Outer Limits Season 2, Episode1: "Soldier"

Harlan Ellison sadly passed away at the age of 84, back in 2018. He was undeniably one of the most brilliant SF writers (hell, one of the most brilliant writers period), of his generation. He penned two episodes of the classic cult Sixties television sci-fi anthology show "The Outer Limits." One was "Demon With a Glass Hand," starring Robert "Greatest American Hero" Culp. I saw that one decades ago. The other, "Soldier," (Based loosely on Harlan's own short story "Soldier of Tomorrow") quite clearly inspired the mega-blockbuster action movie series The Terminator, starring Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arnold playing the titular cyborg assassin from Earth's apocalyptic, AI-generated nuclear holocaust of a future.

Although Terminator producer James Cameron denies it (what else did you expect?) the producers eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed but estimated to be a considerable amount of money. They also put an acknowledgment to "The Works of Harlan Ellison" in the closing credits of the original film. Someone once told me that Ellison further demanded a billboard in downtown L.A. stating, "The producers of The Terminator wish to apologize to Harlan Ellison for using his story without acknowledging him." I haven't been able to track down the veracity of that particular claim, and it feels like urban legend since such an event would, no doubt, be worthy of comment.

As far as the episode in question, "Soldier," it's pretty wonky visually, and even thematically, but has a certain raw, old-school 1960s sci-fi TV charm. Two heavy helmeted warriors from the apocalyptic, war-torn dystopian future are zapped by sky lasers and somehow end up floating in a time warp through one of those kitsch spiral visual effects props that twist around and around and have a little piece of velcro or whatever to hide the screw in the center holding the painted disc on. When the soldier ("Quarlo", played by Michael Ansara), who wears not only a huge, honky Captain Video and the Space Cadets helmet, but also what looks like a breastplate from some old suit of armor, lands in an alley in contemporary America (1,800 years in his past), he is captured by the USA Government Guys and shipped to a facility where he repeats what sounds like gibberish, or possibly Slavic-derived phrases, and is examined by a philologist, Tom Kagan (Lloyd Nolan).

The philologist determines he is a man from the future. Okay. Then, he and some other government agent ("Paul Tanner", played by Tim O'Connor) or something argue, and the Future Soldier goes home (!) with the philologist, who has a Dobie Gillis family straight from every 1962 rerun you've ever seen. (Or maybe 1964?)

"Quarlo," the universal Future Fighting Man, it turns out was born and bred in a hatchery and raised by the State (of his time period) on an island, to be a "pure soldier". Nothing more. He talks to the cat because he thinks, for some reason I have yet to divine, it's his commanding officer. Some other stuff happens, but if I go into it, you'll accuse me of giving away the ending. AND I CAN NOT BE SO ACCUSED.

To quote Quarlo: "I peep that! I knew your troops would jump!" (I've always loved that line.)

So did the producers of The Terminator rip off this old episode of "The Outer Limits" so they could make their action movie sci-fi blockbuster that prominently displays the overdeveloped gluteus maximus of Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (who was destined for stardom, killer cyborg role, or not)? Well, yeah, it kinda seems like it, although the big difference is the TV show is absent one AI-driven cyborg. It may have just been a case of Harlan Ellison being the bastard he was always reputed to be (but not by pal Stephen King), but, regardless, James Cameron is rumored to be one helluva jerk to know and work for, and so probably deserved it. Or his movie deserved it. Or whatever.

To round things out: We have to observe that Quarlo, if he had long hair, would bear a passing resemblance to Tom Araya, the vocalist from speed metal heavyweights Slayer. At least in Tom's younger days. And it makes sense, you know; "War Ensemble" and all.

Finito.

Outer Limits Season 2, Episode 1: "Soldier."