The Starlost

The Starlost had the potential to be a classic science fiction series as it was created by the superb writer Harlan Ellison. The premise was intriguing: earth is abandoned by the humans that have poisoned it in various ways. A great spaceship arc is constructed and a series of domes house various cultures. At some point in their journey an accident occurs killing the crew, the domes are sealed off, and in time the different societies within them come to believe only in their own world and are unaware they are part of a massive starship.3 individuals from a dome with an agrarian community discover the truth, along with the fact that the ark is on a collision course with a g-class star.The series revolved around their attempts to save the ark. unfortunately Ellison came into conflict with the producers & writes extensively about this in an intro into the book based on the series, Phoenix Without Ashes.The fact that the show had a shoestring budget did not help either.This would be a wonderful premise to revive with Ellison on board, and the state-of-the-art special effects now available.

IF the shot had used film instead of video tape, IF the supporting cast around Keir Dullea could act, and IF there had been some better scripts. The show had three good episodes; the first: "Voyage to Discovery", the second: "Lazarus frim the Mist", and one of the last "Farthins Comet". In all there were only 17 produced before the plug was yanked in the winter of 1973. I remeber how much I liked the show, and had it had a little more money spent on its prouction it might have lasted a bit longer. As it was shot on video tape, which degrades over time, I doubt any of the shows still exist. If they indeed still exist it would be great to see it on the Sci-Fi channel. I thought The Ark (the spaceship) was totally cool, and believable from the concept of the show. I read on the website devoted to the show that some one is trying to restore the Ark studio model back to as it originally existed!

I recently purchased a video cassette copy of "The Starlost, the beginning". While viewing the film, I could not help but notice the dismally poor quality of the sets and the weakness in the actor's portrayals of the characters.I enjoyed watching the film despite the obvious shortcomings, I mean after all, It was filmed way back in 1973. Again, I enjoyed the film and I intend to purchase other episodes of the short lived series as soon as I can. I remember when the show first aired in 1973. At the time, I was only 11 and was unaware of how poorly executed this fascinating story had been done.When the show was canceled, I had pretty much forgotten about the show. It has only been within the last two years that I rediscovered this rarely seen science fiction series.I can appreciate what the series producers tried to do with the show, but their ideas fell apart. Let's cut the producers and actors of the time a little slack.It was filmed in CANADA,on a extremely limited budget. The technically sophisticated filming innovations used to produce science fiction shows of today, was virtually non existent back in 1973.Although the television show that we first viewed back in 1973 was a complete disaster, the story is fresh and renewed for a new generation of science fiction fans yearning for something new to watch . I for one, hope to see this show revived just like they did with "Battlestar Galactica".A remake of "The Starlost" is a science fiction story that the television big-wigs, should really consider bringing back for a viewing audience of the 21st century.

OK, so everyone thinks the production values were terrible, then why after 35 years, does this series still exist as clear as a bell in my mind? It was amazingly thought out and the possibilities for plots were infinite like any good sci-fi series. Of particular interest were the "bounce tubes". A travel method that involved jumping into a tunnel that had no gravity and being sucked to the other end. I couldn't wait for each time the characters did that! The show was filled with "wow" moments like the view of the destroyed command center, and the view out the the window at the incredible length of the ship. Note: The ship in this series was recycled a few years later as the ship in the movie, "Silent Running".

I desperately hope that there is a television producer out there that is looking for an idea to remake. With modern computer animation and a cast of a few talented young stars this could easily be the Star Trek of the new century.

You know, I was just sleeping and having a dream about a huge generational spaceship, with separate hanging living complexes, which carries most of the population of Earth away to a distant world. Then I realized, I'd seen this concept before on TV, when I was a kid. Reaching through my own memory banks to the distant past, I could only come up with the words: "lost", "ark", and "Walter Koenig" (Chekov from Star Trek). Did the search for Koenig through IMDb, and sure enough found this entry. If I had instead done a search for "lost" and "ark", I'd have probably ended up in "Raiders of The Lost Ark", so it's a good thing I didn't do that search. :-)

Wow, now that I'm looking at the list of stars of this show, I am surprised by how many of them are well-known. Walter Koenig was just a guest star on it. I didn't realize that one of the stars was Keir Dullea, Dave from 2001: A Space Oddessy. Also Robin Ward, I remember he used to be a weatherman or something later on. Ah, ancient Canadian memories.

Koenig seems to have a knack for memorable guest appearances on sci-fi shows. He also had a memorable turn as Bester on Babylon 5.