I've divided my comment in sections according to the theme I wanted to approach.

Kolchak the manipulator:

Kolchak will write about what he'll write about, and he'll manipulate whoever he has to when it comes to getting a story he wants or avoiding one he doesn't. He manipulated Ms. Emily to write an article for him by appealing to her desire of social justice for seniors. He manipulated Vicenzo to write the other crime story for him by pretending to doubt his boss's reporting skills, suggesting Tony was too old for that. He manipulated nurse Janis to get access to Elkhorn's home by bringing him the interesting brunette who would steal Jim's attention, which had been previously dedicated to his rather bland blonde neighbor. Finally, he also tried to manipulate Elkhorn to help him stop the mystic monster by making Jim feel responsible for the actions of the Indian legend because of Jim's heritage.

Not so under-equipped, but definitely understaffed:

As usual, Kolchak suffers from lack of material support in order to do a good reporting job. His idea to take infrared and ultraviolet pictures of the monster was very good, and I'm particularly glad he got a more professional camera this time, but it's about time he got himself an assistant photographer, a Jimmy Olsen for his Clark Kent. How was Kolchak expected to operate three cameras at the same time? He needed at least TWO photographers!

Great character interaction:

Besides the typical shenanigans between Kolchak and his coworkers, the titular character could also count on very compelling sidekicks who were much more than that. They were characters with more depth than usual. First, there was nurse Janis Elsen, who made me think Kolchak would benefit from the "sidekicking" of a younger and prettier lady this time who could also give a positive contribution to the story. However, I feel that the character was discarded a bit prematurely. By the way, was she the one who died after the attack of the invisble monster? They showed the closeup of a dead nurse, but I'm not sure it was her. I think it was, because after that, we didn't see the character anymore. And Kolchak didn't seem particularly upset about it.

However, I was quite positively impressed with Jim Elkhorn. OK, so we have another Indian, or native American character played by a Caucasian. That would be an issue today, though I think acting is precisely becoming something you are not, so a person playing someone of a different ethnicity shouldn't be such a problem. But, well, today it is.

However if not for this fact I just mentioned, Elkhorn portrayed a native American in a very positive way. He was unfriendly with Kolchak in the beginning (most people are anyway), but soon showed to be civil and helpful. He was also open-minded and accepted Kolchak's crazy theories, giving him knowledge the reporter couldn't get otherwise. This showed how important to have a character fill in the blanks as far as the mythology is concerned , and not have Kolchak just learn stuff "from a book." And Elkhorn also had a degree (or PHD I think) in Business Administration, spoke French and was an expert toaster repairman, at least until he lost interest in the toaster's owner. His participation greatly moved the story forward.

Good casting:

The moment the episode starts we know something will be terribly wrong with this hospital. The man behind it is simply the dangerous Dr. Roger Korby (from Star Trek). Which gets me thinking that he's using the hospital to replace humans with evil robotic copies. Of coruse, anybody who has seen Michael Strong in Star Trek knows what I'm talking about.

The show could only get better with two such stars as Will smith and Michael J. Fox. Well, well, not exactly. Actually, William Smith and Michael Fox. I remember William Smith from a bunch of things in the 1970s, particularly the western Laredo. He always had great screen presence, sometimes playing the hero, sometimes the villain. He was also remarkable for his superhero physique.

Grade:

The character interactions gave this episode a quality boost. This one gets 8 microscope slides to be analyzed by Dr. Kolchak.

This episodes is quite entertaining if predictable , another Indian legendary monster ,though I got the impression that it was South American Indians, sorry if I'm wrong there.

Showing us the creature as an xray image was smart, with the low budget FX this series has showing it for real could have been embarrassing. It's amazing all these mythical beasts congregating around Chicago at the same time. Poor creatures, doing their own thing as they've done for centuries and then Kolchak comes along and life gets more complicated for them. Luckily for them no one believes him, of course if they did , and gave him police back up , we'd have a different show. If ever there was a show doomed to be a single seasoner this is it, at the halfway point it's stale already. 5/10

Finally apologies for the look of my post, it's not what I intend, I'm having real connectivity issues with this site on all my devices, could be my location I guess. Paragraphing is a problem too or am I doing something wrong?

