The Psychic

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (The Psychic)

We're going back to their interest in the weird and the wonderful, but this time it's not shady, crooked evil, but a man with a 'gift' that he wants to be as removed from as possible. In other episodes we see all kinds of dodgy cultists or fanatics, often shown to be either delusional or perpetuating a delusion for gullible followers, but whatever the angle, they were loud and proud and not timid about their practices. This time we meet a man with a genuine power, but he's quite the opposite; a quiet man that wants to be left alone, hiding from his past and hoping to remain disassociated from the ability he has to see visions. Interestingly, there's strong role reversal in this episode - not just the difference between Joe Collandra and the phonies we've seen before him, but S&H. Usually it's Hutch that's getting crabby with people (I say usually, as in my memory it's Hutch more than Starsky that goes into grump mode, with the latter generally more optimistic), and moaning at the police dispatcher, but this time Starsky has the attitude. There's also the fact that Starsky is generally the one to believe in anything weird or way out, but this time he's the sceptic, and Hutch the believer. It's also usual to see Starsky messing around with an order of food, but this time it's Hutch who carries a bundle of things into his friend's car, and it might even be junk food! It seems things are not normal this episode.

Something else odd about this episode is that it seems to have a thing about men dressed in women's clothing, for some reason: Fireball, the felon they're chasing in the teaser (which may have been reused in a later episode), starts the ball rolling, then we also have the guy holding up the bar, and the blokes in the laundromat that Hutch runs through during his heroic sprint at the end. For no discernible reason this theme is in there, unless it's another subtle indication that things aren't always what you expect? The series isn't generally very subtle, so I'd be pushing it to praise such nuances, instead it seems far more likely that it was just to emphasise the slapstick comedy element that runs through this episode, and season. It's played up in the teaser, which is completely unrelated to the main plot, except by the bridging line where Starsky wonders what the idle rich are up to, but who needs careful plot progression when you can open with a tyre-squealing car chase, innocent civilians leaping out of the way, and S&H getting caught up in other people when it becomes a foot pursuit. This may well be the episode which features the greatest number of people either pushed out of the way, or to the floor, in the history of the series, because not only do we begin with an action sequence, we end with one, too.

It's one that I'd forgotten came from this episode (possibly because I think it's also used in a clips episode), so I was looking forward to seeing it again when I got the hints it was coming, because it's one of my favourite action scenes from the entire series, although I do wish it was longer and more intricate - perhaps the concept was better than the execution in some ways. What it does is show S&H once again working together, though actually separated, with Hutch on foot and Starsky on a dirt bike, complete with big, blue crash helmet and every biker's essential accessory: a high-powered rifle! Mind you, I don't know whether he was firing incendiary rounds out of it, or if the villains' getaway car had a boot full of TNT, because it went up like a bonfire with one shot! It's 'Savage Sunday' all over again! There's some good stunts with Starsky pelting round on the bike, and Hutch manically running to reach each phone the villains' instruct him to, so it's a mix of sick game and shrewd tactical play by them - I especially enjoy the moment Hutch ploughs through three loafers trying to mug him, in desperation to reach the next phone before the girl is killed he doesn't hang around, even using a dustbin lid to finish the job and hurling it behind him into the air as he dashes madly off. It's no surprise the police car thought he was a lunatic. It's not the first time uniform have got in the way of an investigation at a sensitive moment, but it just adds to the trauma of the moment when all Hutch's efforts seem in vain thanks to the villains being spooked.

One of the most important moments of the end sequence is that Starsky doesn't rush over to see if his partner is alright, but takes out the baddies' car, then goes to Hutch. He thought he was dead after being blasted through a door, forgetting Hutch was kitted out with a bulletproof vest (just like the previous episode - is this a new policy?), so I suppose that was his reason more than professionalism. But with that kind of dedication the bad guys stood no chance. In fact, one of them had already been dealt with before: Earl Pola, the darker-skinned member of the duo, was played by George Loros - I thought I recognised his face, and I was right. He'd played Chaco in Season 1's 'Texas Longhorn.' Like 'Huggerino The Magnificent' (or 'The Amazing Collins' as Joe Collandra had been known), as Huggy styles himself this time (previously taking the title Huggerino The Supremo in 'Murder At Sea,' and Huggerini The Incredible in 'Murder At Sea, Part II'), we see things that are (or were, in Chaco's case), not so much in the category of things that aren't, but certainly something of things that are to come: Allan Miller who made an impact as Joe Collandra, would return a couple more times as other characters.

