LOST IN SPACE-COLLISION OF PLANETS and SPACE CREATURE 2016 review and the 1990s synopsis

LOST IN SPACE-COLLISION OF PLANETS and SPACE CREATURE  2016 review and the 1990s synopsis

 

 

 

COLLISION OF PLANETS: despite the silly aliens and the silly parody of Samson, the rest if played completely...dangerous. Guy Williams and the others all make it seem real...they are all going to die and soon. Dan Travanty of Hill Street Blues (much later on and of which I am NOT a fan) is unrecognizable as the alien leader of the gang, forced to show they have some merit as useful citizens by blo...wing up the planet Chroma...the planet the Robinsons are currently on (and possibly the same planet they crashed on in FLIGHT INTO THE FUTURE?).

I saw one problem: the aliens seem impervious to lasers and super strong themselves...then how did Smith, even in super strong strength mode knock the biggest of them down (and the shortest)? Also, why then does the leader (the only one named in the script but NOT in the episode...none seem named in the episode as aired) Ilan so easily defeat super strong Smith (the gas was disapating?) and later, get so easily beat by John, who was NOT affected by any alien gas. What is that gas anyway? The stuff sent was supposed to be for drilling? The liquid must have spilled out of one of the cans when the Robot blasted the box. Also: The aliens leave the box in the cave when they go to drill ? Did they already take some out of it?

When John escapes the blasting hole, we see a red piece of paper at the hole, part of the effects of the blasting? The timing of the repairs seems off too. John seems to think it will take five days or more and then they are ready in hours.

I've already mentioned the whole Pod thing where John says it's smart to go back to the ship and start repairs and just after that, he and Don land the Pod, which is supposed to be 20 miles away, near the alien motorcylists!

I've also mentioned the scene where Will is explaining to Smith what happened to him and it seems to jump from that explanation to the green haired Smith claiming he was just taking a nap. I'm almost 100 percent sure there was more dialog there.

In any case, possibly the first goofy ep of the third season which gets on track again with Space Creature but see below...

SPACE CREATURE is a very good episode but...there's a lot of things wrong with it.

First, John asks Will where "Mom" was when she vanished and Will said he saw her at the machine in the galley...oh NO! He didn't. He saw Penny vanish there. WE saw Maureen vanish and Will was in his cabin when that happened. Penny vanished almost in front of Will at the dish washer but she didn't see it. She DID tell Will that Maureen vanished while at that machine.

Second, something seems off about the timing of this episode. It seems as if it is night and Smith is asleep. Will has his encounter with the monster/ID/whatever it is. Then, it is morning and Maureen asks Penny to go wake up Dr. Smith, Penny herself just arriving after the night...so it is a morning mode and Penny, Judy and Maureen themselves must have gone to sleep between the earlier scenes and these...but then Maureen vanishes and when Will DOES leave his cabin (and it has already been established that is is morning), he tells Judy that something JUST happened to him...the voice that he heard that seemed to be happening last night. There are also other timing things.

Another thing that seems odd is that Penny and Smith, in a very early scene, listen to Maureen call back to John when she is in the galley and not far from where they are but they don't really hear her in the galley. It is as if she is far away in another room????

Then, Smith vanishes but we do not see that. John and Will claim that the mist did not appear at the viewport...but it did. Perhaps they didn't see that and the Robot did see that.

Next, when the Robot vanishes, we see the ice pack vanish, too. Yet, Will finds it on the floor.

THEN, when John and Don appear, John assumes Will reversed the polarity of one of the machines. WE never see him do that. It is possible he did it during a scene that we were watching the others on the planet and during an unseen scene!

Also: Robot tells Will that the Smith he has seen and that is chasing him is an imposter and that Smith is still in the other dimension. This is incorrect as the Smith we saw felt himself start to vanish and that the chasing Smith later comes out of it...he was just being possessed (although that word is never used). It was the real Smith, only taken over by the force.

What was the force? Will's own creation? Something from the planet? Something of a combination of both?

John AND Robot already confirm the planet is lethal to humans...methane. Yet later, when Don attempts to fly to the planet (for what? did they think the others were on the planet itself and if so, how would they survive? Were they on the planet itself? We never really know--- only that they were in another dimension!?), John tells him to turn back if the atmosphere turns out to be lethal to humans!!! What?

And what of the power core? The signs read DANGER! RADIATION! So how come it is safe to go in there? If it is dangerous, why are the rooms used as storage?

What machine was Smith operating when he vanished?

And oddest of all, when Will and John discuss that the Jupiter 2 is descending slowly, the viewport panels on the far right and the far left look as if...they are shaded versions. It's not the shields as those look different. The middle window is clear as usual but the two sides ones...are darker for some reason and we can barely see space and the stars beyond. The middle one, we can!

John tells Penny to leave cups of coffee over the controls of the viewport when the ship is shaking at brief moments.

The ceiling of the control room leads directly to the roof of the Jupiter's hull?

The Robot doesn't know ancient history?

When evil Smith deactivates the Robot, one arm stays in his socket but when Don and John reappear, both arms are out.

On the plus side, this ep is actually very creepy. Having the family vanish one by one is unnerving and having them stuck around a gaseous planet makes for a change as well. Mumy acts up a storm in almost every scene, especially when he searches the power core and when he is completely alone and when the Robot and John vanish almost as the same time.

