Veteran cop Sgt. T.J.Hooker (William Shatner) gets into a standoff with a baddie who has a machine gun and young woman as hostage. He calls for back-up. Officer Karen Remy (Robin Dearden) and her partner Officer John Reed (Jeffrey Byron) show up. Karen is yet another of Hooker's old flames and after the standoff is resolved he asks her to dinner. She takes a rain-check saying that there is something she has to deal with first.
Hours later Karen is dead having driven over to the wrong part of town to meet an informant. Hooker swears to find her killer and uses his vacation time to investigate. He clashes with Reed - her former partner who also claims he was going to marry Karen. When Hooker shakes down underworld sources a disturbing picture develops and police brass appear to be in on it. The truth conflicts with what all the evidence suggested.
This episode contrasts with most others in the series with the exception of how it begins. It looks more like a private investigator show of the kind that were dominant on the small screen back then and has a less facile plot. For most of it Hooker is in plain-clothes acting completely unlike himself. So many episodes of this series looked so much like others it is almost like this one is a long dream sequence.
Any episode of this series which gives us depictions of more cops than just Hooker and the two he usually worked with (Officer Jim Corrigan and Officer Stacy Sheridan) we got to see too much of on this show should theoretically be a good episode. It buttresses the narrative to depict the police community of a big city to have more than the regulars and a few extras milling about the precinct in uniform.
I grew up watching Jeffrey Byron in movies like Metalstorm and Ragewar and thought he was a cool actor. But for whatever reason he was less than compelling in this role. I'm going to guess the way his characterization was edited might be the culprit. But the dialogue he was given isn't exactly top flight either.
Hours later Karen is dead having driven over to the wrong part of town to meet an informant. Hooker swears to find her killer and uses his vacation time to investigate. He clashes with Reed - her former partner who also claims he was going to marry Karen. When Hooker shakes down underworld sources a disturbing picture develops and police brass appear to be in on it. The truth conflicts with what all the evidence suggested.
This episode contrasts with most others in the series with the exception of how it begins. It looks more like a private investigator show of the kind that were dominant on the small screen back then and has a less facile plot. For most of it Hooker is in plain-clothes acting completely unlike himself. So many episodes of this series looked so much like others it is almost like this one is a long dream sequence.
Any episode of this series which gives us depictions of more cops than just Hooker and the two he usually worked with (Officer Jim Corrigan and Officer Stacy Sheridan) we got to see too much of on this show should theoretically be a good episode. It buttresses the narrative to depict the police community of a big city to have more than the regulars and a few extras milling about the precinct in uniform.
I grew up watching Jeffrey Byron in movies like Metalstorm and Ragewar and thought he was a cool actor. But for whatever reason he was less than compelling in this role. I'm going to guess the way his characterization was edited might be the culprit. But the dialogue he was given isn't exactly top flight either.
