CD: Lost in Space — Volume Two (Courage, Mullendore, Williams)

Lost in Space

- Original Television Soundtrack -

Volume Two

Music by

Alexander Courage, Joseph Mullendore, John Williams

GNP/Crescendo Records

1996

***

In early 1996 GNP/Crescendo Records released a six-CD set of music from producer Irwin Allen's 1960s telefantasy shows. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964 - 1968, ABC); Lost in Space (1965 - 1968, CBS); The Time Tunnel (1966 - 1967, ABC); Land of the Giants (1968 - 1970, ABC). In the set were two discs for Space.

At any rate, with the exception of some Voyage, the Irwin Allen shows were pretty terrible: fine, even great, when we were children, but at best we look now at them with a mix of nostalgia and "when I was a kid I thought this show was great".

Lost in Space — Disc Two features the work of Alexander Courage, Joseph Mullendore, and, of course, John Williams.

Courage is represented by two scores, for the episodes "Wild Adventure" and "The Great Vegetable Rebellion". The composer shows his range: from a floating waltz in a wild adventure with a green woman, to playful whimsy in fields of Debussian green. (I love that harpsichord.)

Mullendore's fitting and charming musical accompaniment for "The Haunted Lighthouse" features a memorable theme projected and developed from a piccolo to a tuba, with lush strings in between.

Two of these episodes ("The Haunted Lighthouse" and "The Great Vegetable Rebellion") are framed by a new Williams Lost in Space theme tune, one that hoped to frame tales of exciting adventures in the show's third and final season. (The Jupiter 2 spaceship was no longer committed to sit on just one planet for an entire season — banished by a low budget.) Unfortunately, Williams' new stab at a signature tune resulted in a piece that was undoubtedly driven high, but lacked the special uniqueness of his original theme ― a theme that did become removed from the campy, and ridiculous, television program that Lost in Space eventually became.

Postscript: Back in the day, the composer went by the name of "Johnny" Williams, which is how his name appeared in Space's credits. However, for the release of this CD, "John" was it for reasons not lost on the reader.