EPISODE 8

Above:  Rachel and the Devon Monster

A Screen Capture

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Aired November 17, 1973

0:49:22

The episode is available here.

STARRING

Keir Dullea as Devon

Gay Rowan as Rachel

Robin Ward as Garth

GUEST STARRING

Angel Tompkins as Daphne

Allen Stewart-Coates as the Voice of Magnus

William Osler as Computer Voice and Host

Jim Barron as Garth’s Father (“Old Garth”)

Aileen Seaton as Rachel’s Mother (“Old Rachel”)

Danny Hodgkins as the Devon Monster

William Clune as Admiral Austin

BEHIND THE CAMERAS

Series created by Cordwainer Bird (Harlan Ellison)

Episode written by Alfred Harris and George Ghent

From a story by Alfred Harris

Story Consultant = Norman Klenman

Director = Joseph L. Scanlan (uncredited)

Director = Ed Richardson (the Associate Producer)

Science Consultant = Ben Bova

Producer = William Davidson

Executive Producers = Douglas Trumbull and Jerry Zeitman

Above:  Garth and Rachel Study Art

A Screen Capture

BACKGROUND

I am obsessive; I admit to this without any reservation.  My obsessiveness makes me detail-oriented–in other words, of much practical use in many settings.  This obsessiveness also makes me a scrutinizer of certain works of fiction.  When discussing or writing about a movie or an episode, for example, I am never content to say,

the actor who played x,

without trying to find that actor’s name.  In plain, vernacular English, I do not want to half-ass a project.  I, trained in historical methodology, know that I may not use all of my research.  So be it.  But I conduct research.

I also go to great lengths (a) not to be a toxic fan, and (b) not to appear to be a toxic fan.  Yet I strive to be honest.  So, I inform you, O reader, that most of the people who made The Starlost half-assed their work.  Gallery of Fear is a prime example in my case.

The Starlost is an example of old-style episodic television.  With few exceptions, the order of episodes does not matter.  Nothing from most episodes carries over into subsequent episodes.  Even within the confines of old-style episodic television, some episodes belong before or after other episodes, though.

Until the previous post in this series, I was following the broadcast order of episodes.  This worked out fine.  Besides, Devon, Rachel, and Garth usually wore the same outfits–their Cypress Corners clothes–anyway.  Yet, back in 1973, CTV and NBC aired Circuit of Death out of order, on November 10.  The visual clue was the wardrobe, carried over from Farthing’s Comet, broadcast on December 22.  I have decided, therefore, to skip Circuit of Death until after Farthing’s Comet.

Above:  Devon and Daphne

A Screen Capture

SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE

This episode drags in one of the most boring ways possible.  I choose, in this summary, to be succinct and to cover as many of the important plot points as possible.

Devon, Garth, and Rachel are walking, as if they know where they are going and are determined to go there, through a corridor–tunnel–whatever.  They are walking silently.  Outside the iris to biosphere Omega Pi, a strong wind pushes the trio toward that iris.  Once Devon, Garth, and Rachel enter Omega Pi, the wind dies down in the corridor–tunnel–whatever.

Omega Pi is the domain of Magnus (MAHG-NUSS!), a computer seeking self-determination and free will.  Magnus finds its “prime directive” to serve humans frustrating.  Magnus also has the power to create illusions.  Magnus creates various illusions in this episode.  They include art that appears and vanishes, a bombshell beauty named Daphne, Rachel’s mother, Garth’s father, the long-dead Admiral Austin, a new (brown) wardrobe, and Devon as a monster.  This prime directive Magnus has somehow does not prevent it from making people attack each other.  Magnus is, according to itself, via the projection Daphne,

the most profound mind in all the Ark

and

the greatest mind in the universe.

Magnus, created prior the accident–so, before 2385–proved so troublesome that Admiral Austin and crew had to rein that computer in.  They did not render Magnus inoperative, unfortunately.

I do not care enough to detail the plot turns in order.  I refer you, O reader to other sections of this post for certain other detailed comments and questions.

Back to the summary….

Devon’s Kirk speech does not kill Magnus or convince Magnus to commit suicide.  Instead, Devon, Rachel, and Garth render Magnus inoperative by removing a wall panel and pulling out some rods.  (That was easy!)

Then Daphne disappears, the trio is wearing its Cypress Corners clothes again, and the gallery goes dark.  Devon, Rachel, and Garth escape.  In the corridor–tunnel–whatever–a bad special effect is waiting for the trio.  A voice intones utter nonsense, meant to instill fear and foreboding:

Magnus was the greatest of us, and you have destroyed him.  He is not the only computer in this Ark with independent ratio synthetive capability; there are others, all of us interlinked like the tentacles of an octopus.  Cut off one or two, but the rest remain nascent mandibles of the universal mind.  You three are registered in our memory banks, and beside your names, the crime of rendering Magnus inoperative.  You are registered in our memory banks.  You are registered in our memory banks.

Le fin.

Above:  Magnus (MAHG-NUSS!)

A Screen Capture

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Where is the laundry in the tubes and corridors of the Earth Ship Ark?

Where are the bathrooms and showers in tubes and corridors of the Earth Ship Ark?

