The Ghost Planet

Season	Episode	Overall
Two	3rd in Season	32nd in Series

Cybernetic Leader Meets Robot B-9

Series

Lost in Space

Original Airdate

September 28, 1966

Written By

Peter Packer

Directed By

Nathan Juran

Episode guide
Previous Episode	Next Episode
"Wild Adventure"	"Forbidden World"

As the Jupiter 2 travels through space, Will and Dr. Smith pick up a celestial body on the radar screen. Seconds later, a female voice greets them and gives them co-ordinates to dock at a spaceport. Will is wary, but Smith insists they land, thinking the planet is Earth.

They head toward the planet and through a radiation belt which damages the ship. John and Don try to move away from the planet, but it pulls them in anyway, forcing them to land in a mysterious and abandoned looking docking bay. Although the female voice continues to greet them in a friendly manner, she will not identify herself or the planet. John is frustrated and refuses to let anyone leave the ship. The Robot is sent out to survey the area, but only gets a few feet before he is shot and disabled.

Despite all the excitement, John insists that everyone go to bed. The next morning, they are again contacted by the female voice who urges them to disembark. John does not want anyone to leave until they know where they are, but Smith has high hopes and decides to go out on his own. When he does investigate, he finds their female host is a robot. In fact, the planet seems to be populated by nothing but robots. He is informed he is not on Earth and is interrogated about his crew and how well they are armed. The female robot offers Smith riches in exchange for the Robinson’s weapons. Smith agrees.

Back on the Jupiter 2, Smith tells many lies and claims they have indeed landed on Earth. John is not fooled and insists they leave at once. When they do try to lift off, a gang of hostile robots appears and forces the ship to stay by draining its power.

That night, Smith sneaks out with the weapons and is followed by Will and the Robot. Smith hands over the weapons to the female robot and is taken away to be given his reward. Will and the Robot are taken away to the leader of the planet, a giant cybernetic brain. The brain insists that the Robot leave the Robinsons and swear loyalty to the Kingdom of Cybernetics. The Robot apparently does so and is made an officer.

Will and Dr. Smith are then forced to work on an assembly line where their own Robot supervises and bullies them. However, the Robot proves to be a double-agent and helps his friends escape, shoving down androids guards in the process.

With the robots disabled, the Jupiter 2 regains its power and manages to lift-off and escape the evil planet, but soon they find the automated planet has launched a missile after them. The Jupiter 2 dodges the missile, but the missile is programmed with a homing device, so it returns and pursues the Jupiter 2 again. This time the the Robinsons are unable to avoid the missile because it has recalibrated to match the Jupiter 2's evasive maneuvers. John decides to send the missile into a nearby planet, so he instructs Don to guide the ship to the planet. Just as the ship is about to crash Don pulls it away, causing the missile to explode into the planet.

Extra Information:[]

