Okay, I like to write. I like to watch TV and movies. I like to read...when it's worth reading. I'm told I can somehow, some day make money doing this. Here goes.
Currently watching the blu ray seasons of LOST IN SPACE and almost done with the last season, which is three.
THE HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE: At first glance this looks like a typical but above average LIS episode, however...well, first it has stock footage of a lion, stock of the fuel barge from WILD ADVENTURE, and a goofy alien boy AND goofy Colonel from Earth on a space "lighthouse". Really? Okay, at first glance...but there's more going on here beneath that. Sometimes, just sometimes, mind you, there's deeper meaning to an Irwin Allen episode (and probably all four of his main 60s series).
Here, there's some drama that goes on between...well, almost everyone. This being LIS, it's not explored all that much but...it is there. There's the loneliness factor, which gives this episode a string of melancholy throughout and not just the loneliness of J5 and the Colonel, on separate but converging plot strings but ...the loneliness of Penny. Not saying something sometimes conveys something more as in Penny's last scene as she says nothing to J5 at first. Did she forgive him? Then, she saves and says goodbye and boards the Jupiter last and closes the doors as it rises from the lighthouse, her look one of sadness as the music conveys both that and a sense of explorative, adventurous joy. Yes, the score is a new one for the most part and amazing from Joe Mullendore. There's also Will's jealousy over J5, which is barely explored and Smith's scene with the Zaybo (which just might be one the strangest scenes of the entire series...a kind of cat woman from Batman seduction of Smith?).
Guy Williams shows how he has comic timing in this episode and ALL his reactions are spot on. He was a very underrated performer and actor and I'm glad his contribution to LIS is not ignored in this day and age. He's great in this episode.
Of course there are the usual lapses in continuity and logic. The voice, like so much on the lighthouse was wrong...but Will confirms it is right. If travel to and from Earth is such as it seems (?), why can't they return to Earth and then launch an expedition to return J5 to his home? Why does J5 even want to return to a place he cannot remember? Does he remember anyone on the colony that...I guess...died? Why doesn't the Robot stop J5 from trying to steal the ship or Smith from holding Penny? It's implied that J5 did something to him as he did to Smith in a way but nothing more. The Robot does seem to be out of commission when J5 needs him to be.
Bill Mumy has a smaller part in this episode but that doesn't stop him from being very good here. His attacking when the lion attacks him is spot on. It made me afraid!
Not sure what Penny was doing under the table lighting a candle JUST before Will ran out and J5 came in. Certainly, maybe, due to J5's selfish attitude...maybe he waited a bit to torture him before letting him know she was all right? In any case, it is a strangely directed and orchestrated scene...and yet it works. Angela is superb in this episode and I am glad she was almost center stage here...wish she was more center stage more often. Her acting and all the acting here is good.
As for the casting of Lou Wagner as J5...not sure about it. I tend to go from thinking he was far too fey to thinking he was just right. I can't see how the under current of attraction between he and Penny could work with him being so...fey but it does work somehow...maybe because Penny seems to not notice the attraction or not respond to it at all until the very end of the episode.
So will the Colonel and J5 be all right all by themselves? Is the Zaybo gone for good? More logic lapses: if a relief ship from Earth were coming to the lighthouse (and if the Colonel was telling the truth about his retiring AND if he feels they can return J5 to his home planet eventually) A BIG WHAT? Why wouldn't the Jupiter contingent wait there ? Are they still LOST IN SPACE? Can they get to Earth any time they want? The whole being lost thing in this season is blurry...it seemed that they could find both Alpha Centauri AND Earth AT ANY TIME at times...and then at other times, they had to have a map, the fuel, a bearing, a familiar star, etc to get anywhere. What?
In any case, this episode can be enjoyed on more than one level. I certainly wouldn't call it a simple episode because it certainly touches on human emotion more than just showing us a monster or a lion...in fact, there isn't really a monster and the "action" relies more on the interplay between the characters.
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