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.
3 Reviews
Another "Silent Giant" Episode
StuOz5 February 2015
Valerie and Betty are captured by giants.
In production order, the first seven episodes of Land Of The Giants have a special place in my heart because they are different from the rest of the series. The giants seem more deadly and realistic because they hardly ever talk in these opening hours. The Trap is one of those opening seven shows in production order.
The best moment comes when Valerie and Betty are held captive by the giants and Valerie reveals that the earth folk arrived on the planet on a skate board or something. Very funny.
There is a lot of characterization going on with "the little people" here and this is most welcome.
In production order, the first seven episodes of Land Of The Giants have a special place in my heart because they are different from the rest of the series. The giants seem more deadly and realistic because they hardly ever talk in these opening hours. The Trap is one of those opening seven shows in production order.
The best moment comes when Valerie and Betty are held captive by the giants and Valerie reveals that the earth folk arrived on the planet on a skate board or something. Very funny.
There is a lot of characterization going on with "the little people" here and this is most welcome.
The "Silent Giants" Are Back
fcabanski16 October 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Some people like the the slow motion, mostly silent giants. I don't. They don't seem more dangerous, they don't seem more sinister, they just seem weird.
They move and even talk in slow motion - their clothes move in slow motion. The idea was to make them look big by making them slow, to make them menacing by making them mostly silent, but the result was an awkward, dream like feeling whenever these giants were shown.
Thank goodness the show makers abandoned this silly effect.
Unlike many episodes, this one is to the main point of escape. That's refreshing from watching these people, stuck on a giant world and trying to get home, risk everything to save some giant schmuck. Not that doing good for others is bad, but the area they crash landed is a kind of grand central station. At times it's a kind of central park where people go to have picnics or take photos, and then accidentally kill a model while trying to rape her. At other times it's the busy highway for fugitives trying to escape the government.
Unfortunately, what this episode does right as far as sticking to the main thread of escape, it does more wrong with the weird, slo-mo, slow talking giants.
They move and even talk in slow motion - their clothes move in slow motion. The idea was to make them look big by making them slow, to make them menacing by making them mostly silent, but the result was an awkward, dream like feeling whenever these giants were shown.
Thank goodness the show makers abandoned this silly effect.
Unlike many episodes, this one is to the main point of escape. That's refreshing from watching these people, stuck on a giant world and trying to get home, risk everything to save some giant schmuck. Not that doing good for others is bad, but the area they crash landed is a kind of grand central station. At times it's a kind of central park where people go to have picnics or take photos, and then accidentally kill a model while trying to rape her. At other times it's the busy highway for fugitives trying to escape the government.
Unfortunately, what this episode does right as far as sticking to the main thread of escape, it does more wrong with the weird, slo-mo, slow talking giants.
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