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

One of the best from the space adventure's last season

[garrard · 8/10 · 28 September 2009]

Although "The Space Creature," as was reported by the other reviewer, was a guy covered by a sheet, the episode still ranks as one of the most engaging of LIS's season three. Filmed from a script that was surprisingly - or maybe appropriately - "Freudian" for a show whose target audience was kids, the installment had some "mature" themes which probably went over the heads of the younger audience.

Good camera work, special effects, use of John Williams' music, and acting on the part of Jonathan Harris and Ronald Gans add to the enjoyment of the episode.

All make up for the improbability of a third "level" on the Jupiter 2. Depending on the size of the model used in filming any episode, it was hard even to imagine a SECOND one as well.

But, "Lost in Space" was always a show where one had to dispel logic and just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Solid Suspense Episode - With a Bonus

[brimfin · 8/10 · 8 December 2019]

This episode - the only one written by William Welch for season 3 - is a solid suspense tale as first Maureen Robinson mysteriously vanishes off the ship while in outer space and then one by one the other members of the Robinson party begin to vanish as well. It is fairly unique as one of only two episodes set entirely in space (the other being "Wild Adventure") and all the cast has at least a few lines in it - though with Will and Smith still getting the lion's share of the script. At least Smith's buffoonery is kept to a minimum and he even has a long scene as a sinister version of himself - more like his persona in the earliest episodes. Altogether, it's a highly recommended episode and one of the third season's best.

Now what's the bonus? It's a blooper that no one else ever seemed to notice. When John is trying to ascertain what is causing the disappearances he stops and asks Will, "Where was your mother when you saw her last?" Will replies it was by the sonic washer. But Will was confined to his cabin when his mother vanished early in the show, so he would have had no idea where she was before she disappeared. However, he was the only one with Penny just before *she* vanished - and by the same sonic washer that Maureen had been standing next to. In other words, John's line should have been "Where was your *sister* when you saw her last?" But in all the books and articles I've ever read about LOST IN SPACE, many which included lists of bloopers, no one else ever seemed to have caught this one.

A SPACE VERSION OF AGATHA CHRISTIE S TEN LITTLE INDIANS

[asalerno10 · 8/10 · 22 May 2022]

After going through a strange space fog, the members of the Robinson family begin to mysteriously disappear one by one, ending up in a limbo where an alien lives that feeds on the fear that it sows. Finally, only Will and Dr. Smith remain, who has been possessed by the strange creature, becoming a threatening and dangerous being that chases Will to a new level of the ship never seen before, the atomic room. In this chapter it is shown that when the argument and the direction are good, a creepy atmosphere can be created even if the alien is a man disguised with a simple sheet. Jonathan Harris looks really disturbing in this suspenseful story.

Voyage/Sea Writer & Voyage/Sea Sheet Monster Jump Ship To LIS

[StuOz · 22 May 2007]

The Jupiter 2 is in deep space when members of the Robinson family slowly start to vanish. A deep voiced alien (Ron Gans) starts to talk to Smith.

This would have to be the most Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea-ish episode of LIS. Writer William Welch had scripted a small number of straight faced year one LIS episodes but Welch was more at home with Irwin's other less comical TV shows. Space Creature is the one and only colour LIS episode that Welch scripted, giving the hour a special identity in the 83 episode run of LIS. Something or someone else jumps ship from Voyage to LIS - A Sheet Monster! Before Space Creature, in the 1966-67 season of Voyage, came Shadowman (Admiral Nelson named him this), an actor dressed in a black sheet and voiced by Jim Mills.

However, in Shadowman the sheet did not look like a sheet due to clever lighting on the set and the simple fact that black is black. The Space Creature is a WHITE sheet monster and the sheet looks like a sheet! Help! This minor problem does damage to the episode as does Will Robinson's now painful tone of voice when he talks to Jonathan Harris. It is evil Jonathan Harris in act four, Guy Williams and alien voice artist Ron Gans that hold the viewer. Also the William Welch quirks...

