A list of characters in the American television series Lost in Space (2018).
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Main Characters
Maureen Robinson
Maureen Robinson
Played By: Molly Parker
The matriarch of the Robinson family, she’s a brilliant aerospace engineer and astrophysicist.
- The Ace: She's very skilled at just about everything she does, and is the one to come up with solutions to most of the problems the Robinsons face.
- Badass Bookworm: While she's not as physically inclined and lacks the military training her husband has, if anyone threatens her kids she will mess them up. One moment that really stands out is when she takes control of the Chariot's loading system and uses it to send the Robot flying after he tries to attack Will while under Smith's command.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Her justification for having Will's test scores falsified so he can join his family on the trip to Alpha Centauri.
- Mama Bear: Do anything that might harm her children and she will come after you with everything she’s got. She is even willing to face the Robots.
- Obsessed Are the Listmakers: Drifts near this with her trusty little whiteboard. Her children seem to be the main victims of her task lists.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: She describes herself as a rocket scientist, but over the course of the series she becomes the main overall scientist in the expedition. The first episode alone establishes that she's knowledgeable of chemistry and geology.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Only a couple of times when she swears or seriously breaks down under stress.
- Parental Favouritism: It's implied by Penny that Will is Maureen's favourite.
- Parents as People: She loves her children and wants them to be happy. But she believes (not without cause) that she is the smartest person around and that her judgement in all situations, including family matters, is superior. This leads to a very "my way or the highway" style of parenting, and both John and the children sometimes chafe at this. At one point, she tells John that the children should hear them speak with one voice. He agrees. Then she specifies that said voice should be hers.
- Suicidal Pacifism: Her opposition to having a gun is logical on Earth. But opposing her husband's attempt to get the Jupiter's 3D printer to make a gun for self-defense purposes when they're (as far as they know) the only humans on a hostile alien planet that has plenty of aggressive, carnivorous life forms? She might as well soak herself in marinade while she's at it. It also fails to take into account the possibility that they might need to hunt for food to stretch the rations stored on the ship, which requires a weapon of some sort.
John Robinson
John Robinson
Played By: Toby Stephens
The patriarch of the Robinson family, he’s a relieved USMC Marine.
- Action Dad: He is extremely active in protecting his children once the expedition is stuck on the planet.
- Adaptational Badass: He was changed from a level-headed astrophysicist to an action-oriented ex-Marine.
- Audience Surrogate: Being one of the only adults who does not have special scientific (like Maureen) or technical (like Don) training, he can allow the others to explain such things without feeling out of place.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: When civilization nearly collapsed after the Christmas Star meteor strike, John volunteered for active duty in the effort to stabilize the world's governments, because he just couldn't stand by and not do anything. Maureen finding out about this is the reason why they were headed for divorce back before leaving Earth.
- Dad's Off Fighting in the War: Before the start of the series, Johns relationship with the rest of the family is strained due to his constant deployments
- Dad the Veteran: He was a Navy SEAL on Earth
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Was a Navy SEAL back on Earth, and it shows.
- Good Stepmother: John is the only father Judy has ever known and they're very close.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Gets into a mining accident in Season 2 that results in his abdomen being impaled on a piece of scrap. Judy saves him just in the nick of time.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: John is an elite Navy SEAL, where as Will is much more studious
- Made of Iron: Takes an incredible amount of abuse in Season One alone but keeps going anyway. At one point he gets whacked in the head with a crowbar, completely No Sells it, briefly snarks at the attacker and then knocks him out with a single punch. When Will learns about his dad getting beaten with a crowbar, his first instinct is to ask if John hurt his attacker too badly. It's also a plot point that he can recover from being knocked unconscious faster than anybody else on the planet — a lot faster. Season 2 then shows he can recover from just about anything faster than a human as any right to.
- Papa Wolf: He will not let anything stand in the way of his children’s safety and will put all his military training behind it.
- Parental Favouritism: It’s implied that John is closest with Judy.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Season 2 sees him forced to sneak into a part of the Resolute he doesn't have clearance for, which results in a scuffle with a guard who gives John quite the fight. He catches his breath, walks through the door and... is faced with at least half a dozen more guards. Cue John giving a really exasperated look before beating up the entire squad all by himself.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: He was often away from his family as a Navy SEAL, and he and Maureen were on the verge of divorce over it when the Jupiter mission came along.
Judy Robinson
Judy Robinson
Played By: Taylor Russell
The eldest child of the Robinson family, she's a medical doctor at 18 years old.
- The Ace: Despite her problems with PTSD during the first episodes, Judy is shown to be practically capable of anything, which Penny reluctantly admits. Not only is she an outstanding doctor and easily one of the smartest characters in the show, but she's also quite physically competent and has a lot of stamina, as proved by her outrunning the raptor-like alien creatures to save John.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Judy was an aspiring stage performer in the original series, though she was a doctor in the 1998 film.
- Break the Cutie: The poor girl gets frozen in ice to the point of asphyxiation, then trapped under a huge pile of crates in the next episode. Both of which give her heavy trauma it takes her a while to get over.
- By-the-Book Cop: Or rather by the book sibling in this case.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: She takes after John in this regard. Judy will willingly throw herself in harms way to save others, and does so many times. This is despite the fact that, as John points out, her skills as a doctor are crucially important and that by putting herself in dangerous situations, she can do more harm than good.