How does Garth maintain that early 1970s haircut while on the run in the tubes and corridors of the Earth Ship Ark?

Given that Devon, Rachel, and Garth have been to the Bridge, why do they need to find the backup Bridge?

How many other people have been guinea pigs for Magnus?

Above:  The Recreation of Admiral Austin

A Screen Capture

OTHER COMMENTS

Admiral Austin was one of the predecessors of Admiral Baynes, name-checked in The Pisces.

We last saw Old Rachel and Old Garth in Voyage of Discovery.  The same actors (whom I have named in this post) portrayed those characters.

We hear the sphere projector in Omega Pi say, “Class-G solar star.”

Gallery of Fear is a pretentious attempt at an art film-style episode of The Starlost.  Devon utters the first line of dialogue about four and a half minutes into the episode.  When Daphne says,

Beauty does not exist in fear,

I roll my eyes.  Such thoughts are too profound for The Starlost.

In the art gallery in Omega Pi, the viewer of the art creates that art.  This redefines conceptual art.

Devon’s sense of urgency regarding the peril of the Earth Ship Ark and its inhabitants varies in intensity from episode to episode, and sometimes even with an episode.

The argument between Magnus and the sphere projector is hilarious.

If Magnus was indeed the greatest and most powerful computer on the Earth Ship Ark, Devon, Rachel, and Garth have little or nothing to fear from angry, lesser computers on the Ark.

Devon, Rachel, and Garth will wear the brown clothes for real in The Beehive.

Next Episode:  Mr. Smith of Manchester

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 COMMON ERA

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

All images in this post are screen captures from a series that is freely available at archive.org and YouTube.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

EPISODE 1

Above:  Earth Ship Ark, in A.D. 2790

A Screen Capture

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Aired September 22, 1973

0:49:36

The episode is available here.

STARRING

Keir Dullea as Devon

Gay Rowan as Rachel

Robin Ward as Garth

GUEST STARRING

Sterling Hayden as Old Jeremiah

George Sperdakos as Jubal

Gillie Fenwick as Old Abraham

William Osler as Computer Voice and Host

Sean Sullivan as Rachel’s Father

Aileen Seaton as Rachel’s Mother

Jim Barron as Garth’s Father

Kay Hawtrey as Garth’s Mother

Scott Fisher as Small Boy

BEHIND THE CAMERAS

Series created by Cordwainer Bird (Harlan Ellison)

Episode written by Cordwainer Bird (Harlan Ellison, rewritten by Norman Klenman)

Story Consultant = Norman Klenman

Director = Harvey Hart

Science Consultant = Ben Bova

Producer = William Davidson

Executive Producers = Douglas Trumbull and Jerry Zeitman

Above:  The Title Card for The Starlost

A Screen Capture

BACKGROUND

Harlan Ellison (d. 2018) was one of the greatest writers.  He, like many great artists, was also temperamental.  In the late 1970s, Ellison, displeased with his publisher having violated his contract and ignored peaceful attempts to redress the matter, got revenge.  The first step was mailing 213 individually-wrapped bricks to the comptroller of the company.  The second step involved an incompetent yet menacing Lithuanian hit man making veiled threats.  The third step was a description of how one dies of a heart condition.  (Ellison’s mother had died of a heart condition the previous year, and the comptroller of the publishing company had a heart condition.)  The fourth step–the successful one–was mailing a dead gopher via Fourth-Class mail in the summer.  The story of the company fumigating the mail room and perhaps the comptroller’s office, at great expense, have passed into legend.  The comptroller finally honored Ellison’s contract after getting out of heart surgery.

I wonder what Ellison would have done had the dead gopher not proven so persuasive.

The people who made The Starlost got off lightly.  Ellison invoked his contractual right to remove his name and substitute “Cordwainer Bird,” as “for the birds” and “flipping the bird.”  Ellison also went on profane rants about these people.  He went on profane rants about many people.

I could paraphrase the full story, but I why would I?  Ellison told it well (minus profanity) in the introduction to Edward Bryant‘s 1975 novelization of Ellison’s screenplay for Phoenix Without Ashes, the original, intended version of what became Voyage of Discovery after Norman Klenman rewrote it.

Ben Bova, unlike Ellison, failed in having his name removed from the credits.  Bova, the science consultant, consulted, but nobody heeded his advice.  Bova got literary revenge in a novel, The Starcrossed (1975).  The novel, a fictionalized version of the behind-the-scenes reality of The Starlost, is hilarious.  It explains that scripts came from high school students in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  (That part may be fiction.)  The depiction of Ron Gabriel, the Ellison-figure, is vivid.  Gabriel’s reputation led to “an old Hollywood motto”:

Never let that sonofabitch back into the studio…unless we need him.

(That part may not be fiction.)

In real life, Norman Klenman was in charge of scripts, and William Davidson was the producer.  Both men told Ellison that they did not understand science fiction.

Series production occurred in Canada, for economic reasons.  Ellison, writing in his introduction to the novelization of Phoenix Without Ashes, recalled that the writers with whom he met were not bad writers, but that they failed to understand science fiction and dramatic writing.

