SYFY TZ Marathon - A Quality of Mercy

 You can really tell when you watch "A Quality of Mercy" or other penned war fables in the Twilight Zone just how scarred Rod Serling was. If anyone could use his intellect and voice to comment about the war, about what it does to soldiers, to those that went over there, those who killed and watched others (and their own) die, all that blood and guts, it was Serling. That WWII experience gave Serling plenty of nightmare fuel to articulate within science fiction the damage inflicted on all sides. Stockwell has a face that was perfect for "A Quality of Mercy". This is another episode I have watched more in the last few years than probably ten or so preceding it. Stockwell as this kid who shows up at this hill bloodthirsty and ready to "kill him sum Japs", then through this type of TZ transference, he finds himself in the body of a Japanese soldier, demanded by his stern, take-no-prisoners commanding officer to follow his men to a cave of wounded American soldiers (a sort of direct reversal of his American second lieutenant ordering Salmi, Barnes, and Nimoy among those still on the hill to lead a night forward attack on the cave of half-dead, half-starved Japanese wounded officers). Stockwell as a Japanese officer listening to an officer who sounds exactly like him--kill them all, defeat the enemy, no matter how defeated and wounded they might be--even slapping him to the ground is very convincing to me. His eyes really always seem to captivate me more than anything. At the end, once he's "returned" to his American body, his eyes register the past experience and he wants none of that killing he seemed so eager for before that "excursion". The Twilight Zone just allowed Serling so much room, quite the platitude to explore thoughts and feelings very important to him. He could really tell a story. Salmi as a weary sergeant with a bellyful of killing and war who clearly wants to strangle that kid calling him a coward is so damn good. When Salmi's on, he's really dependable. He was more of a heel in his career, a villain you love to hate, but with the right part, he could be quite prolific. He wasn't one-dimensional. How Stockwell just arrives all squeaky clean and starts spitting flame at these dead tired men...he needed a good kick in the pants. Serling was just the right writer to give it to him.

Salmi sizes him up correctly