Chopper
Kolchak: The Night Stalker - Episode 15: Chopper[edit | edit source]
Kolchak comes to the aid of former gang members when they are targeted by a headless motorcyclist.
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
Kolchak's Introduction
- "The teenage years: sixteen candles, fervent passions, aimless joy rides, and the forbidden taste of beer. A time the world allows for sowing one’s wild oats. But for some individuals I came to know, in the summer of their discontent, it had been the time when they had sown the seeds of their own destruction."
30 years ago, Harold "The Swordsman" Baker was a member of a local outlaw motorcycle gang known as "The Bishops". Members of a rival gang, "The Jokers", attempted to knock him off of his motorcycle and in the process, caused him to be beheaded in the ensuing accident. One of the gang members of "The Jokers" foolishly decided to carry Baker's head around with him -- until he was beheaded by Baker's ghost.
The remaining "Jokers" put Baker's head in his coffin, where it remained for many years, and his ghost remained at peace.
Due to recent construction, Baker's old grave has been moved and his skull has inadvertently become separated from the rest of his body. Now his ghost's restless spirit reanimates his headless body, which sets out to find his missing head, and to finish getting revenge on his killers.
His headless body rides a phantom motorcycle, and armed with his old sword, it hunts down and kills three of the four remaining "Jokers".
Kolchak learns of the ghoulish sightings of the headless motorcycle rider and sets out to investigate the case. He soon encounters the supernatural killer, manages to get photos of it and almost gets killed in the process.
Though he almost becomes the next victim, he finally succeeds in reuniting Baker's skull with his corpse. Baker's body is then reburied, whole and intact.
Kolchak's Closing
- "There’s an old simple axiom about the dead: don't disturb them, not for any reason at all. Well, I decided to overlook that and so I was almost beheaded by a Phantom Sword. Vincenzo refused to even discuss publishing my story. He didn’t even look at the pictures, but the headless rider is at rest now. All the bones are together in one place, in one coffin. As for those members of the Jokers' motorcycle club, I mean those that are left of course, well, maybe they’ve suffered enough. Three of them died violently and the others will carry the nightmare of the headless rider with them to their silent graves. And incidentally, so will Captain Jonas, formerly of Homicide, now Sgt. Jonas of Traffic Control. You see, he’s in charge of towing away parked cars."
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Darren McGavin --- Carl Kolchak
- Simon Oakland --- Tony Vincenzo
- Jack Grinnage --- Ron Updyke
- Ruth McDevitt --- Emily Cowles
- Larry Linville --- Captain L. Jonas
- Art Metrano --- Henry 'Studs' Spake
- Sharon Farrell --- Lila Morton
- Frank Aletter --- Norman Kahill
- Jay Robinson --- Prof. Eli Strig
- Jesse White --- Security Guard
- Jim Backus --- Herb Bresson
- Steve Franken --- Neil
- Joey Aresco --- Electric Larry
- Jimmy Murphy --- Beaner
- Jack Bernardi --- Otto
- Steve Boyum --- Headless Rider (Harold "Swordsman" Baker)
