Since we just recently heard the news from Billy Mumy that his former LIS cos star and friend Mark Goddard has passed, I thought I would post a tribute to Mark. Rather than give a bland Wikipedia bio which you can all look up, I thought I’d mention some of the best Major West episodes:

1. The Antimatter Man: Mark Goddard often mentioned this as his favorite LIS episode, as it gave him a shot at a different part: the “evil twin” version of himself, or rather the evil anti-matter universe version of himself. In that world he was called Drun. I have no idea why, although perhaps it derives from the German “Sturm und Drang” [Storm and Stress], as it is always storming through the episode, and these antimatter dudes are quite a stress. Just an idea. In any case, Drun gets the chance to be quite emotional (yes, even more than counterpart, Don).
2. The Reluctant Stowaway: Of course the episode that introduces Don, and also his dislike for Smith would have to be among the top ones! Here we see that Don was always meant as just a back up pilot “in case something went wrong” (of course, once Alpha Control Big Wig Dude mentions that, we know something WILL go wrong, and it does).
3. Prisoners of Space: The Robinsons, Don and Smith are under house arrest by unseen alien overlords (we later see that the overlords are the “bubble creatures” they encountered in the first season) who want to try them for misdeeds in space. Don West gives some impassioned testimony, and taunts Smith deliciously in parts.
4. Fugitives in Space: Here Don and Smith are imprisoned together on the planet Destructon. Destructon is hot. Really, really hot. They find themselves in the company of the deceptive and deadly alien, Creech, who is wonderfully played by future Hillstreet Blues star, Michael Conrad in an interesting sort of ape-creature mask (a dress rehearsal of sorts for the actual ape masks of the Planet of the Apes).
5. A Trip to Hades: Kind of a dumb episode, but we see Judy being pursued by someone other than Don, and we see Don getting a bit jealous over that. Kind of fun!

Well, there are more, but I’ll leave it at that for now!