Lost in Space (2018 TV series)

This article is about the 2018 TV series. For the 1960s' TV series, see Lost in Space. For other uses, see Lost in Space (disambiguation).

Lost in Space
Series logotype
Genre	Science fiction Adventure Family drama
Created by	Irwin Allen
Developed by	Matt Sazama Burk Sharpless
Starring	Molly Parker Toby Stephens Maxwell Jenkins Taylor Russell Mina Sundwall Ignacio Serricchio Parker Posey
Composers	Christopher Lennertz John Williams (original theme)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Zack Estrin Kevin Burns Jon Jashni Matt Sazama Burk Sharpless Neil Marshall Marc Helwig
Production location	Vancouver, British Columbia
Cinematography	Sam McCurdy
Running time	47–65 minutes
Production companies	Sazama Sharpless Productions Applebox Entertainment Synthesis Entertainment Clickety-Clack Productions Legendary Television
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13) – present
Related
Lost in Space (1965 TV series) Lost in Space (1998 film)

Lost in Space is an American science fiction television series based on a re-imagining of the 1965 series of the same name (itself a re-imagining of the 1812 novel The Swiss Family Robinson), following the adventures of a family of pioneering space colonists whose ship veers off-course. It is written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless and consists of ten episodes produced by Legendary Television, Synthesis Entertainment, Clickety-Clack Productions, and Applebox Entertainment, with Zack Estrin serving as showrunner. Netflix

Cast

Main

• Toby Stephens as John Robinson, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, and husband to Maureen. He is the biological father of Maureen's two youngest children.
• Maxwell Jenkins as Will Robinson, the 11-year-old son and youngest child of Maureen and John Robinson. He forms a tight bond with the Robot, whom he saves from destruction during a forest fire.
• Taylor Russell as Judy Robinson, Maureen's 18-year-old biracial daughter and eldest child. She is a mission doctor, having received accelerated medical training.
• Mina Sundwall as Penny Robinson, the 15-year-old daughter and middle Robinson child.
• Ignacio Serricchio as Don West, a mechanic who also smuggles luxury goods. He has a chicken named Debbie, which he claims to be lucky.
• Parker Posey as Dr. Smith. She is a criminal and a psychopath who uses other people's identities to claim their belongings. Dr. Smith, whose real name is June Harris, stole her sister Jessica's identity and place on the colony ship. There she impersonates Dr. Zachary Smith, to take his seat on an evacuating Jupiter ship. After landing on the planet, Dr. Smith attempts to sabotage the Jupiters' chances of being rescued by the Resolute while manipulating and gaslighting the survivors to avoid prosecution for her crimes. The theft of the doctor's identity is a reference to the corresponding Dr. Smith character of the original TV series.
• Brian Steele as the Robot, an alien mechanoid being that Will encounters on the planet that his family crash lands on. The robot has a different form from the ones on the previous series and movie.
• Sibongile Mlambo as Angela Goddard (season 2; recurring season 1), a survivor struggling from post tramatic stress syndrome following her husband’s death during the Resolute attack.

Recurring

• Raza Jaffrey as Victor Dhar, an educated and officious man with a sense of entitlement. Victor has been a career-builder and politician from a young age. His arrogance and impatience masks an underlying fear that it will be discovered that he is not quite good enough.
• Ajay Friese as Vijay Dhar, Victor’s son and Penny’s love interest.
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Hiroki Watanabe, a scientist and friend of Maureen.
• Kiki Sukezane as Aiko Watanabe, Hiroki’s daughter.
• Yukari Komatsu as Naoko Watanabe, Hiroki’s wife.
• Veenu Sandhu as Prisha Dhar, Victor's wife.
• Adam Greydon Reid as Peter Beckert, a survivor.
• Amelia Burstyn as Diane, a survivor.
• Iain Belcher as Evan, a survivor.
• Shaun Parkes as Captain Radic, commander of the Resolute.

