LOST IN SPACE-THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH

 

THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH

TELEPLAY-CAREY WILBUR

STORY--SIMON WINCELBERG

DIR-LEO PENN

MUSIC-HERMAN STEIN, BERNARD HERRMAN

 

NARRATION: Last week as you REMEMBER, Will had slipped away from the spaceship to try and repair the Chariot, unaware that the renegade Robot, programmed to obey only Dr. Smith's voice orders, was loose in the area.

 

TEASER-fully recapped

 

Will is in the Chariot as the camera pans across it. He is cold and not having much success at fixing the land vehicle. He guesses he was wrong about it. "I gotta get back to the ship. What?"  He sees the Robot coming over a hill. He goes out, "I wanna talk to you about the way you ran off."   Robot repeats Smith's orders, "When unessential personnel are found alone, destroy."  He blasts a tree and moves closer to Will. Will climbs up the Chariot, "Go back, do you hear me? Go..go back. Go back." He repeats this several times. Robot fires electric between his claws and then down to warm up. John warns Smith about the Robot causing any more trouble. Will calls urgently. Don, John, and Maureen run out. Will uses Smith's voice to put the Robot through a routine check, stalling the Robot. Robot checks his electric circuits by firing between his claws.

 

ACT ONE

Jupiter II lit up at night. Excellent music at the titles. Maureen calls out to Will but John tells her not to distract him. John tells Don to get Smith to come out and stop this or he will be put back in that deep freeze. Don goes to the lower deck and finds Smith making crepe suzette dish--he learned to cook at the feet of the master. Don wants to ring his neck. Smith tries to hit him with the metal stirring tool but gives up. "One false move,"  Don says and makes a motion across his neck. Smith seems afraid. He runs out. Smith gets the power pack out, "Dr. Smith to the rescue."  Maureen takes him off Will, "You take your hands off him."  Smith says, "My dear Madam."  Maureen yells, "Don't you dear Madam me. Turning that thing loose on him."  Smith tries to explain he was alone on a planet facing peril and needed defense. He asks about oranges for his dinner. Later in the galley, John talks to Don and the family while Smith listens from afar, "Now we know nothing of whatever life forms may exist on this planet. We only know that we must depend on ourselves for survival. So starting tomorrow we're going to turn this immediate area into a self sufficient community and that means everyone is going to have his job to do and that means everyone, do you understand, Dr. Smith?"  Morning: John will have the Robot brought to the spaceship camp area but warns Will to stay away from it but later--he wants the forcefield set up before nightfall. Perhaps the one used in THE DERELICT was damaged? Smith promised to help Miss Judy in the garden--he tells Don when Don and John want his help with the forcefield. When he goes to Judy, he tells her that he was helping her father and Major West put up the forcefield. A series of garden tables are set up with corn, squash, carrots, peas, and tomatoes. Smith wants green onions. Judy tells Smith, "Don said it wasn't safe to use any of the native soil."  Smith plants pea seeds and takes the soil into the ship--telling Judy he will do a soil analysis--another lie. She knows it is, "Soil analysis."  Penny tries to find something good in Smith, "Well anyway, he's a good cook."  Judy wonders, "Sure he is."  NOTE: A short few seconds are cut here on the COLUMBIA VIDEO version of this episode. Inside the control room, Smith finds Will working on the astrogater, trying to fix the visual scanner which got wrecked in the crash. If fixed it will be able to see only a few miles. Smith talks his way out of helping Will and goes down on the elevator. The musical interludes during all these "Smith avoids"  sequences are very good. Once in the galley, Smith throws the soil into the garbage chute and drinks coffee. Maureen comes in and he tells her he helped with the forcefield and the garden. She looks at him, unbelieving. Night, Don throws rocks and shoots the laser pistol to test the forcefield, even shooting at Maureen and the kids, "That forcefield will stop a rocket barrage."   Morning: the ramp of the Jupiter II is out. John and Don go to fix the Chariot. A tent is up. John tells Will he cannot fix the Robot and in so doing, calls Will, "William,"  in a tone that Will tells Penny means there is no use arguing. Later, Judy comes running---NOTE something odd by the door entrance inside the control room which looks like an open closet or extra wall. Judy yells, "Mother, come quickly, something terrible's happening in the garden!"  Smith, Maureen, and Penny follow Judy out and see three giant peapods which Smith planted and which grew overnight. Will stops and runs back inside. Smith uses a pocket knife to cut open the pod and several large monstrous claws come out of it, followed by an animal sound and some kind of smoke. Will ran in for a laser and is on top of a rock in a good place to shoot the pea thing dead. Smith takes the gun, telling him he was willing to sell his life dearly for the womenfolk. Will says, "I'll bet."  He insults Smith but Maureen tells him that's enough of that. John and Don fix the Chariot. John drives, "Let's go. I worry about leaving the family alone."  As he drives, the Chariot shakes violently for a few seconds for two or three times. "That's funny. I didn't notice those rough spots before."  Indeed he didn't--the car is running over the rough ridges of a 6 toed footprint of some giant monster.