@HawkMan47 The formatting is a bit strange.
If you do a double space after a line, then return you get a break if that helps.

So this. With this on the next line for me, appears all on one line to the reader.

Where as this.
Appears on the next line.

We open Kolchak this week with a very jaunty tune and what seemed to be a very long flight above Chicago sequence.
Do all the credits last this long? I've never noticed if they did.

So Kolchak is going to the opening of a new hospital, complete with a bar! I have sent my application in already.
His interaction with the greeters was entertaining. The first explaining that there is no-one important just reporters, and then Kolchak patronising the next one he sees.

Meanwhile in the basement a worker is killed by electrickery in what was a fairly spectacular death, his arm blazing as he fell.
Kolchak is immediately suspicious and uses the first opportunity to go behind the scenes.

Here we meet Nurse Eisen who becomes Kolchak's side kick for the first half of the story.

Mad-pac wrote -
First, there was nurse Janis Elsen, who made me think Kolchak would benefit from the "sidekicking" of a younger and prettier lady this time who could also give a positive contribution to the story.

I agree this has worked several times already in the show, such as in Werewolf.
She is not just a pretty face, though she does use this to get Kolchak into the room with Elkhorn. She wraps Elkhorn around her finger and does seem to be a little taken with him too.
She has concern for what is happening at her hospital and doesn't just wait for others to fix it.

Mad-pac wrote -
By the way, was she the one who died after the attack of the invisible monster? They showed the closeup of a dead nurse, but I'm not sure it was her. I think it was, because after that, we didn't see the character anymore. And Kolchak didn't seem particularly upset about it.

I did wonder why after Matchimanito's attack the camera panned down onto that nurse. Having watched the scene back her body is behind something so it is likely they didn't see her.
It doesn't explain their complete lack of concern for the other body, they could have at least gone to check till the other hospital staff arrived seconds later, cold Kolchak cold.

Elkhorn is a great character, initially dismissive of Kolchak and then a bit of a ladies man. He then becomes convinced of Matchimanito's existence and is a very valuable supporter of Kolchak. It was nice to see them working together, gradually gaining more knowledge of the creature and how to defeat it.
I enjoyed the scene of them working together to piece together the X-Ray picture. The staring eye was far more effect that any monster could have been.
It also seemed completely in character that Elkhorn dumps Kolchak once he feels he has done his job, " We, White Man"

Matchimanito appears to be a made up myth. The most I can find is Matchimanito Lake and a creature called Misshepeshu.
As a creature it is very effective, ripping apart a building essentially. I think it works well as an invisible enemy, sparking of electricity the only evidence of it's existence.
It was clever of Kolchak to realise the accounts of the creature didn't occur in winter and thus use cold as a weapon. The final encounter is a little underwhelming perhaps and does end abruptly.

We have a few office scenes and once again we are back in the bathroom/archives/camera storage. There is some nice dialogue with Vincenzo who, although he doesn't like the expense doesn't actually stop Kolchak from taking the cameras. I wonder if he allows Kolchak a bit of rope because he does get the stories, the ones we don't see of course.

The final scene in the hospital ends with the staring eye in the photograph, a haunting final image.

Good episode and 2 strong supporting characters 8 drinks at the hospital bar out of 10

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. For the past 4 weeks, either I or Jeff Larsen awarded the episode a 10. A clunker had to hit sooner or later, and this was it. It’s not terrible, but it’s not particularly good either.

This one is set in a hospital, which should have provided good opportunities for scares, but instead the monster of the week is just cracking walls and electrical sparking. We do have a brief x-ray glimpse of a gigantic eye creature – the only really spooky moment of the show. Once again, they dip into Indian lore and have a non-Indian actor playing the Indian character. This one is more of an Americanized version, who’s not into his native ancestry but more into picking up women and is pulled into the case only reluctantly. Late in the preceding, when the monster is being handled but Kolchak wants to go further, he give Carl a line similar to the classic joke phrase, “What’s this ‘we’, paleface?”

