If you are truly a Canadian science fiction fan/ geek you must know Starlost.
If you have never heard of Starlost you need to catch up on it! Starlost was a Canadian science fiction TV series created by Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada. Ben Bova was the science advisor.
It was quirky and people will say it was not very good but I would say it had personality and was loads of fun to watch. But, I like science fiction when it’s not very good. (I do draw the line at down right awful though).
The Starlost was 16 episodes (1973 – 1974)
- Keir Dullea as Devon
- Gay Rowan as Rachel
- Robin Ward as Garth
One Day you Discover your Planet is Actually One Community on the Spaceship, Ark
The Starlost is about Devon, Rachel and Garth who grow up in a backwards pioneer sort of community, Cypress Corners . Rachel, Devon and Garth are in a romantic triangle. Rachel wants Devon but is told to marry Garth. So they run away, Garth following. This is when the bottom drops out of their world.
Garth, Rachel and Devon are on a spaceship, the Ark, which is on a collision course with a Class G solar star. Cypress Corners has just been one domed community in a giant spaceship. They find this out when they discover a computer set up to provide assistance and answer questions should any of the Ark inhabitants wander outside of their community domes and discover they aren’t on a planet at all.
The TV series becomes the three of them working together, in spite of their differences, to try to keep the Ark and all it’s inhabitants from destruction. They meet other cultures who have been isolated in their own domes (biospheres) and evolved in unique ways. They also find out more about the Ark itself and those who built and ran it. However, they discover the crew of the bridge are dead when they find skeletal remains in spacesuits.
The most memorable part of the show for me was the computer man. Sometimes he was just a disembodied voice and other times he was the face on the screen when they interacted with the ship’s computer. The actor who played the computer and voice was William Osler. He was very distinctive and a bit intimidating (even scary) when I watched the show long ago.