LOST IN SPACE-WISH UPON A STAR

 

WISH UPON A STAR

WRITER-BARNEY SLATER

DIR-SUTTON ROLEY

 

NARRATION: Last week as you recall, we left Dr. Smith dozing as Will worked over the Chariot. Will was unaware that, within moments, Dr. Smith's carelessness would imperil all their lives.

 

TEASER-totally recapped but one extra shot of a close up image of Will working on the two Chariot control panels is added right at the very beginning just after we see Smith on the lounge chair.

 

Smith yawns as he rests, goggles on, on a lounge chair. Nearby Will who is working on the Chariot with controls on a table in front of the vehicle. Smith tells Will, "You see, Will, even as a boy, I was determined to become a scientist--to work for the betterment of mankind."  Will tells Don it is the centrifical repressor. After some verbal sparring, Don threatens Smith with a wrench if Smith doesn't help. Smith asks what are Don's orders and Don asks him to take the fuel cell to the back of the Chariot and leave it there for him to work on later. Smith jokes about Don being a capitan and Don warns him to be careful with the fuel cell--it can explode on contact with air. "Never fear, Smith is here,"  Smith says, and goes to the back. Don asks, "I don't know why we bother with him, Will."  Will tells him, "Dr. Smith has some good qualities."   Don has yet to see any. Instead of putting it on the ground, Smith drops it. It lands and a small light goes on. Smith tells Don he wants to go to his cabin--he's weary. Don says, "You're always tired and hungry, that's your natural state."   When we next see the fuel cylinder, it is smoking (and NOTE: it is not in the same position Smith dropped it in--it is turned on another side!). Smith goes to the ramp. Will smells something. Don does too, now, and gets up and runs toward the back of the Chariot, "The fuel cell. Get back! It could explode at any second!"  Smith turns at the door of the ship and watches, in horror. Don grabs it up and tosses it. There is a rip roaring blast that seems to engulf Don! (THIS IS WHERE THE CLIFFHANGER ENDED). Will, having hid behind the lounge chair, yells, "Don!"  He runs to him, John comes running out of the ship, past Smith. John runs to Don who is more angry than hurt, "I'm alright, I'm alright!"  Smith comes to them and Don yells at him, "We could have all been killed because of your stupidity."   John stops the two from arguing again. He demands to know what happened from Will since the other two won't talk now. Will tells him. John says they will drop it as Smith requests--it was caused by a malfunctioning bit of machinery. John brings up the hydroponic garden--it was Smith's responsibility this week but Smith claims he was so busy. He was about to go over there now; John tells him not to bother--"we no longer have a garden--it died of neglect,"  he tells Will. Don comes back from cleaning himself up near the Chariot and if fed up with Smith--every time something goes wrong, Don spouts, Smith is at the bottom of it. Don calls him a troublemaker and adds, "The sooner we get rid of you, the better off we'll all be."   Smith asks John, "Are these also your feelings, Prof. Robinson?"  John stares and nods briefly. Smith will leave immediately. Under the tent near the table as they fix it to eat, Maureen, Will, Penny, and Judy talk. Will starts to ask Maureen something, "Mom--nothing, it was just a thought."  Penny tells them that no one asked Smith to stay. Judy wonders if dad is going to let him go; John, coming out of the ship, tells her of course he is. He has to learn about responsibility even though Will says Dr. Smith can't shift for himself. Without them to lean on, John thinks Smith will learn pretty rapidly. Smith comes out with a parka and a laser rifle--what appears to be a different type of laser rifle from THE SKY IS FALLING and the early first season. Maureen has three food packs for him but he must not accept them. He goes--"it is time for my exile."  He makes a sad face, telling all, "There is no use pleading."   He starts out as Will says, "Take care of yourself, doctor." He is almost gone when Will says, "Good luck, sir."  Smith waves; Will is at a pole to the tent, holding onto it and waves back (we see a good shot of the ring on his finger). John and Maureen sit down. Will sits and puts his head on his hands, his elbows on the table. Maureen says, "Take your elbows off the table, dear."  Oh blow it out your ear, mom. I said that, not Will.

 

