This is one of those adaptations that should never have been made. Some spoilers here-The original story by Arthur C. Clarke concerned a freighter en route to Venus when a meteor strike left the vessel with only enough oxygen for one crewmember to survive the trip -a variation on the "Lifeboat" theme. Like all good such stories it centered around the psychological strains as they struggle with the up coming decision. Here is where the movie breaks down. One of the endearing traits of a properly handled SF story such as this is that the authors treat physics seriously. There is no deux ex machina rescues. There are consequences to accidents in space and the better writers do not attempt to evade them. In fact -the basic thrust is that there may not be any solution (See "The Cold Equations" for an example.) The scriptwriters here violated every tenet of good SF writing. This particular spacecraft had a lifeboat- an utterly absurd concept on a spacecraft limited to Hohman Transfer orbits. Trust me on this- All the captain did in leaving on that lifeboat was to guarantee himself a slow agonizing death- I hope he had no children so we could give him a Darwin Award for "Too Dumb To Live." The actions of a crewman in bungling repairs was about as pointless as it gets. -i.e. yeah big deal he repaired the damage but where do we get the oxygen to replace that lost? Oh- he lost even more oxygen. He is a qualified astronaut- how? The interactions of the crew with each other was such that I really wanted them ALL to die.- and the little dog too. Not very good storytelling. And the ending with a hibernation chamber was the very epitome of a deux ex machina by a writer that doesn't want to actually follow a story to the proper ending. This film ranks as a big missed opportunity. Because Television has done some decent shows. The remake of the "Twilight Zone" did a very good job with the Tom Godwin story "The Cold Equations", William Lee's "A Message From Charity" and Arthur Clarke's "The Star." The key to doing these adaptations is to stay true to the story as written even though some things simply have to be changed for the nature of the TV medium. Contrast this one with "Gravity" -one I thoroughly enjoyed and willingly let them use their "artistic license" to violate some orbital physics for the sake of the story. Tell a good yarn and I will let you get away with a lot. Tell a bad one and I won't. This was a bad one.

In Britain most newspapers on a Saturday and Sunday give away free TV magazines with listings as to what's coming on television for the next week and all of them were unanimous in saying that the worst movie being broadcast on network television was TRAPPED IN SPACE , but I've got to disagree since it wasn't even the worst movie on that night!!!!! MILD SPOILERS !!!!! Yeah okay this isn't a great movie and the fact that the opening credits feature white bold letters superimposed over the action means its production values are very similar to a TVM . It's fairly obvious that production value wise it is indeed a TVM since the camera work is very static , most of the cast have done more television than cinema work and there's a woman saving a really cute dog . It also becomes obvious that when you see a cryogenic chamber this somehow ties in with at least one character being saved from a slow suffocating death and I bet the majority of the audience managed to work out the ending long before it played out on screen But let me defend the movie to a point . It has a fairly impressive premise of a spaceship being hit by some debris , the captain escaping in the only lifepod and the remaining five crewmen realising there's only enough oxygen for three personnel on the voyage to Venus . Perhaps it's not as developed as well as it should but the story did hold my interest and some of the main characters do die which means TRAPPED IN SPACE isn't as predictable as first thought

well, since you're reading a review there's bound to be spoilers. but i might as well issue the warning anyways. but its not like i'd be ruining anything. the plot is predictable.an asteroid hits the ship, oxygen supplies are lost, the entire crew cant survive the trip. one guy decides to go on a rampage. how original.the effects are awful, the acting is often clunky, the plot is inconsistent.it is, however, a good time waster. IF you have absolutely nothing else to do. 3/10

This is much better than I expected it to be. I mean it stars Jack Wagner fer crying out loud! That it's as entertaining as this is amazes me. And you know Wagner is actually pretty good here as his character was given the most depth and personality...and I actually liked him in this!? That's never happened to me before. Jack Coleman's Grant stands out as well even if his character is never fully developed. Coleman still manages to add something mysterious to the character with his mannerisms and expression. The best thing I like about this film though is the ending which raises it above the norm in terms of 90s Science Fiction television films.