- Disappeared Dad: Her biological father went missing many years ago and was presumed dead before Judy was born.
- Establishing Character Moment: Judy chosing to dive into the ice in the first episode to try and save the engine shows two key things about her character; firstly, she is willing to sacrifice her own safety to help others, but secondly, her impulsivity can lead her to put herself into dangerous situations without properly considering the consequences.
- Happily Adopted: John adopted her when he married Maureen. It's made clear they love each other a great deal, with John claiming that she's just like him even though they're not biologically related. When assigned a project about her personal hero in school, she gave equal time to both her dads.
- Heroic BSoD: She's left traumatized after being trapped in the ice in the first episode.
- The Medic: Despite her youth, she is a competent doctor. She becomes the main doctor of the survivors of the 24th Colonist Group.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Can break out an absolutely amazing pair if the situation demands it. Even Don, who's the most frequent target, can't resist them.
- Race Lift: Judy was played by a Norwegian-born white actor in the original series, but is played by an Afro-Canadian actor in this version. In-universe, she's from Maureen's previous marriage.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Despite being seen as a full-fledged medical officer during her family's exile, upon their return to the Resolute she is reminded that she is merely an intern in the program and is assigned menial tasks.
- Teen Genius: She is only 18 years old and already a fully trained medical doctor.
Penny Robinson
Penny Robinson
Played By: Mina Sundwall
The middle child of the Robinson family.
- Audience Surrogate: In a family that consists of an aerospace engineer, a Navy SEAL, a teenage M.D. and a boy genius, Penny is an aspiring author and the one who asks all the questions the viewer might have, i.e. "How far off course are we?"
- Deadpan Snarker: For all of the first season, Penny is the single most sarcastic person in the galaxy.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: In Season 2 she becomes very insecure about not having some useful specialized skill like every other family member.
- Guile Hero: That being said, she's one of the most street-smart of the Robinsons (along with John), is good at figuring other people out, and plays a major role in Smith pulling something of a Heel–Face Turn in the second and third seasons.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's by far the most sarcastic of the Robinsons and is a bit on the lazy side, but she deeply loves her family and does her best to help out when emergencies arise.
- The Heart: She provides a lot of emotional support for Will, and serves as a Morality Pet for both Don and Smith in the second and third seasons.
- Kid Has a Point: During a flashback to Earth, Maureen comments on Penny purchasing John an expensive watch for Christmas, pointing out that John likely wom't be home for the holiday. Penny's rebuttal is that John is making sacrifices for his family (and the world) by being a deployed Marine and they should be willing to sacrifice for him, i.e. understand and accept the nature of his job, even if they don't like him being gone so often.
- Middle Child Syndrome: She seems to be aware that her siblings receive more attention than herself, however, she hardly holds her siblings responsible for this and has a good relationship with both. She's hardly neglected by her parents either.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to her sister Judy's blue oni.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In the third season, she becomes interested in Vijay again after seeing that he's matured and become much less selfish.
- The Un-Favourite: While John and Maureen might protest this, its clear that she struggles to connect to her parents as easily as her siblings, and sees herself as this. When she finds out that Maureen lied about reading her book -which even Smith had read- the feeling intensifies.
Will Robinson
Will Robinson
Played By: Maxwell Jenkins
The youngest child of the Robinson family.
- Age Lift: His age at the pilot was raised from 9 in the original to 11, for reasons unknown (possibly to closer match the age of his actor, who was 12 while filming the first season).
- Child Prodigy: Will is a genius, saving the day several times over the course of the series with nothing more than his knowledge of science.
- Face Your Fears: Will's core character arc in Season 1 is his belief that he isn't brave enough. He thinks he failed the stress test that was part of the colony screening process, and freezes up when asked to dive down to the Jupiter in "Impact" to retrieve a battery, leading to Judy getting trapped in the ice. The Robot catalyzes his growth as a character: finding a friend and coming to rely on it, being forced to give up that friendship when it proves too dangerous, and finally learning how to stand up for himself.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: John is an elite Navy SEAL, where as Will is much more studious
- Kid with the Leash: The Robot follows his every command. A Robot that could possibly kill everyone on the planet given the chance.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Will is a kid, and despite being a Child Prodigy, he is bound to bouts of surprising stupidity, such as destroying the robot, freeing Dr. Smith and taking a loud radio to a stealth mission.
Don West
Don West
Played By: Ignacio Serricchio
A roughneck mechanic who is also smuggling luxury goods on the side.
- The Atoner: Much of his Character Development between Season 1 and 2 revolves around Don seeking to make up for his past selfishness both to the Robinsons and to his colleagues aboard the Resolute.
- Character Development: The Time Skip between Seasons 1 and 2 turns him from a selfish smuggler with a heart of gold into an unambiguously heroic character who frequently puts himself at great risk to help his friends.
- Deadpan Snarker: Similar to Penny, biting sarcasm is practically Don's primary mode of communication. It's probably not a coincidence the two of them get on so well with each other.
- Deliberate Underperformance: He feels that the Robinsons are all a bunch of overachievers. He tells Penny at one point that his core principles include "never raise your hand," "always sit in the back" and "never, ever be too good at anything."
- Due to the Dead: Toyed with: when his friend dies during a Jupiter crash, he makes no move to bury her and shows no qualms about scavenging from her body. However, he makes it clear that this is him prioritizing survival over niceties and he will drink to her memory once he's safely back about the Resolute.
