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Customer Review: A couple of average "Lost in Space" first season episodes
This would be the 7th volume in the "'Lost in Space' Collector's Edition," present a pair of rather average episodes from the show's first season. This was when the Jupiter II had landed on the alien planet Priplanus and had settled down into a routine of dealing with a new alien visitor each week. With this pair of episodes the common denominator is that the stranded astronauts stumble upon some of the locals of the alien world they now call home rather than having visitors actually pop by the camp. The other interesting thing is that while Will once again causes problems in the first episode, it is Penny who is responsible for the fun in the second. Judy must have been the good child by default. Episode 12, "The Raft" (Written by Peter Packer, First aired December 1, 1965), begins with the resolution of the previous episode's cliffhanger, when Will (Billy Mumy) sends up model rockets to try and contact Mission Control back on Earth. The rocket explodes and sends a fireball back towards the camp. The good news is that the fireball misses the camp. The bad news is that Professor Robinson (Guy Williams) discovers that Will has been using up all of the Jupiter II's reserve fuel for his little rockets. So they come up with a plan where Major West (Mark Goddard) is going to go up in a "raft" consisting of the ship's radiation chamber attached to a balloon. If you do not know what happens next then you have simply not been paying attention, because Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) programs the Robot to launch him instead. However, Will goes along for the ride and the next thing we know the raft has landed on what looks to be another planet with some unfriendly aliens. From "The Swiss Family Robinson" to "Gilligan's Island" to "Lost" a raft has been a good idea for trying to get rescued, but how this one is suppose to get back to Earth is beyond me. Too bad Professor Robinson did not figure out a better use for the fuel reserve before Will rocketed it away. An average "LIS" episode at best even though Dr. Smith actually seems to care about someone other than himself (to wit, Will) for the first time and we get to see the Jupiter II's engine area. Episode 13, "One of Our Dogs Is Missing" (Written by William Welch, First aired December 8, 1965), has the men out gallivanting about in the Space Chariot while the women folk tend to the Jupiter II and Dr. Smith is supposed to be in charge (What? You considered Smith to count as one of the "men" on this show?). Penny (Angela Cartwright) finds the wreckage of a small spaceship from Earth and a dog, which she brings back to the Jupiter II (NASA sent dogs to distant solar systems knowing they would never return? That cannot be right). Smith, always on the lookout for something to be paranoid about, is convinced the dog is an alien in disguise. This is an okay episode and my only real complaint is that if you thought the dog was missing before this episode then wait until afterwards because he is never seen from again. Did Penny overfeed him? Was he fresh meat for the space family Robinson? Answer these questions for yourself. Smith's xenophobia is interesting for the simple fact that it is almost always wrong. If he thinks an alien is friendly, they are not. If he thinks they are a danger, they are not. Yes, there are exceptions to this, but one thing that makes this episode rather representative of the series is that it shows how Dr. Smith is the driving character of "Lost in Space." That explains how this ends up being a situation comedy focusing on Dr. Smith, Will, and the Robot as the cosmic version of the Three Stooges.


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