Elsewhen Question

[Brian Jofa]

Elsewhen is one of my favorite LOTL episodes. In that episode, there is one scene that completely baffles me. Rick and Will lower Holly into a bottomless pit via a long rope. Soon afterwards, Rick and Will are captured by Sleestack and Holly is left hanging. While hanging, Holly has a strange vision of what appears to be an upside-down LOTL. The show cuts to commercial and we're left wondering "what was that all about?".

Anyone out there have a clue as to the significance of Holly's vision? Or is it just another unexplained psychedelic image typical of the show?

[Marc]

Well, if you actually stand on your head, it IS the same area as the bridge to the Lost City, upside down. Perhaps it was something to illustrate her fear of heights, and that the hole was a useless waste of time.

[Vozzek]

Well this was covered a bit on another website, but I'll give you my take on it.

They're trying to show you that Land of the Lost is a self-contained, closed universe. The upside down picture of the crevasse represents a mirror image of the universe she's in, tinted slightly (so that we know it's a not her universe) and clouded with lame pink smoke (dry-ice) just for effect.

The moral is as follows: You can't LEAVE the Land of the Lost through conventional travel. Not by river (Downstream), not by flying out (Gravity Storm), not sideways, not up and not DOWN.

The only way to leave would be through another time-doorway, an opening temporarily "ripped" into the fabric of the Land of the Lost. And even then, you can only go out when an equal amount of matter comes IN... except of course in the 3rd season, when chaos reigned, bad writing abounded, and all kinds of characters in really lame costumes (Medusa's rubber snakes) ran willy-nilly through the jungle whenever the hell they felt like it.

-Vozz

[Mike M]

So what left the LOTL in order for the Marshalls to enter? I haven't seen all of the episodes so did I miss something?

[Lisa Marie Bell]

No, you didn't miss anything! None of us ever heard anything about how the Marshalls got into the Land.
Guess it's up to us to use our imaginations!

Certainly, there is a possibility that an alternate Marshall family left, bringing these guys in, if some of the episodes are used to judge by!

[Mike M]

Maybe that is what they were trying to explain with "Circle". However, if they weren't the first set of Marshalls to enter who was and how did they get in? Heavy stuff man. Wouldn't it be great to ask the writers some of these questions?

Okay, break is over, no more screwing around I've got to get back to my Cultural Anthropology homework "The Indigenous Fertility Regulating Methods of Rural Egyptian Women". As Homer Simpson would say BOOOORRRRRING!!!

[Marc]

Enik later clarified the rule by saying the for three people to enter, three people must leave, and vice versa. He backed off on the equal mass thing.

Enik never mentioned anything about WHEN the Land of the Lost would claim the people. When Rick left, Jack entered, and the cycle was complete.

But we have seen that the time doorways are not restricted to Earth, 1970s. We have seen confederate soldiers, a cowboy and Indian, a guy from the future, people from the distant past, a guy from George Washington's army, and more.

Some met the Marshalls, others died long before they got there.

The point is that the doorway need not open to the Marshalls' present. That's why in Exodus, I had the Porters replace the Marshalls when the Marshalls left the LOTL. A man, a teenage son, and younger daughter. The Marshalls escaped, and a doorway opens on Earth, circa 1990, claiming three people. It worked.

I am not a huge fan of the 1990s version of LOTL. I thought the stories and writing were even more of a disgrace to the original show than Voyager is a disgrace to the original Star Trek.

But what about the Porters? Suppose at a time in the future, the Porters escape the LOTL. The LOTL would have to claim three people. A man, his teenage son, and younger daughter. A doorway opens in 1970s Earth, thanks to the greatest earthquake ever known. The Marshalls fall into the Land of the Lost, and a circle is completed.