LOST IN SPACE-FORBIDDEN WORLD

 

FORBIDDEN WORLD

WRITER-BARNEY SLATER

DIR-DON RICHARDSON

MUSIC-ROBERT DRASNIN

 

NARRATION: Last week, as you recall, we left our space family just as they made their escape from the deadly world of the robots. All were unaware that even now, a terrifying engine of destruction was bearing down on them at incredible speed.

 

TEASER-fully recapped

The Jupiter flies away from the alien planet. Smith, Penny, Will and Robot have already come up to the control room. Smith touches a switch which opens a porthole which is inside that closet like alcove, "Farewell, malevolent planet. If our paths cross again, it will be much too soon."  Penny and Will go to the porthole. Maureen and Judy ride up on the glide elevator which robot opens for them. Maureen says, "Thank you."  Robot says, "You're welcome."   John and Don fantasize in ordering dinner---steak and potatoes, asparagus with holiday sauce which Smith mocks, telling him his wild fantasy for dinner which includes caviar. This makes Don laugh slightly. John, Maureen, and Don spot a blip on the radar which Maureen and Smith mistakenly think is either a reflection or harmless space phenomena. John looks at the RPM--the object is traveling faster than they are. Robot warns them--it is a hyperatomic missile; the kids see it out the alcove porthole. Robot tells them, "It has been launched by the automated planet in protest to our leaving."  The missile passes and the Jupiter II tilts, having the missile pass under and around it. Judy notices the missile pulling out of its dive and coming after them again. Robot warns them the missile has now compensated for any evasive action which preempts any more dodging. John tells Don to head for a planet in SECTOR 6:30. As they head toward the planet, the kids watch the missile getting closer and closer to the porthole. Maureen, John, Don, and Smith watch the planet grow in size as the ship heads right at it. Don wants to fire the breaking rockets. John tells him to wait. Smith asks, "Professor, have you gone mad? Do you want to destroy us all?"  John asks, "Would you prefer a direct hit from that missile?"  Maureen asks if they have a chance. Smith tells her no--how do you outsmart a machine?  John tells them, "Maybe we can just once."  Don tells them they are heading into the planet's atmosphere and he must fire the rockets or it'll be too late. John says, "Just a few more seconds Don."  The planet is almost on top of them as is the missile. John yells, "Now Don! Pull up! Pull up!"  Don does and everyone shakes, the planet is missed as Jupiter flies over it. The missile misses the spaceship. Robot reports, "Evasive action successful. Missile now headed for impact on planet."   John warns, "Alright, everybody, hang on!"  The missile blows up on the planet and sends a raging flame mass up at the Jupiter II, engulfing it. The Jupiter spirals out of some more blasts and all shake. Penny screams. Smith says, "We've been blown apart,"  which they haven't been. The missile, Judy notes, wasn't able to pull out of its dive and exploded on the planet. Maureen and Penny looks out the porthole, seeing a small portion of the planet on fire. Penny says, "Gee, I hope nobody lived down there."  Maureen says, "I hope so too dear."   Don blurts, "We've got our own problems. Our navigation system isn't responding."  Seeing the Jupiter is caught in the gravitational pull of the planet in SECTOR 6:30, Smith panics and tries firing the retro rockets, damaged in the concussion of the missile. He misfires them, donates the power cells.The Jupiter II heads downward, faster than before. John tells Maureen there is no time to get the children below and orders all of them on the floor. Smith gasps, screams, and yells, "Move over Penny, you've got company!"  He screams and whines (this is getting annoying at this point) and covers his head. Don orders John down on the floor with the others, telling him that's an order. John shakes his hand and does it, "Good luck."  Don pulls on the thruster control, "Here we go!"  He is thrown back into the elevator and the Robot and falls down. The Jupiter II enters a night time sky and crashlands beyond a range of mountains (some of this looks oddly tinted or in black and white and tinted). NOTE: As noted by Don, the new planet in SECTOR 6:30 is 121 thousand miles from the Jupiter II and that far and further from THE GHOST PLANET. 

