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"Future Boy"
Written by Len Janson and Chuck Menville
Directed by Jeff Burr
Original airdate: October 17, 1992 |
Annie befriends a time-traveler
from Earth’s future.
Didja Know?
The title of this episode may be derived from
Back to the Future. At one point in the movie, shortly
after Marty McFly has arrived in 1955, a skeptical Doc Brown
calls him "future boy". The digital readout on Simon's time belt
is also similar to the one in the DeLorean in BTTF.
One of the themes of this episode is Annie's resentment at
being treated "like a baby." This is reminiscent of several
episodes of LOTL70 in which Holly Marshall has similar feelings
about how she is treated by her father and brother.
Didja Notice?
At 0:06 in the episode, in a rarity for children's television,
blood is seen from a nasty gash in Annie's forearm (we are told
she received it while swinging from a vine in imitation of
Christa).
Tom mentions that Annie is 11 years old.
At 1:24 in the episode, when Annie asks, "Who are you?" Simon
answers, "Cardenas. Simon Cardenas." It seems odd that a kid
would introduce himself that way, with the last name first. This
may be a reference to the way secret agent 007 introduces
himself as "Bond. James Bond," in most of the 007 films.
Simon introduces some teen future-slang to the Porters'
vocabulary. Most of them are abbreviations of existing English
words by chopping off the first or last syllable and speaking
only the remaining ones. For example, "stupendous" becomes "pendous".
In typical adult fashion, Tom does not quite get the rules of
using the youthful slang and, for example, uses "stup" at the
end of the episode, causing Kevin and Annie to laugh in
embarrassment at him.
Simon comments that his collision with the cyborg altered his
space-time trajectory, so he (and we) are left with no reference
as to when/where the Land of the Lost exists.
As in "Dreammaker", we see that the Porters are attempting to
keep track of time passed by Annie's comments that "back home,
it's 1992."
Simon comments that San Francisco has been an island since the
quake of 2047 and that he himself is from 2062.
Interestingly, Simon's time belt indicates that he originated
from 2062 (as he claims) and that he is now in 1992, the same
year that the Porters assume is "now" on Earth. This may
suggest that the Porters only travelled extradimensionally and
not through time when they came through the portal from
Earth.
The Myzarian cyborg has some
similarities in appearance to the rancor from Star
Wars: Return of the Jedi. |
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Myzarian cyborg |
Rancor |
After a worried Tom goes off in search of Annie in the jungle,
Kevin asks himself if he will become an old worrywart when he becomes a
parent. I guess this means he is planning to become a parent!
Which would probably be normal in a life on Earth, but is he
considering that he might be stuck in the Land of the Lost for
the rest of his life? If so, perhaps he's hoping to reproduce
with Christa!
At 4:46 in the episode, we see that Tasha knows how to turn on
the boom box and also appears to "hum" the tune produced.
Annie may have a case of hero worship towards Christa. At 5:57
in the episode, Annie swings in on a vine (like Christa) and
seems to be mimicking Christa's jungle yell. Listen:
Christa's yell
Annie's yell
Apparently the Porters have taught Stink the game of Simon Says.
When Simon Cardenas is introduced to Stink, the Paku says, "Simon
say? What Simon say?"
Annie refers to Spike the stegosaur as "she." This is the first
indication in the series that Spike is female. Even if Spike is
female, how do the Porters know it?
Simon has a PDA-like device which he uses as a reference
tool. On it, he is able to look up information from
Sturgeon's Catalog of Non-humanoid Lifeforms. I'm sure
writers Janson and Menville used "Sturgeon" as an homage to famed
science-fiction author
Theodore Sturgeon, who also wrote the LOTL70 episode
"The
Pylon Express". The fact that this catalog exists in Simon's
time means that Earth has somehow had contact with
extraterrestrials by the year 2062.
At 8:42 in the episode, while he and the human kids are
investigating the footprints of the Myzarian cyborg, Stink
places his hand in the footprint and then smells his hand. He
jerks his head in a startled fashion and makes a strange face
while remarking, "Malu. Very scary. Very, very scary." It's a
nice, subtle bit about how "animals" have a sense of smell and
instinct about other dangerous creatures.
Scarface seems to have a glass jaw. He goes down quickly after
just two quick socks to the jaw from the cyborg.
As the Porters wonder how they can fight something as powerful
as the Myzarian cyborg, Kevin quips, "call Sigourney Weaver."
This is obviously a reference to the two films (at the time of
shooting) of the Alien franchise, Alien
and Aliens.
When Annie makes a mocking salute to her father in resentment of
being made to stay behind in the tree-house once again, Tasha
follows suit with a salute as well.
At 16:43 in the episode, Tom, Kevin, and Stink are, for some
reason, wondering what Scarface is doing laying on the ground.
Tom says "he's healing himself" and Stink comments "Yeah, yeah.
Mud good for owies." But Tom just saw Scarface get K.O.'d by the
cyborg earlier in the afternoon. Obviously, Scarface has lain
unconscious during this time and is now finally waking up.
At 17:45 in the episode, Simon takes a picture of Annie and
Tasha with his camera. The ultraviolet flash of the camera
causes Tasha a few seconds of blindness. This brief incident may
be what causes Annie to recall the Sturgeon catalog's revelation
that this model of Myzarian cyborg is sensitive to ultraviolet
light, which weakness she uses to their advantage later on.
At 18:02-18:25 in the episode, we see a stop-motion animated
version of Tasha for the first time in the series as the cyborg
picks her up and holds her upside-down.
The cliff off which Annie chases the cyborg appears to
be the same one seen in the first season episode
"Jungle
Girl" which hangs above the Valley of Death. |
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Cliff from "Jungle Girl" |
Cliff from "Future Boy" |
I was present for one day of on-location shooting of this
episode at
Descanso Gardens. I got to meet and talk with the
cast members (and share M&Ms!). The scene that ends at 20:16
shows Tom and Annie amicably agreeing that she needs to talk
things out with him rather than running off trying to prove
she's mature. Well, after the director had called "cut" at the
end of shooting it, Timothy Bottoms then grabbed Jennifer Drugan
and said "Ok, now you get your whipping!" Or words to that
effect. Everyone had a good laugh. It was fun to see the cast
joshing around with each other.
Pakuni translations |
Time in
episode |
Pakuni |
English |
8:46 |
Stink says,
"Malu." |
"Bad." |
9:12 |
Stink says
"terire" |
"Terire" is
unknown. From the context of the
scene, it would seem to mean "scary" or "frightening". |
21:31 |
Stink says,
"Acuba ne." |
"Farewell." |
Future Slang |
Time in
episode |
Slang |
English |
1:37 |
Simon says
"pendous" |
stupendous |
5:18 |
Simon says
"morb" |
morbid |
16:40 |
Simon says
"def" |
definitely |
22:08 |
Kevin says
"spec" |
spectacular |
22:09 |
Annie says
"mag" |
magnificent |
22:11 |
Tom says "stup" |
Tom explains he
means "stupendous, stupefying". The joke is that Tom
doesn't know that the abbreviated word still has to
sound cool. |
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