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.