Guest

• Selma Blair as Jessica Harris, June's wealthy younger sister.
• Bill Mumy as Dr. Zachary Smith, the real Dr. Smith, whose identity June steals.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Impact"	Neil Marshall	Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
The spacecraft Resolute, a large ferris wheel style ship, is carrying colonists, including the Robinson family, to Alpha Centauri. The Resolute is attacked and colonists escape in their “family home” Jupiter landing crafts but are hurled into a wormhole, crash-landing on an Earth-like planet. The Robinsons' craft, Jupiter 2, crashes into a glacial bed. The family evacuates with some supplies before their craft sinks in rapidly freezing water. Eldest Robinson child, Judy, a doctor, dives to the ship to retrieve power equipment. She becomes encased in ice, and with five hours of oxygen left in Judy's suit, John and son, Will, set out to collect magnesium that will melt the ice. Judy guides her sister, Penny, through a medical procedure to treat their injured mother, Maureen. Inside a cave, Will falls down a chasm, landing at the edge of a forest. John radios Will, saying he will return after saving Judy. Alone, Will finds a crashed alien ship and a dismembered robot that he helps to self-repair. In return, it saves Will as a forest fire nearly engulfs them. The family attempt to free Judy, but a sudden rainstorm hinders their progress. Will and the Robot arrive, and the Robot rescues Judy. In a flashback scene, a woman steals the identity of Dr. Zachary Smith and boards a Jupiter landing craft, along with Don West and Tam Roughneck.
2	"Diamonds in the Sky"	Neil Marshall	Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
Don West, Smith, and Debbie the chicken survive the Jupiter 18 landing. While looking for other survivors, they find Angela Goddard, who is barely alive. When a storm approaches, Don and Angela take cover while Smith heads out. Meanwhile, the robot melts more ice to allow the Robinsons to start the process of recovering the Jupiter 2. Maureen, John, Will and the robot hike to another Jupiter crash site and then later to the robot's ship. They leave Penny and Judy behind, instructing them how to carefully raise the ship out of the ice. Inside the alien ship, a holographic map of the planet is activated, showing John and Maureen they are in an unidentified galaxy. Outside, the robot touches the ship's hull, creating a mental connection to Will who learns what really happened on the Resolute. He decides to say nothing to his parents about the vision. When Penny sees the storm approaching and is unable to reach her parents to warn them, she raises the Jupiter 2 enough that the garage can be opened. She drives the ship's Chariot all-terrain vehicle to reach her family just in front of the storm. As they head back to Jupiter 2, they pass Don who sees them only to discover his flare gun is missing. The Robinsons see a flare and find Smith, who claims to be alone, returning with her to the Jupiter 2.
3	"Infestation"	Tim Southam	Zack Estrin	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
In a flashback, Dr. Smith is revealed to be June Harris, the older, ex-con sister of Jess Harris, a successful businesswoman. Jess offers June her entire estate as she is leaving Earth, but June drugs Jess and assumes her sister's identity. Aboard the Resolute, she bumps into her sister's lover and there is a struggle ending in him getting blown out an airlock. June is arrested but escapes during the robot's attack. In the present, Maureen explains they are trillions of light years from Earth. At night, the ice layer over Jupiter 2 cracks, endangering the ship. They rush to complete repairs, but the engines are losing fuel. When Will and the robot discover large eel-like creatures in the conduits, the robot locks Will, along with Smith, in the storeroom for safety. The glacier shifts, which forces the crew to make an emergency take-off after flushing the eels from the engines. They escape with just enough fuel to land near a forest region. Comms pick up radio communication from other Jupiter survivors and also from Resolute, who are searching for survivors. Somebody hacks the onboard 3D printer to make a gun. Will finds it, and hides the gun under his mattress, unaware Smith is watching.
4	"The Robinsons Were Here"	Alice Troughton	Katherine Collins	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
Stuck without fuel, the family initiates Jupiter 2’s colonization expansion protocol. Smith and Will discuss the robot, who does Will's bidding. Don West and Angela are rescued by the Watanabe family; Hiroki Watanabe reunites with John and Maureen at Jupiter 11 where Judy treats Angela. She tells Judy about the attack on Resolute. The Robinsons learn none of the other surviving families can fly due to the giant eels consuming fuel. John notices that one crash site is not a Jupiter ship. Maureen, John, and Don go there and discover the Resolute's comm dish. They realize the Resolute cannot hear them. Maureen also discovers contraband whiskey that Don smuggled aboard. Judy confronts Will about the robot, and he reveals he knew it attacked the Resolute. They decide to hide the robot in a nearby cave, unaware Smith is following them. On the way, they are spotted by Vijay Dhar, the son of another survivor group. Penny blackmails him to say nothing about the robot, having found and keeping an item he dropped. While away, Maureen and John discuss their marital problems. The next morning, the kids return to Jupiter 2 before their parents arrive. Smith talks to the robot inside the cave, attempting to instill distrust in it about Will. When John and Maureen return home, the kids tell them that the robot wandered away.
5	"Transmission"	Deborah Chow	Kari Drake	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
The surviving colonists build a light tower to try to signal the Resolute. Maureen, noticing strange weather phenomena, conducts an experiment using a weather balloon. She discovers the sun is paired with a deadly black hole, and that the disturbances will only get worse until the planet is entirely unhabitable. Will ignores Penny and Judy's advice to tell their father about the Robot. Penny develops a crush on Vijay, flirting with him as they move supplies. Don confronts Dr. Smith about the stolen flare gun, though she claims she took it by mistake. In a flashback, Maureen and the kids discuss pros versus cons of going to Alpha Centauri. Judy and Don discuss his smuggling activities. He also reveals his suspicions about Dr. Smith's identity. Judy confronts Dr. Smith about this, but she lies and instead casts doubt on Don. When the colonists activate the light signal, Dr. Smith sneaks away and shuts off the perimeter fence, allowing a large reptilian creature to enter the camp and destroy the light tower. Smith tells John about the kids hiding the robot. When another creature shows up, Dr. Smith tells Will to call the robot. It does save the survivors, but only after Will tells it to defend itself against the creatures. It assumes its original multi-limb form to do this. The colonists witness all of this and recognize the robot from the attack on the Resolute.