AND having Smith as an evil murdering villain who has no compunction about killing and in such forceful scenes is amazing. He actually seemed formidable and two years of his paling around with Will were almost forgotten as it really seemed that he wanted to choke the boy to death...and almost did. I wish the creature wasn't just a guy with a sheet over him though but that makes it even more of a strange episode.

The other dimension is blue and indeed, all the color in this episode borders on glowingly beautiful.

The premise is a strong one all round and this is still, despite all the flaws, obvious ones and non obvious ones, one of my favorite episodes.

 

 

 

COLLISION OF PLANETS 

Writer: Peter Packer

Dir: Don Richardson

Music:

 

TEASER

A deep male voice tells four misfit hippie aliens that their destination is the planet Chroma and that within one of their diurnal rotations they must stop the irregular flight path which has presently sent it on a collision course with their own home planet, "Therefore, it must be destroyed quickly and efficiently."  A small colony of Earthlings are there and they will be warned; the alien hippies will have demolition equipment space dropped to the planet. The hippies are a useless burden and have been for far too long and they should mount their vehicles if they wish to live, the voice tells them. They are doing this to prove they are useful citizens. They jump onto two space cycles and vanish in smoke. There was also smoke coming from pots in the alien city. The hippies are: Ilan, the leader, scruffy, muscled, taller, helmeted like the other two men and unshaven, long hair; his girlfriend, a long haired blond who is always laughing or giggling, talking in a lazy voice; a shorter crony and a taller, heavier set crony. On the Robinson's planet--Chroma--the Robot is singing Row Row Row Row Your Boat as it is dark but thunder and lightning hit, "Danger! Danger!" There is lightning and thunder as an electrical storm of catastrophic proportions is coming. Don and John come to Robot. Don thinks they should ground their systems. Robot admits to them he is a little late with his forecasting. A burst and it is full day at nine in the evening. Robot has yellow on his head piece. Wind rises at 50 miles per hour and increases. The temperature falls to 35 Fahrenheit and keeps falling. Robot is told to stay outside and keep them posted on the weather. Another day: Smith, Judy, Penny, Will, and the Robot are outside working on the forcefield. Smith feels abdominal stress. Will tells him it is abdominal flab. Smith says, "William, mind your manners and you'll keep your friends."  Robot says, "Warning! Warning!"  He tells them they will be subject to severe heat lightning. In the ship, Don is at the astrogater with a new device. John and Maureen are near the control room console. Don tests power, "Power on!"  A large blast hits the console near John and Maureen!

 

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ACT ONE

Freeze frame. There is smoke and fire. John and Don put it out. They hear a deep male alien voice warning, "All inhabitants of the planet Chroma, inhabitants of the planet Chroma, evacuate the planet at once." Outside, the others hear it from above them (and the camera angle is from above). Smith grabs Will to him when they hear the voice. Maureen hold a clipboard inside the control room. She wonders who's voice was that, "John, who's voice was that?"  John tells her he doesn't know but whoever it was, he picked a fine time to warn them: fuel zero, propulsion unit out. Later that day: booster regular is shot; solonoids, retro rockets, fuel cells and backup systems are out. Smith and Will are in the control room now, with John, Don, and Maureen. They will have to work day and night; Smith is to work at the drillsite--with a quota of 12 cans of fuel daily, Don tells him. John corrects it--15. Don smiles and tells Smith 15 is his quota. On radar they see there are visitors about 20 miles north. They shake. John looks at the seismograph--it was a detonation--meaning perhaps the aliens whose warning they couldn't heed--are trying to blast them off the planet. Smith thinks they should call these aliens--it is inhumane for the aliens to blast them off. John tells him they will do better than calling them. He and Don go to the Space Pod as Will brings equipment from outside to inside the Jupiter II. John tells a worried Maureen, they will be back in about one hour. Don and John take off in the Space Pod as Maureen and Smith move off from the smoke of the take off. They make a one mile radius and fly the Pod downward toward that area. Will and Smith are away from the Jupiter. Smith has to sit--he is tired; Will is also. Smith wants the picnic basket. Something is floating in the sky above. Smith suggests it is supplies off course since it is not headed for the Jupiter. Smith says, "Earth has finally located us and sent a message of hope."  Will comments there is no Earth insignia on the parachutes and the box that lands is a one piece box, enclosed with no lid. Smith doesn't think there is any need to hurry in giving it to its rightful owners. Robot laughs. Smith calls him a garlumping gargoyle. Smith professes to doing a good deed. Robot asks, "For whom?"  Smith tells him to hold his tongue. The box is very heavy and cannot be lifted. Smith will force Robot to open the container but Robot warns--his sensors indicate rare and priceless contents valuable to alien owners but harmful to terrestrials. Smith insists Robot blast it. He does and when Smith looks inside a small hole, a green gas smokes out at his face and makes him fall behind a rock (we see it is a stunt man and not Jonathan Harris). Will finds Smith out cold with no pulse. Robot suggests he is dead but Will yells that it is just shock. Robot tells Will they must face the truth. Will stares, "It happened...it happened so quickly."  Will tries to call dad. It gets dark all of a sudden and he cannot get Dad on the radio. Robot thinks it is this erratic planet acting up. The motion of the planet has inhibited communications. Will is mad that Dr. Smith had to be so curious, "Why couldn't he have waited!"  Robot talks of digging a six foot hole. Will insists it is just shock, "He'll come out of it."  Will wants to be practical about this as Robot suggests. Don and John fly in the Pod but decide to turn it around. It passes trees. They hear sounds of blasting and land amid trees. They get out and find a hole, perhaps for blasting. John yells, "Get clear!"  A blast heads their way and explodes at the former hole. The two run. Don puffs out that they could have warned them first. John tells him they did, remember. Don says, "Allright but it still doesn't give them the right to kill us off."  John and Don meet the hippies. The girl touches Don's body and face, his hair. The hippies surround him. John tries to explain to them about their ship. The leader makes fun, "Aw, his ship needs repairs. All brokey ship." He tells John that this planet must have total destruction in a time pulse of one direnal rotation. One of the aliens has a knife tattoo on his shoulder. John needs six to seven days of repairs on the Jupiter II. They only have a half day. Don grabs the leader and the leader makes fun that Don hurt his shoulder. The girl goes to Don, "Why don't you try to be nice."  Don pushes her, "Cut it out!"  The leader grabs Don and tells him to talk nice when she talks to him or he could be hurt very bad. John tells them to get in touch with their planet---they will give them time to leave--they have women and children with them. The aliens make fun of this, repeating women and children, little ittsy bitsy children, women and children. John is stunned, saying things like, "How could they have sent you? What kind of people are you anyway?" The leader Ilan tells the girl to tell "the little master"---so she does. Ilan protests over John's protests, "This planet must be destroyed!"  John grabs him, telling him it is murder and he won't let him get away with it. The big one moves at him but Ilan touches his pendant around his neck and the motorcycles and the four aliens vanish. John tells Don if they crack the core of this planet, "...we're though..."  He thinks they might be able to work up enough thrust. Don doubts it in one half of one of their diurnal rotations. John says, "We've got to try, c'mon!"

