The Starlost - Mr. Smith Of Manchester (1973)
Our trio find themselves prisoners of a totalitarian, fascist regime in one of the biospheres. The head of state, a one Mr Smith, wants to use their knowledge of the key to entering & leaving the domes to escape from their paranoid isolation & with their centuries stock of armaments built up since the Dome Wars, want to conquer the rest of the Earth Ship Ark. Will our protagonists allow themselves into being conned into letting the barbarians out of the gates? This one doesn't waste time. Devon, Rachel, & Garth are dragged in chains & subjected to psychedelic, electric looking , torture!
Mr smiths' biosphere appears to have been deliberately isolated as they posed such a militaristic threat to the rest of the Ark since the beginning. This is my favourite episode along with Gallery Of Fear. Whilst being a Joe Dawson-like Watcher (any Highlander fans out there?), I did some checking up on any info I missed out on this episode. I found out that Ed Arnes who plays Mr Smith is also a singer (I look forward to checking his stuff out!), along the lines of Tom Jones or Nat King Cole or Will Shatner? Imagine either of them playing the main villain in this one?!
They've been stock-piling up on space tanks and other weapons in preparation against the great unknown out there, in the deep cosmos! But as mentioned they already started here, with the Dome Wars. I'd like to know more about these Dome Wars! Our dictator (like so many before him) displays all the social etiquette to our friends, after their electronic torture, of course. Never mind using Goths & Visigoths as metaphors. He quotes Shakespeare, yet he wants to help his barbarians out of the gates, & only our trio have the key & only they know the secret, Narnia style, exit out of the dome...
Manchester biosphere is a polluted, factory dome (sounds familiar!) where the condemned are sent outside to die, and those that appear immune collect the dead. In true plague, Monty python style, someone cries, "Bring out your dead". Trente being his second in command suffers such a consequence for helping them, Mr Smith even evicted his own family into their, within dome, wasteland!
The sight of Rachel complete with face mask, firing that machine gun is a wonder seeing as they originate from the 'Little House On The Prairie' like Cyprus Corners part of the Earth Ship Ark. How quick they learn! Speaking of innocent Rachel, she & her friends have no idea of the concept of a fascist society so she can only articulate them & their violent methods as savages! Her reaction to a mutated baby outside the complex speaks volumes & we are left to our imagination as to it's appearance, but as I type, her reaction!
This episode maybe the first that I watched back in 2009. Every weekend I stayed in a fab hotel having downloaded these episodes & enjoyed with the lights off. Of course, back when computers came with a built in, slide-out disk drive so I could enjoy other classic, or otherwise, Science Fiction. But this, The Starlost was special to lonely me, back then. Meanwhile, our trio must save the last remnants of humanity aboard the ark, still heading toward destruction, or does it? Are the last remnants of Earth's humanity condemned to extinction towards an unknown sun? According to the creator of this tragically short-lived show it appears so.
Harlan Ellison who wrote the classic Star Trek: TOS episode, City On The Edge Of Forever, featuring the "bitch" herself, Joan Collins, was unsatisfied of where his genius brain child was going, so much so that he beamed the heck outta there! The Starlost promised so much so in the effects department! We even had Keir Duellia of 2001-A Space Odyssey (1968). I guess this failed to deliver for some(?)
But, I cannot but help have my suspicions, cause I ain't quite as dumb as I seem! Conspiracy has it that the BBC were approached with this show, but turned it down. I suspect that along with Jon Pertwee's final, 10th season, as Doctor Who, Terrance Dicks & Barry Letts were experimenting with the equally ill-fated Moonbase 3. Still, I feel too loyal to this Canadian aubade (so sue me, already!) maybe it's a retro-geek thing? I cannot put myself in the space boots of the creator of this what should have been! Enough boldness, already.
Stay Safe.
borgduck,
Alias Stewart,