Friday, November 19, 2010
THE STARLOST (1973) Movie: "The Beginning"
Like many other sci-fi shows from the era (Battlestar Galactica, Planet of the Apes, Space: 1999) several episodes of the Canadian series The Starlost, were also edited into TV movies for syndication. Apparently these cobbled-together telefilms didn't get much airplay in the U.S., but ran for years and years in Canada.
This is the opening narration and credits for the first of these, "The Beginning," which incorporated the episodes "Voyage of Discovery" and "The Goddess Calabra," which guest starred Space: 1970 favorites John Colicos and Barry Morse!
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Wow, that was a lot to keep track of in the opening crawl! Why does this remind me of something on SNL? ;)
ReplyDeleteThe telefilms ran in NYC a couple of times a year on Saturday afternoons in the mid-1980s.
ReplyDeleteThey were one of the first things I taped on my brand-new VCR! ;-)
I could never figure out why, with every other domes' society being state-of-the-art technologically, did they bring along an entire dome full of Amish-type farmers!
These shows were such a huge part of my childhood, cringeworthy as they are today, they provided a melancholy counterpoint to the Star Trek universe, humans in danger, from the world and ourselves. As you discovered more and more about the plight of the Ark, the stakes were driven higher and higher. So much potential there. I think I wrote my first fan fic piece for a school project about this show. Thanks for the flashback.
ReplyDeleteNever saw this one back in the day. Am I correct that part of the premise was that the inhabitants were initially unaware they were on a spaceship? If so, the design of the Ark model is working against them.
ReplyDeleteI always got the impression that Cypress Corners didn't start out as a luddite dome, but gradually descended to that state after the catastrophe destroyed the bridge.
ReplyDeleteWe used to watch this all the time back in the late 70s / early 80s. (I'm in Southern Ontario)
ReplyDeleteRobin Ward (cannot remember his character's name),the "muscle" of the well meaning adventerous threesome, was a local weatherman around Toronto after he gave up his acting career in the 80's and 90's. The show as I remember it had that very 70's early GreenPeace tone to it, very 70's Canadian t.v. product.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of strange 70's productions. There was a series that was I guess "telefilms" that had a underground technologicaly advanced society that used a series of high speed underground trains to visit different societies on the surface. One of which was a Amazon group that farmed men for breeding purposes again very 70's and pretty weird. Does any one remember this, the name escapes me, but, like Starlost was a Sunday Sci-fi staple usualy on Buffalo,N.Y. stations from the mid to late 70's
ReplyDeleteThere's a fascinating page here... http://www.snowcrest.net/fox/star.html with lots of info about The Starlost.
ReplyDeleteThe same author also has pages on Logan's Run, Fantastic Journey, and other 70s sci-fi.
Perhaps she and Christopher should collaborate?
OK, here's a weirdie...
ReplyDeleteWhile it seems to be a Starlost remake/revamp webisode series called Ark starring Renee O'Connor (Gabrielle from Xena) at http://www.hulu.com/ark , there's no mention of Harlan Ellison or Cordwainer Bird!
More info... http://www.reneeoconnor.info/ark/
Oddly, the series' official website is already gone... http://www.arktheseries.com/
Is this the trend of the future...to redo other people's work without credit?
I did a blog entry entitled "Skyline: Quatermass for Dummies" detailing a similar situation... http://atocom.blogspot.com/2010/11/skyline-quatermass-for-idiots.html
Britt - yeah, I stumbled upon those pages years ago (and I think I have links in the sidebar). It doesn't appear that anything's been updated in a long time, though.
ReplyDeleteI saw one or two of those ARK episodes, but aside from the multigenerational space ark concept - which Ellison, in his foreword to PHOENIX WITHOUT ASHES admits wasn't a particularly original idea, ARK doesn't owe much to THE STARLOST at all. More to (just) LOST, actually.
ReplyDelete"Anonymous" - You're thinking of the two unsold Gene Roddenberry pilots GENESIS II and PLANET EARTH - both of which aired as TV movies. The first starred Alex Cord as 20th Century cryonaut "Dylan Hunt," while the second starred John Saxon in the role. Both pilots are available on DVD from Warners Archive.
ReplyDeleteThe GENESIS II/PLANET EARTH concept was dusted off and transplanted to outer space for the 90s series, GENE RODDENBERRY'S ANDROMEDA (the hero even had the same name), and Roddenberry's widow, Majel Barret *also* sold the exact same material to a comic book company in the 90s as "Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe," although by the time it saw print it was almost unrecognizable as such.
Wow! Thanks Mr.Mills
ReplyDeleteResearched and You-tubed, That was the one, Mariet- Hartley as the "Head Amazon" make this 40 something Canadian Boy remember simpler times!
The "hippy" hemp clothing has to Go! But Yeah that was it. Thanks Again!!
I've heard of this show but I've never actually seen it. Is it me or does the Ark look a lot like the Valley Forge from Silent Running?
ReplyDeleteI have never seen this show, but for years just knew it from a few stills of the ship in old issues of Starlog.
ReplyDeleteUntil a couple years ago, I only knew of the show from Starlog and the Phoenix Without Ashes novel. See my review of the DVDs here:
ReplyDeleteThe Starlost
The model photography here is quite amusing to look back on, its appears to all be hand held video taping with no real smooth tracking shots to speak off. Movie making on a small budget and by the seat of your pants. Fun stuff, i've always heard of "The Starlost" but i think this is the first time i've ever seen fottage from it.
ReplyDeleteDusty Abell
I never saw "The Starlost" or had even heard of it until this blog. Curious how this was made pre-Star Wars yet there is a certain Star Wars feel to the intro, the crawl on a space background that informs the viewer of previous events, the long sweeping shots of a gigantic spacecraft and the epic feel of it all.
ReplyDeleteYes, Anonymous, it's the "Valley Forge" model from SILENT RUNNING repurposed and shot on video. There's Youtube footage of a STARLOST promo reel which takes actual film footage from SILENT RUNNING - the American Airlines logo on the model is quite prominent from an early sequence in the film and present in the STARLOST promo reel. It also reuses some of Peter Schickel's music from the film.
ReplyDeleteThe Starlost did not use the Valley Forge model from Silent Running. The two models both have domes, but are otherwise dissimilar in shape and scale.
ReplyDeleteThe use of Silent Running footage in the Starlost promo reel appears to have caused this confusion.
Canadian broadcast requirements demand a certain amount of "Canadian Content" throughout the broadcast day in both radio and TV. This regulation supports the reason why Starlost was played to death on local TV stations in canada through the 80s and 90s on weekend afternoons. with the increase of "industrial" productions of TV movies for the american market throughout the 90s and 00's, and specialty channels in canada producing their own product that can be recycled, there's more product to call "cancon" and far less likely to see the starlost TV movies on air. I did catch one airing on VHS..though at a EP speed, so I was happy to get the DVD set.
ReplyDeletei love the starlost show i have the set but wish this intro i just saw had been put into the set, it should have been added becuse the show ended so prematurely ,i watch my set whenever i can a favorite always
ReplyDelete