The Sky is Falling (LiS episode)

"The Sky Is Falling"

LiS episode	1x10 / 10th of 83 aired
Production #	8510
First aired	November 17, 1965
Watch online now	Fancast, Hulu
Written by	Barney Slater, Herman Groves
Directed by	Sobey Martin
Previous episode	"The Oasis"
Next episode	"Wish Upon a Star"

Last week, as you recall, the incorrigible Doctor Smith had once again slipped away from his assigned chores at the campsite. At this moment, however, neither he nor the other members of our space family were aware that they were shortly to encounter an incredible mechanical creature from a far-distant alien world...

Summary[]

The Robinsons find themselves unable to understand the electronic language of a space family - the first of many colonists, from the planet Tauron,who will arrive to settle on the planet,travelling on a Tauron maser beam through space. Will befriends the aliens' son, but the Tauron boy falls ill and Will stays with him overnight in a cave, while the alien parents and the Robinsons wonder what happened to their boys. Smith tries to convince everyone that the aliens are holding Will captive.

Reluctantly, John goes to see the aliens, but because the Tauron aliens do not seem to understand them, and do not speak in any way the Robinson party can understand, Smith raises a weapon and a firefight breaks out. Will is bringing the boy home, and shows John where the boy is; John takes the boy to the aliens, but after the boy talks with his mother, the mother points at John and the man aims his weapon at John. Finally, Will runs up, the boys show they are friends, and the hostilities are avoided. The Tauron aliens leave, apparently deciding the planet is not suitable for colonization due to the germs released by Will's sneezing, for their homeworld.

Background Information[]

The black rifles from "No Place to Hide" are used by the Robinsons for the last time in this episode.
The Tauron residence seems to have no sleeping quarters, bathroom, or significant amount of storage and offers no apparent protection from the elements or from the numerous strange creatures that populate Priplanis. Strange that a colonizing party would be sent to a planet without such items, especially given this planet's eccentric orbit and climate.
The maser transportation device is used by Will in "Return from Outer Space".
The Taurons are mute, at least with the Robinson party, and don't appear to have a written language so how they communicate that they are called "Taurons" is not clear.
Irwin Allen's propensity for raiding his prop storage is apparent in this episode. The remote probe seems an odd pastiche of parts (including what looks like an automobile headlamp) that shares no design similarities with the rest of the Tauron equipment. It looks more like something the aliens in "Invaders from the Fifth Dimension" would create, so Allen probably made the most of what was at hand.
Masers are not a bad choice if one wants to send a signal over long distances as they are extremely stable with respect to frequency and phase. They operate in the microwave region of the spectrum so a visible beam such as the one shown as a special effect here is not possible from the maser effect itself. The beam might be interacting with some compounds in the planet's atmosphere causing them to fluoresce. This would mean that the beam is transferring energy to these compounds and thus being attenuated.
Herman Groves (1927 - 2010) was a prolific television writer who worked on series as varied as "Vega$" and "Battlestar Galactica." He also wrote for the Gene Roddenberry series "The Lieutenant." Barney Slater wrote numerous episodes of LIS and the way his credit is assigned on this episode indicates his work here was a rewrite of Groves' original script.