 

ACT ONE

Smoke fills the Jupiter II control room. Maureen, the girls, and Smith get up as John and Will use fire extinguishers on fires at the consoles and astrogater. Will takes on out of the closet area. The astrogater dome is off the stand. When some of the smoke parts, Penny sees Don on the floor. Judy and Maureen help him up. Maureen suggests he stay right where he was but he is concerned about the ship more and gets up, "How badly banged up are we?"  John says, "We're not going to be taking any long trips for awhile."   Don agrees, "Yeah or short ones either."  Will turns on the air purifier and tells Smith they are in some sort of fogged in hollow, outside it could be just like Earth. Smith laments Earth. Penny says, "We'll get back to Earth, Dr. Smith, I know we will."  John and Don tells Smith they are in bad shape. Smith says, "Stranded on another bleak and alien planet, lovely, absolutely lovely."  While Maureen worries about scrubbing the smoke off the ship's walls and tubes, Smith worries about having to do work and that they will have to spend three to four hours cooped up in this damaged hulk while John makes tests on the atmosphere. Don tells Smith, "We can't go rushing blindly into the unknown."  John won't let Smith send the Robot out--the fog might be corrosive to his metal. Smith complains and descends below. Don says, "This may be a new planet but we've still got the same old Smith."  Later, Smith looks out the window on the upper deck, telling the Robot there may be an advanced civilization out there that will have the means of sending them back to Earth. Robot tells Smith, "Be patient, Dr. Smith, all things come to he who waits."  Smith calls him a bumbling birdbrain, adding, "You are a machine, you cannot be insulted."  Robot makes it a point to tell Smith besides the difference of his being a machine, he and Smith have a lot more in common. Will climbs up and realizes Dr. Smith wants to send the Robot out, Smith calling the Robot a feralis Frankenstein. Smith opens the airlock and sends the Robot out, even though the Robot feels it is very dark out there. Robot reports back--there is oxygen but also cosmic dust which if taken into lungs can be harmful. The soil will hold plant life and there is a water supply in the area. Robot sees something in the fog, "It's only...stand back! I will destroy!"  Robot doesn't answer Will or Smith's frantic calls. Smith looks scared.

 

ACT TWO     

John tells Smith, "The Robot happens to be as important to the survival of this expedition as any single member."  Don tells Smith, "In fact, Smith, if I had a choice between you and the  Robot...guess who'd I'd pick."  Don and Maureen have equipment in their hands. John will send out Smith to fetch the Robot, "You go if we have to carry you out."  Smith refuses a gun, then takes it. He also tries all his other tricks...feeling faint, his delicate back, his weak heart, and appealing to Maureen. Maureen tells him he is responsible. Smith continues to complain as Don plops an oxygen mask over his mouth. Maureen and Will watch and wish him luck. Smith says, "Never fear, Smith is here."  He turns back but is thrown out screaming and screeching. He goes past a red plant and other colorful trees, rocks, and flowers. "Tossed out into an alien world by those I held nearest and dearest,"  he cries and cries some more. He hears strange sounds (similar to cries he hears in WISH UPON A STAR) and then a squawking. Smith moves past trees and the fog. He finds he can breath, once out of the fog. He calls air the sweet nectar of life. Suddenly, he screams and pulls his gun but faints. We see only the feet and claws of some monster appear then a body with feathers. The thing drags Smith away. Will calls Dr. Smith. John and Don return and have circled around the ship area using oxygen masks. Maureen defends the idea of sending Smith out when Will voices they shouldn't have sent him. Will says, "...but that's Dr. Smith. You just can't expect him to act like everyone else."   John tells Will he does expect Smith to act like everyone else, then in his infinite worry, decides they should all go to bed!!! The others, minus Will, second that vote. Judy notices they have a no vote...Will, who wants to stay up in the hopes Dr. Smith will contact them. Maureen allows it but tells him curfew is 10 o'clock. Everyone else goes down. Almost immediately, Will hears a clanging noise and opens the two doors. He calls out but only sees fog. Will will go out and look for himself. He begins a taped message, "Dad, I'm going to look for Dr. Smith--I know you won't approve but I just have to, sir."  Will goes out and finds sticky stuff under his feet, "I wonder what this is,"  He says, getting out, "...it seems to be some sort of sticky growth. If anything stepped in it, it'd be stuck n' couldn't get out."  Will hears a roar and spins upward to see a giant spider on a rock, red glowing and blinking eyes, a web around it. He covers it with his laser pistol and moves on, "Now I see, it's a trap for the spider."  He goes past it, "Dad, I've covered quite a bit of territory, still no sign of Dr. Smith or the Robot. There sure are a lot of weird things around, we're gonna have to be real careful."  A bird man-monster comes walking at him, snapping its jaw at him, waving its claws. Will aims his gun, 'Don't come any another step or I'll shoot! I'm warning you!"  Will backs away, afraid to shoot it.