ACT ONE

John comes down the elevator--we get a good look at the lower deck ceiling. He goes into Penny's cabin, kisses her, and puts her arm back under her blanket. He finds Will awake, worrying over Smith. He makes Will go to sleep--Will sleeps with his head toward the wall--the opposite of Penny--who sleeps with her head towards the curtain door. On both cabin walls are framed pictures (?) or samples of small sea creatures (left overs from VOYAGE?) or flattened butterflies or something. The night continues as Smith is up, staring at his fire. He hears a hyena sound and looks around. He shoots a bush that keeps moving and a flying flat bottomed thing flies out (it looks a bit like those flying parasite monsters from Roger Corman's IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and NOT OF THIS EARTH). Day--boots come to Smith--it is Will, who wakes him up. He has brought breakfast. We see some wind blowing. Smith tells Will although he can live off the land, he won't let the blueberry rolls and jam go to waste. He tells Will he slept. Will packs him up--he picked a camp downhill--if it rains--he'd be flooded. Smith has on his parka. Will says, "Hup 1,2,3,"  and Smith follows suit. They pass close rocks, Smith needs a rest. They come upon webbed up trees, covered in the sticky stuff. They see the wreck of an old spaceship. Will says, "I bet it crashed here centuries ago."  He asks Smith, "Isn't that a place for you to live?"   Smith makes the boy go first and Will wipes away the webs on the entrance. We can see the ribs of the outer hull. Will wonders about is past occupants. Smith says, "Considering our past experiences with aliens, I prefer not to conjecture."  He orders Will to try the old door. NOTE: We hear a chime-like version of the usual scary music--this may or may not have come from THE DERELICT. It is not heard often--one example may be the variation heard in season three's VISIT TO A HOSTILE PLANET. The door is jammed. Smith tells him to leave it and asks him to stay. Smith will do the work and Will can watch, "My dear boy, you have the soul of an angel,"  he tells will when Will agrees to stay. Will also might as well lend a hand and finds a small device platform. Smith tells him to throw it away but Will puts the hat on. Smith says he looks like the school dunce at Halloween. Will, hungry, would like something to eat. The machine lights up, the hat lights up and a sheeshkebob of smoking alien food appears in a tray!

 

ACT TWO                    

When Will wonders what happened, Smith say, "We're on a planet where anything is possible, Will."  Smith makes Will try again. He would like a bike but the ground is not too smooth here. He asks for apples like back on Earth. It rains apples. Will eats one; Smith makes Will sort of promise not to tell anyone yet. Smith eats the alien food. Maureen, John, Penny, and Judy look at the apple under the tent. John found it in Will's room. At dinner, Will arrives late and isn't hungry. Penny says, "He's sick."  John says, "Maybe he's full of apples."  Will tells him it is a kind of unstated secret between him and Dr. Smith. At the alien craft, Smith makes his wine cup runneth over, "Cease and desist"  he yells as it does. Will arrives and marvels at the large circle bed, couch, candelabra, and other delights. Will tells Smith he had to tell dad about the machine. Smith tells him not to worry and to have French pastry. Will thinks about Penny and Judy and the everyone else--it wouldn't be fair to them. Smith gives Will a full tray for all after tonight's dinner. Smith says, "You know, I've missed you, Will. It's been very lonely here without you."  He tells Will he would have told the others soon--he's been testing it out. Will wonders--for four days? There is some sort of problem with the machine, Smith says. Will feels that he never intended to share it with them as Don said---Don said Smith didn't need them anymore and that he only cares about himself. Will wonders why Smith is keeping the machine if that weren't true. Will returns the pastry and runs away, "Goodbye, sir."  Smith calls, "Will, wait a moment."  But the boy is gone. Control Room: Penny reads a book, her hand covering the title and author, however one can deduce it is one of the NANCY DREW MYSTERIES--THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING______well, something. Don comes up the ladder to see her in a chair next to Will, who is in a chair, staring up. Don tells him Smith isn't worth the effort. Will says, "I know he was always doing things that were wrong but underneath...I like him...that's all."   Smith thanks him, standing in the doorway, "Isn't anyone going to welcome the prodigal's return."  Don wants to know what he wants. Smith says, "You misjudged me, Will."  Don doubts that. Smith says, "With the aid of this incredible machine, I'm going to create another complete Jupiter II which will carry us safely through the heavens back to Earth."   Will says, "Gee."  NOTE: This music, also heard in the end of THE HUNGRY SEA, is NOT on the CD.

 

