This is a fun idea: an upcoming episode of William Shatner’s television series Boston Legal will incorporate footage from The Defender, a courtroom drama that Shatner filmed 50 years ago, back in the days of live TV (it’s available on DVD, oddly enough), as a flashback to explain why a hostage taker has a grudge against Shatner’s BL character, Denny Crane. No word on if the old clips will be colorized or digitally massaged in any way, but with Boston Legal, you never can tell — they may run them in grainy black-and-white for effect.

I didn’t think much of Boston Legal the first couple times I watched it — I have the same problem with it that I have with most of David E. Kelley‘s shows, which is that no people in the real world behave remotely the way his eccentric characters do — but it’s growing on me, in large part because of Shatner. Readers of this blog know that I like him anyway because of the Star Trek connection, but in the role of Denny Crane, he’s finally shed any lingering typecasting from having been Captain Kirk and seems, for the first time (and the first performance) in years, to be really comfortable and happy in a role again. And his chemistry with James Spader is simply delicious.