Make Lost in Space good.

unclepatrick · Dec 11, 2012

How do you make Lost in Space a Good show?

The first thing that comes to mind is keeping the focus of the show on Guy William's Professor Robinson character and prevent the show from becoming Will, the Robot and Doctor Smith get in trouble each week.

Can we keep Doctor Smith a darker character that will to risk every life if it means he will Live?

Should the Focus of the Show be how can they survive?
Or Aliens of the Week?

Could the show get better writer?
Could it developed more realistic alien races?

Some one would have to take over from Irwin Alan as Producer. Who would do a good job? The only one that comes to mind is Gene Coon but then we are hurting Star Trek.

Emperor Norton I · Dec 11, 2012

It was a good show. If you had made this thread about the film, as I thought the title indicated, then I would agree and have some points to add, but the TV show was a popular show. It did go into total camp territory, but so did many shows of its era (the 60s purposely put seriousness on the back burner to have fun with media).

unclepatrick · Dec 11, 2012

Emperor Norton I said:
It was a good show. If you had made this thread about the film, as I thought the title indicated, then I would agree and have some points to add, but the TV show was a popular show. It did go into total camp territory, but so did many shows of its era (the 60s purposely put seriousness on the back burner to have fun with media).

I agree it was a popular show, and yes it went into total Camp, so how do we stop it from going total camp? Other shows at the time did better job balancing the fun and the seriousness. How do we do this for Lost in Space?

Why do you dislike The Movie so much? Most of the Problems with the story happen because it taking camp elements from the 1960's tv show. Still it was a enjoyable movie.

wietze · Dec 11, 2012

about the move...matt leblanc

uke: they should have picked a real actor for that

unclepatrick · Dec 11, 2012

wietze said:
about the move...matt leblanc uke: they should have picked a real actor for that

Agreed. Who would you have cast in his place?

Mike Stearns · Dec 11, 2012

unclepatrick said:
Some one would have to take over from Irwin Alan as Producer. Who would do a good job? The only one that comes to mind is Gene Coon but then we are hurting Star Trek.

Easy. Just have CBS make Star Trek instead of NBC. Gene Roddenberry pitched Trek to the CBS executives, but all they wanted was to pick his brain for ideas. There is a theory that the some of the senior CBS executives came to hate Lost in Space and intentionally killed it. Maybe they hear Gene's Star Trek pitch, are impressed and decide to go with that over LIS.

The Storyteller · Dec 11, 2012

If we're talking about making the film version better, the first thing I'd do would be to get someone other than Akiva Goldsman to write it - why they thought he was the right man for the job after Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, I have no idea.

Bee · Dec 11, 2012

TV version: let Dr. Smith have a limited story arc then eliminate him, which was the original intent.

unclepatrick · Dec 11, 2012

The Storyteller said:
If we're talking about making the film version better, the first thing I'd do would be to get someone other than Akiva Goldsman to write it - why they thought he was the right man for the job after Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, I have no idea.

He was one of the Producers on the Movie. And I heard that Batman Forever was a better movie before it was cut by the Studio. The other movies he scripted were the adaption of The Client and A Time to Kill. Both of those were watchable movies.

And as I mention before much of the script problems come from trying to copy the camp feel of the TV show.

Who would you have replaced him with?

unclepatrick · Dec 12, 2012

Bee said:
TV version: let Dr. Smith have a limited story arc then eliminate him, which was the original intent.

Do you have Dr Smith go Heroically or die a Coward? Or does he do something Evil like Hurt one of the Kids and we have Professor Robinson, kill him or exile him ?

ColeMercury · Dec 12, 2012

unclepatrick said:
He was one of the Producers on the Movie. And I heard that Batman Forever was a better movie before it was cut by the Studio. The other movies he scripted were the adaption of The Client and A Time to Kill. Both of those were watchable movies.

He also wrote A Beautiful Mind, for which (if I recall correctly) he won an Oscar. And he's written some of the best episodes of Fringe.

And you heard right about Batman Forever. That movie was hacked to death in editing.

JamesHunter · Dec 12, 2012

It's a good show, it just has an awful rep with serious science fiction fans as "Star Treks rival" and "The campy one." It's got the same problem as sixties Batman really, it's a damn good fun show, intended to entertain people one evening a week.

Problem is that at the time it was the sucessful one while Star Trek hovered near cancelation from day one, and then Star trek became popular later on and people started asking why this camp show was big and people were not watching star trek.

Of course actually they were, Trek was (for the time) a ceribral hard science fiction show with a small but dedicated fan base, while LOS was the light hearted bit of fun the family sat down to in the evening. In many ways it should be seen as a counterpart to things like Bewitched and I dream of Jeannie, a fun family fantasy show and compared to shows like that it holds up very well. With Star Trek comparisions it just suffers.

Batman of course is campy and probably did influence peoples idea of the Bat for a generation, on the other hand it is fun, Adam West is a great Batman, if not a batman of our time. Also it actually put the comics on the road that led to DKR and Year one, the '89 film and eventually the Nolan trilogy, since the comics went "back to basics" to distance themselves from it.

