episode #40 - West of Mars

episode #40 / Air Date: 11/30/66 (episode #11 of 2nd season)
written by Michael Fessier; Directed by Nathan Juran

This one introduces Smith's doppelganger, a "super swift" outlaw named Zeno (also played by Jonathan Harris). Zeno is pursued by a rather slow-witted outer space lawman "enforcer" (played by Allan Melvin, best known as Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch series) and decides to switch places with Dr. Smith. This is a pretty good set-up but, despite a lot going on, this has a snail's pace. The lawman takes Smith (who is dressed up as Zeno) and Will to another planet, while Zeno stays at the Robinsons' site. Smith is scared of his own shadow, as usual, but starts to puff his chest out when all the residents at some surreal old west town are afraid of him. Then, another gunman shows up... uh-oh.
This has similarities to the Star Trek TOS episode Spectre of the Gun, but this is played for laughs, of course. Harris kind of overdoes it as Zeno, slowing his speech pattern to the point that he seems to talk in slow motion. Also, Zeno eying pretty Judy was a bit creepy. Things only pick up a bit in the final act, when Smith & Zeno are both at the Jupiter 2 site and everyone else is trying to figure out which is which, but even here it's a letdown: it's so obvious who the real Dr. Smith is and the group comes off as very dense - almost as dense as the lawman. This was sort of a failed farce. BoG's Score: 3 out of 10

NOTE: as an aside, I dislike the weird spaceships they show in this series; others may like the attempt to be quirky or different - the lawman's ship here, for example, looks like a small portable jail - but it comes off as too much senseless fantasy to me, not enuff science fiction; I'm suddenly reminded of similar scenes in Barbarella (1968) - go figure.
Lost in Space Trivia: this was reportedly the favorite episode of Jonathan Harris.

Epilogue Tag: Smith & Will are birdwatching (what's with all the birdwatching lately?); Smith comes across a golden harp (a lyre), tries the strings, and it sends him to what looks like hell i.e. Hades; the devil greets him... freeze frame!