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Title:
Lost In Space: Season Three: Volumes One & Two
Region:
One
Genre:
Sci-Fi
Volume
One Episodes Disc One: “Condemned Of Space”, “Visit To A Hostile
Planet”, “Kidnapped In Space”, “Hunter’s Moon”
Volume
One Episodes Disc Two: “Space Primevals”, “Space Destructors”, “The
Haunted Lighthouse”, “Flight Into The Future”
Volume
One Episodes Disc Three: “Collision Of Planets”, “Space Creature”,
“Deadliest Of The Species”, “A Day At The Zoo”
Volume
One Episodes Disc Four: “Two Weeks In Space”, “Castles In Space”, “The
Anti-Matter Man”
Volume
Two Episodes Disc One: “Target Earth”, “Princess Of Space”, “Time
Merchant”, “The Promised Planet”
Volume
Two Episodes Disc Two: “Fugitives In Space”, “Space Beauty”, “The
Flaming Planet”
Volume Two Episodes Disc Three: “The Great Vegetable Rebellion”, “Junkyard In Space”
Stars:
Bill Mumy, Jonathan Harris, Guy Williams, June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Marta
Kristen, Angela Cartright, Bob May, and Dick Tufeld
Writers:
Peter Packer, Robert Hamner, Jack Turley, Jackson Gillis, William Welch, K.C.
Alison, Bob Duncan, Wanda Duncan, and Barney Slater
Directors:
Nathan Juran, Sobey Martin, Don Richardson, Irving J. Moore, Sutton Roley, and
Ezra Stone
Created
And Produced By: Irwin Allen
Feature
length: 735 minutes/441 minutes
Extras:
“Lost In Space® Memories –
20 Nostalgic Video Clips With Cast Members Offering A Fond Look Back At Favorite
Episodes And Highlights Of The Show!”, “Exclusive Interviews With Jonathan
Harris And Bill Mumy”, “Rare Outtake Moment”
Languages:
English, French, and Spanish Language Dubbed Mono Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Seven Slim Keep Cases Within Two Cardboard Slip Cases
Chapter
Stops: 12 Per Episode
Sound:
Mono Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1967 - 1968/DVD Release: 2005
Home
Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Last
month Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment released the final volume of the
third season of the classic sci-fi adventure series “Lost In Space.” While
the first season was released in it’s entirety within one DVD box set, the
second and third seasons of “Lost In Space” were released as two volumes
each. This is not unlike some sci-fi shows such as “Gene Roddenberry’s
Andromeda” or “Space 1999” was first released on DVD. In fact both of
those shows were released in two-disc volumes before an entire season or the
complete series in the case of both Gerry Anderson’s “Space 1999” and
“UFO” the entire series on one box set were released on DVD. Though it was
not my original intention, I ended up reviewing the two volumes that made up
season two of Irwin Allen’s “Lost In Space” collectively and found that it
actually worked out better than doing separate reviews of two halves that should
have been released together in the first place. So I purposely waited for both
halves of “Lost In Space” to be released and available so I could view the
discs collectively and write a review of the third season on DVD. Twentieth
Century Fox pioneered the act of releasing entire seasons of a TV series on DVD
with “The X-Files” and since then nearly every studio and independent
distributor has followed in Fox’s footsteps. Now that all three seasons o
“Lost In Space” are available on DVD I hope that Fox will release Irwin
Allen’s “Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea” in complete season sets only
especially since if I am correct that show had a longer run on television than
“Lost In Space” and maybe there are more archival materials to share as
well.
“Lost
In Space” returned for it’s third season on September 6, 1967 with a new
theme song, new uniforms, and even a new spacecraft for our outer space
castaways to travel around in outside of the Jupiter II. The budget was
cut and an attempt to make the show more of an adventure with all of the
characters participating was put into practice. Thus in the first half of the
third season’s episodes there is a conscious effort to bring everyone involved
into the adventures instead of following the second season’s formula, which
feature more of Dr. Smith, Will, and the robot. These episodes focused more on
the drama of the situation rather than the humor and even a new set of credits
were created with live action clips highlighting the cast in scenes from third
season episodes. Each episode’s teaser would freeze frame in a 7 to 1
countdown leading into the new theme song by a young John Williams and Actor
Jonathan Harris continued to billed as a “Special Guest Star” even after two
full seasons of being involved with the show. The cliffhanger endings were
dropped in favor of a preview for the next week’s episode narrated by Dick
Tufeld.
