List of Land of the Lost characters and species
Land of the Lost is a 1974–1976 TV series relating the adventures of the Marshall family. The Marshalls become trapped in a pocket universe populated by dinosaurs, ape-like creatures called Pakuni, and anthropomorphic reptilian creatures named Sleestak. This article concerns these characters, along with other human and alien visitors to the Land of the Lost.
Travel to the Land of the Lost is almost always accidental, via "time doorways" that appear to glow and/or billow mist. These doorways sometimes appear to open and close spontaneously, but they can also be opened and controlled by Pylon crystal matrix tables and by a matrix table in the Lost City. Time doorways obey a form of temporal energy conservation law: whenever something enters the Land of the Lost via a time doorway, something else must then leave it, though not necessarily at exactly the same time. This aspect was abandoned in the show's third and final season, after new producers took over and the show's mythology was substantially changed.
At least one Pylon periodically travels to other universes, acting as a sort of "interdimensional elevator", triggered by a conjunction of the Land's moons that occurs every three to four years. One of the universes it stops at along the way appears to be the Marshalls' home Earth.
Humans
The Marshalls
Rick, Will, and Holly Marshall are the initial human protagonists on Land of the Lost. Rick is later replaced by Uncle Jack.Rick Marshall, his son Will, and his young daughter Holly were rafting on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon when they were caught in "the greatest earthquake ever known". The river was diverted over a cliff, and as the Marshalls' raft plunged over the resulting waterfall they struck a time doorway partway down. Trapped in the Land of the Lost with only the minimal camping equipment they'd had on the raft, they make their camp in a natural cave partway up the face of a cliff they call the High Bluff.
The three of them are from California, though Rick grew up on Ford Street in Indianapolis and attended Fillmore High there. The Marshalls formerly lived in Harrisville, Indiana. Mrs. Marshall died of unspecified causes when Will and Holly were very young, and neither of them remembers her very clearly. Rick describes her as being headstrong and beautiful, just like Holly, and apparently loved her deeply. Will and Holly frequently suffer bouts of sibling rivalry, though they overcome such issues when the situation becomes difficult enough. Will is the most adventurous of the Marshalls, frequently taking "shortcuts" as an excuse to explore new territory and tampering with Pylons to determine their function. Holly suffers from a fear of heights.
At the beginning of the third season, Rick Marshall is lost unexpectedly via a time doorway in a newly discovered pylon; Will and Holly's uncle Jack Marshall, who had been searching for them for six months by following the same river route along which they'd originally disappeared, experiences another earthquake and falls through a doorway into the Land. At the same time, another earthquake occurs in the Land itself that buries High Bluff along with the Marshalls' equipment and provisions. Therefore, the Marshalls move into a temple near the Lost City instead.
The series ends without showing the Marshalls' ultimate fate, though there are some ambiguous suggestions of it. In "Elsewhen", an adult version of Holly visits via a time doorway from the future, and in another episode a mysterious "repairman" confidently predicts that the Marshalls will someday escape the Land of the Lost.
An alternate universe version of the Marshalls appear in "Split Personality". It is discovered in the last first-season episode that the Marshalls were their own counterbalance; their stepping through a doorway in a waterfall is what causes the time doorway that drew them there in the first place to open. "Circle" was intended to serve as a "final episode" in the event that the show was not renewed.
Jefferson Davis Collie III
Jefferson Davis Collie III is an old and somewhat deranged Confederate artillery man who has been in the Land of the Lost for many decades. He lives in the caves near where the river goes underground, obsessively mining the rich veins of light crystals there. His only companion is a cannon named "Sarah" with which he drives away the occasional group of Sleestak attackers using home-made gunpowder; he reports that Sleestak "taste a whole lot like lobster. But then again, not like lobster, if you know what I mean." Otherwise, his diet seems to consist solely of fish and wild mushrooms. The Marshalls encounter him when they attempt to ride the river out of the Land in the episode "Downstream", but he ultimately returns to his cave rather than face the dinosaurs in the jungle outside. Apparently, Collie is turned to stone by Medusa, appearing in her garden during the third-season episode "Medusa".Collie was played by Walker Edmiston, the same actor who later played Enik the Altrusian. The original script for "Downstream" called for him to have a rifle, but concerns over young viewers being inspired to play with firearms resulted in its substitution with a cannon.
Rani
"Rani", though she never actually states this, is likely an adult version of Holly from an unspecified point in the future. In "Elsewhen" she arrives through an open time doorway in Enik's cave to give aid to Holly after she runs off and leaves her family in one of the lower caverns. Rani appears to be in her early to mid-20s, with shoulder-length blonde hair and wears a simple yet elegant gown made from a pale blue fabric. Around her neck, she wears a pendant with a large blue crystal set into it with smaller yellow crystals framing it. She offers three identical pendants to Holly which "work like walkie-talkies" and will allow her to communicate with other wearers over long distance. She has a scar on the inside of her right arm which she received "while helping her brother out of a difficult situation". She convinces Holly that her family sees her as "the baby of the family" and are therefore overprotective of her and that she needs to help them any way she can. She also confesses with great sadness that "they won't always be there". Rani also tells her that in order to help them she must overcome her fear of heights by looking at the earth. Holly finally realizes who she is after she receives a fresh scar identical to Rani's while fighting the Sleestak "god" in order to buy time for her father to haul an injured Will up and out of the pit. She also claims that "Rani" was her secret name for herself that no one else knew about. Rani says that she is proof that her family can escape the Land one day and disappears through the open doorway.Peter Koenig and Harry Potts
Peter Koenig was a private in General George Washington's Revolutionary Army who arrived in the Land of the Lost some time prior to the Marshalls. Koenig and his companion Harry Potts explored the Land extensively in search of a way back to Earth.When the Marshalls first arrive, they discover a stone pillar in the jungle where Koenig had written "Beware of Sleestak" with chalk. The Marshalls only learn much later who had been responsible for this warning, when they discovered Koenig's journal. Koenig claims to have dubbed the Sleestak thus in honor of Major Joshua Sleestak. Koenig claims in his journal to have taught the Pakuni a few English words.
Koenig met his death when he followed Potts' path into the Lost City. Koenig went into the third entrance, "where the pillars end", which eventually led through a narrow passageway into the "Devil's Cauldron". This was a lava chamber, with a narrow ledge, where he became trapped when the lava level rose, reviving the Sleestak. He preferred to await death in the lava chamber, rather than facing the Sleestak who had gathered outside the chamber to catch him. The Marshalls find Koenig's skeleton in the chamber and narrowly escape a similar fate.
Beauregard Jackson
Beauregard Jackson of Fort Worth, Texas, is a hypersonic glider pilot from 20 years in Earth's future relative to when the Marshalls became trapped in the Land of the Lost. As shown in the episode "Hurricane", he becomes briefly trapped in the Land of the Lost when Will, tinkering with the crystal matrix table in a Pylon located high on a mountain, causes a time doorway to open high above the ground. Jackson's glider was re-entering Earth's atmosphere over Ecuador, returning from a routine transit between Phoenix Port and Space Station 5. His glider's tail is suddenly severed, and the next thing he knows he is hanging from a tree by his parachute. With the help of the Marshalls, Jackson soon manages to return via the same time doorway, but the Marshalls cannot follow since Earth's end of the time doorway is 15 miles above the ground and there is only one parachute.However, in the original script Jackson makes an offhand remark about Texas being its own country prompting a suspicious Rick to compare the currency in his wallet with Jackson's. He discovers that not only is Jackson from the future, but from an alternate timeline where Texas was not part of the United States, and oil is the standard economic unit of account.