Mr. R.I.N.G.
Written By: L. Forde Neale and John Huff
Directed By: Gene Levitt
"I don't know when exactly I was in this office last. In some ways, it seems like I never left. But, no, that's not right. For at least a few days I was away, far away, in the hands of men with no faces and no names. They broke me down, broke my story down, telling me how it hadn't happened the way I claimed. At least that's what I think they did between injections. Memories fade fast enough without chemical help. But if I don't tell this story now, I don't think I ever will. Now... what was that date?"
Kolchak is assigned to investigate the mysterious death of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist, only to find no in is willing to give him any information on the man’s death or the mysterious project he was working on prior to his death, R.I.N.G. Sensing a story, Kolchak discovers R.I.N.G. is part of a Government Conspiracy, and that it may have a connection to a mysterious criminal with Super-Strength rampaging through Chicago that the police mysteriously refuse to shoot.
Tropes:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Downplayed. R.I.N.G. is violent, but he's only trying to survive and usually only uses lethal force on those he perceives as threats.
- Anti-Villain: R.I.N.G., who is essentially a frightened child desperately trying to survive and find his mother.
- Downer Ending: R.I.N.G. is shot dead by the soldiers after the general in charge of his capture decided to send armed soldiers to escort him and Leslie Dwyer out of the building while he was surrendering himself peacefully, resulting in him lashing out. Kolchak is drugged so that his memories of the whole experience will be erased, and he desperately records his account of the events, though he bitterly notes that he probably won't hear them anyway. Dwyer is carted off to an unknown place by the soldiers, and Kolchak cynically notes that the government will build more R.I.N.G.s, but without Dwyer's help, something which will inevitably go wrong.
- Escaped from the Lab: R.I.N.G. is the product of a government experiment. He escapes in an attempt to become more human but kills several people while doing so.
- Memory-Wiping Crew: Kolchak narrates the episode's events into a tape recorder because the government has done this to him, and it hadn't quite taken, or rather not all at once. His memory of the incident is fading rapidly, and he has to make the recording while he still remembers most of the details.
- Mugged for Disguise: R.I.N.G. murders a mailman to take his clothes.
- Robot Names: R.I.N.G.'s name stands for "Robomatic Internalized Nerve Ganglia".
"I don't even know where they took me now. At least I can't be sure. Maybe it was Terrell Institute, but it could just have well been the Black Hills of South Dakota for all I know. Was there a drug? Pentathol? Pascalamine? I can't be sure of that either, but there must have been something. I can't even be sure the events ever happened the way I told them. Perhaps when I'm completely back in this world, I'll turn on this tape and not believe any of it myself, but I doubt it. Because I believe that somewhere, some place, they or someone else will put some other R.I.N.G together without the help of Leslie Dwyer, and who will program him then?"
