Lost in Space (TV Series) Space Destructors (1967) User Reviews

Guy Williams gets to show off his fencing skills

[garrard · 7/10 · 1 October 2009]

TV viewers of a few years before "Lost in Space" initially aired recall star Guy Williams as Disney's "Zorro". As the swashbuckling Mexican, the actor brandished a mean sword in his fight against evil. Well, "Space Destructors" gives the athletic actor a chance to once again "flex his muscles" as he does battle with a horde of Dr. Smith look-a-likes, created by an alien cyborg machine.

Though most of the cyborgs wear pullover masks molded about Jonathan Harris's image, the best effect is the one worn by Billy Mumy after his transformation into the good doctor. Mumy's mask is a combination of creatively-placed facial overlays, a convincing hairpiece, and realistic coloring, giving the young actor the appearance of truly being a miniature Smith.

The cyborg machine itself appears to be made from every spare part then on the Fox lot, attached to a very ingenious conveyor belt. Recycled music from season one's "My Friend, Mr. Nobody" is used when the machine is in operation.

So many Smiths, so little time...

[jamesrupert2014 · 6/10 · 2 May 2023]

Once again, Smith meddles with alien technology (which, once again, seems to have been abandoned in a cave on the planet) and ends up generating cyborg duplicates of himself who he immediately sees as the beginning of an unstoppable army with which to conquer the universe. None of this makes any sense and the cyborg generator looks like a colourful contraption out of a Dr. Suess book, but the makeup for the Smith-clones (including the miniature version) is pretty good (by LiS standards) and the premise, involving the creation of a variety of belligerent warrior-Smiths from different military cultures, allows former Zorro Guy Williams to demonstrate his athleticism and sword-fighting prowess. Not great but an entertaining enough 'power corrupts' fable in which Smith finally appears to have pushed the Robinson patriarch over the edge (only to get a last-minute reprieve). The 'humourous' antics of the dancing, singing, comedian cyborg is a low-point.

MULTIPLE DR. SMITH

[asalerno10 · 7/10 · 28 May 2022]

The premise of the episode is quite original. In a cave, Dr. Smith discovers a machine to make androids, at first he makes several that serve him as slaves until his excessive vanity makes him make one in his own image and likeness, the problem arises when the machine gets out of control and begins to create countless android duplicates of Dr. Smith. The production did a good job on the latex masks many Dr. Smiths can be seen wearing even at the climax of the episode Will Robinson himself accidentally falls into the machine and comes out wearing Smith's face. The sophisticated machine and display of the entire process of android manufacturing is very well done. The chapter entertains and the final result is very good.

Classic episode.

[Seafood_Licorice · 9/10 · 16 December 2012]

Dr. Smith ventures inside a cave and finds an alien machine capable of creating flabby men in cream-colored mock turtlenecks on demand. You cannot make this up. Peter Packer was a genius. For real.

I'm not sure how Will recovers after going through the machine himself, but hey, what can you do. One also has to wonder why every man that's produced by the machine immediately wants to kill everyone in sight.

Bonus points for the turtleneck-wearing midway through the episode that cracks a joke with Dr. Smith (I think this is Tommy Farrell?)

Star Trek may have been hard sci-fi, but this episode is just fun. One of the best of Season 3.

Reasonably Entertaining

[StuOz · 12 July 2020]

Smith finds a cyborg-making making machine in a cave.

Not a classic but reasonably entertaining. The season three episodes before seemed to be getting away from the traditional season two "Will/Smith/Robot find something weird in a cave" theme, and here we are going back to it again. But, generally speaking, this is not done in the silly year two tone - so all is good.

The touching ending alone makes the whole hour worthwhile and it is nice to see Guy Williams (John Robinson) look so happy as he gets involved in a few fight scenes.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea connection: this series had an episode - The Cyborg - where the cyborgs would all dress like these guys.

Fantastic Voyage (1966) connection - that tunnel thing the cyborgs climb out of was actually apart of the human body in Fantastic Voyage.

There is no further need for you. You will be destroyed!

