Columbo: Butterfly in Shades of Grey

Is hilarious, but fits Shatner's character quite well. Billy's performance made this episode worth watching, due to his usual over the top melodramatic antics.

I've been watching all the episodes of Columbo once a week since forever on Peacock and it's fascinating to see how he aged in both his physical and acting aspects. This one still has the little tune of "this ol' man" playing in the background when he's at work on a particular focus of his investigation.

The plot is not quite as good as earlier episodes, but the clever twists of the villain make it fun.

The biggest part was of course Shatner, but wait there's more: Go find a film noir titled "The Big Clock" from 1948. It stars the famous Charles Laughton. As "Butterfly" opens with Shatner, I immediately saw Laughton in his demeanor, right down to the moustache! Was Billy Shatner mimicking Laughton? They both acted in the same dramatic fashion in their respective roles in their films. Maybe Shatner was paying homage.

As Spock would say..."Fascinating."

This is certainly not a bad episode, but it is not a great one either. It is strikingly filmed as the Columbo episodes often are, the music is good, the script is decent enough as is the direction and story, while Peter Falk is excellent and Molly Hagen is wonderful. However, the pacing is rather sluggish, and the murderer's motive is quite weak. Also I just didn't buy William Shatner in his role, he tries hard but he is too over-the-top and forced and his moustache was falling off in some scenes.

Overall, it is certainly worth watching but it wasn't brilliant. 6/10 Bethany Cox

For Columbo fans, William Shatner plays the controlling Fielding Chase who kills a man who can separate him from his adoptive daughter played wonderfully by Molly Hagen. The key to solving the case is as fascinating as the actual murder. Columbo figures out who done it but how does he catch him. As in any Columbo feature, all the crimes are solved by one loose thread or link. It is nice to see Three's Company Richard Kline as his daughter's friend and literary agent. William Shatner plays Fielding Chase as the overly protective suffocating surrogate father to Molly Hagen's character in this film. It is a believable one and fun to watch anyway. Like I said, I will watch Columbo all the time. I am waiting for the Columbo Cable Channel.

William Shatner makes his second appearance, here playing a radio talk show host/commentator named Fielding Chase who is very possessive of his adopted daughter Victoria(played by returning actress Molly Hagen) and resentful of his investigative researcher Gerry Winters(played by Jack Laufer) who encourages Victoria to leave her father so that she can hand over a novel she wrote to a publishing friend of his(played by Richard Kline). In order to stop this, Fielding kills Gerry while establishing a clever alibi for himself, but Lt. Columbo(Peter Falk) finds a big hole in his story that may force Chase off the air... Old fashioned(in some ways!) episode is entertaining and clever, with Shatner giving a good performance as the alternately sympathetic yet despicable character with complex moral shades indeed.

BUTTERFLY IN SHADES OF GREY makes the return of William Shatner to the COLUMBO TV series after he first appeared in it in the 1970s. Shatner is one of my favourite cult stars - I find him an actor it's impossible to not enjoy - and he certainly lifts the material in what is otherwise a well-paced but fairly predictable Columbo storyline.

Shatner plays a brash radio talk show host with a fixation on his adopted daughter. When another man tries to break her away from him, he's driven to extreme means in order to dispose of the threat. The murder itself is quite straightforward here, relying on an unusual telephone-related alibi for the most part, and the resolution is fairly average.

What lifts it is a typically assured performance from Peter Falk as the titular detective. Falk enjoys a handful of comedic moments in this one; they're quite familiar and have played out before, but there's plenty of mileage in them nonetheless. He also shares plenty of scenes with Shatner, and both actors are really enjoying themselves. You can't help but do so as well.