Soldier (The Outer Limits)

"Soldier" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It opened the second season of shows on September 19, 1964.  For the second season, Ben Brady took over as producer from Joseph Stefano.

This is the first of two episodes written by Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author Harlan Ellison, and is adapted from his 1957 short story "Soldier from Tomorrow."

Plot
Eighteen hundred years in the future, two foot soldiers clash on a battlefield.  A random energy weapon strikes both, and they are hurled into a time vortex. While one soldier is trapped in the matrix of time, the other, Qarlo Clobregnny (Michael Ansara), materializes on a city street in the United States in the year 1964.

Qarlo is soon captured and interrogated by Tom Kagan (Lloyd Nolan), a philologist, and his origin is eventually discovered. Qarlo has been trained for one purpose – to kill the enemy, and that is all he knows.  Progress is made in "taming" him after Kagan translates his seemingly unintelligible language – "Nims qarlo clobregnny prite arem aean teaan deao" – into colloquial English..."(My) name is Qarlo Clobregnny, private, RM EN TN DO"; his name, rank and serial letters, which is what any soldier would reveal if captured by the enemy. After a short time in captivity, Qarlo comes to live with the Kagan family, despite the reluctance expressed by Tom Kagan's government associates.

However, the time eddy holding the enemy soldier slowly weakens. Finally, he materializes fully, and tracks Qarlo to the Kagan home. In a final hand-to-hand battle, Qarlo sacrifices his life to kill the enemy and save the Kagan family.

Production
Interiors were shot at Paramount Studios. Qarlo's "War Zone" was shot on the Paramount Sunset stage, a gigantic stage the size of three stages put together. A sky cyclorama ran all the way round it and a horizon line of mountains was placed in front of that in diminished perspective. A fog machine provided the landscape with a smokey haziness.  The gun shop scene was filmed on the Paramount Backlot, on New York Street.

The Terminator
Ellison brought suit against The Terminator production company Hemdale and distributor Orion Pictures for plagiarism of this episode, since both works involve a soldier from the future who goes back in time and saves the life of a present-day woman from an enemy soldier from the future. According to the Los Angeles Times, the parties settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount, and an acknowledgement of Ellison's works in the credits of Terminator. The credits were added only to the home video releases of Terminator and read simply, "Acknowledgment to the Works of Harlan Ellison".

James Cameron emphatically denied Ellison's allegations and was opposed to the settlement, stating "For legal reasons I'm not suppose [sic] to comment on that (the addition of acknowledgement credits) but it was a real bum deal, I had nothing to do with it and I disagree with it."

Cast
 Lloyd Nolan – as Tom Kagan
 Michael Ansara – as Qarlo Clobregnny
 Tim O'Connor – as Paul Tanner
 Catherine McLeod – as Abby Kagan
 Jill Hill – as Toni Kagan
 Allen Jaffe – as The Enemy
 Ralph Hart – as Loren Kagan
 Marlowe Jensen – as Sgt. Berry
 Ted Stanhope – as Doctor
 Jamie Forster – as News Vendor
 Mavis Neal Palmer – as Woman
 Vic Perrin and Tim O'Connor - as the Voices in Qarlo and The Enemy's War Helmets (uncredited)

Notes

External links
 
 

Category:The Outer Limits (1963 TV series season 2) episodes
Category:1964 American television episodes
Category:Television episodes written by Harlan Ellison
Category:Television episodes about time travel
Category:Fiction set in 1964
Category:Fiction set in the 4th millennium
Category:Adaptations of works by Harlan Ellison