Those three words.
“Danger, Will Robinson!”
Millions remember the iconic line, a relentless refrain of the clunky but captivating robot on Lost in Space, the legendary sci-fi TV series from the sixties.
Indeed, half a century later, the catchphrase lingers in the NASA lexicon.
“It was inevitable, especially in the simulator,” says Charles Justiz, for thirty years a research pilot at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“When anyone started to do something really stupid, like push a wrong button, somebody would always say it: ‘Danger, Will Robinson.’”
Now, with the liftoff of the $95 million Netflix reboot—the premiere date is Friday, April 13—space scientists are fondly recalling the seminal CBS show that ran from 1965-68.
That’s no surprise to Bill Mumy, 64—the original Will Robinson.
“Over the years, countless astronauts and technicians and engineers and astrophysicists told me they were glued to the television when they were kids,” he says.
Justiz—who trained astronauts for the space shuttle—was thirteen when he first saw Lost in Space.
“It had a huge impact on me,” he says. “I never missed a show.”
Not even when the monster-of-the-week was a walking, talking carrot.
Never mind, says Justiz: “It was cheesy—and it was wonderful.”
And timed just right. NASA was flourishing. Lost in Space launched along with the Gemini missions; four years later, men would land on the moon.
Every week, thirty million viewers or thereabouts, mostly youngsters, tuned in.
“I was ten years old in 1965,” says Kevin Burns, executive producer of the new series. “I was a big fan of the space program—and the perfect age for Lost in Space.
“For its time, the effects were state of the art. Nothing on television was more visual or more spectacular.”
The Netflix version does a gender swap with the show’s resident villain; Dr. Smith is now a woman (Parker Posey).
As portrayed by Jonathan Harris, Smith was by turns trembling and treacherous, conniving and cowardly.
Also disposed to denunciations awash in alliteration.
“You bumbling bucket of bolts,” he’d say to the robot.
Not so with the reboot. Posey’s character “is not villainous in a mustache-twirling sort of way,” says Burns.
“But she is capable of great duplicitousness.”
Harris—who died in 2002, age 87—would have “loved” Posey in the role, Burns says.
Mumy, close to Harris for nearly 40 years, agreed.
“He would have a huge smile on his face. Jonathan would have said, ‘Indeed, I approve—particularly since I’m no longer available.’”
The original series was seen worldwide, syndicated to dozens of markets overseas.
“I was born in Iran,” says Varoujan Gorjian, a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “When I first saw Lost in Space, it was dubbed in Farsi.”
The lip-sync, though off-kilter, didn’t matter too much, he says: “It was easy to believe the robot spoke Farsi. He didn’t have a mouth.”
The new robot—armored, chiseled—is not part of the Jupiter 2 crew.
Instead, he—she—or it—shows up once the Robinsons, light-years off course, crash on a mysterious alien world.
“The twist,” says Burns, “is that the robot is the alien.”
Adds Mumy: “It’s a newly-discovered, completely unknown technology—and with what may or may not be a soul.”
The new Will Robinson—Maxwell Jenkins, age 12—is the first to find the spooky creature.
Their relationship soon morphs into something similar to the one Mumy created more than 50 years ago.
“That bond between him and the robot,” says Jenkins, “I tried to keep in the same place.”
Off-screen, another connection developed, when Mumy and Jenkins met on set.
“We bonded over music and comic books,” says Jenkins.
“Max is great,” says Mumy. “I couldn’t have found a better guy to toss the baton of Will Robinson to.”
And though sentient carrots are likely missing from the ten-episode series, one thing not lost—those three words.
“Danger, Will Robinson? It won’t be as often as in the original series,” says Jenkins.
“But you’ll hear it.”
