Soldier (The Outer Limits)

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The Outer Limits episode
“Soldier”

Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 1
Guest star(s)	Lloyd Nolan Michael Ansara Tim O'Connor
Writer(s)	Harlan Ellison
Director	Gerd Oswald
Cinematographer	Kenneth Peach
Production no.	34
Original airdate	September 19, 1964
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
“The Forms of Things Unknown”	“Cold Hands, Warm Heart”

"Soldier" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It opened the second season of shows on 19 September 1964.

For the second season, Ben Brady took over as producer from Joseph Stefano. This is the first of two episodes written by the renowned science fiction author Harlan Ellison. Adapted from a short story originally published in 1957.

1 Opening narration
2 Exceptional additional narration
3 Plot synopsis
4 Closing narration
5 Cast
6 External links and references

[edit] Opening narration

Night comes too soon on the battlefield. For some men it comes permanently; their eyes never open to the light of day. But for this man, fighting this war, there is never total darkness. The spidery beams of light in the sky are the descendants of the modern laser beam—heat rays that sear through tungsten steel and flesh as though they were cheesecloth. And this soldier must go against those weapons. His name is Qarlo, and he is a footsoldier, the ultimate infantryman. Trained from birth by the State, he has never known love, or closeness, or warmth. He is geared for only one purpose: to kill the Enemy. And the Enemy waits for him...

[edit] Exceptional additional narration

"Time is fluid. The waters of forever close—and passage may not be completed. The present and the future are for a moment united. And the Enemy, half-today, half-tomorrow, is locked between..."

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In a devastated future, two footsoldiers fight each other in a twilight landscape. Suddenly, beams of light send them in the present time: 1964. One of them, Qarlo, appears in broad daylight, in the street of a big city and frightens the population. He's arrested by the police and locked up in an official asylum where one philologist watches, studies, establishes a communication and tames him. Later on, Qarlo is released and taken to the scientist's family home. Meanwhile, the other soldier is stalked between two times. Qarlo escapes from the home and is caught up while robbing a rifle store. Back home, alerted by the pet (Macbeth, the cat), he faces again his mortal enemy. By accident, the two warriors are disintegrated by a laser beam machine gun.

[edit] Closing narration

"From the darkest of all pits, the soul of Man, come the darkest questions: Did the soldier finally come to care for those he protected? Or was it just his instinct to kill? Questions from the dark pit. But no answers. For answers lie in the future. Is it a future in which men are machines, born to kill, or is there time for us? Time. All the time in the world... but is that enough?"