Land of the Lost (1974 TV series) geography and technology

Land of the Lost was a 1974-1976 TV series presenting the adventures of the Marshall family (including Will and Holly and their father Rick, later replaced by their uncle Jack). The Marshalls become trapped in a pocket universe populated by dinosaurs, ape-like creatures called Pakuni, and lizard-like creatures named Sleestak. This article concerns the unusual geography of the Land and mysterious "technology" such as the pylons, crystals, heart, and other elements which control various aspects of the Land of the Lost.
Cosmography
The Land of the Lost is a very small, closed pocket universe that consists of a valley surrounded by mountains. A traveler attempting to pass over the mountains will find himself reentering the valley from the other side; at one point the Marshalls climb a mountain peak and using binoculars are able to see far enough across the valley to observe themselves from behind. There is one major river flowing through the Land, forming a similarly closed loop; it flows into a cave at one end of the valley and comes back out again in a waterfall at the other end. The Marshalls discover this when they attempt to raft down river in search of an exit from the Land in the episode "Downstream".
The climate of the Land is tropical, and the valley is filled almost entirely with dense jungle. Other major landmarks include a tar pit, a misty swamp filled with dead trees that appears to be locked in darkness even during the day, some high bluffs containing natural caves, and a narrow canyon or chasm that extends into the mountains. The Land lacks a nickel-iron core (or at least a magnetic field), rendering compasses useless.
The Land appears to have three moons. The smallest is also the fastest, moving visibly through the sky; the Marshalls dubbed it "Speedy". On two separate occasions, manipulation of a Pylon's crystal matrix table caused the motion of the sun and moons to halt. Conjunctions of the moons appear to trigger the activities of some Pylons, including the elevator Pylon and the possession Pylon.
The Sun Pylon is able to control its level of flare activity. An establishing shot in "Stone Soup" features a matte painting depicting two suns in close proximity to each other, one appearing significantly smaller than the other. This is not commented upon by the characters, however, and multiple later episodes show similar shots with only one sun.
Light crystals
Scattered throughout the Land of the Lost, often embedded in the walls of caverns and some pillars, are a variety of colourful brightly glowing crystals that the Marshalls dubbed "light crystals" and which Enik called "fourth-dimensional nodes." Sizes vary from boulder-sized chunks to the more common walnut-sized gems (which themselves are merely chunks off the larger crystals) and apparently were artificially grown or otherwise constructed by the Altrusians for use as a power source for their technologies. The larger crystals are possibly mildly radioactive and give off both heat and light as a byproduct of their nature. Rick Marshall theorized that they might even power the dimensional doorways.
Their most common colors are red, blue, yellow, and green, though other rarer colors, such as white, have been seen or mentioned.
The most common use of light crystals seems to be in crystal matrix control tables, or simply as sources of illumination. On their own, the smaller crystals generally do not have special properties beyond their glow, but bringing two different-colored crystals together can cause additional effects in some cases:
*Bringing a red crystal together with a green one causes the pair to emit a blindingly bright but generally short-lived light (Holly used this pair for sustained light in "Elsewhen"); this combination is often useful for driving away Sleestak.
*Bringing red and yellow crystals together causes an explosion after a very brief delay.
*Putting two green crystals together (or possibly two like-colored crystals) is also an explosive combination.
*Combining red and blue do nothing noticeable, but adding a third, yellow crystal to the pair causes them to emit a near-lethal shock.
*In general, yellow crystals appear to trigger releases of energy from other crystals.
*A blue crystal and a green crystal together create a temporary force field a short distance away. This use was taught to the Marshalls by Enik in "The Stranger", but in the later episode "The Search", the Marshalls attempted to reproduce the effect and nothing happened (it's possible the crystals were dead).
*In general, blue crystals appear involved in telepathic functions. Blue crystals alone can under some circumstances hypnotize people into seeing what they love most. Jefferson Collie also mentioned that blue crystals "make you sick", and discards them when he mines them in his cave.
The Marshalls eventually receive a set of pendants from Rani—Holly's future self—with a number of tiny yellow crystals surrounding a larger central blue crystal that provide a sort of clairvoyance, in which one wearer can see what the other wearer is seeing and hear what they're hearing. Rani explains that the blue crystals pick up the wearer's heartbeat and transmits empathic signals that are received by the other pendants. In the Series Bible, blue crystals are said to have recording properties and can both record and play back "memories")
David Gerrold, in his DVD commentary to the episode "Circle", noted that the idea for the crystals was picked up from Harlan Ellison, who had wanted to use them in his Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" but was blocked from doing so.
