In another classic tale, a soldier from 1800 years in the future, and an enemy soldier he's fighting, are accidentally teleported back to the year 1964. The psychiatrist assigned to examine the soldier realizes that the brute has been bred purely as a killing machine, but also, that he can reawaken the humanity in him. Later, the second soldier arrives and is ready to kill his enemy, and those who protect him!
It stars Lloyd (160 quality acting parts) Nolan, Michael (198 great acting jobs) Ansara, Tim (120 amazing acting credits) O'Connor and Catherine (75 solid acting parts, lotsa TV) McLeod.
The story starts here, in some unknown world... There seems to be a war going on, there are incoming super laser beams hitting down, and two soldiers are each taking commands to kill their enemy!!
As the men approach each other, two laser beams hit down at the same time, causing a time distortion that sends the soldiers careening through time and space, until...
One of the soldiers ends up here, he's being chased by police. Backed into a corner, he unloads on a patrol car, machen es geht,
kaput!!
After being incapacitated by the noise from a jack hammer, the oddly clad man's barely subdued and taken to a psychiatric facility and put in an observation room. Tom Kagan is put on the case, an expert on foreign languages, they want him to figure out who the person is and what the Hell's going on around here. The big guy has the strength of five men! Paul Tanner, head of security, draws his gun before letting Kagan go inside the room with him.
Being friendly and offering the man a smoke seems to always be a good place to start, at least it used to be. Kagan eventually finds out that the man's name is Quarlo Clobregnny! Or, just plain old 'Quarlo' for short...
Later, Kagan tries to get Quarlo to read and identify words. He finds out that the man is from Earth, 1800 years into the future. He has been bred as a soldier, and understands much more than he lets on.
Tanner has the results back from the lab, the lethal weapon has no power supply and only has three working parts! Tanner's my favorite character in this one, Tim O'Connor is always great!
Kagan gets permission to take Quarlo to his own residence after he's sure the big guy is harmless to people he trusts. Also, Quarlo finds the family's cat and has a conversation with it using telepathy, cats in the future are like carrier pigeons of the past...
Of course, the other soldier, in full gear, eventually shows up, ready to cause a commotion. He starts by burning a hole in the wall, then entering the home. Got a great little still capture there at the bottom, nice!
Quarlo is able to grab the soldier and wrestle him to the ground. Then, well, they're flung off into another time and space place, I guess...
The story ends with another ominous warning about what we do in the present can effect events in the future. Tune in on Wednesday where Eegah!! will take us to another wild 'n' weird place in movie land, here at The Dungeon!!..
Coincidentally, I just saw it again a week ago, and it definitely "holds up."
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to single out a moment, but I always like it when Kagan gets fed up with Quarlo, and Quarlo smiles for the first time. (Evidently getting on someone's nerves is what does it for him.)
the episode that caused the Terminator lawsuit. it is very similar; especially the beginning showing the post-apoc war-filled future; and then in the present how the soldiers appear in our time. other than that, not so much. but had they stuck closer to this episode, Earl Boen (the shrink in the movie) would have had a bigger part.
ReplyDeleteAgain, the cast is phenomenal. The writing is terrific for 60's television. And this is the sort of show I wish television had today.
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