Sell Me on TAS, Please

[ZapBrannigan]

This is honestly a great review and actually makes the show approachable. As an adult, can you go back and watch original LIS and enjoy it? I tried watching, but I found it impossible to get through the 4th episode.

Thanks. I have the complete Lost in Space Blu-ray set, and would never part with it, but also I don't get back to it often. So much has changed in storytelling, and sometimes you need a vintage attention span to go with vintage shows. And there are so many hundreds of things in my home video collection that LIS has to compete with now.

I will say, the first seven episodes, from "The Reluctant Stowaway" through "My Friend, Mr. Nobody," are among the best ones, and the music is often beyond outstanding. Before the CD releases came out, I used to suffer through even the worst second season episodes on basic cable, because I knew they'd be sprinkled with John Williams cues. And of course you always have that production design, with the Robot and the Jupiter 2, and likeable cast members.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Thanks. I have the complete Lost in Space Blu-ray set, and would never part with it, but also I don't get back to it often. So much has changed in storytelling, and sometimes you need a vintage attention span to go with vintage shows. And there are so many hundreds of things in my home video collection that LIS has to compete with now.

I will say, the first seven episodes, from "The Reluctant Stowaway" through "My Friend, Mr. Nobody," are among the best ones, and the music is often beyond outstanding. Before the CD releases came out, I used to suffer through even the worst second season episodes on basic cable, because I knew they'd be sprinkled with John Williams cues. And of course you always have that production design, with the Robot and the Jupiter 2, and likeable cast members.

Should I re-start the 4th episode (Island in the Sky) and give it another go? It drove me to pull out my Star Trek TOS Blu-ray's that I bought 4 years ago and am only just now watching.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Should I re-start the 4th episode (Island in the Sky) and give it another go? It drove me to pull out my Star Trek TOS Blu-ray's that I bought 4 years ago and am only just now watching.

I haven't watched my TOS Blu's since before I got my UHD TV, so I've only seen them in 720p. I have to get on that and see what I've been missing.

If you can get back to "There Were Giants in the Earth," it leads right into and sets up "The Hungry Sea," which is my favorite episode of the series. Fantastic music, too: a rousing John Williams score that would presage The Poseidon Adventure (1972).

After that, "My Friend, Mr. Nobody" is considered by many to have one of the most haunting and evocative music scores in television history, and incidentally it's a showcase for Angela Cartwright, who could act when they gave her a chance.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I haven't watched my TOS Blu's since before I got my UHD TV, so I've only seen them in 720p. I have to get on that and see what I've been missing.

If you can get back to "There Were Giants in the Earth," it leads right into and sets up "The Hungry Sea," which is my favorite episode of the series. Fantastic music, too: a rousing John Williams score that would presage The Poseidon Adventure (1972).

After that, "My Friend, Mr. Nobody" is considered by many to have one of the most haunting and evocative music scores in television history, and incidentally it's a showcase for Angela Cartwright, who could act when they gave her a chance.

Why was the dad outside the ship in a spacesuit, checking out the planet below, when they can just do that with the spaceship which is its whole purpose? This is why I couldn't finish "Island in the Sky." What was going on here?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Why was the dad outside the ship in a spacesuit, checking out the planet below, when they can just do that with the spaceship which is its whole purpose? This is why I couldn't finish "Island in the Sky." What was going on here?

This was 1965, the Space Race was a very big deal, and spacewalks were an exciting new thing, ripped from the headlines. John Robinson was doing the most entertaining and perilous thing the show could think of.

The in-universe explanation is that they wanted some scientific observations from a lower altitude, and taking the Jupiter 2 downward just for that would use thousands of times more fuel than if Robinson went "base jumping" and then flew back up with his personal thrusters.

Star Trek should have had a spacewalk, maybe to repair the Enterprise or Galileo, but Desilu did not have the resources of 20th Century Fox, and it wasn't close. Just look at Spock's red plastic suit in "The Naked Time." We weren't going to get wire work and simulated weightlessness if they couldn't even do a decent environmental suit by the seventh episode.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

This was 1965, the Space Race was a very big deal, and spacewalks were an exciting new thing, ripped from the headlines. John Robinson was doing the most entertaining and perilous thing the show could think of.

The in-universe explanation is that they wanted some scientific observations from a lower altitude, and taking the Jupiter 2 downward just for that would use thousands of times more fuel than if Robinson went "base jumping" and then flew back up with his personal thrusters.

Star Trek should have had a spacewalk, maybe to repair the Enterprise or Galileo, but Desilu did not have the resources of 20th Century Fox, and it wasn't close. Just look at Spock's red plastic suit in "The Naked Time." We weren't going to get wire work and simulated weightlessness if they couldn't even do a decent environmental suit by the seventh episode.

OK, this gives a lot of context. I'm thinking in 2024 terms. Maybe I will give the episode another go, then, thank you! "Base jumping" in space. I was fine with no space walks in Star Trek (TOS), it wasn't that kind of show, BUT, I would have liked to have seen more than the few shuttlecraft-themed episodes they did do.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

As an adult, can you go back and watch original LIS and enjoy it?

Of course you can.