Happy Christmas and all that stuff...
I was searching the Netflix for a little late night Christmas day horror and stumbled over Lost in Space Series 2. Quick change of plan then followed and I've just treated myself to the first two episodes.
I will be back to blog those lovely space suits again but not until I've watched the whole series as I fear I'll stumble over spoilers.
Until then, here is the promo art and if you haven't watched this reboot I suggest you do, its really rather good in my opinion. There are enough nods to the original show but it really is its own thing.
Steve
I think I`ve just cracked the riddle of the helmets on the destination moon type suits that we first saw in episode 2 of the time tunnel and that also made an appearance in the lost in space season 3 episode flight into the future [ep8]
ReplyDeleteThese are actually the Way way out helmets prior to receiving their new opening visors.The profile looks identical and there are 4 of them[we see 4 in the time tunnel] it looks like they`ve covered part of the original visor in some new material and added a raised lip to the new visor edge,in fact in a couple of the scenes in lost in space you can actually see this in profile as the actor turns his head.
These ARE the Way way out helmets!,I`m certain of it!.
Its been bothering me ever since I first saw them on this site,because shows like this always tended to rent props like that rather than build them if it was just for one or two episodes and there werent that many to choose from at the prop store,so where did these things come from?.Well now we know.These are very possibly original destination moon spacesuits fitted with modified way way out helmets.
I LOVE THIS SITE!!.
This site loves you, Tim. I'm off to investigate the images.
DeleteAnd I love this site,its an unparalleled resource of open source information into a pretty important,but sadly neglected,part of sf history ie the movie and television spacesuit.
DeleteMy own theory as to why they modified the Way Way Out suits this way is that for the Time Tunnel episode in question they were reusing stock footage [a staple of the Time Tunnel and many other shows] from Destination Moon and they had to try and have them match to some degree.It would`ve been after this that 3 of the helmets were rather crudely modified with external opening visors.These were then considerably cleaned up for the third apes film,the visors had been trimmed and cleaned up,they had new internal hinges and an external locking latch and lastly they had been tinted as well.There were a few other minor little cosmetic changes such as the deletion of the vents below the visor and the addition of some small metal pieces at the back of the helmets.Ultimately its whole appearance was quite different to what it had been in 1966 and it shows just how much a change of visor can alter the entire look of a helmet with the other great example of this being the alien helmets from UFO.Whats unusual about this is just how many alterations these helmets in particular have been through,especially in comparison with their prop store brothers the Men Into Space helmets which basically stayed the same during their entire 25 year careers.
Agree with all of that. It's a fascinating journey for a prop, a sort of secret history.
DeleteI'm working on some blog posts and updating others. should have it all out for the weekend.
Big thank you to you dude.