Pylons & Matrix Tables
Pylons are small golden (usually) truncated square pyramids, tall and narrow, spaced approximately every quarter mile in a regular pattern throughout the Land of the Lost. The surface of a Pylon is polished to a mirror-like precision and extremely smooth to the touch; Will described the sensation as being like "touching nothing". Holly also reported that the surface felt cold. When a Tyrannosaurus tried to bite a Pylon in the episode "Skylons", the Pylon emitted a powerful electrical shock that frightened it away.
Nearly all Pylons have a hand-sized tetrahedral "key" projecting from about two thirds of the way up one side; when turned, a diamond-shaped patch of the Pylon's surface below it dematerializes to provide a small doorway inside. Apparently, some pylon keys can be removed from a pylon by shining reflected sunlight on them, sealing the Pylon, and can be replaced by pressing the key back on the Pylon's surface. The interior of the Pylons is an extra-dimensional black void with no discernable boundaries or surfaces and is significantly larger inside than the Pylon appears from the outside, similar in some ways to the time traveling TARDIS from Doctor Who.
Each Pylon will typically contain a "crystal matrix control table," a small square table made of rough stone with a grid (generally 9×9 decimeters) on the upper surface supported by a clear (possibly crystalline) pedestal set into a smaller stone base. Various light crystals rest on the grid. At least two known Pylons also have a large green viewing orb suspended beyond the crystal matrix table used as a visual display.
*Note: In Season 3, the Pylons were redesigned after many of the original sets were destroyed. The new Pylons were dull in color and the interior had clearly defined stone walls and floors with a mica-like appearance. Likewise, the matrix tables were redesigned with a stone pedestal and a grid of all-red crystals.
At least one Pylon, the Sun Pylon, features a circular hatch that can be opened and closed with the aid of a special blue crystal "key". It is the only Pylon which is known to be directly above the Lost City tunnels and the only known black Pylon. Although it's possible that the Sun Pylon's hatch is unique given the unusual exterior color and the fact that it is referred to as "special", it's conceivable that most (if not all) Pylons might have been erected above such tunnels and would possibly have similar floor hatches as well.
Pylons are part of the fundamental infrastructure of the Land of the Lost; when the light crystals on their crystal matrix tables are tampered with, all manner of effects on the Land can be produced. Examples include causing storms, opening and closing time doorways, triggering earthquakes, and even manipulating the rate at which celestial bodies travel through the sky. Pylons appear to have specialized functions; a "weather Pylon" controls rain, a "clock Pylon" controls the movement of celestial bodies,
Also through the central entrance is a passage to a chamber containing a crystal matrix table, where Enik spends most of his time attempting to open a time doorway back to his original era. Near this room is a door with a Pylon key next to it, beyond which is a small opening that leads to a bottomless pit. In the episode "Elsewhen", Holly descends into this pit on a rope, and she briefly finds herself hanging in the sky under an upside-down Land of the Lost. This bizarre vision is never explained within the show, but may be related to the closed nature of the universe that the Land is in; just as the river loops back to its origin, the pit may descend so far that it comes out in the sky overhead. (In Dorothy Fontana's script this is confirmed as the scene is specifically described as the chasm being upside down and that the light that suddenly shines on Holly is from the rising sun.)
Although the Sleestak occasionally venture beyond the chasm above ground (The Sleestak God, The Stranger, The Hole, Circle, etc.), there are caves and tunnels all over the underground of the Land, many of which link to the Lost City. The Sleestak sometimes use these tunnels to hunt, chipping upward to create a pit trap and waiting below for prey to fall in.
A pristine version of the Lost City - presumably from the time of the Altrusians, and marked by structures which no longer exist - is briefly seen in both "Pylon Express" and "The Longest Day".
Library of Skulls
The Library of Skulls (introduced in the episode "Fair Trade") is a foggy cavern in the Lost City that contains glowing Altrusian skulls and urns on pedestals and ledges. The Library is a relic of the Altrusian civilization. As shown in "The Longest Day" and "Blackout," the urns can emit a "sacred smoke" that induces a form of telepathy that allows the user to communicate with the skulls, and that also has the side effect of removing all language barriers, allowing Marshall to talk to the Sleestak for the first time. Lengthy exposure to the smoke causes hallucinations.
