PLOT: Kolchak observes a link between an outbreak of murders in Chicago to the slayings of Jack The Ripper 85 years earlier in London. Curiously, the killer (Mickey Gilbert) appears to have superhuman qualities.
COMMENTARY: This was the 1974 debut episode of the series, which ran for one season (20 episodes) after two successful TV movies: "The Night Stalker" (1972) and "The Night Strangler" (1973). The problem with "The Ripper" is that it borrows too heavily from those movies, especially the first one, not to mention the Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold' seven years earlier; it therefore seems unoriginal. It's basically a streamlined version of the superior first film with not enough variation. The creators obviously did this to establish the series, so I guess it can be excused to a degree.
In any case, there are several good-looking women in the periphery, like a curvy brunette in the prologue and Roberta Collins as an undercover cop.
COMMENTARY: This was the 1974 debut episode of the series, which ran for one season (20 episodes) after two successful TV movies: "The Night Stalker" (1972) and "The Night Strangler" (1973). The problem with "The Ripper" is that it borrows too heavily from those movies, especially the first one, not to mention the Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold' seven years earlier; it therefore seems unoriginal. It's basically a streamlined version of the superior first film with not enough variation. The creators obviously did this to establish the series, so I guess it can be excused to a degree.
In any case, there are several good-looking women in the periphery, like a curvy brunette in the prologue and Roberta Collins as an undercover cop.