Come on people..this episode deserves right around a score of 8 of 10. It is a classic black and white Season One episode..obviously not one of the best of the season but being from Season One pretty much automatically makes it better than all the colored episodes from the final two years.
The average score of only 6.9 at this web site is a gross under rank for this episode.
This story itself is played quite straight and adventurous, and it has that great survival theme, reminiscent of the great black and white early stories.
It may be a little implausible and cheesy in situation and characters (like some mention), but this is classic LOST IN SPACE, full of great fantasy and adventure.
Indeed, this is the one and only episode of the series where "special guest star" Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith) does not appear, except for a cameo appearance in the final scene.
I love Royal Dano as a guest star here. Among other things, I loved Royal Dano appearing in a total of four excellent episodes of THE BIG VALLEY..one from each season.
This episode was written by William Welch, who was scarce as a writer for this Irwin Allen series. He only wrote a total of four episodes, with "The Lost Civilization" here already being his third.
This episode was directed by Don Richardson. It was only Mr. Richardson's third episode of the series to direct, but he went on to direct a total of 26 episodes of LOST IN SPACE, making him the most prolific director in the series.
Come on..get the grade up around 8 of 10 stars where "The Lost Civilization" belongs, here in classic and glorious Season One of LOST IN SPACE.
I will always remember seeing a rerun of this episode on Christmas morning in 1976.