Lost In Space, season one on DVD: Blog Review.

While Growing up during the 1960’s, television was a mainstay of entertainment. Sad, but true I’m afraid. TV sets were enormous back then, with heavy cabinets made of wood, huge speakers, and inside, lots of glowing tubes. The control knobs, (Yes kids, real control knobs!) seemed enormous to young eyes and hands, and you had to actually exert some effort to turn that big channel selector. Remote controls were still on the drawing boards, and in most cities, there were two or three VHF stations, and maybe two UHF stations, broadcasting in the evening. Kids loved it, and for parents, it meant that the kiddies would be out of their hair for awhile. Best of all, it didn’t cost a thing, at least until the kiddies spotted some silly toy they wanted badly, advertised on a program they were watching. But, that’s why it’s called “commercial television”, right?

One of my favorite television programs was “Lost in Space”. This science fiction series aired on CBS for three seasons, from 1965 to 1968. That first season it was on, it was filmed in black and white, and featured some serious science fiction stories, good special effects (given the technology at that time, and budget) and the entire show was placed in a typical American family setting, with some morality lessons worked in here and there. The remaining two seasons were filmed in color, (Very vivid color, with the psychedelic 1960’s going into high gear) and in short, they simply stunk, compared to that first great season. The producers “got goofy”, and our family of space heros were fighting space vikings, space motorcycle gangs, and all sorts of cartoonish weirdoes in rubber monster suits. Some have suggested that this was done so the show could compete with “Batman” which aired at the same time on another network. That may be true I guess. But for purists, the first season of Lost in Space is the only one that counts.

Fox Home Video has recently released this first season on DVD. Now, as a certified geek, I must say that I think DVD technology rocks! When I see a DVD of a movie or old TV show I enjoyed, I buy it, simple as that. So, when I spotted this series on DVD available at Best Buy, I headed on over and purchased it for myself. I am not disappointed. No, I am quite pleased with this DVD set. You receive eight disks, with four episodes per disk. The image quality is top notch, with excellent detail, and picture quality. The sound is mono, but enhanced with the wonder of Dolby Digital technology. Scene selection is well placed for each episode. Each disk is placed in a nicely made container, which opens up easily. The disks are one sided, with a cool graphic on the non-playing surface. There’s nothing remarkable about the slipcase. It does what it’s supposed to do, keep the disks together on your shelf, and protect them.
(This is the way the Outer Limits should have been packaged, when it was released on DVD. On those two DVD sets, the disks are double sided, and the packaging is rather difficult to deal with. You must be careful opening the box and handling the disks.) The only exception to the four episode per disk format is disk number eight. This disk contains the final episode of the first season, “Follow the Leader”, plus the bonus, the original pilot episode for the program, entitled “No place to hide”. This was the episode which sold the show, and contains footage from several of the first episodes, as they were originally filmed. True fans of the genre will recognize the music as being the stock music from “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. What makes this especially interesting, is the absence of the robot and Doctor Smith, the guy we all loved to hate. Nope, no Smith, no Robot, and not a single shot of the lower level of the Jupiter 2, called “Gemini 12” in this episode. If you are a fan of the show, you need to see this episode. It has been shown at a few science fiction conventions over the years, but that’s it. Disk eight also includes the presentation used by the network to sell the show to prospective sponsors. As one who follows marketing gimmicks, I got a kick out of this. All my other favorite episodes were there, including “Invaders from The 5th Dimension”, “Attack of the Monster Plants”, and the two part episode entitled “The Keeper”. Fans and critics consider “The Keeper” to be some of the best science fiction ever shown on TV, with the concept of a traveler from a very advanced race, who wanders the galaxy in an enormous spaceship, collecting species from every planet he visits. This episode stars the very talented Michael Rennie, who is truly great in the title role.

I have always heard that originally, Doctor Smith was supposed to be killed off after a few episodes, hence actor Jonathan Harris’ designation as “Special Guest Star”. The problem was that he became very popular with viewers, so scripts were quickly redone to include him in the story lines. If anyone has any information on this, drop me a line here, although I suspect I’ve heard most it already. I never liked what they did to the Smith character after the first season. In those first few episodes, Smith was a dangerous man. Did he kill that guard during the first five minutes of the first show or what? And holding a laser pistol to Major West’s head when he refused to turn the ship around? Clearly, this was one deadly doc, arrogant, and just plain nasty. I’ve also always wondered just who his employers were, who paid him to sabotage the ship. Hmmm. Did the producers sneak a political statement past the early 60’s television censors? Heh-heh.

One more thing I got a kick out of: Each episode ended with some kind of cliffhanger, where the picture froze, and the words “To be Continued Next week”
came across the screen. On this DVD set, that’s still there, just as I remember it.
On those episodes when the next week’s show was going to be preempted, the words, “Sorry, to be continued 2 weeks from tonight” came across the screen along with an off-screen announcer’s voice repeating it. Those episodes even have that tossed in, just for us fans who are now adults, and remember the anguish of waiting two entire weeks to see what happened.

Overall, I recommend this DVD set highly, to all fans of Lost in Space. And guys, admit it right now: You “had it” for Judy Robinson, (Actress Marta Kristen) didn’t you? Hey, it’s okay, everyone did.