The Starlost - Premise

Premise

Discovering that the destruction of the Earth will happen in the future, humanity builds a multi-generational starship called "The ARK" which was around 80 kilometres (50 mi) wide and 320 kilometres (200 mi) long. The ship contains dozens of isolated biospheres, each kilometres across and housing people of different cultures. Early in the voyage an unexplained disaster struck with the ARK suffering damage and the command crew killed. The ARK had some kind of automatic damage control and disaster systems which sealed off each biosphere and kept the inhabitants alive, even though the command crew had died off.

Centuries later, a young man, Devon (Keir Dullea), a resident of Cypress Corners, a biosphere with an Amish-like culture, discovers that his world is far larger and more mysterious than he had realized. Considered an outcast because of his questioning of the way things are, especially his refusal to accept the arranged marriage of Rachel (Gay Rowan), the girl Devon loves and who loves him and his friend Garth(Robin Ward), Devon inadvertently finds his way into the service areas of the ship and uncovers its fate by accessing a computer data station that explains the purpose of the ARK and hints at its problems. Devon then returns to Cypress Corners to tell his fellow biosphere-dwellers about what he has learned but is put on trial for heresy and condemned to death. Helped to escape on the night before his execution by Garth, Devon convinces Rachel and Garth to come with him and after making their way to the bridge they have found that it had been damaged and its control systems made in-operative, the crew killed (a few skeletal bodies are lying there) and the ARK is on a collision course with a Class G star similar to the Sun. Devon, Rachel and Garth realize the only hope to save The ARK (and the colonists onboard) is to find the backup bridge and reactivate the navigation and propulsion systems. Occasionally, they are aided by the ARK's partially functioning computer systems portrayed by William Osler (1933- ).

The scenario drew on themes common to science fiction. It also had obvious potential for an interesting, developing story arc as the trio made more discoveries about the ship and contacted cultures previously isolated in other biospheres.

20th Century Fox was involved in the project with Douglas Trumbull as executive producer. Science fiction writer and editor Ben Bova was brought in as science advisor.