Useful information
Prime News delivers timely, accurate news and insights on global events, politics, business, and technology
By Jonathan Klotz | Updated
There are stories that are told by each generation. There will always be a James Bond, a Robin Hood and a Spider-Man. Those stories are timeless and will always find a way to attract a new generation.
Some stories seem to fit that mold, but somehow Hollywood can’t get it right. But where there are hints of possible money, they will keep trying, for better or worse.
This is the reason Lost in space…. FAILED.
The concept is simple and, on paper, it should have appeal in all four quadrants (Hollywood executives love hitting those quadrants). It’s about a family and they’re stranded in space.
A simple concept, but difficult to execute, and only the original 1960s series achieved lasting success. The ’90s movie is a consistent contender for “worst ’90s sci-fi movie,” and although a Netflix series ran for three seasons, it went largely unnoticed.
The problem is that the original series is cheesy and silly, and leans too hard into the absurdity of the premise. Modern retellings attempted to make it, respectively, dark and gritty or a teen drama.
Lost in space It always follows the Robinson family on a mission to colonize a planet as the Earth falls apart for various reasons (pollution, resource shortages, or the result of a meteorite impact) and each time, something goes wrong with the ship, whether it’s sabotage by the evil Dr. Smith or alien robots in the Netflix series, leaving them stranded on a desolate alien planet. Unlike Gilligan’s IslandThe Robinsons leave the original planet and have a series of adventures in the farthest corner of space while trying to return home.
The 1965 original was more popular than Star Trek
The 1965 series was compared to another science fiction series that aired at the same time, Star Trek: the original seriesbut unlike the adventures of the starship Enterprise, Lost in space It was a ratings success. Mixing fantasy and science fiction, with a focus on Will Robinson (Bill Mumy), the youngest son of the family, foiling the over-the-top evil plans of Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris).
With the help of Robot and his classic catchphrase, “Danger Will Robinson!”, Will became the breakout star of the series. In retrospect, it’s Harris’s unhinged, scene-stealing performance as Smith that kept the series going for three seasons.
Dr. Smith is a coward, a genius, a lazy man, and an agent of an evil organization that cannot allow the Robinsons’ mission to succeed. Dr. John Robinson forgives Smith at the end of each episode and explains why they put up with him despite his villainy.
Lost in Space managed to keep this setup going for three seasons of diminishing returns. The fun plots, ridiculous acting, and cheap special effects made it a cult classic and a staple of cable television during the ’80s.
A victim of the dark and gritty ’90s Reboot madness
The original had staying power and became a cult classic that seeped into pop culture. The 1998 film, starring Matt LeBlanc in the heyday of Friends popularity, William Hurt, Heather Graham, Lacey Chabert and, in a moment of perfect casting, Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith, became a box office hit and then simply disappeared. Lost in Space (1998) It was significantly darker, both in tone and imagery.
He left behind the bright, desolate alien planet for one that seemed to be in constant shadow. It somehow included time travel, sending the Robinsons to the future where Will and Dr. Smith are the only survivors of the expedition.
You’d be forgiven for forgetting that Heather Graham and Lacy Chabert (in her film debut) were part of Lost in Space (1998). It focuses like a laser on young Will dealing with the future Dr. Smith, which only works so well because Gary Oldman never gives less than 100 percent.
The story is missing some of the camp and charm of the original. Instead of Smith’s over-the-top cartoonish villainy, it’s a very serious story that tries to be more Star Trek than Lost in space.
For some reason, Hollywood executives love to take cheesy properties and turn them into serious ones for remakes or reboots decades after they lose all the appeal of the original. Check out the X-Men dressed in black leather instead of the classic bright yellow uniforms, or Star Trek: Generations.
Lost in space is the latest sci-fi franchise that should get dark and gritty. The movie was number one at the box office, grossing over $130 million, on a budget of $80 million, and then dropped like a rock when people saw it and realized it wasn’t the space action movie the trailers made it out to be, and the plot doesn’t make sense if you think about it for 30 seconds.
Netflix Teen Drama Version
That didn’t stop Netflix from bringing the series out of mothballs in 2018 for one more time, this time as a series with Parker Posey as the last Dr. Smith (sort of), and instead of just the Robinsons going into space, they’re part of a larger colony ship raided by aliens. Expanding the universe allowed the show to introduce different colonists as the seasons progressed, but the show also updated the characters, making the eldest daughter, Judy Robinson, a doctor and the middle daughter, Penny Robinson, a writer, documenting their experiences. The robot lost its classic flexible arm design for a more elegant and sophisticated chassis.
Netflix’s focus on Lost in Space shifts from Will and Robot to Judy and the family matriarch, Maureen Robinson (Molly Parker). That should work, especially the clash between Parker’s Maureen and Posey’s Smith, but The CW’s teen drama-level writing lets it down.
Every entry in the franchise has included at least a little romance between Judy and Don West, but Netflix’s update turns it up to 11 and Judy falls in love with Vijay, the expedition leader’s son. It’s not a bad series, but it’s not what fans of the original wanted, although there are cameos from the original stars, the best of which is Bill Mumy playing a different Dr. Smith.
From dark and gritty to teen drama, Lost in Space has been reinvented for different generations, and it misses the mark every time. The original is campy, funny, and delightfully over-the-top, which is why it became beloved by generations of sci-fi fans, and even if you’ve never seen a second of the series, you recognize Robot.
Nowadays, studios need to add their own touch to every IP they get their hands on, and in a desperate attempt to get attention, they’ve collectively decided that being a fun, low-stakes series that embraces cheesy fun isn’t good enough to go into production. Instead, we have to endure an endless series of drama-filled sci-fi shows when all we want is a dumb robot waving his arms while the villain curses that they could have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids.
