User Reviews

This first-season entry did not feature any bug-eyed aliens, familiar guest stars, or the Dr.Smith/Will/Robot triumvirate that would overrun the series for most of its three-year run. "The Oasis" was as true a "survival story" as Irwin Allen's sci-fi/fantasy could possibly give.

During a drought, Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) decides to use much of the family's dwindling water supply to take a shower because he "feels very icky." Thus, the family must go in search of a new reservoir of fresh water. As they walk through a dry river basin, Dr. Smith complains about being tired and returns to the Jupiter 2. In the meantime, a discovery of an alien fruit is made and Dr. Robinson (Guy Williams) decides to take it back and run tests to see if it is suitable for human consumption.

That night while the family gathers in the galley to discuss the day's events, Maureen (June Lockhart) realizes that Dr. Smith is nowhere to be found. She goes to the upper deck and finds him gorging on the untested fruit. Running frantically outside the ship, she knocks the plant out of his mouth, much to his surprise, telling him that the fruit has not been tested.

The rest of the family comes outside and also adds its criticism of Smith's haste. Unfortunately, the always-ready-to-go-off-the-deep-end Smith thinks that the family deliberately left the fruit for him to eat, hoping that it would cause some serious, or possible fatal, illness.

Smith screams and goes to his cabin. While there, his imagination takes the best of him and he is determined to seek revenge on the others, prior to his "demise." Leaving the ship in the wee hours of the night, he takes the last remaining fuel cylinder on the water conversion unit, thus, leaving the family in greater dire straits.

As they search for Smith and the cylinder, Will (Billy Mumy), Don (Mark Goddard), and John find him, only now, due to a metamorphosis brought on by the consumption of the fruit, he is as tall as a two-story building.

Maureen convinces Smith to return to the ship and eventually, through the intervention of a convenient rain storm, Smith returns to his normal state.

Inasmuch as it is centered squarely on the family, each of the actors has a fair amount of screen time, including the rarely used Marta Kristen ("Judy").

The best thing about this episode is the superb acting of Jonathan Harris as Dr. Smith.

This episode begins with a selfish Dr. Smith taking a shower when the Robinsons are very short on water. The others are furious at the selfish Dr. Smith. His insensitivity to the others is made apparent during an emergency meeting.

Traveling without Smith, the rest discover fruit growing in unsuitably salty water. They take it back to the Jupiter 2 to test it to see if it's edible.

They leave the balance of fruit on a table in front of the ship and test the rest. They had forgotten momentarily about Dr. Smith, who happens to find the fruit on the table outside and starts to consume it.

There's a well-done scene where the Robinsons find Smith eating the fruit. They tell him that it hasn't been tested and might be poisonous.

In a very dramatic moment, Smith accuses the Robinsons of leaving the fruit out there on purpose, hoping he'd eat it and die so that they can be rid of him. He runs away, but in so doing he takes a vital part of the water purifier with him, thereby making sure that they will die a slower death from thirst.

Especially poignant are the night scenes. The first one has Smith, who has also taken a tape recorder with him, leaving the last words of one who "would have transfigured the universe" had he lived. Another neat night scene is between Will and Penny, who talk about how they miss Dr. Smith.

Instead of dying, the fruit affects his pituitary glands and makes him a giant. How convenient for the viewers that his clothes somehow grow with him! Now we see a conflicted Dr. Smith who alternates between wanting to kill everyone for making him a freak and wanting to talk to them, especially Will and Maureen.

The first half of this episode is really wonderful. The last half isn't quite as good, but it's still highly watchable. It's worthy of a look just to watch Jonathan Harris act!

One of my favourite episodes of LIS season one – there are no guest aliens in this one only the usual cast (and each member gets a fair crack of screen time). Dr. Smith is excellent – there's a very funny scene where Smith is taking a shower using up nearly all the families dwindling water supply (during a dangerous and lengthy heat wave) while the robot is singing. Imaginative camera angle when we follow Maureen Robinson in the one person elevator from the lower to the upper deck of the Jupiter 2 and there is also a scene showing the dining area of the lower deck clearly. There is the illogical notion of Smith's clothes growing with him (as he grows to giant size caused by his consumption of an untested alien fruit). Throughout this episode we see inconsistent applications of spacial distances – sometimes the family seem near the Jupiter 2 and at other times they appear to be some considerable distance away (looking for a water supply, or rescuing a wounded Major West). There are some nice morality touches in this one about forgiveness and love even when someone (Dr. Smith) is far from perfect and does some really thoughtless and reprehensible things!

