episode #64 - The Space Primevals

episode #64 / Air Date: 10/4/67 (episode #5 of 3rd season)
written by Peter Packer; Directed by Nathan Juran

Looks like the Robinson family may have picked the wrong planet to land on this time (last episode) - it's unstable - but what else is new? There's a lava flow heading for the Jupiter 2 site; Don and Smith are heading towards a volcano in the Chariot to cap it with a nuclear explosive As they reach their destination, though, they encounter the Primevals of the title. They look like stupid cavemen but the leader seems to have a power to make objects disappear or teleport. The real power is some machine called Protineus. Don & Smith are soon trapped in a cave where they start to bond .

The advantage to this episode is that it has the look of a bigger-budgeted effort, thanks to some impressive stock shots (lava, explosions, big lizards) and some on location filming. It resembles some of those low budget sci-fi films of the sixties, like Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet. There's also a lot of use of mechanical FX - the Chariot, the escape pod (John uses this to follow Don & Smith). It's also surprising to see the unexpected evolution to the characters of Smith & Don; I never expected these two to start being friendly (thanks to both being near death), a rare turn of events for a TV series back then when the status quo remained the same season to season.
On the downside, this is still kind of a dopey episode; the plot and setting reminded me of one of the more dopey episodes from Star Trek TOS - The Apple. It boils down to the Robot showing off its own power in a contest with Protineus; the Robot shows us magic tricks I was unaware it could do, but it loses anyway - shrunk down to size, one might say. That's another thing, Will & the Robot sneak away again (disobeying! again!) to find the Chariot, though I thought Don & Smith had traveled quite a ways; but, I guess it was just a short walk BoG's Score: 6 out of 10