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Aeolus 14 Umbra is the radio call-sign of an unnamed sinister organization in 1960's TV series Lost in Space, responsible for planting Zachary Smith on board the Jupiter 2 prior to lift off with orders to sabotage the Environmental Control Robot.


Aeolus 14 Umbra (as presented in show)[]

Although little information about the sinister organisation is imparted, some facts can be deduced. Given their interest in stopping any Alpha Control attempt to colonize Alpha Centauri, it is highly probable that they were a saboteur team under the pay and orders of a foreign nation.

The unseen announcer at Alpha Control in "The Reluctant Stowaway" mentions other nations, even more desperate for breathing room, might resort to any lengths of sabotage.., and in "The Derelict" the TV Announcer broadcasts that the Robot's premature activation was undoubtedly caused by agents of a foreign power. Taking into account that LIS' genesis was during the height of the Cold War, this would probably mean the USSR or China. Whatever nation it is, it has full space capability, given Smith's belief that the ship seen in "The Derelict" was from Aeolus 14 Umbra, attempting to contact it. (His idea that it was a human ship was only broken by the appearance of a Bubble Creature.)

Only one direct piece of Aeolus 14 Umbra was seen: the small handheld communicator Dr Smith uses in The Reluctant Stowaway and The Derelict.

Smith's communicator

Aeolus 14 Umbra is not mentioned again after The Derelict, being somewhat of a moot point given the Robinsons are beyond its influence and believed destroyed.

Aeolus 14 Umbra (Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul)[]

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FROM AN AMBIGUOUSLY CANON SOURCE

In the comic series Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul, where the Jupiter 2 finally reaches its destination, it is shown to be the base of the organisation, which is not a foreign power at all but a malevolent alien group, Aeolians, the leader of whom believes his son to have been killed by Alpha Control upon his spaceship crash landing on Earth (which apparently influenced the design and tech fit-out of the Jupiter 2 itself). In order to achieve revenge the alien leader drafted Dr. Smith to sabotage the Jupiter 2, with the intention that he would die along with the Robinsons and remove any trace of his influence.

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