Lost in Space

[Neoma]

I was watching this last night and spotted something. The episodes name was "The Challenge." It's fun to find out that Kurt Russell was in this episode as the kid that challenges Will Robinson.

What was more interesting is that this episode was in the 60s, and they were technically promoting equal rights for women. Say what? (You can see the full episode on hulu.)

I'm paraphrasing but this is what was generally said:

Dr. Maureen Robinson: "Not on our planet, we're (women) treated as equals."

...What was her planet again?

[virtualobserver]

1. It was set in the distant future.....In the year 1997

[Whisp]

2. all depends on how the episode ended

and how the planet for Equality fared.

Usually in these cases is that a good ending is usually because of a man/men got involved. and the Equal Planet might have been a joke - like, sure! what could possibly be stranger in the universe than equality between men and women! haahhaa.

[Neoma]

3. We changed the channel before the ending.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. "The Feminine Mystique" was a bestseller shortly before this series aired.

Between that and the Civil Rights Act it was common for mid-late 1960s science fiction films and series to assume that equality would happen in their fictional, future era.

As for Lost-in-Space, thinking gender equality and family space travel would be the norm in 1997 was a bit optimistic

[Call Me Wesley]

5. I think I mentioned it before, somewhere on DU.

There was, in 1966, a German Sci-fi series called 'Raumpatrouille Orion' (Space patrol Orion,) that only aired seven episodes. It actually came on before Star Trek was aired and was in black and white.

Now, while in Star Trek you didn't see much women with high ranks, here the commander of the fleet was one at the rank of a general, while many other women had similar high ranks and active roles. Of course, it did not lack the bigotry of the time, but it took Star Trek a long time to have an actual female captain ...

Who's interested in this, which is now considered cult, here's a full episode on youtube with English subtitles.

&feature=related

For the nerds: Check out the bridge: The ceiling is covered with plastic cups. The main navigation 'thingie' is an iron, and most other appliances are kitchen faucets and wall tv's of the time.