People in the life of celebrated composer Ryder Bond keep dying. The circumstances are suspicious, with Bond himself spotted on the scene each time despite having alibis. The police can find no hint of foul play - the victims died of fire, seemingly accidentally. A cigarette, the police say, dropped on a mattress when the smoker fell asleep. What no one can explain is how the bodies could be incinerated so quickly yet leave only minimal damage to surroundings, including the furniture on which the remains were found lying.
While I don't really remember the entire episode from childhood - I think most of it went over my head - I vividly recall two scenes as particularly frightening.
Maybe the reason it didn't entirely connect is because it took a creepy concept - spontaneous combustion - and tried to adapt it to a show about monsters. SC freaked me out as a kid, the one supernatural thing that disturbed me more (almost) than I wanted to hear about. A person falls asleep, then the body consumes itself from the inside out in unimaginable heat but without causing a fire around it. That's pretty damn scary. Problem is, it's a phenomenon without an agenda. It doesn't stalk people, it just...happens. In a show like this you have to have a cause that can be investigated, and the investigation has to lead somewhere dramatic. You need a villain. In this case, the solution to the mystery strays so far from SC that it kinda lost me along the way. Ghosts and SC don't share a connection.
Not just any ghost, Firefall's premise focuses on a doppleganger. In folklore a doppleganger was not the same as a ghost. Though a wraith, they were inextricably linked to a living person as if an integral part of themselves: their evil twin in spirit form. Firefall takes liberties with the doppleganger, as one of Kolchak's resources informs him that it is the ghost of one who envied the target in life and wishes to torment him with the eventual aim of becoming him. Rider Bond inspired such feeling in one Franky Markoff, an arsonist recently executed gang-style. Franky loved music and dreamed of being a conductor. Now an undead spirit, he's bent on getting his wish. Bond's musicians begin to die...then his girlfriend, his manager... Ryder Bond is beside himself. Literally.
Firefall, I believe, is one of the finest episodes of the series with one of the best scripts. Kolchak overhears a juicy lead on his police scanner, and soon thinks he may have a story implicating the composer in a murder or two. He doesn't know what going on, and for once neither do we. Nor does Bond, played by Fred Beir with a nuanced restraint: initially cold and imperious with the arrogance of fame, then rattled, ultimately reaching exhausted submission to the reporter trying to save him. Kolchak is on display having to work for his story. The story unfolds at a steady pace, keeping us intrigued without boring us or making wild leaps. Office byplay is more credible than usual, the humor organic to the situation rather than overt or forced - no Abbott & Costellos routines with Vincenzo. Uptight acts like a schoolboy tattler, justifying Kolchak's abuse of him earlier, yet still displays the genuine concern of a fellow colleague later when Carl reaches a point of collapse. Monique Marmelstein is used sparingly, trying to be quite helpful as usual without her initial grating armor of defensiveness. Among many interviews, Kolchak meets the family of the deceased Markoff, where the arsonist's son promises to continue his father's sickness. It's amusing in a sick, chilly, nasty way. Each character comes across as fully dimensional - the gypsy friend Carl consults, the police sergeant who does not bluster over Kolchak but reasonably finds him aggravating (as does a witness's dog), Ron Updyke, Monique, Ryder, and even Carl himself in his earnest concern for the life of a man he had set out to expose as a murderer.
The scares are also top shelf, I think, again organic to the premise. For example, there's a shuddery moement of realization when Kolchak meets with the conductor and after several minutes of talking realizes he was conversing with the spirit instead. In another scene, the unseen ghost is offended and attacks a piano - the piano seems to go mad all on it's own. Firefall's best setpiece is not the usual stalk-and-trap we've seen before nor even the finale (the finale is plenty chilling and full of fever-dream menace), but a scene of deep panic and pathos as a nearly broken Ryder Bond seeks refuge on sanctified ground as advised by one of kolchak's sources. He's in a church, to be exact, desperate for sleep. If he sleeps, the doppleganger will take him. The threat is a complicated one - he's in the greatest danger from people who want very much to help him, thinking he is having a breakdown, they wish to remove him from the church and give a sedative. They do not see what only Bond and Kolchak can: Bond's diabolical doubled leering in through an open window impossibly high in the church wall. As they look on, the doppleganger multiplies to become many Bonds tormenting, taunting, rapping at the windows. It's a hellish spectacle and frightened the crap outta me as a child. I was not raised in any faith, but I knew the church was supposed to mean sanctuary...here was a demon that could reach you even there.
Nor is sleep a refuge, in Firefall. That also frightened me though the scene at the INS office is played for humor (understated, as I said). Remember, this originally aired just before my bedtime. What better evening sendoff that a story in which falling asleep is what kills you?
10 pieces of dubious pet care advice from a non-veterinarian.
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