‘Night Stalker’s’ spook show

“NIGHT STALKER,” which premieres tonight on ABC, is the slightly retitled remake of the 1970s ABC series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker,” featuring the great Darren McGavin as a crime reporter nosing about in the world of vampires and other weird beasties. McGavin has been digitally inserted into a scene in tonight’s episode and, although there are a few decent spook-show thrills, nothing else here is as scary as that.

The new show, which is perfectly fine and nothing special, was developed by “The X-Files” producer Frank Spotnitz, who, staying within his comfort zone, has turned “The Night Stalker” into his old show. (To complete a circle, “X-Files” creator Chris Carter was inspired in part by “Kolchak.”) So similar is it to “X-Files,” in fact, that it’s by comparison to that series that this one begs to be judged, not to the original “Night Stalker.” (That series, which employed future “Sopranos” creator David Chase, comes out on DVD Oct. 4).

It imports the Fox Mulder-Dana Scully dynamic, pairing supernaturally savvy Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend this time) with skeptical fellow crime reporter Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union). And again, as in “X-Files,” there are suggestions of a mysterious understory that the male lead is driven to unravel by a traumatic paranormal event involving a close female relative. In this case, it is the strange death of Kolchak’s wife, of which he is still suspected by a dogged, man-in-black federal agent -- a death that, the reporter suspects, is part of an otherworldly, murderous conspiracy that involves “things adults dismiss but children are right to fear.”

And consider this: An upcoming episode, in which a blind prisoner uses mind control to commit murders by proxy, echoes an “X-Files” episode in which a quadriplegic Gulf War veteran uses mind control to commit murders. Both were directed by Rob Bowman. Coincidence?

There is a deeper mystery here, however: How a newspaper reporter winds up living in Case Study House #22 (Pierre Koenig, 1959), with its midcentury glass walls and commanding view of L.A. This suggests to me either that Kolchak is living off an unrevealed trust fund or inherited a bundle from that dead wife, or that I need to ask for a raise.

With his wiry build and cowlicky hair, Townsend looks like the lead singer in a rock band and boasts a cockiness that could ripen into charm. Union to act otherwise, could loosen up a little. She seems more like a TV personality than a down-in-the-dirt reporter.

The success of “X-Files” depended greatly upon the narcoleptic chemistry between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, and while Townsend and Union seem to get on all right (they are required, at first, to act as rivals, but that’s soon over), there’s nothing that suggests they need to get closer. That might take time, and time is a thing networks are loath to spend. Whether ABC will wait for this pair to simmerin the absence of quickly good ratings or a vocal cult is beyond my mortal power to tell. But I can guess.

*

‘Night Stalker’

Where: ABC

When: 9 to 10 p.m.

Ratings: TV-14 V (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14 with advisory for violence).

Stuart Townsend...Carl Kolchak

Gabrielle Union...Perri Reed

Eric Jungmann...Jain McManus

Cotter Smith...Tony Vincenzo

Executive producer and writer (pilot): Frank Spotnitz. Executive producer and director: Dan Sackheim.