This is the only episode of the third season written by a
veteran of previous seasons of Land of the Lost and it shows. "Timestop" is the
only episode that attempts to retain the feel of previous
seasons. My suspicion is that it is a rejected script from
the second season, re-written for the third. As such, it is
the best of the third season episodes (although I enjoy
"After-Shock" as well).
Holly seems unfazed by the ground tremor at the beginning of
the episode. Will makes the accusation to her, "If the world
was coming to an end, you'd probably fall asleep." That
doesn't sound like the Holly we knew in previous seasons;
she was always worried and afraid of the unexpected. Though,
with the exception of being emotional after the loss of
their father in "After-Shock", she is very level-headed this
season. Maybe Will is bothered by her new-found maturity; he
is, in a way, losing his baby sister.
I've always wondered if the Marshalls
were ever able to pry open the other sealed doors in the
temple and see what's back there; at least
in this episode they do get past that second exterior door,
jarred open by the quake.
It seems odd that the second temple door just leads to a rough-hewn tunnel instead of
constructed ones.
There is one part of the tunnel that appears to have been
intelligently carved and is in the six-sided shape of the
Altrusian arches in the Lost City. It almost seems as if it
was cut by Altrusians through the stone wall to connect two
otherwise separate (and natural) tunnel systems.
At 4:55 on the DVD we see Cha-ka once again practicing with
the flute. At least this time he does appear to be trying to
finger the flute holes to form a tune (though not too
successfully).
Jack determines with his homemade compass that the Land of
the Lost must not have a pole with a nickle-iron core. Ok,
fine. But shouldn't seasoned expeditioners like the
Marshalls already have a real compass on hand? I can't
imagine either Rick or Jack going on expedition
without one!
After finding the temporal regulator key, Will, not knowing
what it is, speculates "maybe it's a key to one of the
pylons." Don't they already know what a pylon key looks
like?! (Of course, it does turn out to be a key of a sort
that fits on the matrix table inside the temporal regulator
pylon.)
At 7:59 on the DVD, the matrix table in Enik's cave appears to
have only red crystals in it (like the sun pylon in
"Repairman"). Since when? And are these red crystals related
in any way to the red crystal bracelet Enik wears?
Enik uses his red crystal matrix table to seal the entrance
of his cave with stone. The sound of it is very similar to
the pylon door sound.
Jack says the geyser they've named Old Faithful goes off
every hour, on the hour. Convenient! (But unlikely to be
that specific in a real world environment.) The name Old
Faithful is borrowed from the geyser at Yellowstone National
Park, Wyoming, which erupts in a predictable manner.
There is a strange bit of animation at 12:26 on the DVD. As
Torchy emerges from the jungle, a branch full of leaves
seems to leap at him from the bushes, strike his side and
fall to the ground.
The scene of Torchy sinking into the crumbling, mushy ground
around the geyser is pretty cool...and even horrific if you
think about it.
At 14:30 on the DVD, Jack delivers a weird explanation about
the chime of the temporal regulator crystal being similar to
the bleep given off by black holes (he heard it at a
planetarium once)! That sounds like the kind of bizarre,
far-reaching explanation Tom Porter likes to offer on
LOTL90!
The temporal regulator pylon appears to have crystals of an
all orange hue.
Attempting to save Cha-ka's life inside the temporal
regulator pylon, Jack at first turns the crystal key the
wrong direction, making time move forward and we see Cha-ka
essentially getting scalded by the boiling hot water of Old
Faithful.
Enik says that Jack, being inside the temporal regulator
pylon, is the only one who will be immune to the reversal of
time. How then is it that it is Will and Holly who call out
to warn Cha-ka not to run toward the geyser beds? Jack
should have been the only one to know that Cha-ka was about
to run the wrong way.
Despite being "immune" to the time affects, Jack seems to
lose his memory of what happened during the time change once
he steps out of the pylon.
Unanswered Questions
What is the strange light emitted by the rock of the
Altrusian arch in the Old Temple tunnels? Is it natural or
artificially created? Was the light intentionally placed to
keep Sleestak at bay? If so, it would suggest placement
after the de-evolution of the Altrusians into the Sleestak.
Is the light related to the power crystals?
In the last scene we see here of the Old Temple, the
side door is still open (though in later episodes it is
closed again). Are the Marshalls now able to open and close
the door at will? Have they thoroughly explored the
tunnels within?
What happened to the past-Jack when current-Jack stepped out
of the pylon into the past? Did he just vanish?
Memorable Dialog
if the world was coming to
an end.wav
holding up the parade.wav
hidden
tunnel.wav
that should point to the north pole.wav
can't read Altrusian.wav
bumbling humans.wav
step
back out.wav
the gang back in Altrusia.wav
humans come back.wav
many
Sleestak.wav
where we
go.wav
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