Black Mist (1)

The squad foils an attempted kidnap of a Japanese metal trader, and the rescue is only the beginning. The case that follows puts them in the middle of a turf war between the American Mafia and the Yakuza, two organisations who'd both like the trader and both like the trouble. It's the kind of case where the police are the least dangerous people involved. Everyone in this story is lying to someone, and the squad has to work out which lies matter.

Alan Oxford, meanwhile, is off active duty, nursing his feelings about the shooting of Garry Parker and doing it badly. The episode gives him the trader to look after, a vulnerable man who needs a minder, and the babysitting duty turns out to be the sharpest part of the story. Oxford is the fashion-conscious one of the squad, and there's something quietly funny about him stuck in a safe house with a man who doesn't want to be looked after.

The Yakuza side of it is handled with care: David K.S. Tse's Masuro Takahashi, Syuichiro Ichimura's Eiji Takahashi, Naoko Mori's Minako Takahashi and Eiji Kusuhara's Tayama give the case a family dimension that keeps it from being a cartoon. The gang war backdrop stays tense, and the episode knows the difference between menace and pantomime.

Rob Heyland and Roy Mitchell wrote it, David Innes Edwards directed, and the regulars are all present: Grant Masters's Matteo, Amanda Pays's Dryden, Robert Willox's Donachie, Simone Lahbib's McCarthy and Nicholas Ball's Hall, with Gary McDonald's Oxford carrying the personal storyline. As a first half, it sets the table properly.

It went out in December 1997, and it ends with the good guys on the back foot, which is what a two-parter is supposed to do. But the second half has a lot to answer for, and this one makes you want to see it.