I loved LOST IN SPACE, but I never really liked Dr. Smith. Lazy, greedy and self-centered, he was the kind of man who'd sell his friends out in a heartbeat for money, power or a trip back to Earth. Alexander Fitzhugh, in this series, was clearly modeled after Dr. Smith. He, too, tended to be lazy, self-centered and greedy, but there was one important difference. He still did his share of the work, and when the chips were down, Fitzhugh always came through to help his friends. This episode demonstrates this beautifully as Fitzhugh at first votes against a plan to explode one of the ship's fuel cells as a diversion to help rescue captured Betty and Valerie. But when Mark is injured trying to rig the blast, Fitzhugh arrives to save the day. It is that portion of the storyline that makes this episode special. I particularly liked the moving tag scene. The rest of the cast perform well and, barring an obviously bogus rear projection shot of a praying mantis early in the episode, is also technically well done. But Kurt Kasznar's multi-layered performance as Fitzhugh is what makes this episode one of my favorites.
