Updated: February 14, 2024

Island of the Sky was so great that I had to make two dioramas of it. My absolute favorite thrilling shot was of the Jupiter-2 ( really the Gemini 12 ) flying by this pinnacle at Red Rock Canyon. It was a great example of how realistic real miniature filming could look. I made my diorama with a Lunar Models Gemini 12 and used some photos that I had taken at the actual filming site to carve out my boulders. The pinnacle is much higher than what I made but I just used the part that was seen on screen so the diorama didn't get too big. There was a group of us fans who went there 11 years ago and tried to recreate that shot by flying Phil Lublin's Jupiter-2 on wires past that pinnacle. I still had to use the screen shot since the top of the pinnacle had eroded a little. The other diorama is when they returned in the chariot after rescuing John, and ran into the electric sagebrush reminding them of the strange plant life on their new planet. I was going to use regular flashing lights but I found some LED strobe lights that looked better as lightning flashes. I do have one original prop from that episode, the broken visor that's left from the helmet after the robot crushed it as a demonstration by Dr. Smith. There was a lot of excitement between the crushing of the helmet and running into the sagebrush that made you look forward to the next episode.

Bill Hedges