 

ACT TWO

Don and Smith come into the lab where John is looking into a microscope. Don looks at the living cells which are in from the thing that incubated in the pea pod and the same cells are seen in a sample of native soil from this planet. Don notices they are the same cells. John sums it up, "Living cells neither animal nor vegetable but combining characteristics of each."  Don goes on, "Then the soil of this planet contains a parasite requiring another life form in order to reach maturity."  John nods, "That or metamorphosis... a constant changing sequence of life forms starting with some insignificant life cell in the soil and ending who knows where."   Smith tells them they must be on guard--vegetation wise at least, they are on a very hostile planet. Night--Will lay on his bed in his pajamas. He unbuttons his shirt and opens his closet to put on his clothes. He goes outside to put the power pack in the Robot, all fixed up by him. He comments, "Now I know how that old Dr. Frankenstein felt."  He puts it in. Robot keeps saying, "That does not compute."  NOTE: After Will puts this power pack back into the Robot, he is able to respond to other voices besides Dr. Smith's. Will and Robot hear a growl (another second or two cut on the COLUMBIA HOUSE video occurs here) as the Robot deactivates the forcefield and goes off to check on the sound. The lights in the spaceship come on and John comes running out; Will already has tears streaming down his cheeks. John is angry--he tells Will the robot might have turned on him again, "...might have tried to destroy us all."  Will apologizes. John will talk to him in the morning. Will tells him goodnight and goes in. John reactivates the forcefield and hears loud growl. He looks outward. FLUB TIME: If you look very closely, you will notice when John turns to look at the loud growl, behind him the Jupiter II door hatch begins to close by itself! There is a quick cut away and it is open again, waiting for John to go up the ramp and press the button to close it.

 

Morning--Will sits on a rock tossing small stones. We hear the sad music again. John calls Will bright and talented but he is still a boy. Some things should be left to older hands. With patience and time, they could have reprogrammed the Robot but now they've lost a valuable and needed piece of machinery. "...and that's all I'm going to say about the Robot,"  John gets up and leaves. Robot returns to camp later, talking gibberish, underneath his chest plate, the lower plate seems like it is off. Robot talks of data inaccurate--humanoid not 16 meters high. Don thinks it's had a nervous breakdown. They pull the power pack off and John will check it later.          

 

JOHN'S LOGBOOK: Our first weeks on this strange planet have passed and all are healthy and in good spirits. Since the incident with the giant pod we've encountered nothing in the way of alien life. Although among us all is the vague feeling of another presence somewhere out there in the vast wastes. We have since learned how to plant safely in this alien soil and to domesticate some of its strange ostrich like animals. The amazing growth rate of the soil has already provided us with an adequate food supply. Today, however, a new problem presented itself...

 

Maureen and John find plants have died overnight from a frost. Inside the Jupiter II, they would not have felt it with the automatic heat--it could drop to below zero and they wouldn't feel it inside. John and Don climb up rocks to the mountain top where the weather station is. The wind is picking up. John finds it will drop to 150 below zero the day after tomorrow. He figures they better head south but fast despite Don's fear that some passing rocket from Earth might see only a dead spaceship wreck. John tells him even if they could insulate well enough, the solar batteries would never take the strain. "It's moving day, Major West."  (In the unaired pilots, John's line is, "It's moving day, Dr. West). Don wants to check another gauge but finds pieces of it wrecked inside a giant six toed footprint, a series of prints spread out before them. Don figures this is what the Robot saw and no wonder the poor clunker had a nervous breakdown (these lines about the Robot are dubbed in for THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH only). A footprint, John says is "...of a something that walks on two feet only as big as anything we thought of as human."  "Giants! Come on, Doc,"  Don said. John says, "Let's go. I don't want to leave the family alone a second longer than necessary." 

