"No Place to Hide" has action scenes that cropped up in the first six regular episodes but is missing several of the show's trademark aspects, most notably that infectious theme from Johnny Williams (later, John Williams of Star Wars fame) and the scheming presence of Dr Smith (Jonathan Harris) and his alternately menacing and comical robot ("It does not compute"). As the series progresses (or degenerates, depending on your taste), Harris's Smith changes from pantomime villain, a saboteur who is trying to kill the family, into pantomime dame, a panicky old idiot whose foolishness, cowardice and avarice are an endless source of plots. It mostly makes do with the regular cast plus an array of shaggy-suited, snarling aliens, but you do get sterling ham from visiting astronauts such as Warren Oates ("Welcome Stranger"), Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet ("War of the Robots") and a very young Kurt Russell ("The Challenge"). Stories about surviving on an alien world give way to lifts from fairy tale, myth and old movies as Smith gets hold of a wishing cap, becomes a giant, is chosen as a sacrificial king, turns the children over to an alien zoo, squeaks in fright as a werewolf approaches or is cursed with a platinum Midas touch. --Kim Newman
RRP: £49.99
Our Price: £21.97 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Lost in Space began life in 1965 as a science-fiction take on The Swiss Family Robinson. Produced by Irwin Allen, then in the midst of his run of spectacular-but-childish TV SF (before he became the master of big-screen disaster movies), the show featured a family of all-American space colonists cast away on a mysterious planet. Gradually the whole thing devolved into a silly (but sometimes fun) exercise in childish camp. This box set includes all 29 black and white episodes from the first season (with a burst of colour at the end of the last show--a foretaste of the garish look of the remaining two seasons) along with "No Place to Hide", the expensive pilot show that sold the series but which prompted Allen to revamp the whole premise in comic mode when network execs responded best to its unintended humour.
Editorial
DVD Description
Episodes:
The Reluctant Stowaway
The Derelict
Island in the Sky
There Were Giants in the Earth
The Hungry Sea
Welcome Stranger
My Friend, Mr Nobody
Invaders from the Fifth Dimension
The Oasis
The Sky is Falling
Wish Upon a Star
The Raft
One of Our Dogs is Missing
Attack of the Monster Plants
Return from Outer Space
The Keeper, Parts 1 & 2
The Sky Pirate
Ghost in Space
The War of the Robots
The Magic Mirror
The Challenge
The Space Trader
Hi Majesty Smith
The Space Croppers
All That Glitters
The Last Civilization
A Change of Space
Follow the Leader
No Place to Hide (unaired pilot episode)
Editorial
Special Features
Featurette: CBS Network Presentation
Aspect ratio: 4:3
Sound: Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English Hard of Hearing
Editorial
Synopsis
The first season of the classic 1960s TV sci-fi adventure. The Swiss Family Robinson of space blast off for their weird and strangely unique adventures among the stars. Includes the entire first season of the acclaimed sci-fi adventure series and the original pilot. The intrepid Robinson family rocketed away in the then distant year of 1997 to enjoy outerspace adventures in their Jupiter 2 spacecraft, only to be sabotaged by Dr Smith, forcing them all to be LOST IN SPACE.
Blasting off with the Robinson party once again!
Review date: 2008-06-21 Rating: 10 out of 10
Like The Andy Griffith Show from the same decade, "Lost in Space" was a much better program when it was in black and white. Of course, the major change that occurred in the color episodes was the jumping on the "Batman" bandwagon by producer/creator Irwin Allen. That brought about harsh criticism from the strong 1st-year fan base but that's another story.
As far as these 30 episodes, including the unaired pilot, are concerned, the show's initial season was unlike anything ever seen on television up to that point. Featuring a cast of veteran television and movie performers, "Lost in Space", definitely was high on the talent roster. Both Williams and Lockhart had a following from their respective roles in "Zorro" and "Lassie". Billy Mumy had appeared in two classic "Twilight Zone" episodes while Angela Cartwright had been a pixie on "The Danny Thomas Show" and was also featured in a little film by the name of "The Sound of Music".
The show, featured a most impressive lineup of guest stars: Warren Oates ("Hello, Stranger"), Albert Salmi ("The Space Pirate"), Academy Award-winner Mercedes McCambridge ("The Space Croppers"), "Hogan's Heroes" star Werner Klemperer ("All That Glitters"), character acting veteran Royal Dano ("The Lost Civilization"), Torin Thatcher ("The Space Trader"). Michael Ansara, the former husband of Barbara Eden, also appeared in "The Challenge" with a very young Kurt Russell. Michael J. Pollard, a few years away from his Oscar-nomination in "Bonnie and Clyde" popped up in "The Magic Mirror." Michael Rennie from the classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still" starred in the only two-part episode in the show's three-year run: "The Keeper".
Kevin Hagen, who would later star in Allen's "Land of the Giants" along with playing the doctor on "Little House on the Prairie", assays the role of a rather hairy alien that manages to "duplicate" Dr. Smith in "His Majesty Smith", one of the more amusing shows of the season.
Besides featuring impressive state-of-the art effects, "Lost in Space" also showcased the music of an up-and-coming composer by the name of John Williams.
The majority of the first season stories were quite strong, with great direction and engaging plots. They ran the gamut of straight adventure to light-hearted pathos and family relationships. Besides the episodes mentioned earlier, the best episodes featuring the principal characters include "The Reluctant Stowaway," "Island in the Sky," "There Were Giants on Earth," "The Hungry Sea," "Wish Upon a Star," and two that were possibly the "darkest" in the show's history: "One of Our Dogs is Missing" and "Follow the Leader."
With a new version of the show rumored to be on the horizon, one can only hope that the producers have respect for the original and try to maintain some of its integrity.
Every time I've seen this series on tv, it has had the original 1965 closing credits, ending with the original 1965 black-and-white animated sequence "20th Century Fox... Television".
Even on the VHS video releases, the authentic original 1965 closing sequence appeared.
Yet I spend a small fortune buying this DVD box set, only to find that a phony sequence has been added, which is clearly a modern Fox colour logo, phonied into black-and-white. This is extremely disappointing, and spoils the entire set.
It would have been far better to have omitted the closing Fox logo sequence altogether than do this.
And it would have been MUCH MUCH better to have left in the authentic 1965 logo!
I'm a seriously dissatisfied customer. And I'm not going to be buying DVD's from Fox again.
So if you are buying for your children I would skip straight to series two and give a two minute intro, but if you want a bit more bite then go for this series as well. Be warned though there are thirty episodes in this 8-disk DVD collection - over twenty hours of prime time TV from 1965/1966 (Series 2 is the same length but from 1966/1967). So very good value at least, and the picture quality and production values of these series 1 (and 2) DVD's is top notch. No extra's, although the very nice packaging includes a cute little pull-out booklet of the episodes and characters.