 

ACT TWO

Night: Will sits, thinking about Dr. Smith, "Dr. Smith was always a worry wart but deep down inside he was just as human as the rest of us. I don't know what we're gonna do without him, Robot. I, I miss him."  Robot tells Will he feels likewise. Dr. Smith may have had his failings but he was one of tireless scientific curiosity who searched for the satisfying the inner craving for true discoveries--he was an inspiration and will always be remembered. It then turns to full day. Smith gets up with large muscles, alive, and sour apple green hair! He has a deep voice now and calls Robot a bumptious booby. Robot will store Smith's obituary for future use. Smith thinks he just napped. He taps the Robot and Will and they both go flying, Will falling, Robot sliding back. Will falls over a rock. Smith is rough now and his voice amplified. Smith asks them if they have taken leave of their senses. He goes to the alien box; Will warns him about it. Smith wants to take it to the Jupiter. The weight is 515 pounds---too much for the Robot to lift. Smith picks up and moves the Robot by his bubble and marches off--carrying the container himself over one shoulder! Will tells him they must meet their fuel quota. Smith blows a boulder out of their path. The gas has given him the strength of ten or twenty men. At the Jupiter, Smith puts the container down, shaking Judy and Don. Smith says something about no bless no blige or no less no blige. Judy comments on Smith's hair and shows him it in a mirror. It seems to be dyed green. Smith won't accept it. Don asks about the fuel when he can't move the container at all. Will warns Don not to mess around with Dr. Smith. Smith asks Don to remove himself but when Don doesn't, Smith hits Don and he goes flying, falling. Judy helps Don up, "Dr. Smith!"  Maureen and John arrive and Will tells them what happened, "..and well look at him."  John says, "Yes, I'm looking..."  Smith calls Will's story, stuff and nonsense. He picks up the alien container to which John tells him to put it down. Smith tells John, "I'm not a man to be trifled with."  John tells Smith to put the container down. Smith listens and puts it down for the sake of harmony. Everyone shakes as he puts it down. He goes inside, "Adou all."     

 

The hippies find the parachute but not the box. This was to be the last of the demolition equipment and explosives. The girl can't find the box as the men express joy, whee, girl yawns, one rubs his nose. She moves the chute. One comment about the girl is, "Great. If she's started thinking we're really in trouble."  They wonder if it has anything to do with the two who wouldn't talk pretty. They go to get them. They get on their cycles, Ilan saying and asking, "Cmon, you wanna walk?"  

 

Smith moves to the Robot, telling him that the Robot having to guard him is nonsense. Smith calls him a pretentious popajay. Robot will not let Dr. Smith out of his sight especially with the box, "...only over my deactivated body."  Smith wants to make a detailed analysis of the contents of the box. Smith calls Robot a silent sentinel. Smith picks up the box and goes. Robot asks himself, "Why am I afraid of him?" 

 

Smith puts the box down away from the Jupiter II. He goes to get the tool kit. The motorcycles appear in a blast, making strong Smith scream. The leader sees him, "A very pretty sight."  One of the others thinks, "He must be the father."   They call him old master. Smith bends a ray gun and shoos and scats the two cronies. He knocks them down. The girl in her red boots, ear rings smiles at him and tempts him. Ilan grabs Smith's hand and tosses him, "From now on, stick to the job of repairing your ship."  He takes the box and the aliens vanish on the motorcycle, the girl laughing. Smith is back to normal, no green hair, no muscles and short wispy hair, not thick and overcurly. Smith realizes his strength is gone, "Oh dear."  He gets back up and has dirt on his buttox.

