On page 1, Will and the Robot play a game of three-dimensional,
holographic chess on a multi-level video chessboard. This may be an
homage to the three-dimensional chess of
Star Trek and
the holographic "chess" game played between R2-D2 and Chewbacca
aboard the Millenium Falcon in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Page 2 reveals that Penny has titled her journal, which she believes
will become a best-seller when they get back to Earth, The Video
Journals of Penny Robinson, Space Captive.
Page 3 reveals that Will was shortstop on a
Little League
baseball team back on Earth. Will was shown to be fond of baseball
in
Lost in Space.
Page 3 also reveals that on Earth of 2058,
a 10-year old is able to get a driver's
license after completing a course in school.
Page 3 implies that the crew of
Jupiter 2 has already encountered a number of threats
in the month-plus that they've been lost, listing hideous monsters,
blinding meteor storms, and treacherous black holes.
Page 4 states that if the Jupiter mission had gone
according to plan, the crew would have been in deep sleep for 10
years, the time required to reach Alpha Prime from Earth. This would
seem to contradict some indications in
Lost in Space that it
would have taken less time than that: when the Jupiter 2
passes through the time bubble and finds the Proteus, which
they discover was looking for them after they disappeared
and did not show up at Alpha Prime,
John speculates that it is about 10 years from the time Jupiter 2
left Earth, implying the trip to Alpha Prime should have taken less
time than that.
Page 5 has Will grabbing Penny's wrist recorder and rewinding "the
tape" to play back a portion of her journal. Somehow, I doubt a
piece of future technology is going to be recording anything on a
tape; it would be digital recording (or better) as most recording
devices are today.
Page 8 describes Blarp's eyes as
blue. In
Lost in Space, they
were more of a yellow. The
description may be based on the
animatronic puppet head which was
originally to be used in the film,
which did have blue eyes. (Photo
from
yourprops.com.) |
 |
Page 9 states that, as far as scholastic studies go, Penny adores
literature and history, not the various sciences in which the rest of her
family excels. Promised Land also suggests that she is
interested in art.
On page 13, Dr. Smith mentions the alien spiders that almost killed
them.
This is a reference to events in
Lost in Space. Will recalls how the spiders had invaded
Dr. Smith's body, threatening to turn him into one of them. This
seems to imply that Smith has been cured of the bite he received
in the film, which eventually transformed him, 20 years in the future,
into Spider-Smith, as seen in
a time bubble Will had crossed into in the course of the film.
Page 16 states that Dr. Smith now has his own quarters on the ship.
In "Wake the Dead", he is
still being held prisoner in a room of the ship as he was in
Lost in Space.
Page 18 describes the flight positions of members of the
Jupiter 2. Will and the Robot keep an eye on the
navigational controls, Penny is at the transmission console, Maureen
is at a life support console, and John and Don are at the helm. Judy
is not mentioned in this instance, even though she is on the bridge
with the others as this is happening; presumably her normal post is
in sickbay. And it is stated that Dr. Smith never does anything
supportive. In
Promised Land, Penny's
station is revealed to be something called Video Mechanics; it might
be possible to interpret that as having something to do with the
ship making and receiving transmissions.
Page 22 reveals that the
Jupiter 2 has several probe ships that can be used to make
short jaunts into space. In
Lost in Space, Don
mentions the Pod was pretty much turned into scrap metal in the
crash, making it sound like it was the only one (the Pod was a small
lunar-module-type spaceship seen in the original TV series, used for
taking shorter jaunts in space away from the Jupiter 2).
Are the probes different than the Pod?
Page 24 suggests that Penny doesn't like Dr. Smith. Seems like a
reasonable position to take. But The
Vault suggests
that Penny kind of likes Dr. Smith, despite his treacherous ways,
and wouldn't mind so much if he took command of the ship, believing
he'd be more proactive in getting the ship back to Earth without the
sightseeing and hand-wringing her father tends to engage in.
Page 27 describes Carlos and Caitlin having a U.S. flag patch on the
upper right-hand pocket of their space uniforms, just like Will and
Penny. But in the movie, Will and Penny are not shown with such a
patch on their clothing. It could be argued that the two are now wearing
spare uniforms they simply never wore in the course of the film.
Page 32 reveals that the
Jupiter 2 has a hologram projector room that sounds almost
like the holodeck of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
On page 34, leery of the navigational problems that have begun to
plague the
Jupiter 2, Dr. Smith reminds John of the Titanic,
and suggests he watch out for icebergs. The Titanic was a
passenger liner in 1912, deemed by engineers of the time as
unsinkable, which struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and
sank, resulting in the deaths of almost everyone aboard.
Pages 37-39 reveal that the
Jupiter 2 has a small complement of robots and minidroids
that perform various small tasks around the ship, besides the
Robot himself. Will is in charge of maintaining them all.
This book implies a more frequent shower schedule for the crew than
the once-a-week (for purposes of water
conservation) mentioned in
Promised Land. Presumably, at this early time in
the Robinson's quest to either return to Earth or find Alpha Prime,
they have plenty of water in supply, whereas it is in much shorter
supply in the later novel. (Though later in this book, showers are
limited to one every three days when the ship crashes on a small
moon and is on emergency power.) Novels after this also describe a
more frequent showering schedule, so water must just have been
exceptionally low for a period of time around the events of
Promised Land.
Page 40 reveals that Will has been working on a human emotion
replication program for the Robot.
Page 41 implies that Will had known his great-great-grandmother and
she had been fond of old comedy-adventure films. It is not revealed
which side of the family the great-great-grandmother was from.
When Will begins to get suspicious of Carlos and Caitlin and
various aspects of their behavior, such as never showering, Penny
sarcastically remarks to him that maybe they melt when hit by water
like the Wicked Witch of the West from the Oz books. This is, of
course, a reference to the Oz
children's books of L. Frank Baum and others. The Wicked Witch of
the West only appears in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz of
Baum's original Oz books.
On page 45, Penny unfortunately finds that the dinner packet of the
night is banana beef again. This combination was first seen in
Lost in Space; Blarp
seemed quite happy with the flavor.
On page 49, the Robot defines the name "Carlos" as one of Spanish
origin, meaning "strong and manly". This is true. Will interrupts
him before he can define the name "Caitlin"; in case you're
interested, it is a Gaelic name meaning "virginal" or "pure".
Page 50 reveals that Penny likes the Robot. In most other stories,
she doesn't seem to have much of an opinion one way or the other.
This is pointed out as a commonality she has with Will and in
opposition to the adults on the ship, who think of the Robot merely
as another tool.
This book reveals that John and Maureen trust Dr. Smith to, at least
occasionally, perform as a legitimate medical practitioner on board
the ship.
On page 55, the busted Robot says, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
Its fleece was white as snow." The Robot has comprised two nursery
rhymes into one phrase, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (1806) and
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1830).
On page 59, Carlos and Caitlin are playing music by an electronic
music group called the Asteroids.
On page 60, Will peers through the keyhole of Carlos and Caitlin's
room and soon turns the doorknob to enter. Keyholes? Doorknobs? On a
spaceship? The movie seemed to present most of the doors as being
triggered electronically, not by old-fashioned mechanical means.
Page 62 describes the Robot in the process of being consumed by
Carlos and Caitlin, with arms and legs strewn all over the floor. At
this point, the Robot doesn't really have legs; we must interpret
the description as meaning "treads". Will later gives the Robot
three multi-jointed,
gyro-stabilized legs, so it could more easily travel
over all types of terrain, as described in
The
Vault.
Page 77 describes a previous Earth mission involving three families
who were to inhabit a space station for four years, but the station
disappeared twenty years ago.
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