The
space pod used frequently in season three greatly resembled NASA’s Lunar
Excursion model. There is no explanation for the sudden appearance of the
vehicle in season three, but it did enable the characters to separate and fly to
various places while the rest of the crew could remain in orbit on the Jupiter
II. Highlights from season three include “A Visit To A Hostile Planet,”
which had the crew returning to Earth circa 1947 and “The Anti-Matter Man,”
which gave Guy Williams and Mark Goddard the opportunity to play their evil
counterparts much like the manner in which “Star Trek: The Original Series”
was able to illustrate the stars in altered personas in the classic episode
“Mirror, Mirror.” Another great episode has Dr. Smith returning to Earth in
an attempt to alter the conditions that led to the crew being lost in space for
the past two seasons or so. Footage from the pilot and “The Reluctant
Stowaway” were used in this episode.
Despite
the attempt the bring a more serious tone to the series, the character of Dr.
Smith had evolved into a comic caricature of a villain that made it difficult to
put the character into any real serious situations. The second half of the third
and final season of “Lost In Space” returned to the campier tone of the
second season with the stories revolving once again around Dr. Smith, Will, and
the robot. By this point the series ratings had plummeted and in March of 1968
the last first run episode of “Lost In Space” entitled “Junkyard In
Space” aired and the series ended unresolved.
In
1980 Bill Mumy wrote an original screenplay that would resolve the series and he
managed to get Twentieth Century Fox and the cast’s support, but Irwin Allen
had no interest in producing a “Lost In Space” feature film so Mumy ended up
using elements from his screenplay in a comic book series based on the show.
Eventually New Line Cinema produced a new “Lost In Space” feature film that
premiered in 1998, but this movie was simply a retelling of some of the early
scripts from the series and as of yet no sequel has been produced to resolve the
cliffhanger left by that film unless one chooses to believe that somehow after
the feature film, the crew found their way and are no longer lost in space. A
pilot for new “Lost In Space” TV series for Fox was produced in 2004, but
the series was never picked up.
Despite
the forty years that have past since the series began, interest in “Lost In
Space” continues and one can only wonder if like some programs that have been
successfully re-imagined for television like the SCI FI Channel’s
“Battlestar Galactica,” the Jupiter II will once again explore deep
space on the small screen for a new generation. All 24 episodes that make up the
third season of “Lost In Space” are presented in both volumes in their
original (1.33:1) television broadcast aspect ratio. The color picture quality
is a bit soft at times. English as well as French and Spanish Language Dubbed
Two-Channel Monaural Soundtracks are encoded on to all seven of the dual layered
discs that make up the third season combined. English Closed Captions for the
hearing impaired English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles are also
available on each disc as options.
As
with the previous season sets, the final disc in each volume contains the extra
value material while TV previews for all of the season three episodes can be
found respectively on all of the discs. One can see bumpers and tags where a
scene is split up for commercial interruption or a sponsor for the show is about
to be introduced. A scene without the cut is included too for comparison. There
are twenty interstitials that can be viewed either individually or through a
“Play All” feature. These spots were created to support the thirtieth
anniversary of “Lost In Space” back in 1995. Unfortunately there is no
information regarding which network aired them. Clips featuring Bill Mumy, June
Lockhart, Marta Kristen, Dick Tufeld, Bob May, Mark Goddard, and Jonathan Harris
are among the interstitials with certain cast members revealing their favorite
episodes. Bill Mumy recalls “Return To Earth” while Bob May recalls
“Junkyard In Space”, Jonathan Harris recalls “West Of Mars”, and Mark
Goddard recalls “The Anti-Matter Man” as their respective favorites.
The
final disc in Volume Two features an Interstitial blooper featuring Jonathan
Harris, Bill Mumy, and the robot, act breaks, and interview clips with Bill Mumy
and Jonathan Harris. Harris gives an articulate explanation as to how he became
a part of “Lost In Space” and how he got the “Special Guest Star” credit
in the show as well as how he added life to his character of Dr. Smith by slowly
incorporating humor into the role so the character would be more interesting and
less of a flat ordinary villain.
So
concludes my reviews of Fox’s “Lost In Space” at least for now. You can
pick up “Lost In Space: Season Three: Volume One” and “Volume Two as well
as the other “Lost In Space” TV series sets, which are all sold separately,
at retailers on and offline courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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