The Starlost
Title card
Genre	Science fiction Drama
Created by	Harlan Ellison (as Cordwainer Bird)
Written by	Harlan Ellison (as Cordwainer Bird) George Ghent Norman Klenman Martin Lager
Directed by	Harvey Hart Martin Lager George McCowan Leo Orenstein Ed Richardson Joseph L. Scanlan
Starring	Keir Dullea Gay Rowan Robin Ward
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	16
Production
Executive producers	William Davidson Gerry Rochon Douglas Trumbull Jerome M. Zeitman
Producers	William Davidson Ed Richardson Gerry Rochon Douglas Trumbull Jerome M. Zeitman
Editors	Bernie Clayton Gordon Stoddard
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	50 mins.
Production companies	20th Century-Fox Television CTV Television Network Glen Warren Productions
Original release
Network	CTV
Release	September 22, 1973 (1973-09-22) – January 5, 1974 (1974-01-05)

The Starlost is aCanadian-producedscience fiction television series created by writerHarlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 onCTV in Canada andsyndicated to local stations in the United States. The show's setting is a hugegenerational colony spacecraft calledEarthship 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.^[1][2]

Foreseeing the destruction of Earth, humanity builds a multi-generationalstarship calledEarthship Ark, 50 miles (80 km) wide and 200 miles (320 km) long. The ship contains dozens ofbiospheres, each kilometres across and housing people of different cultures. Their goal is to find and seed a new world of a distant star. In 2385, more than 100 years into the voyage, an unexplained accident occurs, and the ship goes into emergency mode in which each biosphere is sealed off from the others.

In 2790, 405 years after the accident, Devon (Keir Dullea) a resident of Cypress Corners, an agrarian community with a culture resembling that of theAmish, discovers that his world is far larger and more mysterious than he had realized. Considered an outcast because of his questioning of the way things are, especially his refusal to accept the arranged marriage of his love Rachel (Gay Rowan) to his friend Garth (Robin Ward), Devon finds out that the Cypress Corners elders have been deliberately manipulating the local computer terminal, which they call "The Voice of The Creator". The congregation pursues Devon for attacking the elders and stealing a computer cassette on which they have recorded their orders, and its leaders plot to execute him, but the elderly Abraham, who also questions the elders, gives Devon a key to a dark mysterious doorway, which Abraham himself is afraid to enter. The frightened Devon escapes into the service areas of the ship and accesses a computer data station, which explains the nature and the purpose of the Ark and hints at its problems.

When Devon returns to Cypress Corners to tell his community what he has learned, he is put on trial for heresy and condemned to death by stoning. Escaping on the night before his execution with the aid of Garth, Devon convinces Rachel to come with him, and Garth pursues them. When Rachel refuses to return with Garth, he joins her and Devon. Eventually they make their way to the ship's bridge, containing the skeletal remains of its crew. It is badly damaged, and its control systems are inoperative. The three discover that the Ark is on a collision course with aClass G starsimilar to the Sun and realize that the only way to save the Ark and its passengers is to find the backup bridge at the other end of the Ark and to reactivate the navigation and propulsion systems.

Getting to the other end of the Ark, which is potentially hundreds of miles away, involves traveling through the many disparate communities on the starship, some of which are hostile to outsiders, and all of which have different social customs, belief systems and law enforcement practices. Generally, each episode will have Devon, Rachel, and Garth encountering a new society or group as they work their way through the ship. Occasionally, they are aided (or hindered) in their travels by the ship's frustrating and only partially-functioning computer system interface, known as Mu Lambda 165 (portrayed by William Osler, who also provided the opening narration for each episode).

20th Century Fox was involved in the project withDouglas Trumbull as executive producer. The science fiction writer and editorBen Bova was brought in as science advisor.

Harlan Ellison was approached by Robert Kline, a20th Century Fox television producer, to come up with an idea for a science fiction TV series consisting of eight episodes, to pitch to theBBC as aco-production in February 1973.^[1] The BBC rejected the idea.^[2] Unable to sellThe 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 48NBC stations and the CanadianCTV network.^[1]

Ellison claimed that to get Canadian government subsidies, the production was shot in Canada, and Canadian writers produced the scripts from story outlines by Ellison.^[1] However, several produced episodes were written entirely by American writers.

