User Reviews

Color me surprised that the second season has yielded another quality episode with this rather fun effort about a biophysicist (in the mold of a cold-blooded scientist in the Frankenstein vein) from another world looking for emotions to incorporate into his greatest invention, an android named Raddion, with a cassette device (I don't know how else to describe it as looks like a tape recorder and is draped by a strap tightly around the android's neck) that opens so that he can store "transpirator" plates (a transpirator looks like a funny camera and takes photographs which store personality traits used to benefit Raddion). It all starts when Dr. Smith (somewhat) volunteers to leave the Robinson ship after a mishap with an air conditioning unit (he turns it up full blast just after Major West and Professor Robinson have repaired it) he's responsible for. Sesmar, who carries the look of an eccentric scientist, whose emotions are few, caring only about how to evolve his creation, looks to Dr. Smith to get him those plates (I have to bury my contempt for the man this time as Sesmar was about to "disassemble" him with a torch!) since Zachary has no personality traits worthy of Raddion (haha!). When the plates are not enough to fully evolve Raddion, Sesmar will try to finagle complete personalities from the Robinson party through a handshake between them and his android (this handshake extrapolates the traits from them, leaving the Robinsons without the personalities that make them who they are). It is Major West (who sees past Sesmar's "gift giving"(he lends them tools to help during matters of difficulty, even using a watch with "curing" technology that repairs weakened/damaged parts, doing so to the air conditioning unit), feeling something sinister underneath it all, and is right) who will have to save the day as the Robinsons have fallen into a daze, lazy and emotionally immobile.

FINALLY, another cast member receives a strong role in a story within the second season as Mark Goddard gets to help play hero, after the Robinsons fall prey to a cunning scientist, his Don's own hotheadedness and cynicism (Sesmar calls him pugnacious) actually playing a role in rescuing them. And, I think this episode proves how you can use the Dr. Smith character in numerous ways without reducing him to a total ham as his conniving and manipulative traits actually benefit all the Robinsons (including his own hide) when he and West are in a bind. The android Raddion, with its rubber frogman costume (colored gold with a face plate), along with miniature midget Raddions to match (assistants to Sesmar, doing menial tasks), would later return (never leave the Lost in Space production team to feature a character and not bring it back in another episode to save money) in other episodes (not as Raddion, but as androids). John Abbot is fun as Sesmar, so consumed with bettering his masterpiece, a life's work, that he's willing to rob a family of their humanity/personality in order to do so…his consensus of Smith's worthlessness, even treating him with compulsion, barking at him as if he were a loathsome slave, is rather humorous to watch.

Irwin Allen must've been on hand a lot during this episode as a ton of Sesmar's machinery explodes thanks to a Raddion out of sorts with help from Don's heroism. How Smith is willing to rob emotions from the Robinsons again says much about his character, but it was either do what Sesmar wants or be experimented on with use of a torch.

The Dream Monster is a very good episode. Without the major flaw, I would have given it a 9. More on that later.

The is a good balance between the Si-Fi with less comedy. There is also good balance for the cast with Major West playing a larger role than usual. He role was actually more fitting for the role Prof Robinson usually has.

Sesmar the alien, wants to take everyone's personality traits and imbed them in his Frankenstein Monster - Raddion. With the help of greedy Dr. Smith he almost succeeds. There is plenty of suspense and action. At one point Major West and Dr. Smith are chained together and have to team-up to overcome the situation.

However, there is a major flaw that mars this episode: Prof Robinson allows his entire family to be transported back to Sesmar's ship and then once on the ship, he allows each member to shake hands with Raddion (even after something was clearly wrong AND Major West objects). It is completely out of character for him to allow his family to be at risk. It was a "Dr. Smithish" walk right into trouble! Only Major West objects.

A second (albeit minor) flaw is the robot does not alert the Robinsons to the danger until after they departed the Jupiter Two for Sesmar ship. Why the delayed response?

Even with the major flaw, this is a very good episode.

John Abbott is very good as Sesmar. The story is essentially about Sesmar trying to give human qualities to his creation, Radion. These qualities are "taken" from all except Dr Smith and Major West. This episode highlights a few similarities between Smith and West. When they become chained together, we see a few things that these characters have in common. Although usually at odds with each other, these two men will work together, if all else fails. Each of these characters realizes that, on some level, he is not as different from the other as he might like to think. Guy Williams is fun to watch, when Prof Robinson becomes lazy and careless, due to his good qualities being taken away. My favorite scene is when Smith and West come back to the shop, still in chains. Prof Robinson says: "How did you two get together?" Interesting question.

LIS casting often brought in talented actors and actresses to fill one-off roles that carry the writers' brilliant ideas into action. Here, British actor John Abbott plays Sesmar, who is as much of a weasel as is the resident one, Dr. Zach Smith. That pairing is pure genius. Of course, this series comes from 20th Century Fox Television: having a major motion picture company with all kinds of creative assets at its disposal, it's not surprising. The color quality of 1966-era television programs was still primitive, but this program was apparently presented on TV from state-of-the-art motion picture film - not dated videotape - which remains perfect to this day on DVD. Irwin Allen's vision lives on.

As a child, I watched Lost in Space in reruns. Lately, I have been watching the series on DVD since receiving the entire set as a birthday present. However, as many viewers know the series turned from being a more science fiction oriented show into one of fantasy and comedy. Season one was its best, but there were some good episodes in seasons two and three. This one is not one of its best examples.

What really amazed me was the lack of concern, apprehension, and vision that Professor John Robinson has by agreeing to let his entire family go off with Sesmar the alien to his laboratory. John (or Major West as well) doesn't bother to take a laser gun along for protection either. Then after having been briefly told by Sesmar about the transporator image plates, John allows his family and himself to shake Raddion's hand. In other episodes, John Robinson would never have shown these behaviors. I blame the script writer. There is no way John Robinson would ever have been that trusting and naïve.

So, every episode is worth watching, but when the characters' personalities are tampered with by the various screenwriters, one has to suspend one's disbelief that the characters would actually behave in an unbelievable manner.

Well the two little golden dudes helping Sesmer certainly reminded me of the Bynars from the STNG episode 11001001.

It's a good episode - especially for the uneven season 2 -I was so disappointed with season 2 back in the early 1970s when I first watched it as a kid.

If only the producers had not changed the series over to some - quite frankly -- ridiculous fantasy stories.