Ask any Lost In Space fan to name his favorite season of the TV series and chances are that he will answer “the first year… the black and white ones… especially the first few when Dr. Smith was still evil”. Well, that first year of Lost In Space was very special. There’s an atmosphere present that never reappeared, and there was a more dramatic substance to the proceedings. You can count me in when it comes to regarding the first season of the series as the best.
Ask any fan his second favorite season and he will most probably answer “the third season… the show had a new format and got good again”. Yes, a new title sequence and theme tune (a really great one actually) and the introduction of the space pod did indeed liven things up. And there are some great episodes in that third year. Everyone I’ve encountered has a well-deserved affection for “Visit To A Hostile Planet”, wherein the crew of the Jupiter 2 travel back in time to Earth circa 1947. And it was nice to see the spaceship out in space so often, instead of planet-bound.
So, it’s easy to regard the show’s second season as its least promising. The general opinion was that the success of Batman led to a campy, silly approach to mimic that show’s high profile. There may be some truth to this. Lost In Space did become sillier. It wasn’t the only show that seemed to fall prey to this phenomenon. Whether it was the effect of Batman, or a dose of the tongue-in-cheek attitude that was prevalent, I recall The Man From U.N.C.L.E. becoming very silly indeed (it was another show whose monochrome first season is highest regarded). By the time The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. premiered the two shows were more spoof than spy. Batmania was a symptom of a general mood of winking, deadpan parody. It was best when it came off as clever and knowing, but often it dawdled on towards the absurdly miscalculated. Get Smart worked, Captain Nice did not. It’s the difference between a James Bond film and a Matt Helm one.
But after all these years I have to say I noticed the ratio of gems to clunkers is about the same between the second and third seasons of Lost In Space. Add to that my amusement in chatting with fans my age in the UK, where the show was broadcast in black and white during its entire initial run (color broadcasts began in the early 70s). They didn’t notice a great deal of difference between the first two seasons.
Consider the number of top-notch episodes that ran during the show’s “worst season”:
Blast Off Into Space, Wild Adventure, The Prisoners Of Space, The Deadly Games of Gamma Six, Wreck Of The Robot, The Dream Monster, Trip Through The Robot, The Phantom Family, The Mechanical Men, The Astral Traveler, The Galaxy Gift. All of these compare rather well with the bulk of the first season.
Of course, the very worst episodes are easy to spot amongst the second season, the ones which were either (very) silly in concept or suffered from a poor execution (I’m sure if you read the scripts of The Questing Beast or The Golden Man you’d be surprised how they didn’t translate into quality episodes). Most of the clunkers embrace humor and a broad approach beyond what the show could genuinely sustain. But think of the poor episodes the third season churned up: Collision Of The Planets, A Day At The Zoo, Castles In Space, Princess Of Space, Fugitives In Space, The Flaming Planet, and the (rightfully) dreaded Great Vegetable Rebellion.
My point? Simply that the second season shouldn’t be viewed as remarkably unworthy. Yes, there were some less-than-wonderful episodes, but there were some very, very good ones as well.
Like yourself, I, too, consider myself to be a fan for all seasons.
ReplyDeleteAnd also, the first season included a couple of clunkers as well, namely The Space Croppers & The Magic Mirror, neither of which I cared for even when I viewed the episodes first runs on CBS as a starry-eyed, Irwin Allen obsessed 7 year old.
I love the whole series,too,and am not as upset by the humor in Lost in Space as other fans seem to be. Humor was an element that helped define the show. There were only a handful of episodes that, for me, are just too silly to relate to: Space Croppers (as mentioned above) and West of Mars, to name two.
ReplyDeleteHowever, other humorous episodes I thoroughly enjoy - like Collision of Planets and Vegetable Rebellion! Go figure. It was a charming series with it's heart in the right place. Long live LIS!