Our Purpose

Specifically, it is the Robinson family--Professor John Robinson, his wife Maureen, and their children Judy, Will, and Penny--that meets the challenge of the Jupiter mission in the late 1990s. Designed by Alpha Control and the United States government, the Jupiter mission was initiated to give new hope to the ailing planet Earth and its exponentially increasing number of residents by establishing a colony on one of the planets in the Alpha Centauri star system. The Robinson family, joined by Jupiter 2 pilot Major Don West, leaves Earth on October 16, 1997. Little do they know that the malevolent Dr. Zachary Smith--officially employed by Alpha Control but secretly working as a saboteur for a foreign faction only known as "Aeolus 14 Umbra"--accidentally remains on board the ship at liftoff. Smith's additional weight sends the Jupiter 2 off its course for Alpha Centauri . . . rending the ship hopelessly lost in space. Yet is the Jupiter 2 mission hopeless? Is it true that the crew is, as Dr. Smith often moans, "doomed . . ."? We at the Promised Planet believe that the central tenet of Lost in Space is that there is always hope . . . as long as the family stays and works together for the good of the whole. And the binding force creating this unity and offering this continued promise is love. This principle is best exemplified in Lost in Space at the end of the first season episode "Follow the Leader." Having taken over John Robinson's body, the alien spirit Kanto is about to send Will Robinson to his death by throwing the lad off of a cliff. Trying to break the hold that Kanto has over his father, Will asks him to remove the alien mask that John is wearing so that he can see his father's face one more time before he dies. The alien spirit consents. Will looks into John's face and says: "We all love you . . . nothing's stronger than the feeling we have for you, Dad." The impact of Will's assertion is strong enough to break the hold that Kanto has over John's body and psyche. Having regained some independent power, John throws the mask over the precipice--an act that finally kills the alien spirit. Now fully himself, John tells Will: "In all the worlds and galaxies of this universe, there is nothing stronger than love."
--Lynne Agnew	Appropriately, the Promised Planet was created by two people who were brought together by--and who fell in love through--their love for Lost in Space. On September 15, 1965, Irwin Allen's new television series Lost in Space premiered on CBS, and a seven-year old boy in Alberta, Canada was watching. He was fascinated by space technology and this story of a family attempting to colonize Alpha Centauri. Noting that the Robinsons left Earth on October 16, 1997, he figured out how old he would be on that future date, and he wondered if anyone would remember the world of Lost in Space when that date rolled around.
Between the years 1971-1973, a young girl growing up in Montclair, New Jersey watched Lost in Space regularly when it aired in reruns on a local station every weekday afternoon. Being seven to nine years old at this time and being a brunette, the young girl liked the character of Penny Robinson, and she also found delightful the show’s brightly-colored flight uniforms. These two young people certainly never imagined that they would meet each other someday, nor did they imagine that the link through which they would meet their partner would be the TV show Lost in Space. Yet that is what happened. "The Keeper" and "Effra"—the former a computer systems analyst, the latter a high school English teacher—both began subscribing and posting to LISLIST (formerly the Buffnet Lost in Space listserv) sometime in 1997. When Effra began preparations for a Jupiter 2 Launch Party to be held on October 16, 1997, the Keeper decided to express his interest in attending the Launch Party—and his interest in Effra. Thus, a childhood pleasure sparked a meaningful relationship . . . and now the Keeper and Effra want to share the pleasures of Lost in Space with you.
--Mike McCormick (Trona Pinnacles)	Lost in Space meant a lot to the "Baby Boomer" generation. For children, the 1960s was a simpler time than were the 80s and 90s. The pace of life was slower, there was less expendable cash available to children, and there was less communications technology in the household. Although these features of a 1960s’ child’s life do have their negative aspects, they allowed for and enabled the rich play of a child’s imagination.
Even though a child had to physically get up from the floor or from his/her chair to change television channels, the shows he/she watched were no less rich because of this extra effort involved in watching TV. Even though many children longed to purchase a Jupiter 2 toy model, many of them fashioned their own Jupiters by putting pie tins together—and their play was fundamentally happy. Even though children didn’t have email and Instant Messenger services to help them share their interests with friends in a virtual realm, they had an actual realm: the school playground, upon which many children discussed what happened on last night’s Lost in Space episode . . . the school playground, upon which some children "played" Lost in Space, different children playing Penny, Will, Dr. Smith, and the Robot . . . the school playground, upon which there were no guns and (usually) no drugs. It was a special time, and many agree that Lost in Space embodies this period of time. The Promised Planet was created so the love for Lost in Space and the special joys of Lost in Space can be celebrated and relived. Welcome. We’ve been waiting for you.