When I was around 10 years old, my mom introduced me to the show “Lost in Space.” She showed me the original version from the ‘60s that she had grown up watching. As we watched Billy Mumy, Angela Cartwright, and the other cast members run around on screen, I quickly began to love the quirky and sweet show.

When it first aired, the show was black and white and the robot was an onset metal prop moved around by a man hiding inside. Filming technology has come a long way since then, making this newest reboot of “Lost in Space” eons ahead of the original in almost every way. 

This new reboot is amazing when it comes to visuals. Everything feels so incredibly real, and you truly feel that the Robinsons have crash-landed on a planet light years away from Earth. In the past, Netflix originals have done a brilliant job with CGI, especially compared to shows from other networks. When it comes to visuals, “Lost in Space” is comparable to “Stranger Things” in how detailed and realistic the creatures are. In “Lost in Space,” the creature is actually the rebooted version of the robot from the original show. It seems to be made of CGI, but it looks very realistic.

The original show was also very family friendly. It was, at times, suspenseful and perhaps not appropriate for extremely young audiences, but there was never anything overtly scary or inappropriate. However, like many modern television shows, this reboot has increased the stakes for the Robinsons. The story line is far more complicated and suspenseful in the reboot than in the original, showing a huge improvement in storytelling.

Despite all of these improvements, I found myself not enjoying the show as much as I did when I first watched the original seven years ago. There was something missing.

But what does the original have that this reboot doesn’t? Turns out the answer is just about everything.

What made the original so much fun when I was little is also everything that has been ‘fixed’ in this reboot. The robot looks more real, yet the quirky original robot with the little noises he made and his tube arms seemed to have so much more personality. The silly ‘60s version of the future depicted in the outfits the characters wore and the technology they used had made the show so much fun.

I loved it for its quirkiness — something this version doesn’t have. It has real science references and uses realistic technology, but that makes it less fun. It’s so much more serious now. It’s as if it isn’t the same show anymore.

The reboot for “Lost in Space” is excellent. It flaunts every wonderful development in on-screen storytelling, yet it doesn’t compare to the original. Maybe the original doesn’t have many facts to back up the plot, but the characters and plots of each episode make it so unique.

Maybe the special effects aren’t as realistic, but it’s the falsity of it that makes it so adorable. The tone of the original isn’t something we can achieve anymore. Unlike other popular sci-fi movies such as “Star Trek,” the original cannot be touched without making a cliched show with an overused plot. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened.