The Starlost is a Canadian-produced science fiction television series created by writer Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada and syndicated to local stations in the United States.

In 2790, 405 years after the accident, Devon (Keir Dullea) a resident of Cypress Corners, an agrarian community with a culture resembling that of the Amish, 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 his love Rachel (Gay Rowan) to his friend Garth (Robin Ward), Devon finds out that the Cypress Corners elders have been deliberately manipulating the local computer terminal, which they call "The Voice of The Creator".

The frightened Devon escapes into the service areas of the ship and accesses a computer data station, which explains the nature and the purpose of the Ark and hints at its problems.

Getting to the other end of the Ark, which is potentially hundreds of miles away, involves traveling through the many disparate communities on the starship, some of which are hostile to outsiders, and all of which have different social customs, belief systems and law enforcement practices.

Occasionally, they are aided (or hindered) in their travels by the ship's frustrating and only partially-functioning computer system interface, known as Mu Lambda 165 (portrayed by William Osler, who also provided the opening narration for each episode).

Harlan Ellison was approached by Robert Kline, a 20th Century Fox television producer, to come up with an idea for a science fiction TV series consisting of eight episodes, to pitch to the BBC as a co-production in February 1973.

[3] Kline negotiated an exception with the Writer's Guild, on the grounds that the production was wholly Canadian – and Ellison went to work on a bible for the series.

[citation needed] Before the production of the pilot episode was completed, Ellison invoked a clause in his contract to force the producers to use his alternative registered writer's name of "Cordwainer Bird" on the end credits.

A novelization of the script by Edward Bryant, Phoenix Without Ashes, was published in 1975 and contained a lengthy foreword by Ellison describing what had gone on in production.

From contemporary reviews, Michael Walsh in The Province commented on the first episode, writing that he found the model work on the show impressive while concluding it was "written, directed, acted, lit, photographed, recorded and edited like a church basement production".

The latter episode, written by George Salverson, follows Devon, Rachel, and Garth as they discover a dome in which people have been living in the dark since the accident to the Ark.