Lost in Space - Sans Dr Smith

  • Thread starter Deleted member 9338
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Deleted member 9338

I have recently watched the pilot for Lost in Space. The original story looked to be more in line with an exploration story similar to Star Trek that was released the following year.

What if they continued with the original story line without Dr Smith. Does it replace Star Trek as the great space opera?
 

jahenders

Banned
I'm not sure that's the direction they were really heading, but it would have been nice had they gone that route.

As it was, Dr. Smith provided a foolish, grasping foil to get them involved with all kinds of entities, but the two younger kids provided lots of odd situations. Any time after the pilot, and they were likely headed in the direction of silliness (the equivalent of Ewoks, Jar Jar, etc.). And, of course, once you get to the point of Dr Smith turning into a giant carrot, there's simply no going back to respectability.

I have recently watched the pilot for Lost in Space. The original story looked to be more in line with an exploration story similar to Star Trek that was released the following year.

What if they continued with the original story line without Dr Smith. Does it replace Star Trek as the great space opera?
 
Even without Dr Smith the show was still set up as more of a family show with the children being main characters. I suppose they could have changed the focus of the show to the adults with the kids being secondary characters and then give the show a more serious feel.

Some of the Lost in Space episodes were pretty deep. I remember an episode with a guy who lived in an alternative universe accessed via mirrors, or an episode where the antagonist was from a warrior species and made his son fight Will. Those plots could have fit into the original Star Trek series.
 

Driftless

Donor
I remember the Space Family Robinson/Lost in Space comics that the series was derived from as being creative for the era - much better than the series. For me the series was a disappointment on two fronts: the special effects were really cheesy, and the Dr Smith character had far too big of a role.

Kill Dr Smith in the pilot and the series could head off into a better frontier.
 
I never understood why they put up with Dr Smith with all the troubles he caused them. At least on Gilligan's Island Gilligan always had good intentions and caused hi-jinks by accident. Dr Smith usually caused his problems out of greed.

After the second or third time Dr Smith almost got Professor Robinson's killed he should have left Dr Smith stranded on a planet somewhere.
 
Irwin Allen show. So basically, it's going to be budget driven and formulaic. Planets and sets cost money. So it is going to get static fast. The penchant for many of Allen's shows was to portray aliens by painting actors silver and giving them magical powers. I don't see the trajectory changing much.
 
I have recently watched the pilot for Lost in Space. The original story looked to be more in line with an exploration story similar to Star Trek that was released the following year.

That's because there's a theory that CBS let Gene Roddenberry pitch Star Trek just so they could pick his brain.
 

Driftless

Donor
Irwin Allen show. So basically, it's going to be budget driven and formulaic. Planets and sets cost money. So it is going to get static fast. The penchant for many of Allen's shows was to portray aliens by painting actors silver and giving them magical powers. I don't see the trajectory changing much.

That, I think, describes the problem in a nutshell. Jeebezus, those Lost in Space sets & aliens looked like something from a small town high school play.
 
Even without Dr Smith the show was still set up as more of a family show with the children being main characters. I suppose they could have changed the focus of the show to the adults with the kids being secondary characters and then give the show a more serious feel.

Some of the Lost in Space episodes were pretty deep. I remember an episode with a guy who lived in an alternative universe accessed via mirrors, or an episode where the antagonist was from a warrior species and made his son fight Will. Those plots could have fit into the original Star Trek series.

In "The Magic Mirror" Michael Pollard plays a boy who doesn't want to grow up. In the Star Trek episode "Miri" Michael Pollard plays a boy who doesn't want to grow up.

In "The Challenge" the son of the warrior chief was played by a young Kurt Russell.

Most of the better Lost in Space episodes were in the first season. Irwin Allen had a tendency to dumb down his shows over time. The first season of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was on the whole pretty good but after that it turned sillier and sillier.
 
I have recently watched the pilot for Lost in Space. The original story looked to be more in line with an exploration story similar to Star Trek that was released the following year.

What if they continued with the original story line without Dr Smith. Does it replace Star Trek as the great space opera?

Dr. Smith does something bad. Will Robinson points his finger at him and says, "You're a bad man. A very bad man." and the evil Smith turns into a jack-in-the-box.
 

Driftless

Donor
All drama requires conflict. Without Dr. Smith, where does the conflict come from?

In the case of Lost in Space; changing planets, changing aliens, conflict within a small group bound together. It would take a bigger budget and more imagination than Irwin Allen was willing to put into the project. There was a pretty good playbook to use as source material - stories from the comics series.
 

Deleted member 9338

I remember the Space Family Robinson/Lost in Space comics that the series was derived from as being creative for the era - much better than the series. For me the series was a disappointment on two fronts: the special effects were really cheesy, and the Dr Smith character had far too big of a role.

Kill Dr Smith in the pilot and the series could head off into a better frontier.

I think the Major was planning for an airlock accident in the first episode. No big loss.

As for chessey special effects I liked the tin foil metros in the pilot and first episode.
 

Vahktang

Donor
Budgets were so tight on the shows that a normal sized alien on Lost in Space one week would be a giant alien the next week on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Then vice versa the week after.
And Lost in Space was based on Swiss Family Robinson. Any comics came out after the series.
 
Budgets were so tight on the shows that a normal sized alien on Lost in Space one week would be a giant alien the next week on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Then vice versa the week after.
And Lost in Space was based on Swiss Family Robinson. Any comics came out after the series.

Stock footage was reused constantly. Irwin Allen had what, four sci fi adventure series going on around this time - Lost In Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants and Time Tunnel.
 
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