John Williams - Lost in Space, Vol. 3 (CD)

All Music Guide

Fans of movie composer John Williams will want to pay extra special attention to this CD. Subtitled "The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen, Vol. 7," this is the third volume of original music from the '60s television series to appear on CD but the first to show up as a free-standing, single CD (the others were originally in the multi-disc set The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen). The focus is on the first season, in particular the early episodes, when the need was to evoke a sense of wonder but also a feeling of comfort for the audience, as this was a family adventure (originally known as "Space Family Robinson"); thus, sweet little sentimental passages, intended to accompany scenes of John and Maureen Robinson interacting with their children, alternate with loud orchestral "stings" and ominous mood and effect music intended to evoke tension, threat, and wonder. The composers represented include Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein, and Richard LaSalle. An entire John Williams' score from one episode, "My Friend Mr. Nobody," has also been resurrected here intact, and as good as some of Stein and Salter's music is in evoking mood, that has to be the highlight of this disc and the series. Williams' music is playful, charming, at times wonderous, and all of it is unified thematically into a poignant whole that tells the entire story (really about loneliness and growing up) in its score. The composer makes especially fine use of one motif for flute and strings, flute, harp, celeste, and percussion, and makes his earliest use of several ominous horn motives that he was later to modify to even greater effect when he scored Land of the Giants. Indeed, most of the very best music from the series' first season can be heard for the first time in the score for this one episode, and in a fairer reality, Williams would've at least gotten an Emmy nomination for his work, but television awards weren't parceled out for series work in those days the way they might be today. In addition, it took 35-plus years just to get this early masterpiece of his a proper airing.

- Bruce Eder, All Music Guide