Welch probably viewed the Jupiter 2 as the Seaview in space and the space pod as the flying sub in space. In the teaser we see John and Don frozen in time and Welch did this to many characters in many episodes of non-LIS Irwin TV. As for act four when Smith hunts down Will in an empty Jupiter 2, this kind of thing often happened in an almost empty Seaview. But I must reluctantly admit that Space Creature did the manhunt-thing better than Voyage...we can thank Jonathan Harris and Ron Gans for that. All in all, despite a white sheet and sometimes painful Will Robinson, this hour is very cool.

🏆 SCARIEST EPISODE OF LIS IN THE SERIES

[floridacalisurferboy · 10/10 · 18 October 2022]

🏆 IF THERE WAS AN AWARD GIVEN TO THE SCARIEST EPISODE OF LOST IN SPACE IN THE ENTIRE SERIES... THIS EPISODE.... "THE SPACE CREATURE" WOULD WIN IT.... Filled with scenes way too frightening for young kids.. It tells the story of an alien that FEEDS ON YOUR FEARS... so, in order to cause every human member of ship to be at their most terrified, it makes them start disappearing in front of each other one at a time... The huge spaceship gets emptier and emptier and panic gets bigger and bigger... To ADD to THE TERROR one of the 7 members becomes POSSESSED and preys upon whoever has survived remaining on ship... So UNUSUAL for any LOST IN SPACE episode, or for this series in general... A sense of DOOM is persuasive throughout... All the performances are excellent with BILLY MUMY & JONATHAN HARRIS just SUPERB.. 🌟 THIS IS A LOST IN SPACE DON'T MISS EPISODE 🌟

Space Creature Horror

[bigfrankie-43464 · 9/10 · 23 December 2022]

Space Creature is an excellent episode with just a couple of issues keeping it from a Rating of "10".

After some random comments by Will and Dr. Smith, the Jupiter Two is engulfed by a foggy mist from an alien that feeds on fear. One by one, each member disappears and it transported to the alien's location, where he explains he feeds on fear. There is building suspense throughout and a final showdown and Will defeats the alien.

What works:

The story and suspense are excellent; the balance between all members is very good; The Robot is played straight and logical; Dr. Smith is under control. The scene where the alien takes over Dr. Smith's body and he becomes essentially the old evil Dr. Smith is excellent. There is minimal comedy.

The issues:

Will goes to the Core (third level) of the Jupiter Two. Although there is a theme in LIS where alien ships have exteriors much smaller than their interiors, for the Jupiter Two, this stretches one's imagination.

The alien is eventually depicted as a guy under a sheet! Perhaps a small child would be afraid of that "boogeyman", but it looks ridiculous. With all the various monsters at the LIS director's disposal, why this was selected in unknown.

Nonsensical but oddly watchable

[jamesrupert2014 · 7/10 · 31 May 2023]

Will becomes increasingly concerned when the Jupitar 2 becomes enveloped by a strange blue mist and members of his family inexplicably begin to disappear. The story, which borrows from 1956's 'Forbidden Planet', doesn't make much sense (notably the much commented on new third deck on the Jupitar 2 or the various mysterious manifestations (such as giant space-hands) that seem unaccountable given the premise), and the 'alien threat' is Dawson Palmer draped in a sheet, but, despite these weaknesses, the episode is pleasantly moody and unexpectedly entertaining. Smith-silliness is kept to a minimum and Johnathon Harris actually pulls-off 'menacing' as his character (or a doppelganger thereof) pursues young William through the ship's new addition. Considering the nonsense Irwin Allen was peddling in the show's third season, 'The Space Creature' is reasonably entertaining (if you don't think about it too much and are not looking forward to seeing an actual 'space creature'). "Id" referred to as a "big word" is one of the series' cleverer jokes.

That Dirty Sheet Needed A Good Washing!

[kensirhan-86198 · 8/10 · 22 February 2021]

