Lost in Space 50th Anniversary Blogging: "Blast Off into Space" (September 14, 1966)

In the season premiere of Lost in Space (1965-1968), season two, a reckless miner from another world, Nerim (Strother Martin), searches for the valuable substance “Cosmonium” on Priplanus.

Unfortunately, Nerim’s lack of attention to safety begins a catastrophic chain reaction. All of his blasting in the planet’s interior has caused an irreversible problem. In just twelve-to-fifteen hours, the planet will explode.

The Robinsons work desperately against the clock, making final preparations to lift off and leave their home.

Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris), unfortunately, has different plans. 

He wants to possess Nerim’s valuable Cosmonium, and gambles for it in a card game with the miner, using a crucial thruster unit from the Jupiter 2 as collateral. 

The thruster is lost to Nerim, and he promptly flees the doomed world, leaving the Robinson family behind.

As the planet nears total destruction, the Cosmonium causes a statue of Dr. Smith to come to malevolent life, and other perils threaten the family too.

Finally, the Jupiter 2 leaves Priplanus with all hands aboard, just as the world is destroyed. 

But now the ship is on a collision course with a red dwarf!

The first thing to note about Lost in Space season two, perhaps, is that the series looks fantastic in color.  

More than ever, the series resembles a lushly-colored, vividly illustrated and highly-imaginative fantasy comic strip. The Chariot, the rocket pack, and the Jupiter 2 exteriors and interiors all look fantastic outside of the first year’s black-and-white photography.  The Robinsons' clothing is kind of garish in color, but also visually striking.

But beyond the shock of the new -- of seeing Lost in Space in color after 29 episodes in b&w -- there’s simply not much to commend this premiere episode, “Blast Off into Space.”

Indeed, all the creative problems that came to hobble the series late in the first year (in the run between “The Challenge” and “Lost Civilization,” in particular) return in force to impact the storytelling here. 

First and foremost of these problems is the pervasive earth-centric thinking.  

In “Blast Off into Space,” for example, we meet Nerim the miner.  But he is presented here like a late 19^th century miner (of the Old West) rather than as an alien or futuristic miner.  

He is accompanied by a mule, uses a pick-axe, and wears and Old West wardrobe.   He is a creature of the past, not of the space age, or of an alien culture.  There is no imagination, in other words, in his depiction.

Once more, the question is, simply, how did the equivalent of a 19^th century Earth miner arise as a citizen of another planet?  

And how come he can travel from planet to planet, but the Robinsons can’t?  To our eyes, they’re all human beings.  So why doesn’t Nerim help the Robinsons, or allow them to join the galactic culture?

Secondly, “Blast Off into Space” is predicated almost entirely on the idea of Dr. Smith getting into trouble, and acting badly.  

Again. 

He gambles away a critical thruster unit. 

He creates a statue of himself that comes to life when he accidentally spills Cosmonium on it.  

He tries to partner up with Nerim, leaving the Robinsons behind to their fate.  

By now, we expect Smith to be greedy, cowardly and buffoonish, but it is tiresome that Smith’s behavior is always the entrance point into the narrative, the thing which creates stories. It would be much more interesting, from a dramatic stand-point, to have the Robinsons discover the planet's instability.

Thirdly, “Blast Off into Space” has little regard for series history.  

The Jupiter 2 escapes from doomed Priplanus, but there is no mention of the fact that thousands of aliens in a subterranean world (including a child princess…) will die when the planet crumbles. 

In “The Lost Civilization,” we met the princess and saw her soldiers frozen in suspended animation tubes. We met her major domo (Royal Dano).  

No notation is given here about any of them, but if Priplanus dies…they all die, right?  

It would have been great to have Will exclaim “The Princess!” at one point, just to remind us that Priplanus was populated by humanoids other than the Robinsons.

What “Blast Off into Space” adds to the Lost in Space creative equation, perhaps, is a kind of frenetic approach to action. The episode never settles down or lingers in one place, or with one plot-line for long.  Between the action and special effects pyrotechnics, the episode is stunning in the visual sense.

For example, we get a weird anti-gravity chute in a mine, an attack by a creepy monster, a search (by John Robinson) of the planet in the air, and a last-minute escape by the Jupiter 2, and other set-pieces. These moments don’t all gel together, but the surfeit of action means that the episode is, at least, never dull.

The story ends with promise, with the Robinsons unshackled from planet-bound adventures, and free to roam space. 

But I have an unhappy suspicion that this will turn out to be more potential unfulfilled.

Next up (in two weeks): “Wild Adventure.”

Outré Intro: The Green Hornet (1966 - 1967)

Another challenge for the Green Hornet, his aide Kato, and their rolling arsenal, the Black Beauty. On police records a wanted criminal, the Green Hornet is really Britt Reid, owner-publisher of The Daily Sentinel; his dual identity known only to his secretary, and to the district attorney. And now, to protect the rights and lives of decent citizens, rides the Green Hornet!

- William Dozier's opening narration to The Green Hornet (1966 - 1967)

In 1966, after Batman (1966 - 1968) took ABC-TV by storm, producer William B. Dozier created a second superhero TV series based on a comic-book character: The Green Hornet.  

But where Batman was a camp series, The Green Hornet played its universe straight, with real life gangster villains, and a much less outrageous sense of visualization (and production design too). 

Although the series was strongly-vetted, and featured a young Bruce Lee as Kato, The Green Hornet did not meet with the same widespread success as its predecessor had, and was canceled after one season.  

For fans of the series, this was heart-breaking, and there has never been an official DVD or blu-ray release of the series in its entirety. A 2011 movie version of the comic-book character starring Seth Rogan and Jay Chou did not meet with favor from fans, either.

The series' famous introductory montage is accompanied by the theme song from the hero's radio days: "Flight of the Bumblebee."  

In this case, the Rimsky-Korsakov piece was arranged by Billy May, the orchestra conducted by Lionel Newman, and Al Hirt played the jazz trumpet solo to remarkable effect.  This Green Hornet "theme" proved so popular and memorable that Quentin Tarantino resurrected it for a scene in in Kill Bill (Part I) (2002).

Every week on The Green Hornet, the introductory montage commences with Dozier's voice-over narration, wherein he introduces hero Britt Reid (Van Williams), the man who is publisher of the Daily Sentinel by day, and the hero, the Green Hornet by night.  

We also meet Kato (Lee), the Green Hornet's sidekick, Reid's secretary Lenore Case (Wende Wagner), and city D.A. Scanlon (Walter Brooke).

Most importantly to fans of the series, however, we see the Green Hornet's vehicle -- the Black Beauty -- emerge from its street-bound hiding place.  

This 1966 Black Chrysler Imperial is equipped with green head-lights, rocket launchers, retractable brooms (to sweep away evidence the car was ever there) and even gas guns. The Black Beauty could run in silent mode or self-destruct mode, and was constructed by Dean Jeffries.

In short, the pre-title narration portion of the montage introduces to the personalities and tools of the Green Hornet's world.

Next in the montage, we see a depiction of an actual green hornet (with flame red eyes) flying towards the camera, a strange, psychedelic background behind it.  

This hornet icon flips sides, and then nears, in close-up, as we get the title card for the series.

Next, we meet our cast members (and executive producer), as the hornet goes from left to right, and right to left, on the screen.

Below, you can watch the memorable montage in all its live-action splendor: