gregorycanfield Review of Lost in Space: The Epilogue

Lost in Space: The Epilogue (2015 Video)

Bill Mumy's conclusion to the series

[8/10 · 26 February 2024]

I have always considered Bill Mumy the greatest child actor of all time. As the co-writer of this project, Mumy had an interesting vision, and also took a few questionable liberties. The production is inherently limited by having the actors simply read dialogue, rather than giving actual performances. However, it works well enough, within its own parameters. Some of the casting choices were interesting. Unfortunately, Guy Williams and Jonathan Harris had already passed away, at the time of this production. We get Guy Williams, Jr as Professor Robinson and Kevin Burns as Dr Smith. June Lockhart is still alive, but did not appear here. The reason for this wasn't mentioned by anyone involved. So, we had Angela Cartwright's sister, Veronica as Maureen Robinson. Angela, as well as Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen and Bill Mumy, all reprised their original characters. This "table reading" manages to put an image in your mind, and build on that. In this update to the series, Don West and Judy are now married and have a son. This was an interesting development. A questionable (and unnecessary) subtext was Penny having "feelings" for Don, and actually making a pass at him. In the original series, Don and Judy's relationship was only brushed upon. Penny never had feelings for Don. Not anywhere in the series. However, everything here works well enough, despite this unneeded subtext. In closing, an observation on the Cartwright sisters. Angela, at this point, was starting to resemble Cass Elliot. Veronica, who is the older sister, looked much better. I wonder how Angela felt about having her sister play the part of her mother!