I watched the A Quality of Mercy Twilight Zone Episode Season 3 Episode 15

[markusv67]

To Expose my inner geek, I watched the twilight zone episode mentioned in the review of The Strange New Worlds Episode of the same name "A Quality of Mercy". SfDebris mentioned that Leonard Nimoy was in that episode. The story envolves around a platoon of war weary WWII American Infantry Soldiers on a hill observing through binnoculars a far away cave where a platoon of Japanese Soldiers are holed up in. Those infantry soldiers are 24 months into the fighting. Proving the adage that there are no small roles, just small actors, Nimoy playing one of those begruntled American Soldiers, was seen throughout the Episode. Nimoy only had one line during the Episode. You probably would not have noticed him in the whole episode if his name was not Leonard Nimoy. He would have been a background character.
Another tie to sci-fi is the appearance of the blood thirsty 24 days fresh out of officer command school Gung ho Leuitenant Kadal who takes over this platoon of war weary Soldiers played by a very young Dean Stockwell. Stockwell is know for the role he played as Sam Becket's hologram buddy Quantum Leap. Stockwell also appeared iwith Scott Bacula again in an episode of Star Trek Enterprise.
Another Sci Fi tie of this episode is that the episode not only has Stockwell's character trading places with Japanese Army Leuitenant, but also sending Stockwell's character 3 years into the past from August 9, 1945 to Star Wars Day (May the 4th) 1942. This episode was aired Dec 28, 1961 16 years before Star Wars A new Hope was released into the Theaters.