The creature is an ancient spirit called a “bear-god”, not because he’s clawed, menacing and ferocious but because he hibernates in the cold weather. After the initial round of disbelief, the hospital personnel actually end up believing Kolchak. So for once, Carl doesn’t have to chase it down and destroy it. The hospital staff does that for him by pumping liquid oxygen (or some freezing gas, anyway) into the lower levels of the hospital and later turning it into a marina or something where the creature can be kept hibernating permanently. The drama for the close of the show is Kolchak trying to get a picture of the beast with expensive borrowed cameras and infra-red film. But he only gets himself caught in the freezing gas and collapses, the film ruined but the cameras hopefully intact. That whole ending is weak. How did they find him down there, and how did he survive exposure to the gas for so long. Vincenzo lightly tells him he had frostbite but they decided not to amputate anything. It’s ridiculous that he got off that easily.

Even the narration is weak. When Carl talks nonchalantly about a young paraplegic girls life not going anywhere just before she is electrocuted after screaming and pleading for help, it was just a little sickening rather than witty. (And what kind of nursing staff taking care of a girl with only limited movement in one arm leaves the call button just out of her reach?)

The guest cast is good, but there’s not a whole lot of excitement this week. William Smith as Jim Elkhorn the Indian is convincing enough. I’ve always liked Michael Strong, but his role isn’t very exciting here, and he goes out of his way to screw Carl’s paper out of the hospital story even after he helped save all their lives. My favorite guest was Elaine Giftos as Nurse Janis Eisen, who first finds Kolchak annoying but then feeds him valuable information. Incredibly, though, after an electrical explosion, Carl and Jim rush in and retrieve exposed x-ray plates to see what the creature looked like. As they’re doing this, a doctor and nurse rush in to help a fallen doctor. Then as the reporter and the Indian rush off, the camera pans down to Nurse Eisen apparently dead on the floor unnoticed by anyone. If she did survive the explosion, we never hear about it.

My favorite line comes when Carl is in the elevator and it shakes. He complains it should not be acting up, as it’s brand new. The person with him says, “They say it takes awhile to get anything working,” to which Carl replies, “I feel that way myself some mornings.” At my age, I appreciate a line like that.

The best I can give this is 5 “It’s Gray Power not Wrinkle Power” stickers, one of which would no doubt be worn by Miss Emily, who’s a real asset to the show and had a few good lines in this episode.

brimfin said -
Even the narration is weak. When Carl talks nonchalantly about a young paraplegic girls life not going anywhere just before she is electrocuted after screaming and pleading for help, it was just a little sickening rather than witty. (And what kind of nursing staff taking care of a girl with only limited movement in one arm leaves the call button just out of her reach?)

Yes I must admit I found this scene a little odd. It should have been horrifying. The equipment around her bursting into flashes and flames and she is unable to run but the terror never really comes across. Maybe that had to do with the narration.
I've often wondered this about movies. Quite often coma patients, paralysed patients and those on ventilators are just parked in side rooms with apparently no external viewing or monitoring.
I know it's for the plot but it never makes any sense unless standards outside the UK are very different.
Perhaps as the button would be electrical reaching it would have just killed the girl anyway, we will never know.

@mad-pac said:

Ron Stein ... Gorilla Guard

Cute! And appropriate, since William Smith also guest starred on PLANET OF THE APES.

@brimfin said:

@mad-pac said:

Ron Stein ... Gorilla Guard

Cute! And appropriate, since William Smith also guest starred on PLANET OF THE APES.

Ha! The only one who got it. But apparently you missed THE OTHER gag credit?

Electrickery, I've got to remember to use that someday!

The Energy Eater

This week Kolchak takes on mucho Menudo.  That oughtta scare ya.  No, wait, my bad.  It's Matchemonedo. 

Dispatched by Vincenzo to a press tour of the new Lakefront Medical Research Center, Kolchak finds the place has opened prematurely.  There are alarming cracks throughout the subbasements, the air is stiflingly hot even with the AC working overtime to chill things, the elevator won't run smoothly, and even the grand opening event's bar is closed.  There's a story here to dig into of malfeasance and safety failures.  What's causing the damage - settling?  A geothermal vent, was the land not adequately researched? 

What he doesn't know and will soon learn is that people are already dying, and not in explicable ways.  The blood of the victims has congealed to a tarry substance.  The first two to die were a pair of steel workers for a construction service - they fell from a great height.  After that, the rest of the team walked off the job.  It was a Native American outfit.  Kolchak seeks the input of their super, who is also their shaman, one Jim Elkhorn.

