Customer Reviews

Outer Limits: Soldier [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great sci-fi, fascinating drama.

More than a thousand years in the future, Earth has become a nightmare high-tech battlefield out of Hieronymus Bosch. From this world, soldier Qarlo and "The Enemy" are accidentally teleported back to the U.S. city streets of 1964. The ultra-violent and badly confused Qarlo scares the hell out of everybody, and is quickly arrested and put in a padded cell for study.

Genial philologist Lloyd Nolan and put-upon baffled bureaucrat Tim O'Connor try to figure out what language Qarlo is speaking, and by so doing learn who he is, where he came from, and what to do with him. Once Nolan realizes who Qarlo is and where he came from, he tries to socialize him into the twentieth century by making Qarlo a temporary member of Nolan's own family. O'Connor and Nolan's wife are not exactly happy with the idea, considering Qarlo "a powderkeg just waiting to go off," but Nolan's kids are up to the challenge.

But if Qarlo ended up here, whatever happened to "The Enemy"...?

Fabulous cast and a top-notch script, with no one sounding a false note. Michael Ansara brilliantly plays the confusions and native instincts of the violent man-out-of-time. Nolan is the thinking man's humanitarian, who feels an obligation to fellows of his race even at the continued risk of his own life. The cautious but good-hearted O'Connor almost restores your faith in government bureaucracy. Catherine Macleod's desire to help Qarlo, but ongoing concern to the safety of her family, are fully believable, and so are the kids, Ralph Hart and Jill Hill.

This is a highly intelligent and dramatic story, with a tragic yet inspiring ending that is haunting and deeply moving.

This episode became the inspiration for James Cameron,s "Terminator" series and was beautifully scripted by Harlan Ellison...SEE-IT!..Its a classic!

The initial setting is some time in the future, when the world is split into two armed camps. Soldiers for both sides are literally hatched and raised to be nothing but killing machines. Qarlo is a soldier for one side and he is in a one-on-one battle with a foe from the other side. Death beams fly at them from elsewhere as they slowly close in to engage in the death duel.
However, in some bizarre manner, Qarlo and his foe somehow enter a time warp and Qarlo is sent back to the 1960's. Captured by police when he loses his protective helmet, Qarlo is taken to a padded prison cell. Language expert Tom Kagan is brought in to attempt to communicate with him and learn what he can about Qarlo's history. Modestly successful, he learns the inhuman way that Qarlo was raised and trained and he develops sympathy for Qarlo. Unfortunately, although Qarlo manages to acquire some human traits, the immense divide in cultures proves to be nearly insurmountable.
This story is writer Harlan Ellison's first science fiction teleplay. As is almost always the case with Ellison's work, it combines emotion with reality; you empathize with the characters as they try to overcome what is almost an inevitable destiny. This is one of the best episodes of the series.

It is great because the man from the future is so very different. The future is so different that they can communicate with cats though "thinkspeak". They do a great job showing someone from a totally alien society.

This episode's story and acting is better than the rating that I give here. The reason for the low rating is that the show's overall feel and atmosphere has changed dramatically from the first season. The music, camera angles, and direction are more standard '50s science fiction and that makes this and other shows of the second season much more pedestrian. This show's story is good; it's about a soldier that's been transported from the future to the present and he knows only violence, so he tries to adjust. In the right hands, this could have been much better.

Most Outer Limits in my opinion cannot hold a candle to the majority of the Twilight Zones. This is a rarity. Featuring, what will be a Klingon on Star Trek we have some very good performances. If it weren't for the fact that the "Soldier" was brought home this ep. would be 5 stars ... the ep. falls apart when the kids come in contact with him. Although I have this on laserdisc, I would buy it in a heartbeat on dvd ... wink, wink, nudge, nudge.