 

NOTE: Here, the unaired pilot number two slips right into Will with the radio telescope, followed by Maureen going out to do the wash, followed by John yelling at the kids to keep packing, "Come on kids, keep moving, we have to get out of here."  Unaired pilot number one has the entire "cyclops attacks John and Don sequence"  with some additions. Will looking through the radio telescope, says, "Holy cow! It is! A giant!"  Then Maureen says, "There's nothing we can do now,"  Will runs for the laser after saying, "Oh yes there is!"  These two lines are missing from THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH and the unaired pilot number two. In THERE, Maureen says to Will, "Let me look again,"  but not in the pilot number one. Pilot number two is closer to the scenes as included in the aired episodes yet is missing many lovely scenes that are only found in pilot number one!

 

Just as John tells this to Don, a giant one eyed cyclops makes it presence known by growling horribly at them, towering over them in a brilliant special effects sequence. The growls of the giant are different in the unaired pilot number one. Pilot number two has the growls sounding the same--as the THERE scene when the cyclops appears later in the episode to menace the Space Chariot. Don says, "I don't believe it."  John pulls him, "Neither do I but let's get out of here."  They rush to a cave entrance (unaired pilot number one has John yell, "Don!" They run in and look up to see if it saw them rush in.

 

ACT THREE

Will works on the radio telescope. Maureen checks on his progress, then moves to the door. She stares out across the barren terrain, seeing mountains off in the distance. NOTE: looking behind her, one can see the astrogater bubble missing--it is on a large pole that rises the bubble to roof of the Jupiter II! The entire exterior of the Jupiter II looks rather flat--in the unaired pilots, it was the Gemini 12 and never had a lower deck or inset window! Maureen goes out to the automatic washing machine--dryer. She puts clothes in and they come out, washed, dried, and wrapped in plastic. Judy and Penny are picking vegetables (and fruits?) in the garden which is now planted in the ground (as in the unaired pilotS). Behind and to the right is a fence and if one looks closely, one will see an ostrich like animal running around in it--THIS APPEARS IN THERE WERE GIANTS as well as both pilots. Pilot Two ends the scene as Maureen empties the washer machine and moves right to the children, Maureen, and Don packing up the Chariot to have them leave (in unaired pilot one John yells, "Come on kids, Keep moving, I want us out of here in the next five minutes."          

 

Back to Maureen being called in by Will who is at the radio telescope. She looks in and says, "Ohhhh."  She sees a giant one eyed cyclops. Will looks and says, "A giant!"  NOTE: In the unaired pilot one, Will gasps, "Holy cow--it is--a giant!"  Maureen asks (in THERE only), "Let me look again."  She also asks about whether either took a gun, bringing Penny and a worried Judy inside. If you look at the doorway, there appears to be a tent covering closer to the doorway than before. Maureen tells Judy to calm down. Will grabs a laser gun from the rack and runs out, ignoring the calls of Judy and Maureen. NOTE: In the unaired pilot number one, Maureen tells Judy to calm down and "there's nothing we can about it now."  Will yells, "Oh yes there is."  Then he takes the gun and runs out. In THERE and the unaired pilot one we see more of the ostriches in the fence. Don tells John there is no other way out; John goes to take another look at the giant. Don lights up a flare but John tells him not to throw it, to wait. "Wait for what? To be stoned to death?"  John thinks if they get him madder he will tear the mountain apart. "Sorry Doc!"  Don throws the flare and the beast steps on it, roaring. Don admits, "I guess I didn't help matters much."  John avoids telling him so, "At least we know it can feel pain."  Don says, "Yea and he knows we're hiding in here."   The claw reaches for them both--all in one shot as they run to the back of the cave. Will climbs over the cliffs. The giant looks in at the two men, then rips up a tree out of the ground with roots hanging. It shoves it in at them. John yells and pushes Don. Will approaches the giant and laser guns it down. At first, it seemed curious as to what he was--and perhaps it wasn't going to attack him. The giant falls, shaking the cave. Will calls dad who calls him back and runs out. Will says, "I did it! I did it!"  In the unaired pilot number one, he says, "I killed the giant! I kilt it!"  John and Don run out to Will; Will hugs John, John hugs Will. John reprimands Will for having left his post and the family, "If we're going to survive in this place, we must follow orders and that goes for all of us."  He gives Will his parka, "Not as big as you thought you were."  Will shakes his head, "Uh-huh."  They go. The giant gets back up.

