As the Jupiter 2 continues through space, they pick up an alien SOS. Dr. Smith insists on answering and is told a colony of androids is in dire need of medical help. Smith doesn’t really care until the androids offer riches in return for assistance, and then he decides that he will bravely go to their rescue. Will and the Robot protest this idea since Smith is not actually a real medical doctor, but he won’t listen.
Later that night, Smith attempts to steal the space pod to sneak down to see the androids. The Robot tries to stop him, and the pod ends up launching with them both inside. Smith docks the pod at the large alien ship, and the androids are there to greet him. They tell him his patient is their leader, who turns out to be a giant computer. Smith gets confused and frightened, saying he really doesn’t know how to fix a sick computer, and he is told that if he fails and their leader dies, Smith will die too.
Back on the Jupiter 2, the Robinsons realize Smith and the Robot are missing. Will explains about the signal that was picked up earlier, and deduces that Smith may have stolen the space pod to go down to the alien ship. The Robinsons track the pod’s course in the hopes of rescuing their missing companions. They eventually dock with the alien ship as well, and Don and John get out to look around. They are very quickly captured and imprisoned by the androids.
Dr. Smith chickens out and refuses to perform the operation and attempts to run away. The androids catch him and lock him up with John and Don. Shortly afterwards, the androids discover that the Robot went to medical school and has the ability to perform the operation himself. The Robot refuses to do so as he believes the computer is evil and, if cured, will take over the universe. When the Robot continues to refuse to help, the androids kidnap Will, threatening to harm him if the Robot does not comply.
Fearing for his friends, the Robot gives in and operates on the alien computer. As he does so, John, Don, Smith and Will manage to escape from their jail cell. As they are doing so, an android guard catches them and kills John. Will uses a device the guard wears around his neck to “bend back time” and bring his father back to life. Dr. Smith thinks the time device is useful and fools around with it, accidently turning himself into a nine year old boy.
The men meet up with the Robot, who has now finished the operation and brought the alien computer back to health. Grateful for the Robot’s help, and changed by his close brush with death, the computer mends his evil ways and abandons his plot to conquer the universe. He changes Smith back to his regular age, and allows the Robinsons to go free. The Jupiter 2 departs, leaving the androids and their computer behind to make a new, peaceful life for themselves.
Background information[]
- This is the first appearance of the Space Pod.
- During the fight scene in the jail cell, the table leg that Professor Robinson uses as a weapon is bent at an odd angle, revealing it to be a prop and not a real table leg.
- The bubble creatures' spaceship from The Derelict is seen again here.
- As the space pod is approaching the alien space ship the Robot says they can't escape because the alien ship has trapped them in a magnetic ray. Yet just a few moments later, once they've landed, the Robot says they must leave immediately.
- Smith exits the space pod without even checking to make sure there is breathable air in the docking area of the alien vessel, though I suppose the Robot would've warned him if there was any danger.
- How does it happen that the Robinson's star charts just so happen to have a listing for the "Zenian Galaxy"?
- LiS is completely confused about what galaxies are and how large they are. Penny comments that they must have passed through the Zenian Galaxy during the night, and then John says it will take 6 1/2 hours to return there. The Milky Way Galaxy is 105,700 light years across, meaning that even traveling at the speed of light it would take 105,700 years to cross it. There's no way the Jupiter 2 could've "passed through" a galaxy during the night, or return to it in 6 1/2 hours. It seems that whenever the scriptwriters referred to galaxies, what they really meant was solar systems.
- The footage of the Jupiter 2 inside the docking bay of the ship where the Jupiter 2 looks yellow is reused from the episode "The Derelict." You can tell this by the "cobwebs" hanging down inside the docking area, which were a part of the "Derelict" sets.
- Why do the androids use explosives against their own machinery?
- The idea that the androids would ignore Dr. Smith's own protestations that he is unable to perform the operation on their exalted leader is quite far-fetched, as is the idea that they would hold it against him or the Robinsons because he is incapable of saving their leader.
- The Robot states that he was programmed in pre-med courses for two semesters at the Institute of Cybernetics. He was first in his class. But when he decided he was more interested in space exploration, he changed his major subject.
- Penny and Judy share a room on the Jupiter 2.
