THN’s Guilty Pleasures: Lost in Space

The Robinson family undertake a voyage to a nearby star system to begin large-scale emigration from a soon-to-be-uninhabitable Earth, but are thrown off course by a saboteur and must try to find their way home.

As a pitch it’s pretty basic, but that didn’t stop them dragging the original series out across three seasons and eighty-three episodes. In 1998, Stephen Hopkins gave us the movie, two and a bit hours of glorious sci-fiye-candy.

I’m probably one of the few people who went in to see LOST IN SPACE with no prior knowledge of Irwin Allen’s cult TV series. Looking back, I get the references and the in-jokes, I recognise the old cast members shoe-horned in as cameos, I know why Jonathan Harris (The original Dr Smith) wasn’t involved, but at the time I was blissfully unaware. And at the time, this was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.

I was eleven, and yet to learn of the cynicism of Hollywood casting. Not knowing Matt LeBlanc from that particular sit-com, to my young and (fairly) innocent eyes he was a strong, new and exciting hero, with a cool retractable faceplate and sniper crosshairs in his eyes. I still look at LeBlanc now and see Don West, not Joey. But then, I’m probably the only one that does.

Looking back, I can see a bit of myself in hero-Brat Will. He was awkward, he was misunderstood, he had trouble being accepted by the adults around him. And Daddy Robinson reminds me of my own dad – but that might just be the beard…

Another reason this film is close to my heart: it was the first film I ever saw with Gary Oldman in it. This was the film that introduced me to one of the greatest actors ever. And, we get him twice. Sort of. And he’s a joy to watch, oozing smarm and menace, he’s a manipulative little bugger who gets all the best lines. And even when lost in a fug of late-90s CGI, he’s still arguably the best actor up there.

Watching the movie in 2012, I still get a kick out of it. The visual effects still stand up pretty well today, with an opening space dogfight that still thrills, a wonderful-and unique- ship design. And the movie even predicts a few things; token renegade middle-child Penny has her own video blog, and when Will breaks out the Kinect-on-steroids remote control for the Robot… that was one of my childhood dreams made real right in front of me.

Sadly, even though the movie was financial success, and knocked TITANIC off the top spot after 15 weeks, the critics were harsh, and the planned sequel was shelved.

Yes, it’s a little plodding and goes on longer than it should, the ‘family values’ are piled on like overstuffed duvets and ‘Blawp’ is one of the most annoying CGI creatures to ‘grace’ the silver screen (Beating Jar Jar by a whole year, by the way). But none of that matters. It’s a big dumb action movie that tries its best to teach you a few things along the way. The WB network tried to reboot the series six years later, but all we got out of that were some sets for the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

But I will always look back at this movie with a sense of nostalgia. And I’ll always be rocking out to the end credits.

To see our other guilty pleasures, click here