John Robinson (Netflix)

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"Things can always be better, but sometimes you have to appreciate what you've got."
- John Robinson arguing with his wife Maureen to not take a dangerous risk, "Shipwrecked"

John Robinson is a former Navy SEAL. With Maureen Robinson, he is father to Penny Robinson and Will Robinson. He is the adoptive father to Maureen's eldest daughter, Judy Robinson.

History[]

"I will hate you for giving up. I will hate you for taking another away from me. I will hate you for not loving me enough to try harder, because I need you. I'm always gonna need you. And I'm not gonna hate you, and I'm not letting you go."

-Judy Robinson, pleading with John to stay alive, "Run"

John is a seasoned combat veteran and has the strength of a born leader. He and his family's spacecraft crash on an unknown planet and they struggle to survive. Previously estranged from his wife, the two are drawn back together in this fight for survival. He is faced with many challenges and disasters, often being forced to choose the lesser evil.

His military deployment meant that he was often separated from his family. ("Impact")

The fact that he was often not around is a source of much resentment from his children and wife. He is determined to make things right between them and be a more active presence in their lives. He is highly suspicious of the Robot, but nevertheless would like to find a way to use it to the family's advantage. ("Infestation")

By reading a letter by mistake, his wife learned that he voluntarily chose to spend more time serving overseas when he could have chosen to stay with his family, which made her very upset. ("The Robinsons Were Here")

He was sent to the amber planet to investigate a malfunctioning well and got trapped within it after falling due to deterioration of the support holding him from the rust virus. Judy Robinson rushed nearly fifteen miles on foot to save him after he discovered that he had been impaled by a spike during the fall. As his vitals started to fail, he told her that he had taught her everything that she needed to survive and she no longer needed him, that no matter what happened to her in life, she would do great. In response, she told him that if he died, his wife would throw herself into work, growing cold and distant. Her sister Penny's snark would turn bitter and she would act out. Her brother Will would retreat into himself, the light and hope inside him going out. Finally, she would do what she always did - try and keep the family together, but she would hate him for giving up and taking another father away from her. She then redoubled her efforts and managed to rescue him from the well. ("Run")

When he and his wife learned that the command crew of the Resolute planned to abandon those stranded on the amber planet, he agreed to aid her in a mutiny so that she could put into motion a plan to rescue them all. ("Unknown") He was captured and placed on electronic monitoring, but used his skills as a Navy SEAL to escape. He was troubled by his adoptive daughter Judy's plan to place 97 children within a Jupiter spacecraft to save them when it became clear that the Resolute would not survive an attack by the Robots, but agreed to it as the only viable option. ("Ninety-Seven")

A year after the 97 children were sent away, John was the leader of a salvage team on a rainforest planet in the "Danger System," dodging alien Robots while foraging for needed supplies. He was upset with Maureen, who had grown distant from him, bereft at the loss of their children. The two finally sat down and talked about the matter and Maureen admitted that she was trying not to think about their children, worried that she was a terrible person for this, but felt that every time she thought about them she was worried that there was something she missed. ("Three Little Birds")

John and Maureen finally started working together again along with Don West, now seeking an alien engine to finally get everyone to Alpha Centauri. They sought to capture a Robot in the hope of achieving this task, and ended up finding Scarecrow, the Robot that Ben Adler once forged a bond with. Through Scarecrow, they managed to speak with Will and Penny, who had been stranded for a year on a shattered planet and were seeking their own way home. ("Contact") With Scarecrow's help, the group hatched a new plan to obtain an alien engine by seizing one from a ship guarded by a group of alien Robots. John and Don ran interference by trying to distract the Robots with a Chariot ATV while Maureen and Scarecrow raided the ship. Ultimately, however, it turned out to be a trap set up by the Robots, led by SAR, and Scarecrow was seized in the process. ("The New Guy")

Following this, the Robots readied to launch an attack on the colonists. As everyone panicked, John cut through the chatter to the heart of the matter: that they had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. He told them that the one thing they could do was protect their children and that what SAR wanted was the location of Alpha Centauri. As such, he directed them to completely scrub all vessels of files, paperwork, anything that could give the Robots even so much as a clue as to the location of Alpha Centauri. When a man making the last rounds thanked him, he told him that it wasn't just thanks to him, but thanks to all of them that their families would be safe.

