Pages

Aug 7, 2019

Was Dr. Smith Gay?

Millions of Baby Boomers know exactly who Dr. Smith was: the foil/ pain in the neck/ comic relief on the iconic sci-fi series Lost in Space (1965-68).

A nuclear family (Mom, Dad, teenage girl, preteen boy and girl), blasts off into space to colonize Alpha Centauri (how are they planning to increase the population?)

Enemy spy Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) tries to sabotage the ship, so it won't reach its destination -- instead it will be Lost in Space.  But he is accidentally  trapped aboard.

How on Earth is he going to be redeemed after that?

Easy -- the writers just forget about it, transforming him from evil to a pain in the neck, occasionally helpful ("I'll negotiate with the aliens"), occasionally devious ("I'll sell you the boy in exchange for passage home"), but usually just annoying ("I'm much too fragile to do any work!").   A vain, prissy, glutonous, lazy, self-centered uncontrolled id. 

Also the most interesting character amid the squeaky-clean Robinsons (quick -- name two character traits of the teenage daughter).

Dr. Smith spends a lot of time with preteen Will Robinson (Billy Mumy), whom he hugs, grabs theshoulder of, and calls "my boy."  Thus leading to speculation that he was gay.

Maybe, but he certainly wasn't in a gay-subtext relationship with Will.

An adult and a child can't have a gay subtext relationship, because the tropes of the parental relationship would overpower it.  Imagine man and boy walking off into the sunset together at the end of the adventure -- the man is going to adopt the boy, not marry him. 

 For a gay subtext, the two need to be in the same age category: both kids, adolescents, or adults.  Maybe an adult and a late adolescent, like the superhero and his teen sidekick. 

Well, did he have another sort of interest in Will?  Was he a pedophile?

Obviously not intentionally, but did some sort of pedophile subtext arise from the actors' interactions? 

Nope.  No way.  Dr. Smith never expresses any erotic or romantic interest in Will (or in anyone else except an occasional middle-aged alien lady, and then only when he is trying to get something, like dilithium crystals or whatever they use to propel the ship). 

He puts his hands on Will for protection, not affection.  He calls him "my boy" to signify pretentiousness, not possession.

By the way, Will expresses no romantic or erotic interest in anyone during the course of the series.  He's a little boy looking for a playmate, and Dr. Smith is the only member of the crew who isn't a girl (girls!  gross!) or busy with important scientific duties. Who else is he going to befriend?

You'll have to look elsewhere for a sexual theme on Lost in Space.  Let's talk about John Robinson (Guy Williams) and Don West (Mark Goddard).  Which was gay in real life?  I'm not telling.








13 comments:

  1. Of course there's a gay subtext there. In fact it's so obvious that everyone from Family Guy to The Simpsons have been joking about it for years. June Lockhart herself confirmed a few years ago that yes, Dr Smith was gay and yes, they wouldn't be able to get away with it nowadays.(And it turns out she was probably right about that, because in last year's crappy Netflix reboot Dr Smith was abolished altogether and recast as woman. Broads are more woke than gays, apparently!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe he was gay, but no gay subtext relationship with Will, defined by passion, intensity, domesticity, and permanence.

      Delete
    2. Yeah you say that, but I suspect the reason they couldn't get away with it nowadays is that now it's just not done to suggest that gays can like underage boys.

      Delete
  2. Dr. Smith was a big, ol' queen! I loved his insults to the robot: ("You nebulous, nettlesome NINNY!") I still watch the show, mainly to see Dr. Smith --OK, also to ogle dreamy Mr. Robinson and Don. And one of them was gay, you say?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was lucky to meet Dr Smith as sci-fi convention. I have not seen the show recently and Dr Smith really falls in the old funny pansy Hollywood tradition- he might have been gay but there was any suggestion that he was sexually attracted to Will- they are both kids- now let's talk about Major West instead...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think now it's just, my generation doesn't see pedophiles who go after boys as gay.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One of the stereotypes associated with gay men is pedophilia, going after boys because they are too immature for a "real" relationship with a woman, or in order to produce more gay men. The assumpion was that you "turn" gay after being seduced by an older man.

      Delete
    2. Well, be glad they're exiled, then.

      It makes a lot of gay icons from this era less gay, though. Keep in mind, they might still be gay or bi icons for other reasons.

      Delete
    3. I don't necessarily disagree that it was a stereotype, but it's clearly an idea that was being played around with (and played around with for laughs) in this show by having the gay character constantly hang around with the little boy. And I vaguely wonder why. Did someone who was aware of these things already realise the kid was gay and so match him up with the old queen just for fun?

      Delete
    4. This is the first I've heard that Bill Mumy is gay. He's got a wife and two kids, but of course he could be bisexual. In the only hookup story I have about him, he doesn't do anything except accidentally get naked.

      Delete
  5. The main female I remember being in a quasi-romantic relationship with Doctor Smith was Athena, the Girl From the Green Dimension.
    I suspect every now and then they played Smith as a dirty old would-be letch to defuse the suggestion the character was "fruity."
    And it's important to note, Jonathan Harris was not Gay. The voice and mannerisms were affectations he adopted when he became an actor.

    ReplyDelete

No offensive, insulting, racist, or homophobic comments are permitted.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.