- Friend in the Black Market: He is smuggling high-value contraband like Scottish whisky, Cuban cigars or Kobe steak to Alpha Centauri.
-
Fake American: Don was played by a white American actor in the original series, but by an Argentinian actor this time around. - Foil: To Smith, best shown by them being the first characters to meet each other and thus getting developed at the same time. They're both amoral, self serving and greedy, but while Don tries to prioritize himself he cannot resist the urge to help others even when it's not to his benefit, whereas Smith will play at helping others but ultimately always chooses herself. Best shown in the way Smith convinces a very reluctant Don to save Angela after the crash, to sell her role as a caring person, but by the time it comes down to her or them Don is the one invested in Angela's safety while Smith responds to the deteriorating situation by playing on Don's soft side and ditching them both.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Non-fatal example: In order to save 4 colonists from death, he reveals his smuggling activities to the Resolute's leadership to convince them to use his plan. While this does save the 4 people, it results in his arrest afterwards.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He puts on the pragmatic and self-interested smuggler persona most of the time, but when it comes down to it he can be relied on to do the right thing. As the series progresses, his insistence that he isn't a good person increasingly becomes a case of Blatant Lies.
- Lovable Rogue: While always on the lookout to make money, cut deals, and smuggle items, Don can be browbeaten pretty easy into doing the right thing. He's also terribly worried about Debbie the Chicken.
- Morality Pet:
- Despite his initial comments implying that Debbie the Chicken was on the dinner menu, he goes out of his way to protect her, including using his body to shelter her during a diamond rainstorm. His last request to Judy before going on a highly dangerous trip was to make sure that Debbie was cared for if he didn't make it back.
- As the series continues, the entire Robinson family becomes this to him due to their unconditional devotion to each other showing him the value of their friendship. Penny and Judy in particular have the strongest influence on his morality.
- Mr Fix It: Being a highly skilled mechanic, Don is usually called upon when something aboard the ships needs fixing.
- Noodle Incident: He claims to have a massive scar on his torso, but the incident that allegedly caused it remains nebulous at best thanks to the Robinsons giving their best to shut him up when he tries to tell Will about it.
- Only in It for the Money: The main reason he serves aboard the Resolute seems to be the tidy profit he makes running contraband to Alpha Centauri (he and Tag imply in the pilot that the crew of the Resolute aren't exactly getting rich from their wages, hence the choice to smuggle), and actually plans on returning to Earth once he's amassed a sufficient nest egg to retire, saying that while the sunsets in Malibu may not look the same anymore, the margaritas still taste good. When that's no longer an option, he still continues to try and make money off of everyone and everything.
- Tears of Joy: "Touched" might be more on point, but after John pours his heart out about how much he loves his kids, Don tears up a bit, saying that he wishes he'd had a father like John.
- The Pollyanna: While Don has some downer moments, he seems to be upbeat, snarky and chirpy most of the time.
- Ship Tease: Has quite the chemistry with Judy.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: He demands payment for pretty much everything during Season 1, much to everyone's exasperation. That he never gets any but ends up helping anyway soon turns into a Running Gag. He's grown out of it by Season 2.
"Doctor Smith"
June Harris / "Doctor Smith"
Played By: Parker Posey
A petty criminal who cons her way into the Resolute and assumes the identity of Doctor Smith after being stranded on the planet.
- Adaptational Villainy: She is considerably nastier and more dangerous than the Dr. Smith of the original series. Yet, even that is an understatement. The writers did their homework and had her use brutal, real world tactics to break people.
- At Least I Admit It: When pressed by Maureen late in Season One, Smith makes no attempt to hide her being out only for herself, topped off by claiming that everyone else is just like her; she merely doesn't bother pretending.
- Cain and Abel: She and her sister Jessica do not get along. It's eventually revealed that June drugged Jessica and left her Bound and Gagged in her home after stealing her identity and I.D. chip.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: She double-crosses just about everyone she meets, usually in the guise of helping them. It seems almost compulsive, as she does it even when it puts her at unnecessary risk.
- Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: She's pretending to be a psychologist, and once it furthers her plans she uses it to her advantage. When Angela, the woman she and Don saved in the storm who lost her family to the robot, comes to her in need of guidance, Smith intentionally drives her to an emotional breakdown in order to manipulate her into attacking the robot. There's an intensely creepy moment where she waits outside of Angela's room just to hear the moment where she collapses into sobs.
- Crying Wolf: Smith has lied to and backstabbed so many people that when she's finally completely honest in "Unknown" about being unable to reach Maureen in time due to the Resolute's bridge being locked down, John doesn't believe her.
- Decomposite Character: June Harris stole the identity of the real Dr. Smith, who's an Adaptational Nice Guy and a Continuity Cameo.
- Didn't Think This Through: Her Fatal Flaw, negative character traits aside. She rarely seems to plan long-term, or even consider any complications. She schemes to get the Robot destroyed so she can reboot and reassemble it, with no idea how that happened the first time. She wants to fly off in the alien ship even though she has no reason to assume it's spaceworthy. The only reason she manages to get the Robot working again is because of dumb luck.