Before Ellison could begin work on the show's production bible, a writers' strike began, running from March 6 to June 24.^[3] Kline negotiated an exception with theWriter's Guild, on the grounds that the production was wholly Canadian – and Ellison went to work on a bible for the series.^[1]

Originally, the show was to be filmed with a special effects camera system developed byDoug Trumbull called Magicam. The system comprised two cameras, the motion of which was controlled by servos.^[4] 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, simpleblue screen effects were used, which forced static camera shots.^[2]

The failure of the Magicam system was a major blow, as the Canadian studio space that had been rented was too small to build the required sets. In the end, partial sets were built, but the lack of space hampered production.^[2]

As the filming went on, Ellison grew disenchanted with the budget cuts, details that were changed, and what he characterized as a progressivedumbing down of the story. Ellison's dissatisfaction extended to the new title of the pilot episode; he had titled it "Phoenix without Ashes" but it was changed to "Voyage of Discovery".^{[citation needed]}

Before the production of the pilot episode was completed, Ellison invoked a clause in his contract to force the producers to use his alternative registered writer's name of "Cordwainer Bird" on the end credits.

Sixteen episodes were made. Fox decided not to pick up the options for the remainder of the series.

On March 31, 1974, Ellison received aWriters Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for the original script (the pilot script as originally written, not the version that was filmed). A novelization of the script byEdward Bryant,Phoenix Without Ashes, was published in 1975 and contained a lengthy foreword by Ellison describing what had gone on in production. In 2010, the novel was adapted intocomic book form byIDW Publishing.

Ben Bova, in an editorial inAnalog Science Fiction (June 1974) and in interviews in fanzines, made it clear how disgruntled he had been as science adviser. In 1975, he published a novel entitledThe Starcrossed, depicting a scientist taken on as a science adviser for a terrible science fiction series.

From contemporary reviews, Michael Walsh inThe Province commented on the first episode, writing that he found the model work on the show impressive while concluding it was "written, directed, acted, lit, photographed, recorded and edited like a church basement production".^[5]

The Starlost has received a generally negative reception from historians of science fiction television:The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describedThe Starlost as "dire",^[6] whileThe Best of Science Fiction TV includedThe Starlost in its list of the "Worst Science Fiction Shows of All Time".^[7]

TheStarlog 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.^[8]

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 tocable television broadcasters in the late 1980s.

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

The first DVD release was limited to the five feature-length edited versions.^[9]

In September/October 2008, the full series was released onDVD 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 filmSilent Running to represent theEarthship Ark concept, and a different series logo.

In early 2019, aRoku channel began airingThe Starlost as its only program.^[10]

• 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)

• Sterling Hayden as Jeremiah
• Frank Converse as Dr. Gerald W. Aaron
• John Colicos as Governor
• Barry Morse as Shaliff
• Lloyd Bochner as Colonel M. P. Garroway
• Diana Barrington as Captain Janice
• Simon Oakland as Dr. Asgard
• Percy Rodriguez as I. A. Richards
• Angel Tompkins as Daphne
• Ed Ames as President Mr. Smith
• Alexandra Bastedo as Egreck 419B2 Idona
• Walter Koenig as Oro of planet Xar
• Antoinette Bower as Dr. Heather Marshall

Similar themes:

• The Ark – television series about a suspended animated human colony ship being sent to a nearby star system from a dying 22nd century Earth, in which the colonists wake-up after the ship's primary command crew had been killed in an unknown disaster whilst en route, debuted on SYFY/Peacock in February, 2023.
• Space: 1999 – television series where the whole moon, with over 300 people onMoonbase Alpha, gets knocked out of orbit, sending it hurtling uncontrollably into space.
• Tau Zero – a novel where a colonization vessel crewed by 25 men and 25 women due to damage have to abandon the original goal and travel ever farther, and the time dilation makes it impossible to return to Earth.

• The Starlost atIMDb
• The Starlost: Deception atIMDb
• The Starlost: The Alien Oro atIMDb
• The Starlost: The Beginning atIMDb

• 1973 Canadian television series debuts
• 1974 Canadian television series endings
• 1970s Canadian science fiction television series
• 1970s Canadian drama television series
• CTV Television Network original programming
• Canadian English-language television shows
• Fiction about generation ships
• Post-apocalyptic television series
• Space adventure television series
• Television series by 20th Century Fox Television
• Television series by Glen-Warren Productions
• Television series by Bell Media
• Works set in the 28th century
• Noah's Ark in television
• First-run syndicated television programs in the United States

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2021
• IMDb title ID different from Wikidata