Last week, as you recall, Will and Dr. Smith were working with the Robot on an irrigation project - unaware that, within moments, they were to encounter the most incredible alien visitor ever to touch down on this strange, forgotten planet...
An alien zookeeper arrives, and the Robinsons are suspicious of the way he views them as verminous life forms, rather than sentient beings. The Keeper decides to add Will and Penny to his menagerie, and tries to trick them into one of his cages, even putting on a facade - which falls easily when he's frustrated - of being friendly and fatherly. Hoping to steal the Keeper's ship, Dr. Smith sneaks on board, but accidentally lets all of the animals loose.
Background information[]
Various sources provide a dash or a comma in this episode's title, "The Keeper - Part 1" or "The Keeper, Part 1". The episode itself does not have any punctuation, just offering "The Keeper" and "Part 1" on different lines. This wiki uses a colon, "The Keeper: Part 1", because it is listed this way at the Internet Movie Database.
The Keeper's menagerie includes aliens from previous episodes such as the Cyclops (but presented as human-sized) and some Rubberoids.
This is LIS' only two-part episode. It is also regarded as one of the best, giving all the cast their moment to shine and avoiding overuse of Dr Smith and the Robot.
Starring as 'The Keeper' is the capable Michael Rennie, who is most famous for playing Klaatu in the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. In a nice touch (and saving money on recording new themes) the somber 'Klaatu' theme from the same movie plays over each scene where the Keeper communicates with his home. A further odd connection is that Jonathan Harris worked previously with Rennie in The Third Man TV series.
During the escape scene, only four creatures are observed leaving the Keeper's spaceship. They exit over and over, courtesy of careful editing. They are the Cyclops, now normal sized, the seaweed creature from "The Raft", the large hairy creature from who appeared in the first scene of this episode, and the "Rubberoid" creature from "Wish Upon a Star". The flying creature that is zapped by the Robot at the beginning of the second part of this episode, and the original lizard from the beginning of the first part of this episode, are not seen escaping from the Keeper's spaceship at this time.
The "Rubberoid" creature was wearing the same clothing that he wore in "Wish Upon a Star". Why would he be wearing clothing if he was an animal in The Keeper's zoo? Zoo animals don't wear clothes.
The Keeper's spaceship is an unusual ring design, perhaps 30 yards in radius, that is obviously too small to hold the number of specimens the Keeper claims. Perhaps it's merely a shuttlecraft or another example of Irwin Allen adding questionable interior space to a vehicle as in the Jupiter 2's power core. It does have one advantage - with so much of the ship up off the ground the only set needed is the small column with the entry hatch.
The Keeper asks Don and Judy to join his menagerie in Part I of this episode, but in Part II he rejects them when they offer themselves in place of Will and Penny.