 

The lower deck of the Jupiter II: Smith is wearing his new vee neck shirt. First season clothes of Smith: Black shirt with white undershirt, red collar stripe, black belt, pants, and boots. He will stay at the ship, "You'll come back never fear and you'll find me here as snug as a rug."  He seems afraid as John and Don leave. Will says goodbye to the Robot who tells him that does not compute. Will, upset that the Robot cannot show some sentiment, pulls the power pack out. All pack the Chariot. Maureen, Judy, Don (on the roof) and John load it up. John runs into the ship, "C'mon kids, keep moving. We have to get out of here."  NOTE: The Jupiter II exterior set looks even more flat here since this footage comes from the unaired pilots where the Jupiter II was called the Gemini 12 and had no inset window or porthole in the later spot. Maureen calls Will and Penny but only Will shows up, telling her that Penny was riding on the turtle, she and the Bloop. He turned and all of a sudden they were gone. Maureen goes out of camp to call Penny; the ostriches, we see, are gone--having been set loose. John tells Don it will drop 60 degrees in half an hour, that they will have to travel by way of the Inland Sea instead of through the giant's (or are there more than one giant as John seemed to think earlier) valley (called a canyon in the script NO PLACE). John tells Don he has to leave when the temperature hits 10 below, "Whether I come back or not."  John flies up, Don watches from the ramp, having helped him put on the rocket belt parajets and helmet. John flies over Maureen who has gone out a ways more, "Don't worry! I'll find her!"  NOTE: In the unaired pilot number one, he just says, "Don't worry!"  In the unaired pilot number two and in THERE, he says, "Don't worry! I'll find her!"

 

ACT FOUR

John flies around a big rock, then passes a canyon. Penny is on the turtle passing mushroom like rocks or growths, Debbie is on her. Penny worries that the family will not let her play with either of them again. She knew turtles were stubborn and is cold. John lands near her and sees that it is nine below. One more degree and the others will leave. Penny gets on the back of the parajets and Debbie gets on Penny's back. They take off into the gray sky--which looks cold! NOTE: All the flying scenes here as well as Penny's ride on the turtle are musically undercut by the fantastic Bernard Herrman score for BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF.

 

NOTE: The flying scenes in the unaired pilot number one are much longer. John goes past larger rocks, hovers over one spot, is seen from behind longer, and has a point of view shot as he sees the deserts passing beneath him. There are also extreme long shots of his flying. Penny has more dialogue to both the turtle and Debbie. Penny tells it, "Now we're all lost."  At one point Debbie moves off of Penny to another area but comes right back, Penny telling her, "Hey come back here. We'd better stick together or none of us will get home. Good girl."   John hovers over one spot and we see a double rock behind him. He flies over hills and pointy rocks, then flies higher up. He finds Penny, who calls Daddy more times than in THERE. After they lift off, there is a close up on all three; John turns his head slightly, "How do you like it?"  Penny says, "Oh it's great."  John asks, "How's the Bloop?"  "Oh, fine,"  Penny answers. Then there is an extreme long shot on all three as they fly up higher.

 

FROM THE SCRIPT NO PLACE TO HIDE: John tells Maureen and Don they have to go whether he comes back or not. Penny talks more to the turtle and Debbie, mentioning a nasty old neighbor who used to live on their block on Earth who didn't want the kids to run on his silly grass and threatened to have them arrested and thrown in jail. Also here, a giant bird (with metal claws and beak) attacks Penny who was distracted by a pretty orchid and missed Debbie's warning to her. Penny flings herself and Debbie under a giant mushroom, which the bird decapitates. Before it can kill them, John fires a laser blast from the parajets and it glances off the bird's METALLIC BEAK, sending it away. Then Penny tells John she is cold and he checks the degrees--nine below.    

