rotten eggs

Lost In Space ( 1965)

Lost In Space was and still is one of my favourite television series of the sixties. I remember coming home from school trying to watch these at tea time on a channel that was never very clear. Having now this DVD collection of the entire first series and with such excellent quality video to disc transfer is a real treat.

Created by Irwin Allen, who's series included 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea', 'The Time Tunnel' and 'Land of the Giants' Lost In Space was very similar in some ways to 'Roddenberrys' 'Star Trek' which incidentally was rejected at the time by CBS in favour of the aforesaid series.

Filmed in black & white the first season was much more serious in tone than the latter ones, which tended to be more camp because of the competition of Batman which was being aired around the same time. The series revolved around the adventures of the space family 'Robinson' and the evil stowaway 'Dr Smith ' ( Jonathan Harris ) who beacame , along with Bill Mummy and the robot the runaway stars of the show. In fact after watching again today Dr Smith comes across as even more evil as i had remembered him and his antics at trying every devious method in the book to return to earth even more entertaining and comical, as are his constant ranting and ravings to the robot.Seems like he spent ages coming up with new phrases such as ' My mechanical Friend' ' Bumbling Bucket of Bolts' 'Bubbleheaded Booby' and ' Bellicose Bumpkin' to name but a few.

Lost In Space can be enjoyed by anyone of any age which is probably it's main appeal.Although predictable and the settings restrictive it was probably Irwin Allens finest series.The 'Jupiter' spaceship looks particularly nice too by the way! Favourite episode probably has to be ' Wish Upon A Star' where the brainless Dr Smith stumbles across a derelict spaceship on the castaways planet and in it finds a helmet which apparently has the power to grant anyones wishes.Conjuring up a wealth of luxuries smith gets more than he bargains for when the owner of the helmet turns out to be a terrifying graoaning alien bent on destruction. An excellent episode this one, as is ' The Keeper ' the only two parter in the series starring 'Michael Rennie 'which unfortunately is somewaht let down by the ridicoulous looking monsters!

Having excellent ratings at the time Lost In Space went on for 3 seasons before being canceled.

A splendid eight disc box set beautifully packaged with a booklet and an added bonus of the unaired pilot episode.