There’s a new version of Lost in Space on Netflix, following on the heels of the 1960’s television show and the 1998 movie. The TV show was the story of the Robinson family who went off course and landed on an unknown planet. Also in the cast was Major Don West and a stowaway, Dr. Zachary Smith. I had not planned to watch this iteration, but after seeing several comments on Facebook, both positive and negative, I decided to take a look.
The premise for the 2018 show is similar, a family on its way to a new colony, crash lands on a planet, but there are many differences. For one, several ships on their way to the colony also crash onto the planet, which adds complications to the early episodes. The special effects are, of course, much better than was possible in the 1960’s, the sets are fantastic, and the plots are more complex.
What I’d like to focus on the most, however, are the characters, all of whom are more well-rounded, some of which we see in extensive flashbacks. All the Robinson children are well-acted and multi-dimensional. Judy is a doctor, Penny is adventurous and willful, and Will is an intelligent 11-year old. He sometimes makes mistakes based on his big heart, but also tries to do the right thing, even if it puts him in danger.
John and Maureen, the parents, are not the happy couple of the 1960’s. Instead, they are divorced, due mainly to John’s putting his work above his family, but they have put their differences aside to take their family to a better life. John has had a life in the military, and Maureen is a strong modern woman, an engineer at the forefront of this story.
The other three major characters are Don West, Dr. Smith, and the robot. The robot is an amazing example of alien technology — it is roughly in human form, but with a face that seems to be full of stars. They are blue when it is calm, but turn red when in war mode. The robot is very dangerous but has bonded to Will because the boy found it in its ship’s wreckage and put it back together.
Don West, in this version, is sort of a Han Solo type, a smuggler who seems to be out for himself, but comes through when least expected. He is also the first person to meet the evil Dr. Smith among the wrecked vessels. She is a character that requires much more description. In this version, she has stolen the identity of the real Dr. Smith and taken his place to escape the mother ship Resolute when it is attacked. I won’t describe her interactions on the planet in order to avoid spoilers, but I’ll just say that she ends up living with the Robinsons, posing as a therapist.
Of all the characters, I like Dr. Smith the least. For most of the first season, she just comes across as creepy. We see some bad things she did in flashbacks, but mostly she sits around with an unconvincing sneer on her face, subtly manipulating people. I think what bothered me most was that she had no real goal except self-preservation at all costs and no real feelings for other people, in other words a true sociopath. I just wanted to see more from her early on.
There’s a lot to like about this series, but due to the Dr. Smith creep factor, I, an unapologetic binger, could only watch one show at a time. It gets better around episode 7, things heat up in the plot, and Smith finally decides to act. The season finale set up the next season for some great adventures for the Robinsons. I haven’t decided yet if I will watch, but I will say that a couple of days after finishing the series, I found myself missing it. So I may give season 2 a shot.