[gregorycanfield · 10/10 · 19 April 2021]

Dr Smith creates an army of Cyborgs, with the intention of becoming "master of the universe." Due to Smith's hunger for power, Will temporarily becomes a Cyborg (in Smith's image, no less). Interestingly, Will (more level-headed than Smith in the first place) is far more evil-minded than Smith could have ever been. This is a quintessential Lost in Space episode, with some gloriously silly elements (as well as some genuinely funny moments). And all Smith wanted was to rule the universe!

The Space Destructors

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 28 July 2012]

Dr. Smith bumps into an intricately designed cyborg-making machine (It works and is designed like a machine, using conveyor, as if baking a cake, complete with a long tunnel "spitting out" the cyborgs), accidentally creating a dangerously unstable (primitive models that really do work as assembly-line creations without artificial intelligence, not cognizant of their behavior, made essentially to serve), soon realizing the power at his disposal if he can get control of them. The "brain" of the machine will guide him in this process, but as he starts building an army, Smith becomes overtaken by the desire to rule as an "emperor of the universe". As Robot says, "the universe is already messed up as it is", so if Smith were to build up enough cyborg soldiers, his mad dream just might be realized. It will take John Robinson's badass fencing skills and athleticism, not to mention a bag full of grenades, to combat Smith's army, hoping to destroy the machine before things get out of hand. The cyborgs with prosthetic faces designed in the likeness of Smith are rather creepy, but the one Will has is especially unsettling (the make-up dept really pull out all the stops to get as accurate a look of Smith on Will's head as possible; it flat works!). Some of the special effects are really lousy, particularly when some of John's grenades go nowhere near some of the cyborgs when going off yet the cyborgs are still destroyed! As typical of Lost in Space, the cyborgs just vanish once they grenade explodes. The cyborgs must be really weakly constructed if just a simple slice or stab from John's fencing sword renders them incapacitated. As usual on the show, Don is dropped like an anvil by one cyborg, knocked unconscious, while John battles multiple cyborgs barely breaking a sweat. John almost sends Smith off the Jupiter 2 for good, but recants because Zachary's appeals to his sympathy through puppy-dog eyes and admittance of behaving wrongfully change his mind. No matter what this villain does, he is forgiven. Exactly as John says at the end, Smith placed the family, especially Will, in peril, all the bridges of forgiveness he has dynamited with his dastardly antics, yet because of the humane civility of the Robinson party, this villain continues to remain with them.

Unconditional Forgiveness

[anthonymessina-18393 · 10/10 · 2 October 2023]

One of the best episodes of season 3 and Robert Hamner gave this episode of potpourri of Comedy seriousness and unconditional love at the end I rate this 10 out of 10 and it deserves every bit of it and Guy Williams got a chance to do his fencing that was good. And then at the end Dr Smith says how sorry he really is Guy Williams puts him in his place very well done at the end. And Will Robertson got a chance to be a cyborg too this is a well done episode. And I think the best part of the episode is in the end your doctor says I can change silly okay and then he realize he can't that really is the first time you hear me admitted his wrongs.

Some Good and Some Non-sense

[bigfrankie-43464 · 5/10 · 21 December 2022]

With Space Destructors we start to drift back to Season Two Batman/ Camp mixed with some positive elements.

Dr. Smith, Will and The Robot discover a cave with a variety of machines that can produce cyborgs. Despite warnings from The Robot, Dr. Smith's greed (sound familiar) results in him creating cyborgs which he thinks will help him take over the universe. Some of this is explained as Dr. Smith has finally lost his marbles and the machine is controlling him.

As with other episodes that would have been excellent if done right, Space Destructors has major "camp" flaws, mixed with excellent parts.

The strong points: The early scene with Dr. Smith running and hiding from a cyborg is hilarious; The cyborg making producing computers and machines; the make-up for the cyborgs; the action scenes with Prof Robinson and Major West fighting the cyborgs; the action scenes with Prof Robinson (Zorro!) fighting the cyborgs; and the final scene where Prof Robinson finally has had enough of Dr. Smith and kicks him out (almost).

The Non-Sense:

The idiotic comedy routine from one of the early cyborgs was painfully stupid; The Robot is basically helpless to do anything until the very end when Prof Robinson instructs him to destroy everything in the cave. Why on earth didn't The Robot take action earlier?

The various historical costumes worn by the cyborgs make it look like an attack from an office Halloween party.