 

ACT THREE

Captain Tiabo, an alien with bushy red hair and beard, ragged clothes, and some kind of cannon-like gun, comes hobbling to stop the birdman-monster, using some alien language, "Gohaldda buckingham."  He puts a leash on the bird thing. Tiabo is mean and takes Will's radio and gun. Will tries to tell him they are friendly, that he is not the enemy, or an invader. Tiabo takes him as a prisoner of war. He tells Will he has the Robot and Dr. Smith, also telling Will, "One more thing. I'm no the alien, you're the stranger here."  He takes Will to a cave, telling him he is Interior of the Army. He moves Will into the cave, the lad with his hands up. Smith is there and calls Robot mechanical misfit. Tiabo lets Will unchain Robot and Smith. Will says their spaceship was damaged and Smith, for once, tells the truth--explaining that an automated planet shot the missile at them--a missile which landed on this planet (SECTOR 6:30). Tiabo tells them a General Andos (sounds like Andros at times) will, "...interrogate them to pieces."  Will tells Smith, "They think we're invading their planet."  Smith tells Will that Tiabo told him they have a weapon of some kind. Smith finds a keg with some kind of beverage in it which he drinks--something he calls sheer nectar. Will warns him about this. Robot also advises caution. Smith calls him a nervous ninny. Support Staff Headquarters is called by Tiabo and appears in a video screen in something that looks like an old gramophone or record player. An officer appears. Then Andos questions them, accusing Smith of being a spy. Smith, once more, tells the truth. Will also, "We're all alone. We're an expedition from Earth and we're LOST IN SPACE."  Andos talks of a secret super weapon which evokes a smile from Will who thinks a secret weapon is neato or something. The aliens agree the weapon will not need to be used if they leave the planet at once. If used, those that survive will be the unlucky ones. Smith says, "At least for those on the Jupiter the end will come quickly."  Tiabo leaves for Headquarters to join a squad of soldiers--he claims. Tiabo leaves, chirping and moving like a bird himself. Perhaps his species or race is bird like. He also snaps--which is, of course, very stupid. Robot scans the exterior of the ave--the bird man is no longer there. Will has a funny feeling about the aliens looking the same and about this. Smith can't stop drinking and takes the keg with them as they escape. As they move, the Robot's treads make the second season sound effect of the Jupiter II doorway. From behind a rock, Capt. Tiabo and the birdmonster watch. Tiabo puts little balls of food in the bird man's mouth. Smith rests and finishing, the keg, throws it. It blows up behind them. Robot examines the goblet Smith was using to drink and finds a mixture of C3HO2SH...basically a liquid high explosive, "You are filled with an extremely dangerous beverage. He is a walking bomb."  Smith screams, "No, no. Nooo!"  He takes the goblet and throws it in front of them. It blows up. Will shields his face from the blast.

 