I watched this segment a few days ago, having avoided it since I was a kid because of the idiotic scenes of a giant Smith (nada even a tear in his clothes). I never realized how well written and executed everything was UP until that moment! It was intelligent, well-acted, and genuinely funny. The scene where Smith had programmed the robot to sing opera with him, being forced, then, to tell it to shut-the-hell-up was pretty hilarious! One of many reminders of my frustration with this crazy series, where it shows awesome potential and then gets dragged down to dumb implausibilities. This one, btw, is a nod to THE FOOD OF THE GODS by H.G. Wells; BUT without the "substance"! The only episodes I truly hold to my heart and recommend to viewers are the 5 first dramatic shows, followed by 3, MY FRIEND, MR. NOBODY, INVADERS FROM THE 5TH DIMENSION, and THE SKY IS FALLING. The rest, at best, like THE OASIS, fluctuate between well-done and totally dumb. Nevertheless, Dr. Smith is one of TV's all-time greats! The early, darker version was as funny as the later goofy Smith, and I wish they'd stuck to black comedy instead of the camp they turned to for most of the series; but either way, I DO love Smith and the robot intensely!

If a regular sized Dr. Smith is a nuisance, how about one three times his size? He's not the most considerate of giants. He doesn't cover his mouth when he sneezes, knocking everybody over in his path. He also sobs over how he's going to be labeled a freak and how returning to Earth is now out of the question. In other words, he's three times the pain he was before, and that started with him using up a good percentage of the remaining drinking water just because he felt icky and needed a shower. while searching for water, the Robinsons come across a Vine of mango like fruits they need to test to determine if they are edible. Dr. Smith, selfish as usual, eat several without questioning it, and when he storms off in a snit, the group begins to admit how much they become used to his presence, even when he is obnoxious and troublesome. It's sweet, but ridiculous in the sense that they keep forgetting of all the truly bad things that he did. When Debbie, Penny's chimp-like pet, also consumes the mango, she increases in size, remaining friendly but still larger than the inhabitants of the Jupiter II. Imagine their surprise when John, Don and Will come across Dr. Smith and realize the impact of the fruit they found.

This is the first truly comical episode of the series, and it is quite a lot of fun even though it begins to take the show into a completely different direction. In spite of the focus on Smith's character, everybody has great material, and the seriousness of the situation isn't underplayed for farce. the special effects have the regular size Robinson separated by a tree with a gigantic Smith, and it's obvious how the effect was accomplished. The ending is silly and reduces the ruthlessness of Smith from previous episodes into but he will become in the later color episodes. But at least he remains in his uniform and isn't dressed as a vegetable... yet!

Jonathan Harris lays on the ham something fierce in this silly romp very reminiscent of the hokey second season, as this episode deals with a peculiar type of fruit found during a "hot season" on the planet where water is limited-to-nothing Dr. Smith eats two pears before they have been thoroughly tested. Maureen sees this and warns him but it is too late…he could very well be poisoned! So Smith, believing the family deliberately set out the fruit so he would eat it, declares revenge on the Robinsons, taking a part of the water producing machine (fuel cell) that provided what little liquid the planet could give. Leaving them behind, Smith is sought after by the worrying family (all except Don West who is his chiefest rival, and rightfully so…), as he records his "final testament" on cassette, and what happens next is quite campy…he grows into a giant! Like Smith, the "alien monkey", Debbie, the "bloop", had eaten some of the fruit and grown to a larger size. So Smith is angry and thirsty; at one point, he plucks a tree from the ground and hurls it at the Robinsons nearly hitting them.