ACT THREE

Outside: Smith tells them to stand back--he wouldn't want them to be accidentally crushed. He walks around the are (floating music from RELUCTANT STOWAWAY heard) and closes his eyes, "There."  It was not easy he claims. Don tells him there is nothing there and when he wants to tell some more fairy tales...but something does appear and smoke up. They see it--a tiny Jupiter II. Will and Penny take it and run off. There must be a limit to its power. Don moves off. Smith looks at the machine, "Traitor!"  Lab: Robot tells John, Penny, Will, and Smith, "The impulses are picked up by the headset and transformed into high soanic electrical waves--sonanic waves are then fused with a radioactive center in the machine."  He cannot compute any more. Penny feels it is like an Aladdin's Lamp. Will complains they are trying to find a scientific explanation and she comes up with fairy tales. Penny says, "The problem with you, William Robinson, you have no imagination. It's a wish machine."  Maureen comes and asks if they've found anything out. John says, "Only how abysmally ignorant we are."  Maureen wants to try it for something extra special for dinner. Smith tells her to take it--the machine can only be used twice a day. John won't try--he doesn't believe you can get something for nothing. Later, Don is under the Chariot and asks if that is Will that is clearing her throat--it is Judy with a new hairdo and new sexy, dress. Don asks for a wrench but comes out and hits his head, "Oh,"  then sees Judy, "I mean wow."  She made the dress from the thought machine. They go for a walk. Penny and Will pull at the machine between them. It was Judy's turn yesterday--Penny wants it for tape recordings, Will for lab equipment (WELCOME STRANGER western battle music). Penny tells him if it weren't for art there wouldn't be any science. Will says, "As Dr. Smith would say, nonsense and double nonsense!"  Penny gets Will to stop pulling and tells him to ask Dad which one of them should use it. He goes down the elevator. We see the ceiling of the Control Room as Penny bends down and tries the machine to make her tapes (we hear MR NOBODY music). Later--under the tent, Will tells John that Penny tricked him and wants Penny to lose her turn with the machine for a couple of times. John sees that as a problem--who would get her turns--and the others would probably argue about that. Maureen brings Penny out. Penny tells him about Mozart, Bach, Beethoven. John thinks her selection is wonderful but wonders if she has anything by lie, cheat, or trick. John holds her hand, "I'm very disappointed in you--you sacrificed your moral principles for something material."  Penny says, "Yes sir, I'm very sorry."  He makes her sit down and tells her he never wants her to do that again. Maureen tells him, "Here come Don and Judy. You wanted to talk to them as well."  John says, "Yes, I do."  Don says hi to Will who returns the hello. The repressor on the Chariot isn't replaced yet--it was Judy's fault, she says---she asked Don to take her for a walk. She was supposed to be in the hydroponic garden. Will was supposed to help Don. John asks, "Well, does anybody care to make a comment? Alright then, I will. And it can be summed up in three words--the thought machine."   Don supposes they've all been relying on it a bit too much but...Will adds, "Why work when the machine can do it for you?"  John says, "Will, up to now this family's been getting along very well, we have respect, and love for one another and you cannot wish for those things with that and then we get this machine that makes dreams come true and instead of making us happier, it sows the seeds of discontent, mistrust, and indolence, I said a machine that makes dreams come true---nightmares can also be dreams."  He takes it away from the table center, enters the Control Room where Smith is telling the Robot he is now passe and will have to be used as a menial or servant. Robot gives synonyms for outmoded. John tells Smith to get rid of the machine and if Smith won't do it, he will. Smith will take it, telling the Professor he has no right to destroy it. John says, "When it endangers our welfare I do."  John tells him the Robot remains here at the ship---his precious machine can provide him with all the companionship he needs. Smith will leave in the morning. Next night: Smith is at his table at the alien wreck. He has lamps, the Mona Lisa behind him with curtains, and a dinner. Smith says, "I can have anything I want."  He toasts, "To you, Mona."  He drinks and lays on his stomach, too tired to get his coffee. Smith wishes for a servant for coffee. The machine blinks and continues to blink, unlike the previous wishes. The old door creaks open and inside we see a device from INVADERS FROM THE 5TH DIMENSION. A white faced mummy faced very tall alien humanoid walks out of the shadows within. It wears a black tunic and has white legs. It holds out its clawed hands and walks through the webs. Smith, his back turned, in his couch, says, "Two lumps, please."  We see a zoom in on the monster.

 

