User Reviews

Not having watched this episode in 10 years I thought I would be giving it 9 or 10, because I knew that Gerald Mohr would be quite excellent as the Satanish Morbus, and he really was! The back and forth dialog between Smith and Morbus is consistently very entertaining and definitely the highlight here. Smith's encounter with the Metaluna mutant-like monster is also quite cool. The big down side is the way Judy behaves like a 5 year old spoiled brat. Who actually thought that anyone would be entertained by that? If Judy had acted dignified here or frightened, or any other way than what they made her, this episode would be a 10 for me, an undoubtedly much higher over all.

A Visit to Hades is one of the worst Lost in Space episodes. At this point (almost halfway through Season Two), I rank this as the worst, even below "The Thief From Outer Space".

It had potential if done right, but fails at just about every opportunity. The first few minutes are actually good, when Dr. Smith plucks a harp and believes it sent him to Hades. After that, the attempts at humor fall flat. I do not think I laughed even once.

It also has potential as a rare episode that features Judy, but that attempt is a mess.

What makes this terrible:

The Morbus character is a wise-guy that cannot generate a laugh despite numerous attempts at sarcastic and Bowery Boys type humor.

Dr. Smith is not funny. He just plods through this like a dunce. Major West is made to look like a buffoon in a fight scene. And worst of all, there is a long scene (while in "Hades") that Judy acts like a cry-baby small child. It is completely out of character and is painful to watch.

Prof Robinson is played straight, but is surrounded by this mess.

Tiresome drivel with a story so juvenile it will probably appeal to 60s children primarily, which squanders a chance for Marta Christen to have a plot focusing on her and the alien of the episode (Gerald Mohr, quite good, actually, charismatic and handsome, even though his features are purposely Satanic) because her character behaves like an infantile brat when she finds herself trapped in a dimensional prison with Morbus, condemned because he attempted to start a revolution in his native planet Lyrae. Smith plays a musical tune on a harp (lyre) and is transplanted to Morbus' cavernous prison which houses certain monsters and a solitary (although it does have a bit of space) room, equipped with Fox studios props (such as an electron microscope used in this episode's instance as a device that can tell secrets and history about people). Anyway, the harp has a tune that drives Morbus bananas and he cannot grab a hold of it because it harms him. The harp, if played underneath a stone statue in the shape of a keyhole (the portal to Morbus' dimensional prison), transports those inside the hole to the prison. The dilemma facing Judy is how to escape once she is accidentally sent with Morbus to the prison after Smith plays a specific tune that transports them back there (Morbus was allowed to leave his prison momentarily, meeting Judy and the Robinson party). Don and John, thanks to Robot who plays the tune at their request, go to the prison as well, hoping to return Judy and Dr. Smith (who plays the tune and himself is sent to the prison) to the planet. Once Judy is sent to the prison, she lays on Morbus' bed, crying like a little kid, whining about wanting to leave; it's an embarrassing scene for Kristen who is supposed to be a grown up adult (she rarely acts so immaturely which makes this behavior so out of character) with Judy. I liked the way the episode, before all this silliness, sets up Morbus as a possible rival of Don's for Judy's affections. Of course, you know that this will never come to fruition—that she would choose Morbus over Don, willing to fight him for Judy, but still, it was nice to see their relationship challenged—it still is a nice monkey wrench in the continuing romance for the young-adult couple. If anything, this episode provides Don with a chance to put up his dukes against a superior antagonist who doesn't allow the young buck to strike him (but once which proves painful to Don's hand) by disappearing, then reappearing in other places to further provoke him to anger. How the harp is broken is rather funny if wholly hokey (the harp must be damaged in order for Morbus to be freed). Just another example of the inherent campiness that prevails over the second season of Lost in Space. Like a lot of the guest stars, Mohr is fun to watch, but he isn't given a plot deserved of his talents. I would have to imagine Kristen was disillusioned with the manner for which her character was ill-used on the show, and truly sad that when she does have story time it results in disaster. Too bad; it's a shame. Many will recognize the brain monster as the alien from the sci-fi classic, "This Island Earth" that sends Smith running for his life.