This our third consecutive week that Kolchak has faced a legend of Native American origin, and the first time that any Indian has been allowed a voice as a character.  Jim Elkhorn is played by William Smith, making a happy break from his line of b-movie tough guys*.  He's a powerfully built man that you don't  doubt for a moment could single-handedly take apart a tavern and everyone in it, but Elkhorn never raises so much as his voice - not even when warning Kolchak that the reporter and his camera are about to meet his foot.  Oh, he's a modern macho man but his means of proving it is by making smooth moves on every attractive woman he sees.  Speaking French and being a household fix-it get him so much further.  I half-expected him to say he's a lover, not a fighter.  Elkhorn has fully assimilated into White Western Culture but accepts his people's lore as truth.  On the other hand, he feels  embarrassed about performing the rituals, as if he's afraid he will look comical to Western eyes.  He calls himself a shaman but admits he'd rather not pursue it...and he has a degree in business administration but has excuses not to pursue that either. 

Add to that Smith's casual presence, as immediately genial as it is is kickass. He and Mcgavin have an instant rapport even as Elkhorn and Kolchak begin at odds.  Few incidental characters on K:TNS are as fully rounded as Elkhorn, so I gotta give high marks to Smith and writers Arthur Rowe and Rudolph Borchert for that.

It's from Elkhorn that Kolchak learns of Matchemonedo.

According to 'The Pottawatomis: history and folklore of the Indians of Kankakeeland' (Al Stone, 1960),  "The Pottawatomi believed that two great spirits ruled and governed the world . . . Kitchemonedo (the Great Spirit, who was good) and Matchemonedo (the Evil Spirit, who was quite wicked.) We know that the Potta- watomi originally worshipped the sun, and we believe that they developed the concept of the two great spirits from the teachings of the Christian missionaries."  http://archive.org/stream/pottawatomishist00ston/pottawatomishist00ston_djvu.txt

According to what I've been reading, the Potouatomi ascribe many things to Manitou, spirits of good or ill, and their culture places great emphasis on health and healing.  Apropos then that a hospital should be at the center of the episode.

Elkhorn claims that Matchemonedo goes much  further back, reported by other tribes, and is thought of as the Bear God.  I can't speak to whether the writers made that up or had much better research material than I found.  TNS presents Matchemonedo as a Lovecraftian being, invisible and eternal.  It feeds on raw energy, like electricity and plasma. A highlight of the episode is a chilling moment when Kolchak and Elkhorn recreate an image caught by a spill of x-ray plates to reveal a gigantic, angry eye. This history is clever writing that provides its own solution: the Bear God is so named because it hibernates in the cold months.  The area it inhabits had had a man-made lake until it was drained to make way for the hospital, thus the being has been awakened.  That means if it can be frozen, it will  go back to sleep.  That's a lot less arbitrary than a stake through the heart or silver bullets.   There too I'm liking the script.  On the other hand...

The writer gives us one of the less flattering portraits of Carl Kolchak.  We've seen him charming before, which he still is here, unfailingly.  We've seen him underhanded and manipulative, which he also is here, though usually for a bit of throwaway humor.  His lesser instincts are more pervasive this week, feeling more integral to the character to unflattering effect.  In the past he has been motivated by a desire to save lives or see the right thing done.  This week throws that for a  curve, and it's both a strength and a weakness for the episode.  A strength because it gives us something a bit different.  The character interaction is more complex.  As well as Elkhorn, Kolchak enlists the aid of Nurse Janis Eisen (Elaine Giftos), another fully dimensional role.  She chafes at the intrusion of a reporter trying to find bad press for her place of employment, but frustration at the deteriorating situation forces her to become a whistle-blower.  Kolchak, knowing that women  are  a weakness for Elkhorn, makes his way through the shaman's door by sending Eisen through it first.  They find him wooing his apartment neighbor who has tried to run a muffin through her toaster.  The scene is a low-key comic delight with four-way byplay and  a suggestion of other places the muffin could be stuffed.   Kolchak has managed to get rid of one distraction only to give Elkhorn another in Janis.  She reciprocates the attraction.  Instead of the usual sexual byplay with the lead most shows would offer, it's all between the side characters with Carl oblivious singlemindedly focused on Matchemonedo.  It's not the first time he's raised questions of asexuality, but an early exchange caught my attention: when he's greeted at the press tour by a young woman, he comments that she must be an aspiring actress.  She says that it's difficult to get exposed, and he replies - smirkingly, looking her up and down - "Oh, I don't know about that."  Excuse me?  Jesus, Carl, a casting couch joke?  Was that meant to be snide or... please don't tell me that was your idea of a come-on!  No wonder you never have a date. That was totally out of the blue and uncalled for.  Pervy Uncle Carl.  Nice.

