Neil Stryker

Neil Stryker is the main protagonist of The Stranger, a 1973 TV movie also known as Stranded in Space, which was intended to be the pilot of a television series, but was not picked up by any network. He is a human astronaut who crash-landed on Terra, an Earth-like planet in Earth's orbital period, but on the opposite side of the sun, and got roped into a conflict against the Perfect Order, Terra's planetary dictatorship.
Neil Stryker was portrayed by the late Glenn Corbett.
== Biography ==
In the 1970s, Neil Stryker, a NASA astronaut, was flying a deep-space mission with two other astronauts, named Mike and Steve. At the end of the mission, the three flew back to Earth, but something went wrong with their trajectory, and they instead came too close to Terra, a planet unknown to Earth. Pulled into Terra's gravitational field, the ship, the Patriot, crashed in an ocean, and was retrieved by the Terran government. Stryker was taken to a hospital, while Mike and Steve were presumed dead.
Waking up at the hospital, Stryker believed he was on Earth, as the technology, language, and aesthetics resembled the Western world, and the Terrans looked identical to humans externally. However, the Terran government, a totalitarian dictatorship known as the Perfect Order, quickly discovered that Stryker wasn't a Terran, and had their agent Benedict keep him under guard and question him. At night, one of Benedict's men, Dr. Revere, would drug Stryker and ask him questions about Earth, with Stryker not remembering the interrogations by morning. However, despite receiving flowers supposedly from the people and not remembering being drugged, Stryker became suspicious, wondering why the room had no windows and realizing that he didn't recognize any of the Terrans. One day, he asked Dr. Revere about a human doctor, finding Revere unable to answer, and then tried speaking Russian to the doctor, which Revere was unable to understand. After Revere failed to recognize prominent American historical figures, Stryker deduced that he at least wasn't in the United States.
When night fell, Stryker pretended to fall asleep, but when a nurse named Eric came in to drug him, Stryker sprang up and quickly incapacitated the Terran, running outside to be confronted by Benedict, who tried to block his path. Stryker promptly struck Benedict in the shoulder to knock him down, only for Perfect Order soldiers to come in, and Benedict then shot Stryker in the side. Regardless, Stryker escaped down an empty hall, looking for both an exit and something to patch himself up with. Finding a room with some medical supplies, Stryker dressed his wound, but he suddenly heard someone coming in, being met with Dr. Bettina Cooke. Pulling a scalpel on her, Stryker asked her to not be afraid, saying that he wouldn't hurt her. However, while first complying, Bettina quickly ran outside and directed Benedict and his men to Stryker's location, but Stryker had already fled the room and set up a decoy in an elevator, tricking the Terrans into shooting it.
In reality, Stryker had already gotten out of the building through a window, stealing a jacket to cover his wound and climbing down a fire escape to reach the ground, getting some distance away from the hospital, where he saw a phone booth, oddly lacking any slots to deposit money, and attempted to call General R.E. Williams, his superior, in Cape Kennedy, Florida, only for the operator to tell him that there was no Cape Kennedy or Florida. Stryker protested that the operator spoke English, so there had to be a Florida, but when the operator couldn't help him, he hung up. Leaving the both, Stryker saw a van approaching and flagged it down, with the Terran in the van, Roger, allowing him to hitch a ride. As the two drove down the road, Roger began to ask Stryker where he was headed, but Stryker finally got a good look at the night sky, shocked by the sight of three moons. Finally realizing that he was on an alien world, Stryker ignored Roger's question, instead asking him if the moons always looked that way. Roger was confused by the question, so Stryker instead asked if Roger ever heard of Earth, to which Roger replied that he hadn't.
