Third Season Episodes - Kidnapped In Space (episode 62)

The Robot turns surgeon when mechanical men kidnap the Robinson party and force him to operate on their Leader.

Dr. Smith detects a mysterious distress call over the radio. A pair of metallic Aliens say they will pay great wealth for a doctor. Dr. Smith, no medical man, gets up in the night and sneaks to the Space Pod. The Robot tries to stop him, but Smith bungles the controls so that both are shot out. They are picked up by a vast spaceship's beam.

Two aliens named 764 and 1220 hurry them off to the waiting patient, who needs brain surgery. While the others on the Jupiter 2 discover the two gone, the unhappy Smith, with the Robot as his nurse, are forced to scrub up for surgery. The Jupiter 2 is drawn into the spaceship, and John and Don venture out, only to encounter clock-aliens. The quailing Smith is brought before the Leader, who is ticking faintly. Smith's position beguiles him until the Leader's mechanism shudders to a halt. He throws down surgical instruments handed him and runs out screaming. The Robot makes a minor repair and the Leader sighs with relief.

But he still needs surgery. Smith, Don and John are locked together in a cell, while the Robot patrols outside, remarking he knows exactly what is wrong with the Leader. Eavesdropping, 764 and 1220 force him to operate. They quickly determine the object of the Robot's affection young Will. When they threaten Will, the Robot agrees to operate. Those in the dungeon await the outcome of the operation. They lure the guard and knock him out- but not before he shoots John, killing him. Will turns back the clock in the guard's chest, bringing his father back to life. Smith sets the clock back for himself, only to be turned into a howling nine-year-old boy.

The Robot, meanwhile, has operated successfully, but the Leader refuses to restore Smith to his normal age. Will thereupon removes a spring from his head. After that, John and Don easily talk the Leader into restoring Smith and letting them all go free.

Ray Dutczak Comment

After two great episodes aired to begin season three of LIS and the momentum riding high in September 1967 viewers tuned in to view Kidnapped in Space which aired on 9/20/1967 on CBS.

This episode to me is a bit of a let down and here are a few reasons why. Starts out good and then just fissles out mid way. We see the introduction of the Space Pod which is a plus and is more then welcomed in year three. There are some nice special effects in Kidnapped as we see the J2/ Derelict ship scene recycled here.

The aliens are pretty cool Men dressed in skullcaps and silver suits, Ladies with cosmic hair doos and silver makeup. I guess typical aliens you would meet in space. A very good scene in Kidnapped happens when JR and Major West come aboard the Alien ship looking for Smith and the Robot and are engaged in a good ole fashioned laser shootout. Bombs explode above Marks head and he fliches upon explosion. Now the bad, for me the episode takes a turn for the worse when Dr Smith is asked to operate on the alien computer and the Robot insists Smith isn't a medical doctor and can't operate. I guess the Robot wasn't watching LIS for the last two seasons.

It was Dr Smith who gave the Robinsons a clean bill of health at launch. What were the writers thinking to insist Smith isn't a medical Doctor????This episode goes even further down hill when JR is killed via an alien laser gun but is brought back to life by a clock these aliens wear. Even worse is when Smith is turned into a Boy after playing with a clock but brought back to a Man again via the alien computer who the Robot operates on. If I had to rate this episode on a scale of 1 - 10 I would give it a 5 only because the first twenty minutes are pretty good. After the first twenty minutes of Kidnapped in Space switch the channel over to ABC and watch Batman.

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