June 23, 2023-Number 80

Spoilers

“A Quality of Mercy”

I hardly recognized Dean Stockwell when he first came on the screen with the American army during “A Quality of Mercy” episode from season three. I had seen this episode low on lists of Twilight Zone lists, but I did not think it was that bad. However, I could tell what it was docked for. It’s the same thing that I am going to dock it for.

Dean Stockwell played Lieutenant Katell, a young officer during World War II (the last day actually) who arrived with a platoon that had lost its last two leaders. They had a group of Japanese trapped in a cave, but they were not sure what they were going to do. Katell showed up, ready to rush the cave and kill all the enemy soldiers.

The the Twilight Zone took over.

Katell found himself in the body of one of the Japanese soldiers, but earlier in the war, and the man in charge was acting the same way he did when arriving with the Americans. He was able to see how mercy could go a long way.

The problem? Stockwell had face paint, eyes done up and a horrendous Japanese accent. I do not know why it was decided that Stockwell perform this in such a stereotypically racial manner, but this choice ruined the scenes for me and really weakened an otherwise strong episode.

EYG Hall of Famer Leonard Nemoy was in the episode too as one of the American soldiers.