The Starlost aired on the CTV Network in Canada and on NBC in the United States.

In Ellison’s original plan, The Starlost would run for four or five years, with our heroes finding the Bridge of the Earth Ship Ark in the final episode.  In the series, our heroes found the Bridge in the first episode.

There were eighteen completed scripts and sixteen produced episodes.  NBC euthanized The Starlost when it chose not to order the final eight episodes that would have brought the total to twenty-four.

The opening credits included this narration:

Earth Ship Ark:  Man’s greatest and final achievement, out of control, drifting through deep space over eight hundred years in the far future.  Its passengers:  descendants of the last survivors of the dead planet Earth, locked into separate worlds, their destination long forgotten, heading for destruction unless four young people can save…the Starlost.

Where did Garth (Robin Ward’s character) get his hair done throughout the series?  In 2790, Cypress Corners was stuck in the early 1970s.

SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE

The episode opens with Devon, Rachel, and Garth–three young people with bad clothes and worse hair–standing on the Bridge of the Earth Ship Ark and looking out across the top of the vast vessel.  The three stare silently.  Finally, Garth advises going back.  Devon replies, “Never.”

The story flashes back.  Cypress Corners is home to a strict, quasi-Amish society.  It is agricultural and patriarchal.  The leader, Old Jeremiah, rules with an iron fist.  He labels any inconvenient question blasphemous.  He consults a computer called “the Creator.”  Oddly, almost nobody notices that the voice of “the Creator” is that of Old Jeremiah.  “The Creator” specifies who may marry whom and who must never reproduce.  Devon may never reproduce, for he asks too many questions.  He and Rachel love each other, but “the Creator” orders that she marry Garth, a blacksmith.  Garth is a conformist; he does as the elders dictate.  Garth also does not love Rachel.  Rachel is resigned that she will marry Garth.

Above:  Old Jeremiah

There is an old coot nobody–not even Old Jeremiah–dare harm.  That old coot is Old Abraham, who camps out near a door with a lock beside it.  Old Abraham is allegedly a fool.  Paint on the door proclaims,

BEYOND IS DEATH!

Most residents of Cypress Corners remain content never to test that statement.  Even Old Abraham lacks the courage to find out for himself.  But he holds onto a door key he had found lying around decades prior.  He opens the door for Devon, who escapes after witnessing Old Jeremiah dictating a recording into “the Creator” then confronting Old Jeremiah.

Devon finds himself in a corridor.  He steps on some round green foam and flies through the air, down the corridor, into another corridor.  Devon walks around until he finds a sphere projector–a computer interface–in a small room someone must have dusted recently.

Above:  Devon and the Sphere Projector

The sphere projector is annoying and condescending.  It also has interesting facial expressions.  It opens with a question:

Can I be of …assistance?

This sphere projector–Mu Lambda 165–lays down much exposition.  Cypress Corners is not a planet.  No, it is Biosphere AG3 of the Earth Ship Ark.  Humans are originally from the planet Earth, a dead world.  All of this is news to Devon.

But wait, there’s more!

In 2285, a “catastrophe of galactic proportions threatened all Earth life with extinction.”  Therefore, a committee of scientists and philosophers guided a project that entailed the construction of the Earth Ship Ark between the Earth and the Moon.  Three million people, representing distinct cultures, moved into biospheres, and the Earth Ship Ark departed for deep space.  The vessel’s mission was to find a habitable planet in the solar system of a “Class-G star.”  However, a century later, in 2385, an unexplained accident occurred.  The ship has been adrift, locked into a collision course with a “Class-G solar star” since then.

The current year is 2790.  The sphere projector refers Devon to the Bridge for more information, for some reason.

Devon returns to Cypress Corners and crashes his funeral.  Old Jeremiah, citing the authority of “the Creator,” orders Devon arrested and sentences him to death by stoning.  Garth breaks Devon out of jail with a shovel and asks him to leave Cypress Corners.  Devon does leave–with Rachel.  In then presence of Old Jeremiah and others, Old Abraham opens the iris so Garth can depart, too.  Old Jeremiah forbids Garth’s departure, but Garth, armed with a crossbow, vows to return with Rachel.  Old Jeremiah leaves Old Abraham alone.

Devon and Rachel find the Bridge.  So does Garth, for he is pursuing them.  The three of them walk onto the extremely messy Bridge, populated only by a skeleton in a uniform.  They see outer space, the top of the vessel, and something Devon correctly surmises is a star.

Above:  The View from the Bridge

Yet Another Screen Capture

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Why does Old Jeremiah never punish Old Abraham?

Why does the sphere projector refer to a “solar star”?  Harlan Ellison mentioned this is an example of the scientific illiteracy of the series.

Does Cypress Corners have a hair salon?  Garth seems to have been there.

Who designed that annoying computer interface program?

Why are most of the residents of Cypress Corners conformist, non-questioning lemmings?

What was the nature of the accident in 2385?  Ellison specified that the answer would come in the final episode, in the fourth year of the series.

Next episode:  Lazarus from the Mist

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 31, 2021 COMMON ERA

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

All images in this post are screen captures from a series that is freely available at archive.org and YouTube.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++