Confession time: for the last three and a bit years I’ve been moonlighting with a second blog I named LOST IN SPACE FIRESIDE. It’s been a passion project dedicated to reliving memories of one of my very favourite shows from childhood, LOST IN SPACE.

Inspiration came from a transgender blogger based in the U.S – KNIGHT OF ANGELS, who is no longer with us, internet speaking-wise. She/he created an on-line, episode by episode monument to a television show close to her/his heart, STAR TREK. I admired the intellect and enthusiasm this writer brought to their subject and wondered if I could do the same.

STAR TREK (1966 – 1969) ran for 79 episodes. LOST IN SPACE (1965 – 1968) for 83 episodes. Length-wise, they were in the same ballpark. This person had done it. I wondered if I could likewise go the distance and re-watch and review all those episodes, sustaining the energy and passion needed along the way.

LOST IN SPACE FIRESIDE‘s debut post, profiling the very first episode of the classic 1960’s tv series was published on October 27th, 2018. Last week, the curtain came down on three years of work when episode # 83 finally took its place under the FIRESIDE microscope. Cliché alert: it’s been quite the journey! Quite the electrifying journey.

Along the way I got to connect with a whole lot of Facebook groups and fans dedicated to the show, personally ‘met’ on-line Angela Cartwright, the actress who played ‘Penny’, and accumulated a bunch of nerdish collectibles (see photo below) that to any non-fan would be considered a scandalous waste of money.

Most rewarding of all I got to 2nd-life cherished perfect memories from a more innocent age and a more innocent me. Inevitably, some things from childhood holdup better than others when glimpsed again in our adult world. Sometimes, in-fact maybe a lot of the time, we wonder “What did I see in that?”. Thankfully, my experience this time around was “I know exactly what I saw in that… because I can still see it.”

Summing up this great re-watch project of the last three years, as if somehow on cue, the opening words of the film WW84 (2020) descend magically into view –

“Some days my childhood feels so very far away. And others? I can almost see it; a magical land of my youth, like a beautiful dream of when the whole world felt like a promise and the lessons that lay ahead yet unseen. Looking back, I wish I’d listened. I wish I’d watched more closely… and understood. But sometimes you can’t see what you’re learning until you come out the other side.”

…

So there you have it. Another literary life chapter done and dusted. LOST IN SPACE FIRESIDE will now officially be… I can’t bring myself to say the word ‘mothballed’, so instead I’ll use the term grandfathered – ’cause you know… a little more leather-elbow-patch-wearing school of dignified and all.

If you cared to pop over one last time or maybe for the first time, well… that’d be real nice of you. Click HERE to travel. For anyone that doesn’t make it over, here’s a couple of final clips dedicated to two main characters from the show – Major Don West and Professor John Robinson.