 

ACT THREE

Smith runs back to camp, "Aback and alas."  Maureen and Penny are in the garden. Don and John return. Robot listens. Don asks who took the container and they all come to the same conclusion, "Same old Smith, same old monkey business."  They will take off in one hour if they have the fuel. In one hour, all stowage but be aboard. Maureen says, "Well, it'll have to be enough."  Penny goes to Smith, "Don't take it so hard Dr. Smith, we like you just the way you are now."   Robot says, "Affirmative."   Penny tells him he can't miss his 12 inch chest expansion that he is complaining about not having since he only just got it. He quotes something, talking about missing love although he's known it only briefly. Robot thinks vigorous exercise might bring back his hair and strength, not to mention rigorous exercise might also bring it back. Smith wants to imitate the actions of the tiger and make amends for his "larcenist appropriation of the box by getting it back."  He does toe touches. Smith runs in place and does deep breathing. Penny leaves them and goes inside the spaceship. Smith gasps, "The pain the pain."  Later, Will comes outside to find Smith with the green hair and muscles again. Robot claims intermittent residue of the gas in Smith's system is causing this--combined with the exercises. Smith says, deep voiced, "Never fear Smith is here! Smith the Mighty. The Strongest Man in the World."   Will tells the Robot to lead them. Smith puts his hand on Will's shoulder and makes Will fall down, "Sorry William."  Will says, "That's all right."  Smith will imitate the actions of the tiger---which Will tells him to, "...like you're always saying."  If they get the box, they might be able to delay the planet's destruction.

 

We hear some good music, all new. John finds the motorcycles and calls Don via walkie talkie. Don tells him he has the first bottle of fuel. John thinks maybe the hippies will listen to a man if he is alone and unarmed. He leaves his gun behind a rock.

 

The girl plays a guitar while the big goon drills a hole with a sonic drill. The little one is drilling also. He has on a short cut outfit top. The holes are deep enough; the leader checks it and opens the box. The other three run back. The leader Ilan laughs. The girl says, "Hahaha very funny."   He will pour the liquid from a canister into the hole. John appears and they call him little master. He asks for one more hour. The leader tells him their Controller is brutal. John pushes Ilan to his back. Ilan gets up and throws the liquid at John bit by bit, telling his men, "Hold it, he's mine."  They fight. John kicks and hits the alien leader but is flipped. John kicks the leader off of him and gets up and punches the alien. Just as John wins, the big one hits John on the back and knocks him down and out. The leader gets up, helped by the others. He is angry, "I'm all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

right! I'm all right!"  He pours the liquid into the hole and he and his three co-horts leave. Green smoke shoots up out of the hole near John. John gets up and staggers away after getting his fallen radio. The hole blasts upward.  NOTE: the music during John's fight is particularly stirring and very good, a variation of LOST IN SPACE music but all new!

 

Smith, Will, and Robot go to a cave. Smith asks, "Are you sure they are skulking around in there?"   When Robot tells him yes, Smith says he will rend them limb from limb for the demo box. The girl comes out and cons Smith whose voice she claims really turns her on. Smith calls himself Smith the Mighty. The girl puts her beads around his neck, "Stand aside, William."  Smith goes into the cave with the girl. Commenting on how strange Dr. Smith is and that Dr. Smith has a weak head, Will says, "Even I could see that that girl was just putting him on."  Robot thinks discretion is the better part of valor. Will says, "Well, I just don't wanna see him get mixed up with that girl."  Inside, Smith's hair is cut off by the girl and he is chained up and Will is grabbed as well, and called very little master and chained up too. Robot is chained also. The alien leader tells them they may take Will with them when they go---he can grow up to be useful a citizen like they did. The leader opens the box with his pendant and takes two cans out. The box closes and the aliens leave, the girl waving to Smith and giggling. Smith worries about the box. Will says, "Forget about the box, Dr. Smith, what're we gonna do?"   Smith says, "Say our prayers, I'm afraid."

 

ACT FOUR

Judy calls Will via radio from the control room of Jupiter II. Maureen mentions Smith's normal devitalized state but Penny lets her know that the robot made Smith exercise. John tells Maureen that the blastings are too close to the planet's core. He asks Maureen if she remembers everything about emergency lift off procedures. Maureen tells him she reviews it constantly and asks why. He wants the girls and she to get the ship ready for go and tells them that while Don and he are out, they may have lift off without them. Judy gasps, "Dad, we can't!"  John tells her that they will keep in touch by radio and he hopes it won't come to that but if he gives the order to lift off that is exactly what they will do!

 

In the cave, Smith wants Will to get the aliens to take him along as well since the alien leader wants Will taken with them. Will says, "He didn't mean it."  Smith wants to survive but Will doesn't want to go with the aliens even if they meant it when they told him they would take him along. Robot tells Smith to exercise. There are statues and dummies in the back of the cave. Smith exercises and his hair comes back and his muscles arrive again. Robot thinks the fumes are trapped in Smith's lungs. The cave shakes from quakes caused by the blasting. Will and Robot worry about being buried alive. Smith releases them and urges them---before himself. Smith gets the box and runs out just as the cave collapses.

 

John and Don find the last spot the demo team were in last. John calls Will but gets no answer. Don tells John, "One of us should get back to the Jupiter and you should your family is back there."  John has to keep looking for Will and demands it be Don who goes back, making it an order. He tells Don to lift off in 15 minutes, whether he gives the order to or not.

