Time Merchant
| Time Merchant | |
| |
| Prod No: | 1518 |
|---|---|
| Season: | 3 |
| Air Date: | 1/17/1968 |
| Writers: | Bob Duncan, Wanda Duncan |
| Director: | Ezra Stone |
| Principal Cast: | John Robinson (Guy Williams)
Maureen Robinson (June Lockhart) Penny Robinson (Angela Cartwright) Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) Robot B-9 (Bob May Dick Tufeld (voice)) |
| Supporting Cast: | Dr. Chronos (John Crawford), Genera Squires (Byron Morrow), Sergeant (Hoke Howell) |
| Preceded By: | Princess Of Space |
| Followed By: | The Promised Planet |
Time Merchant is an episode of Lost In Space.
Synopsis
A time merchant, living in a Daliesque world, prepares to kill the Robinsons because they accidentally interrupted his time-trip. While he, John, Will and the Robot are in the merchant's lab, Smith sends himself back to Earth in 1997 and intends to let the Robinsons depart without incident for a safe and successful journey. However, the merchant reveals dire consequences, so Smith must recreate his original actions to safeguard the Jupiter 2 occupants.
Plot
As a cosmic storm approaches, John, Will, the Robot and Dr. Smith are conducting an experiment to attempt to trap cosmic particles.
Unwittingly, a man, who identifies himself as Kronos, is accidentally trapped by them. Angered, he threatens to reverse their time tapes. After realizing that Kronos can control time, Dr. Smith intervenes and try to get what he can from the being. This angers him even further.
Outside the cave they are in, time is running amok because of Kronos' capture. He convinces Will to release him. Because Will has inconvenienced him, Kronos incapacitates Will and disappears with him.
Extra-dimensional force field John and the Robot go through to find will Left alone, in the cave, Dr. Smith is frightened and decides to follow.
Kronos destroys a planet in the Omega galaxy because they waste time.
Smith finds out that Kronos can send people through time. He does offer to make Smith younger and offers to give him a demonstration. They start to watch Smith's time tape, focusing on several points in Smith's life. Of course, most of these are times when Smith showed his nefarious motives. Smith asks Kronos to set the machine for the day they left Earth. As John and Kronos are arguing, Smith sneaks into the time machine and sends himself back to October 16, 1997.
Kronos is furious and worried that Smith will corrupt the time line. He shows John and Will two video monitors. One is a rectangular and "monochrome". It allows them to see the timeline as it originally happened. They watch a sequence after Dr. Smith examines Will before the launch. The other monitor is oval and is not monochrome. This shows Smith, in the reconstituted past as he is now interacting with the timeline. It shows him in an "Examination Room". In it is a large crate labelled "General Utility Non-Theorizing Robot".
Smith decides to not go through with his original plan of sabotaging the Jupiter 2. Will wonders what will happen if Dr. Smith doesn't get on board. John believes that without Smith's extra weight, they would make it to Alpha Cantauri. Kronos, corrects John and reveals that without Smith, the ship will run into an uncharted asteroid and will be destroyed with all onboard.
Since Kronos can't bring back Smith without destroying his time machine, he intends snips Willss and John's "time tapes" to recoup some time. When John resists, Kronos incapicitates John and the Robot. He mesmerizes Will and leads him to a cage.
John convinces Kronos that in exchange for 5 years of his life to let them try to get a message back to Smith to tell him to get on the ship.
Kronos sends the Robot back, but he doesn't retain his memory of the future and is useless to persuade Smith. Will convinces Kronos to send him back just long enough to restore the Robot's memory. Will goes back and restores the Robot, after which he returns to the present.
The Robot is able to bully and cajole Smith into boarding the Jupiter 2.
The timeline is restored and Kronos lets Will, John, Smith and the Robot go.