Re: OT: SF: Le Guin, Elgin, Spinrad, etc.

On Fri, 9 Apr 2004 19:55:48 -0400, John Quijada <jq_ithkuil@...>
wrote:

>For those old enough to remember, there was the short-lived sci-fi
>television series from the early 1970's called "The Starlost" about the
>inhabitants of a generation ship (who didn't know they were on a ship but
>one day find the "exit" door to their "habitat" section of the ship and
>break out into the operational area of the ship only to discover that the
>crew is gone (I can't recall if the crew had died or abandoned the ship).
>The only answers were from a dysfunctional HAL-like computer
>named "Magnus."  The production values were terrible, but since I was only
>in my early teens at the time and ga-ga for sci-fi, I loved the show.  As I
>recall it was created by Harlan Ellison, but he was so disgusted with what
>the producers did with his idea that he forced the studio to change his
>name on the credits to "Cordwainer Smith."  I wonder if it's available on
>video or DVD?
>
>--John Quijada
Cordwainer *Bird*, you mean! Smith was the regular SF pseudonym of Paul M.
A. Linebarger (that's probably where HE got the Cordwainer from).
I also liked what little of the show I saw at the time.
Incidently, there's a novel about the production of the show called "The
Starcrossed" by Ben Bova.

Jeff