episode #41 - A Visit to Hades

episode #41 / Air Date: 12/7/66 (episode #12 of 2nd season)
written by Carey Wilber; Directed by Don Richardon

After finding a harp and playing some notes on it, Smith is transported down below... into hell? So it seems - fire & brimstone (and a monster which looks like a cousin of the alien mutant from This Island Earth-1955). He meets the devil (Gerald Mohr), who takes Smith on a short journey through Smith's disreputable past (an amusing sequence - Harris plays himself as a mischievous child). The devil is not really Satan but an alien being named Morbus; his imprisonment in this hellish dimension for fomenting a revolution thousands of years ago (on a planet called Lyrae) does have parallels to the story of Lucifer and the pit. Morbus wants out, naturally - perhaps Smith can oblige? Doubtful.
Morbus later makes the acquaintance of the Robinsons and is especially interested in Judy - this episode plays on the dissatisfaction and repressed desires of Judy, but it's lighthearted overall. It also doesn't make too much sense; Morbus appears on the Robinsons' planet, at their site, but later it's established that he can't leave his prison - I must have missed something - though it is mentioned that Morbus gets breaks; in any case, rather than just focusing on Smith's antics, this episode also envelops Judy & Don in some slapstick, so that is a welcome change of pace. BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10
Lost in Space Trivia: Gerald Mohr starred in Angry Red Planet (1960)

Epilogue Tag: Smith, Will & The Robot are bowling when the ball is drawn elsewhere, to some shadowy being; when it comes back, it's a bomb! They run as it explodes...! Freeze frame!