episode #35 - The Prisoners of Space

episode #35 / Air Date: 10/19/66 (episode #6 of 2nd season)
written by Barney Slater; Directed by Nathan Juran

This is one of those dreaded flashback shows, showing scenes from older episodes of the first season, but it's not that bad for that sort of thing - I could have easily given this a grade of 2 out of 10 or so. However, they managed to insert the old clips into a somewhat intriguing scenario: the Robinsons are placed under house arrest by a galactic tribunal of justice; an electronic fence materializes around their site and a voice from a box indicts all members of the group, except Smith. One-by-one, they are to be matter transported to an intergalactic court which resembles a space-age Stonehenge, there to face the charges against them.

When I first watched this, I was indeed curious about what charges were to be brought against them; as both Smith and West (who agree for once) state, alien justice might have different ideas about what constitutes a transgression or law breakage. The irony here, of course, is that Smith is the one who usually violates some law in the past episodes, so his exclusion from the indictment indicates that the aliens do think differently from Earthlings. One of the clearer examples of messing things up is from the old episode, The Derelict, when the group had awakened some slumbering aliens in an old ship.

Unfortunately, the trial and the episode do not hold any surprises. Eventually, it does transpire that Smith will have to answer for some things as the alien tribunal gets to the truth of things - but, for a galactic tribunal, it seems kind of dense. The setting for the trial is suitably weird & alien and a bit spooky, utilizing many of the alien suits or fake creatures from past episodes. If you watched all the past episodes recently, you'll recognize almost all of them. BoG's Score: 4 out of 10
Lost in Space Trivia: the voice of the tribunal head sounded like Malachi Throne to me, but I don't have data to back this up at this point.

Epilogue Tag: Smith, Will & the Robot find a machine sitting near their site; Smith thinks it creates illustrations; but, when he activates it, a female-shaped android appears... freeze frame!