Green Guide's TV critics on the evening's offerings.

FREE TO AIR

HUNT THE KAISER'S CRUISERS! THE LAST SHIP AFLOAT
ABC1, 8.30PM

WAR history programs rarely come with the appendage of an exclamation mark, but in the case of this riveting account of the scuttling of the German battleship Dresden, the punctuation is well deserved.

After the Dresden challenged British naval supremacy by devastating a fleet of British warships in the opening salvos of World War I, lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill fast-tracked two ships from dry dock to avenge the attacks.

That's the starting point of what turns into a ripping cloak-and-dagger espionage yarn involving furtive boats, close calls, deception, bungled intelligence, fatal misjudgements and political intrigue.

The best part involves the lucky few who made it to an island after the Dresden went down.
- PAUL KALINA

SERIES

LAW & ORDER
CHANNEL 10, 8:30PM

Since his health scare in 2005, Vincent D'Onofrio has appeared in only half the episodes of this show, alternating the lead with former Law & Order star Chris Noth.

This may explain the show's declining fortunes. With his quirks, twitches and improbable feats of deduction, D'Onofrio's Detective Goren can be annoying but does provide this version of the Law & Order stable with a point of difference. Without him it's just another cop show and that's what we get tonight.

When a witness in a rape trial is murdered the morning she is to give evidence, detectives Logan (Noth) and Falacci (Alicia Witt) find themselves up against an ambitious and unco-operative assistant DA and a cranky football coach determined to protect his players.

The episode unfolds with the requisite twists and turns and races to a satisfying conclusion, even if Noth looks as though he'd rather be somewhere else. Witt, on the other hand, plays his hot-headed partner as if there's no tomorrow, which was more or less the case. Her short run on the show ended one episode later when Julianne Nicholson returned from maternity leave to resume her role as Logan's regular partner, Detective Wheeler.
- GREG HASSALL

PAY TV

STREET TUNER CHALLENGE
HOW TO, 9.40PM

THIS American show presents a competition in which three rival garages hot up three cars. It has two problems, though.

The first is a silly fib: the show claims the cars come from three continents - Europe, Asia and North America - but the supposed American car is European.

Car nuts know where cars come from, and I doubt they appreciate being taken for a goose. The other problem is that the show is presented by three young women in cut-off singlets and shorts who deliver lines with all the aplomb of '80s porno actresses.

The nuts and bolts of the show are all there, but don't expect to learn much.
- BRAD NEWSOME