I didn't care for this one. The main character is extraordinarily doctrinaire and a caricature rather than a real person.

This show had all the trappings of a good horror story. A lurking supernatural presence, a Conan-Doylesque narration, some spooky sound effects. And using the parrot to sense the presence was effective because the parrot can only react, not speak. Norman Rose is always good in these types of tales. But a few inconsistencies bothered me. The Professor's loneliness and inability to love is not explained. But more was the notion that a haunt represented love. This story was adapted and it would be interesting to read the original. Also EG Marshall was cut off before he could give his idea about what the story meant. The story held me to the end but I was still stuck between the concept of love and the sinister nature of the haunt. Like when the parrot seems to desire its affections. Maybe a purely evil spirit, a manifestation of the Professor's misanthropy, would have worked better.

I though this was an interesting, although somewhat creepy episode. And that sound effect for the parrot was really strange. The show was fun, but certainly not one of my favorites. I would probably rate this among the average shows, but hey, when your cranking out a show every day, I guess you can't expect everything to be a classic. When it comes down to it though, I enjoy them all, even the so called "duds"!

I liked this one. It kind of reminds me of "Green Tea" by Sheridan Le Fanu, which you can get from audiobooksforfree.com. I think the comments above about characterization are true, but generally it's an entertaining installment.

I must say that although I understand the criticisms here, I loved this episode. FYI, the script is adapted from a classic Robert Hitchens short story, "How Love Came to Professor Guildea"--a tale which had appeared earlier on ESCAPE and would also be done a few years after CBSRMT on the Canadian series VANISHING POINT. (The story itself, from around 1900, is available online in various places--a Google search will bring interested parties to the text immediately.) Perhaps one limitation of the CBSRMT version is the updating and Americanization of the story--the tale probably would have worked better in its original late-19th century English setting. Still, at least for me, a beautiful piece, well-told--Norman Rose is really effective here, especially in his freak-out scene in Act 2. I certainly agree with dnagle that it's a shame the recording cuts off that idea E.G. Marshall says he's "dying" to tell us about! And I'll add that, though this is a minor thing, CBSRMT continued here their tradition of giving new, and vastly inferior, titles to classic stories. Who wants to hear something called "Shadow of Love" when they could hear something called "How Love Came to Professor Guildea"? Still, from my perspective, a first-rate episode.

Thank you for that. I couldn’t recall the name of the story this was based on.

A very good adaptation of the classic tale, mentioned above. I agree it might have been better to keep the setting in its original Gothic past, but it is still a good version nonetheless, thanks to Norman Rose and his excellent performance. I think he was perfect for the role, and he is very good at portraying brooding, loner type characters anyway. Also, I think the story makes sense if one thinks of the poor spirit as a kind of stalker, lol! People are truly scared and frightened of other humans who "love" and follow them everywhere, (when that love is not returned), so in this case, being "stalked" by a spirit is not much different than being "stalked" by a human who won't leave you alone. I realize that this is not what one is supposed to get out of the story, but I can't help but make the comparison. Having said all this, I am sorry for the poor creature. It seems to just want to be his pet, or something like that, lol!

I'm so glad the episodes are preserved as they are so that you and I and everyone else can listen like this... I'm trying to plow through them all chronologically. So I listen to three at a time now.