The Starcrossed

By Ben Bova
1975

A thinly disguised roman á clef based on the real-life "Starlost" imbroglio, set in the near future, dressed up with a few high-tech props and passed off as a science fiction novel. Ellison is "Ron Gabriel," the talented, difficult and lecherous screenwriter; Ben Bova is "Bill Oxnard," inventor of a high-resolution 3-D television system. The two are hired by the greedmeister head of a failing TV network to give him a hit show.

The resulting story fails as science fiction, as comedy, certainly as literature; let's just call it crap and be done with it. The true-life version of the tale -- retold by Ellison in the hilarious essay "Somehow, I Don't Think We're In Kansas Toto," available both in Stalking the Nightmare and as the introduction to the novelization of "The Starlost" pilot, Phoenix Without Ashes -- is too outrageous to be satirized. The Starcrossed is a mere curio -- but the first-edition paperback's cover painting, featuring Ellison as a ray-gun wielding space cadet, is classic cheese.

Contents

• The Bankers
• The Writer
• The Agent
• The Producers
• The Decision Makers
• The Confrontation
• The Agreement
• The Team
• The Star
• The Director
• The First Day's Shooting
• The Squeeze Play
• The Three Monkeys
• The Exodus
• The Warning
• The Reaction
• The Outcome

Collector's Notes

The Starcrossed has been published in multiple new editions over the years, each with seemingly more lurid cover art than before. The latest edition, published by Baen Books in 2008, pairs the novel with another satirical tale by Bova, Cyberbooks.