Storylines of Shortland Street (1993)
This article details the storylines that occurred in the New Zealand Soap Opera Shortland Street in 1993.
Storylines
Nick Harrison's (Karl Burnett) relationship with Serena Hughes (Willa O'Neill) hit a rough patch when Rachel McKenna (Angela Bloomfield) arrived at Shortland Street. Nick developed a crush on Rachel. Rachel was the daughter of clinic boss Michael McKenna (Paul Gittins) and was somewhat of a troublemaker. Rachel was more interested in Stuart Neilson (Martin Henderson) and even though Nick was upset at first, he and Rachel would form a close friendship that would be one of Shortland Street's mainstays for nearly a decade. In the meantime, Rachel's disapproval helped put an end to her father's relationship with Julieanne and Rachel hoped that her father would get back with her mother Alex (Liddy Holloway). Nick and Serena split up for good after he became jealous of Serena's friendship with Stuart and Serena left town.
In spite of Sam Aleni's (Rene Naufahu) Christian beliefs, he ended up having pre-marital sex when he lost his virginity to a recovering drug addict named Leanne who eventually left him when she realized that Sam was too controlling. Meanwhile, Steve Mills (Andrew Binns) was still devastated by the death of his girlfriend Sarah Donnelly and mourned her for many months. Eventually he decided that it was time to move on with his life. At the same time, two new nurses joined the clinic, Carmen Roberts (Theresa Healey) and Jo Jordan (Greer Robson) and both nurses became attracted to Steve. Steve was developing feelings for Carmen, but the relationship ended when Jo exposed Carmen's dependence on anti-depressants. Unfortunately for Jo though, her affections for Steve would remain unrequited and the two became close friends and flatmates instead.
Tom and Marj Neilson's (Adrian Keeling and Elizabeth McRae) marriage was severely strained when Marj's daughter (Katherine McRae) continued to be a presence in their lives. Tom eventually disappeared and Marj feared the worse. Paul Holmes contacted Marj and featured Tom's disappearance on the Holmes TV programme. As the months went by Marj began to accept that Tom was gone and tentatively began dating Jewish Policeman Laurie Brasch (Chic Littlewood). Marj also sold her house and moved in with Jenny Harrison (Maggie Harper) and Nick.
Chris Warner's (Michael Galvin) reconciliation with Melanie was short-lived, and Chris would once again propose to Alison Raynor (Danielle Cormack), who had miscarried his baby. Meanwhile, to Kirsty Knight's (Angela Dotchin) horror, Darryl Neilson (Mark Ferguson) had returned to Ferndale and was soon admitted to Shortland Street after suffering some health issues. Darryl quickly became obsessed with Alison and drugged Chris and left him locked in a barn in Warkworth in order so that he would miss the wedding. Alison, thinking she had been jilted once again, fled the country.
Jaki Manu (Nancy Brunning) started off the year by leading a nurse's strike whilst forming a relationship with cricket star Henry Tamariki. Michael eventually backed down to Jaki's demands and Jaki used her negotiating skills to act as Henry's agent, negotiating a series of lucrative sponsorship deals for him. However, the couple's relationship was strained during an MRSA outbreak (that Henry had inadvertently caused by bringing the illness back with him after a trip to Australia) when Jaki neglected Henry (both on the professional and personal front) and focused all her energies on attending to the outbreak. Jaki eventually tried to patch things up with Henry, only to find him in bed with another woman. Jaki broke up with Henry.
Michael McKenna was surprised to run into Chris' mother Lady Margot Warner at an AA meeting. The two quickly bonded over their addiction to alcohol and formed a close friendship. Sir Bruce Warner, Margot's husband, suspected the two of an affair and bought a large share in the clinic. Sir Bruce then colluded with Noel Sturgess (who was still angry that Michael had backed down during the nurse's strike) to force a review on Michael's performance during the MRSA outbreak. It soon became clear that Sir Bruce Warner's agenda was to run the clinic into the ground so Chris and the other doctors bought shares in the clinic in order to get Michael reinstated. The deciding vote came down to Jenny, who voted in Michael's favour, then demanded that she keep the promotion and raise that Sir Bruce had given her.
After breaking up with Hone Ropata (Temuera Morrison) once and for all, Meredith Fleming (Stephanie Wilkin) began a relationship with Guy Warner (Craig Parker), Chris' brother. The two got engaged, but Guy had secretly begun sleeping with Jenny on the side. Jenny enjoyed the affair as it made her feel young again after being continually thwarted in her attempts to get together with Michael.