ACT FOUR

NOTE: A dirt path comes out of the spaceship doorway. There is no metal ramp yet. Judy comes running to help the others. It is day now. Will and Penny wash the front window, a ladder placed against the Jupiter. Robot warns about Smith--he swallowed a quart and a half of explosives which equals about 15 sticks of dynamite. The forcefield part blows--they need to replace the energizing unit which will take a couple of days and also take them weeks just to access the damage to the entire spaceship (note the forcefield now has an additional piece on top---LATER it will be colored red). Maureen says, "Oh come on now, what's the matter with all of us..we'll find some way to protect ourselves."   John stares at her, "What do you suggest we do, Maureen, call out the marines?"  He thinks and says, "I'm sorry, darling, that wasn't very nice."  Maureen smiles, "Well, that remark is already forgotten and forgiven."  Don suggests loading up the Chariot and pulling out stakes. Maureen thinks that makes sense but John tells them it won't work. First, they have very slim chances of surviving on an unexplored planet (perhaps he's learned this lesson from THE HUNGRY SEA) and second, he considers the aliens who will sooner or later, catch up with them. Penny suggests by then, the aliens will know they are friendly. John says, "No, Penny, ahh, friendly people don't run away. No, I'm for staying right here where we can reason with them." Judy doesn't think from what Will and Smith told them, the aliens aren't very reasonable people. Robot stops Smith, who is walking too close to them all. He is lonely and complains, this time going for sympathy and pathos. Robot warns Smith to be calm; Don warns him, laughing, not to get the hiccups. Maureen tells Don this is not a laughing matter. Don apologizes to Smith and tells him they will find a way to help him. John tells him there are other problems to contend with. Maureen tells Smith that John has the aliens to contend with. Smith waves goodbye. Robot tells them to remember he is a dangerous Dr. Smith. Judy watches him go, sadly. Night: John comes out to Will and Robot, telling Will to get inside. Robot scanned the area--no aliens. They wonder about why the aliens haven't done something by now. Maureen comes out with hot food for Dr. Smith. Will says, "I hope it isn't too hot."  Robot accompanies Will to Smith, who tells them he couldn't eat...but does anyway. He hiccups and gets Will to go to Tiabo for an antidote or neutralizer. Will tells Robot not to tell anyone he's left. Smith tells Robot, "A man couldn't hope for a better friend than that dear little boy."  He also says to Robot, "How dare you, you disreputable dunce!"  Will goes to the cave, a fire on a torch on the wall is lighting up the cave. Will moves through a curtain of beads and sees Tiabo recording messages from different aliens including an Emperor. He also sees the hats and outfits of the different aliens he and Smith saw on the screen. He tells Tiabo he knows he was all the other aliens, "You're all alone on this planet, aren't you?"  Tiabo wears glasses. He had hoped the liquid would explode on the spaceship and he would be alone again. For 200 years, this planet had been his home. Alone, he is happy. He didn't want cities, noise, and more visitors...all the things he ran away from. Will tells him, "I told you we were friendly. We're going to leave as soon as our spaceship is repaired."  Tiabo decides the planet is big enough for all of them until then. He will just move to the other side of the planet. He gives Will pills of which Smith must take four or five to neutralize the explosive. Will says, "Well, I better get these to him right away before he blows himself up."  He runs. New music is heard. Robot connects detonator to Smith's foot. Smith sleeps, telling Robot that the highest thing a person can do is to make a sacrifice for a friend. Smith realizes Robot is going to detonate him but Will comes running at the last moment, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute!  HOW DID HE KNOW WHAT THE ROBOT WAS GOING TO DO? Smith takes one pill and screams--calls them foul things and refuses any more. They taste horrid. Will gets him to take the rest, he gawks at them. Robot tests it...by putting the plunger down. Electric runs through Smith's stomach. Smith is happy, "Thank you my friend..."  then he gets mad at Robot for nearly killing him, calling him a "fiend in tin clothing."  Robot will make something for him to drink and he will feel better. Smith puts the detonator clasp on the Robot, "Just you wait!"  Smith leaves. Will takes the clasp off Robot and asks if he would have really detonated Dr. Smith. Robot says, "No. I have a great affection for Dr. Smith. He is my mentor as well as a great, decent human being, as well as a credit to our expedition."  Robot gives Will the detonator amid really coy and VERY goofy music. The lines are getting totally silly and absurd here.

 

CLIFFHANGER: Daytime: Will, Penny, Robot, and Smith hunt for cobalt magnesium. Robot finds quartz conglomerate of 005%. Penny comments this vein is not good enough according to Don. Will tells a complaining Smith, "Dr. Smith, we have to find some. Unless we can get the purifier to work our plants won't last a week."  Smith fakes a sick headache to get out of covering the area and he rests on a rock, sitting down. Will and Penny will come back for him, they leave to try another vein. Smith tells Robot, "Go along with the children, they are your intellectual equals."  Robot obeys. A shadow crosses over Smith and a white hairy body leans down, white feet and legs nearby. Something shakes him. Smith, not looking, his eyes closed, thinks it is the Robot. He feels its arm and wakes up. Looking up, he screams as a white hairy biped monster moves away from him (and we see this from his point of view as it comes into our view), an Abominable Snowman-Bigfoot like creature! Very effective cliffhanger.

