Well, I've reached episode seventeen, "Circle," the last episode of Land of the Lost's first season. This is where I will leave the show for a while. Though I plan to return. One day soon.
But before we say our goodbyes to the Marshalls, let's discuss this episode by Larry Niven and David Gerrold(and directed by Dennis Steinmetz), because I think it's one of the series' absolute highpoints.
The episode finds Will, Holly and Rick Marshall at a swimming hole by the swamp when Will locates an underwater cavern that looks a lot like the Lost City. The Marshalls explore it and find the Sleestak...hibernating. Apparently, it's the dormant season for the giant lizard people. Then comes one of the episode's highpoints: the monstrous Sleestak suddenly awake and chase the Marshalls through the catacombs. If I were a little kid watching this sequence, I'd run right up to bed and hide under the covers. The best moment in the dramatic chase occurs when one Sleestak pursues Holly out of the cave and swamp, and rises up out of the water like the shark in Jaws (or the Daleks in "The Dalek Invasion of Earth." Yikes!
After escaping from the Sleestak, Will makes it to the Lost City and finds Enik, who is "unable to leave" the Land of the Lost. Turns out there's a problem with the time door. Namely, the "law of conservation of temporal momentum has been reversed." Nothing can leave the land of the lost unless an object of equal temporal mass leaves.
This imbalance must be corrected, and it involves the Marshalls. Turns out they never really fully entered the land of the lost at all. Simultaneously, they are both stuck on the rapids and stuck in the land of the lost - in essence straddling two "realities." Let me just say that the manner in which the writers resolve this temporal problem is quite clever, and essentially "re-boots" the whole series.
When "Circle" ends, our set of Marshalls have escaped from the Land of the Lost, and returned home. But another set of Marshalls - those trapped on the rapids - have entered. At the time, this was the writer's way of explaining a season of reruns. A "new" set of Marshalls (without memory of their captivity in the land...) would have all new adventures. Get it?
Of course, there are some problems with this conceit. One is: wouldn't Cha-Ka be confused? Suddenly, the Marshalls don't remember him or the other Paku, you know? He'd have to start his friendship with them from scratch. (and wouldn't they wonder why he knows their names, and speaks pidgin English?) Another problem is the cave at High Bluff. So far as I can tell, the first set of Marshalls, before they left the land of the lost, didn't clean up their cave. Which, from evidence in earlier episodes, would have a broom, backpacks, pots and pans, and all kinds of homemade Gilligan's Island style accoutrements. So technically, when Marshall family # 2 arrives at the cave, they should find all of their stuff already there. But this doesn't happen, for some reason.
Lastly, "Circle" has a problem with continuity. Enik establishes that the time doors are stuck, and that the presence of the Marshall family is disrupting them. Okay, then how come that parachutist was able to enter the land of the lost through a time door in the previous episode, "Hurricane?" I don't get it.
Still, this is a cool episode of Land of the Lost, because it deals with the concept of a time loop; but more succinctly a notion that is growing more accepted in quantum mechanics today. Which is simply this: identity is not linear...only our memory and concept of time (which is unreal) makes it feel that way. So therefore, the Marshalls on the rapids are distinct and different entities from the Marshalls in the land of the lost. This is called the "timeless" theory in quantum physics, and it's come a long way since 1975, but still, it's amazing that Land of the Lost - a kid's show from thirty years ago - plays with the concept.
So, for now, with admiration and nostalgia, I'll say "ganecktik" (meaning "go in peace" in Altrusian...) to the Land of the Lost and the Marshalls.
But before we say our goodbyes to the Marshalls, let's discuss this episode by Larry Niven and David Gerrold(and directed by Dennis Steinmetz), because I think it's one of the series' absolute highpoints.
The episode finds Will, Holly and Rick Marshall at a swimming hole by the swamp when Will locates an underwater cavern that looks a lot like the Lost City. The Marshalls explore it and find the Sleestak...hibernating. Apparently, it's the dormant season for the giant lizard people. Then comes one of the episode's highpoints: the monstrous Sleestak suddenly awake and chase the Marshalls through the catacombs. If I were a little kid watching this sequence, I'd run right up to bed and hide under the covers. The best moment in the dramatic chase occurs when one Sleestak pursues Holly out of the cave and swamp, and rises up out of the water like the shark in Jaws (or the Daleks in "The Dalek Invasion of Earth." Yikes!
After escaping from the Sleestak, Will makes it to the Lost City and finds Enik, who is "unable to leave" the Land of the Lost. Turns out there's a problem with the time door. Namely, the "law of conservation of temporal momentum has been reversed." Nothing can leave the land of the lost unless an object of equal temporal mass leaves.
This imbalance must be corrected, and it involves the Marshalls. Turns out they never really fully entered the land of the lost at all. Simultaneously, they are both stuck on the rapids and stuck in the land of the lost - in essence straddling two "realities." Let me just say that the manner in which the writers resolve this temporal problem is quite clever, and essentially "re-boots" the whole series.
When "Circle" ends, our set of Marshalls have escaped from the Land of the Lost, and returned home. But another set of Marshalls - those trapped on the rapids - have entered. At the time, this was the writer's way of explaining a season of reruns. A "new" set of Marshalls (without memory of their captivity in the land...) would have all new adventures. Get it?
Of course, there are some problems with this conceit. One is: wouldn't Cha-Ka be confused? Suddenly, the Marshalls don't remember him or the other Paku, you know? He'd have to start his friendship with them from scratch. (and wouldn't they wonder why he knows their names, and speaks pidgin English?) Another problem is the cave at High Bluff. So far as I can tell, the first set of Marshalls, before they left the land of the lost, didn't clean up their cave. Which, from evidence in earlier episodes, would have a broom, backpacks, pots and pans, and all kinds of homemade Gilligan's Island style accoutrements. So technically, when Marshall family # 2 arrives at the cave, they should find all of their stuff already there. But this doesn't happen, for some reason.
Lastly, "Circle" has a problem with continuity. Enik establishes that the time doors are stuck, and that the presence of the Marshall family is disrupting them. Okay, then how come that parachutist was able to enter the land of the lost through a time door in the previous episode, "Hurricane?" I don't get it.
Still, this is a cool episode of Land of the Lost, because it deals with the concept of a time loop; but more succinctly a notion that is growing more accepted in quantum mechanics today. Which is simply this: identity is not linear...only our memory and concept of time (which is unreal) makes it feel that way. So therefore, the Marshalls on the rapids are distinct and different entities from the Marshalls in the land of the lost. This is called the "timeless" theory in quantum physics, and it's come a long way since 1975, but still, it's amazing that Land of the Lost - a kid's show from thirty years ago - plays with the concept.
So, for now, with admiration and nostalgia, I'll say "ganecktik" (meaning "go in peace" in Altrusian...) to the Land of the Lost and the Marshalls.
When I rediscovered Land Of The Lost, and played it for a close friend, we watched the first two seasons, omitting season three entirely. However, I deliberately played Circle last (and The Musician second last) as a nice way to wrap the whole thing up.
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