"No Place to Hide" has action scenes that cropped up in the first six regular episodes but is missing several of the show's trademark aspects, most notably that infectious theme from Johnny Williams (later, John Williams of Star Wars fame) and the scheming presence of Dr Smith (Jonathan Harris) and his alternately menacing and comical robot ("It does not compute"). As the series progresses (or degenerates, depending on your taste), Harris's Smith changes from pantomime villain, a saboteur who is trying to kill the family, into pantomime dame, a panicky old idiot whose foolishness, cowardice and avarice are an endless source of plots. It mostly makes do with the regular cast plus an array of shaggy-suited, snarling aliens, but you do get sterling ham from visiting astronauts such as Warren Oates ("Welcome Stranger"), Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet ("War of the Robots") and a very young Kurt Russell ("The Challenge"). Stories about surviving on an alien world give way to lifts from fairy tale, myth and old movies as Smith gets hold of a wishing cap, becomes a giant, is chosen as a sacrificial king, turns the children over to an alien zoo, squeaks in fright as a werewolf approaches or is cursed with a platinum Midas touch. --Kim Newman

Every time I've seen this series on tv, it has had the original 1965 closing credits, ending with the original 1965 black-and-white animated sequence "20th Century Fox... Television".

Even on the VHS video releases, the authentic original 1965 closing sequence appeared.

Yet I spend a small fortune buying this DVD box set, only to find that a phony sequence has been added, which is clearly a modern Fox colour logo, phonied into black-and-white. This is extremely disappointing, and spoils the entire set.

It would have been far better to have omitted the closing Fox logo sequence altogether than do this.

And it would have been MUCH MUCH better to have left in the authentic 1965 logo!

I'm a seriously dissatisfied customer. And I'm not going to be buying DVD's from Fox again.


For todays kiddies try series 2 - otherwise enjoy   June 30, 2005
 11 out of 12 found this review helpful

I first bought the series two 'Lost in space' for my son (age 9) and he loves it (its packaged just like this series 1 set). We watch about an episode or two a week (so have weeks to go). The series 2 was 'Lost in space' as I remember it: classy and very colourful sets, funny, with an increasingly camp Dr Smith having more catch phrases than Athur Askey ("spare the barbs major"). I did vaguely remember this first series (particularly the excellent first few episodes concerning leaving Earth eg. 'The reluctant stowaway') and knew Dr Smith, the Jupiter II and the crew were all present and correct. However I had forgotten how dark, menacing and calculating Dr Smith was in this series. My son found series one too frightening to watch past the first few episodes, and was particularly disappointed with the B&W TV images (although I found these episodes far more interesting than those in the second series - but I even I did miss the gaudy colour, although the B&W sets and effects are just as good).

So if you are buying for your children I would skip straight to series two and give a two minute intro, but if you want a bit more bite then go for this series as well. Be warned though there are thirty episodes in this 8-disk DVD collection - over twenty hours of prime time TV from 1965/1966 (Series 2 is the same length but from 1966/1967). So very good value at least, and the picture quality and production values of these series 1 (and 2) DVD's is top notch. No extra's, although the very nice packaging includes a cute little pull-out booklet of the episodes and characters.


Nostalgia!   June 19, 2005
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I loved this series as a child, and in a pre-video recorder age, would have done anything to be in front of the television on Fridays at 5pm. It's so good to see them all again, although of course, my view of the series has changed a bit over the last 30 something years. I never noticed the wobbly, painted sets, or how awful the monsters were, but the biggest surprise was just how evil Dr Smith actually was. I thought he was funny when I was 10, especially as it was always him at the heart of any trouble, but now I'm amazed that the writers made him so horrible. It probably wouldn't be allowed now. Still, it's good to see it again, and even the bad episodes are good!