Vengeance Is Mine

Veteran cop Sgt. T.J.Hooker (William Shatner) is happy to be working with his old partner Lt.Paul McGuire (Leonard Nimoy), the chief of detectives who is nearing retirement. Their time together in their glory days resulted in a substantive positive impact upon street crime. They saved each other's lives and are like brothers.

Unexpected horror intrudes as McGuire's daughter Val is raped at gunpoint in a parking garage by a hooded assailant. Hooker has to restrain his friend from sidestepping the law after she identifies her attacker - Larry Foster (Randolph Powell), an acquaintance whose voice she recognized.

Foster, a handsome, well-dressed and well-groomed attorney is indignant upon being arrested citing his professional status and business-like appearance. It becomes apparent he is using his insider knowledge of the justice system to thwart his prosecution. It also becomes apparent that he is perversely enjoying himself in doing it. Worst of all he has done it before and gotten away with it every time.

McGuire has seen a lot of guilty ones go free which made him cynical even before his daughter was so brutally beaten and violated. Hooker is also cynical but must put his own misgivings about the system aside in building a case on Foster that will stick. This means doing everything by the book even though there is always a chance Foster will still walk on a technicality.

The gimmick of casting Nimoy opposite Shatner could have come off as cheap. But the weight of the material and a solid guest turn by Randy Powell offsets that. Randy Powell excelled at playing baddies and cads in his career in apparent avoidance of straight ahead roles. I don't know why he wasn't able to carve out more of a niche doing that.

In this episode a lot of the excesses of the show are also noticeably underplayed. I appreciated the difference in tone.