Miller was so well cast as this anguished man plagued by his past and a 'gift' he doesn't want, giving a believable portrayal of what it might be like to have this power, the fear of it messing up his life as it had once done before, the draw of reporters and hordes or people and the sheer misery of knowing things you don't want to know about people. For Joe, ignorance really would be bliss, he just wants to live his quiet life out of the limelight, running the J. C. Cafe and pretending his past never happened. We don't often get writing that looks at other angles like this, and he's given good development, going from a man trying to hide, agreeing with Starsky's scepticism, to a man that admits what he is and is able to help before it's too late, at least in part assuaging the guilt of his previous attempt to help when he was too late in Atlantic City. As well written and performed as he is, the opposite is true of the two villains. They aren't bad bad guys, they just aren't afforded the attention Joe gets, which, while keeping their stock as a danger high, also gives us little insight into them. If they were kept out of the picture, they should have gone the whole hog and made them denizens of the shadows. It's not always clear who's the boss, with both Moo-Moo taking charge at times, but Earl seemingly the brain, and their addition needed more work to integrate them better into the story.

The lack of work on the villain side doesn't lose the episode its good qualities, which is mainly that it's upbeat, full of slapstick comedy, the bickering we love between S&H, but also some good stunt moments. One example is in the foiling of the raid on the bar - Starsky almost does his jump and grab move inside, using a chair or sofa to get the high ground instead of the usual car bonnet, but doesn't make the full leap. It was probably the only time Picerni did a stunt this episode, although he was probably riding the bike some of the time. Look out for the little old lady in the background at the bar, brandishing her stick as if she's going to use it to assist the police! Maybe the story isn't that deep, but it has the right mix that make it a good example of the series, if not a spectacular one. It has many of the expected quirks and things to tick off: we have a few odd characters to interact with, from bald, dress-garbed Fireball, to 'fat man' as Hutch names Michael Keenan's car wash boss (a moniker he's used before on others), and including the kiddie crime duo that almost succeed in jacking Starsky's beloved tyres off, to Charlie Sireen, though her quirkiness is more to do with her greater than average height and atypical role as a female mechanic, than being wacky.

That theme of people being different to what you'd expect really does appear to run through, but if so, I still say it's unintentional. One character I initially thought was a bit of a fraud was the Korean gambling boss, Su Long, whom Julio Gutierrez owed money to (he being the carwash guy that had struck up a passing familiarity with Haymes' daughter, enabling her to be kidnapped without too much hassle). The Asian guy looked suspiciously like a non-Asian who was screwing up his eyes a bit and had false whiskers plastered to his chin, but seeing the actor's name, James Hong, I got him all wrong, although they did sometimes pass off people as different races in the past so it was an easy mistake to make. Haymes himself wasn't a memorable character, his claim to fame being that he was rich enough to own the Turbos football team, and all we had to sympathise with him was the single scene between he and his daughter before her kidnapping. He could have done with humanising a little more for us to care about his plight, because Joanna was equally undeveloped, mainly shown struggling ineffectually in the back of the Rosa's van that was her prison.

There were few pop culture references, but I'd include Dick Tracey (one of the boys caught by S&H calls one of them that), Shangri-La (Starsky's description of Su Long's place), and Lazarus (Hutch's response when the police ask who he is after finding him lying through a smashed in door tying in to when Starsky thought he was dead). Joe mentions the 'tomato' and 'white stripes' describing the Torino; Starsky complains about Hutch's treatment of his car (this time it's dripping food on the upholstery); Haymes' office features the red carpet usually reserved for crooks (though it might be a sign of wealth in S&H's world - if you can afford bright red things you must be rich!); and the chunky bloke Hutch bowls over in an effort to reach the phone may be a regular stunt man, I'm not sure. The best reference of the episode is also the final line, when Huggy gets S&H's orders mixed up at J.C.'s - Starsky has the great line "I'm pickles, he's onions." As well as casting a couple of actors that would be/become familiar to viewers of the series, in this episode there's a couple of sci-fi names, too: Michael Keenan would also be in episodes of 'Voyager' and 'DS9,' about twenty years later, and Edward James Olmos (mistakenly credited as Edward Jamesl Olmos!), who had the small role of Julio, would become famous for the 'Battlestar Galactica' remake, around thirty years later!

I like that Huggy gets to be part of the story, but again, it's not right that he should be in someone else's cafe taking orders, he should have his own place! It's also nice to see Dobey getting out of the office again when he's permitted to attend Haymes' house, and he's allowed out in a travelling HQ in the back of a van, presumably coordinating S&H's operation since Hutch is wired up with a mike to relay the information to Starsky. I thought the Seaside Amusement Park was going to feature more in the story than as the place they find Julio's body, but it may have been a location to which they returned ('Targets Without A Badge'?), though there were numerous stretches of scenery that looked familiar - the alley Starsky speeds though on his bike may even have been the famous opening credits' alley. I like that they don't rush into the dump and immediately realise Joanna Haymes is in the Rosa's van, it takes them a few seconds to orient themselves and then they spot the vital clue. It's strange the gardener didn't hear her initial kidnapping as he was in the background as she walks down the drive, but neither did anyone at the dump notice these two guys bundling a girl about, so either people were too absorbed in their work or they expected to see these men.

***