- Jonathan Harris shines at low comedy in this episode, adding touches like not being capable of putting on surgical gloves. But perhaps the high point is when the Leader stops temporarily and this paralyzes all of the aliens. After confirming they're deactivated, Smith turns to the Robot and cries out "Let's vacate the premises, ninny!"
- When Dr. Smith is ill with the "Space Plague", Major West warns that it will "spread all over the ship". But the occupants of the ship are machines and will not be affected by the illness.
- How does hitting an android over the head with a metal pipe render it inoperative??
- John Robinson is actually killed in this episode, however, Will uses the alien time device to go back in time and to save his father. Yet why does the time reversal only affect John and not everyone else?
- When the series began, Dr. Smith was indeed a real medical doctor. In fact, he had three degrees, one in medicine, one in science, and one in psychology! Smith also knew all about repairing machines, and in the episode ‘Welcome Stranger’ we see him successfully perform a complex procedure on the Robot. As the series goes on, Smith’s intelligence and abilities decrease with every episode. It seems that by ‘Kidnapped in Space’ they have decided to rob him of all his medical knowledge and declare that his doctorate was only “honorary.”
- This is the first we've ever heard of the Robot having any medical knowledge. Although said "medical" knowledge only applies to treating other robots, not organic life forms.
- Where did they get that nifty Space Pod? It would have come in very useful plenty of times before, for instance, in the episode ‘Island in the Sky’ where John was nearly killed being sent out to investigate an alien planet. If he’d used the space pod, he never would have had his accident.
- As the Jupiter 2 approaches the alien ship, John is impressed and says “I’ve never seen a spaceship that big in my life!” You’re mistaken, John. You did in the episode ‘The Derelict.’ It’s the exact same spaceship!
- If Smith was going to operate on a computer, why did the androids insist he scrub up? Certainly a computer couldn’t be infected by human germs? Having the Robot also dressed in a surgical smock and gloves prior to the operation is also quite campy.
- Why would a computer run a temperature?
- Why does the "boy" version of Dr. Smith speak with Dr. Smith's older voice? Shouldn't the ten year old Smith sound like a child instead a man in his fifties?
Reception[]
- After two great episodes aired to begin season three of LIS and the momentum riding high in September 1967 viewers tuned in to view Kidnapped in Space which aired on 9/20/1967 on CBS
- This episode is a bit of a let down and here are a few reasons why. Starts out good and then just fizzles out mid way. We see the introduction of the Space Pod which is a plus and is more than welcomed in year three. There are some nice special effects in Kidnapped as we see the J2 / Derelict ship scene recycled here. Lost in Space still has a problem, confusing star system with galaxy.
- The aliens are pretty cool... Men dressed in skullcaps and silver suits--a favorite of many Irwin Allen television productions. The Ladies with cosmic hair-dos and silver makeup. I guess typical aliens you would meet in space--somewhat derived from Verda, the android character of previous seasons. A very good scene in Kidnapped happens when John Robinson and Major West come aboard the Alien ship looking for Smith and the Robot and are engaged in a good ole fashioned laser shootout. Bombs explode above Mark's head and he fliches upon explosion. Now the bad, the episode takes a turn for the worse when Dr Smith is asked to operate on the alien computer and the Robot insists Smith isn't a medical doctor and can't operate. I guess the Robot wasn't watching LIS for the last two seasons.Where the Robot got this and other abilities, is unknown,since he never showed these talents before, despite him saying that they were programmed into his basic memmory banks before the Jupiter's launch from earth. Whereas Smith has mentioned his skills in cybernetics and computer systems earlier in the series.
- It was Dr Smith who gave the Robinsons a clean bill of health at launch. What were the writers thinking to insist Smith isn't a medical Doctor? This episode goes even further down hill when Professor Robinson is killed via an alien laser gun but is brought back to life by a clock these aliens wear. Something handy for future episodes when things get dangerous for the Space Family Robinson. Even worse is when Smith is turned into a boy after playing with a clock but brought back to a man again via the alien computer whom the Robot operates on. I don't understand why the young Zachary Smith has his adult voice and the boy really dosen't really look much like adult version anyhow. If I had to rate this episode on a scale of 1 - 10, I would give it a 5 only because the first twenty minutes are pretty good. After the first twenty minutes of "Kidnapped in Space" switch the channel over to ABC and watch Batman. After all, what's the difference; both are written the same.
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