The Fugitive (TV Series) Stranger in the Mirror (1965) User Reviews

Contrast of Acting Styles: Janssen versus Shatner

[tksaysso · 7/10 · 28 November 2013]

This episode is fascinating to me for one reason and one reason only: Watching the contrasting acting styles of David Janssen up against the "style" of William Shatner.

Dr. Kimble arrives at a small boy's club run by William Shatner's character and Shatner's wife. Shatner is a former policeman. Unfortunately when Kimble arrives to start his job as a custodian for the boy's club the town is in the middle of a series of unsolved murders of local policemen.

Like most Fugitive episodes Dr. Kimble's real identity is eventually discovered and he must find a way to get away. As usual Janssen superbly plays Dr. Kimble as a pained, reserved, suspicious and even slightly paranoid character with reserve and dignity.

Not so much Shatner though. He is so hammy in this role he should be spiral-sliced. Near the end of the episode I swear I can detect a look on Janssen's face that says "I can't believe this guy calls himself an actor."

Again, an episode worth watching just to see the contrast in styles.

"Hey, Mr. Evans...the baseball is bleeding!"

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 18 April 2017]

This is a very enjoyable episode that is bad in some ways...but in ways that actually are very entertaining. Choosing William Shatner to play in this episode was a stroke of luck!

Richard Kimble is once again looking for a job. Mrs. Burrell takes an immediate like of him and hires him to be the handyman at the rec center she and her husband (William Shatner) built. However, on the first night there, the fugitive is interrupted when he hears someone come into the building. Soon a cop arrives and Kimble asks him to look for the intruder. Shockingly, moments later, you see Mr. Burrell bludgeoning this poor policeman to death! And, you also learn that the exact same thing has happened to two other cops this month!!

I loved watching this episode because no one can over-emote like William Shatner. Subtle? Not in the least...but his facial expressions, tears and emotionality to his performance are incredibly entertaining. In many ways, you can't help but see a lot of Captain Kirk in this florid performance...and it never is dull!

Contrasting styles make for good entertainment

[Guad42 · 7/10 · 18 May 2021]

If you wanted to see two different acting styles side by side, you would be hard pressed to get a better comparison than Shatner and Janssen. It is fun to watch. When Shatner's character, Tony, goes crazy, you can see the Captain Kirk of the split personalities episode and the Captain Kirk of the parallel universe. (the best Star Trek episode, IMHO)

Julie Sommars give a fine performance as a loving wife who watches her husband dissolve before her eyes. Norman Fell did a lot of these supporting roles before getting to Three's Company and he is good here. This is Shatner's episode and your view of it will be tied to your view of Shatner. Personally, I like the hammy style that he is famous for so I like the episode.

The plot is straight forward with no detours or red herrings. The hour passes quickly. We learn early on that Tony is the killer so the only unknown is how he will be caught. It seems strange that he was kicked off the force for psychiatric reasons and the cop killer clearly has a grudge against policemen but nobody bothers to consider him as a suspect. Tony meets his fate at the show's end and nobody holds a grudge as Lt Green (Fell) took up a collection for the widow to keep operating the boy's shelter. As often happens, Kimble gets out of town just ahead of the posse without his clothes or a paycheck. That happens a lot to him. Also, not sure how he always gets a job and talks to police without ever showing an ID. Must be a 1960s thing. Can't do that today for sure.

A good outing worth seeing for the comparison of styles.

12/7/65 "Stranger in the Mirror"

[schappe1 · 3 September 2015]

Kimble goes to work for some actual nice people, (played by William Shatner and Julie Sommars), who run a camp for delinquent children. Bill's a former policeman who left the force due to a disability and now contributes to the community through his camp, which he uses to set kids straight. He also likes to hang out with his old buddies at the police station. But some nut is going around killing cops and suspicion falls on the drifter with an unverifiable background that the nice people have hired. But Bill turns out to be a complicated character: his father was arrested when he was a boy and died in prison. And his disability wasn't a physical one. It provides Shatner with a wonderful opportunity to display his….intense…acting style.

