Devon (Keir Dullea), Garth (Robin Ward) & Rachel (Gay Rowan) are directed by a computer message to go the medical centre of the Ark - the massive starship housing the remaining people of Earth they and some 3 million other people are on.
Once there they encounter mutant troglodytes led by a murderous albino thug called the Sergeant (Doug McGrath). The mutants blockade them inside the medical bay having taken Garth hostage. Devon & Rachel enlist the help of a cryogenically frozen scientist (Frank Converse) not merely to escape the medical bay but to alter the course of the ship so that it doesn't collide with a sun. Sadly he can only help them with the first one.
By the end of the episode Garth still tries to entreat Devon & Rachel to go back to Cypress Corners - their backward home biosphere on the ship I guess because Garth is dense. The inhabitants have tried to kill Devon twice - first for disobedience then for emerging from the ship corridor which they believe to be the gateway to Hell as if risen from the dead after being cast asunder.
The biblical allegories were an integral part of the series and Devon is at times a Christ-like figure attempting to bring harmony to what remains of humanity but also boldly questioning the peaceful order of the status quo. In this episode he is like a combination of Moses and Joshua leading the mutants to a promised land.
At times this episode looks like a Toronto Free Theatre staging of A Tale of Two Cities or Enemy of the People. That is the feel yielded via effect of shooting something on video with limited takes. Originally intended for broadcast on American network television one can only imagine what audiences of the day must have thought of it given its poor ratings. Star Trek was also poorly rated but grew to the status of legend within a few years of being cancelled. Starlost became an embarrassment.
As a note on the guest-stars many of them, like various writers, were hired believing the show would be a considerably more impressive spectacle than they found themselves appearing in. Some were lured in via a relationship with 20th Century Fox which was one of the production companies.
Doug McGrath of Going' Down The Road (1970) was an unlikely star at the height of his fame. Neither he nor Frank Converse were known for work in the genre of science fiction before or after appearing on this show.
Once there they encounter mutant troglodytes led by a murderous albino thug called the Sergeant (Doug McGrath). The mutants blockade them inside the medical bay having taken Garth hostage. Devon & Rachel enlist the help of a cryogenically frozen scientist (Frank Converse) not merely to escape the medical bay but to alter the course of the ship so that it doesn't collide with a sun. Sadly he can only help them with the first one.
By the end of the episode Garth still tries to entreat Devon & Rachel to go back to Cypress Corners - their backward home biosphere on the ship I guess because Garth is dense. The inhabitants have tried to kill Devon twice - first for disobedience then for emerging from the ship corridor which they believe to be the gateway to Hell as if risen from the dead after being cast asunder.
The biblical allegories were an integral part of the series and Devon is at times a Christ-like figure attempting to bring harmony to what remains of humanity but also boldly questioning the peaceful order of the status quo. In this episode he is like a combination of Moses and Joshua leading the mutants to a promised land.
At times this episode looks like a Toronto Free Theatre staging of A Tale of Two Cities or Enemy of the People. That is the feel yielded via effect of shooting something on video with limited takes. Originally intended for broadcast on American network television one can only imagine what audiences of the day must have thought of it given its poor ratings. Star Trek was also poorly rated but grew to the status of legend within a few years of being cancelled. Starlost became an embarrassment.
As a note on the guest-stars many of them, like various writers, were hired believing the show would be a considerably more impressive spectacle than they found themselves appearing in. Some were lured in via a relationship with 20th Century Fox which was one of the production companies.
Doug McGrath of Going' Down The Road (1970) was an unlikely star at the height of his fame. Neither he nor Frank Converse were known for work in the genre of science fiction before or after appearing on this show.