Land of the Lost: The Search

Land of the Lost
"The Search"
TV episode
Written by Ben Bova
Directed by Dennis Steinmetz
Original airdate: November 16, 1974

Rick receives an enormous electrical shock from some power crystals.

Read the complete story summary by Nels Olsen

Notes from the Marshall Timeline

I've placed "The Search" fairly significantly earlier in the timeline than its airdate for two reasons. 1) Dialog in the episode suggests that the opening events take place only shortly after the Marshalls met Enik and at one point Will says he thinks the sound they hear coming from the Lost City is Enik opening the doorway and probably going back to his own time. 2) I believe the Marshalls would want to begin searching for crystals for their own use almost immediately after learning of their usefulness in both "Downstream" (for light/heat) and "The Stranger" (force field).

Didja Notice?

The Marshalls experiment with some crystals and find that red and green produce a bright light, as demonstrated by Collie in "Downstream". Red and yellow produces an explosive effect. Blue and green does nothing, though in "The Stranger", this combination produced a force field; perhaps the force field is only discernable when there is something opposing it? Red and blue does nothing. However, adding a yellow to the red and blue produces a very powerful electrical shock that leaves Rick nearly paralyzed and extremely weak.

After Holly manages to drag her father back to High Bluff, Rick remarks that she is just as headstrong as her mother and Holly responds that she hardly remembers her. This seems to imply that Mrs. Marshall died while Holly was quite young. Holly does recognize the image of her mother in the later episode "Album".

As Enik manipulates the crystal matrix table, he remarks that the dimensional doorway will connect with his "world" for a few moments only. Is there any significance is his use of the word "world"? Enik is from the Land of the Lost, if his remarks in "The Stranger" are to be believed; he is from an earlier time, not another world.

At 16:18 on the DVD, Enik is able to force Will away from him with just a gesture. Is this a regular power of the Altrusians?

Holly scares Grumpy away from the cave with a red and brown crystal combination! The brown "crystal" basically looks like a standard rock. Why didn't the producers go with the red and yellow crystals as established earlier in this very episode?

Some of the images seen flashing in the time doorway appear to be from Dinosaurs: The Terrible Lizards, a short film made by Wah Chang (designer of the dinosaurs on the first two seasons of LOTL).

Two of the images in the time doorway appear to be foretelling the dinosaur stampede from "Skylons". I guess it really is showing the future!

How is it that the time doorway happens to stop on Earth just long enough to force Will to make a decision as to whether he should step through or stay and help his family? Is Enik more in control of the matrix than he claims and used the opportunity to deliberately test Will?

For that matter, how did Will know it was his world and time before Enik even said anything? It looked like a pretty generic canyonscape to me.

Enik uses two light-blue crystals to bring Rick out of shock.

Throughout Enik's scenes at High Bluff at the end of the episode, he poses very strangely with his arms.

You can hear Walker Edmiston's breath inside the Enik mask consistently throughout his scenes. He sounds like Darth Vader!

Enik casts a shadow on the sky as he leaves High Bluff! Obviously, a blue set piece designed to look like the sky.

Images from the Time Doorway

When Enik opens the time doorway, images flash through it almost faster than the eye can see. Here are screen grabs of each image. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image. The second and third images of Row 8 look like they may be ruins of American Indian settlements at Canyon De Chelly or Montezuma's Castle in Arizona and the kivas of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.