James Nicoll reviews legendary bad sci-fi tv series Starlost.
Ben Bova famously wrote a fictional treatment of the disaster that was this series, Starcrossed, which I keep seeing in local secondhand bookstores. The series itself was based on a Harlan Ellison treatment, but in the end he was so infuriated with the way his ideas were treated, he took his name of it. Here’s what he wrote for Starcrossed‘s cover blurb:
It has been pointed out to me that Ben Bova’s vaguely hilarious novel is roughly patterned on events and characters involved in the short but loathsome existence of a TV series I had the misfortune to create, “The Starlost.” Nonsense! Just because my series had a studio executive as rapacious as a weasel, a producer who was a certified brain damage case, actors who should have been ditch-diggers and money grubbers who should have taken up residence at Dachau … and Bova’s novel has the same … is just lousy coincidence. Clearly it isn’t one-for-one: the writer in Bova’s book, Ron Gabriel, isn’t one-millionth as terrific and sexy as me! You’ll hear from my attorneys in the morning.
Should I get this novel?