First Season Episodes - Island in the Sky (episode 3)

The Jupiter 2 crash lands on an alien world where the space pioneers embark on a desperate search for John Robinson.

When Dr. Smith announces that the Robot is malfunctioning, the job of making an initial landing on the unknown planet falls to John. His rocket belt fails and he plummets helplessly to the planet below. Smith attempts to commandeer the spaceship and threatens to employ the reprogrammed Robot. West forces Smith to order the Robot back and he locks Smith into one of the freezing tubes. 

But he discovers that Smith has tampered with the rockets on the ship, and he is unable to control the Jupiter 2' s descent to the planet. After crash landing, the entire party -except for the confined Smith -leaves in the Chariot in search of John. Heading for the location of the blip they have picked up on the scanner, they find a mysterious electrical-volcanic pit. As Don calls over the edge, John answers he is alive. Will has discovered a way to make the Robot work by disguising his voice to sound like Smith's, but when the Robot is mobilized to rescue John, it stops in midstream and heads in the direction of the spaceship. West lowers a rope to John and he is recovered. The Chariot is overtaken by a weird tumbleweed like creature which drains its electrical power. 

Back at the spacecraft, the Robot has freed Smith, who vainly attempts to get the Robot to pilot the ship. When this fails, he programs the Robot to kill all members of the party except pilot Don West. When John and the others return, Smith feigns contriteness and asks for a chance to redeem himself. After dinner, it is discovered that Will is missing. Penny says he left to fix the Chariot. Smith becomes alarmed and almost discloses that the boy is in jeopardy. 

Meanwhile, Will discovers that he is unable to fix the Chariot and decides to head back to the ship. Suddenly, the Robot appears and Will is at first delighted to see him. But the Robot closes in on the boy with its electrical claws outstretched.

A Review by Robert Herzog

After my probably too windy review of "Ghost Planet", may I simply say that "Island in the Sky" is another LIS masterpiece.

I don't even mind the bad science of the parajets... when I first saw this episode, I had no idea that what John does is totally suicidal. To me, it was gripping, exciting, and fascinating TV. The incidental music in "Island" may be the best that John Williams contributed to LIS, though his music for each of the 4 episodes that he wrote is all excellent. The music from the beginning of the episode through the crash sequence is wonderful. Heck, it's all great, but the crash music is top o' the line.

I also liked how Will was able to control the Robot by excercising a loophole in Dr. Smith's programming of it. A cool touch. I also like how the original campsite crash scene looked so believable.. . the full-size J2 with dirt pushed up all around it looked much cooler than the standard crash site J2 we get starting with "There Were Giants in the Earth". (One thing, though... when the Robot goes out to make his atmospheric tests, the campsite area is a mess, as you'd expect. By the time everyone boards the Chariot to begin looking for John, however, everything looks much "cleaner". Oh well... this is nothing more than nitpicking at this point.) 

"Island in the Sky" is a wonderful 9.5 (the minus .5 comes from diving right into physical contact with Debbie without asking to see her immunization records).

A 10 and a pair of 9.5's so far in season one... TV lover's gold!

Robert

Filming