History Series / LandOfTheLost1974

%%* StockFootage

* OntologicalMystery: The family's ongoing quest to understand how the Land works and how to escape from it forms the basis of the show.

* OntologicalMystery

** Enik was created by [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek alumnus Walter Koenig (Chekov)]], who has claimed in interviews that that the character was intended as an apparent parody (or {{deconstruction}}?) of Mr. Spock.

* WhamEpisode: The late second season episode "The Musician" can be considered this, since it implies that [[spoiler: the Land was actually engineered by ''humans'' (or at least [[HumanAliens humanoids)]] rather than the Altrusians. This feels rather at odds with most of what we've learned up to this point, but the third season episode "Repairman" does seem to support it.]]

* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Basically everything they could use to escape.
** In "The Pylon Express," they discover a portal that reopens every three years, so they know that if they're still stuck in the Land by then, they'll be able to use it.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Enik is usually pretty gruff about the Marshalls coming to him for help or advice, complaining that they're interrupting his own research to get home; but he clearly regards them as friends and consistently provides them with the help they need. He's just grouchy about it. He [[CharacterDevelopment mellows toward the Marshalls over the course of the series,]] and is downright friendly by the end of season 2.
** In the controversial third season, Enik starts acting like a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk for no apparent reason.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Enik. Justified, since he's telepathic (or at least, the Magete artifact grants its wielder telepathy).

* ShootTheMoney: Necessary, when your budget is less than the gas and tolls spent getting to the studio. Whatever sets and props you have, you use for ''everything''.

%%* BiggerOnTheInside: The pylons.

* {{Claymation}}: Th estop motion dinosaurs.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Presumably brought into the land from prehistoric Earth.

* GainaxEnding: Since the show's creators didn't know if there would be a second season, Larry Niven and David Gerrold wrote "The Circle" to provide an ambiguous ending that they could continue from if they needed to. You can either assume that the Marshalls really do get home, and that their past selves' arrival is simply a flashback to the beginning of the series [[StableTimeLoop (in other words, the time doorway that pulled them into the Land in the first place is the very one they eventually created to escape from it);]] or you can assume that the second season episodes are actually set ''after'' "The Circle," which would mean that ''that'' Marshall family are temporal duplicates. [[FanonDiscontinuity Note that many fans simply place "The Circle" at the end of the second season, giving the Marshalls a true happy ending and ignoring the third season entirely.]] Also note a small clue that Niven and Gerrold probably favored the first rather than the second interpretation: when the "newly arrived" Marshalls find their cave, there are no signs of a previous Marshall family having lived there, meaning that we really are just re-watching the events from the beginning of the series.

** The Zarn is a pompous ivory-tower academic who has no problem destroying The Land and everyone in it while attempting to escape it.

%%* {{Mentor|s}}: Enik -- sometimes.

* SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology: The stone control tables full of crystals. To be fair, they may only look so rough because they're really, really ''old,'' but you'd think the pylons would protect them from the weather. Maybe the Altrusians just liked the "rocky" aesthetic. We do get the briefest glimpse of the Lost City in its glory days in "The Pylon Express," and it defies this trope, looking like a properly high tech science fiction city.

* WeaksauceWeakness: The Zarn is actually hurt by negative emotions. At one point he tries to escape in a manner which will collapse the universe, killing everyone except him. The heroes are understandably angry with him -- which is enough to stop him.

* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: Wesley Eure occasionally ''sang songs'' at the end of episodes to deliver AnAesop.

%%* {{Claymation}}

%%* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs
%%* ExpositoryThemeTune
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Mildly subverted in one episode in which the family actually left the Land, but only to balance the entry of their own analogues, who took up the story.

%%* OntologicalMystery

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

%%* SaharanShipwreck

However, none of them contributed to the controversial third and final season, which many fans consider the series's [[JumpTheShark Shark Jumping]] point for losing Rick Marshall and for abandoning much of the internal logic of the series mythology. Even as early as the mid-80's, network reruns of the show were omitting the third season, as did Creator/{{Syfy}} and Chiller in their marathons many years later. For several years, MeTV reran the show in its entirety (on Saturday mornings, appropriately). Some fans do appreciate at least certain elements of the third season, such as [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Uncle Jack's]] personality or the mysterious "repairman" entity, Blandings.

* WhamEpisode: The late second season episode "The Musician" can be considered this, since it implies that [[spoiler: the Land was actually engineered by ''humans'' (or at least [[HumanAliens humanoids)]] rather than the Altrusians. This feels rather at odds with everything we've learned up to this point, but the third season episode "Repairman" does seem to support it.]]

