The Retaliation

1. Although not a part of my post Sweet Revenge series or Gunther Sessions series, I do use those series as point of reference for this story, by which I mean that any literary liberties (such as the explanation why Starsky is 32 in 1979 – see notes on The Journey; the length of the surgery on Starsky, the length of his coma – see The Post Gunther Sessions); the vow Hutch had made to his partner (in case of life threatening injuries – see Welcome Home) are the same as in the stories in those 2 series. I got the idea for this story from watching Sweet Revenge in detail recently, focusing on Dobey and Huggy.2. The medical equipment to which Starsky was hooked up in Sweet Revenge in the first scene after the shooting was laughable. Many fans with a medical background have mentioned this through the decades. So, for all my SR related stories and series, I’d like all readers to imagine a far more realistic set-up of (life saving/sustaining) equipment and machines that Starsky is hooked up to, like a ventilator, more IV’s and monitors. Also, imagine a far more realistic appearance of the area of his body that was injured: tubes, drains, bandages, tapes, incissions/stitches all that was missing from SR’s hospital scenes.3. I always thought the nameless doctor who treated Starsky on Sweet Revenge came across as very kind, so in my imagination he became the Dr Jamison in my SR related stories and series.4. I may be the only Starsky & Hutch fan who did not like the tag to Sweet Revenge. Sure it was fun and nice for the actors to close off 4 years of working together a little tipsy from the wine etc. but to me it didn’t fit the episode, at the very least as far as timing was concerned. Hutch speaks of not being able to let his injured partner eating the horrible hospital food for yet another week. And we KNOW Starsky must have been in hospital for a long time because not only is there absolutely no sign of injury, nor of medical equipment in the room, let alone attached to him, but he is also able to raise both arms behind his head. Sure, he says he took 4 pain killers, but really? And by the way: 4 painkillers and wine? Great combo! He just survived 3 bullets, then could have gotten himself killed mixing painkillers with booze! So, Starsky has no physical signs or limitations left after having been hit by 3 bullets from a machine gun, yet Hutch still has a bandage around his wrist where about one day after the assassination attempt on Starsky, he was knicked by a knife? Nope, too much suspension of disbelief for me. So, my literary liberty, as far as Sweet Revenge goes, is that the tag was probably a dream Hutch had after he had too much to drink. And the reason why he had too much to drink was probably because Starsky’s release date from the hospital was announced. So, in my universe, Hutch celebrated at the Pits, drank a lot, somehow got home to Venice Place safely, drank some more and the tag from Sweet Revenge was an alcohol induced dream, nothing more than that. And the tag as is was just a send off party between 4 actors at the end of the show’s run. So: NOT Starsky, Hutch, Dobey and Huggy, but Paul Michael, David, Bernie and Antonio.