Visit to a Hostile Planet

The Robinsons finally arrive on Earth, but due to a space-time phenomenon they do so in the 50's and are considered aliens by the inhabitants of the small town where the ship landed. The family realizes that this is not their time and they consider that the best decision is to return to space before living on an Earth where they are considered monsters by the rest of the inhabitants. However, Dr. Smith intends to force them to remain on Earth despite this. These first episodes of the third season tried to return to the quality of the premise of the original series, but only achieved about 5 or 6 episodes of true quality, without a doubt this is one of the best. As a curious fact, one of the guest actors in this episode is Robert Pine, who later played Sergeant Getraer in the CHIPs series and is the father of the famous author Chris Pine (Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman).

The Jupitar 2 exceeds the speed of light and arrives at Earth in the year 1947. This is a cheaply-made, non-sensical episode that is of interest primarily for the shots of the full-size Jupitar 2 prop and the cute premise that the arrival of the silver-clad Robinsons family in their discoid flying machine begat the 'UFO craze' (the first 'flying saucer sightings' were in fact in 1947). The episode is played primarily for laughs, with the 'sophisticated' space travellers facing down a bunch of credulous 'small-town hicks' (who keep referring to the Jupitar 2 as a 'blimp' and quickly accept that Smith is a fire-chief from a nearby town who should be put in charge), some silly sight-gags, and 'comic' musical cues (admittedly there are some better than average optics shots when the John and Don fire their laser pistols). The show's writing is increasingly weak and this episode simply ends with the Robinsons still in 1947, having never discussed how they were going to get back to their own time. That the family quickly accepts Smith back on board after he essentially gives the order to destroy the Jupitar 2 and strand them in their past is unfathomable (but expected). Needless-to-say the complexities of time-travel are never addressed as Smith gloatingly describes how he is going to become rich by marketing 'future technologies'. If a bit more thought and care had been put into it, this could have been a clever story.

The Jupiter 2 goes back in time to 1947.

Wonderful episode of Lost In Space that is a classic from start to finish.

Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel had just been axed so Irwin decided to shift time travel plots into LIS season three and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea season four.

A couple of nice elements of LIS episode The Derelict used here: the full scale Jupiter 2 and the same music is heard sometimes.

A very rare photo exists, taken from the air when a chopper was flying over Fox in 1967, of the full-scale Jupiter 2 sitting in the Fox backlot...all set to film Visit To A Hostile Planet. Join a LIS Facebook group to find this photo.

This burning trash will burn your eyeballs to cinders. You will run screaming out of you place of residence, yelling to the world: "My eyeballs are gone! My eyeballs are gone!" Then you will land in a hospital with a team of doctors trying to find and repair your eyeballs. They will not succeed. And you will go through life with the horror fresh in your mind until the day you die.

Avoid this at all cost. Do not give in to temptation. Your eyes will thank you.

Simply put, Season Three has already reached my very #1 top-ranked episode of the season. "Visit To A Hostile Planet" is pretty much a solid rock-hard exciting classic for me. As the older members may recall, "Visit To A Hostile Planet" was the very favorite episode of Wyoming Rosset ("Wy," or "The Midnight Cowboy"). Wyoming taught a college writing class. He would play this episode to the students, stop it right near the end, around the release of the cannon part, turn it off, and have the students write their own ending. I always thought that was an awesome idea, and how I wish I had been in Wyoming's class! 8-]

Anyway..I have heard of a few 'casual fans' who remember LOST IN SPACE from their childhood who mention this episode as one they recall as a very favorite. It certainly IS an episode that can be easily remembered years later. I have also heard other fans who like to 'dis' this episode for being a bit too 'goofy,' 'silly,' or whatever, as far as the local Green Acres-like townsfolk are concerned. To those fans, I will say what I usually say (or think) when the same people like to 'dis' Season Two in general for being too silly or goofy.."Get over it!" This far into the series is surely a far cry from the good old B&W days, so you take what you can get. This episode is also a good example as to why I would never use 'silliness' as a yardstick in grading episodes. It has probably a bit more 'silliness' than the previous episode, the season kickoff, "Condemned Of Space," yet it is a notch or two better.

In one of the old videos about the show (perhaps LOST IN SPACE FOREVER, 1998), June Lockhart, while narrating, called this a 'defining moment', or a 'big moment' for the Robinsons..landing back on Earth and all. I would agree. Besides an excellently written episode from Peter Packer, and an excellently directed episode from Sobey Martin (whom we had only heard from just one time in Season Two since the B&W glory days), probably the two things that stand out and make this episode a huge winner for me is the excellent and very interesting outdoor location shooting, and especially the almost chilling, great and final wrap/finish to the story, as we first get a glimpse of the Jupiter 2 spaceship flying through the blue sky, and then rising through atmosphere (right after Stacy and Craig's exchange about flying saucers) to get away from..earth! This episode had one of the very few (four of them) really good endings to a Season Three episode. I will note the others when they come up. Yes, the ending to this episode can actually send chills up and down my spine. I certainly cannot say that about many colored episodes for sure.

Speaking of Craig (Robert Pine), if you look at his credits at IMDb, you will notice that this appearance in LOST IN SPACE was just about the very first thing he did..pretty much the beginning of his career.

LosT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~jim~~~~~~~~~

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