 

Maureen gets a kit on a rock, calling to Will who had to get his tester. Don is about to start up the Chariot, even though Maureen asks him to wait a bit longer. Judy tells him not to start the motor, she won't leave without Daddy and Penny. Judy says, "Don, I'm warning you!"  NOTE: In the unaired pilot, Maureen yells, "Oh Judy please stop it!!!"  She sounds very mean, too. Will points up and yells, "Mom look!"  John, Penny, and Debbie come flying over  and down to them. The chariot is soon on its way.

 

NOTE: In the script NO PLACE, Judy's warning carries more weight: she picks up a laser gun to shoot at Don. She even refuses Maureen's request that she put the gun down. Don looks her in the eye and starts the motor anyway. It is then that John and Penny with the Bloop reappear. Also note that after Judy held the gun on Don, John returns with Penny and Debbie, it is now that the Chariot goes into the Inland Sea and has its encounter with the storm and whirlpool. this is followed in the script by the cave encounter, the reverse of events in both unaired pilots, and THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH and THE HUNGRY SEA.

 

MORE TO CONSIDER: A sequence for the pilot was supposedly filmed as follows--instead of a giant metallic beaked bird, a giant cyclops was to come up behind Penny when she, the turtle, and Debbie got lost. The giant starts picking up the tops of the mushrooms, mimicking Penny's picking of flowers. Penny scolds the giant for being so impolite when he roars at her. She tells him the mushrooms are good for him to eat but he crushes them. Penny offers it a blue flower and it takes it, then leaves. She yells her goodbyes to it. John then finds Penny. After John, Penny, and the Bloop return to the Chariot, the script or unaired scenes for THERE also had a scene where the giant cyclops comes up behind Smith and the Robot who are standing outside the Jupiter II. Will had deactivated the Robot so Smith had to go out and reactivate him. Smith thinks the Robot, who begins acting strange again, is having mechanical problems due to the Robinson's tampering. Robot is really reacting the cyclops again. They find themselves enveloped by the shadow of the giant which extends his hand to them. In his hand is the blue flower Penny gave it. Smith doesn't know about Penny's encounter with the giant, this one being a good giant, thus he orders the Robot to blast it. The Robot fires twice and the wounded giant drops the flower and walks off, screaming. Another rumored sequence has the good cyclops holding a mirror to see itself. Another sequence that was definitely filmed and that exists IN COLOR footage, is a scene of a giant attacking John while the Professor is flying on the jet pack. John shoots his laser at the Cyclops. Perhaps another Cyclops attacked Penny or perhaps the same one was frightened by John...or maybe it attacked John first, then went on to find the friendly encounter with Penny. Many of these scenes (including the giant bird attack) are depicted on the gum cards to LOST IN SPACE and in the story on the back of the cards. Other domesticated animals in the script NO PLACE include pandas, burros, and cats--all similar to Earth species but somewhat alien-ish like Debbie and the spiked turtles.

 

The Chariot starts out on its journey. John orders Don to take the gun hatch just in case. The cyclops roars over them, holding a boulder above its head. It drops the rock near the car, then drops a second which hits and rolls into the Chariot. Don fires just as it has another. The boulder falls...and seems to head right at the Chariot. The giant falls over. The Chariot moves onward (NOTE: the toy dolls in the miniature Chariot are seen jostled around--it is quite obvious these are dolls). Brilliant special effects as the Chariot moves past the dead (or stunned?) cyclops for all to see. Debbie claps and sticks her tongue out. The thing has its eye open.

The Chariot travels on through the deserts. Don tells them the boulders didn't do the power unit much good. They have to set up camp right where they are for Don to fix these. Night: they camp near some trees. Will sings Greensleeves as he plays his guitar; Penny puts Debbie in a dress even though the bloop won't hold still. Judy passes tools to Don, who works under the Chariot, "I'm glad dad decided to camp here."  Don smiles, "Yeah, all the comforts of home."  Judy laughs, "Home was never like this."   Penny sees Don kiss Judy's hand (and Judy looks off, terribly phoney in her modesty). The younger daughter runs to Maureen and John at a table set up (with some device--coffee maker? or waste disposal unit?) to tell them. Penny says of Don kissing Judy's hand, "Bet he picked up a million germs."  Maureen tells her to wiser minds young people do things that may seem strange. Penny realizes in other words --she should mind her own business. JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH romantic music plays in this scene. Maureen tells John it is difficult for her to think of Judy as anything but a child. John says, "Considering the population implosion here we can't ask her to play the field."  He also tells Maureen they forgot to bring one scientific bit of need with them: a marriage counselor. Maureen asks, "For them?"  John laughs, "Who else?"  Maureen and John kiss.

