BACK IN THE LAND OF THE LOST
Parker comes home to go to space
Actor Molly Parker came home to spend time in a whole new world.
The Maple Ridge native was in Vancouver from mid-January to July last year shooting the Netflix reimagining of the classic TV series Lost in Space, which begins streaming Friday.
“It was amazing. In all the years since I have moved away from Vancouver, I have worked there but I haven’t ever worked there for a significant amount of time,” Parker said. “I got to rent a house and live in Vancouver again for basically six months. It was so great for me. My family is there. I was able to have my son up there with me. It was awesome.”
Lost in Space first appeared on TV in 1965 and ran until 1968. It was based on the comic book series Space Family Robinson, which was loosely based on the 1812 novel Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. There was also a 1998 feature film.
Like the 1960s series created by disaster king Irwin Allen, the reboot is set 30 years in the future. The Robinson family is one of the first families selected for space colonization. Things don’t go to plan and the clan is thrown light-years off course and find themselves marooned and facing some antagonistic aliens. And yes, there is a sentient alien robot to help young Will (Maxwell Jenkins) cope.
While there are still broad strokes that ring true to the old show, that was then and this is now. Technology is far more advanced and the idea of what constitutes a family is a long way from the social norms of the 1960s.
“It’s a reimagining, but we wanted to keep the integrity of the original show in terms of its spirit and the family dynamics and the fun of it,” Parker said, acknowledging that times have changed since June Lockhart played the Robinson family matriarch.
“In the original, Maureen Robinson makes a lot of sandwiches in the middle of a massive alien crisis. Maureen is like, ‘Can I make anyone a sandwich?’ I don’t know if that was the reality then, but it’s certainly not the reality now. So instead you have this working mother who is a brilliant scientist who can do what she needs to do to protect her family, and she does.”
The family is a blended one, where the parents are now separated. There are three kids, Maureen and her ex-husband, a former member of the military.
In this case, Maureen is very much the brains of the operation.
“It just feels like it is about time, for me,” Parker said. “When they approached me for this project I read the script and sort of got an idea where they were going with her, but then I spoke to the writers and they, from the beginning, talked about her as the hero of the show, as the capable, matriarch leader of this family.
“In many ways, they sort of subvert the traditional gender roles … because Maureen is a scientist. She’s very logical and rational and believes there are no problems that don’t have a solution, whereas John Robinson (Toby Stephens), the father in the show, is a combat veteran who is manly in a traditional way, but he is also quite emotional and has a much more emotional story than Maureen in a way.”
The two brilliant teen daughters played by Mina Sundwall (Penny) and Taylor Russell (Judy) obviously benefited from the push for STEM education for girls that began decades before the show is set.
“They were clearly interested in having a bunch of strong women in the show,” Parker said. “I think the benefit of this story being 30 years in the future is that we’ve been able to imagine a world we all hope we are headed for. It is never a question here. It is never a story point.
“Whatever a boy can do a girl can do. No one ever talks about it, thinks about it or discusses it because it is a given. We proceeded from that point of view.”
And yes, it’s OK for young Will Robinson to worry about danger.
When Parker signed on for the job, she figured it would take the usual CGI-heavy sci-fi route and have the actors in front a green screen in a studio. It turns out, much to the benefit of the look of the show, that the series shot on location a lot.
“When I first took the job, I thought I was going to be in the studio all the time, but — oh no — we were in fact on location 50 per cent of the time,” Parker said. “Actually though, I think that was great for the show. It has given it a cinematic sensibility, you know.
“The show feels like this big adventure and it needed to have that kind of dirt under the fingernails feel to it. You know — get outside.”
The production shot a lot around Squamish and in the Seymour Watershed.
“We were on mountaintops. It was cold, man, and wet,” Parker said. “I’m not complaining, really — it was way harder for the crew — but I’m middle-aged. I could just stay inside all day and that would be fine.”
A chill and some uncomfortable space suits aside, Parker said the costumes were a welcome change.
“We all have this uniform, suits, so it was wonderful to be in a cos-
The show feels like this big adventure and it needed to have that kind of dirt under the fingernails feel to it.
tume that was, like, practical,” Parker said. “There was a practicality to it that was really great. I didn’t have to wear heels. I didn’t have to wear a skirt.”
She was also impressed by the performance of co-star Parker Posey. Posey plays the villain Doctor Smith, and Parker says she plays it perfectly. It’s another sign of different times — the original series saw Jonathan Harris play the bad guy.
“She is brilliant casting for this role,” Parker said. “She is super cool, the way she plays her: funny, weird, campy. She’s so great in the show. We laughed every day we worked together.”
In the end, the new Lost in Space comes out of the blocks with the history of the old series looming large.
As is often the case, the purists resist new approaches without seeing what is on offer. Parker isn’t too concerned about that audience. She thinks this new outing deserves its own following and should create its own history.
“I hope people are open to this version of it and will embrace it,” said Parker, who is taking some time off to hang with her son.
“I think it is going to appeal to a whole generation of people who came after that show. It is the first that I have ever done that my son will be able to watch, and he’s 11. He is so excited.
“I know as a parent that there’s not that much out there even now in the TV realm that is for all ages that he can watch that I really want to watch with him, so that makes me happy.”
Before hitting the streaming service, the series pilot was sent to the International Space Station.
“I can now say I have been seen in space,” Parker said. “I’ve ticked that box.”