October 16, 1997. The Robinsons become America's first family in space as part of an effort to colonize the Alpha Centauri star system. Their space ship, the "Gemini 12", runs into a meteor shower and goes off course, crashing on an uncharted planet. The Robinsons must deal with adversities such as a giant cyclops, earthquakes, and extreme cold. They also discover the remains of an ancient civilization in a cave.
Dr Smith and Will befriend an old miner named Nerim. After a series of earthquakes indicates that the planet is breaking up, Dr Smith tries to convince them that it is merely the effects of mining, and no harm will come to the planet. John informs him that he is wrong and that the Robinson family will be departing within the day. It is a race against time to escape the crumbling planet.
Shortly after leaving their original crash-site planet, Smith spots a familiar star and, in an amazing show of stellar navigational skill, calculates the course to get back to Earth. He extracts a promise from Don and John that they'll return to Earth, or else he'll destroy his navigation data. They agree, but inform the family at dinnertime that they are headed for Alpha Centauri after all, mainly because the Earth is on the other side of the Sun (how do they know that? - do they know the date? And besides, from Alpha Centauri, Earth revolves clockwise, visible all the time). Smith changes course 180 degrees, then clumsily jettisons most of the fuel. They reach a refueling barge, one of several that Alpha Control put out in 1996, top up the tanks, and resume course for Alpha Centauri, not knowing that they've picked up a tailgater who follows them after Smith reverses course to Earth again. The alarm goes off in the night, and they expend a lot of fuel pulling away from the Earth's