energy. Until the nefarious Dr. Smith leads the story in a more devious and greedy direction. The episode is greatly aided too, by a beautiful music score from John Williams.
I have the whole TV series on DVD the great thing with DVD is you can watch your favorite episodes
ReplyDeleteI must highly beg to differ, and I must interject..
ReplyDelete"Trip THrough the Robot" is rather easily better than "The Phantom Family," though both are obviously very good.
"Trip Through the Robot" is one of the classic and best (and most popular) episodes that was telecast in color.