 

Day--Chariot moves onward. Night--a storm of lightning bolts parades around the Chariot. Debbie hangs onto the roof. John says, "We must find a cave for protection. We'll be killed if we don't."  Maureen tells him seatbelts are all set. They find a cave to go in and do---just missing being hit by a rain of bolts. As the car moves into and stops inside the cave, we hear DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL music. Judy and Maureen think what they are seeing inside looks like some kind of a castle. Penny calls it a city which Will scoffs at, saying it is some kind of geological accident but can't elaborate further, "Ask Don, my field's electronics."  Don gets Debbie and the flashlights, putting out the flares. It is his voice we hear calling Debbie. They move inside the pillars to see if it is safe to spend the night. They move under webs and past more pillars. Debbie wanders down a hall of pillars and columns. She also walks past fallen rocks. Penny calls for Debbie, looking through cobwebs, walking through one and not minding. Will comes calling for Penny, "Penny, come on out."  Penny says, "Will, I can't find Debbie."  Will says, "You women are always gettin' lost."  He finds pictures on the walls. One looks like the cyclops. Others appear to be big headed humanoid types. Will falls through a trap wall and when Penny runs to him he tells her, "Stop fussing, I'm alright!"  He shines his flashlight around the area, stopping on a long dead body--some kind of rotted mummy hung against the wall in an alcove. Penny screams. A wind blows and the door closes. Will bangs on it, "We're trapped!"

 

CLIFFHANGER: Don sees fighting creatures--giant lion-like, Centaur like in the pictures on the walls. Judy calls for Penny and Will. They find the two and open the turning wall. In the unaired pilot one, Penny says, "Look Don,"  the tail end of which can be heard in THERE. It is not present in the unaired pilot number two. Will calls, "The door, it's closing!"  It does and Don says, "We're trapped!"  Then the whole room starts shaking! Don calls, "It's an earthquake!"  In unaired pilot one, Don shouts, "Earthquake!"  The music used here in THERE for the earthquake is from JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. It is not as effective as the John Williams music which will be used in the recap of the same scene. There is a very different edit pertaining to the line up of scenes in this earthquake--it is very different in THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH and THE HUNGRY SEA. The mummy shakes; John and Maureen pass pillars; John yells, "Don!"  The pillar falls behind John and Maureen, who appear to pass the area where the trap door wall is. They fall about in another hall of pillars; John has to pull Maureen. Judy, Don, Will, and Penny shake in the room, still trapped. John and Maureen seem to double back, passing the trap door area again. Don screams with the others. Don says (via a dub over): "Judy stay close to Penny!"  John holds Maureen close to him as rocks rain down on them. Maureen keeps calling the names of their children; John keeps calling Don. John calls, "Where are ya?"  When they finally reach the correct door, Maureen bangs on it, "Judy! Children! Don!" John yells, "Stand back," and when she does, he begins firing the laser pistol at the stone block in the wall. The foursome inside shake and fall. Don yells, "Don't be frightened! It'll be opened in a minute!"  NOTE: In the unaired pilot number one there is no such quote and "Judy, stay close to Penny,"  is also not there. Both quotes are present in the unaired pilot number two. Another pillar falls behind John and Maureen. Close up on the laser gun sparking around the block. Freeze frame.

 

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK, SAME TIME SAME CHANNEL

 

