Lost in Space - Ghost in Space

I was making my way through Lost in Space, doing a revisit, in and around 2011. I hadn’t watched them in quite some time (quite frankly, on recordings of VHS tapes, borrowed from my uncle), so a brand new look at all three seasons was in order. You certainly see things differently, it seems, as 30s year old adult as compared to when I was 12. Just the same, it was enlightening in how episodes once appeared to be such favorites and now emerge cringe-worthy and laughable. Ghost in Space, while not as embarrassing as Space Croppers, nonetheless is rather silly if just because Dr. Smith maintains the creature of the episode is the “spirit of his dear uncle”. All the evidence to the contrary, Smith insists not to believe this monster stemmed from his dropping dynamite in a volatile gaseous area instead of a designated drill spot for planetary ore. Which is why my review from 2011 seems a bit tough on the episode.

If you couldn't imagine the show getting any cornier or Dr. Smith any
more insufferable, check out "Ghost in Space". Oh, brother, where to
start? Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris, whose character here is
simply an assclown) doesn't want to climb up some hilly path to get to
a drill site so he tosses dynamite into an ionized bog resulting in an
invisible monster that feeds on energy and has enormous power. Smith,
however, is in one of those moods where he decides to make an Ouija
board and communicate with the spirit of his Uncle Thaddeus, later
believing (during a sitting with impressionable Penny (Angela
Cartwright) that the energy monster is in fact the spirit of his dearly
departed relative! Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Smith
simply will not back down from the idea that the energy monster is his
disgruntled spirit of Uncle Thaddeus leading to quite a bit of
bickering with Major West (Mark Goddard). This episode has some really
cool moments (like invisible footprints forming on the ground as the
monster walks, the atmospheric boggy area with accompanying dead trees,
and the various temper tantrums that result when the creature is mad,
tossing objects all over the place), but as it continues "Ghost in
Space" just gets more and more embarrassing. The end doesn't make a
lick of sense at all, such as the monster suddenly materializing (as it
approaches Smith, who is shocked into a frozen state of fear, nothing
new for this fraidy-cat, the monster just disappears for no apparent
reason), and Will (humoring Dr. Smith, who is dressed as a monk, ready
to "placate" the angry spirit of Thaddeus) falling into the bog,
becoming invisible, returning to his physical form as the sun rises
(why the monster fears daylight and vanishes as the sun rises is never
explained). Smith in his sleeping clothes looks exactly like Ebenezer
Scrooge. Smith, throughout this episode, is a laughingstock, as
everyone mocks his silly insistence that Thaddeus exists. Oh, the pain,
the pain of this episode. The cast ably endures Smith's theatrics, that
inevitably place one of their own in a perilous situation just for the
coward to leave him (this case, Will) alone, running away in fear once
he sees the monster.

Harris felt the need to alter his character so that he could preserve his job on the show. He went from pure conniving evil to incompetent, annoying troublemaker. More exaggerated and expressive (to the point of vaudevillian) instead of cold-blooded and strategic, the Dr. Smith of Ghost in Space is far different from The Reluctant Stowaway. Never more visible of the Dr. Smith of the 2^nd season is here in Ghost in Space. For all its problems, the use of a Ouija board and how the adult Robinsons/West react to Smith’s attempted conjuring of his dead relatives was always fun to me and it is plenty eerie and atmospheric with the use of the bog. That, six years later since the last time I watched it, continued to impress upon me that this episode isn’t a total waste, although Smith’s confounding naiveté is bewildering. The monster outbursts (invisible tantrums tossing the hydroponic garden around among other items) and presence of the foggy bog are definite highlights. Don’t get why the monster just emerges visible (it is particularly hideous, with no eyes, scales, and these skin flaps hanging off its arms; this creature isn’t fully revealed until the end, but I actually liked when the camera shot its noticeable three-toed footprints and walking long feet) at the end and when the sun rises it vanishes, with Will (who had fallen into the bog and was turned invisible, only to emerge as the sun rises his visible self again) doing right the opposite. Part of the illogic screenplays that were turned out during the show never failed to fully explain. It is something real forgiving fans of the show didn’t seem as bothered by as those fans like me who weren’t just letting them pass without some type of decent critique.The episode at least gets the whole cast involved, even if it is for a seance and reacting to Smith's antics. I liked the show when it didn't abandon the cast in favor of a few. This at least doesn't do that.