The Starlost Gallery of Fear (1973– ) Online

No sooner do Devon (Keir Dullea), Garth (Robin Ward) & Rachel (Gay Rowan) escape a mysterious dust storm in the corridors of the Ark than they must face the grotesque horrors of butt-ugly modern art found in a previously unexplored biosphere. A beautiful 3-D hologram hostess Daphne (Angel Tompkins) guides Garth & Rachel further into hypnotic states and they have hallucinations.

Their mysterious host Magnus evades discussion with Devon about the fact that the course of the Ark - the massive spaceship they are on, is headed for the heart of a sun unless they can stop it. Magnus is a supercomputer that has assimilated vast stores of knowledge becoming the greatest mind in history. It is bridled only by its prime directive to serve the crew and people of the Ark.

Magnus - a computer which has developed lofty ambition over hundreds of years amassing data wants to receive manual reprogramming from Devon over-riding its prime directive which will give him absolute power over the ship and its inhabitants. Magnus's desire for self-preservation will motivate him to save the Ark via diverting its course from the sun. But it will come at terrible cost due to Magnus's volatile nature and penchant for abusing power.

Again the metaphysical angle of the narrative plays in. Biblical allegories were an integral part of the series and here we get an interpretation of 'End Times' prophecy. What remains of humanity is confronted with the ambitions of a highly powerful malevolent force offering false salvation.

Episodes of Starlost were produced for syndication and one characteristic of them which alludes to that is the lack of sequence. Episodes with subplots open and closed within the same teleplay were a favorite amongst affiliates to broadcast as reruns.

They evidently sought to capture some of the look and feel of Star Trek in this episode. But the gap between what Starlosts makers wanted it to be and what it actually became was one formed by poor production value and cheap attempts at special effects.