Is
it wrong to observe that as the third season winds down, the Marshalls in the Land
of the Lost (1974 – 1977) are starting to seem increasingly
unlikable?
In
“Ancient Guardian” for example, the family happens upon a strange Altrusian statue
while out on a hike, and decides to take it down and bring it back to the
temple for examination.
By
removing the statue from its perch, the Marshalls unloose a hairy Yeti-like
creature (though explicitly not the
yeti-like creature seen in “The Abominable Snowman”) upon the Lost City. The beast goes on a violent rampage three and
in one scene breaks into the Sleestak nursery where it starts breaking and
devouring the eggs of their young.
So,
just because they were curious, the Marshalls initiated a chain of events that
ends with the death of Sleestak young.
If
you were a Sleestak, wouldn’t you have a tough time getting past this particular
incident? If bad blood existed between
the humans and Sleestaks in Altrusia before this episode, then certainly “Ancient
Guardian” augments it. And in point of
fact, the Sleestak have a point this time around.
The
worst part of this dynamic is that the Marshalls show no awareness what they
have done, and don’t even apologize for the fact that their actions caused this
problem. Instead, as Will breaks into
song one more time, Jack observes that maybe the Marshalls should leave things
alone that they don’t understand.
You
think?
This
is a bizarre inversion of the Land of the Lost’s long-standing
conceit that we all must be shepherds of the environment around us. Previous seasons saw the Marshalls correcting
imbalances and recognizing their role in the scheme of things. Here, the breach is repaired, but the
Marshalls show no remorse. They caused a
terrible, mortal imbalance, and it’s just, well, no big deal, right? Jack, who dismisses Enik’s fears about the
monster as “Sleestak Myth” certainly owes the Altrusian an apology.
The
most enjoyable aspect of “Ancient Guardian” involves the nifty Altrusian statue
itself. As the Marshalls learn, it is an Ancient relic and thus possessed of
advanced technology. In particular, it harnesses and focuses solar energy so as
to fire a heat beam at the valley where the monster lives, thus keeping it from
journeying into the valley. I always
find Land
of the Lost intriguing when aspects of Altrusian technology and
civilization are revealed and explored.
What
doesn’t work so well, again, is the depiction of Enik (Walker Edmiston). Here, he calls the Yeti “the hairy monster,”
or “the monster,” which just sounds ridiculous coming from someone of his
advanced intellect. Lines of dialogue like “The Monster Comes. It is the Hairy One,” are difficult to take
seriously, and diminish Enik’s dignity.
And
one has to wonder why Enik reveals such little curiosity regarding the
inscriptions on the statue, since they originate directly from his culture.
Next
week: “Scarab.”
John, interesting review of LOTL “Ancient Guardian” episode. It is obvious that season three writers did not review the first two seasons to follow the established rules of characters and Altrusia. I too think that any episode that explores Altrusian technology was fascinating. Land Of The Lost definitely needs a writer[like you John] to do a technical manual/episode review of the LOTL original series. the '90s series and the 2009 film all examining Altrusia. Such as Rich Handley did for the Planet Of The Apes.
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