"Why walk when it is so much easier to ride" "Go away, Major. You irk me." With clever, biting lines like that, who wouldn't want Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) as a pet of rare species? That's the plot-line of this episode where Smith is summoned by a mysterious bit of wind which results in him ending up in a glass cage, and Will being stalked by a giant teletubby. Basically, this hairy beast is a man in an altered frizzy bear costume with horns protruding out of its head. The monster is controlled by the rod of the brilliantly cast Michael Rennie ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") as an alien who does the rare species collecting. Rennie's supreme commander is a God like being whose head resembles the facade of "The Wizard of Oz", providing some great danger as Rennie is ordered to select the two best samples of the Robinson party.
"Vanity, thy name is woman", Major Don tells the flirtatious Judy, finally given something to do rather than pretty much be a background extra. Of course, it's not much. Jonathan Harris's Dr. Smith seems to be working overtime to get the best lines in, but as funny as he is, he doesn't steer the attention away from the commanding presence of veteran actor Rennie who is striking in every manner. This is a suspenseful episode, part one of two, and every moment is thrilling with the rod Rennie carries resembling the one Charlton Heston has in "The Ten Commandments". Fortunately, as funny as certain moments of this episode are, it never becomes overly campy or silly, and the suspense lies not in how Rennie's plot will fail (obvious from the start), but whom Rennie will choose as the most valuable specimen.
"Vanity, thy name is woman", Major Don tells the flirtatious Judy, finally given something to do rather than pretty much be a background extra. Of course, it's not much. Jonathan Harris's Dr. Smith seems to be working overtime to get the best lines in, but as funny as he is, he doesn't steer the attention away from the commanding presence of veteran actor Rennie who is striking in every manner. This is a suspenseful episode, part one of two, and every moment is thrilling with the rod Rennie carries resembling the one Charlton Heston has in "The Ten Commandments". Fortunately, as funny as certain moments of this episode are, it never becomes overly campy or silly, and the suspense lies not in how Rennie's plot will fail (obvious from the start), but whom Rennie will choose as the most valuable specimen.