Lost in Space as a happy crew without internal conflicts. While many storylines in the later series focused primarily on Dr. Zachary Smith, a stowaway and saboteur played by Jonathan Harris, he was absent from the unaired pilot. His character was added after the series was commissioned for production. The pilot episode was first aired on television during a 1997 retrospective. CBS bought the series, turning down "Star Trek" in favor of "Lost in Space". Before the first episode was filmed, the characters Smith and the Robot were added, and the spaceship, originally named "Gemini 12", was renamed the "Jupiter 2" and redesigned.
Lost in Space storm of asteroids. This, plus the robot's rampage, causes the ship to prematurely engage its hyperdrive, and causes the expedition to become hopelessly lost in the infinite depths of outer space. Smith's selfish actions and laziness frequently endanger the expedition; however, Smith's role assumes less sinister overtones in later parts of the series. The astronaut family of Dr. John Robinson, accompanied by a pilot and a robot, set out in the year 1997 from an overpopulated Earth in the spaceship "Jupiter 2" to travel to a planet circling the star Alpha Centauri. The "Jupiter 2" mission is sabotaged by Dr.