{"id":98,"date":"2003-06-13T16:54:38","date_gmt":"2003-06-13T21:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=98"},"modified":"2003-06-13T16:54:38","modified_gmt":"2003-06-13T21:54:38","slug":"lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/13\/lost.html","title":{"rendered":"Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ghost of a Flea <\/a>posts about The Starlost<\/i>, an sf show from 1973-74 that should <\/i>have been truly fabulous — great “Bible,” high-powered special effects talent, premier sf writers in its creation and lined up to write stories about it.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be one of the most famous sf flops on record<\/a>, largely because its Canadian production company took the cheap-ass route, Nobody can tell it as well as Harlan Ellison himself, in the intro to the novelization of the pilot story, Phoenix Without Ashes<\/i><\/a> (written with Edward Bryant). The intro, in fact, is worth digging up a copy of the book (and it’s worth noting Ellison got a WGA award for his original version of the pilot script).<\/p>\n

My own memories of the show are spotty. It was on Saturday evenings, which meant I rarely got to watch it, except when the folks were headed out somewhere and John and I had a sitter. Nonetheless, I gobbled it up whenever the stars aligned (for the brief time it was on) for me to be able to see it. Yes, the effects were cheesy even for the period, and I could tell, even as a 12-year-old sf geek in a TV wasteland, that the writing, as put up on the screen, was not only sub-par, but more like quadruple-bogie-pick-up-your-ball-and-head-for-the-next-tee.<\/p>\n

Still … May I … help you? May I be of … assistance?<\/i> The story, even to (or perhaps because of) the extent it borrowed heavily from other “lost\/decadent generation ships” novels like Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky<\/i>, still had a profound impact on me, and I always remember elements of it when I write or GM. Which elements, I decline to say.<\/p>\n

I even have a horrible, horrible desire to watch a few episodes again. I mean, it can’t be as terrible as I remember it being, right?<\/p>\n

Right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ghost of a Flea posts about The Starlost, an sf show from 1973-74 that should have been truly fabulous — great “Bible,” high-powered special effects talent, premier sf writers in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11996,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/17\/starlost.html","url_meta":{"origin":98,"position":0},"title":"Starlost","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Dec-07 7:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"This early 70s Canadian TV SF series was an almost textbook example how to take a cool concept and ruin it through interference from cost-cutting, non-SF-understanding suits.\u00a0 Harlan Ellison...","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","block_context":{"text":"TV","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-tv"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/starlost.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18189,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/19\/unblogged-bits-thu-19-aug-10-0600.html","url_meta":{"origin":98,"position":1},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Thu. 19-Aug-10 0600)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Aug-10 12:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Beyond Toleration: The Enduring Message Of Washington\u2019s Letter To The Touro Synagogue \u00ab The Wall of Separation - I'm quite familiar with Washington's letter. I wish more of the Islamophobic brouhahaistas were. Gabrielle Bell's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church & State"","block_context":{"text":"Church & State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3628,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/15\/sigh_fi.html","url_meta":{"origin":98,"position":2},"title":"Sigh Fi","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Oct-02 5:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Among those signing one of several Internet petitions against military involvement in Iraq are a bunch of SF writers. More power to 'em, of course. That's everyone's right, and they...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128344,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/18\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows-kinda-sorta-more-or-less-redux.html","url_meta":{"origin":98,"position":3},"title":"The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Shows (kinda-sorta more-or-less) (Redux)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 18-Oct-15 11:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"So this is based on an article from a Popular Mechanics (!) article on \"The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever\" [http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/culture\/movies\/g156\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows]. See here [https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/17\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows-kinda-sorta-more-or-less.html] for caveats and comments on that list. I've decided to do my own force ranking (thanks +Stan Pedzick), working within the same list (to do otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/TV%2BGuide%2BSF.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6300,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/23\/book_a_minute.html","url_meta":{"origin":98,"position":4},"title":"Book-a-Minute","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-Sep-04 10:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not enough time in the day to read all those SF\/F books your friends keep pressing on you? Fear not. We here at Book-A-Minute SF\/F have come up with a...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13018,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/15\/potpourri_of_happy_things.html","url_meta":{"origin":98,"position":5},"title":"Potpourri of Happy Things","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Aug-08 2:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking a minute or three off to pull together a few Shared items. Hopefully this makes up a bit for the paucity of actual posts of late. Calories In -...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging - Technical"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging - Technical","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogging-technical"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}