 

A concussion in the cave has affected the Robot's linear sensors, making it difficult to find the way back, "Warning! Warning! I have reason to believe that we are being pursued."  Smith drops the box, it feeling heavy again. He is back to normal Smith again. He tries deep breathing again but it is no use--this well has been visited too much. Will can't budge the box. The cycles appear and the leader goes to the box. The other two male aliens come with drills, "Get outta da way, kid."  Smith grabs Will out of the way and holds him infront of him. John shows up and the girl touches John's hair, laughing and flirting. John asks them again to give them time. WE HEAR WESTERN "CHALLENGE" OR "DRAW" MUSIC. The leader tells John, "Oh, well, it's not our planet, we're just destroyin it."  John tells them, "To you death's a big joke, isn't it?"   The leader answers, shrugging, "We like it."  Telling Smith to get Will out of the way, John pulls a gun. The alien leader tells him that he should know by now that he can't hurt them with that, "He's too much that one,"  the leader turns to the other aliens and scoffs. John blasts the cycles into explosions. The aliens moan and complain and the short one throws some dirt on the cycles to put out the fires. John rubs it in that they have a week's repair job ahead of them and tells the leader to go ahead and give that last order to drill those last two holes, "Well, how does it feel, big master? To be standing on a planet that's doomed to destruction with no way of getting off?"  The leader sits down on a rock, defeated. John tells them if they need help to give a holler but that he and his family will be leaving in one hour, "Smith, Will, let's go."  The girl laughs as John and Will leave. Smith follows, waving a hand, "Bah!"  The girl laughs some more.

 

The Jupiter II is careening off into space, off the planet Chroma. Will looks through the scope and sees the planet blow up and catch fire, then go out. Will wonders if those aliens got off in time. John thinks with those spare parts they must have; Maureen hopes this taught the alien hippies a lesson. Don gets something on the radio monitor and blips at six o'clock on the radar. The cycles pass by, the girl laughing and saying, "Get that heap off the road, little masters."  This passing shakes the ship a bit. Don throws his clipboard down, "Are you gonna let them get away with that?!"  John remains calm and dignified and picks up the clipboard and hands it to Don, telling him that they can't afford to waste the fuel. Robot comments, "It just goes to show that there is nothing you can do with a really dedicated misfit."         

 

"Next week a mysterious force descends on each member of the Space Family Robinson!"  "Next week outer space suspense in the LOST IN SPACE episode entitled SPACE CREATURE here on this channel!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPACE CREATURE

Writer: William Welch

Dir: Sobey Martin

 

TEASER

Jupiter II flies in space to DERELICT music. Don and John in the control room hit the retros with a ten second burst on the primaries. They are both in their silver space suits. Smith gets out of bed and yells, "Abandon ship!"  He tells Penny who opens his door that they have hit a meteor and are hurtling towards their doom. He wants to get her to the Space Pod, "Women and children first"  his code of honor. They hear the intercom as John tells Maureen they are entering the orbit of a planet. Smith tries to tell Penny it was just a realistic lifeboat drill, "I try to conduct a realistic lifeboat drill and what cooperation do I get--none."  Maureen is in the galley finishing her dinner, alone. She and John talk about Will who is being too lax in his studies of late. They shake as the retros fire. Will, in his cabin, tells the Robot he is in coventry. Robot says, "That does not compute."   Will lays down, telling Robot just because he flunked some dopey history test. Robot tells him history--the first nuclear chain reaction was on December 2, 1942, detailing Arthur Comptent and Enrico Fermi as the men who were there. Will tells him that the history they mean is the Romans and the Phoenicians and the Greeks. Robot tells him, "That does not compute. Are these facts set down in a book?"   Will tells him they are on 5000 pages which comes to one million two hundred and twenty six thousand four hundred and seventeen words as Robot computes that. Robot can commit it to memory in 14 and three fourths seconds. He will then teach it to Will. He will go to submit this proposal to his father at once. John and Don secure retros in orbit. Robot comes and John asks for info on that planet. Robot tells him: 1.7 mass to Earth's mass; atmosphere consists of methane gas, insufficient data to detect life forms, methane is instantly fatal to humans. A cloud comes over the viewport! 50 percent of the planet's atmosphere consists of a living organism, a highly dangerous, evil, and hungry one---but not hungry for food. Suddenly they freeze in time and the light dims, a whistling sound hits, and they do not see a giant clawed hand, large, bumpy, and green descend from the top of the viewport!

 

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ACT ONE

The door opens and the gas comes inside! The lights come back on and they move again after the door shuts. They try to leave orbit. Will lays down, thinking, "Dad won't listen to the Robot."  A blue mist comes over the room from under the door. A voice calls and cares how he feels. Smith hears this voice also and thinks it is talking to him--it is. "You are unhappy on this ship."  Smith would like to leave it, feeling bossed around, "I almost wish they would all disappear."  The voice tells Will, as blue mist washes over him, that he can wish for anything he wants. Will says, "All I want is to be left alone."   Smith vanishes in his nightgown and appears in a dark place with toy soldiers, a giant doll chair, a tea cup and a baby chair. We hear HADES music. There are also giant blocks. The voice tells Smith, "You hate all of them."  Smith says, "No. No, I don't."  He sits on the big chair. He vanishes back to the spaceship, "I'm doomed, doomed, oh dear, what's to become of me."  He lays back down.

