The Starlost

The Starlost is a Canadian-produced science fiction television series created by writer Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada and syndicated to local stations in the United States. The show's setting is a huge generational colony spacecraft called Earthship Ark which, following an unspecified accident, has gone off course. Centuries after its original launch however, most of the descendants of the original crew and colonists are unaware that they are even aboard a spaceship. The series experienced a number of production difficulties, and Ellison broke with the project before the airing of its first episode. The BBC rejected the idea. Unable to sell The Starlost for prime time, Kline decided to pursue a low budget approach and produce it for syndication. By May, Kline had sold the idea to 48 NBC stations and the Canadian CTV network. Kline negotiated an exception with the Writer's Guild, on the grounds that the production was wholly Canadian – and Ellison went to work on a bible for the series. One camera would film actors against a blue screen, and the other would shoot a model background. The motion of both cameras was synchronized and scaled appropriately, allowing both the camera and the actors to move through model sets. The technology did not work reliably, however. In the end, simple blue screen effects were used, which forced static camera shots.

The Starlost has received a generally negative reception from historians of science fiction television: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction described The Starlost as "dire", while The Best of Science Fiction TV included The Starlost in its list of the "Worst Science Fiction Shows of All Time".

Episodes

The Starlog Photo Guidebook TV Episode Guides Volume 1 (1981) lists two unfilmed episodes, "God That Died" and "People in the Dark." The latter episode, written by George Salverson, follows Devon, Rachel, and Garth as they discover a dome in which people have been living in the dark since the accident to the Ark.

Episodes of the original series were rebroadcast in 1978 and further in 1982. A number of episodes were also edited together to create movie-length installments that were sold to cable television broadcasters in the late 1980s.

{| class="wikitable"

! Movie !! Episodes

| The Starlost: The Beginning || "Voyage of Discovery" and "The Goddess Calabra"

| The Starlost: The Return || "The Pisces" and "Farthing's Comet"

| The Starlost: Deception || "Mr. Smith of Manchester" and "Gallery of Fear"

| The Starlost: The Alien Oro || "The Alien Oro" and "The Return of Oro"

| The Starlost: The Invasion || "Astro-Medics" and "The Implant People"

Commercial releases

All 16 episodes were at one time available in a VHS boxed set.

The first DVD release was limited to the five feature-length edited versions.

In September/October 2008, the full series was released on DVD by VCI Entertainment. Aside from the digitally remastered episodes, a "presentation reel" created for potential broadcasters is also included. Hosted by Dullea and Trumbull, and predating Ellison's departure as he is credited under his own name with creating the series, the short feature includes sample footage using the later-abandoned Magicam technology, some filmed special effects footage taken from other productions along with model footage from the film Silent Running to represent the Earthship Ark concept, and a different series logo.

In early 2019, a Roku channel began airing The Starlost as its only program.

Cast

Keir Dullea as Devon
Gay Rowan as Rachel
Robin Ward as Garth
William Osler as the voice and image of Mu Lambda 165 (a.k.a. Host Computer)

Episodes

Commercial releases

Cast

Notable guest stars

See also

References