I am delighted beyond words that the titular character on “Doctor Who” is now a woman, and thought that the female version of Starbuck on “Battlestar Galactica”was a vast improvement on the original. But as for Parker Posey playing Doctor Smith on the new “Lost in Space” – no, no, no!

LIS was never the classic that “Star Trek” was – it was, after all, an Irwin Allen production – but many of us old-timers have fond memories of the first black-and-white season. My personal favorite is the episode featuring the huge cyclops figure attacking their mobile vehicle, the chariot.

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It was a fun show, that first year, or at least that’s how it will remain in my 50+ year old memories. But once the producers discovered how popular the character of Doctor Zachary Smith had become (a man known chiefly for both his cowardice and his continual dragging of young children into dark caves) emphasis moved away from the other characters, and it essentially become “Lost in Space with Doctor Smith.”

A character who should have been at the forefront only on occasion now occupied center stage for most of the remaining shows, much to the displeasure of much of the rest of the cast.

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The LIS movie, which I’m not that big a fan of, did have one cheery note: when Major Don West knocked him out at the end of the movie.

Oh yeah, Don West is no longer a major in the new series, but a smuggler who becomes close to the Robinson family.

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The Robinsons, by the way, are no longer the close-knit family unit we saw in the 60s; Mom and Dad, well, they have their issues.

But Doctor Smith? Really? The character who put their lives in danger, week after week?

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No offense to Parker Posey, whose work I have enjoyed, but it doesn’t matter if Doctor Smith is played by a man or woman. Smith is a wretched human being who, in reality, would have been thrown out of the airlock in his underwear at the first opportunity.

If folks are so intent on remaking an Irwin Allen property, I’d personally much prefer a remake of “Time Tunnel” or “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.”

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Well, at least they’ll still have the Robot, who in this version will no doubt turn out to be addicted to some mysterious alien lubricant . . .

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Today’s Soundtrack

Writing up a jig today as I compose along to the music from John Mack’s CD “Celtic Portraits.”

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Now on YouTube: a real challenger for the GOP’s Steve Womack

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My interview with Robb Ryerse, a GOP candidate seeking to unseat Congressman Steve Womack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ElfVbN2VLQ

“On the Air with Richard S. Drake” celebrates 27 years years on the air in 2018.

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Quote of the Day

Books are becoming everything to me. If I had at this moment any choice of life, I would bury myself in one of those immense libraries . . . and never pass a waking hour without a book before me. – Thomas B. Macauley

rsdrake@cox.net

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