Despite its less-than-creative title - on a par with various forms of "Obsession" (e.g. "Deadly" / "Fatal") that have for years tiredly made the rounds on the 3 less-than-great NBC/CBS/ABC network true-crime docs - this was some scary stuff back in the day, for a good few minutes. The buildup of fear & suspense when the gas cloud would creep down over the Jupiter 2's viewport (some "Mister Nobody" (1965) music matched perfectly to it, except for at the beginning when a strange huge monster mitt appeared therein, never to be seen again) and people starting disappearing 1 at a time (unlike 1 reviewer stating "no one else" caught the oopsy when John asked Will about his mother, when he'd been confined to quarters & couldn't have seen her, I caught that goof but had to just sigh & move it along) reached a truly spine-chilling peak during first when Don aboard the space pod had to return to the ship - oops, So Not! - and the depiction of John & the Robot's disappearance, the same music that had denoted the coming of the burning sun over the Robinsons ("The Hungry Sea" (1965), ep.5 se.1) made its best appearance there, causing my 2 sisters to clutch each other in terror while I sat silent, no doubt bugeyed with fear while zingers went up & down my back. The commercial break then thankfully relieved us of all that, which afterwards the only other moments of space horror were when the Creature took over Dr. Smith, all snarls and sadism, & chased after Will (the spaceship certainly had a whole lotta room below decks!) and then - a true letdown - the Creature's true self was revealed: a male adult, hands raised, with a white sheet over him! "That's the best you could do?" in Samantha Stephens's words. I remember well the collective Oh Please! eyerolling we did, deflated like a spiked tire with not a whisper of knotted-stomach suspense left. But happily the Creature was vanquished, everybody saved & the Jupiter 2 left sailing contentedly through the stars. So my rating of 8 is for mostly the vanishments - a toast of white lightning to the music editor! - but the whole shebang remains one of my favorite LIS outings. Given all the critters & beings they'd made up before this, though, just outfitting a guy in a sheet from some casting couch is *not* their best moment in creating aliens!

More influential than at first look

[Boycemaxblues70 · 6/10 · 9 January 2018]

I am revisiting LIS after many years with this episode as the latest, at time of writing. IMO this is the most interesting story so far in season 3, and probably all of season 2, but the budget plus the then policy of working almost everything around Will and Dr Smith, limits development and possibilities. What it does have is that by being first broadcast in late 67, this episode was ahead of its time, and possibly influential, of 2 probably more well known later Star Trek episodes from seasons 2/3 of the original series, i.e. 'Wolf in the Fold' and 'Day of the Dove'. Both episodes centred upon villainous non-physical entities that thrived on human emotion. Star Trek did it much better, but Lost in Space did it first.

I caught my foot in this ridiculous valve!

[gcanfield-29727 · 9/10 · 10 May 2020]

The episode is arguably ridiculous, but a lot of fun. Interestingly, there were a few LIS episodes that touched on "possession." When Dr Smith is possessed by the creature, he becomes evil. Interesting. Was he good in the first place? Overall, some of the silliest dialogue and situations of the series, but good fun.

If the atmosphere proves to be lethal, abort the mission.

[gregorycanfield · 8/10 · 18 April 2022]

As a kid, this was one of my favorite episodes. Now, it's easy to notice all the things that are just so silly. The story is interesting. It's much of the dialogue that is so ridiculous. The line in my heading is said to Major West by Prof Robinson. Maybe the line should have been: "If the atmosphere proves to be lethal (and you're still alive at that point), abort the mission." In another scene, Will tells Penny that he had searched the Power Core for Maureen and Judy. He then has to add the following: "Well, anyway, they weren't in there." Wasn't this obvious? Everyone wouldn't have still been searching for the two women, if they had been in the Power Core! Gloriously silly! Then, Penny (the genius that she has always been) starts literally looking in corners, as if she really expects to find two human beings there. Well, I must admit, she at least looked pretty in this episode. The episode is a lot of fun, though some of humor might have been unintentional. The best part is when Dr Smith is "possessed" by the space creature. He becomes hostile towards Will. We get one of Smith's best lines, of the whole series. "That is foolish, irresponsible talk. I'll hear no more of it! Is that clear?"

The Monster.

[huntleygooch · 4/10 · 26 January 2021]

It's pretty obvious they had one goal in making this episode, saving money. Nothing like a sheet for making a monster.

Blooper

[anthonymessina-18393 · 10/10 · 11 May 2021]

Elite writer William Welch does a superb job in this as if all the rest of the writers would have paid attention in this third season would have made Lost in Space and explosive season because this writer did a lot any luck the ceiling is very little but he kept a very serious aside for the back there is one group and blue per year that icon is when the robot is Ben power packs been removed by dr. Smith only one of his claws go down but when John and Don reappear both are down they didn't catch that in the post at it see if you see what I.