Here's a very atmospheric episode from season one of Lost In Space, it's strange from the beginning and doesn't let up. So, here we go...
John and Don are doing some drilling and tell Dr. Smith to go to the bog and put the explosives in a hole already drilled in a certain area, easy enough, right?!
And, the lazy doctor just tosses it anywhere, of course!
Low and behold, an invisible monster (FORBIDDEN PLANET) has been released by the misplaced explosion, and there's just one person to be blamed... Give you one guess.
In the meantime, the doctor is creating an Ouija board so that he can contact his long dead uncle Thaddeus!
In a séance setting, the doctor is trying to get serious but is being laughed at by the others, especially Will, who can't quit giggling.
So, the doctor takes Penny away from the non-believers, that way they can concentrate more properly. But when they hear spooky sounds and things start lifting into the air, they hightail it back to the ship.
Then an invisible force attacks the ship and tears up their equipment.
John and Don are out working near the bog and are suddenly attacked by that unknown invisible force, knocking them on their cans!
The two men finally get away from the monster and head back to the ship. There, they find the robot sporting a guitar. he had been playing at the doctor's séance while the two were gone!
John builds a cage to capture the monster, and later that night it happens. Okay, they have it in the cage, now what?!
Of course the thing finally breaks out, turns visible, and is back on the warpath. I swear, its feet are like two and a half feet long, wild!
Of course, Will sets out to do something at the bog and falls head first into a deep hole! Wowie, these sets are great!
Will has actually become invisible down in the bog. Yeah, the story's getting into that WTF zone. Anyway, the monster is now going after Dr. Smith, who is still looking to contact his uncle Thaddeus while wearing a monk's robe!! Again, WTF!!
Then this happens... I know, WTF!!
This event causes the monster to disappear into the void. Check out those feet! The guy playing the monster is Dawson Palmer, he was known as the resident monster on Lost In Space because of his huge frame. In 1972 he was driving home after work and died after hitting some heavy equipment in the shadows on the side of the road, he was only 36 years old. Another Hollywood tragedy.
Anyway, Will is now visible and everything is just fine. So, this episode had a FORBIDDEN PLANET angle, just not so cerebral. And, the very next episode had the real Robby The Robot in it!! Well, there you go, have a good week guys...
5 comments:
Some of the first season episodes of LiS are actually pretty watchable, including this Invisible Alien Bigfoot one.
In the beginning of the episode the ladies are making Season 2 uniforms. In fact, all or most crew members tend to "morph" into sea2 apparel in this one.
Dawson Palmer can be better seen as "Keel" in The Space Croppers.
Yes it sucks when good people die.
FX of cyclopean bigfoot monster are exactly like Forbidden Planet's
but giving an Ouija Board
to Dr. Smith is closer to The Exorcist.
Everybody: Get the blu-ray by hook or by crook.
The original LIS blu-ray transfer done in 2015 was of ^exceptionally^ high quality for video. A must for any video library.
Blu-ray + 19" LCD = cinema quality. I am serious.
Bigfoot Monster in all his Cyclopean glory here:
https://zoppy.blogspot.com/2019/09/lost-in-space-blu-ray-ghost-in-space.html
IMDB "goofs" section claims the monster has more then three toes.
It has 3 toes.
This is clearly evident in the blu-ray screenshots.
According to the book "Lost In Space: The Ultimate Unauthorized Trivia Challenge", after Don rescued John from the bog, it was originally scripted for the Major to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but CBS censors ordered the scene cut, believing that the viewing audience (mostly children) would be disturbed to see two men's mouths touching.
Best regards,
Paul from Oz (as in Sydney, Australia)
First season LIS was the best! Black and white cinematography ROCKS!
When the show went to color for the second and third years, the scripts went down the toilet with very few exceptions. Still, as a pre-teen in the 1960s, they were still well-made technically, generally fun, and had some really nice music scores like Blast Off into Space (Leith Stevens!) and Wild Adventure (Alexander Courage). The costumes took advantage of the color photography too, and the Space Pod (introduced in the Third Season) was a nicely designed craft.
When I was invited to visit Irwin Allen's offices at WB in 1980, I got to see and hold the smallest Space Pod miniature, about the same size as the Mobius toy and model kit. I offered to take the "real" miniature home to fix landing leg (broken by storage, apparently), but that suggestion of mine didn't go over too well, lol.
The terrific Lost in Space episode "My Friend Mr. Nobody" was the last video my wife and I got to watch together last year, only days before she died from a brain tumor. She loved that episode, as did I.
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