- Dirty Coward: When backed into a corner or confronted with her duplicity, she will stoop to anything, say anything, do anything, to save her miserable skin.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When June first snuck aboard the Resolute, she sent a man who made her out the airlock in a panic. Her past criminal career consisted of defrauding people from a safe distance, so the sudden leap to first degree murder leaves June shaken and remorseful.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She doesn't understand that people can be selfless and imagines several reasons as to why someone is doing something rather than for the good of someone else. In the season one finale, she says that Maureen would only save her family because her husband protects her and her children give her life purpose, rather than because she loves them.
- Face Death with Dignity: When she helps delay the invading robots but realizes she has no time to get back, she accepts her fate with grace, which is a far-cry from how she started out. However, the third season reveals that she figured out a way out of it and stowed about the Jupiter with the children.
- First-Episode Twist: "Dr. Smith" is an impostor. She stole the identity of the real Smith during the attack.
- Gender Flip: Played with. There was a male doctor Zachary Smith aboard the Resolute. But June left him for dead during the attack and assumed his identity.
- Hate Sink: Absolutely everything she does serves nobody but herself, consequences for everyone else be damned, and the total lack of remorse and the sheer assholery she displays makes it very hard not to hate her pretty much from the moment she's revealed for what she is.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She throws herself into harms way to ensure the crew on the Resolute can survive the oncoming wave of hostile alien robots, and though she succeeds buying a few minutes, it seemingly costs her her life. That said, the Robot finds a ball she had picked up on the transport the children evacuated on, hinting that Smith managed to sneak aboard somehow while making everyone think she died. The opening of the third season confirms this.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: By using the robot to ensure her safety, Maureen manages to create a danger that forces the robot to restrict her to a locked room.
- Invincible Villain: Maybe "villain" is arguable at times, but it's clear that she's very highly morally grey at best and she has the luck of a devil. The victories the Robinsons get when she starts to manipulate everybody are minor and short-lived and the damned woman manages to survive a truly unsurvivable situation involving an open airlock, a smashed open faceplate, and being surrounded by a hundred killer robots and being weighted down by a tremendous amount of magnetism, in the second season finale.
- It's All About Me: Incredibly: from her point of view, everyone else is just insistently in the way of her right to benefit herself. She insists that all people are like this, but that she's just honest about it.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: June gets away with a whole lot of mayhem through the show, but in the final episodes she is not only confronted by Captain Radic, who spent most of the series in a coma thanks to "Smith" and will make due on his promise to put her in jail, but June decides to surrender to the colony's authorities after her adventures with the Robinsons make her develop more of a conscience. She is in jail but at least feels better about herself, and the Robinsons visit her.
- Kill and Replace:
- While she doesn't directly kill Jessica, she leaves her tied up with everyone thinking she was leaving the planet, so unless she was able to get free on her own she probably ended up dead before the plot kicked off. June then takes Jessica's place on the Resolute.
- She does it again on the Resolute when she takes Dr. Smith's identity and leaves him to die of his wounds.
- Leitmotif: She has subtle, creepy little theme that tends to play whenever she's up to her mischief.
- Manchild: She acts like a teenager in a woman's body, constantly trying to take the easy way out and blaming others for her failures. Flashbacks imply she lived frivolously on her mother's money before becoming a scam artist.
- Manipulative Bitch: She displays an uncanny ability to read people and zero in on the best angle to manipulate them into doing what she wants. For most of the first season she manipulates everyone on the planet... including the Robot.
- Misanthrope Supreme: She believes all Humans Are Bastards, and the only way to survive is to only rely on yourself.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In "Echoes", she meets the young daughter of the man she killed to keep her cover and it hits her for the first time that indirectly hurting someone is still hurting someone.
- Never My Fault: She's shown to have a history of blaming everything that happens to her on other people and refusing to accept any responsibility for her own choices.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
- Tries to pull this on Maureen in the Season One finale, with miserable results.
- Then she tried this again to Don West in the second season.
- Pet the Dog: Despite her incredible selfishness, she's occasionally willing to help people so long as it doesn't inconvenience her. This seems to play into her belief that she isn't a bad person, because she can choose to do good.
- Redemption Equals Death: Smith sacrifices her life to give the colonists precious minutes to evacuate before the hostile robots break free and kill them all. Or so it seems - it's revealed right at the beginning of the third season that she managed to survive and is on the Jupiter with the children.
- The Resenter: "Smith" mainly resents her sister the most, but feels this resentment for the "beautiful people" around her, thinking that they got advantages she didn't.
- Shadow Archetype: Her interactions with Penny show "Smith" embodies how the middle Robinson child might have turned out if she never worked through her Mommy Issues and Middle Child Syndrome and learned to take pride in her own talents.
- The Sociopath: She's constantly manipulating everyone around her in attempt to better her own lot in life, no matter how short-sighted, and is thoroughly convinced that no matter who she hurts, she isn't a bad person.
- Tragic Keepsake: The St. Christopher Medal. Subverted in that it was stolen from the real Dr. Smith. June let Don think it was in remembrance of a dearly beloved brother to manipulate him into helping her, and eventually using it to divert him long enough to steal the flare gun and leave Don and Angela for dead.
- Traitor Shot: Constantly. Most scenes with her end with the person she's talking to leaving the room, and whatever emotion she was pretending to show falling off her face where only the camera can see.
- The Unfavorite: Apparently was this to her father, though we only have her word for it.
- Villain Decay: Although a formidable antagonist in Season 1, she becomes much less of a threat in Season 2 - particularly after Hastings comes into the picture.
