episode #76 - Princess of Space

episode #76 / Air Date: 1/10/68 (episode #17 of 3rd season)
written by Jackson Gillis; Directed by Don Richardson

We're back to full power farce with this one: this time it's Penny reading some book, one of her childhood reads; it's about princesses, stories like that. By strange coincidence, a space captain in a huge ship has targeted Penny as the long-missing princess of an intergalactic society. But, he accidentally swipes Will to his ship instead and the 'fun' begins. Eventually, most of the clan is on that ship (John & Maureen are missing for most of this), as Penny is prepared to meet the royal aunt (Sheila Matthews, wife of Irwin Allen).
The really odd thing about all this (which is par for the course) is that most of the ship's crew are these mobile computers. This was an early take on mechanical life, but it's very loopy - this being Lost in Space; these are literally computer banks or consoles which should be sitting against a wall somewhere but have attached mechanical arms and can glide along the floor. There's a rebellion brewing, led by a ship's mate (Arte Johnson) who is a disguised human (when I was a little kid, I was actually creeped out a bit when he revealed his innards).

Some of the plot hinges on the fact that humans can be turned into computer tapes - just a 2-foot length of tape; it's all mostly nonsense. BoG's Score: 4 out of 10