Customer Reviews

Lost in Space, Volume 8 - The Keeper Part 2 [VHS]

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This episode features some of the best effects of the show's entire run. Some of these include: 1) the creatures emerging from the Keeper's ship; 2) John and Don encountering the giant lizard; and 3) The Chariot and passengers being attacked by a monster spider. Sure, they don't compare to the computer-generated wizardry of today, but for this then-twelve-year-old viewer, the SFX were "way cool."

Don't get me wrong! This one is good. It has plenty of aliens and action, but it was too campy. But still a can't-miss episode!

"Lost in Space" (1965-68) told the story of the Space Family Robinson, who left Earth aboard their Jupiter II spacecraft on a five-year voyage to explore a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, our nearest neighbor in the galaxy. But then Dr. Zachary Smith, an enemy spy, sabotaged the control system but did not get off the ship before it took off and that is how the crew of the Jupiter II ended up lost in space. Fortunately, the Robinsons had all sorts of visitors over the year, but far and away the most interesting one of them was the Keeper. In fact, this was the only two-part episode of the show's three season run and this videotape, Volume 8 in the original "Lost in Space" video series, has the second half of the story.

In part one the Keeper, played by guest star Michael Rennie, whose science fiction bone fides consists of playing Klatuu in the classic film "The Day the Earth Stood Still," lands on Priplanus where the Robinsons are stranded. He is an intergalactic zoo keeper who does not have any humans and wants to add Will and Penny to his collection. Using his staff he captures the youngest Robinson children. Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris), sneaks aboard the Keeper's ship, not to save the kids but to steal the Keeper's staff. But all he ends up doing is freeing all of the creatures in the Keeper's intergalactic menagerie.

Episode 17, "The Keeper: Part II" (Written by Barney Slater, First aired January 19, 1966), begins with Dr. Smith sneaking back aboard the Jupiter II, having wiped the Robot's memory clean of what he has been up to, and pretending he knows nothing about all of the strange alien creatures running around outside the Jupiter II. The Keeper blames the humans in general, and Smith in particular, for this state of affairs, so he summons the bad doctor to his ship so a good threatening. Smith has to convince the Robinsons to give up Will and Penny or else, and you know he will try his worst to do that.

The second episode ends with a nice little joke at Dr. Smith's expense and the usual set-up of the next episode. "The Keeper" is one of the best "Lost in Space" stories and you can make a very good argument that it represents the height of the series. This is not because it is the best episode of all-time, but because after this point the science fiction becomes more implausible while the degree of camp starts to accelerate. Compare the cunning Dr. Smith of the first episode with the buffoonish clod he has become by the last half of the first season and the show has undergone a significant transformation. From here on the focus of the show is on the trio of Dr. Smith, Will and the Robot, which is why the "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!" line has become emblematic of the series in popular culture.