UGSF Proteus

[WarpNein]

So I've always had a soft spot for the Lost in Space movie. It's dumb action schlock, to be sure, but the production design was fantastic. Not that the production itself was good, mind you. There are numerous instances where dialogue was obviously dubbed into the scene, particularly with the elder Will and John at the end, and the CGI hasn't exactly aged gracefully (looking at you, Spider Smith). And you could probably land the gorgeous Jupiter 2 in the film's numerous plot holes. But the ships looked great. J2 herself is so pretty I bought several of the AMT kits. I have the Robot lying around here too. But my favorite ship from the movie never got the model treatment, so I thought I would put my 3d skills to work on the Proteus.

You know, this thing.

Scaling the ship was interesting. I scoured the web for what source material I could find and spoke with someone who actually worked on the production. He gave me a great picture of the original 26-foot (!) model hanging in the studio. It's a magnificent piece of model making, which I'm sure no longer exists since the ship met a bad end in the film, but it provided a good starting point. Scaling the J2 herself was based on the AMT kit and several sequences during the hyperjump of William Hurt standing against the windows. Once I had a figure for her, I could calculate her speed via the time she took to transit her own length against the Proteus and the time the entire sequence took. It ended up being really annoying, as I'm pretty sure there were actually two models of the Proteus used in different shots since the ship changes configuration in some blink-and-you'll-miss it sequences, so I ended up having to compromise a bit.

TL;DR the Proteus is 2.5 miles or 13,200 feet long, which makes the 26-foot studio model 1:500. The model is fiendishly intricate, overlaid with photo-etched brass patterns and sprouting myriads of stepping, terracing vanes. This will be a lot of fun.

I'm producing a set of Autocad plans for the ship and a 3ds Max model in tandem, going piece by piece. The first piece is the huge array at the rear of the ship. The hyperspace probe at the bow, the neck, arboretum, core and fusion drive will each be handled as a separate piece.

After a lot of screencapping and Autocad line work I've got the rudiments of the array in Max.

[TonyG2]

I knew the Proteus looked big given the comparison with the J2 but never realised it was THAT big....

regardless of the plot holes and, as you say, some effects becoming quite dated, I still enjoy the movie. Whether they ever planned a sequel I have no idea but I would have liked to see some resolution to the situation of Dr Smith. Given he received the scratch from the spider was he still destined to become "Spider Smith"? Good an excuse for Major West to heave him out the airlock.

It will be interesting to see how the new TV series shapes up. I have my doubts already. Parker Posey as Dr Smith and Don West changed from a military officer to a smuggler....

I wasn't that impressed by the 2004 attempted reboot either (the one with Brad Johnson). Although the movie had its detractors, it was far better than the 2004 pilot.

[MEATLOAFr]

Good luck building that beast of a ship - I will be watching it closely

I to LOVED that movie, and proudly proclaim that I have the DVD, soundtrack and have the J2 & Robot in my stash - even built one of the Robot's years ago when the movie came out (subsequently being destroyed in a July 4th "accident" years later when it was broken in a move)

[WarpNein]

The array is filling out.

I knew the Proteus looked big given the comparison with the J2 but never realised it was THAT big....

I was a bit surprised. I initially derived a figure of 292' for the J2, which squares pretty well with what we see in the film. At 73' tall, it's enough for about four decks, and the hyperdrive core room spans about that, with the main deck, the upper walkway, and then another deck below (the space where the actual time machine aperture is opened) and at least a deck's worth of space above (where Spider Smith likes to hang out). So I'm pretty confident about the J2's dimensions. Using that figure to derive the ship's speed and the time of the transit, I got about 12,700 for my initial scaling, which has a bit of correction in it given the J2 doesn't travel the entire length of the Proteus. Then I used the first image to scale the vane the J2 passes under and the side shot to scale the rest of the ship. Correcting for a bit of perspective distortion I think the figure is about right. The Proteus is enormous, but it's a spindly ship. I've wondered if it's some sort of ark ship in addition to being a rescue ship for the Robinsons. The elder Will looks to be in his 30s (Jared Harris was 37 at the time) so Earth would be pretty much dead by then.

[WarpNein]

The array is pretty much ready to go.

[WarpNein]

I ordered up the Blu-ray to get a better look at the core piece in the middle of the array. It's the hardest part of this, (so far at least, but I don't envision the neck, probe or arboretum giving me much trouble. I expect the arboretum to be tedious more than anything, as the parts are numerous but relatively simple) but the Blu-ray gave me an excellent look at some finer details that were blurred out in DVD resolution. I also found a few issues on the array that need correcting. As an aside, can I pick somebody's brain about kitting this thing?

[WarpNein]

Beginnings of the core, minor corrections to the array.

[WarpNein]

The "power coupling" or whatever the hell this thing is. It is kind of fun thinking up explanations for what exactly the Proteus is and does. I'm leaning towards the ship being an ark, with "rescue mission" being more of a cover story. Assuming the future inside the bubble is 30 years or so removed, the Earth is dead and what's left of humanity is a diaspora. I'm thinking the huge probe, combined with the ringlike array serve to allow the Proteus to both scan and propel itself into hyperspace without a gate, given that the obvious failure of the Jupiter Mission likely means the companion gate was never built.

[WarpNein]

Oh my gentle Jesus, this piece was a bear.

[Tesral]

What is that piece?