Shatner and Janssen

[jsinger-58969 · 9/10 · 4 January 2023]

As others have noted, fun watching the scenery munching Kirk play against the reserved, twitchy Kimble. It did appear as though Bill was enjoying working with someone with prominent ears. Possible spoiler. Shat seems to be a good guy at first, running a camp where troubled boys can play baseball. Dick gets as job there as a custodian, and says he got it through an agency, a rarity for him. When he finds out that Bill was a cop, and hopes to be one again, Kimble wants to move on before he's even started, but is persuaded by Bill's wife to stay awhile. A cop is murdered, and Bill's reaction of surprise seems forced. With any other actor it would be a giveaway, but with Shatner who knows? Shatner is, of course, crazy and has killed several cops. It's almost like he has a split personality. That may resurface in an episode of his own show. Anyways, the cops figure out who Kimble really is, but Bill's wife also figures out who, and what, Bill really is. She fatally shoots Bill as he is about to kill Dick. Shatner's death is hilariously over acted. Never change, Bill. Meanwhile, the cops are closing in and Dick looks to be in a hopeless situation, but he pulls the wool over the eyes of some other cops who don't seem to be aware of who he is, and gets away. Kimble is on his way to a new town, where he boldly goes where no fugitive has gone before.

Kimble plays baseball

[MissClassicTV · 6/10 · 14 May 2016]

This episode opens with Dr. Kimble walking through a playground/park near some boys practicing baseball. He clearly enjoys the atmosphere. He looks around and smiles broadly. Normally, you can feel Kimble's fear and awareness of his surroundings, always looking over his shoulder. But for five minutes at the beginning of this episode, he's relaxed and almost happy, talking to Carole about a custodian job. Until he finds out that her husband Tony (actor William Shatner) is an ex-policeman who hopes to return to working as a cop again soon.

Actress Julie Sommars plays Carole as a really nice lady who runs a boys' baseball club. She rides a bicycle back and forth from her home to the park. Kimble ends up at baseball practice when Tony fails to show up. We see him hitting pop ups and ground balls to the kids. However, only one day on the job and he ends up in the middle of a spree of killings. Three policemen have been murdered.

This episode presents two classic noir characters: Tony, who has committed sin and is immersed in guilt, and Dr. Kimble, an innocent man wrongly accused. Yet only one delivers, because when the drama kicks up, Shatner can't help but overact, which is tough to watch. David Janssen, meanwhile, is brilliant as always.

Plot summary

[ynot-16 · 6/10 · 20 November 2006]

Kimble takes a job as custodian at a youth program run by Tony Burrell and his wife Carole. Tony, played by actor William Shatner (Capt. Kirk of Star Trek) has a warm, outgoing personality. He is good with kids and spends time with them doing things such as baseball practice.

Tony is a former police officer. In his youth his father was arrested and later killed by police.

Police investigate the serial killings of three local police officers, causing danger to Kimble. Perhaps more dangerous is Tony, whose simplisticly explained psychological problems make him capable of killing without remembering it.

Shatner wasn't that bad

[Christopher370 · 6/10 · 16 August 2023]

The reviews here noting William Shatner's scenery chewing, hammy acting in this episode has me a bit bemused because I really didn't notice that at all in his performance here.

I thought the episode itself was only average, hence my 6 star rating, but I didn't think Shatner was over the top in his performance and actually found him enjoyable. I think his emoting was in tune with the character he was playing and I didn't see any scenery chewing in his scenes.

Yes there is a contrast between his and David Janssen's acting performances, but I don't think it's fair to compare the two here since they're both playing quite different characters.

The only problem I had with this episode was having Kimble call the police after finding the body of the murdered cop and sticking around to wait for them to arrive.

I think in actuality, he would have split long before they got there without even bothering to pack his bag. It just seemed out of character of him to stand around waiting for police to arrive, but I do realize he needed to stay for the plot purposes, but it just seemed very out of character for him.

And those Keystone Cops who just told Kimble to get out of there at the end lol. Any cop would have immediately held him for questioning, but again, I realize it was needed to keep the show going, but it was just too implausible.

It's an ok episode and I really liked the performance of Julie Sommars as Carole and even liked William Shatner here. If you really want to see him over the top and scenery chewing just watch that Twilight Zone episode where he sees Bigfoot on the wing of a plane. I laugh hysterically every time I catch him in that because that was over the top hammy acting! But here I think he was much better and even reserved compared to that performance.