"Soldier From Tomorrow" (later reprinted under the title "Soldier") is a 1957 science fiction short story by Harlan Ellison, originally published in ''

Fantastic Universe ''Fantastic Universe'' was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishin ...

'' in October 1957. Its protagonist is Qarlo Clobregnny, a soldier from thousands of years in the future, who has been conditioned from birth by the State (the "Tri-Continenters") solely to fight and kill the enemy (the "Ruskie-Chinks"). After time traveling to the present, Qarlo is "civilized" by Lyle Sims, a government agent, and Soames, a

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, and eventually goes on a lecture tour to warn of the coming armageddon. Ellison loosely adapted the story for his script for the 1964 '' The Outer Limits'' episode "

Soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

". Ellison was later to bring suit against '' The Terminator'' production company

Hemdale Hemdale Film Corporation, known as Hemdale Communications after 1992, was an independent American-British film production company and distributor. The company was founded in London in 1967 as the Hemdale Company by actor David Hemmings and John D ...

and distributor Orion Pictures for plagiarism of his works. The parties settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount, and an acknowledgement of Ellison's works in the credits of ''The Terminator''.

References

Short stories by Harlan Ellison 1957 short stories {{1950s-sf-story-stub

See also

References