This Friday on "Kolchak: TNS" ep 06 "Firefall"

So we're back to Chicago, the city with the best weather for someone to drive a convertible. No wonder Chicago is known as "The Sunny City." And if last episode was Christmas, now it's September, but we still got a glimpse of a (plastic) Christmas tree.

I'll skip plot descriptions because there are people here that do this much better than I could. Going straight to some key points, when the old lady with a dog (Mrs. Sherman) saw the ghostly image that seemed to be Bond, Ryder Bond, I wonder how Kolchak knew what she had seen.

You see, these are all stories we're told by Kolchak himself. We don't see things as they happen. Rather, they have happened some time or a long time ago, since we hear Kolchak's recorded narration. Which got me really intrigued when Felicia Porter saw the Bond, Ryder Bond doppelganger appear and disappear, and then she was killed. Kolchak even tries to reason with Vincenzo saying that Felicia was also a witness, and she was now in an urn. How could he possibly have known what she saw? But I suppose that, after everything he saw, he could assume that the witnesses had actually seen the doppelganger.

Early in the episode I thought this was going to be like a Columbo episode with Kolchak trying to prove Bond, Ryder Bond, the orchestra conductor was the mastermind behind all those crimes. Bond, Ryder Bond did look sinister, especially because his beard sometimes looked more like a goatee, and we all any man who displays a goatee is a villain. That's a scientific fact. But it turns out Bond, Ryder Bond was just a poor victim of the circumstances.

Once again Kolchak has to deal with the police trying to cover up the truth. I always thought that was incredibly stupid, because when the police try to explain the inexplicable and adopt "reasonable" explanations that don't take into consideration the extraordinary circumstances in which the crimes happened, they are closing their minds to the possibility that some criminal may develop some method or technology capable of doing something fantastic, such as inducing a human body to spontaneously combust. To say that the victim burned himself or herself because they']d been smoking and fell asleep is ludicrous. And come on, Kolchak is used to deal with police chiefs, lieutenants or cruise captains. Mayer was a simple sergeant. That's peanuts for Kolchak.

One thing I found strange is how the whole doppelganger theory was developed. One thing is to see bite marks and assume it's a vampire; we all know what vampires can do, so that's a pretty reasonable assumption. But quite another is the weird tale of a spirit that is so fixated on somebody that assumes his or her identity and burns people to a crisp. (What???) Yet, somebody suggested that to Kolchak and he ran with it.

I'm not sure how Kolchak figured out how Markoff was the ghost that was connected to Bond, Ryder Bond. When Kolchak was entering the church with Bond, Ryder Bond to get some sleep, the narration said something about Bond, Ryder Bond interfering with a funeral, but I didn't understand it quite well. Conveniently, I'll wait for Simian Jack or brimfin to explain that to me, because they write down every single detail.

The ending was really creepy, with Kolchak unearthing Markoff's body. And as usual, all proof Kolchak had was lost in a fire, so, once again, he couldn't have his story printed.

Some observations about the cast:

Once again, a Kolchak episode brings us many familiar faces from shows from the 1970s. Fred Beir, who played Bond, Ryder Bond was in a bunch of shows at the time. Philip Carey was in just abut every western I remember watching in my childhood (The Virginain, Daniel Boone, Laredo, Custer, Cimarron Strip, Gunsmoke, McCloud, Little House on the Prairie, among so many cop and detective shows as well). David Doyle, will always be Charlie's Angels' Bosley. And Madlyn Rhue has a small part as a gipsy lady who fills Kolchak in with information about superstitions and threatens him with a gipsy curse if he doesn't pay. I immediately recognize her as Khan's love interest in Star Trek's Space Seed. But again, Kolchak was unable to notice the beautiful woman standing right in front of him.

An entertaining episode, and I'm not tired of the show's formulaic style yet. Firefall gets 7 highly flammable plastic Christmas trees.

An interesting episode this week.
Last week we had a fairly straight forward "creature" in a werewolf but this time we get a load of horror concepts thrown in.
Doppelgangers, lost spirits trying to return and pyrokinesis all thrown together by cases of seemingly spontaneous human combustion.

We get a lot of important story points early. The murder of Victor Markoff, the fact that he is an arsonists and then Ryder Bond cutting up the funeral procession on his way to work. For most of the episode the significance of these scenes is not made clear.

The first half of the story convincing builds that Ryder Bond was the villain. His apparition appearing with his friends closely followed by their deaths. He is not very engaging when he first meets Kolchak, trying to get rid of him quickly.
Then it ramps up when Kolchak has his meeting with the doppelganger, nearly dying in a burning room.
Fade to black and Kolchak is after a villainous conductor who can project his appearance and can cause people to burst into flames.

In the post half way point voice over, Kolchak tells us experts jokingly suggested he had seen a doppelganger. From this point that is the line he pursues gaining more information from Maria the gypsy medium.
This in retrospect seems like a bit of a shift, but the more I think about it I jumped to the conclusion it was projection and pyrokinesis because I've seen that shown before.
In the shoes of Kolchak all you have is the burning, Ryder Bond at each scene but always with an alibi. These are facts he can't explain so when someone offers a tentative but ridiculous explanation that is the one he pursues. Kolchak has seen strange before so he is open to these concepts.

Maria was a good addition. We've seen Kolchak consult experts before like the Monk but they come and they go. I would like to Maria become a recurring character. It would make sense she would have more information about strange thing and has a knowledgeable bunion encrusted grandmother. She was funny and sarcastic but showing a real concern for Kolchak. You really feel how much pressure he is under when he admits he is too terrified to sleep.

After the meeting with Maria we have the terrifying concept that if Kolchak goes to sleep he will die. I wonder if this influence a certain burned, be-gloved, elm street resident botherer a decade later. It's fortunate that Ryder remembers cutting into the funeral procession or Kolchaks investigation would have reached a dead end.

I was happy to see we have the bathroom filing system back. I found it amusing that Updyke has his own filing system. It probably seems totally clear to him but a nightmare for anyone else. From here Kolchak finds out who's funeral procession it was and he's on the case.

I really got a kick out of seeing a Zoltan machine (one of the influences of the Zoltar from Big) On a personal level I had only just read an article about Canadians inventing their own currency by cutting a bill in half, so seeing Kolchak do this (to ensure he got his info) amused me.

Darren McGavin was in top form this episode. His increasing weariness and desperation brilliantly shown through the episode. There was real tension when he was about to fall asleep in Vicenzo's office.

The scenes in the church were fantastic. Bond appearing at different windows with this mischievous almost hungry look were terrifying. He was just waiting for his opportunity. Madp is right about goatee=villain, I kept thinking about a man with a goatee dressed in a red outfit with horns and a pitchfork.
The ending with Kolchak demonstrating to the doppleganger/Markoff that he was dead was a nice way to conclude things.

So once again Kolchak ends with him in a legally dodgy situation facing arson charges this time. He must have a great lawyer.

One final note. I do think that showing the passage of time between each episode is intentional. If this is September as Madp says then 9 months have passed between this and the last episode (assuming they are chronological).
This does help to explain how Kolchak keeps his job. These stories are occurring every now and again. I assume in between Kolchak is writing and publishing regular stories and keep Vicenzo happy.
I'm buying more and more into what has been suggested by others that these are Kolchak looking back on a strange stories from his career, ones he wasn't able to print at the time.

Really enjoyed this weeks episode 9 wasted coins trying to get wishes out of a Zoltan machine out of 10