The Starlost - The Pisces (1973)
We begin with our lonesome, drifter heroes with a cause, Devon, Rachel, & Garth awoken by a red alert of an approaching shuttle. Expecting a grand rapture instead they receive our three leads in a very isolated docking bay. Still, Col. Galloway is in 'la-la-la-la land' self-denial still awaiting a grand reception. Meanwhile, his fellow castaways, Janice & Theale suspect something's amiss from their not-so grandeur trio reception.
Yep, you've taken a wrong turn say, by about a 10 year mission to 409 years! Since you left on your pointless mission, the Earth-Ship Ark has suffered an accident & is drifting towards the nearest sun. All the biosphere-domes in automatic shutdown, trapped in their unique worlds. However, our three leads escaped from their 'Little House On The Prairie' dome. Theale's reaction to them being from the primitive Cypress Corners dome speaks volumes to the realisation of their predicament.
We get a good candidate for some philosophically related debate in this episode, I'm sure Einstein would be proud & gets a mention, his claim to fame, LOL! I wish I could wrap my head around the concept more than the grand ol' soap-0peri stuff of the ramifications.
Yes, you've done a flying Dutchman, yes, Immortality is overrated. Col. Galloway is still in 'Narnia la-la land' & treats Rachel to champagne from the on-board food dispensing machines, something which is radically alien (being from Cypress Corners)to her & she gets too tipsy but, then we all do the first time. Then he uses popular fashion slang among victims of the black plague "Eat, drink, & be merry for tomorrow we die!" Theale goes looking for her boyfriend, you'd have to be pretty loyal to wait 10 years! Try for a shellshock, he probably died of old-age 400 years ago give or take a decade. Gee-whizz, nobody could possibly see where this is headed.
Our trio are given the grand tour of The Pisces & get to see the exterior of the Ark in a beautifully, beautiful of a scene so beautifully orchestrated. Theale & Janice understandbly lose it & decide to become space pirates & go 'mutiny on the Bounty'.
If that weren't bad enough, they're suffering from space senility as a result of their longer than planned voyage! The Pisces drifts further away from the Ark, which begs a question, HOW does a large crew survive ten-years on such a small shuttle without going insane anyway?! Among the not-so surviving crew was a crew member called Armstrong, nice touch! Our two would be pirates want to return to Earth, destroyed by the solar flare, on that small shuttle, ALL THAT WAY?! Seriously, for two scientists they don't show much common sense!
I LIKE this episode of this very short lived series. Okay, so there's no space battles or fights to the death against some alien foe! But I like psychological, thinking Sci-Fi as much as any other format. Rachel's life, had she stayed at 'Little House On The Prairie' Cypress Corners would have conceived of weaving, keeping house, sewing, enough to keep a girl going through life, something which Janice actually envies. The three crew of the Pisces are condemned to a purgatory of exploring infinite space because of the space senility. Yet, even more scary Col. Galloway will go on to become Eastern Alliance baddie Commandant Lieter ala Battlestar Galactica in a few years from now.
Still, our friends quest to rescue the Ark from certain destruction continues.
Borgduck aka Stewart.
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