This reminded me (though it\'s not a parallel story by any means) of the movie \"The Ninth Configuration\", which I also think was released under the name of the William Peter (\"Exorcist\") Blatty book which inspired it called \"Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane\".

In that film, a colonel named Hudson Kane, a strong yet quiet, kindly and reassuring military psychologist, is brought in by his psychologist (or psychiatrist? can\'t remember) brother, also a military officer, into a special military psychiatric hospital. This hospital is located in a spooky old castle, and the only patients are military officers who\'ve gone insane. (The first half of the movie is almost comedic and filled with one liners. Remember Jason Miller, who played Fr. Damien Karras in \"The Exorcist\"? He dresses in drag as a cigarette smoking, sunglasses wearing nun, and tells visitors that he\'s \"Sister Eve Black\".) The colonel is perceived to be crazier than the other patients (and perhaps they\'re right). He immediately befriends an astronaut from the old \"Apollo\" program who was hospitalized after he suffered a breakdown prior to launch and refused to get in the space capsule.

(Spoiler ahead for those who\'ve not seen the movie)The astronaut is dismayed to learn that the colonel is a Viet Nam combat veteran nicknamed \"Killer\" Kane, who went crazy after he decapitated a viet cong fighter with a wire. Kane claimed that while holding the VC\'s severed head in his hands that the head \"kept on talking\".

(Second spoiler) This could have been another in a parade of anti-war films. The second half, however, is anything but a comedy. It becomes a story of why we indeed have to fight sometimes, and more importantly, why sometimes we have to make supreme sacrifices.

Back to \"Prognosis Negative\". This episode involves a patient, like Col. Hudson Kane, in a military psychiatric unit. His name is Kent Hatcher (played well by Mason Adams) and he appears to have been some type of operative beyond a normal enlisted man. He, like Kane, has apparently been behind enemy lines, and also appears to have a past, with the ability to \"snap\" at any minute. Unfortunately, this operative has been programmed by an apparent combination of torture and hypnosis to kill innocent people. He\'s described by a (former?) commanding officer as a \"time bomb\".

I hadn\'t heard an element like this in any previous CBSRMT episode. What makes this interesting is how Hatcher is \"assimiliated\" into society after living as a fugitive murder, by a con artist \"medium\" and her, for lack of a better term, \"audio visual\" specialist. (Take note how unafraid the \"medium\", who recognizes a mark when she sees one, seems to be of Hatcher). Add to this an element of the supernatural (no plot spoilers from me here) and, like \"The Ninth Configuration\", an element of sacrifice, and it makes for a haunting yet very interesting RMT listen.<br>