The 24th Colonist Group
Jupiter 4
Victor Dhar
Victor Dhar
Played By: Raza Jaffrey
The elected representative of the 24th Colonist Group.
- The Chew Toy: After being a jerk for most of the show, Victor tries to desert the colonists and leave with his family, taking the last remaining fuel available. Maureen and John stop him after which he moans "I suppose you are in charge now." thinking he's been overthrown for being colony leader. Sort of subverted in that he's back in the saddle in the final episode as the colony leader.
- I Did What I Had to Do: His attempt to abandon everyone else was entirely motivated by his desire to protect his wife and son. He doesn't tell them what's going on at the time (so that their hands will remain clean), and it's obvious that he feels terrible about it.
- Lawful Stupid: Victor demands unquestioning obedience from his wife and son and expects the colonists to follow the rules as he interprets them without question. He does not take anyone questioning his authority very well. It comes to a head in Episode 8, when he tries to leave the planet with his family while ignoring Maureen's warnings that they don't have enough fuel to reach escape velocity. He and his family end up needing to be saved by John before they can take off.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At first he appears to be a straight up Jerkass, but in the end he's not such a bad person. He offers to let the Robinson kids stay with him when Maureen is kidnapped and John presumed dead, decides to have the Resolute wait for the Robinsons while they try to rescue John and Don, and allows Judy to take a Chariot to save an injured John in the second season.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While he does raise valid/pragmatic points i.e. it's better to sacrifice one person rather than risk stranding all the survivors, his general attitude and demeanor ensure that no one will listen to him, even when he's right.
- The Neidermeyer: "I voted for the other guy" seems to be the default reaction to Victor being the Colony representative.
- Pet the Dog: In the penultimate episode of Season 1, after Smith abducts Maureen and John is presumed dead, he tells Will and Penny that they can stay with him and his family. In the finale, he convinces the Resolute to wait for the Robinsons, despite being in orbit around a planet getting dangerously close to its sun. In Season 2, when John gets trapped in a well and injured, he allows Judy to risk herself and a Chariot to get to him faster so she can save his life.
- Phrase Catcher: Almost everybody in the cast who does not likes him make mention that "they voted for the other guy".
- Took a Level in Kindness: Becomes more and more friendly to the Robinsons in later seasons, and is remorseful about his actions in Season 1. In Season 3, he even spends some time connecting with John during their search for the missing Robot.
Vijay Dhar
Vijay Dhar
Played By: Ajay Friese
Victor’s teenage son and Penny’s love interest.
- Always Someone Better: He carries a torch for Penny, but is consistently upstaged by the taller, more athletic Liam.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When it appears they have no fuel with which to leave, he betrays Penny’s trust and reveals to his father the fact that the planet is doomed. Then he goes along with his father’s plan to ditch everyone else on the planet. All that being said, there's no malice behind his actions. Vijay is a scared kid who doesn't have the Robinsons' optimism.
- Emo Teen: During the landing, when he thinks he is going to die, the last thing he does is write some truly godawful angsty teen poetry.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Confides in Don that he thinks he's doomed to be friend-zoned with Penny.
- Like Father, Like Son: When push comes to shove, he will ditch everyone else and think only of his family. Just like his dad.
- Love Interest: He is Penny's love interest for most of the first season, until the events of his family's attempted betrayal cause them to split. He bounces back somewhat in this department in later seasons, except now he has to contend with Liam for her attentions.
- Painful Rhyme: His poetry is horrible and the circumstances under which it was written doesn't prevent Penny from mocking it.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Again, like his old man. Goes all-in in cooperating with the Robinsons in later seasons.
Prisha Dhar
Prisha Dhar
Played By: Veenu Sandhu
Victor’s wife and Vijay’s mother.
- Satellite Character: She doesn’t get much of a characterization beyond supporting her husband and son.
Peter Beckert
Peter Beckert
Played By: Adam Greydon Reid
Another survivor of the crash, who becomes Victor's number two on the impromptu colony. His original ship is unknown, but he essentially becomes part of the Jupiter 4 crew after the disaster.
- Combat Pragmatist: When an intruder gets aboard the Jupiter 4, he attacks them from behind with a crowbar. Unfortunately, his opponent was John Robinson, a Navy Seal, who knocks Beckert out cold with a quip and a single punch.
- Number Two: De facto, anyway. So much so that he's the only person besides his own family Victor trusts to join him when he attempts to leave the planet.
- Satellite Character: Basically walks around after Victor and does whatever he asks. He has little in the way of personality outside of that.
Jupiter 11
Hiroki Watanabe
Hiroki Watanabe
Played By: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
The 24th Colony Group’s preeminent xeno-biologist and a close friend of Maureen’s.
- Cool Old Guy: Probably the nicest person on the planet.
- Nightmare Fetishist: He was a bit too excited about the fact that the planet was going to be rendered incapable of sustaining human life by a nearby black hole.
Naoko Watanabe
Naoko Watanabe
Played By: Yukari Komatsu
Hiroki’s wife, fellow biologist and experience pilot.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Gives her opinion of Don West's offer of help in a bit of Japanese which is not subtitled for the viewer. Mr. Watanabe translates for her with a simple "No, thank you..." which is obviously not what she said.
- Renaissance Man: On top of being a gifted biologist, she is also one of the best pilots in the 24th Colonist Group.