 

Penny in the morning jumps out to the table in the galley to help. She was supposed to help with breakfast but now, can bring coffee up to her dad, Mom tells her. Judy is with Mom. Maureen tells Penny, "And then would you please go and wake up Dr. Smith and ask him to come into the galley---it's high time he started doing his own share of the work around here."  Judy gets the cups. Maureen goes to the dish washer and when Judy and Penny aren't looking, she turns it on but vanishes into thing air! Judy and Penny turn around to talk to her but find she is missing. Judy will go look for her in the cabin. Penny brings the coffee up. The music is tense and from MY FRIEND, MR. NOBODY.

 

The Jupiter II flies in space around the planet.

 

John tells Penny to set down the coffee above the controls!!! Huh? Penny tells John about Mom, "Dad, we can't find Mom."  John asks more and then tries to call Maureen but gets no answer. Judy answers his call from the cabin--she is not there. The stabilizers shake the ship a bit. John calls Judy to come up to the flight deck. She hangs up and starts up in the elevator. Will comes out and rushes to her from his cabin, wanting to talk to her, having to tell her something weird that just happened. Judy urgently tells him, "Wake up Dr. Smith and tell him to get dressed at once, we can't find Mom!"  Will is taken back, literally, "What do you mean we can't find Mom?!"  Judy answers--and it sounds dubbed here, "I don't have time to explain now."  Judy rides the glide tube up. The control room shakes again--the stabilizers. Penny greets the glide tube elevator--she isn't on it. Penny tells John. John calls back to her, aggravated, "Isn't on what?"  Penny calls Judy but Will answers, telling her that Judy just rode up and should be with them right now in the control room, "What's wrong with everyone all of a sudden?"   Smith calls Will, opening his door and asking what this rawkus braying is about. Will says, "Well, mom's disappeared and now Judy's gone too."  Smith says they cannot get off, "After all this isn't a bus..."    John calls Will and tells him to search the lower deck including the power core. Will reacts strongly, "Dad we were all told never to go in there!"  The stabilizers need attention again. John tells him to do it--this is an emergency. Will tells him they will find the two. Will goes to Smith, "We're going to search the power core."  Smith says, "We indeed!"  Smith tells Will he is proud of him, "I salute your courage."  Will says, "Oh, you're coming with me---"  and gulps and adds, "Aren't you?"   Smith tells him from the depths of Ghenna to the steps of the throne, he travels fastest who travels alone."  Smith claims it is Shakespeare but Will corrects him, "It's Kipling and you're just scared!"  Will goes in, calling for Mom and Judy. He passes crates and survival gear, a pole. He goes to the Power Core secondary door and down a ladder to the circular bottom room lined with computer banks and a large circular hole down into the main core. He calls. He then climbs up and closes the secondary room door (a Seaview door hatch knob wheel). "Phew."  He goes out and shuts the door to the lower deck. Will finds Smith's door shut. He goes to call him. The Jupiter II flies in space.

 

Robot and Don are at the viewport but the ship shakes. Robot says, "An object of great weight is walking on our outer hull."  Penny tells Dad she is scared. John holds her and hugs her close to him. The object attempts to break through the hull, banging.

 

ACT TWO                   

The banging stops and the fog gone. John thinks there is a connection. Robot tells them it is fear--hungry for fear for it feeds on fear and hatred. John asks him if he is afraid and he tells them he is. Don looks around, "Smith's mixed up in this, I'll bet my life on it. Let's get him up here and get the truth out of his miserable hide."  John wants to search the upper deck instead. Robot feels there will be more disappearances, "I can feel it in my sensors."  John just makes a face and rolls his eyes. Penny asks Will how it was to search the power core. Will tells her, "Scary, oh, at least for girls."   The fog comes back over the viewport on the upper deck. Don at the viewport, calls back, "Here we go again!"   Penny knocks on Dr. Smith's door, telling him to get out here and help. Penny goes to the galley, the last place she saw Mom. When she touches the dish washer device, she vanishes but Will doesn't see her vanish. Will tells Smith who comes out with an icepack on his head, "Oh dear, what have I done?"  Will looks at him, "What HAVE you done?" Smith tells him they must not be alone not for an instant, "Who knows what unspeakable horror lurks in the nether regions of the ship."  

 

Penny is walking in blue fog and in darkness. She hears Mom and finds her. They hug. Judy is there too, trapped like the two of them are. They don't know where they are or how to get word to Dad or Don. Judy says, "If only we can get word to Dad or Don."  A voice, creepy, male and deep, says, "But you can't...I am everywhere and nowhere,"  it answers Maureen's question as to where it is. It can feel the terror growing within them, making it stronger and stronger.