Stryker and Roger kept riding until morning, reaching a small town. Roger offered Stryker cigarettes, which Stryker accepted, but Stryker's use of his right hand made Roger ask him if he had hurt his left hand, revealing that all Terrans were left-handed. Stryker quickly replied that he had sprained his wrist, just before a broadcast from the Perfect Order was played on Roger's radio, first repeating pro-Perfect Order propaganda, before relaying a bulletin from the government about an 'escaped mental patient', which was actually their cover story for Stryker, urging citizens to report him on sight. Realizing what the broadcast was talking about, Stryker got Roger to let him off, but Roger quickly realized that Stryker was the person in the broadcast. Seeing Roger stop his van and go to a phone booth, Stryker quickly got into town, quickly vanishing into the crowd of Terrans. While walking their streets, pretending to be one of them, Stryker's memories replayed in his head, until he was snapped out of it by hearing other government broadcasts repeating his wanted bulletin. Wandering some more, Stryker eventually found a bookstore lacking a government radio, quickly entering for refuge. Inside, Stryker was met by the elderly store owner, who asked him if he was looking for anything in particular. Stryker asked for a book on the position of Terra relative to the sun and Earth, but the owner said that he'd have to go to the technical bookstore or local university for it. However, the owner had a book on the complete history of Terra, giving it to Stryker, but when Stryker opened it, he found that it omitted all history prior to the foundation of the Perfect Order. When he tried to question the owner, the owner clarified that all prior history was effectively forgotten due to the great strides the planet had taken, but briefly reminisced about old pleasures of life that were now suppressed, such as concerts in the park and more laughter. Seeing the true nature of the Perfect Order, and how there seemed to be no escape, Stryker dropped the book.
The owner, seeing that Stryker looked ill, offered him a room upstairs to rest in. Left alone by the owner, Stryker laid down, but downstairs, the owner called a doctor for Stryker. While Stryker was washing his face, the owner came back upstairs and told him he brought a doctor over before leaving. Stryker exited the bathroom, scissors held as a hidden weapon, to find that none other than Bettina Cooke had been called in. When Bettina tried to run, Stryker quickly grabbed her and covered her mouth, pleading with her to listen to him. Bettina agreed, and Stryker told her that he was an astronaut from Earth, asking if Bettina heard anything about an 'alien spacecraft.' Bettina said that all she knew was that Stryker was a 'special patient' and urged him to return to the hospital, insisting that all Dr. Revere wanted to do was help him. Seeing other Perfect Order agents stalking the streets, Stryker agreed to return to the hospital, on the one condition that Bettina personally drive him there, so that he may turn himself in.
The two left in Bettina's car, just in time to avoid some Perfect Order agents coming out of a nearby building, driving for some time until Stryker suddenly told Bettina to turn left, forcefully turning the car when she refused and revealing that he lied about turning himself in. Seeing that she couldn't fight him, Bettina kept driving down the new path, but quickly turned on her car's two-way radio, which was connected to Perfect Order dispatchers. Stryker told her how she lied before in the hospital, but Bettina tried to say that it was different, as she didn't know who he was, using the conversation to discretely send information back to the Perfect Order, such as what road they were going down. Stryker then had her stop the car and demanded answers about Terra, such as if there were any other nations or anyone who would help him, but Bettina then noticed another car coming down the road. She tried honking the horn to get their attention, but Stryker restrained her again and suddenly hugged her with a long kiss, making the other Terrans ignore them. When they passed, Bettina then slapped him and ran out of the car, demanding to be left alone, although Stryker followed, still asking for help, showing how he had been shot at and otherwise harmed by an organization supposedly dedicated to helping the mentally ill. Bettina tried to say how the Perfect Order supposedly helped the mentally ill, but stopped herself when she mentioned her brother. Stryker, realizing that something bad happened to Bettina's brother, began to pressure her, asking her about her brother's whereabouts, getting her to admit that her brother was a dissident who was taken away and never heard from again. Stryker asked for help again, and this time, Bettina agreed to help, and rushed to shut off the radio, but a military helicopter had already been deployed to kill the two.
Stryker quickly pulled Bettina into the car and took the wheel, driving fast down the road and cutting across a forest, dodging gunfire from the chopper crew, before managing to lure the helicopter into crashing into a windmill, destroying it. Stryker then attempted to get Bettina to safety and go on the run, but Bettina, after formally introducing herself, directed him to Professor Dylan MacAuley, a terminally ill dissident and old friend of hers. The two soon arrived on MacAuley's farm, far from the Perfect Order's surveillance network, and told him about Stryker's story. MacAuley walked with Stryker, telling him of his theories about how life on Terra and Earth formed simultaneously, and possibly not on pure coincidence. MacAuley then said how he heard rumors of an unidentified spacecraft and sole surviving astronaut. Stryker asked about the other two astronauts, finding that they were dead, and when he asked if anyone had any memorial services, MacAuley clarified that religion was outlawed on Terra. Stryker asked how the Perfect Order formed, and MacAuley responded that it formed suddenly, as if everyone closed their eyes for a moment, and opened it to see the Perfect Order. Stryker tried ask if anyone could resist the Perfect Order, men like MacAuley, but the professor told him how dissidents were not only imprisoned, but had their names and legacies erased, and were sent to Ward E, a hospital ward where the Perfect Order would lobotomize dissidents.