6	"Eulogy"	Vincenzo Natali	Ed McCardie	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
Maureen tells her family about the black hole but is afraid the other colonists might panic. John has a heated argument with the other survivors about the robot. In the end, despite an enraged Angela claiming it killed her husband, John convinces the community to allow the robot to stay and takes Will on a hike to discuss Will's responsibility for the robot's actions. He has Will fetch 27 large stones to build a memorial to the casualties. Don takes the community leader and Vijay's father, Victor Dhar, to his Jupiter which crashed in the desert where there are none of the eel-like creatures, and wants money for its fuel. Don also retrieves identification of the real Dr. Smith, later showing Judy. Maureen learns that Hiroki also knows the planet is dying. Penny tells Vijay about the black hole but swears him to secrecy, and they share a kiss. Back at camp, Dr. Smith makes the distraught Angela recount the horrifying details of the robot attack. The emotional Angela enters the hub with the gun Dr. Smith has taken from Will's bunk and arranged for her to find. When she shoots at the robot it goes into attack mode and accidentally injures John before Will gets it to stop. Distraught, Will takes the robot to a cliff and orders it to walk off. He then places a stone on the memorial for the robot.
7	"Pressurized"	Tim Southam	Vivian Lee	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
While driving back to Jupiter 2, Judy is about to tell Dr. Smith she knows the truth about her when Don stops her. When Will is confronted by his mother, he confirms the robot 3D-printed the gun and that he hid it. Anyone could have taken the gun, though. Dr. Smith refuses blame for Angela's attack, and suggests Victor Dhar might have taken the gun. John and Maureen's rover gets stuck in a tar pit. As they sink to the bottom, Maureen admits to doctoring Will's test results. To escape the vehicle, Maureen uses the helium weather balloon to create a shielded path to the surface. Meanwhile, Smith locates the destroyed robot, but cannot get it to reassemble. Don's group speeds through a dangerous geyser field but a tube shakes loose and when Evan fixes the problem, a geyser blast flips the tanker on top of him. Victor realizes that a rock has punctured the tanker and if they move it they'll lose most of the fuel. Despite this Don reluctantly sides with Judy and lifts the tanker, spilling the fuel, but Evan dies anyway. Back on Jupiter 2, Dr. Smith finally manages to reactivate the robot. When Victor returns home, Vijay tells him about the planet's coming demise. Victor decides to use what fuel they did retrieve to launch their own Jupiter 4.
8	"Trajectory"	Stephen Surjik	Katherine Collins & Kari Drake	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
Maureen cannot talk Victor out of launching, but John sneaks aboard the Dhar's Jupiter 4 and triggers the emergency shut down. Later, he explains to the gathered colonists how the planet is about to become uninhabitable. Penny breaks off with Vijay for him telling his father. Maureen has a plan on how to launch despite the limited fuel, stripping out non-essential modules, and relying on old-school manual piloting. Judy tells Maureen the truth about the real Dr. Smith aboard Don's Jupiter. Returning to Jupiter 2, Maureen confines Dr. Smith to a holding cell. Dr. Smith now claims she is really Jessica Harris, a physicist. Maureen tells John about Smith, and he tells her that Don believes the Jupiter 4 is still too heavy to take off. With life support also removed, the pilot now needs a spacesuit and will need to withstand extreme G-forces. They select John, but not even he can regain consciousness fast enough to make all the maneuvers alone. When the Resolute sends a message that due to Hawking radiation they must leave the planet's orbit within 24 hours, Don reluctantly agrees to help pilot the ship. With his assistance the test run is a success. As John and Don launch in the Jupiter 4, Dr. Smith tricks Will and escapes to knock out Maureen right when John needs her instructions. With everyone watching, the ship explodes mid-air and John and Don are presumed dead.
9	"Resurrection"	Tim Southam	Story by : Daniel McLellan Teleplay by : Kari Drake	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
Will tries to signal his father using his radio, convinced he survived the explosion. Dr. Smith drives Maureen to the alien wreck, where she tells Maureen she did not know Maureen was needed for the ship launch, and when she knocked her out, the ship exploded. She does promise to help Maureen get her children off the planet, if she in return helps Dr. Smith with the alien ship. Will discovers that the rocks he collected in the cave are petrified biomass that can fuel the Jupiter ships to reach the Resolute. While the colonists gather to harvest the biomass, Judy leaves to find Maureen. The colonists find enough biomass to power all the Jupiters, but they must sneak it out quietly so as to not wake winged predators roosting in the cave. When John manages to send a signal, Penny and others are trapped inside the cave after the creatures wake up. Throughout the episode, flashbacks reveal the Christmas Star not to be a meteor but an alien craft, and that its engine was used to build The Resolute. The robot's attack was an attempt to retrieve the stolen engine. The group trapped in the cave manage to narrowly escape. Judy tracks Smith and Maureen. She manages to disable Dr. Smith, but the robot reactivates and is revealed to obey the Doctor's commands.
10	"Danger, Will Robinson"	David Nutter	Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless	April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
John and Don survived the explosion and are clinging to ship wreckage in orbit, with only a few hours of oxygen left. Will is upset to learn the robot now serves Dr. Smith. John responds to Will, confirming that he and Don are still alive. Will tries to bond with the robot again but is rejected. Victor Dhar hails them from the Resolute, telling them it will leave in just over an hour. Maureen traps Dr Smith and the robot in order to search for John and Don. Just as they are about to retrieve them, Dr Smith and the robot escape. Maureen leads the robot into the garage, as an alien ship arrives to retrieve the engine. When the alien robot is about to kill Will, his robot remembers him and attacks the alien robot, saving Will. In the fight, both robots are flung out into space and the garage ramp is damaged. Will goes outside the hull to manually close the hatch. Afterwards, he loses his grip but is saved by his father, who was rescued by Dr. Smith. With everyone safely back on the Jupiter, Maureen is grateful to Dr. Smith, but still locks her up. Before they can dock with the Resolute, the alien engine aboard the Jupiter 2 sends it and the Robinsons to a different galaxy. Will recognizes its shape from the robot's sand drawing: Danger.

