Colonel Ferdinand von Terl was the antagonist of Battlefield Earth, with John Travolta in his role. For his 100th episode, The Nostalgia Critic reviewed his film, and Terl interrupts it in order to properly lecture the critic in acting. For his Channel Awesome appearances, he is played by Noah Antwiler. He is best know for being arch-nemesis of the Nostalgia Critic.
Nostalgia Critic
During his review of Battlefield Earth, Terl interrupted the review to lecture the Critic on acting. Though the Critic initially cut him off. Terl is constantly called by the Critic to counter the plot holes involving his species' stupidity. Terl, after boasting about his "superior intellect", reveals that his species won the battle for Earth because they defecated nuclear bombs. At the end of the review, the planet Psychlo is destroyed when one of the inhabitants lit a cigarette (the atmosphere was apparently extremely flammable).
The Spoony Experiment
Terl's second appearance was in Spoony's review of the Wing Commander movie, where he revealed that he had survived by transferring his mind into a "Psy-Clone" before the Psychlo homeworld was destroyed. He then went on to reveal that as a result of following the religion of Scientology, he had the ability to instantly work out the altitude of any given city on Earth.
To Boldly Flee
Terl survived his homeworld's destruction, and blamed the Critic for the extinction of his race and planet. He was then brought in by The Executor, a mysterious hooded Emperor Palpatine-like character. Terl attempted to legally attack the Critic by trying to appeal to the U.S. Senate, giving strong support for his proposal with evidence of the Critic's attempts to invade Molossia, the destruction of Psychlo, and the criticizing of his "brilliant" film. However, the Senate, believing that his claims are not of great importance, dismisses him, cutting to commercial whenever he tries to argue.
Agent Prick, hearing his debate, agrees with Terl's antagonistic views of the internet reviewers and puts the Critic under house arrest. Terl reveals himself as the cause of the arrest to the Critic, but he has forgotten who he was and hangs up when Terl admits he can't do anything to him legally.
Terl's men detects that the Critic is leaving Earth for Europa in his house, which was modified to become a spaceship. Due to his imcompetence, Terl failed to notice the house pass by his ship, and the Executor sends him a new master: General Zod.
Zod and Terl do not get along well, and the former makes fun of him when he finds out his first name is Ferninand. After finding the Critic, the two fight for control over the ship (now turned into a house) with Zod winning, stuffing the alien's face into the seat of a couch. The attack goes well at first until their weapons system goes offline and they try to get them working again all the while still arguing. Eventually they do and escape capturing the Cinema Snob. It's also revealed he employed Mechakara to infiltrate the ship and in return would give him the secrets to Malachite's Hand but accidently reveals he lied over the intercom angering the android. He and Zod are later contacted by the Executor who is now scared from his battle with the LAG, Terl commenting he looks like a melted candle. He is informed the Death Bomb is nearly complete and tells the two to stay on the command ship and await his fellow orders while also telling the two to throw a big Hollywood Coke party in celebration which Terl is none to happy about. With the party not going as planned Terl heads off into space to confront the Critic in his personal space ship. He nearly shoots him down but is shot down himself by the mysterious Gort robot (later revealed to be The Nerd). He then returns to the ship and is angered at the loss of their armada. He then regains control of the ship while Zod is suffering an asthma attack and begins quoting Shakespeare wrongly which he also did earlier. Unknown to him though a vengeful Mechakara has arrived on the ship for revenge and eventually is grabbed by the android. Before he can harm him though, Terl, Mechakara and Zod notice a torpedo coming towards them. Zod asks if he has anymore Shakespeare to quote but Terl says he has none and that it sucks to be them. The torpedo strikes setting the ship ablaze and causing it to crash into the Death Bomb, killing the Executor in the process. The three survive the crash but are injured. They then notice a ticking sound coming from Mechakara remembering the bomb that was attached to him earlier and that it's gonna blow after it's activated by SadPanda. The three accepting their faith take turns in quoting "To be or not to be" as Mechakara blows up killing himself, Zod and Terl as well as destroying the Death Bomb.
Alive Again
However Terl was shown to have survived again and attacked AngryJoe again having an army behind him as he waited for Joe to face him.
Terl made another appearance in The Nostalgia Critic, during a spoof "Thade for President" advert which depicted him as Thade's running-mate. At the end of the review, he appeared in person and was shown to be very excited about the then-upcoming Jem and the Holograms movie.