Here's a sneak peek at my new book Lost in Space Design: No Place To Hide. The book explores the design of classic sci-fi/fantasy television show by looking at both the production and the science behind the fiction.
This page illustrates that point with a look at one of the production ideas that did not make the final cut for the unaired pilot. In this case a meteor hole was supposed to be seen near the back of the Gemini 12 spaceship. Not only do I illustrate some of the proposed camera angles, I also point out that destruction of this sort would have meant the end of the Space Family Robinson.
The book contains more than 100 images and illustrations. I created most of them were created in SketchUp. If you're interested in learning more about the design of the original Lost in Space pilot please use the link to find the book on Amazon.com.
Oh, and by the way, notice the post date of this blog entry: June 12. That's Irwin Allen's birthday. That's where the name of the pilot spaceship comes from too. "Gemini" is Irwin's zodiac sign and 12 is the day of his birth. At that time in the mid 60s there was already a NASA space program called "Gemini" and the final rocket launches were already planned (they would not continue up to 12). It was felt that there would be some confusion with the science-fiction family's space program and the real thing, so the spaceship's name became the Jupiter 2 for the series.
But Irwin wasn't done plugging his birthday. In Land of the Giants that is the date that the little people found themselves sidetracked on a routine trip to London. He makes it hard for his fans to forget his birthday.
Great post - never knew the origin of the name Jupiter 2, either!
ReplyDeleteLooks intriguing... I've been a fan for many decades, but never heard of the meteor hole. One thing... there actually was a Gemini 12 flight. It launched November 11, 1966 and was the final manned Gemini mission. I've always believed Allen chose the Gemini name to put the idea of the space program into the minds of his network executive audience, and chose mission number 12 to denote that it was in the future (Gemini 1 launched in April of '64, perhaps around the time he was fleshing out the pilot script). Of course, his birthdate and zodiac sign could have had something to so with it as well!
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