Phoenix Without Ashes was Harlan Ellison's original title for the debut story of The Starlost. It was changed to "Voyage of Discovery" which is not as poetic certainly. And that seems to be Ellison's most potent complaint against this show which was birthed from his ideas, that it loses its way by consistently playing down to its audience. More recent years have proven Ellison right, that TV fans and sci-fi fans in particular might well be receptive to shows that challenge them a might, that require more of them than an hour of their time.
The novelized version of the script was expanded by Edward Bryant, a capable science fiction writer in his own right and well capable of taking the story of an outcast Amish man who doesn't fit into his society and eventually finds that his whole world is not what anyone thought it was. The is a story about seeking the truth and the novel spends more time inside Devon's head making him a somewhat more complex and consequently more fascinating character. We get to share his doubts, something the TV show almost never does.
And we get to see aspects of human existence which were weirdly forbidden on television in those days. Not only does Devon love Rachel, but it's evident they have a physical relationship. On the TV show his love is more ethereal, more of the twin-souls variety and in the book it's that and more. One memorable scene when Devon finally leaves his Cypress Corners habitat is that his physical needs, to eat and urinate are considered, giving the sense of a greater span of time.
The novel shows us what the show might've been in another time and place and it does enhance our understanding of what we're seeing when we watch the show itself.
But that's not all.
Ben Bova was as science adviser for the ill-fated sci-fi show The Starlost. This was a series regarded as an epic fail in the genre because those in command refused to pay attention to the experts they hired and like so many TV projects worked purely from the motive of profit and not art. No begrudges the making of profit, but when that profit comes by low-balling all the costs of production as opposed to doing the best job possible then it's understandable that the work might be held in low regard. And that's the case with Bova and this show, so he worked out his angst by creating a delightful satire about the whole affair entitled The Starcrossed.
The story is set in the early twenty-first century future as seen from 1975 and it's a different world in many ways, but in detail. The obsession with fads has quickened and the world is a dirty polluted territory but made bearable by artificial images and scents. In this America is a conniving TV producer who is about to go under and in a desperate gamble contacts "Ron Gabriel", the Harlan Ellison wannabe and in this story a notorious science fiction writer and quixotic personality to create a new sci-fi show. Gabriel is down on his luck too, though always able to find a date with a lithesome beauty, and so goes for it and fashions in a whirl if energy a yarn translating Romeo and Juliet into outer space.
The narrative of The Starcrossed is told from multiple perspectives but our core tale is of a scientist and engineer who has invented a new 3-D technique which is the real selling point of this new show. His naive introduction to the manipulation and dishonesty of Hollywood shapes much of the attitude the story is attempting to communicate. There back-biting executives and a lovely girl who has secrets within secrets. Few are what they seem in this tale and that's the way the world is supposed to be. When the production heads to Canada to cut costs the shenanigans have only begun and a show which was supposed to be great is now intended to fail for the good of the company.
There are good laughs to had in this one, and I even laughed out loud a few times, a real accomplishment for text in my experience. Bova doesn't really let anyone off the hook, and neither does he rob anyone of a fundamental humanity. Even the loathsome figures are motivated in a such a way as to make us understand. Satires are always about the here and now despite the fact they almost always are set in faraway times and places. So it is with The Starcrossed.
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