Christmas episodes-Lost in space-Return from space

What are you looking at you nobby headed ninny?

 

Is this it? This makes Star Trek look high budget.

 

1965

The crew of the Jupiter two are having troubles with a limited food supply. This is made far worse when Dr. Smith leaves the lid off of a liquid they need for preserving food. So this causes the liquid to evaporate and now they are really going to be short on food. Meanwhile there is some ancient alien equipment not far away. Even though Major Robinson has told the kids to avoid it they still go around it and Penny ends up vanishing as a beam from the machine takes her away. Oh, holy cow what to do? Pretty much nothing and she eventually comes back and remembers nothing. Dr. Smith and Will go back to the machine later even though they were told not to. Shame, shame, shame. Will ends up getting zapped away by the beam ZWWWAPPP. Dr. Smith of course does not see it although the robot does. Will ends up on top of a roof in a small town in Vermont and he knows he has to be back at this same spot to return to the planet or he will miss it. He soon runs into a kid named Davey who takes him home. This is where we first see a Christmas tree and other decorations to let us know what time it is. Will tries to make a phone call to Alpha Control (kind of like NASA) to let them know he has returned and hopefully they can help rescue his family. However this is a small town with a phone operator and they think he is pulling a prank so no call for you. The sheriff finds out about this kid claiming to be from space and questions him, Will unfortunately answers honestly and they think he’s mental or at the very least an orphan looking for attention. Meanwhile back on the other planet the Robinsons notice Will is missing and begin looking for him. The robot tries to tell Dr. Smith that he (the robot) needs to stay by the alien equipment to wait and assist with Will coming back at a certain time. However selfish lunk head that he is Smith rips the robot’s memory tapes out and drags him away from the machinery. Smith tries to get the robot to memorize false events to cover his tail. In the process he says “spare me the editorial comments” and calls the robot the classic “ninny”. Major Robinson and the rest are getting really worried about Will when they can’t find him. Meanwhile back on earth Will is set to get on a bus to go to a boy’s home. One of the bigger boy’s starts making fun of Will’s clothes because he is the only dressed for space travel. Will again tried to be honest and tells them who he is. They say he’s crazy because they all know the Robinsons left earth a year ago and are presumed lost and dead. Will goes beserk attacking the big kid before an adult breaks it up. Eventually Will gets free and avoids the bus to the boy’s home. He tries to call Alpha Control from the general store, but the store owner stops him because he thinks it’s a joke. Will then remembers the liquid his family needed to preserve food. He tries to get some but has no money so he can’t even get that and is run off by the owner. He ends up back with Davey while the sheriff tries get him help. Will convinces Davey of his story and that he needs to be back on that roof where he first came in at noon or else he will be trapped here and never see his family again. Davey gets Will back to the spot and buys the food preserving liquid for him. Will gets zapped back to the planet as the sheriff and others come running towards where he is at. They wonder where he went. What Will didn’t know is that the local reporter had called and convinced a person from Alpha Control to come and talk to Will and they would have arrived in another  hour oh, well. The robot remembered he needed to be back at the machines to help Will, he shocks Dr. Smith so he can get back to the spot. The robot gets there, Will beams back and the machines give a last gasp. The rest of the family show up, Will kind of hints at where he went and hands his dad the food preserving stuff they need. The bottle tells where it is from so his dad believes him at least. They didn’t get off the planet and Alpha Control still thinks they are lost, but at least the food situation was solved. Roll the credits.

It’s a season one episodes which means black and white, it’s a little more serious and Smith and the robot have not taken the show over yet although they are on their way. This is a very different episode as it’s almost entirely about Will and doesn’t deal with either alien society or and alien monster. Instead it’s about Will trying to explain something that makes to sense to him to people who think he has a way overactive imagination. It’s fairly well played although a little sad that he can’t get anyone other than one other kid to believe him.

Christmas spirit-The holiday is more of a background in sets on the earth parts. However it kinds of works as a contrast in that as wild as space life as been for Will regular everyday life is still going back on earth.

 

You went into space and all you got was that crappy looking shirt?

You can trust me, Will. I’m in like every 1960’s TV series.

Star Trek record for Christmas

When I was 12 I was kind of beyond Christmas and wasn’t really expecting any present, but I got two. The first was a Nerf football which was cool because my old one was holding on for dear life. The second was the above record. I had gotten into Star Trek about a year earlier and by this time had seen all the episodes, read the novel adaptions of all the episodes and read a few of the novels as well. This record contains three stories all written by Alan Dean Foster who done the adaptions of the animated series. The stories themselves are actually decent enough and capture the spirit of original Trek although in a shorter time frame as each story clocks in around 15 minutes. The actors doing the voice do an alright job of trying to sound like the original actors. The only record player in the house was in my parent’s bedroom so I would go in there quite often to hear this record. I was still new to Trek and was glad to get a chance to soak in and thing related to that universe. I still have the record and it’s one of my favorite presents that I got growing up.