Although the title of this episode is called "The Ghost Planet," it is later referred to as the Automated Planet.
This is the first soft-landing made by the Jupiter 2 on a planet. The film shots of the landing are subsequently reused, with the same painted pattern on the hard (asphalt) surface, with the same yellow circled painted on the landing surface, when the ship lands on other planets in the same manner, such as in Michigan, 1947, in Visit to a Hostile Planet, and in The Promised Planet. The Jupiter 2 also makes a soft landing-gear-down landing in "The Great Vegetable Rebellion".
Near the end of Wild Adventure, John told Alpha Control they did not have the fuel to alter course to reach Earth. However, in this episode, Smith is able to fire thrusters to alter course as the Space Controller requested.
The Robot's model number is revealed to be B-9 in this episode. However, in The Colonists he informs Noble Niolani his class is M-3.
Neither the Jupiter 2's landing or take-off scrambles the electrical system on the planet as it will in Visit to a Hostile Planet.
At the end of the episode, as the characters fight their way back to the Jupiter 2, you can hear Bob May's voice saying the Robot's dialogue. Dick Tufeld's voice was not dubbed over.
The assembly line on which Dr. Smith is forced to work deposits its completed circuit boards in what appears to be ordinary luggage.
The robots on the planet are all cut from different cloth. The space controller robot is clearly a machine but the drones with the golden dome faces are humanoid in appearance. The giant hairy brain that rules them all might even be organic. Irwin Allen's preference for raiding his existing prop and costume supplies in order to save money was probably the reason for these choices.
Doctor Smith gives all the Jupiter 2's weapons to the alien robot, except for the reserve weapons that Don and John use later in the episode. And are the weapons ever returned? Apparently not! So the Robinsons are out of laser guns.
The “crayon robot guards” go down very easily, usually by being shoved or lightly swatted in the stomach. When John comes to rescue the Robot how does he know the androids can be stopped in this way? He wasn't there to see it when the Robot did it.
Why was the episode called “Ghost Planet?” There are no ghosts, only robots. In the following episode, both John and the Robot refer to it as “mechanized planet” which would have made a much more suitable title. However, when the Robinsons first arrive on the planet its initial appearance is ghostly, with the constant fog on the ground and all the bizarre, scary statues (or corpses?) in the back area. Perhaps Irwin Allen created that appearance and gave the episode a ghostly name in order to create intrigue and curiosity about it.
In Season 2's opener "Blast Off Into Space", Professor John Robinson gives strict instructions to leave all superfluous items behind due to the weight restrictions at lift off. Obviously musical instruments such as guitars are exempt.
Dr Smith takes control of the astrogator (yikes!), and sets course for the Ghost Planet. Why is it that when the Jupiter II is in flight mode, the pilot and mission commander must remain below decks? Perhaps it's supposed to be when they are sleeping. How the crew deals with round-the-clock piloting needs is not explained.
"Quickly, how many people aboard the Jupiter II?" demands the female robot to Dr Smith. Seeing the aliens already know the name of the Robinson's spaceship, you think they'd have these details in their grasp as well.
The alien guards, mask-wearing dudes in tight fitting kaftans who take tiny steps and lob explosions with a flick of their wrists must rank amongst the lamest aliens ever concocted in the series..
To de-activate these aliens, all that's required is a karate chop to the right area, and with a noise like an empty tin can - voila! out cold!
How do you get a 1/4 ton Robot up the landing strut of a spaceship?
In the cliff-hanger refresh, the astrogator control stock is now on the right hand side as the camera faces toward the freezing tubes. In the previous two episodes, it was on the left.
When the Robot careens out of control in the cliff-hanger refresh, look closely to see the special effects visibly taped in strips on the side of its chest plate.
When Don fires the retro rockets in an attempt to escape the planet’s magnetic pull, observe the liquid freon used to create the special effect dripping downward at the end of the shot.
When the Jupiter II lands on the planet, the miniature spaceship is seen descending to the ground. Two figures can be observed standing up inside the spaceship. In the next shot, after touchdown, John and Don are seen unbuckling their seatbelts and rising from their chairs. The same thing occurs when the Jupiter II lifts off, when the footage is reversed.
When the Robot is shot by the female robot after being sent outside to test atmospheric conditions, it slumps over as per usual. His position as seen from the view-port of the Jupiter II is in front of the signage of Gate 115, angled a little to the right and under the letter "E". The next morning, his position is further to the left of camera, under the letter "G" and now angled to the left, when viewed from the spaceship. Later, when the aliens roll out the red carpet, it has moved even further to the left, yet still de-activated; presumably so the carpet is able to unroll without obstruction.
After the Robot is shot and he slumps over, his sensors (arms) and body can be seen swaying when the aliens appear.
It’s hard to believe the Robinsons don’t spot the female robot opening the gate and blasting their Robot.
The female alien robot’s tow cable is clearly visible in the scene where it is leading Dr Smith to his riches.
It also appears as though Dr Smith is guiding the frame of the female robot around the set.
Speaking of robot tow cables, the B9 Robot’s tow cable and assembly is clearly on view when Will is looking for Dr Smith. The tow cable in front of its tread section is connected to a yoke with two cables coming off that, so it can change direction easily depending on which cable is pulled, enabling the mechanical man to turn, perhaps using two cables. The treads don’t even move; it actually swivels in some shots, mostly masked by the (conveniently placed) smoke effects.
When Dr Smith requests that he needs the Robot, the female alien robot replies that "it is being repaired as we speak". In the next scene, Don leaves the spaceship to search for Smith. He passes the still slumped over Robot with no alien robot repairers in attendance. Perhaps the female alien robot's claim was just a ruse. However, by the time Don gathers up Smith and leaves, the Robot is now there, magically repaired.
The upper part of the female robot, features the Jupiter II’s long range scanner, originally seen in “The Derelict” (ep 2), but is also re-used as the Robinson’s table base in “Ghost in Space (Ep 19).
Several of the Egyptian artefacts on display inside Gate 115 were last seen in “The Magic Mirror (ep 21).
This is the first time we witness the hyper atomic missiles, footage which will re-appear every time an alien gets antsy with the Robinsons. We will even witness them as part of the Jupiter II’s arsenal in Season 3.
After the Jupiter 2 dodges the atomic missile the first time, the Robot informs the crew that the danger is not over because the missile has now compensated for any evasive action. Yet when they get close to the planet, they are able to pull away at the last minute and, instead of following them, the missile strikes the planet. Perhaps the missile is captured by the planet's gravity at this point and unable to turn away from it.
The Jupiter II’s search light is used here for the first and only time.

Classic Lines[]

Female voice: “Jupiter II, Jupiter II, this is your space controller."

John: [to Will as he and Don struggle to control the Jupiter II through the radiation belt] “Here, take this guitar“ (I'm guessing that one was impromptu and they decided to leave it in.)

Dr Smith: “The band will play. The president’s lady will present flowers. And the president himself will pin decorations on us.”

Will: [to Dr Smith] “Those aren’t bread sticks, those are our guns!”

Robot: “Roll with the punches, Will Robinson”

John: “Don, break out the big guns. We’re going in after them”