John was shocked, however, when as the group was preparing for their last stand, the childrens' Jupiter suddenly emerged from a rift. He got on the radio, telling Don to divert them away, but Judy came on, stating to belay that order. It turned out that the children had a secret plan to rescue their parents, one involving a diversion using the Fortuna, the vessel piloted by Judy's biological father Grant Kelly, whom it turned out was still alive. John was stunned to see the growth of his son Will, and perhaps even more stunned to see the conniving Dr. Smith, who was believed to have died in the conflict which resulted in the children being sent away. As the group prepared to escape to Alpha Centauri, John monitored a proximity alarm: that of SAR's spaceship. He then ordered the Robot to send the group somewhere, anywhere, else, resulting in them crashing on a boggy planet. ("Nothing Left Behind")

On the planet, John and Penny found themselves alone in an escape pod with the Robot, who was trapped by debris. John immediately moved to shut down all power, as any power signal would attract the Robots. They then worked together to free the Robot. Penny then started talking with John about her time on the shattered planet, explaining that she found herself attracted to both Vijay Dhar and Liam Tufeld. John was at first astonished that she would want to talk about this, but then realized that she was trying to keep his mind occupied in the same way that he had done for her when she was scared. They eventually succeeded in freeing the Robot and made their way back to the Jupiter 2, finding Will and Dr. Smith along the way. ("Stuck")

John led a search party along with Will to find the still missing Don West. During the journey, John took the opportunity to get caught up with another of his children. He complimented Will on his new haircut and asked him if he had started shaving, noticing a shadow on his chin. Will revealed that while he hadn't started shaving, he had grown a single hair, which Penny had named "Carl," before plucking it out. The two agreed that once they finally got to Alpha Centauri, they would do normal father-son things together, such as John teaching Will how to shave, or giving him an allowance and taking it away when he misbehaved. They eventually found Don and brought him back to the Jupiter.

Back on the Jupiter, John and Maureen reviewed an unusual recording taken from the Fortuna, Grant Kelly's spaceship. They found that one of the Robots simply scanned Grant, but otherwise left him alone. When they learned from Don that one of the Robots scanned him as well, they put together the pieces and came to a startling realization: the Robots were able to discern everywhere that an individual has ever been just by scanning them. They learned the location of Earth from Grant and from Don they learned the location of Alpha Centauri, as Don was the only one of their group who had ever actually been to Alpha Centauri. John declared that they needed to launch immediately and give Alpha Centauri a warning, though Don wondered just how a warning could help, given that they were seemingly helpless to fight off the Robots. Smith suggested that they should just save themselves, but John told her they weren't running away.

John realized that something didn't make sense: it had been well over an hour since Don was scanned, yet the Robots hadn't taken off. The group realized that there was something else the Robots wanted and that Will was missing. They launched an all-out search to find Will, only to watch in horror when Will found SAR and attempted to reason with him, only for SAR to impale him through the heart. As the group rushed to place Will in stasis and launch for Alpha Centauri in the hope that they could save him, John confronted the Robot, saying that he was supposed to stop this from happening. He punched the Robot repeatedly, finally breaking down and sobbing, but the Robot just looked sad as well. ("Final Transmission")

John, along with the others, was relieved when the group made it to Alpha Centauri and Will was rushed into surgery with the doctors reporting that he would likely survive, albeit with an artificial heart. He stopped the Robot from joining the group for the time being, warning him that most of the colonists had never seen an alien Robot before and so they didn't want to alarm them. He and Maureen briefed the colony's chancellor on the situation. Later, he and Maureen were discussing strategy when Maureen realized that there was something off about the colony's energy numbers. John asked where the colony kept its prisoners and they paid a visit to Alistair Hastings, the treacherous individual who had very nearly gotten them all killed in his misguided attempts at protection. John confirmed their suspicion: that Hastings had installed a secret defense system that the chancellor was being kept in the dark about. "Men like you, contingencies on contingencies," commented John as Hastings struck a deal to activate the defense system in exchange for his own freedom.

