Soldier

Harlan Ellison's story Soldier is probably the best known of The Outer Limits one. After all Ellison sued James Cameron and ended up with a story credit for The Terminator movies.

The opening scenes in the battlefield of the future has similarities as well as two fighting soldiers getting transported back to Earth of the past.

Qarlo Clobregnny (Michael Ansara) is captured and put in a padded cell as he is too prone to violence. Tom Kagan (Lloyd Nolan) is the linguist expert who comes to understand that Qarlo is speaking an evolved form of English. That he has been bred from war and is from Earth of the future.

Tom wants Qarlo to understand about humanity and love, not war. Tom even persuades his superior Paul Tanner to let him take Qarlo to his house. All the time the other soldier is also somewhere in Los Angeles.

There are some interesting concepts but it is stuck with limitations of 1960s television. It was odd how Tom offers Qarlo a cigarette and lighter when they first meet. Apart from giving this potential alien a cancer stick. I kept wondering what if Hannibal Lecter was there instead of Tom. Just how he would had used a lighter and a lit cigarette as a weapon. That is before a killing machine is taken to Tom's home and perfect family.

Much of the concepts remain unexplored as the story comes to an abrupt end.

A soldier from the future appears in 1964.

I like the opening few minutes when the "soldier" is in the future and then in the streets of 1964. The very ending is also cool. But I can't say I am the biggest fan of what happens in the endless cage scenes. It just seems to go on and on a bit. However, I am sure the whole hour was a knockout in 1964. Season two has several wonderful episodes and this is not the best season opener to me.

My views of season two are a bit different to many other posters. I actually like the "William Shatner going frozen episode" and the "Killer Weeds episode". In fact in my view at least, the season only had two stinkers and the rest of the shows were okay or fine. However, The Outer Limits requires repeat viewings, there have been many cases where an episode sucked to me in the 1980s but is rather cool today.

This episode is one of the best pieces of 60's television that I've ever seen(and not just of science fiction), out of nearly a 100 total. I can completely imagine someone watching this on TV remembering it for years, even decades, after. Honestly, I don't see how you can realistically watch this and the also excellent Demon with a Glass Hand, and not recognize elements of them in The Terminator. I love the work of James Cameron, and I don't personally believe he intended to plagiarize anyone, but several of the concepts of that film clearly came from these two stories by Harlan Ellison, an author I intend to delve deeper into the writings of. The script is excellent, and the execution leaves rather little to be desired. From the dark, dystopian and terrifying future to the psychological accuracy, it's all almost entirely invariably spot-on. The editing and cinematography are magnificent. This is impeccably well-acted, including the kids, who are pretty convincing. Ansara is absolutely stunning; he has the chops to pull off the role, as well as the physicality to be credible in that aspect. This is exciting, engaging and chilling, with strong commentary. The plot is compelling, and it's well-paced from start to finish. I recommend this to any fan of sci-fi that isn't cheery and optimistic. 8/10

Soldier is directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Harlan Ellison and Leslie Stevens. It stars Lloyd Nolan, Michael Ansara, Tim O'Connor, Ralp Hart and Jill Hill. Music is by Harry Lubin and cinematography by Kenneth Peach.

Season 2 - Episode 1

A soldier named from the far future Quarlo (Ansara), conditioned from birth to be a killing machine, is teleported back to present day 1964. Psychiatric linguist Tom Kagan (Nolan) is assigned the near impossible task of getting to the bottom of who Qarlo is, and where has he come from? As some headway is made and things begin to unravel, another soldier from the future arrives to kill his enemy, Quarlo.

Written by expert science fiction writer Harlan Ellison, Soldier became famous for being the episode that saw Ellison charge James Cameron with plagiarism when he wrote the screenplay for The Terminator. The subsequent legal battle saw Ellison receive a writing credit on later prints of The Terminator. Regardless of that, what we have here is superb start to series 2, a smart thought out sci-fi story with tense sequences and spiffy sci-fi visuals to aid the viewing experience. 8.5/10

Quarlo__Kobrigny__Privt__RN_CN_TN_TO!

I saw this when broadcast in 1964 and retained scattered detail ever since. This episode led me to purchase the second season set of Outer Limits so I could check the accuracy of my memory. (Not perfect. I thought his last name was Kobrigniak but had his 'serial number' as close as intelligibility allows.

My point in this detail is that when I first saw Terminator on VHS tape rented from a video store in 1985, THIS is the association I flashed on. This was before the internet and IMDb so I had no way of knowing Harlan Ellison wrote the script for 'Soldier' but I did review the credits to see if I could determine a link between two stories where soldiers from an apocalyptic future are transported back in time to fight it out in "the present".

Harlan Ellison was a prolific Sci-Fi writer and produced a number of excellent stories both in print and for visual media but I was more into Asimov and barely knew his name in 1964. I don't think the way he does and some of his stories (I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream) leave me cold. However, though I may disagree with Ellison's view of many things, I think he got it right when he claimed credit for the idea behind Terminator. The details are different and the franchise has evolved into a time travel conundrum that writers are still playing with in Sara Conner Chronicles, but where else have you heard of the basic premise?

The future in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s was almost always a bright utopia. ("The Marching Morons" not withstanding) This is not true in 'Soldier' and I think the similarities with Terminator are to many to ignore.

Ellison probably should not get a credit saying "based on" but certainly you might describe The Terminator as "inspired by a story by Harlan Ellison". Cameron would have been 10 years old when this played on TV. Maybe he did not 'memorize' it the way I did seeing that broadcast at age 17, but I'll bet he saw it...even if he does not really remember doing so. Memory works that way. "Inspired by".