Within the farmhouse, Stryker and MacAuley drank some alcohol, MacAuley agreeing to help Stryker if it meant striking back against the Perfect Order. Stryker asked for a way to return to Earth, and MacAuley told him how it was not impossible to return to Earth, for Terran spacecraft were theoretically capable of reaching the planet, but commandeering one would be no easy task. Stryker didn't want to bring an old man like MacAuley into it, but MacAuley insisted, the two forming a plan to swap Stryker with a Terran astronaut just before the launch. However, while prepping some technical manuals for Stryker to review, MacAuley suddenly fell in pain, having Stryker get him medicine to inject himself with. MacAuley then revealed that he too was sent to Ward E by a close female colleague, but as his mind was deemed too valuable to lose, he was merely given the illness, and urged Stryker to not tell Bettina the plan, as the woman who reported him was much like Bettina. Regardless, the next day, just before leaving for the space complex, Stryker told Bettina about the plan, the two starting to fall in love, but realized they could never see each other again. Bettina then left to return home, and Stryker went with MacAuley to the space complex, disguised as a scientist named Allen Drake, using fake credentials provided by MacAuley to bluff their way past security. When night fell, the two went over the plan one more time, which would have Stryker incapacitate the astronaut when he was suiting up and don the suit instead, using the helmet to conceal his identity until he was off-world, as once out of the atmosphere, the ship would be entirely in control of the pilot. However, MacAuley then needed to take his medications again, only to drop the vial, which shattered. He was forced to leave Stryker behind to go home for a new vial, so Stryker wandered the complex pretending to do work as the clock ticked down, until he was met with a certain Terran, Eric from the hospital. Pulling a pair of long scissors on Eric, Stryker led him outside and knocked him out, hiding him in a dumpster.
Soon enough, the astronaut began to suit up, and Stryker approached his room, bluffing his way in by pretending to have important information. When the guard let him in, Stryker quickly subdued the guard and took his pistol, using it to hold force the astronaut and technician in the room to hand over the suit. Stryker then knocked the two out and tied them up, but before he could suit up, he was met by MacAuley and Bettina. MacAuley kept watch outside, while Bettina spoke with Stryker, revealing that she had been arrested by Benedict when she got home, but then began speaking of the Perfect Order being kind and just. Stryker, realizing something was wrong, pulled off her head covering to reveal incision wounds on her head, as her mind had been surgically altered to be loyal to the Perfect Order once more by Benedict. Just then, Benedict and his lieutenant Henry Maitland, along with a squad of Perfect Order soldiers brought there by Bettina, entered the complex and shot MacAuley to death. Stryker, hearing the gunfire, quickly opened the door and shot a soldier, before fleeing from the others, setting off alarms as Benedict and the soldiers chased him down the complex. Getting into a boiler room, Stryker quickly found himself surrounded, but then saw stairs and began climbing higher up the building, killing more soldiers as he ran, and then saw that the room was full of liquid oxygen tanks. Benedict then reached Stryker, but Stryker shot him in the arm first, and ran through the liquid oxygen storage to get the roof, which was holding more liquid oxygen tanks, where none of the soldiers dared to use their guns as to not cause an explosion by hitting a tank. However, with them closing in, Stryker saw that the ocean was down below, and quickly jumped off the roof, firing back at the tanks and creating a massive explosion that killed the other Terran soldiers.
While Benedict and Maitland survived the blast, Stryker was presumed dead, but unknown to the Perfect Order, he had gotten to the ocean and washed ashore elsewhere, far from the space complex. He was soon found by a vacationing Terran family, and claimed to have been in a boat that capsized. When Tom Nelson, the man who rescued him, asked where he was heading, Stryker told him he was just heading up the coast, giving the name of "James Mitchell." As the Nelsons were going up the coast as well, Stryker was welcomed to join them, and as he walked to their car, he looked back at the three moons, remembering MacAuley's words, that it was not impossible to return home.
Category:Science Fiction Heroes
Category:Fighters
Category:Male
Category:Military
Category:Titular
Category:Inconclusive
Category:Falsely Accused
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:TV Show Heroes
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Betrayed
Category:One-Shot
Category:One-Man Army
Category:In Love
Category:Lethal
Category:Karma Houdini
Category:Protectors of Innocence