"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" is a TV series based loosely on the adventure novel THE LOST WORLD by the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Five (four in the book) adventurers wind up trapped on a South American plateau that's a home where dinosaurs roam. They are helped by a gorgeous blonde in a stone-age bikini, Veronica (Jennifer O'Dell) who speaks perfect (even modern colloquial) English and whose skin is not ravaged by the elements despite her apparent lack of clothing. She helps the stranded castaways survive, and they live pretty well in a tree house with all the comforts of home, including an elevator (cantilevered in the first season, hydraulic in the second).
Just as in "Gilligan's Island" other people seem to come and go with ease, but our castaways can't seem to manage it, despite having a brilliant professor (Challenger) in their midst. But then, so did Gilligan's group.
Or do they finally get off the plateau? After finding a map the reporter, Malone, leads them by secrets ways from the plateau to a ship bound for London. Or is it all a trick? I won't say.
The highlight of this episode is when Veronica, still clad in her prehistoric foundation garments, enters a staid Edwardian men's club with everyone in evening wear and walks casually in their midst. It vies for being one of the sexiest moments of the series.
It's also nice to get a glimpse of another beautiful blonde, Gladys, whom Malone is set to marry (and if you know the relations of Gladys and Malone from the original novel, it's a moment fraught with irony).
But even when Veronica gets a gown from Harrod's and stands beside Gladys, it's a moment from HAMLET, look on this picture and on this. Which would you choose? So would I.
Another highlight is when Malone has a dream and can't read articles he wrote for the paper. The same thing happens to me in dreams.
Veronica ain't from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but she made the series. And I don't merely mean that without her, the others would have been T Rex hors d'eauvres their first day.