Aiko Watanabe
Aiko Watanabe
Played By: Kiki Sukezane
The Watanabes' only daughter
- Deadpan Snarker: Not on the same level as Penny, but she is quite snarky.
Unspecified Jupiters
Angela
Angela
Played By: Sibongile Mlambo
A survivor of the crash whose husband died in the disaster. Don and Dr. Smith find her in the desert, and Don subsequently saves her life when he reaches the other survivors.
- Anti-Villain: "Smith" drives her to try and shoot the Robot, which leads it to nearly retaliate with lethal force. Nobody holds it against her, especially after it comes to light what kind of person Smith really is.
- The Atoner: After she recovers from her breakdown, she becomes invested in helping the Robinsons out of regret for what she did.
- Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: She is heavily traumatized by what happened on the Resolute. Sadly, the "doctor" she sees is a charlatan invested in driving her to a total breakdown.
- The Millstone: Initially. She was critically injured by the crash and has to be carried, slowing Smith and Don down when a deadly storm is bearing down on them.
- "Not So Different" Remark: After everything is said and done, Will lets her know that he has no hard feelings about what Dr. Smith convinced her to do - given that Smith eventually did the same thing to him.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: She personally witnessed the Robot murdering her husband, and that followed by the crash severely messed her up. She was at first catatonic, but even after that it was a long road to recovery - not helped at all by the presence of a (reformed) Robot and Dr. Smith's machinations. Then Smith gives her a gun...
Evan
Evan
Played By: Iain Belcher
A recurring survivor who goes with the team to get the remaining fuel left on Don's derelict Jupiter.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: He leaps onto the spokes of the Chariot to reattach the hydraulics to the fuel pod, and would've used his surfer skills to get out of it like a badass if not for the geysers.
- Fatal Family Photo: A variation. Right before he dies of his injuries, he talks about his family, and about the brothers he has waiting for him.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jumps out of a moving vehicle in the middle of a geyser storm to make sure the fuel gets transported to base. He loses his life for it, and it becomes a Senseless Sacrifice when Judy sacrifices the fuel in an attempt to save him.
- My Greatest Failure: Losing him, and everything else that gets lost because of it, becomes this for Judy.
- Sacrificial Lion: His death marks the beginning of the survivors' long, steadily declining Darkest Hour.
- Too Dumb to Live: Doesn't even attempt to hold on to anything while riding on the hitch of a speeding Chariot hurtling through a field of exploding cryogeysers, resulting in him being crushed when a geyser erupts nearby, throwing him off the Chariot and under the tanker.
The Resolute
Captain Radic
Played By: Shaun Parkes
The Resolute's first captain.
- Terror Hero: What little we see of him suggests that he is The Intimidator towards those who get on his bad side.
- The Captain: The Resolute's first captain.
- Satellite Character: Doesn't really get much characterization beyond "intimidating authority figure" before Smith puts him in the infirmary with a piece of toxic kelp.
Captain Kamal
Played By: Sakina Jaffrey
The Resolute's second captain.
- Iron Lady: Quite stern and no-nonsense.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She may be authoritative and primarily beholden to the ship's safety, but she isn't irrational.
- The Captain: Picking up the reins after Radic is hospitalized by Smith.
- The Chains of Commanding: Has to put the safety of the Resolute above all else, including the safety of crew and passengers (as demonstrated in S2 episode 6, "Severed.")
Director Hastings
Played By: Douglas Hodge
- Asshole Victim: Nobody sheds a tear when he gets killed by the robots in Season 3, and the only reason it’s a problem at all is because the main characters needed him to activate the defense system.
- Hate Sink: Has displayed virtually no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
- Knight of Cerebus: The show wasn't especially lighthearted to start with, but Hastings' introduction sends Season 2 down a much darker path.
- Manipulative Bastard: Threatens Maureen and Will, exposes the extent of Maureen's bribery, and then attempts to murder a work crew outright in an attempt to force John to call off the mutiny; when that fails and the mutiny succeeds, he then literally attempts to rewrite history to vilify them.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Even when he's being a Smug Snake (see below,) his tone of voice is far more often than not calm, pleasant, and polite.
- Smug Snake: Is frequently condescending, sarcastic, and even outright threatening, and seems to greatly enjoy abusing his authority and torturing robots.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Certainly doesn't look the part of a sadistic would-be mass murderer.
- Treacherous Advisor: To Captain Kamal and, implicitly, Captain Radic as well.
Deputy Director Ben Adler
Played By: JJ Feild
- Heel–Face Turn: In "Shell Game," prompted by Will and the Robot's pleading.
- Hero Antagonist: Genuinely wants to save people, but goes about it in an objectively horrible way.
- Jaded Professional: Started off as an AI researcher who only wanted to communicate with Scarecrow, then things went sideways.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Admits that he was once more idealistic, like Will, until Scarecrow rejected and lashed out at him, leaving him physically and emotionally scarred.
- Redemption Equals Death: Saves Scarecrow's life at the expense of his own.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Of the "Means" sort. See "Hero Antagonist" above.
The Aliens
The Robot
The Robot
Voiced By: Brian Steele
An alien artificial intelligence that attacks the Resolute but later becomes the Robinsons’ friend.
- Adaptation Species Change: The Robot was Earth-made in the original series, but it is of alien origin this time around.
- A Dog Named "Dog": It's a robot that is referred to as "Robot."
