Land of the Lost details the adventures of the Marshall family (father Rick and his children Will and Holly), who are trapped in an alternate universe or
time warp inhabited by
dinosaurs, a primate-like people called
Pakuni, and aggressive
humanoid/lizard creatures (described as similar to insects) called
Sleestak. The episode storylines focus on the family's efforts to survive and find a way back to their own world, but the exploration of the exotic inhabitants of the Land of the Lost is also an ongoing part of the story. An article on renewed studio interest in feature-film versions of
Land of the Lost and
H.R. Pufnstuf commented that "decision-makers in Hollywood, and some big-name stars, have personal recollections of plopping down on the family-room wall-to-wall
shag sometime between 1969 and 1974 to tune in to multiple reruns of the Kroffts' Saturday morning live-action hits," and quoting Marty Krofft as saying that the head of
Universal Studios,
Ronald Meyer, and leaders at
Sony Pictures all had been fans of Krofft programs. A number of well-respected writers in the
science-fiction field contributed scripts to the series (mostly in the first and second seasons), including
Larry Niven,
Theodore Sturgeon,
Ben Bova, and
David Gerrold.
Plot and format The Marshalls are brought to the mysterious world by means of a dimensional portal, a device used frequently throughout the series and a major part of its internal
mythology. This portal opens when they are swept down a gigantic waterfall after being caught up in the world's largest earthquake on one of their scheduled trips. In "Circle", which explains the time paradox, this portal is actually opened by Rick Marshall himself while in Enik's cave, as a way for the current Marshalls to return to Earth, resolving the paradox and allowing Enik also to return to his time. Outfitted only for a short camping trip, the resourceful family from
California takes shelter in a natural
cave and improvises the provisions and tools that they need to survive. Their most common and dangerous encounters are with
dinosaurs, particularly a
Tyrannosaurus rex they nickname "Grumpy" which frequents the location of their cave. Many of the dinosaurs are
herbivores, however, and pose no threat to the Marshalls unless unintentionally provoked. One is a particularly tame young
brontosaurus which Holly looks on as a pet and nicknames "Dopey". They also encounter the mostly hostile
Sleestak (a race of
reptilian humanoids/
insectoid), and the
primate-like creatures called Pakuni (one of whom,
Cha-Ka, they befriend), as well as a variety of dangerous creatures, strange geography and unfamiliar technology. The main goal of the three is to find a way to return home. They are occasionally aided in this by the Altrusian castaway
Enik. At the start of the third season, Rick Marshall (played by Spencer Milligan) abruptly disappears trying to use one of the pylons to get home, leaving his children behind; his disappearance is explained to having been accidentally returned to Earth alone. He is however immediately replaced by his brother, Jack, who stumbled on his niece and nephew after having embarked on a search of his own to find them. Though the term "time doorway" is used throughout the series,
Land of the Lost is not meant to portray an era in
Earth's history, but rather an enigmatic zone whose place and time are unknown. Indeed, within the first few minutes of the pilot, the father tells his children that he spotted three moons in the sky. The original creators of these time portals were thought to be the ancestors of the Sleestak, called
Altrusians, though later episodes raised some questions about this. Many aspects of the
Land of the Lost, including the time doorways and environmental processes, were controlled by Pylons, metallic
obelisk-shaped booths that were
larger on the inside than the outside and housed matrix tables stone tables studded with a grid of colored crystals. Uncontrolled time doorways result in the arrival of a variety of
visitors and castaways in the land. ==Cast==