LCPD cop Sgt. T.J.Hooker (William Shatner) and his colleagues take down a heroin operation in a junkyard. After a brief shootout an off-duty cop who shouldn't be there is found dead. Officer Stacy Sheridan (Heather Locklear) logs $6 million in 'China White' heroin into the evidence locker and the case looks like a slam dunk.
Stacy then begins seeing her former fiancée - dapper mob defense lawyer Harrison MacKenzie (Ray Wise) who helps his crook associate (Jason Evers) set her up. The heroin is replaced with sugar and when the lab tests it (the field test at the junkyard confirmed it was smack) her career is on the line. She is swiftly suspended from duty and an Internal Affairs probe is pending.
With his colleague's credibility put in to question Hooker looks to clear her and take down the heroin network. But Stacy sees an easy way out by quitting and marrying MacKenzie and looks ready to take it. The future of a young officer whom Hooker has come to depend upon and love like a daughter is unfolding completely contrary to how she and her colleagues once saw it.
We get varying degrees of evil in this episode. The character Jason Evers plays is thoroughly decadent and was corrupted long ago. The MacKenzie character is a kind of homme fatale i.e. the male equivalent of a femme fatale in film noir. A love interest blatantly using a hero cop whilst engaged in criminal enterprise is a tired TV cop show cliché. But when the cop is female it can at least appear somewhat different.
Briefly in this episode Stacy rides with Hooker. I always felt that was the way the series should have gone after Heather Locklear's character moved from behind the precinct front desk and went out into a squad car on patrol. It would have been much more economical financially and plot-wise in the long-term and the short-term to have Captain Kirk and Sammy Jo - the two real stars of the show riding together with a different couple of cheap actors backing them up each week.
But Locklear was simultaneously playing Sammy Jo Dean on top rated 'Dynasty' throughout her run on T.J.Hooker. Rumors were ever-present that she would leave one show for the other to escape an unforgiving work schedule. T.J.Hooker - a ratings also-ran appeared to be the one most likely for her to quit. Her character was perpetually one bullet away from freeing her up to be Sammy Jo full-time. This episode showed another possible route for exit.
Anne Lockhart appears briefly in a hairdo so uncharacteristic for her that she is barely recognizable. Given the amount of screen-time she got (blink and you'll miss it) one might well wonder why she would have taken the role at all. As a fan I hate being jerked around by seeing a favorite actress (and yet another boyhood crush) listed as a guest star when she is only on screen briefly.
Stacy then begins seeing her former fiancée - dapper mob defense lawyer Harrison MacKenzie (Ray Wise) who helps his crook associate (Jason Evers) set her up. The heroin is replaced with sugar and when the lab tests it (the field test at the junkyard confirmed it was smack) her career is on the line. She is swiftly suspended from duty and an Internal Affairs probe is pending.
With his colleague's credibility put in to question Hooker looks to clear her and take down the heroin network. But Stacy sees an easy way out by quitting and marrying MacKenzie and looks ready to take it. The future of a young officer whom Hooker has come to depend upon and love like a daughter is unfolding completely contrary to how she and her colleagues once saw it.
We get varying degrees of evil in this episode. The character Jason Evers plays is thoroughly decadent and was corrupted long ago. The MacKenzie character is a kind of homme fatale i.e. the male equivalent of a femme fatale in film noir. A love interest blatantly using a hero cop whilst engaged in criminal enterprise is a tired TV cop show cliché. But when the cop is female it can at least appear somewhat different.
Briefly in this episode Stacy rides with Hooker. I always felt that was the way the series should have gone after Heather Locklear's character moved from behind the precinct front desk and went out into a squad car on patrol. It would have been much more economical financially and plot-wise in the long-term and the short-term to have Captain Kirk and Sammy Jo - the two real stars of the show riding together with a different couple of cheap actors backing them up each week.
But Locklear was simultaneously playing Sammy Jo Dean on top rated 'Dynasty' throughout her run on T.J.Hooker. Rumors were ever-present that she would leave one show for the other to escape an unforgiving work schedule. T.J.Hooker - a ratings also-ran appeared to be the one most likely for her to quit. Her character was perpetually one bullet away from freeing her up to be Sammy Jo full-time. This episode showed another possible route for exit.
Anne Lockhart appears briefly in a hairdo so uncharacteristic for her that she is barely recognizable. Given the amount of screen-time she got (blink and you'll miss it) one might well wonder why she would have taken the role at all. As a fan I hate being jerked around by seeing a favorite actress (and yet another boyhood crush) listed as a guest star when she is only on screen briefly.