If LOS was judged solely on it's own merits it would be far more beloved. Ironicly Roddenbury actually pointed out the difference bettween the two shows, he was a philosopher, (and after TMP didn't we know it) Irvin Alian was just trying to tell a good story.

unclepatrick · Dec 12, 2012

JamesHunter said:
It's a good show, it just has an awful rep with serious science fiction fans as "Star Treks rival" and "The campy one." It's got the same problem as sixties Batman really, it's a damn good fun show, intended to entertain people one evening a week.

Problem is that at the time it was the sucessful one while Star Trek hovered near cancelation from day one, and then Star trek became popular later on and people started asking why this camp show was big and people were not watching star trek.

Of course actually they were, Trek was (for the time) a ceribral hard science fiction show with a small but dedicated fan base, while LOS was the light hearted bit of fun the family sat down to in the evening. In many ways it should be seen as a counterpart to things like Bewitched and I dream of Jeannie, a fun family fantasy show and compared to shows like that it holds up very well. With Star Trek comparisions it just suffers.

Batman of course is campy and probably did influence peoples idea of the Bat for a generation, on the other hand it is fun, Adam West is a great Batman, if not a batman of our time. Also it actually put the comics on the road that led to DKR and Year one, the '89 film and eventually the Nolan trilogy, since the comics went "back to basics" to distance themselves from it.

If LOS was judged solely on it's own merits it would be far more beloved. Ironicly Roddenbury actually pointed out the difference bettween the two shows, he was a philosopher, (and after TMP didn't we know it) Irvin Alian was just trying to tell a good story.

I should point out that I don't hate Lost in Space. I own all three seasons on DVD, as well as the rest of Irwin Allan's series. It just seem to me that Lost in Space does not hold up well. I not trying to get rid of the fun on the show, but can we mature the show a little and get some Good Writing on it as well as some good acting?

Even as a kid, I knew that Lost in Space was Silly. Same as Batman. But there is a feeling in the early episodes that the show wants to be something more. The early episodes have a feeling that it trying to be serious about how is this family going to survive on this hostile planet. But by mid season, it become the Will and The Robot and Doctor Smith are getting into Trouble again. How can we prevent that slide and keep the show a balance between the fun and the drama of how are they going to survive?

unclepatrick · Dec 12, 2012

So every one else seems to love the original Lost in Space, and Hate the Movie.

What do the think about the 2004 fox Pilot directed by John Woo?

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9BAC1754418A1CB9&feature=mh_lolz

Mike Stearns · Dec 12, 2012

unclepatrick said:
So every one else seems to love the original Lost in Space, and Hate the Movie.

What do the think about the 2004 fox Pilot directed by John Woo?

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9BAC1754418A1CB9&feature=mh_lolz

Fun fact: The Jupiter 2 sets got redressed....

As Pegasus.

unclepatrick · Dec 12, 2012

Mike Stearns said:
Fun fact: The Jupiter 2 sets got redressed....

As Pegasus.

Did not know that. Cool Fact

JamesHunter · Dec 13, 2012

Yeah RDM and co bought the sets after the pilot tanked, sat on them for a year then redressed then for pegasus, saved a ton of money, not to mention all the grief involved in redressing galacticas sets every episode.

Just Leo · Dec 13, 2012

I always thought that Lost in Space was like Lassie, with a robot playing the dog.

unclepatrick · Dec 13, 2012

Just Leo said:
I always thought that Lost in Space was like Lassie, with a robot playing the dog.

Robot: Danger Danger

Professor Robinson, what that Robot? Penny fell down a Well

Robot

anger Danger Danger

Professor Robinson: And Will took some from a Alien Leader that will result in a Intergalactic War that could Kill Millions

Dr Smith: Oh the Pain. the Pain.

(Well that Explain the scripts from season three)

Mikestone8 · Dec 13, 2012

unclepatrick said:
Robot: Danger Danger

Professor Robinson, what that Robot? Penny fell down a Well

Robotanger Danger Danger

Professor Robinson: And Will took some from a Alien Leader that will result in a Intergalactic War that could Kill Millions

Dr Smith: Oh the Pain. the Pain.

(Well that Explain the scripts from season three)

I think they could have done better than Zachary Smith.

In Britain, a few years before LiS, we had a series called Pathfinders in Space. This comprised three serials, shown in 1960 and 1961, involving visits to the Moon, Mars and Venus. The two latter featured a guy named Harcourt Brown, who in some respects anticipated Dr Smith. A UFO nutjob, he hijacks the fourth Moon rocket and takes it off round the Solar System. Yes I know, it's corny, and what passed for the special effects back then is excruciating to any modern viewer, but they made up for it by developing Brown's character as they went along. The Good Guys start off hating him, and with ample reason, but by the end he has become an almost sympathetic figure, and they part on quite good terms. Smith, by contrast, never rises above the comic-strip level, which is rather a shame.