Of course, flaws be damned: Smith not only grows into a giant, his uniform and boots must have eaten the alien fruit too. Harris' crybaby antics and whining get to be quite a bit too much and the story revolving around him significantly has me puzzled to this day considering what he put every member of the group through prior to The Oasis. So the fruit causes the pituitary gland to "go out of control", and now Smith is such a giant that when he sneezes it causes a temporary wind storm! There are cool moments like a ride with Maureen in the Jupiter 2's elevator from the bottom floor to the bridge, and seeing the towering giant Smith opposite smaller humans of the Robinson family is rather neat. Still, the fuss about Smith's absence, and how everyone gloomily misses him had be baffled considering what he had did to them. Oh, but "surprise, surprise" rain soon comes their way and all is well…including how Smith and the Bloop return to normal size. This episode is a bit of campy nonsense that is a sharp reminder of what Lost in Space would become down the road.

As Harris pointed out, though, if he hadn't reduced his character to a self-absorbed clown (he showers in the water supply that was to help the Robinsons during their dehydration and drought), full of cowardice and selfishness, lovable in that he just couldn't help himself it seems, then Dr. Smith would have been killed off in the first few episodes…it was all about self-preservation as an actor. That said, the emphasis on him the show would take was a detriment to the other members of the cast (save Mumy and Guy Williams), and, in my opinion, ruined Lost in Space. Watching it now does make me wince at times, but even episodes like The Oasis have their moments. If you love the camp value of the series, The Oasis will be up your alley. I still like when the show was a bit less cartoonish.

This episode contains one of the funniest moments in the series. Dr Smith uses the last of the Robinsons' drinking water to take a shower, while he and the Robot sing some opera. After Prof Robinson and Major West scold Smith for this outrage, the Robot continues to sing (refer to my heading). Smith replies: "Oh, shut up!" That scene had me laughing for most of the episode. As for the part about Smith eating the alien fruit, and then growing to three times his normal height: Did anyone question how his clothing also grew to match his giant size? Thing like that make me curious. Great episode, featuring one of the Robot's finest solo performances.

The Oasis is excellent. Just a slight notch below the previous episodes.

This is the first we see a little of the change in the Dr. Smith character. He (with The Robot assisting) takes a shower in a heat-wave during restrictions. It's actually more arrogant than buffoonery, but it is none the less a small change.

Dr. Smith and Debbie The Bloop eat some fruit that turn them into giants. Dr. Smith states that he was set-up, which is more in line with the early Dr. Smith character.

We have to suspend reason when Dr. Smith's clothes grow with him. I suspect that could have been solved by Dr. Smith finding some tarp or tent and making that into clothes, but then we have the issue of where did that come from. But that could have been explained.

The Dr. Smith sneezing is a little comedy as well, same as him throwing a fit as giant. But overall, everything works well.

This is the one turkey in the outstanding opening 17 episode run of LIS. Even in childhood I was bothered at how silly Dr Smith looked as a giant and since this is the first really silly episode, this hour has a lot to answer for...it was a taste of things to come in year two. The sight of Sutton Roley's name in the act one episode credits gives one false hope that something good is coming. But as act one moves forward the hour starts to feel a bit empty without a guest alien/guest creature to rock the boat. Perhaps it was this early episode that gave Irwin the idea that LIS badly needed a guest alien/guest monster each week? If that was the case, at least one good thing came from this hour.

As the The Oasis moves forward we see Smith as a giant in clothing that has managed to grow with him???? I don't like what Dr Smith has become in this story, and frankly, Mrs Robinson reminds me of Mrs Brady in The Brady Bunch, and we can do without her (Note: I am not putting down actress June Lockhart as I am a huge fan of her in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's The Ghost Of Moby Dick).

A Land Of The Giants episode - Genius At Work - resembles this hour a bit, however, in Giants the guy WANTED to be a giant. Genius At Work is a lot better than this. The Oasis is without question the worst thing that the usually imaginative Sutton Roley ever directed for Irwin Allen. However, I don't think you can totally blame the director. The writer, and yes, even Irwin Allen were also to blame. This may even be the worst episode of Lost In Space ever because it planted the seeds that would eventually turn into talking carrots.