Niolani (Francine York) is an evil queen in the 1967 episode "The Colonist" for the TV series Lost in Space.
Niolani is a woman who is sent to Gamma 6 to build the Purification Arch so the warriors of Condor can come and colonize the planet. Niolani wears an all black full body suit with black boots and a red cape. On the top of her head is a black skullcap with spikes over the surface that stick out about 9 inches. It looks like a toy jack piece.
All the Robinsons are working to ready a new relay station, when a sudden sound-wave irritates them and causes the relay station to explode, making all methods of communication impossible.
Maj. Don West (Mark Goddard) and Doctor Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) investigate when they are spoken to by a female voice, which ocommands them back to the Jupiter 2, informing them that they are now her prisoners.
Will (Bill Mumy) and the Robot are investigating on their own. They see a force-field fence has been set up, and notice that there is a large cave. When they go in to look around, they find a great deal of electronic equipment. Figuring that this was the cause of the sound that damaged their stations, Will attempts unsuccesfully to destroy it, and he and the Robot end up captured by Noble Niolani a female warrior and her servants.
Niolani appears on screen to tell Prof. John Robinson (Guy Williams) and Maureen Robinson (June Lockhart) she has captured their children and the Robot. She forces them to hand over their weapons and come with her, or else she will kill them all. Niolani explains that she is making them her slaves and that they are to build a large electronic arch. Her people will soon be coming to colonize their planet, but they cannot breathe the planet’s air until the pass through the purification arch. She commads the Robinsons to finish before her people arrive, or else she will have them executed.
Only the men are put to work, while Maureen, Penny (Angela Cartwright) and Judy (Marta Kristen) are taken elsewhere and treated well. This is due to the fact that men are treated as lower-class citizens to women. John and Don are determined to find a way to escape. They try to trick the guards into lowering the force-field. They try to attack the guards and fight their way out. They then try to damage Niolani’s equipment. Nothing works, and Niolani loses her patience and says if they act up again she will kill them.
Smith paints up the arch all pretty and Niolani takes a liking to him, thinking he is artistic and sensitive. She takes him into her cave and makes him her consort. Smith enjoys this because it means he doesn’t have to work and gets to boss the other men around.
Will and the Robot hatch a plan which proves to be very clever. They make sculptures out of plastic explosives and pass them off as some of Doctor Smith’s artwork. The sculptures are placed on the finished arch, and just as Niolani’s warriors are about to land, Will presses the detonator and blows up the arch!
Now unable to live in a colony on the planet, the female warrior’s ship departs before it ever lands. Niolani realizes she has failed in her mission, and she leaves in disgrace.
Trivia[]
- Francine York appeared as the henchwoman Lydia Limpet in the 1966 episodes "The Boodworm Turns" and "While Gotham City Burns" for the TV series "Batman".
- Francine York appeared as Dr. North in the 1970 episode "Doomsday" for the sci-fi TV series "Land of the Giants".
- Francine York appeared as Brandy in the 1975 episode "An Iron-Clad Plan" for the TV series "Barbary Coast".
- Francine York appeared as Queen Medusa in three 1979 episodes of the TV series "Jason of Star Command".
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