In Lost in Space, both the 1965-1968 TV series and the 1998 movie, Dr. Smith was never meant to be part of the crew of the Jupiter II; he sneaked onto the ship meaning to sabotoge it and somehow couldn’t get out before the launch. But for whom was he going to sabotage it? Who was he working for? In 1965 that would have been a no-brainer, the Russians would sabotage any American project. But the movie was made after the Cold War ended. There’s a scene at the beginning where Major Don West has a space battle with some kind of enemy, but who it is, is never made clear. Rather an important detail to leave out.
He was working for the gay Commies.
Oh, the pain! The pain!
Yeah, that crappy Iron Curtain personal lubricant! Might as well be Super Glue! 
Mutant terrorists. Seriously.
God… you’re reminding me all over again what an elephant sized load of poo that movie was.
I couldn’t remember the details, so I did a search, and found the answer.
Another thing that always bothered me about LIS (TV) version: In later episodes it’s made clear Dr. Smith is not an M.D. but a doctor of “environmental psychology” – but in the first episode he’s the doctor who gives the Robinsons their final medical checkup before putting them in suspended animation.
Probably because they expected them to end up as vegetables.
I saw an interview with Jonathan Harris shortly before he died, and he was a delight. “People keep asking me if I’m British,” he said, “and I tell them, ‘no I’m just affected.’” He said the producers gave him free rein to camp it up to the hilt midway through Season One, and he ran with it.
Always thought they should have cast Paul Reubens as Dr. Smith in the film version.
All the Boy Scouts who ever lived couldn’t have camped it up any more.
In the movie, he worked for a group called The Sedition.
Don’t know much abou it, just the name.
Harris was a wonderful person who vastly enjoyed creating the Dr. Smith character. The adult Bill Mumy continued to be fairly close to him and delivered moving eulogy at his funeral.
He does indeed have a very unique voice. I was amused to instantly recognize him when watching both Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2.
The full name was the “Global Sedition.” And I think (but I’m not sure) that they were supposed to be mutants, or genetically engineered, or something. Matt LeBlanc calls them something that sounds like “Gen Techs” during the dogfight. (A search on google seems to back this up.) So, maybe there’s some kind of “Exo Squad” genetic war going on in the backstory.
You know, all kidding aside, Lost in Space really wasn’t half bad.
Ranchoth
(“Gen Tech,” eh? Almost as good as “Bioroid”)
Er, the movie, that is. I can’t speak for the series. (The only episode I’ve ever seen had a silver space Mexican in it. Yikes.)
Yes, I’d say it was hovering up around 75 to 80% bad.
What the people who made the movie didn’t understand was that the TV show was so great because it never took itself seriously for a minute—it was almost a parody of Star Trek, which was sooooo pompous. Lost in Space (the TV show) was cheesy, good-natured camp: aliens with zippers down their backs, June Lockhart cooking chocolate cake in the backyard on an asteroid, Dr. Smith and the Robot doing their Laurel & Hardy routines; each villain more ridiculous than the last (hillbillies! teen hippies! evil carrots!).
Loved that show.
I’ve never seen an episode. I wish TV Land would dump their crappy eighties sitcom motif and show some more vintage fare.
I always wondered about his transition from the evil Dr. Smith in the black-and-white shows to the ridiculous Dr. Smith in the color shows. Thanks!