ADDITIONAL NOTES: In the NO PLACE script, Judy and Don are the only two who get lost from the others. With Debbie, they find themselves trapped in the wall room. They find the pictures on the cave walls. Judy passes her hands across the hieroglyphics along the walls and finds she is able to read them, almost as if the spirit of the mummy relays the story through her, "I am Opu, king of the Illuminated Ones that dwell in the High Regions, who has built this palace for the Spirit of Dreadful Joy."  Don reads some of the words too, "But in the long night of frozen silence it came to pass that those whose skulls are as remote as the stars (the giants?) saw fit to visit their evil upon my tribe, even unto our own sacred person and humbled us and scattered us, and made us to roam the hot land of everlasting day like the beasts of the wild marshes."  Don and Judy speculate on what happened--the giants may have driven the Illuminated Ones out of this castle. Judy touches a ring on the mummy hand and the mummy crumbles to dust. Judy screams and her scream alerts the others to where she, Don, and the Bloop are. A footnote to this script is that it was a convention that was to be established for communication with aliens--hieroglyphics; other intelligent beings were to communicate by touch, writing, or a maser like beam and to have one of our Earth party verbalize their thoughts for the others. John also talks to Maureen about the one giant that attacked them--perhaps it was a renegade. Or perhaps the giants are friendly...only see the Earthlings are a mean, evil force on their planet. Also in the pilot Will chases one of the ostriches past Penny, calling to it to come here since it took one of his instruments. Penny hates tomatoes in the NO PLACE script; John tells Maureen she thinks he is going senile when she has to prompt him into letting Don go up to fix the Chariot in the middle of a storm in the script; first is the Cyclops attacks the Chariot sequence and then the whirlpool sequence which comes before the earthquake city sequence in the script...unlike anywhere else. Another interesting thing is that Judy and Don were really appointed to be an Adam and Eve of a future human race once they got to Alpha Centauri. Also of interest is that Will picks up signals, he thinks are from Earth---but aren't---they are from a passing Japanese spaceship! John mentions Centurians in passing. Maureen wonders if Space Authority realized what happened to the Robinsons after they crashed...they probably didn't even know something went wrong in the script. One of the Chariot stops (when Will plays the guitar) is very different with more dialogue...but really silly stuff. It is much better as filmed in the unaired pilots with some of the goofy dialogue edited out.        

 

REVIEW: Paul Z should be commended for his wonderful, genius work on the costume of the one eyed vegetable fur covered giant--made from palm trees among other things. It is absolutely brilliant and very alien in look. It could almost be from another world. Certainly the most believable alien monster ever produced for television. This episode is fun all the way through. Even non fans like it. We have the jet pack flying scenes, the extreme cold coming, the mountain sequence, the cyclops attacks, more Chariot travel scenes (which are always fun and give an aura of exploration which is lost in later seasons), the lightning, the earth quake--which is a great action sequence despite the silly idea that John and Maureen would let both Will and Penny, then Don and Judy out of their sight for one minute. There are at least four versions of the earthquake scene--one here, the recap in THE HUNGRY SEA (which improves upon it musically and in sequence arrangement), and the versions in both unaired pilotS. Smith is very good in this episode, not overused. He begins his avoidance of work here in very comical but not overblown or overdone fashion. He works well in this episode. This is the first time his more casual outfit is seen. He will wear it for almost all the episodes in this season except for the second half of GHOST IN SPACE, WAR OF THE ROBOTS, and THE MAGIC MIRROR. The white beige shirt he wears in those three episodes is given by Penny to Ohan, a space fugitive. Red Rock Canyon scenes used for the flying belt, the cyclops, and Chariot sequence looks like an alien planet. The spaceship keeps looking different in different scenes. It was modified quite a bit for the series but the stock footage from the unaired pilots make it look like it did before (at times). This included a round porthole in the wrong spot--it seems to switch back and forth a few times this season as stock footage of the ship and camp is shown---and a flat main window---no indented sill. This episode is fondly remembered and enjoyed. Good show. It is really too bad that the people involved with the series at this point---people like writers Shimon Wincelberg, Norman Lessing, and William Welch (who did do one more LOST IN SPACE--ONE OF OUR DOGS IS MISSING and in year three-SPACE CREATURE) as well as directors Tony Leader (who made DERELICT so good), Alex Singer, Leo Penn, Alvin Ganzer (WELCOME STRANGER), Paul Stanley (MY FRIEND MR. NOBODY), and Sutton Roley weren't kept on the entire series or at least most of the series. They brought a seriousness to the proceedings without playing up to the comical aspects to the detriment of all else. Had LOST IN SPACE survived the camp of the BATMAN phase into the more serious 1968 to 1970s, LOST IN SPACE may have had more serious stories. At this time, LOST IN SPACE had an OUTER LIMITS like feel to it...and that is a good thing. The monsters did not outweigh the human drama, the survival aspect, or the interaction between characters. John Peel even criticized this episode---he wanted to know what the Cyclops ate---uhhh, there are trees and flowers. Not to mention some other smaller animals.