This is one of THE Worst Episodes Ever. It was so boring and campy, I had to force myself to watch it in multiple short intervals.
A space pirate is searching for Princess Alpha of the planet Beta. You'd think they could get a little more creative with the names. It turns out that a nurse hid the Princess on Earth by converting her to computer tape and hiding her inside the robot a few years ago before the Jupiter 2 left Earth.
The people on planet Beta figured out how to reduce a person to tape. You can then transmit the person and reconstruct the person on the other end. It's a great way to travel long distance quickly. It's essentially the same as a Star Trek transporter. You are disintegrated and in the process, your atomic structure is recorded. A device can then be sent your structure and regenerate you down to the atom. You have been killed. What is created is a perfect copy of you. For the religious, this means your soul either goes to heaven or hell and the copy has no soul. Little kids just don't think of these things.
In this picture, Will examines Dr. Smith who has been converted to tape and is probably burning in hell.
The pirate has a telescope that sounds an alarm when the telescope is pointed at her. The telescope alarm did not make a sound sound when pointed at Earth because the tape was in the robot which was traveling through space.
The pirate happens upon the planet the Robinson's are on and follows the telescope to the robot. He mistakes Penny for the Princess because she's standing next to the robot.
Penny is taken back to the ship and the Royal Aunt is transmitted by radio to the ship to see if she's the real Princess. I have to wonder why Penny wasn't transmitted to Beta instead. When the Royal Aunt arrives, she has a long talk with Penny and she decides Penny is the true Princess. The stupid thing is the Royal Aunt has a scepter that can prove if she is the Princess or not but she doesn't use it. They have a coronation ceremony to declare her the official Princess with no real evidence. Stupid. The machines rebel when Penny gets the scepter. They want to steal the scepter and take over the planet Beta. Penny tries to stop the machines with the scepter but only the true Princess can do it.
The nurse that hid the Princess on Earth had sent back the message K12B6 to planet Beta. Nobody understood the message. It was actually the encryption key to decode the computer data on the tape inside the robot. It's also the password they use to program the robot. Will figures it out and the robot is told to dematerialize the Princess using the code K12B6. The robot rolls over to the materializer and flips some switches and the princess appears. I'm assuming the robot decoded the data and wirelessly transmitted it to the machine to materialize the Princess.
On a side-note, I think I know why they chose the code K12B6. The French book The Little Prince, which was published in 1943, had the Prince living on an asteroid the size of a house called B612.
On another side-note, the robot can only roll forward and backward. You never see the robot turn using those treads. I'm guessing it doesn't work too well. There are times the robot is moving about freely but they shoot that from the knees up and the operator inside the robot suit is walking.
The servant is discovered to be a robot.
The servant robot is converted to an EBCDIC card instead of tape. That's a bit old fashioned but when the episode aired Jan 10, 1968, the EBCDIC punch-cards has been used for about 4 years to store data and programs so it made sense. The current year in this episode is close to the year 2010 (my estimate) so its stupid they are using paper to store data. You'd think the SciFi writers would have been a little more forward thinking. Or perhaps we're meant to believe that you can store information about every atom of a being in some technologically advanced piece of paper.
Why is it when the Jupiter 2 lands on dirt, it drills deep into the surface? When it lands on pavement, it lands using its landing gear. Remember that there is a lower deck underground. It's essentially their basement in the scene above. Here is a scene from Season 2 Episode 2 Wild Adventure on the lower level looking out the window.
We also learn in Season 3 Episode 10 The Space Creature that there is a sub-basement shown below.
Do you really think there is room for a basement and a sub-basement?
They must think we're stupid ... or a child who doesn't question these things.
More stupid stuff: Will gets into a Deck Vent to hide ...
... then the controls he needs to eavesdrop conveniently appear.
Bonus Stupid: In zero gravity, you have gravity IF you're inside a space ship. But when you're OUTSIDE a space-ship, you float and move in slow motion. Stupid!
More Bonus Stupid: There is no toilet or shower on the Jupiter 2. Stupid!
3 comments:
How come where is no toilet or shower on Jupiter?
There is a lavatory. It can be seen in "The Galaxy Gift" with John Carradine. It is behind him down a hallway when he is walking in the lower deck, next to one of the crew cabins.
Lost In Space is not "stupid" at all. There are no "boring" episodes. They are all highly fun, entertaining and enjoyable. Just because things make no sense does not make it "stupid," and neither does not "asking questions" about things in the story.
Just kick back and enjoy the fun. Sure, this is late series weirdness, and they were highly out of classic ideas and stale by this time, but unlike many, I find enough fun and enjoyment in this one, most likely more so than the "average" fan..unless they happen to be a huge Angela Cartwright fan. In that case, they probably love this one.
This is not the "worst" episode. Others this season are worse, such as the legendary "The Great Vegetable Rebellion."
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