Before the deal could be enacted, however, Hastings was apparently killed by the Robot, who was angry at Hastings for the way he had treated Scarecrow. John then led a team to search for the Robot, along with Victor Dhar. However, when they arrived at the dam, John discovered Judy facing off against a group of alien Robots, attempting to swim to reach the dam's generator for the turbines. He learned that several Robots were secretly already on the planet and that they had framed Will's Robot and were now attempting to sabotage the turbines that were powering the defense system. He watched as Will's Robot attacked, taking out the other alien Robots. In the process, however, the turbines were destroyed, leaving the colony dangerously exposed. ("Contingencies on Contingencies")

John returned to the control center, where the group discussed plans to fend off the alien Robots. John said that they couldn't use anything alien to fight them, that using alien technology was what got them in the mess in the first place, that they had to use their own tools. He oversaw a plan that involved grounding the Jupiter spacecraft in order to generate spin to replace the power that was being generated by the turbines. Though the plan succeeded, the Robots still managed to slip through a small hole before the defense shield was fully formed.

As the Robots attacked, it quickly became clear that their focus was the alien engine, as they could use it to rip a hole in space, shattering Alpha Centauri in the same manner as the shattered planet. John declared that they needed to find somewhere to put the engine that the Robots couldn't get to. With Don's help, the group came up with a new plan: hiding the engine inside a Jupiter spacecraft and electrifying the surface of the craft for as long as possible, holding out until hopefully Will could use his connection with the Robots to put an end to the conflict once and for all. As the power dwindled, John chatted with Grant Kelly, Grant thanking John for keeping him the memory of him alive for Judy. John told Grant that he was first in a lot of things and he had some big shoes to fill.

When the power eventually ran out, John and the others were forced to confront the Robots directly. He and Maureen sprayed liquid helium at the Robots and shattered them, but there were too many. As the Robots closed in, they received a command signal from Will, which enabled them to stop the Robots' progress. Will himself then showed up, trying to keep SAR away from the alien engine. John then watched in horror as Will turned off his own signal and SAR again stabbed him through the heart. This time, however, things went very differently. The Robot had sacrificed himself, placing a piece of himself inside Will's own heart. This arced up into SAR, causing him to morph into Will's Robot, ending the conflict for good. As the Robot shut off the alien engine, John and Maureen shared a hug in relief. In the aftermath, John settled down into a relaxed life on Alpha Centauri with his family, farming for sustenance. In her memoir, Penny wrote that she had never seen him this relaxed, reflecting on the saying that more than anyone else, soldiers appreciate the value of peace. ("Trust")

Skills and abilities[]

John Battling Resolute Officers — John battling security officers aboard the *Resolute*

"I thought you were dead."
"Common misunderstanding."
- John Robinson and a Resolute security officer, "Ninety-Seven"

He had a cognitive recovery time of 19 seconds when losing consciousness from G-forces, which was far greater than any of the other members of the 24th Mission. ("Trajectory") As a trained Navy SEAL, he possesses incredible strength and skill. When mounting an escape on the Resolute, he was able to take down several security officers who attempted to contain him. ("Ninety-Seven")

Behind the scenes[]

John is not Judy's biological father, but was the only father she has ever known in person until she met Grant Kelly in Season 3.

The character of John Robinson first appeared in the original Lost in Space, then in the 1998 film, as well as the failed pilot The Robinsons: Lost in Space.

Romantic Life[]

John fell deeply in love with astrophysicist Maureen. A few years later, they were married. John happily adopted Maureen's daughter, Judy and they formed an extremely close bond despite the fact that they weren't related. Judy took after her adoptive father more than she ever took after her mother, even adopting the last name Robinson instead of her biological father's name, Kelly.

Despite how close Maureen was with John, she eventually tired of his job. He kept going on missions for the military, and those trips got longer and longer until he was absent for months and even years. Eventually Maureen found a letter from the military on accident, showing that John voluntarily chose to spend more time overseas when he could have been spending more time with his family. This angered Maureen, and basically led to their split. When all three of their children were in there teenage years, John and Maureen broke up, and even considered filing for divorce.

John traveled with them on the 24th colonist group, though, to spend more time with the family and be a larger presence in their lives. The two ex-lovers got closer again, even if slowly. By the time of their escape from the unknown planet, they were in a stable relationship once again.

Trivia[]

John claims that he was a U.S. Navy SEAL but when he is on a military camp a jeep depicts ''USMC'' which means United States Marine Corps. However, Seals can be seen working with marines from time to time. Marines can be used as QRFs (Quick Reaction Forces) for the Seals.
John also claims he was a seal but in the pilot episode S1:E1, 8:32, you can clearly see he’s an army “Captain.” Navy Seals are Navy, additionally “U.S. Navy” is never shown on any uniform he wears.