episode #50 - Rocket to Earth

episode #50 / Air Date: 2/15/67 (episode #21 of 2nd season)
written by Barney Slater; Directed by Don Richardson

Smith sees a magician appear - hey, we've seen space cowboys, space knights; space vikings; why not a magician? The hook is, only Smith can see this magician, named Zalto (Al Lewis, from The Munsters TV show). Smith starts to think that he is going mad, until the Robot confirms that the wizard and his creepy puppet do indeed exist (the Robot mentions that it wasn't functioning properly before). The Robot directs Smith & Will to a cave where Zalto resides (there are many uncovered caves in the area, it seems).
This all results in yet another ludicrous yet tedious episode; Al Lewis was almost as big a ham as Jonathan Harris and the two of them double the usual eye-rolling content. Also, there was a formula by this time - started a few episodes back - of John Robinson doing his own eye rolling at the sight of Smith's latest antics; Smith appears dressed in his own magician's outfit at one point. I could imagine that Guy Williams wasn't doing much acting in scenes like this. Anyway, Zalto has his own ship and can send Smith to Earth - or so it seems. BoG's Score: 2.5 out of 10

Epilogue Tag: while John & Don are finally prepping the ship for Alpha Centauri (what - really?), Smith & The Robot are gathering geological samples; there's a gas explosion and Smith is sent falling... freeze frame!