The Ghost Planet

👻GHOST PLANET... is one of the Better atmospheric episodes from LOST IN SPACE second season... It has all its normal season 2 share of humor, BUT it also has human-hating robots who work for a big robot brain... Even our LIS Robot becomes one of the human haters 😆 A spooky female robot makes all the demands and still seems so well mannered and charming... Dr. Smith tempted by his lust for power and wealth once again puts everyone in danger.. But this time Dr. Smith is the one who gets tricked and becomes a human slave... One highlight is when our beloved robot comes into slave room threatening electricity bolts if Smith doesn't work faster... Smith says "Oh please please my dear friend, my lifelong companion, give me some word of hope, some small ray of light in my hopeless situation"... The robot says "NEVER FEAR, SMITH IS HERE" (and begins to laugh mockingly at Smith) lol.

In the meantime they stayed travelling through space the storyline was too compressed in a minimal spaceship's place that was impossible to create something interesting, now back on the ground Dr. Smith and his fellows are back on the real business, Smith trying misleading again with Robot and Will, they landed in a unknown planet alike to Earth attracts by some force, there Smith lured by his greedy in a huge golden treasure offered to him, so he conceives a plan to get all Jupiter 2's weapons in change of gold and to be back on Earth rich and powerful, quite often he was wrong and was put on factory to slave work for good, the unbeatable Dr. Smith does again!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

Lured by a fetching female voice on the space-radio, the ever-credulous Dr. Smith diverts the Jupiter 2 to a planet that he (but no one else) believes is Earth, only to discover a strange alien civilization with (to no surprise) ulterior motives. Like many LiS episodes, this one doesn't make a lot of sense but there are some interesting, albeit frugal, special effects shots of the Jupiter 2 in action (images that will be repurposed in future episodes (like the 'dead aliens' who appear to be props from every previous Irwin Allen production)). While a 'planet' is involved, there are no 'ghosts' (real or imagined), so the provenance of the title is a mystery. The odd, shuffling, bubble-faced technicolor aliens are entertainingly ludicrous.

Well, it is the famous "Gate double one five" (GATE 115) episode. The entire script for this episode is out there at some web site somewhere. Back when I was doing the detailed episode script and commentaries, Ray D. (one of his five favorite episodes of all) and David G. took the script (with permission, of course) and uploaded it at their LISMEMORIES web site. David also added screen grabs to follow along. It actually looks and works very nicely. I was just trying to find it, but it would not pull up. The site may be under construction.

Anyway..this is episode #3 on the young Season Two, and things are played highly straight so far. There is no hint of what is to come not far down the road. Peter Packer's script for "The Ghost Planet" is all excellently written dialog. The entire episode is very solid, although this is more of a middle-of-the-road episode for the season. Nothing really stands out as fantastic, but in that same regard, absolutely nothing is cringe-worthy or near terrible. Probably the closest thing to cringe-worthy is how easily the alien cyborgs are stopped..with a simple karate chop..and they sound like hollow tin cans lol. I have always considered this episode to be your 'basic' LOST IN SPACE episode. Some people love it. I do not think anyone could 'hate' it.

This is the very first episode that we see the infamous 'yellow landing circle' that the Jupiter 2 lands in. From here on out, every time the Jupiter 2 makes a 'soft landing,' with its landing legs extended, they are landing in the (stock footage, go figure) yellow circle. However, every other time would be way over in the final Season Three.

We see Professor John Robinson and Major West in their white Ts in this one, a B&W Season One regularity, and always a cool treat.

Peter Packer has now done five of the first nine episode anniversaries on the season, and although this is a solid script, it is also the 'weakest' (if you will) sister of the trio of anniversary episodes this week. We know that B&W Season One is superior, and we also know that yesterday's anniversary episode, Season Three's "Hunter's Moon" is a real goodie..even though it has more silly moments than the more straight forward "The Ghost Planet."

Overall, "The Ghost Planet" is an official 5.6 for me, and ranked at #16 out of the thirty colored Season Two episodes..just a notch and a tad below last week's "Wild Adventure." The two episodes are extremely close rivalries.

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

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