Wacky Gina Rossi (Josephine Davison) developed a crush on the equally wacky Dr Leonard Dodds (Marton Csokas) and the two finally got together before he left the clinic. In Leonard's absence, Gina developed a crush on Hone and made several attempts to get him. However Leonard returned and Gina switched her affections back to Leonard. When Leonard discovered that Gina had pursued Hone, he bitterly dumped her.
Sam had to deal with his own homophobia when he discovered that Tom's replacement Jamie Forrest (Karl Urban) was gay. Sam eventually realized the error of his ways when Jamie was electrocuted and after saving Jamie's life, Sam and Jamie became friends.
Carrie Burton (Lisa Crittenden) became desperate to have a baby, and decided to get herself artificially inseminated after a failed attempt at adopting a Maori baby, an inter-racial adoption that others at the clinic had opposed. She asked several of her fellow staff members to be the donor, including Chris, Hone, Steve and Guy. They all donated sperm. and Carrie fell pregnant.
By the time Carrie had discovered that she was pregnant, she had already fallen in love with Steve's father Declan Kennedy who was an ex-con. The two married in Las Vegas. Steve was slightly horrified by these events as there was a chance that Carrie had used his sperm. Carrie refused to say whose sperm she had actually used as she didn't want the biological father asserting his rights over her baby. This caused a rift between her and Meredith as Meredith suspected that Guy may have been her donor. Carrie later discovered that she was going to have twins. Declan meanwhile, opened up a bar which he named Kennedys and hired Stuart and Talita Pahele as his staff. Sam quickly developed an attraction towards Talita, who preferred to be known by her nickname T.P.
Stuart was devastated by Tom's disappearance and renounced his Catholic faith and his plans to become a priest. Alex and Stuart had a brief flirtation, but Alex eventually remarried Michael. Meanwhile, Rachel and Stuart's relationship had progressed. Eventually though, Rachel became jealous of his friendship with Kirsty, and was stunned when she learned that Stuart had initially been more interested in her mother, Alex. Rachel dumped Stuart and developed Bulimia, though she eventually sought help and recovered.
Meredith broke up with Guy after learning that he had been two-timing her with Jenny, and it seemed that she would get together with Chris. However it was not to be and Meredith left town after recovering from a gunshot wound inflicted by a crazed patient. Chris found love with Dr Katherine Blake, Meredith's replacement at the clinic.
Leonard and Gina reconciled but Gina, remembering the two failed attempts that Chris and Alison had made to marry, became convinced that engagements at Shortland Street were cursed and so sought to do everything in her power to stop Leonard from proposing to her. A bemused Michael eventually intervened and suggested that Gina propose to Leonard before he could propose to her. The plan worked. Despite Leonard's best man Lionel Skeggins (John Leigh) attempting to play a practical joke on Leonard on the night before his wedding that would have left Leonard stranded in Waioru, the ceremony went off without a hitch! The couple decided to do the modern thing and combine their names. as a result, Leonard Dodds and Gina Rossi were now Mr and Mrs Rossi-Dodds. Gina bought a houseboat, the Toroa, for her and Leonard to live on. Unfortunately Leonard suffered from seasickness! Eventually Leonard got used to living on the sea.
Carrie went into labour at Meredith's leaving party and since Declan was nowhere to be found, Steve stepped in as Carrie's birth coach with Shane acting as Carrie's doctor. Carrie gave birth to her twins, only to find out that she was actually having triplets! The youngest triplet, whom Carrie named Sarah after Steve's late girlfriend, had some health problems and this only served to bond Steve and Carrie closer together as Steve convinced himself that he was the biological father of the triplets. Meanwhile, Declan was getting himself into deep trouble as he had helped commit a robbery while Carrie was giving birth. Stuart and T.P became suspicious of his activities, so Declan resorted to framing Stuart for theft in order to fire him. Kirsty put her amateur detective skills to use and helped Stuart clear his name by exposing Declan's criminal activities and Declan was arrested. In the aftermath, Lana, one of Declan's criminal associates, began threatening Carrie and she decided to flee to Australia to live with her sister. Steve and Carrie shared a kiss at Gina and Leonard's wedding before Carrie and the triplets left. Carrie signed over her ownership in Kennedys to Alex McKenna.