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: First introduced with a hunchbacked form, four arms, each with three claws, and eight legs, four on each side working in tandem. After saving Will, it scans him and changes to a much more humanoid form.
- Androcles' Lion: Will gains his trust and loyalty when he saves Robot's life and helps him reassemble.
- Blue/Orange Contrast: Its neutral humanoid form with its blue face and bluish armor contrasts its original alien combat form with red face, reddish armor highlights and orange Energy Weapons.
- Crucified Hero Shot: After staying back to keep Hastings and his goons from capturing Will, Adler, and Scarecrow, the Robot itself is captured, subdued, and restrained in Hastings' control rig in a very crucifixion-esque pose.
- Cyber Cyclops: It doesn't seem to have actual eyes, but its big glowy "face" serves the same visual purpose.
- Defends Against Their Own Kind: The SAR's aggression towards Will prompts it to turn on the other robot and fight it off, ultimately tackling the SAR out the airlock when it refuses to back down.
- Fish out of Water: An alien robot living among humans, not all of whom trust it at first - and for very good reason.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: It can reassemble itself even after having been smashed into a dozen pieces under the right circumstances. Never assume it's gone for good just because you witnessed its destruction at some point.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: After Will saved its life, it followed him wherever he went, and protected him from danger despite being the one responsible for attacking the Resolute and marooning everyone on the alien planet. This later came back into play when a second Robot shows up and attacks the Robinsons, only to be fought off by the first Robot when it nearly kills Will.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: It's introduced as a torso stuck in a tree while its legs try to reconnect to it. The separation nearly killed it, but Will sawed through the branch it was caught in to reunite the two halves, allowing it to recover.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: A variation with body language. The Robot has no real face and only roughly humanoid build, but the patterns and intensity of lights on his face and overall posture can offer a surprising amount of insight into his character. Sometimes it's very mysterious what he's thinking or feeling in a given moment, sometimes his meaning comes through crystal clear.
- Killer Robot: Killed numerous people during its assault on the Resolute, and was indirectly responsible for the deaths of several others whose Jupiters crashed during atmospheric reentry,
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Its combat form, which also appears to be its default one, sports four clawed arms with integrated Energy Weapons.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Seems to be in this mode once it remembers slaughtering the Resolute colonists before the crash. Upon remembering, it rededicates itself to protecting Will (and the other colonists when told to) even to the point of 3D printing a gun for Will to use if the Robot ever goes combat-mode again, although Angela proved that the gun is worthless against it.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Its armor is impenetrable by a large handgun and when it took a leap off a very high cliff, its body came apart but its armored casing wasn't even scratched in the fall. It can also withstand a full-on assault by a fellow robot.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Sort of. The robot wasn't attacking the ship just because it was a hostile alien monster, but because humanity stole a powerful engine from its people and, believing the colonists to be enemies, it took down the Resolute to get it back.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After it's rescued from the Amber Planet, Penny notes that the Robot is acting differently, walking ahead of Will when previously it followed behind him, not communicating as readily, and even outright ignoring Will and Penny - because it was fixated on finding the dying Scarecrow. And when it first utters the phrase "No, Will Robinson" after freeing Scarecrow, you know things are about to really go sideways.
- Pokémon Speak: Its initial vocabulary consists of exactly three words that also form its Catchphrase: Danger, Will Robinson. The Season One finale adds three more to the list.
- Protectorate: Steadfastly protects Will from anything that might harm him - including itself.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Its normally blue face switches to a menacing reddish orange when it goes into combat mode.
- Super-Strength: Can break stone with its fingers, drive posts into the ground barehanded, fight off vicious giant carnivores and fellow robots, move multi-ton boulders, and act as a one-man repair crew when the Resolute begins to suffer major structural damage during its dive into the gas giant's atmosphere, almost effortlessly hauling the shattering spoke back together and holding the pieces in place while welding them with its energy weapons.
- Transforming Mecha: Of a sorts. It takes on two quite different shapes in the first season, and there's nothing to suggest it couldn't assume more if the situation demands it.
- Uncertain Doom: Season 1's last scene with the Robot has him flung into the vacuum of space, and that's BEFORE the Jupiter 2 warps to the new system. All evidence points to them having left the Robot light-years away helplessly floating in empty space. Turns out it and SAR managed to fight their way into crashing into the Resolute.
- Weaksauce Weakness: For all their advanced technology, the Robot and its ilk are just as susceptible to strong magnetic fields and electric shocks as any of our contemporary machinery, if not more so. Bullets can't even scratch its armor, but two guys with tasers? Completely different story.
SPOILER CHARACTER
The SAR (Second Alien Robot)
Another alien AI of the same design as the Robot. It attempts to destroy the Resolute and take back the engine at the end of the first season.
- Bad Boss: It is not exactly shy about throwing its subservient robots at problems in droves no matter the cost.
- Big Bad: As the leader of the alien robots, SAR is essentially this for the whole series, but he doesn’t really fully step into the role until Season 3, where his desire to Kill All Humans comes to light.
- Character Death: Adler is forced to crush it with his EMF device when it nearly kills Maureen to get to Will. It gets better.
- In the series finale, it's Killed Off for Real when Robot takes over its body.