 

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK SAME TIME SAME CHANNEL

 

REVIEW: Many props used here and in THE GHOST PLANET were seen before and will be seen again. The robotic device in GHOST PLANET was also seen as the alien power unit in A CHANGE OF SPACE. The spider was from THE KEEPER and shows up again in PRISONERS OF SPACE as well as VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA-THE MONSTER'S WEB. PRISONERS also uses the device on Tiabo's table in the cave for the Tribunal's message box. The statue-chair from FOLLOW THE LEADER reappears. Tiabo has the same hat as Bolix in ALL THAT GLITTERS. The detonator would be reused in THE COLONISTS. The joy ride that started in BLAST OFF INTO SPACE, continued throughout WILD ADVENTURE and THE GHOST PLANET, comes, literally, crashing to a halt in FORBIDDEN WORLD (one tends to mistakenly call this FORBIDDEN PLANET). The first half of this episode is quite good, frightening and claustrophobic as the Robinsons crash down to another planet and while, it is not a great idea to have them stranded on another alien planet for another whole season, the mystery to the new planet was kept up for the first half of this episode, if not the rest of the season and certainly not the rest of this episode. I enjoyed Wally Cox on other series and in HOLLYWOOD SQUARES but here, he is miscast and is not funny. Tiabo is neither sympathetic, interesting, or funny, just mean and annoying. His snapping, jumping up and down, walking like an ape or bird, is not funny at all, just descending the show another notch downward into silliness and mediocrity. The alien monster is fine...from a distance and in the shadows...or seen only bits at a time. Once viewed fully, it, too, is somewhat silly and not really scary. It was much scarier when it appeared in the original THE OUTER LIMITS. Smith is also quite silly and annoying, doing stupid things such as drinking the water, sending Will off alone to find Tiabo, etc. This is not too bad in and of itself but having a stupid Smith and a stupid alien guest star...does tend to bore one and grate on one's nerves. Too bad LOST IN SPACE had to sink this low. Worse was to come. The Jupiter II should have stayed in space a bit more. While I can see stranding them on another planet, brilliantly conceived and in color, a wonderful set, was  cost cutting move, the scripts didn't have to become one big farce, comedy as FORBIDDEN WORLD and some of SPACE CIRCUS were. NOTE: For BLAST OFF INTO SPACE, besides the lovely color that added greatly to the show, there were other set pieces that were refurbished. The viewport controls and consoles finally took on a major piece of hardware which looked much better than the first season dull look. A new control panel looked more busy, compact, and visually stimulating. The astrogater now contained a scale of numbers and distances inside it. The atomic clock area and the communications console were also redesigned, compacted and tighter in look, with more instrumentation, not so FLASH GORDON-like but more high tech. This new planet had tree like growths that sport foliage in purples, oranges, yellows. Blue rocks and violet grasses, lavender bushes, reddish landscapes and far background mountains of blue. The sky also looked wonderful, quite blue and with white clouds constantly about. The desert set was almost completely gone. The Chariot, the forcefield, and the ramp had modifications which greatly improved the look of the series. The Robot seemed less bulky, his elliptical sensors were colored, his claws painted red, his legs remolded to give them a smoother look. His chest area sported black trim now and his two blinking lights in the same area were pink and green. His programming buttons, red and green. His upper body looked slimmer than in season one. The laser rifles were completely changed as were the laser pistols. In look and design, the second season was the best, much improved over the first and even somewhat visually nicer than the third. The colorful costumes were aided by the color, which should have also been in the first season. The visual aspects that came with BLAST OFF INTO SPACE as well as the new planet in FORBIDDEN WORLD, added greatly the feel of the series. It was the storylines and atmosphere of each new script that seriously deterred LOST IN SPACE from maintaining any sort of dignity. Almost each story would have some scene of valve, SPACE VIKINGS and MUTINY IN SPACE possibly being the only exceptions. Still in each, we'd have to sit through some very boring scenes to follow the exploits of characters we already loved.