"Kung Fu": TV Series, The Devil's Champion

#48 (Prod #166260) "The Devil's Champion"
Teleplay By:: Katharyn & Michael Michaelian^*2* (also #19, 35 & 41)
Directed By:: Robert Michael Lewis (also #36)
First Broadcast: November 8, 1974 (Friday)
Guest Stars: Soon-Taik Oh (also #8 & 34), Victoria Racimo, Richard Loo (also pilot & #3, 23, 35 & 50-51)
Regular Cast: David Carradine, Philip Ahn, Keye Luke, Radames Pera

In China a strange challenger shows up at the temple gates to challenge Master Kan to ritual combat to the death. Caine, who is having visions, must find out who or what is behind the situation.

"Any man can be broken. . . By a strength outside greater than himself or a weakness inside which he cannot understand." - Caine

"I am a man. I have desires." - Caine, when asked if he ever wanted what he could not have

"Can you speak plainly?" - Caine

"When a man feels there is something inside of him that cannot easily be explained, it does not need to be weakness." - Caine

"You performed with great skill, Kwai Chang." - Master Kan

"Forgive me, Master. I have no answer only a feeling." - Caine

"Come, let us speak with this loud voice." - Master Kan

"Why do you treat this man as an animal?" - Master Kan

"I cannot honor your challenge." - Master Kan

"You are before the gates of a Shaolin Temple and there are no reasons for which your ears are worthy." - Master Kan

"We have never acceded to threats before." - Shaolin Master

"May I be permitted? What I have heard here is truth of a kind. . . ." - Master Po

"If he himself is not a demon, then he is controlled by one. His actions - to take human lives to get what he wants - is proof of that." - Master Po

"Each of you has communicated generously. . . ." - Master Kan

"My mind, my heart, are open. I see nothing to link me to this man." - Master Kan

"If it is written, then it will be so. The path that will free me of the evil is unclear." - Master Kan

"I have seen something which I can no longer hold back." - Caine

"There was no natural way that he would know we would come." - Caine

"I will know when it is time." - Caine, when asked if he wondered

"We ask that you reconsider. That this contest not be to the death." - Master Kan

"Under the circumstances you have set up, we must accept your challenge." - Master Kan

"There are no fights to the death here. Since you have insisted and threatened us with the deaths of many, we have been forced to arrange for it. It will take a new day to prepare." - Master Po on the temple

"None of us wish to die. . . . Honor at the risk of death is not a part of the Shaolin tradition." - Caine

"Trust in the masters. . . . Trust them! They are wise." - Caine

"How can I help you?" - Caine

"'How much time is there?' - Caine
'No one can say for certain. Perhaps, time has already run out.'" - Master Po

"Here two will fight for mastery, not acclaim." - Master Kan

"'Forgive me, I may not say it.' - Caine to a woman
'Yet I might like to hear it.'" - woman

"Let yourself feel the evil aura that reaches out for us." - Master Po to another master

"It will take all our strengths and perhaps that will not avail." - Po

"'You dare. . . .'
'To speak the truth? Yes.'" - Caine

"This even more than human strength will destroy [his] human body." - Caine

"Do you live by no code?" - Master Kan

"Your spirit is stronger than the flesh. It can defeat the power of another no matter how great. . . . There is no failure no defeat. No weakness within you. Only that which you allow to settle in your own mind. Draw upon the strength of your spirit." - Master Kan

"It is over." - Caine

"His power is broken. Things are seen as they are." - Caine

"It was a truth. . . . One among many. What you believed to be inner weakness existed in your mind alone and in no other place." - Master Kan to a disciple

"'I do not understand all that has happened.' - Caine
'No one knows all.'" - Master Kan

". . . in the end the seeds of hatred destroyed themselves. As they always do. As they always will." - Master Kan

"Battles are waged on the earth and in the heavens. Within the mind and within the soul. This battle has been won." - Master Po

The KF Book^*2* says that the villain in this story, "the Prince of Darkness is Hsiag, the evil embodiment of the powers of the air" but there is no such mention herein.