Last year, the WB went back again to the well of 1960’s television by commissioning programs based on both Dark Shadows and Lost in Space. Neither show was picked up (instead, we got fare like Jack and Bobby), but the unfinished pilot episode to The Robinsons: Lost In Space has surfaced at underground (and soon some not-so-underground) places on the Internet. I watched the pilot episode a few nights ago, and I have to say I’m somewhat conflicted.

See, I was never a great fan of the original Lost in Space, being something of a science fiction snob at the time; I mean, c’mon, talking carrots are not on the menu of anyone who reads Robert Heinlein or Issac Asimov. At the same time, the idea of a spaceship lost among the cosmos does present some interesting possibilities, if handled correctly. The question is whether or not this particular incarnation handled the premise correctly, and it’s here I’m conflicted…it shows some promise, while leaning on the whole bug-eyed monster thing for its driving conflict.

John Robinson (Brad Johnson, Melrose Place) retires from the service and the invasion wars (against a mysterious enemy not clearly described), and decides with his wife Maureen (Jayne Brook, Chicago Hope, John Doe) after the required angst to become a farmer on a colony planet and take his entire family with him. And yeah, this counts as problem number one for me, since I can’t imagine this guy mellowing out on some colony planet. But we need to get the family into space somehow…
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