It appears (or sounds like) Johnny Williams was like many other composers for TV and film in those days in borrowing from himself. The Title and End credit theme music is very similar to that composed later for Lost in Space. Numerous motifs and passages are only slightly changed, including the "ramp up the scale, then sudden fall" at the very end.
shareWhich season's theme are you referring to?
I like the first season's theme better, as it seems purer and more avant-garde, and it startles me and gives me goose bumps whenever I hear it.
Unfortunately it seems that the second season's theme was re-arranged to tone it down a bit, and to more or less 'conventionalize' it. I wonder who insisted to Johnny W. that it needed to be revamped?
I wholeheartedly agree. The first season's theme still sounds very modern, even half a century later. Why they toned it down in the second season is a mystery.
shareI feel that it's much closer to his theme for The Time Tunnel than it is to either of his Lost In Space themes. I like Williams' earlier work much better than his later stuff, although he still produces some great stuff every once in a while. Maybe it's just the overall style of the 60s that I like best.
shareTo me it's sounds like the well-known Bernard Herrmann theme for Hitchcock's North by Northwest. A lot of Williams' early stuff seems to ape Herrmann.
While Williams' latter scores re-cycle his popular ones.
Just saw this for the first time, and the theme reminded me a bit (at least the woodwind parts) of his score for Catch Me If You Can.
shareI agree that Williams was influenced by Herrmann's NXNW theme for the Kraft Suspense theme. I like both Lost in Space themes but will always love the original best.
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