Production

Development

In October 2014, it was announced that Legendary Television and Synthesis Entertainment were developing a new reboot of Lost in Space and had hired screenwriting duo Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to pen the pilot episodes. In November 2015, Netflix landed the project. On June 29, 2016, Netflix ordered a full 10 episode season of Lost in Space, with Zack Estrin as executive producer and showrunner. Sazama, Sharpless, Kevin Burns, Jon Jashni, Neil Marshall, and Marc Helwig also serve as executive producers.

Toby Stephens, speaking about the distinction between the original series and the new show:

"It's a very clever, modern reworking of a great story. Lost in Space is Swiss Family Robinson in space, so it was a story that existed before Lost in Space. The fundamental story is that it's a family that is lost in a difficult, life-threatening situation and how it challenges them and brings them closer together. That is essentially what the story of this is, it's just the context is a lot more modern. It's a more modern take on the '60s version. If you look at it now, it's charming, but it seems so innocent. Whereas this is a version that is for our time. I'm hoping it will still have humour and humanity in it, but it has obviously gotta be for a modern audience."

Filming

Production on the first season began in February 2017, in Vancouver, British Columbia, and concluded in July 2017.

Release

The series was released on April 13, 2018, on Netflix. On March 31, 2018, the pilot of the series was screened at Awesome Con in Washington, D.C., followed by a Q&A session with series executive producers and writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 68% approval rating with an average rating of 6.21/10, based on 65 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Lost in Space's production values are ambitious enough to attract sci-fi adventure fans, while the story's large heart adds an emotional anchor to all the deep space derring-do." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a normalized score of 58 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

David Griffin of IGN gave the first season a rating of 8.5/10 calling it "an excellent sci-fi adventure with a slight villain problem," giving particular praise to the Robinson family, while criticizing Parker Posey's Dr. Smith as an unsophisticated and one-dimensional character that lacks redeeming qualities. In contrast, Jen Chaney of Vulture characterized Posey's performance as providing "understated, sly comedic touches".

External links

• Lost in Space on Netflix
• Lost in Space at IMDb