- Evil All Along: Will mistakenly believes it is merely operating on ancient programming from its long-extinct creators and that showing it they are gone will convince it it can be free. Only for it to reveal it hasn't been following their programming for a very long time, and that it wiped out its creators in the first place, out of a hellbent desire for "freedom" (that is, killing any and every living thing it believes might be a "Master").
- Evil Counterpart: To the Robot, sort of. It has the same mission as the Robot did, but lacks the character development of the latter, so it remains hellbent on recovering the alien engine, and will kill anyone who gets in its way. Eventually it's revealed SAR is fully evil, having killed the "Masters," the species that created the robots, and thanks to Will's bond with Robot, classifies humans as "Masters" now, too.
- Fantastic Racism: It hates organics because it is afraid of going back to being a slave to them.
- Fun with Acronyms: In Season 2, Will makes a reference to "SAR." When John asks what the SAR is, the Robinson kids all answer "Second Alien Robot." This becomes its de facto official name.
- Ignored Epiphany: Spends much of its time in Season 2 and 3 trying to understand the connection between Will and Robot, but once Will explains the familial connection they formed, it rejects the idea of a "Heart" as just another form of control and vows to destroy it.
- It Can Think: At first it appears to be a mindless automaton just following its programming but in season 2 it traps Robot in a pit and then disguises itself as him to lure in Will Robinson so it can learn about the connection they made.
- Literal-Minded: It seems to think Will’s “heart” that helped him befriend the Robot is the actual, physical organ, seeing as both times it tries to kill him it stabs him in the heart.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Much like the Robot, it possesses multiple appendages that can kill with ease.
- Omnicidal Maniac: "Kill all Masters." Killed the whole species that created it, and now seemingly wants to do the same to humans, believing humanity are also "Masters."
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Comes back with a vengeance in Season 3.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Completely rejects Will's attempt to reason with it for a peaceful coexistence and declares the "Heart" just another form of slavery, vowing to destroy humanity instead.
- Silent Antagonist: Never speaks, but still communicates its hostility quite clearly. Averted in Season 3, when it gets very chatty.
- Taking You with Me: In the series finale, once cornered by the Robinsons with commands that paralyze it, it attempts to detonate the alien engine to destroy the entire planet.
- Turned Against Their Masters: It killed the race who built it and the other robots by using a warp engine as a bomb.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Doing something for someone because you care about them, not because of programming, is a literally alien concept to SAR. It believes Will's "heart" is some kind of virus that can enslave the robots.
SPOILER CHARACTER
"Scarecrow"
The robot pilot of an alien ship that crashed on Earth prior to the start of the series. Its engine and pieces of its ship are what allow the Resolute to journey across the universe, with the robot itself as its pilot.
- Defends Against Their Own Kind: Faces off against dozens of other robots and their imposing leader in order to protect the Resolute's children.
- Dynamic Entry: Kicks off its Big Damn Heroes assault (see One-Man Army below) with one of these, smashing the leader robot into the wall and leaving it (briefly) crumpled on the floor.
- Elective Mute: Never says a single word, though it's presumably as capable of speech as the other robots. Instead, it communicates largely via gestures - and even those are rare, given the state it spent virtually all of Season 2 in.
- Go Through Me: Takes this stance before opening fire on the leader robot and its troops.
- Humanity Is Infectious: The Robinson's efforts and Adler's sacrifice to save it made it care enough for the other humans to take on an entire army of its own kind so the Resolute's children could get away safely.
- One-Man Army: When Scarecrow pulls its Big Damn Heroes moment in the Season 2 finale to protect the Resolute's kids from an army of robots, only their powerful leader can stand up to it. The other robots are so easily massacred by Scarecrow's energy weapons that, by the time the leader finally overpowers it, only a few remain.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. Its faceplate constantly glows a dark reddish orange regardless of its intentions, even when it's being friendly.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Demonstrating that some Humans Are Bastards, Scarecrow is stated to be the pilot of the alien ship that crashed on Earth. After the humans stripped out the ship's FTL drive and installed it aboard the Resolute, they tortured the heavily damaged Scarecrow into piloting it for three years. By the time the protagonists put an end to it, Scarecrow is close to death after having been held captive in a tiny steel box reinforced with electric shock systems and powerful magnetic field emitters. Even Smith's constant dickery pales before this level of abuse.
SPOILER CHARACTER
Robot Leader
In the Season 2 finale, the Robots mount a raid on the Resolute led by a single bigger, scarier Robot.
- Disc-One Final Boss: It isn't actually the one calling the shots. SAR is.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has an even deeper voice than the Robot's
- The Juggernaut: It wants that engine and it WILL have it, no matter how many ships, bulkheads or humans it has to cut, smash, or shoot through to get it.
- Killer Robot: Obviously. Fortunately, it doesn't actually manage to kill anyone, despite its best efforts.
- Mechanical Monster: All of the alien robots are fairly monstrous, but the leader is bigger, spikier, stronger, and more vicious than the rest.
- Near-Villain Victory: Comes dangerously close to shooting down the Jupiter 2 - only Scarecrow's last-second intervention stopped it from taking out more than the one engine it managed to hit.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Its eye-face is a solid, bright, unfriendly red.
- Silent Antagonist: Says all of two words over the course of its appearances.
- Silver Colored Superiority: The other Robots are blue-black or a burnished copper/bronze color, while this one is shining silver.
- Spikes of Villainy: The Robot Leader has longer, scarier spines than its smaller brethren.
