Follow the Leader

Guy Williams was great at playing characters opposite to the sober, noble John Robinson. He's a little scary when he becomes possessed by an alien spirit. This episode has the most serious tone of all LIS episodes. However, the professor's exchanges with Dr. Smith are quite humorous. All in all, a great episode, and the last one in B&W.

Watched this episode last night. First time seeing it since I was a kid in the 60s. I remember this episode, and especially the mask, scared the heck out of me back in the day. Still sets an eerie mood, which the black and white photography only enhances.

Great showcase for Guy Williams who was sadly underutilized in general. Gets to show his acting chops and fighting skills as a menacing version of Professor Robinson.

While I enjoyed seeing this again very much, it was a bittersweet experience knowing the show would rarely come close to such heights again.

Guy Williams ended up retiring in Argentina. I can understand how he could become disillusioned with Hollywood, watching Zorro get canceled over studio disputes and then being given a show with so much potential, only to be made second fiddle as LIS became the Will, Dr. Smith and Robot show.

Truly a great episode, and like another reviewer, when I saw this as a child in the 70s, I was absolutely terrified.

It's likely this is far too intense for 5 year olds even now. John Robinson's sudden turn from kind reasonable father/husband to barely controlled fury is alone extremely frightening, and that's just one aspect to it.

It's certainly true that Guy Williams' talent was criminally underused throughout the series. However, that's part of what makes this episode so effective. After watching a whole season of a kind father who's very slow to anger and never loses control, it's shocking because how well Williams plays it. And you also suddenly notice how physically imposing and powerful he is...

As a reviewer noted, the ending to Return of the Jedi is indeed quite similar to the ending here.

As an adult watching this, I couldn't help but laugh that the Robot somehow figured out that John was possessed. Quite a capable environmental robot!

John Robinson is trapped in a cave inhabited by an evil spirit that possesses him. Once rescued by his family, he begins to show a bipolar personality where he can appear friendly at one moment and the next minute behave in an aggressive and despotic manner. Every time I watch the episodes of the first season, and this one in particular, I regret that the series has not continued down this path. For me this is the best episode of the entire series, Guy Williams is outstanding here, the rest of the cast too. Here we have the perfect combination, a disturbing story, the entire cast doing an excellent job, an almost terrifying atmosphere, a correct direction. It is an episode that I never get tired of watching. It's a shame that the influence of Batman has ended up turning a science fiction and adventure series into a fantastic comedy in the following seasons and that characters as rich as Dr. Smith end up being something of a clown.

John Robinson is possessed by a malevolent alien spirit who can refuel the Jupitar 2 for its own nefarious ends. Guy Williams gets center stage as he toggles back and forth between his usual 'dad' and Canto of Quasti, a megalomaniacal extracorporeal spirit (and voice) who has partially taken over the Robinson patriarch's body. Leaving aside the simplistic lead-in (yet again, someone falls into a pit and discovers relics of an ancient civilisation that hold a deadly secret), this is a pretty good episode, with the whole cast given an opportunity to develop their characters. Viewers can decide if the parallels with 'Return of the Jedi' are as significant as some commentators imply. This, the final episode of season one (and the last in black and white), is an upturn in the generally downward trajectory of the series as it degenerated into the campy 'Will-Smith-Robot hour'.