1.37 --- A Small Talent for War

Directed by : Claudia Weill Written by : Alan Brennert & Carter Scholz Starring : John Glover, Peter Michael Goetz, Stefan Gierasch First aired : 24th of January, 1986. When an alien ship lands at United Nations, a total commotion ensues. Alien ambassador (John Glover, In the Mouth of Madness, Payback) teleports himself to the UN assembly room, and informs the council that his race planted life on Earth millions of years ago, coming now back to evaluate things. The evaluation, however, is negative - the aliens are displeased with Earth's "small talent for war", and says that the Earth, along with its population, will be promptly exterminated. He does grant the Earthlings one day to try and fix everything and prove him wrong, though. Hearing this, the US ambassador (Peter Michael Goetz) rallies the council, pleading with the Soviet ambassador (Stefan Gierasch, The Hustler, Carrie) for cooperation. In record time, the UN council draws all sorts of peace resolutions, accomplishing, for the first time in history, global peace. Alien ambassador arrives back tomorrow, and is visibly surprised to see the turn of events. But after sharing a hearty laugh with the present diplomats, he informs them his message was misunderstood - his race breeds warriors, and Earth, as he said, has small talent for war ; worse yet, Earthlings have always had peaceful aspirations. As he disappears, the rest of the alien ships enter Earth's atmosphere, ready to finish the job. *** A right relief after the needless headscratching induced by Monsters !, A Small Talent for War is basically an upgraded Examination Day - this time, the twist is not as easily smelled, and is not carelessly given away, either. It's a thankless job grading actors based on a seven-minute short, but I have to say Glover was fabulous as the alien ambassador...though somehow they made him look too much like David Bowie (I guess he patented the stock "alien" look after The Man Who Fell to Earth). If there is something negative to be said about this episode, it's the woeful quality of special effects - the alien ship in the opening sequence looks good, but the ones from the later scenes resemble spray-painted miniature Death Star stations from Star Wars. Oh and, why the hell is Ukraine having an UN ambassador in the middle of the 80s, with USSR still alive and kicking ? Horror trivia : alien ambassador warns the diplomats to "keep watching the skies", thus making a The Thing from Another World reference - again, back-to-back at that.