episode #28 - A Change of Space

episode #28 / Air Date: 4/20/66
written by Peter Packer; Directed by Sobey Martin

It may just be me, but this is one of the more memorable episodes: the group finds an unusual small ship, but it's highly advanced. The Robot calculates that it's capable of "light squared" speed - because this has to do with the 6th dimension (recall the episode Invaders From the 5th Dimension; this is apparently one higher dimension ). Will ends up taking the first unplanned trip in the ship; it's brief, but when he returns, his mind has been expanded to super-genius level. His parents are perturbed over his new, analytical behavior.
Dr. Smith is the next one to take the trip; only, in his case, the changes are more physical - he becomes a frail old man, doddering & gibbering. This is amusing, but the wild sci-fi concepts here were fairly new for TV and copied in later shows. The aging effect was obviously done on Star Trek (both on TOS, The Deadly Years, and on TNG); then, the character of Barclay became super-smart in The Nth Degree episode of TNG; and there was even a Voyager episode about the affects of warp 10 travel. So, this early sample was, in some ways, groundbreaking.

Later, the aquatic-looking alien owner of the ship arrives, looking for his ship, and he's not someone you want to mess with. This was one of the few aliens on the show to offer a tangible, real threat; you got the impression that he employed a higher science but was also in a bad mood most of the time - not a pleasant combination. BoG's Score: 7.5 out of 10
Epilogue Tag: John and Smith have returned to a cave to look for a laser gun that Smith dropped; they see it, but a quake hits as John descends to get it; he falls... freeze frame!