Jaki faced a moral dilemma when she developed feelings for Rob Hawkins, the partner of terminally ill cancer patient Dani Brown. The two shared a kiss on the pier, but initially decided to remain friends. However, when Dani took off for a trip to Florence without Rob, Jaki and Rob began a full-fledged affair which came to a halt when Rob learned that Dani had taken ill. Rob brought Dani back to Shortland Street where Dani asked Jaki to help her die. Jaki refused Dani's euthanasia request and was later stunned when Dani revealed that she had known all along about Jaki and Rob's secret relationship and gave Jaki her blessing for it to continue. With Rob's help, Dani later died on the same day that Carrie gave birth, leaving Jaki and Rob free to be together. However, Jaki couldn't get past the fact Rob had helped Dani die and realised that Rob wouldn't be able to get over his lingering feelings for Dani and decided to end their relationship.
Rivalries between Samoan and Tongan gangs reared their ugly head in Ferndale and Sam's younger brother Nat (Joe Naufahu) was involved with the Samoan gang. Things came to a head when Nat's gang severely beat up T.P's brother and the Tongan gang retaliated by killing Nat's best friend Willy. In the midst of this, Sam and T.P grew closer and after everything quieted down, Sam decided to pursue a relationship with her, only to learn that T.P had agreed to an arranged marriage. T.P eventually confessed her feelings for Sam but her father attempted to put a stop to the romance by basically keeping her prisoner at her home. With Jamie and Nat's help, T.P managed to meet up with Sam and Alex helped the two arrange a wedding at Kennedy's, but their families practically disowned both of them. Out of their families, only Nat remained supportive but Sam and T.P also had the support of their friends from Kennedy's and Shortland Street.
Darryl was secretly transporting illegal drugs using his pharmaceutical company as a cover. Laurie became suspicious and managed to prevent Marj from unwittingly smuggling a suitcase of drugs over to Australia to Darryl. Darryl claimed innocence, but Laurie and Stuart weren't convinced. Just as Laurie and Marj were becoming more suspicious, police contact Marj saying they had found remains they believed were of her husband Toms. It turned out not to be, however Marj was contacted by a woman named Meira saying Tom was very sick and needed money. Marj did not met the woman's demand, however. Despite this, Tom turned up and revealed that he needed a kidney transplant. Marj decided that she had to reconcile with her husband. Darryl donated his kidney, but Tom ended up dying of a heart attack. Darryl was devastated and blamed Katherine for Tom's death as Katherine's emergency medicine skills were not up to par. Darryl stole Katherine's personnel file in order to get some dirt on her and even broke into her house. Katherine discovered him there and proving herself to be more than a match for Darryl, warned him to keep out of her business.
Carmen Roberts returned after having recovered from her medication problem, but didn't reunite with Steve. Instead, Carmen began a love hate relationship with Guy. The two refused to admit that they were strongly attracted to each other, and Guy went out with Jaki's HIV positive friend Deborah (Lisa Chappell) for a while.
Alex and Michael's son Jonathan (Kieren Hutchison) came to town and was a constant thorn in Rachel and Nick's side. Nick had recently begun seeing book smart Olivia Pitt who was a student at Rachel's all-girls school and was upset when Jonathon got the role of Romeo opposite Olivia's Juliet in Olivia's school's production of Romeo and Juliet. However Nick managed to get his fifteen minutes of fame when Rachel made sure Jonathon overslept on the production's second night. Nick needn't have worried about Jonathon's feelings for Olivia however, as it turned out that Jonathon was gay and interested in Jamie. Alex and Rachel discovered the truth after Alex read Jonathon's diary and Rachel, jealous that Jonathon always seemed to be able to do no wrong in Michael's eyes, spitefully revealed the truth to him. Michael was not pleased.
Carrie's replacement was a man named Paul Churchill, who shared a past with Carmen back in the days when Carmen had been a prostitute. After firing Steve for his continuing lateness (Steve had been helping Carrie with the triplets), Paul began making advances towards Jo and made it clear that if she didn't sleep with him then she would lose her job. Paul also blackmailed Carmen (with his knowledge of her earlier prostitution) and Jaki (with his knowledge of her affair with Rob) but Jaki eventually told Michael about the Sexual Harassment. Paul was fired, much to everyone's relief. Michael then rehired Steve and installed both him and Jaki as joint charge nurses.