Which leads back to Eisen.  She's an interesting  character, but once Elkhorn is on board neither Kolchak nor Rowe & Borchert have any use for her.  Kolchak has spent the episode using people (Miss Emily to write his first article on the hospital's opening, Eisen to reach Elkhorn), manipulating them (psyching Vincenzo into covering a story Kolchak doesn't want to be bothered with) and generally lying his way past obstacles, but in TEE he's downright cold-blooded in his dismissal of a room full of bodies, one of which looks to be Janis Eisen.  We never see her again.  I don't know what to make of it, because Elkhorn doesn't react with any concern for the dead either.  Is this bad writing, or have Borchert and Rowe given us the ugly truth about Carl as they see it?  Betrayal of character, or insightful summary? 

For that matter, Vincenso also has a moment that doesn't sit well.  When Miss Emily confesses that she wrote Carl's article, which she based on concern over the poor state of health care for the elderly, Vincenzo has the balls to ridicule both the older generations and the very concept of concern for them.  This, to Miss Emily's face.  It's beyond rude.  It also fail credibility - no editor would have such lousy sense of a newsworthy story.

It seems clear that Kolchak is no hero in the writers' eyes.  Consider the finale.  For once Kolchak has met with authorities who have the with to realize that his arguments are hard to refute, and they act on his advice.  They  do so grudgingly, of course, and secretly.  They even spite him for it, giving a story to the other news agencies but not INS.  It's a false story, of course, but it provokes Kolchak anyway, as it was meant to.  The hospital is evacuated and liquid nitrogen is pumped into the basement.  Kolchak, however, is determined to get a story and a  photo of Matchemonedo, and so armed with expensive cameras and infrared film storms once more unto the breach.  The final confrontation has no particular nobility about it - he's not vanquishing a foe, just getting a snapshot out of reckless pride.  I like the way it's staged, with cameras jiggled in a forerunner of 'shaky-cam', a shift to closeups to make the space suddenly more claustrophobic, and jarring changes in camera POV of the same shot. Hospitals are natural settings for horror.  We are till at ease in them, traditionally as places of disease and death, and more recently for fear of technology overwhelming us.  Add the cloying feeling of being deep underground, you have a winning setup. 

The Energy Eater present a dilemma for rating.  Overall I think it's a winner for it's richer character and diversions from formula, but  there are evident flaws.  How could Kolchak lay passed out on a floor  covered in liquid nitrogen and survive with only minor frostbite?  More troubling is his seeming sociopathy, which is either laudably honest writing or missing the mark badly. 

I'll  give it 8 blueberry-oat suppositories.

*I'll always think of William Smith foremost in another non-tough-guy role, as the race-car  pro in David Cronenberg's Fast Company.

@mad-pac said:

@brimfin said:

@mad-pac said:

Ron Stein ... Gorilla Guard

Cute! And appropriate, since William Smith also guest starred on PLANET OF THE APES.

Ha! The only one who got it. But apparently you missed THE OTHER gag credit?

@mad-pac said:

Jeff L. Deist ... Grendler

Oh, I sure did!

@brimfin said:

@mad-pac said:

@brimfin said:

@mad-pac said:

Ron Stein ... Gorilla Guard

Cute! And appropriate, since William Smith also guest starred on PLANET OF THE APES.

Ha! The only one who got it. But apparently you missed THE OTHER gag credit?

@mad-pac said:

Jeff L. Deist ... Grendler

Oh, I sure did!

I wanted to see if anybody was paying attention.