* WhamEpisode: The late second season episode "The Musician" can be considered this, since it implies that [[spoiler: the Land was actually engineered by ''humans'' (or at least [[HumanAliens humanoids)]] rather than the Altrusians. This feels rather at odds with most of what we've learned up to this point, but the third season episode "Repairman" does seem to support it.]]

* GainaxEnding: Since the show's creators didn't know if there would be a second season, LarryNiven and David Gerrold wrote "The Circle" to provide an ambiguous ending that they could continue from if they needed to. You can either assume that the Marshalls really do get home, and that their past selves' arrival is simply a flashback to the beginning of the series [[StableTimeLoop (in other words, the time doorway that pulled them into the Land in the first place is the very one they eventually created to escape from it);]] or you can assume that the second season episodes are actually set ''after'' "The Circle," which would mean that ''that'' Marshall family are temporal duplicates. [[FanonDiscontinuity Note that many fans simply place "The Circle" at the end of the second season, giving the Marshalls a true happy ending and ignoring the third season entirely.]] Also note a small clue that Niven and Gerrold probably favored the first rather than the second interpretation: when the "newly arrived" Marshalls find their cave, there are no signs of a previous Marshall family having lived there, meaning that we really are just re-watching the events from the beginning of the series.

However, none of them contributed to the controversial third and final season, which many fans consider the series's [[JumpTheShark Shark Jumping]] point for losing Rick Marshall and for abandoning much of the internal logic of the series mythology. Even as early as the mid-80's, network reruns of the show were omitting the third season, as did Creator/{{Syfy}} and Chiller in their marathons many years later. MeTV is currently rerunning the show in its entirety (on Saturday mornings, appropriately). Some fans do appreciate at least certain elements of the third season, such as [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Uncle Jack's]] personality or the mysterious "repairman" entity, Blandings.

However, none of them contributed to the controversial third and final season, which many fans consider the series's [[JumpTheShark Shark Jumping]] point for losing Rick Marshall and for abandoning much of the internal logic of the series mythology. Even as early as the mid-80's, network reruns of the show were omitting the third season, as did the SyFy Channel and Chiller in their marathons many years later. MeTV is currently rerunning the show in its entirety (on Saturday mornings, appropriately). Some fans do appreciate at least certain elements of the third season, such as [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Uncle Jack's]] personality or the mysterious "repairman" entity, Blandings.

However, none of them contributed to the controversial third and final season, which many fans consider the series's [[JumpTheShark Shark Jumping]] point for losing Rick Marshall and for abandoning much of the internal logic of the series mythology. Even as early as the mid-80's, network reruns of the show were omitting the third season entirely, as did the SyFy Channel and Chiller in their marathons many years later. MeTV is currently rerunning the show in its entirety (on Saturday mornings, appropriately). Some fans do appreciate at least certain elements of the third season, such as [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Uncle Jack's]] personality or the mysterious "repairman" entity, Blandings.

However, none of them contributed to the controversial third and final season, which many fans consider the series's [[JumpTheShark Shark Jumping]] point for losing Rick Marshall and for abandoning much of the internal logic of the series mythology. Even as early as the mid-80's, network reruns of the show were omitting the third season entirely, as did the SyFy channel in its marathon many years later. MeTV is currently rerunning the show in its entirety (on Saturday mornings, appropriately). Some fans do appreciate at least certain elements of the third season, such as [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Uncle Jack's]] personality or the mysterious "repairman" entity, Blandings.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Definitely stands out among other Krofft shows; while it features characters trapped in a strange land, trying to get home (like most other Krofft shows), this is much more dramatic, and has a lot more action and adventure, compared to the Kroffts' other, more fluffier shows.

However, none of them contributed to the controversial third and final season, which many fans consider the series's [[JumpTheShark Shark Jumping]] point for losing Rick Marshall and for abandoning much of the internal logic of the series mythology. Even as early as the mid-80's, network reruns of the show were omitting the third season entirely, as did the SyFy channel many years later. MeTV is currently rerunning the show in its entirety (on Saturday mornings, appropriately). Some fans do appreciate at least certain elements of the third season, such as [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Uncle Jack's]] personality or the mysterious "repairman" entity, Blandings.

* PowerCrystal: The glowing crystals are once described as "fourth dimensional nodes." They seem to power and control most of the Land's technology, and can be used for various effects all on their own. They are ColorCodedForYourConvenience.

* StockDinosaurs: Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus, Triceratops, "Brontosaurus" (the name change to Apatosaurus hadn't happened yet), Stegosaurus... and Coelophysis, oddly enough. Pterodactyl and Dimetrodon too, although they're not "dinosaurs" per se.

* TimePortal: The time doorways. They also function as [[CoolGate Cool Gates]] between universes.