 

Smith and Will come up to the top deck. Smith adds to Will's report about Penny's disappearance, "Poor little Penny, vanished like the snows of yesteryear, possibly never to return."  John tells him that will be enough out of you. Robot tells them the three females are alive and unharmed. Smith asks him how he knows that, calling him an ignominious ignoramus. Robot tells him, "It is a physical impossibility for three females to conceal themselves within these confines."  Smith gets joyful, thinking that whatever it is snatching people into oblivion, it is only interested in females, "We males are perfectly safe!"   Don will go to the surface of the planet in the Space Pod. If the surface proves to be lethal, he will turn back. NOTE: Hold on a minute time--didn't the Robot and they already decide it WAS lethal with that gas? Don goes into the Pod and prepares to launch. As he does, Smith says, "Get the behind me, Satan."  Amid Chariot music, the Pod goes down out of the Jupiter and Don encounters heavy radiation so he keeps the shutter panels closed. Will asks John is Don is okay; his answer, "For now, son, for now."  Don picks up massive electrical interference and John orders him to abort. The Pod returns but the mist is back; Will calls, "Dad!"   Don approaches the Jupiter II and tells John this via radio. Don still is talking as it docks and is in the bay. In the control room they hear a bump as it docks. Will goes to open the lock. Robot says, "Now only four of us remain..counting me."   John asks him, "What're you talking about?"   We see a nice view from the Control Room into the Pod bay from the Pod bay as Will opens the door. Will comes running back from the Pod, "Dad! Dad! The Space Pod's empty and Don's gone!"  Smith whispers, "Oh dear, oh dear, I've done it again!"        

 

ACT THREE

Don finds Judy in the mist and asks about the others. They come too and tell him that they are all right. They hear laughing which Penny thinks is creepy, "Where's it coming from?"   It says it is coming from right behind them. Maureen asks about John and Will. Don says, they must be out of their minds by now. The voice continues to talk to them; Maureen calls it a child to which it admits it is a child but it is growing. "You Penny, you're not really one of them, you must like games."  Penny gasps, "Not this kind."   It tells them that is too bad because there is more to come, the best part. They walk in the blue mist, seemingly enveloped.

 

RObot calls, "Warning! Warning! This is not a drill!"  Will asks what it is and Robot tells them Jupiter II is losing altitude. John finds he is right, they are slipping out of orbit. Nothing works on the console. Will claims they are not going down too fast but John says, "We're going down fast enough."   John thinks there is a single force behind all of this, "There's a single force behind all of this, I'm sure of it."  Will thinks Dr. Smith might be it. John asks why and Will says, "I don't know---he's always getting mixed up in something."  John wonders, now that he's mentioned it, where is Smith. They call to Smith. The viewport is clear. John figures Smith is still with them because just before each vanishing, there was a blue fog at the viewport. They will go find Dr. Smith but first, John ties them together with rope like mountain climbers. Robot tells them now there is only three including him. The blue mist returns as John and Will go down the step ladder. The giant claw appears from above and is at the window. Robot calls, "Danger! Danger! Fear is closing in! Danger! Danger!"   In Smith's cabin, Will finds the ice pack but Smith is missing, "I guess his headache went away."   John asks Will where his mother was the last time he saw her--at the sonic dishwasher and Judy---the glide tube and Don---at the Space Pod. Just before each one disappeared they were in contact with a machine that had a built in isolator. John wants to reverse the polarity of the machines which Will thinks (why?) would make them appear again. He wants to try the one with the most power first--the Pod. John reminds him not to use the elevator to go up, to use the step ladders. Smith was the exception to the rule that each time someone vanished, the mist was at the window. John says, "All right now son, if the Robot's right, the worst thing we can do is to be afraid."   Will says, "I'll try but it isn't easy."   John says, "We'll  lick this thing yet."  He goes to the Pod. Will tries to tell the Robot what happened to Dr. Smith but Robot guesses it and takes the icepack, "Alas poor Smith, I knew him well, a fellow of infinite jest, of the most excellent fancy."  Will says, "I'm sorry, Robot."  The rope to John slackens, then drops. John is gone from the Pod and the ship! Close up on Will's face as he is afraid. He calls to Dad over and over, "Dad, Answer me!"   As he turns, the Robot vanishes behind Will. Will finds the ice pack on the floor! "Robot! Dad, Robot, where are you!"  He calls and calls...

 

ACT FOUR

Will calls, "Dad! Dad, can't you hear me!?"  He hears his own voice, "All I want is to be left alone."   Will says, "I said that and now they've done it! I mustn't be afraid, I mustn't be!"  Will looks in the Space Pod and then around the Control Room and we get extreme close ups of his fearful face. Smith emerges out of the blue mist. Don sees him, "I've been waiting for you, Smith."  John is there also. Smith acts humble and seems to mean it; he apologizes for what was just a stray subconscious thought. "Penny, my dear child I certainly would not will anything bad to happen to you."  Penny has her hand on his arm. Robot arrives. Smith sees his light box, "You too you bumbling bucket of bolts,"  he says, affectionately. Maureen tells him, "Dr. Smith, I don't understand a single thing you have been saying."   Smith says it is ridiculously clear, "I am talking about having made all of you disappear through an innocent act of Will."  Smith comes to the conclusion that if they have all disappeared, so has he. Judy nods her head in acknowledgement of this. Smith yells, "We are lost, we are all of us lost, probably never to be found again!"   He tells the voice it was just an idol wish and that he couldn't be more afraid. He talks to the child thing. The voice tells him that he is a funny man and likes him. It wants to play games together with him, "You're nice and hateful."   "Yes, I'm nice and hateful, if that's what you like,"  Smith says. It will use him for food! Smith balks at this but it tells him it does not eat as he does, "I need something younger and stronger and fresher to make me grow big."  He will play a funny game now. Smith feels himself beginning to disappear again and yells.

