Year: 1973

Devon, Garth and Rachel wander into an area called the sonic computer section, where a sonic chamber’s powerful sound waves stun Garth after he stumbles into it. Devon goes into the chamber to pull Garth out, but becomes trapped himself for a longer period of time. When Devon is rescued from the sonic chamber, he’s comatose. Rachel asks the Ark’s computer to summon help, and both she and Garth are stunned when uniformed medics arrive mere moments later. They put Devon on a stretcher and take him to the mobile hospital aboard their shuttle, Medical Module 7, which launched from a medical biosphere. Devon is diagnosed with brain damage, but an operation – though risky – could restore him. But the chief doctor of Medical Module 7 is distracted when a distress call is received from an alien vessel. Judging the aliens to have a much better chance then Devon of putting Earthship Ark on a safe course, the doctor decides to leave Devon to his fate and rush to the aliens’ aid instead – even if it means that Medical Module 7 will travel so far from the Ark that it cannot return.

written by Paul Schnieder
directed by George McCowan
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Stephen Young (Dr. Chris Trask), Budd Knapp (Dr. Martin Trask), Meg Hogarth (Dr. Jean Pelletier), Bill Kemp (Captain), Michael Zenon (Commander), David Mann (Astrogator)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Devon, Garth and Rachel are resting after a long trek to one of the Ark’s other biospheres, and apparently not one of the better-appointed ones, as Garth is certain that they’ve wound up in a sewer. A young boy comes along and silently slips away with Garth’s crossbow, and the three try to follow him. Instead they encounter a surgeon named Brant, who introduces himself as the boy’s grandfather – and one of the implant people. A byproduct of an attempt to cure his grandson of being mute, the implants are now issued to nearly everyone in this dome, making crime nonexistent since any implant can be remotely activated and cause its wearer intense pain. But the implants have also put the population at the mercy of Roloff, a man who masquerades as an advisor to the dome’s elected chief legislator even as he plots to overthrow her. When he learns of the three trespassers, Roloff orders them to be held and implanted, but Garth escapes, learning of an underground resistance effort that aims to remove Roloff from power and stop the use of the implants. But how can Garth overthrow this tyrannical regime when Roloff can kill Devon and Rachel with the press of a button?

written by John Meredyth Lucas and Allen Spraggett
directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
music by Score Productions, Ltd.

Guest Cast: Donnelly Rhodes (Roloff), Pat Collins (Serina), Leo Leyden (Brant), Dino Narizzano (Domal), Jeff Toner (Jardy), William Osler (The Host)

Notes: The role of Roloff was played by Donnelly Rhodes, later much better known to genre fans as the constantly-smoking Doc Cottle in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Devon and his friends encounter a wounded wanderer named Williams, who has been exploring the Ark on his own since long before Devon’s party left Cypress Corners. A scavenger and thief by nature, Williams has been felled by some sort of automatic defense system of a kind that Devon has never seen; when he asks the nearest sphere projector why Williams was blasted, Devon learns that someone has assumed control of the Ark – and isn’t prepared to say if this is good or bad news until he knows who it is. When Devon discovers that the alien visitor named Oro is now in charge of the Ark, he decides it’s bad news; the news only gets worse when Oro reveals that the Ark is being flown to his home planet of Exar so he can claim a salvage prize. Devon, Garth and Rachel – with the shifty Williams in tow – start trying to regain control of the Ark, while Oro insists that their only options are the Ark’s eventual collision with a star or being forced down on Exar, which may not even support human life.

written by Norman Klenman
directed by Francis Chapman
music by Score Productions, Ltd.

Guest Cast: Walter Koenig (Oro), Henry Beckman (Williams), Philip Stevens (Tau Zeta), Patricia Moffatt (voice of Tau Zeta), Jim Barron (Computer Voice), William Osler (The Host)

Notes: Had the series lasted much longer, this might have served as a major turning point, as Devon formally gains control of the Ark’s systems in this episode (although episodes that aired after this one seem to ignore this rather significant development); despite this, Devon still doesn’t know what he needs to do to change the ship’s course. At the end of the story, Oro is left stranded on the Ark, presumably to serve as an ongoing villain, but the series didn’t last long enough to see a third appearance.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Ark rocks violently, and Devon rushes to the nearest sphere projector to ask the ship’s computer what caused the impact. The computer only replies cryptically that the Ark is “under attack,” referring all other questions on the matter to the ship’s chief astronomer, to whom the computer also guides Devon and his friends. They discover that this astronomer, Dr. Linus Farthing, has managed to exert some measure of control over the course of the Ark, but only to put it on a dangerously close heading alongside a massive comet he wishes to study. Farthing is largely unconcerned with the damage being caused to the Ark, even when reports of ruptured environmental domes begin to filter in – given the chance of colliding with a star or with a comet, he has opted for the comet, despite the high likelihood that everyone aboard the Ark will still die. Devon demands that Farthing use his engines to reverse his course and back off from the comet, but as those engines have also been damaged, someone will have to repair them – and Farthing seems only too happy to let the three “primitives” suit up for a hazardous spacewalk.

written by Norman Klenman
directed by Ed Richardson
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Ed Andrews (Dr. Linus Farthing), Linda Sorenson (Dr. McBride), Allen Stewart-Coates (Voice), William Osler (The Host)

Notes: Whereas earlier episodes referred to the Ark’s reactors as a power source, this episode seems to use the term “reactors” in a context that implies reaction control engines, small engines (actually used since the dawn of manned spaceflight) allowing minute changes in attitude but not designed to impart significant thrust for a course change. This episode also marks the unusual appearance of the massive miniature filming model of the Ark in an interior set, apparently as a device to allow the crew to monitor damage. As usual, it is shown only from the right side, as The Starlost’s budget could only permit the modelmakers to finish and detail that side of the ship. Despite his having gained control of the ship’s computer in The Return Of Oro, Devon seems to once again have only limited cooperation from the computer here.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A shipwide alert warning of “impending threat” draws Devon and his friends to a biosphere devoted to zoological studies. There, Dr. Marshall is leading a team of researchers who are examining the evolution of bees from Earth. But with all the time that has passed since Earthship Ark was launched, and with a little bit of genetic tweaking from Marshall, something has happened to the bees – at least four of them have grown to almost human size, and they’ve gained dominance over the smaller honeybees in the swarm. They’ve also somehow gained control of Marshall’s mind, jeopardizing the safety of his fellow humans (including Devon, Rachel and Garth) and forcing him to inform the swarm of any actions the humans are taking against the bees. When the other scientists decide that the time has come to eliminate the bees before they can escape and make the entire Ark their hive, the bees see it as a declaration of war.

written by Norman Klenman
directed by Bill Davis
music by Score Productions, Ltd.

Guest Cast: William Hutt (Dr. Pete Marshall), Antoinette Bower (Dr. Heather Marshall), Alan McRae (Ron Callisher), John Friesen (Harry Keeble)

LogBook entry by Earl Green