"Rocket to Earth"
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LiS episode
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2x21 / 50th of 83 aired
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Production #
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9522
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First aired
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Watch online now
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Written by
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Directed by
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Last week, as you recall, we left Will, Penny, and Dr. Smith contentedly playing baseball - unaware that within moments an incredible alien magician was about to join their innocent game...
Summary[]
While Dr. Smith is playing baseball with Penny, Will, and the Robot, an alien magician Zalto materializes with his ventriloquist dummy. Unfortunately for Dr. Smith, only he can see Zalto who uses the situation to impress upon Smith the idea he's losing his mind and that Zalto and the dummy are mere fantasies of his unhinged imagination. After a few more such incidents the Robot finally reveals to everyone that the magician and the dummy are real, and Will, Dr. Smith, and the Robot track Zalto down at his camp in a nearby cave. Zalto enlists Smith as an assistant, obstensibly to have him pilot a spaceship to bomb an asteroid with rockets which will then destroy the asteroid while spelling out Zalto's name "in flaming letters." In truth, the mission will kill the pilot, but Dr. Smith intends to steal the ship and instead head for Earth. At the last moment, Will is trapped in the ship with Smith and they head for Earth. When Alpha Control detects the ship but is unable to communicate with Will and Smith due to a radio problem and Smith fires the rockets (which he thinks will be harmless) at Earth, Alpha Control believes the ship to be hostile and counterattacks. WIll then returns them back to the cave and Zalto escapes during the confusion.
Background Information[]
- When it was discovered that the episode's script was five minutes short, director Don Richardson asked Jonathan Harris and Al Lewis to ad-lib. Harris recalled, "Al and I resurrected an old burlesque bit, the up the ladder, down the ladder bit. You first Alphonse, no, you first Gaston."[1]
- When June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, and Guy Williams are at Zalto's radio transceiver near the end of Act Four, Lockhart's line is "I do hope it isn't too cold [on Earth], Will wasn't too warmly dressed." And Guy Williams does a take that makes it look like he couldn't believe that was her line.
Links and references[]
Cast[]
- Guy Williams as Professor John Robinson
- June Lockhart as Maureen Robinson
- Mark Goddard as Don West
- Marta Kristen as Judy Robinson
- Billy Mumy as Will Robinson
- Angela Cartwright as Penny Robinson
- Jonathan Harris as Dr. Zachary Smith
- Al Lewis as Zalto
Uncredited Cast[]
- Bob May as the Robot
- Dick Tufeld as the Robot (voice)
- Zalto's Dummy (voice) listed as Joe E. Tata at the IMDb, but an interview[2] at LIS Memories gives the credit to Bob May.
References[]
baseball; egg; lunch