 

Close up on Will in the Control Room. He finds blue foam coming out of the storage closet to the right of the console. He backs away from it and looks around the room, the ceiling. He goes to the red alarm device, afraid of the emptiness in the room. Then he hears knocking in the airlock. He goes to open it, "Mom? Dad?"  It is Smith with his foot stuck on a valve, claiming he's been there for hours. Will wonders when he got back but Smith tells him he's never been away, "Don't ask stupid questions!"  Smith seems mean, grumpy, "I don't need your help,"  he says as he gets up. He goes to touch the blue foam when Will tells him about it. Will also tells him not to touch it--it makes you disappear. Smith touches it and shows it to him, telling him it is nonsense to think it will make you disappear and asks why he hasn't. He moves to Will who insists, "No, it makes you disappear."  Smith asks why he hasn't again and Will shrugs, "I dunno."  He then tells him dad has a plan but what not yet. Smith knows what it is, "It won't work." Will wonders how he knew Dad's theory, neither of them told him it. He says he guessed. Will's eyes widen, knowing something is evil about Smith now. Smith tells the boy they are beaten and he wants to land on the surface of the planet. Will yells, "That's the one thing we can't do--it's certain death!"   Smith tells him that is foolish talk and he will hear none of it now, "Do I make myself clear!"  Will nods. Smith grunts, "Now that we understand each other I'm going to land this ship!"  "NO! I won't let you!" Will tries to stop him from landing the ship, he hits Will, slapping him backward. Will runs downs the ladder and jumps off it. Smith follows and corners him in the galley but Will jumps back up the ladder to the upper deck where Robot appears out of thin air. He was in another dimension, all are there, including Dr. Smith. If he has seen Smith here, Robot tells Will, then he has seen an imposter, the evil force he has been warning about. Smith comes up on the elevator and deactivates the Robot, tossing the power pack down in a fit, "I've had enough of you and your tricks," he snarls at Will, "I'll put a stop to it now!"  He grabs Will around the neck with both hands and starts to choke him. Will falls back but grabs the fallen ice pack and throws it at Smith, rolling away from him and to the ladder. Down again, he runs to Smith's cabin, "Dr. Smith had a laser pistol hidden around here somewhere."  Smith comes down to the lower deck and looks around galley and then hears something. Will stops looking around for the gun and hides in the corner of the push door. Smith comes up to it and opens the door but not fully. Will crouches down. Smith turns away and starts to walk off but Will waits as Smith's eyes move from side to side. Smith comes back and open the door fully! Will slips out from under him and runs to the power core doorway and opens it. He runs in. Smith chases him through the first room, "The game's over--there's nowhere left to run!"  They go through a door, Will tosses boxes off at him and goes through a door. John and Don reappear in the control room and find the Robot deactivated. John puts the power pack back in. "Danger! Danger! Danger!"  John stops that and asks where his son is. "Running!"  They ask from what. "The force posing as Dr. Smith!"   John and Don run as Robot continues his "Danger, danger, danger!"    Smith in the lower main core, confronts Will, who puts the core between them. "You've given me more trouble than all the others put together!"  Will asks what he's done with parents. Smith asks him hasn't he had enough of parents. He is the nastiest, most primitive kid in the galaxy and "it's all been a lot of fun up to now but you are like them and I don't want to play with you anymore! All I want is to be left alone!"  Will claims he said that. Smith tells him, "So did I!"  Will tells him that it is just repeating his words. Smith moves at him but Will tells him to stay where he is, "I know who you are now."   Smith says, "You do? I don't."   Will does and is not afraid of him anymore. Smith asks, "Not afraid of your own ID?"  Will asks what, telling him he is not scared of his big words. "Id, I.D. ID! I am you 40 years from now! I am your ID!"  Will is shocked by this but tells it he is no longer afraid. Smith comes out of it and comes round. Will sees it is the real Smith now, "Where am I! Save me! Save me!"  Will goes to him but a ghostly laugh of the monster occurs. Will turns to find the area he was just in being invaded by a ghost image..a thing that looks like a man with a sheet over it! Will gasps, "WHERE did YOU come from?"  It explains that he stripped off its disguise, "I was using Dr. Smith as a front."   It is a part of Will, telling Will it is the bad part of him. Will thought it couldn't destroy him since they are a part of each other. It can now. Will faces it, moving at it, Smith reaches for him, worried. Will tells the thing it is weak and can't face him now. He is stronger and is never going to be like it. He moves right up to it and it falls, weakening, yelling. It-he-falls into the power core and a blast sparks up from it. NICE DERELICT MUSIC after Maureen is saved from the comet and brought in and opens her eyes is heard AS John and Don come down the ladder to them. Will and John hug. All four go up the ladder.

 

The Jupiter flies in space, away from the planet, in starry space.

 

Will comes out of the cabin and tells Dad he passed his history quiz. The family is at the table. Mom and Dad congratulate Will. Will goes to Smith's cabin where Smith is resting after their ordeal, his ordeal. He will be on his bed of pain for rest and tells Will to close the door. Maureen asks Will to ask Dr. Smith if he'd like a nice hot breakfast. Will says, "I don't think he feels up to it right now."  Smith comes out--breakfast is his favorite meal of the day. He moves to the table as Will smiles; Smith says, "Coming. Coming right along, Madam."   Will laughs and shrugs, throwing his hands up and down...

 

NOTE: Some syndicated copies of this episode have the scenes from next week for COLLISION OF PLANETS. This was not the air order though.         

 

"Next week a love affair blooms between the Robot and his female counterpart from an alien planet!" 

 

 

"Next week DEADLIEST OF THE SPECIES on LOST IN SPACE on this channel!"