There are, in television today, certain expectations. We know, for example, that most new narrative ground is broken on premium channels like HBO and F/X with shows like "Deadwood" and "The Wire." We know that innovation is an endangered species on prime-time network TV. And we know that William Shatner, these days, plays things pretty broadly.

Then there was Tuesday night on ABC's "Boston Legal," when an elegant piece of television by series creator David E. Kelley proved all three of those axioms untrue.

Kelley ("Ally McBeal," "The Practice") is known for his quirks, which can overshadow his genius; the McBeal dancing baby of the late 1990s is better off forgotten. But what Kelley did to -- did FOR -- Shatner on Tuesday night was astonishing, emotional and even, dare we say it, Emmy-worthy?

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PLUNDERING TV'S ARCHIVE

Through the magic of archival footage, "Boston Legal" melted away dozens of Shatner pounds and a half-century's worth of Shatner wrinkles and allowed the 76-year-old actor's character, Denny Crane, to instantly recapture the vitality of his youth.

It was a flashback to Denny Crane's first case, in 1957, except Kelley recruited a time-tested actor to play the younger Crane -- Shatner himself, appearing in an extraordinary feat of technological legerdemain.

The craggy Crane, known for his inappropriate comments and voracious appetites, has anchored "Boston Legal" for three years. In Tuesday's episode, his past caught up with him: An ex-cop rigged with explosives wanted revenge for a case that Denny and his lawyer father defended a half-century ago -- the murder of the man's mother.

Denny, forced to wear a vest packed with bombs, was ordered to read the trial transcript of that old case in front of a "jury" of hostages or be blown up. Suddenly, as he did so, in a morph worthy of the best werewolf movies, Denny Crane 2007 became Denny Crane 1957 -- a pre-Captain Kirk Shatner, acting in a long-forgotten Studio One legal drama called "The Defender."

Playing opposite him was the "elder Crane" -- the late Ralph Bellamy, who portrayed Shatner's father in that grainy kinescope production. With expert editing and scripting, scenes from "The Defender" became flashbacks of Denny Crane and his father arguing over the tactics and ethics of the long-ago murder trial.

"He killed this woman," says Bellamy's character, Walter Preston in the original production and now the elder Crane.

"Oh, now wait a minute, Dad," the twentysomething Denny Crane says.

"There's no question in my mind he's guilty," Crane Sr. says. "And every single piece of evidence that's going to be presented in that courtroom says he is."

"He's no murderer," Shatner responds gently. The roots of his staccato delivery poke through a bit. "I can't base it on any evidence or anything. It's something I feel. Dad, the way he sits there ..."

"You don't know what you're talking about, boy," the father says. "You've got a lot to learn."

Through the episode, the young Shatner reappears as his older self revisits the trial. Shatner's long-ago performance is subtle, low-key, gentle -- all the traits that Denny Crane has occasionally hinted at between his explosions of bombast and prurience. And he calibrates Denny 2007 to match.

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COLLAGE CULTURE

You'll undoubtedly be seeing more of this technique. After all, a generation of new technologies and new sensibilities has created a collage culture with a vast pool of raw material at the ready.

We've already watched Natalie Cole appear in a music video alongside her dead father, thanks to strategic archival footage. And casting for young versions of lead characters is always a difficult endeavor; why not just leverage old material instead? Who knows how useful the outtakes of early Macauley Culkin and Haley Joel Osment movies might be as flashback fodder in 30 years?

But Kelly did it so eloquently, so seamlessly that the melancholy -- the story itself -- drowned out any gimmick. Even those who consider Shatner fair fodder for ridicule -- the abrupt deliveries, the tortured renditions of popular songs, the onanistic Priceline ads -- would have found it difficult to dismiss the power of this scene: the graying, puffed-up cynic, his idealism poking out so many years later, underscored by actual footage of his young, slender self.

At its best, "Boston Legal" is both cynical and openly sentimental and, as one watcher put it, features one of the only male friendships on network television that isn't a caricature (between Shatner and James Spader's Alan Shore).

And this surely was the series at its best: a poignant moment for both Shatner and his character, a glimpse into Denny Crane's humanity and a reminder that this frequently lampooned actor has serious acting chops that overshadow the passage of 50 years -- and have kept his career going for even longer than that.

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Ted Anthony is asap's editor. One of his youngest son's middle names is Kirk. Yes, that Kirk.

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