The skulls have various areas of expertise or specialization (e.g. the "Skull of History" or the "Skull of Wisdom"), and the "Index Skull" is an important starting point when asking the Library for information. They are also able to predict or prophesy the future, and they know at least some details about how to operate Pylon matrix tables. As knowledgeable as they are, however, the skulls do not appear to have any goals or will of their own; they only provide answers to the questions they are asked.
The Library is tended by a Sleestak Librarian, and the Sleestak Council and Leader consult the Library of Skulls on important matters. The Council and Leader claim exclusive rights to consultation, though they may allow others to ask questions under some circumstances.
The Builder Temple
Near the Lost City's plaza is a stone "temple" (discovered by Will and Holly in "The Test"). It is avoided by Sleestak, as it is not an Altrusian ruin but rather was built by some other humanoid agency of great stature. Outside the temple there are two very curious artifacts. The first is a large stone obelisk which Will suggests might represent the Pylons. The other is a stone tablet with mysterious markings that vaguely resemble letters of the English alphabet. Rick posits that there may be a possible connection. Inside the temple is an empty antechamber with a sundial set into the floor, somewhat of an oddity since sunlight does not reach that far into the room. As shown in "The Musician," there is a solid stone door at the back, and at the top of the door frame is a sculptured relief high on the wall of two hands touching; one hand is convex, the other concave. The door only opens when the "right" individual (Cha-Ka, in this case) puts his or her hand into the concave relief. Inside is an auto-illuminating chamber with "the great-granddaddy of all matrix tables" (as Rick described it). There are also several pieces of art including a chrome humanoid statue and a pane of hand-shaped glass.
When this chamber is explored in "The Musician", Cha-Ka touched the matrix table and caused the appearance of a glowing red humanoid figure, along with colored light smears in the sky. The figure was uninterested in the Marshalls, telling them "You have already proven yourself; it is not your time." When it encountered Cha-Ka and he faced the glowing figure bravely, it declared, "It is your time, Cha-Ka." The figure morphed from a tall, featureless red humanoid into a boy - a more human-like twin of Cha-Ka - before vanishing. Cha-Ka was apparently left with a powerful ring and improved intelligence; at the end of the episode, he is shown playing music on a recorder that he had previously been unable to comprehend.
Farther away from the Lost City is another smaller complex also called "The Temple". This other Temple is perhaps of Altrusian origin; its decorations include the half-sunburst symbol seen over the entrances to the Lost City. The Marshalls wound up using this temple as their primary shelter in the show's third season. A popular myth for the reason of this set-change is tied into the fire that destroyed the cave sets for another Krofft show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. However, this fire took place during the second season of Sigmund, at which time Land of the Lost would have been in production of only its first season. Also, the first two seasons of Land of the Lost were taped at a different studio entirely from that of Sigmund. The show then moved to Goldwyn Studios for its third season. This was the studio where the fire did occur two years prior that destroyed the Sigmund sets.. The mystery of the Builders and their Temple was not explained further but it can be deduced that the Builders are the distant descendants of the Pakuni or are some form of kinsman that have a vested interest in the Pakuni. The door was only opened by Cha-ka's hand and he was also able to activate the pedestal in the chamber. The red glowing Builder that pursues Cha-ka and the statue in the chamber have large craniums similar to the Pakuni.
Mist Marsh
The Mist Marsh lies beyond a treeless ridge approximately one mile from High Bluff; neither Pakuni nor Sleestak venture near it. It is a dim, eerie, foggy field of dead trees, cloaked in gloom even during the day.
In the original script, the "mist" is described as having actual weight where it pours through openings in the rocks much like tiny waterfalls. While walking through one of these "fogfalls", Will is actually pushed back by the force of the mist but remains completely dry. This was not included in the filmed version.
The Zarn's spacecraft is located in the Mist Marsh. Like the Zarn himself the spacecraft is largely invisible, its streamlined shape outlined by spots of light that dot its surface. The Zarn's ship uses a gravity drive. When operating, it can cause significant increases in the local gravity field. This causes lots of activity in the Pylons and Skylons, but the Land of the Lost cannot counteract it all. In an attempt to escape the Land, the Zarn at one point attempts to use the gravity drive to destroy it entirely. The Marshalls prevent this by distracting him at a key moment, and the uncontrolled gravity badly damages the Zarn's ship instead.

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