episode #63 - Hunter's Moon

episode #63 / Air Date: 9/27/67 (episode #4 of 3rd season)
written by Jack Turley; Directed by Don Richardson

There's no moon in this one, but there is a hunter. John goes in the escape pod with the Robot to check out a planet that the group plans to land on - they need to make those perennial repairs. There's some kind of "contamination belt" around the planet (the FX are a re-use of a previous radiation belt). John ends up landing OK but Smith sabotages the Jupiter 2 once more - in plain sight of everyone this time - because he doesn't want to land, so the ship goes in for a crash landing (the same footage from previous seasons but flopped).

It should be pointed out at this time that this early episode of the 3rd season blatantly follows the same pattern of the previous two seasons, namely: in an early episode of the season, the space castaways once again crash-land on an unknown planet after a few episodes of traveling in outer space; more, John lands on the planet separately from the rest of the group and they reunite a bit later; Smith is against the rest of the group's wish to land and prefers to abandon John - sound familiar? It should; see Island in the Sky from the first season.

The rest of this one is pretty good, however. John goes up against Megazor (Vincent Beck), one of those ruthless, warlike aliens who indulge in 'The Most Dangerous Game' behavior in order to determine leadership qualities. There are a lot of alien monsters on display in this one, notably a rock creature which pursues Smith & Will. There's also a mobile computer that determines the rules of "the Hunt." The production values, again, seem a bit better in this season, with some on-location action in addition to the usual alien sets like the crash site of the ship. Also, check out Megazor's weapon: it fires these spinning buzz-saws. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10
NOTE: the Robot's behavior evolved a bit in this episode; he interacted more with John as a near-equal member of the group; on the downside, Will once again ignores his father's wishes and shows he hasn't grown up much in the past couple of years - these scenes can be tiresome ("Dad! Dad!"). However, Will serves to present the theme of human feeling overcoming the cold logic of despots.