A & E

It started writing early, started filming early. Strike or not, it would have a season.

The result? "Legal" made 20 episodes, just two short of a full season. And it plans to wrap up with two key ones:

• Denny Crane (William Shatner) is a possible Republican presidential nominee. "He gets vetted by a panel," producer Bill D'Elia says. "He goes for his physical in a unique way."

• The two friends -- Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny -- are on opposite sides of a court case involving a proposed secession from the Union.

Barring a late change, the show has its Denny-for-president episode Wednesday, and the Alan-vs.-Denny episode on May 21.

"If we're cancelled, it's a great place to end the series," Shatner says, while working on the latter episode. "And if we're picked up, it's a great way to end the season."

It is, at least, a jolt. "The subject matter, which is patriotism, has such meaning to both characters that it pulls them apart," Shatner says.

That splits a friendship that has sparked the show. In the first three seasons, Spader won two Emmys (best actor); Shatner (supporting actor) won once and was nominated twice.

"The friendship between Denny and Alan is unique," D'Elia says. "We sort of captured light in a bottle with Bill and James."

That started in the final season of "The Practice," when creator David Kelley tried a drastic makeover. He dropped most characters and inserted Alan -- unethical, disgraced, but a courtroom winner.

As that season was ending, Alan was fired and moved to a firm with an offbeat boss.

"I thought it was the most wonderful, outlandish character I had ever seen," Shatner says. "(Kelley) was trying to either inject new blood or make a spin-off."

Shatner, now 77, agreed to do the transition episodes, but nothing more. "I'd done several series before, and I certainly didn't want to do another."

Then he relented. "The Practice" folded and "Boston Legal" zoomed, with Alan and Denny as a celebration of opposites.

"One is an arch-conservative, one is a liberal," D'Elia says. "(And) the characters are so physically different."

Alan is button-down and precise; Denny is full of gusto, unaware of his flaws. "We knew it would be funny," D'Elia says.

And the role was given to a guy known for dead-serious characters in "Star Trek" and "T.J. Hooker."

D'Elia says he was confident Shatner could do it. He had been funny in commercials and had drawn an Emmy nomination in "3rd Rock From the Sun," for playing the Big Giant Head. "He says, 'I want to play a character who is just full of himself.'"

Shatner also says he was confident. "I was a light comedian in Canada for five or six years, before I came here."

Well, semi-light, anyway.

Back in 1954, Shatner -- a Montreal native, fresh from McGill University -- joined the Stratford Festival for its second season of Shakespearean plays. He was soon a young lover in "Taming of the Shrew," a plotter in "Julius Caesar" and more.

Separately, the festival and Shatner would find fame.

"What I learned from my early theater days was a sense of discipline," he says. "You do what needs to be done; you learn the lines."

In the early days, he studied those lines in the bathroom of a Stratford home where he had rented a room. These days, his world is plusher, but his lines are still written by a master -- Shakespeare then, Kelley now.

"It's dazzling," D'Elia -- who also produced Kelley's "Chicago Hope" and "Ally McBeal" -- says of the Kelley touch.

"The ability he has to take an issue and examine it from both sides is amazing. And to make it be about the characters -- that's what's impressive."

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