episode #65 - Space Destructors

episode #65 / Air Date: 10/11/67 (episode # 6 of 3rd season)
written by Robert Hamner; Directed by Don Richardson

Here is another one in which some hidden cave is uncovered, filled with mechanical marvels - in this case, a machine which can manufacture androids in assembly-line fashion. Why would this machine exist sitting in a cave..? Perhaps, the last leftover of some civilization. Though this begins in conventional fashion, the episode finally showed what could be done with the Lost in Space concept, in terms of providing far-out entertainment. Smith, Will & the Robot (as usual) find the cave with the machine and Smith, predictably, fiddles with it; the machine poops out a faceless android (a man-like figure dressed in white). The android turns out to be unfriendly and chases Smith back to the ship, where John & Don have a chance to use their new disintegrating net.

Despite the dangers, Smith returns to the cave and accidentally gets a handle on how to use the machine properly. Very soon, he's created a personal army for himself, all with his likeness (Smith is, after all, a narcissist - it's a little creepy to see all these faux Smiths). Smith gets carried away with power - he is now Emperor Smith, soon to be ruler over everything, starting with the Robinson clan (it's hinted that the machine is influencing Smith, but is it?). Then it gets really creepy as Will manages to get stuck on the machine's conveyor belt and is transformed...

This was one of the more entertaining episodes with its concept and a lot of action; Guy Williams had a chance to show off his dueling skills again in the spectacular climax, when the machine sends android after android against him, all dressed as musketeers. Also, the set designers must have had a field day conceptualizing and creating the computers & machine in this one; each android starts out as a lump of clay and steadily proceeds as if in an automated factory to its final form. And then, the Will/Smith cyborg/android - the stuff of nightmares? Eerie! The epilogue was actually poignant, with John ready to kick Smith out for good and Smith finally admitting some things about himself out loud. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10
NOTE: early on, John actually states that the first android is not an android and asks what is it? Later, the manufactured beings are called cyborgs; this whole set-up, with the manufacturing mechanism and the products being supposed cyborgs, is an early version of the whole Terminator saga (the films starting in 1984). But, the title of this one still baffles me - Space Destructors? Does that even make sense? It may have been a try at copying some of the more outrageous sci-fi film titles of those times.