Land of the Lost "The Stranger" TV episode Written by Walter Koenig Directed by Bob Lally Original airdate: October 12, 1974

The Marshalls meet a time traveling being related to the Sleestak.

Read the complete story summary by Nels Olsen

Notes from the Marshall Timeline

I've placed "The Stranger" earlier in the timeline than its airdate simply to 1) allow more time to pass before the Marshalls attempt to mess with the matrix time-table themselves in "The Hole" and 2) at the beginning of this episode, the Marshalls are still searching for food and wary of which plants might be poisonous, suggesting an adventure early in their time in the Land of the Lost.

Didja Know?

This episode was written by Walter Koenig, best known as the actor who portrayed Ensign Chekov on the original Star Trek TV series.

The actor portraying Enik, Walker Edmiston, is the same actor who played Collie in "Downstream".

The Sleestak appear in daylight in this episode, despite past and future episodes depicting them as intolerant of bright light.

Didja Notice?

Several different fruits are visible growing on plants at 1:37 on the DVD, what appear to be: pears; green, yellow, red, and purple grapes; red apples; and giant strawberries as seen in "Dopey". Holly picks up a green melon with yellow stripes.

At 2:46 on the DVD, Holly appears to pick a suinaku fruit...not named until the LOTL90 episode "Heat Wave" (although this fruit also bears a suspicious resemblance to eggplant). In LOTL90, the fruit grew from a vine on the ground; here, Holly picks it from an upright-growing plant.

Enik is able to make the Sleestak leave the crystal cave, presumably with his telepathic abilities. He is also able to read human thoughts.

Enik wears a bracelet on his left wrist composed of about 6 small red jewels. As an Altrusian, he has three fingers/claws as opposed to the Sleestaks' two. Both species have just two claws for toes on their feet.

Enik tells the Marshalls it is conceivable the Mageti could help return to Earth, but he doesn't know the coordinates/combination to their world.

Enik says the Altrusians created the Mageti to locate and fix the doorways so that time-dimensional journeys may be undertaken. This seems to imply that the doorways were not created by the Altrusians, but exist naturally or were created earlier by some other civilization.

It kind of seems as if the Mageti not only channels emotions into paraphysical action, but may also amplify the emotions of nearby individuals. Will and Holly (particularly Will) seem to be angry or frightened than their usual personalities would manifest.

Enik states that Altrusians are incapable of lying. This sounds similar to the concept on Star Trek that Vulcans could not lie (though that is not quite true of the Vulcan species).

Enik talks about the "failure of the human race...they are quick to do battle...quick to destroy..." What were the circumstances that Enik has met or learned about humans before?

Enik says there was a disturbance during his journey through the dimensional doorway, casting him to this time in the Land.

When Holly refers to the crystals as "jewels", Enik is quick to inform her they are not jewels, but fourth-dimensional nodes. Yet, he then refers to them as jewels a few times himself later in the episode! As far as fourth-dimensional nodes goes, in modern physics, time is often considered the fourth dimension.

At 12:00 minutes on the DVD, notice that the Sleestak crossbow bolt is already embedded in the tree before the offscreen Sleestak fires it at 12:08!

At 12:18 on the DVD, it appears that actor Walker Edmiston (as Enik) knocks down a fern set piece as he heads off screen to send the attacking Sleestak away.

For some reason, the Sleestak stop obeying Enik's commands to leave him and the Marshalls in peace after they leave the crystal cave. Enik is confused about this, denying that they could be so vicious and warlike; Rick sarcastically responds, "...next you'll be telling me that those arrows are Cupid's darts." Enik is not aware of Cupid. Cupid is the Roman god of love.

Enik tells the Marshalls that the power crystals must be arranged in a special sequence, a most complex formula. Presumably, he is referring to the physical arrangement of crystals on the matrix table of the time-dimensional doorway and possibly also to the pattern in which they must be touched to activate the doorway and open it to the desired time-space coordinates.

At 16:23 on the DVD, Enik says, "There is only one doorway. Either you shall return or I shall." What does he mean by only one doorway? In later episodes, we see the portal open to various times and places, with the possibility that someone could step through to it, still leaving the doorway for later use by others.

At 17:05 on the DVD, you can hear Walker Edmiston's breathing through the Enik mask.

Enik says the effort to try to find the coordinates of the Marshalls' world would exhaust the power of the crystals, implying the crystals have a fairly limited amount of power.

How is Enik able to summon a mist that makes the Marshalls see their greatest fears? One might argue that his telepathic abilities enable him to see their fears, but what does the mist have to do with it (other than being a visual cue to the audience that something is happening!)?

When the Marshalls see their greatest fears, Holly's fear is about falling, another early glimpse of her acrophobia, fully revealed in "Elsewhen" (and hinted at earlier in "The Sleestak God").

Enik instructs the Marshalls to take two crystals from the wall, a blue and a green. When combined, these crystals create an electrical force field that shocks the Sleestak and drives them away from the matrix chamber.