The Starlost: Difference between revisions

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[[File:starlost_9083.jpg|frame|Doesn't look 8000 miles long, does it?]]One of the legendarily bad television shows, broadcast on CTV in Canada and syndicated in the United States from 1973-1974.

The Earth was doomed. So they built the Earthship ARK, a [[Generation Ships|generation ship]] 8000 miles long and carrying a collection of fifty-three [[City in A Bottle|biospheres]], each populated with a [[Planet of Hats|unique culture]], and launched it towards another star. But early in the voyage there was an accident -- now [[Everybody's Dead, Dave|the crew is dead]], the ship is off-course, the biospheres (along with their cultures) have been isolated from each other for centuries, and their peoples have forgotten that they are even aboard a ship.

The Earth was doomed. So they built the Earthship ARK, a [[Generation Ships|generation ship]] 8000 miles long and carrying a collection of fifty-three [[City in a Bottle|biospheres]], each populated with a [[Planet of Hats|unique culture]], and launched it towards another star. But early in the voyage there was an accident -- now [[Everybody's Dead, Dave|the crew is dead]], the ship is off-course, the biospheres (along with their cultures) have been isolated from each other for centuries, and their peoples have forgotten that they are even aboard a ship.

Devon (Keir Dullea of ''[[~~2001: A Space Odyssey (Film)|~~2001: A Space Odyssey]]'') is an inquisitive young man native to the Amish-like culture of Cypress Corners. In love with [[Love Interest|Rachel]], he refuses to accept her [[Arranged Marriage]] to his friend Garth. His disruptive ways win him no love from the Elders of Cypress Corners, and eventually expand his world beyond anything he imagined: he discovers in one night both the corruption of the Elders and an access hatch to the rest of the ship. Fleeing the Elders through the hatch, he explores the ship and uses its library computer system to discover a disturbing truth: within five years the ARK will plunge into a star. Devon returns to Cypress Corners to warn his friends and family, but is tried for heresy and sentenced to be executed. Garth helps him to escape the night before his execution, and Devon convinces both Garth and Rachel to follow him into the ship on a quest to find both the backup bridge and someone who can pilot.

Devon (Keir Dullea of ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'') is an inquisitive young man native to the Amish-like culture of Cypress Corners. In love with [[Love Interest|Rachel]], he refuses to accept her [[Arranged Marriage]] to his friend Garth. His disruptive ways win him no love from the Elders of Cypress Corners, and eventually expand his world beyond anything he imagined: he discovers in one night both the corruption of the Elders and an access hatch to the rest of the ship. Fleeing the Elders through the hatch, he explores the ship and uses its library computer system to discover a disturbing truth: within five years the ARK will plunge into a star. Devon returns to Cypress Corners to warn his friends and family, but is tried for heresy and sentenced to be executed. Garth helps him to escape the night before his execution, and Devon convinces both Garth and Rachel to follow him into the ship on a quest to find both the backup bridge and someone who can pilot.

Originally an award-winning script for a miniseries by [[Harlan Ellison]], it was changed into a series and [[Executive Meddling|ruined by the producer]]. For the complete, unvarnished story of what happened to the series, see Ellison's book ''Phoenix Without Ashes''. For a hilarious fictionalized version, see Ben Bova's novel ''The Starcrossed''.

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* [[The Ark]]: Earthship ARK.

* [[Artificial Gravity]]

* [[City in A Bottle]]: The biospheres.

* [[City in a Bottle]]: The biospheres.

* [[Creator Backlash]]: Forty years later, [[Harlan Ellison]] ''still'' castigates everyone who ruined the show.

* [[Disowned Adaptation]]: Ellison wrote a miniseries to his usual high standards. What came out at the other end... wasn't. So he put his "warning - this is shit" pseudonym "Cordwainer Bird" on it despite pressure from the producers.

* [[The End of the World As We Know It]]: Twice -- once in the past, with the unspecified disaster that destroyed Earth, and once again in the near future with the threatened destruction of the last survivors of Earth.

* [[The End of the World as We Know It]]: Twice -- once in the past, with the unspecified disaster that destroyed Earth, and once again in the near future with the threatened destruction of the last survivors of Earth.

* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]: The ship's crew.

* [[Executive Meddling]]