ACT FOUR

The creature holds out its hands. Zoom out as Smith takes the machine and then realizes this is his servant. He orders it to take him the tray of coffee. It picks up the tray and throws it over, surprising Smith, who flees with the machine. It moans and groans for the device. Galley on Jupiter II: John and Maureen look over the bad fruit--it went bad in one hour. Maureen tells John the permafood is still working. Judy opens her cabin door, crying--she has no shoes on and the new dress is torn to ribbons. Her hair is a mess and down. She cries that Penny's tapes won't play either.  "Oh, mother."  Smith hides the machine behind a rock and large grass and runs; the monster man follows, waddling or limping. His hands look atrophied or stiff. We also see the feet of the monster in the sand as it chases Smith. Control Room: Maureen and Will play cards on the table; John sits on the control panel, Don nearby on the floor against the control panel. The console has a large metal plate over it. Don predicts Smith, the bad penny, will turn up. Smith runs in and puts on the forcefield. He hides beneath the window. Will gasps, "Dad! Don!"  The mummy man comes into view and his hands are turned the wrong way. He touches the force field and gets an electric charge which draws him back. Smith explains, "This time I am definitely not at fault."  Don says, "That I don't believe."  John says, "Smith, I want you give the alien what it wants."  When Smith refuses, John orders Don to turn the forcefield off; Smith blocks Don. John says, "That alien has no quarrel with us."  He insists Smith return it now but Smith tells him that thing is still out there. Will tells them it's gone. When they turn off the field, Smith says, "We'll all be destroyed!"  They open the door. Don, Smith, and John go out with Will (what? why take Will?). Maureen closes the door and sees the thing come up behind the group from its hiding place behind a rock. She stares out but it vanishes. Smith takes them to the area; John pushes him ahead roughly. John makes Will pick it up. Smith tells John he's decided to keep the machine for that one day when they return to Earth. John moves Smith to the alien derelict where it belongs and the creature can find it. The machine whirs and the monster appears. Don gasps, "He's here!"  Zoom in on its face. Don puts the hat down and aims his rifle at the monster. John looks at him, "Don't make any sudden moves, keep calm."  John forces Smith to go ahead and take it to the mummy man. Smith first turns to Will, "Will, you take it."  Smith puts it up into the monster's hands and it leaves, going back into the spaceship door and the door closes, creaking. Smith says, "He didn't harm me, he didn't harm me."  This line by Harris sounds awfully Scottish or Irish or British or something. All the things from the wish machine vanish. Smith calls the mummy man a vindictive creature. Will says, "He must still be in there."  Will runs to it and opens it. Smith yells, "Will don't!"  He sound genuinely concerned for Will. John yells, "Will!"  The door falls off. Behind the door is a heavy masking of webs. Smith calls the alien mean and unreasonable but John says, "The alien meant only good."  Will asks, "Dad, I don't understand, why did the alien give us things and then decide to take them back?"  John says, "Because Dr. Smith asked for too much. You know he could have anything he wanted but like most people, it wasn't enough--he wanted more. When he tried to create a slave, the alien realized this."   Smith doesn't get it, "That vindictive creature."  Will, innocently, looks up, "He would've stayed, doctor. We made him leave because we were selfish."  An apple appears in Will's hand. He eats it, "He must have really heard me!"  Don and John smile. Will bites into the apple.

 

CLIFFHANGER-Night: We hear the Robot (later the Jupiter II second and third season door sound) and see it standing near a small balloon which is attached to a rocket. Robot warns all people to leave the area immediately. In the control room, Will and Penny watch this via the window. Will tells her that rocket may be small but it has enough hyper energy fuel for a real blast. Robot does a countdown. This 6th try is a message from the shipwrecked "space sailors"  to anyone who gets it for help. The rocket goes up. At 1000 feet, Will tells her it will fire up. Penny asks if that is when the pull of gravity will end and he tells her no but every bit helps. She laughs, "I know all about gravity."  Will says, "Let's see what my balloons doing to it."  (To gravity?). John walks through the garden. NOTE: For some reason the hydroponic garden is now in the dirt, not in tables anymore--isn't that dangerous considering THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH ?  The balloon goes to 1000 feet and Will wonders what is holding it. It blows up. Two blasts. Robot warns, "Warning, warning, it's coming this way!"  John runs behind Penny and Will. Penny yells, "It's coming this way!"  Robot warns it is out of control. A ball of fire descends at Will and Penny who John takes and shields with his own body. Judy, Don, and Maureen run out of the spaceship exit to see this. The ball is almost on top of the trio (John has the kids under him).

 

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK, SAME TIME, SAME CHANNEL.

 

REVIEW: While this episode was outstanding, it would being a trend that would mar LOST IN SPACE almost for good: Smith and Will together find some alien device and it makes Smith greedy. A monster or alien is thrown in for good measure and that's it. While this episode and a few others like it later on, rise above that, this set a trend. The idea of a wish machine or machines doing everything for one is used in SPACE: 1999's GUARDIAN OF PIRI, equally well. Penny is a goof ball in this episode and other than some excellent acting from Angela Cartwright as Penny feels bad while John lectures her (wouldn't you feel bad if he lectured you?) and after, saves the character. Angela Cartwright did a great job as Penny through out the series but there are times when you can tell she is having too good a time as Penny (ie--laughing and eyeing Will in a typically childish manner). The wish hat turns up in THE SPACE TRADER as a language duplicator. The alien is not named in the aired episode but promo material and production crew call him The Rubberoid. Exactly what that means, I don't know--perhaps because the scary and excellent mask is made of rubber. Music is mixed to good advantage and camera angles and zoom in and outs are well done. Some of this doesn't work though: John is a bit too preachy and moralistic here, a nice character touch---but considering the wish machine could help them with spare parts, water, and food, his decision to return it to Smith or destroy it is a bit stupid. I also guess there are spiders on this planet to make cobwebs. The rocket craft set was a bit odd--it had outer ribbing and an interior inner door? It's set up was not too well designed. It was, however, atmospheric for the story and the scary parts. What was this monster-mummy-man-alien? A ghost? A projection? We are never told. The story works well though, overall and it shows how the Robinsons could be corrupted as much as Smith but how much they cared for each other in the end.