Getting Lost in Space: Attack of the Monster Plants

Just a little something different. I write about a lot of science fiction/horror/anthology television on my imdb account and thought, "Why not share on my blog?"

Monster plants grow from deutronium fuel mined from the planet thanks to Dr. Smith. Will the Robinsons ever be able to leave this planet?

Dr. Smith further moves towards a more cowardly, clownish character he would be mostly known for during the series run. He fails to help John and Don when they fall prey to quicksand, heading to camp and telling Will if he could take the rope to help them (he doesn’t, however, stress the importance in the help, calmly and quietly urging Will do so). You see in the first season a lot, John and Don setting up “deutronium mining camps”, drilling for fuel to blast off from planets that imprison them. 

“Attack of the Monster Plants” is one of those episodes that significantly focuses on the Robinsons getting off the planet thanks in part to their mining efforts and shows Smith’s sinister side trying to sabotage their efforts, all the while keeping his own welfare first and foremost ahead of everyone else. He tries to steal canisters of their fuel pellets, tricks Will into giving him an extra canister for a “plant fake” that is created as a duplicate from these giant flowers that bloom large thanks to the feeding off of deutronium, and because of Smith’s encouragement of the flowers’ growth is responsible for Judy being “seductively” entranced into the mouth of one of them. 

The idea of leaving behind Smith and his devious mind finding ways to keep from the Robinsons leaving him are what drives this episode of Lost in Space. Don and Smith’s feud heats up in this episode, and while Don is exactly right about the dastardly doctor, often Smith gets support from at least one or more members of the Robinsons. I have often been perplexed at why any of the Robinsons would side with him at all considering everything he does to them and this episode further proves this. He actually holds the Robinsons accountable for the absence of Judy when she is captured by the giant flower, bargaining her life for his own departure from the planet, proclaiming Don as his pilot. When Judy returns, “not the same”, Smith somehow inexplicably “gets off” as the Robinsons only care that she has returned. Essentially the plot mines Invasion of the Body Snatchers as the Judy that returns isn’t the Robinsons’ Judy, but a “duplicate” while the real person is still held captive elsewhere inside the flower. Will she be rescued or is the Judy facsimile capable of feeding the deutronium supply to her flower family so they will grow? Smith will attempt to negotiate with the facsimile so he can leave while the Robinsons would “continue to make deutronium” on the planet. This entire episode follows Smith using any type of chicanery he can to screw over the family and save his own skin. What a nasty piece of work.

This episode, to me, is another solid example of the first season. I don’t think it’s weak at all. In fact, I think this is the best use of Smith. Sure he’s a slimy coward, but Smith isn’t quite the lovable dolt he’d soon become. The sound effects for the “voice” of the flowers is quite eerie (although, this is often used throughout the entire show’s run), and the sight of the giant flowers soon to be scattered about, everywhere, all over the place, thanks to the deutronium is really creepy. This is considered the quintessential Judy episode. It provides Marta Kristen with one of her finest hours on the show, particularly when the “reproduction” tells Maureen she would not tell her where the real Judy is. It is too bad the series didn’t provide more of this for the entire cast, but primarily the first season did this while the remainder of the show focuses too much on Smith, Will, and The Robot, while John had chances to get in on the stories. Ultimately, it is Will’s intelligence regarding how to use a certain cold temperature to stop the plants and find Judy. This is also another example of how circumstances would arise that kept the Robinsons from leaving the planet.

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There's only so much space I had to write, so I might add this bit to the imdb review if there is room. I didn't mention probably my favorite scene besides the night scene where Judy seems under the trance of the giant flowers, lying in the middle of the biggest and falling to sleep. Don mercilessly (and rightfully so considering what he and the Robinsons have been through thanks to him) mocks Smith, talking to Will and Penny about the limited weight capacity for those being able to ride on the ship after (and during its) blast off, agreeing to take the "Bloop" (a monkey dressed with an alien head) while the "doctor" might be in trouble of being left behind. These are little scenes that I always enjoy because Smith causes such misery and trouble for the family and Don is one of those who just can't stand him due to how much of a nuisance he always is. The show always followed this model of Dr. Smith either causing or being in the middle of problems the family encounters. The canister tricked away from Will thanks to Smith's cunningness (yep, the grown man using his sly brain to trick a kid (smart kid but not devious and selfish) feeds the flowers when small, leading to their growth. Smith then uses the Judy replica to perhaps gain advantage to the only deutronium left (knowing there isn't any left). So he's always in the thick of things. So when Don can gloat over him during times of distress, I personally enjoy it while he is often viewed by others as cruel.