Jo became annoyed when Steve would not stop talking about Carrie and the triplets and her fury grew when he began making DIY alterations to the house rather than call in professionals to do the job. After Steve heard a recording of a telephone conversation between Jo and Kirsty where Jo vented her frustrations about Steve's behaviour, the two fell out but soon reconciled. Jo still felt that she had to move out in order to maintain their friendship and moved in with Stuart and Kirsty after Leonard moved out to be with Gina. However Jo felt lonely after Stuart was rude to her and Kirsty neglected her to spend time with Shane. Eventually, Stuart apologized and the two ended up in bed together after Stuart retrieved Jo's shawl after Kirsty had carelessly let it fall into the water while they were at Gina and Leonard's housewarming at the Toroa. However Jo backed out before things could get too hot and heavy. Stuart was mystified by Jo's behavior and thanks to Steve and Kirsty, gossip spread through the clinic that they had slept together. Jo told Stuart and Carmen that she was still a virgin and Carmen told Steve off for his behavior while Kirsty apologized. Stuart and Jo agreed to be just friends but eventually became a couple at Christmas when Jo's brother was involved in a car accident.
Jaki went away for several weeks after Alison contacted her and informed her that she was marrying a man named Jean-Luc Mafart (Pierre Foret). Jean Luc turned out to be abusive and Alison fled back to New Zealand, seeking the help of Jaki and Michael McKenna to get her plastic surgery in order so Jean-Luc wouldn't be able to find her. Michael and Jaki weren't quite sure what to make of Alison's story, especially after Jean-Luc arrived and sold them a false story of how Alison had had a nervous breakdown after a miscarriage. Alison ran away again and eventually turned up at Chris' where he hid her for several weeks. Despite trying to fool Jean-Luc into believing that Alison had left the country, Jean-Luc eventually found Alison and chased her around at Alison's family's farm in Te Kuiti on Christmas Day. A cornered Alison pushed Jean Luc in self-defense, but the railing of the balcony they were standing on gave way and Jean-Luc fell to his death. Much to Alison's surprise, Darryl turned up and helped Alison cover up her husband's death and Alison once again left the country.
Towards the end of the year, Nick and Jenny's lives were rocked with a bombshell by a boy named Adam Brady, who claimed he was Jenny's real son! Adam appeared and claimed that he and Nick were born on the same day in 1976 at the same hospital and that they were mixed up as babies. This led to an identity crisis for Nick that would lead into early 1994.
Alex McKenna wound up hosting a New Year's party at Kennedy's on December 31, 1993. Marj held her own party, however, everyone went to party at Kennedy's instead, including Nick who wound up getting drunk and storming out of the party. Just when it seemed like no-one would turn up to Marj's party, she was greeted by a knock at the door. Marj was surprised to see Laurie standing on the other side. The two shared a passionate embrace.
Cast members
All-year cast members
- Paul Gittins (Dr. Michael McKenna)
- Michael Galvin (Dr. Chris Warner)
- Temuera Morrison (Dr. Hone Ropata)
- Nancy Brunning (Nurse Jaki Manu)
- Andrew Binns (Nurse Steve Mills)
- Rene Naufahu (Sam Aleni)
- Maggie Harper (P.A. Jenny Harrison)
- Karl Burnett (Nick Harrison)
- Elizabeth McRae (Majorie Neilson)
- Martin Henderson (Stuart Neilson)
- Angela Marie Dotchin (Kirsty Knight)
- Josephine Davison (Gina Rossi)
- Craig Parker (Guy Warner)
Recurring cast members
- Ken Blackburn (Sir Bruce Warner)
- Mark Ferguson (Darryl Neilson)
- Glynis McNicoll (Lady Margot Warner)
- Tamati Rice (Henry Tamariki)
- Ezra Woods (Andrew Fleming)
- Karl Urban (Jamie Forrest)
- Kieren Hutchison (Jonathan McKenna)
- Simon Prast (Paul Churchill)
- Kevin J Wilson (Declan Kennedy)
- Willa O'Neill (Serena Hughes)
Arrivals
- Marton Csokas (Dr. Leonard Dodds)
- Angela Bloomfield (Rachel McKenna)
- Liddy Holloway (Alex McKenna)
- Theresa Healey (Nurse Carmen Roberts)
- Greer Robson (Nurse Jo Jordan)
- Chic Littlewood (Laurie Brasch)
Departures
- Adrian Keeling (Tom Neilson)
- Danielle Cormack (Nurse Alison Raynor)
- Stephanie Wilkin (Dr. Meredith Fleming)
- Lisa Crittenden (Nurse Carrie Burton)
Guest stars
- Lisa Chappell (Deborah)
- Katherine McRae (Jane Fitzgerald, Marj's illegitimate daughter)
- John Leigh (Lionel Skeggins)