Most of the episodes in this series involve legal issues on which the outcome of the case depends. Did Lennie and Ray properly mirandize the suspect? Can Jack and Jamie get the disputed evidence admitted? That sort of thing.
This story belongs to a type I usually find more interesting, in that it raises social issues that transcend the strictly legal ones. In this case, a beautiful young pilot has shot to death the enlisted man with whom she was having an affair. The circumstances of the killing are cloudy. She lies about it frequently. And, of course, the Navy has rules against fraternization, and Lieutenant Blair is looking into the abyss if only because of her doing a Chief Aviation Machinist's Mate -- never mind the murder.
McCoy wants to try her in civilian court for Murder in the Second Degree, but the Navy argues that it has jurisdiction over the case and is conducting its own investigation. The problem is that the Navy's investigation is moving along very slowly. Lieutenant Blair is one of the first women pilots in the Navy and, stunningly gorgeous, is a poster child for both the Navy and the women's movement.
Superficially it looks like an ordinary jurisdictional dispute, which is interesting in itself. Some of the scenes are shot aboard Navy ships. But it goes beyond that. Lieutenant Blair isn't really a very good pilot, as McCoy demonstrates in court. The limit for major mistakes in an F-14 pilot is two. Blair has managed to rack up five and she's still flying.
The issue behind the issue is more like affirmative action than anything else. The Navy is forced to modernize by training women pilots and the standards have been lowered in order for Blair to continue flying F-14s instead of, say, helicopters. Is it proper? Or, to put it differently, is it just? Should the Navy make up for its former discriminatory practices by rushing people like Blair through the system? The issue hangs over the case but is never directly dealt with.
In the last scene, McCoy and Ross leave the courthouse and pass a gaggle of reporters interviewing Blair, who has been convicted and sentence to jail, and she's explaining to the press that with the entire might of the state of New York and the U. S. Navy against her, she confessed to a crime of which she might not be guilty.
This story belongs to a type I usually find more interesting, in that it raises social issues that transcend the strictly legal ones. In this case, a beautiful young pilot has shot to death the enlisted man with whom she was having an affair. The circumstances of the killing are cloudy. She lies about it frequently. And, of course, the Navy has rules against fraternization, and Lieutenant Blair is looking into the abyss if only because of her doing a Chief Aviation Machinist's Mate -- never mind the murder.
McCoy wants to try her in civilian court for Murder in the Second Degree, but the Navy argues that it has jurisdiction over the case and is conducting its own investigation. The problem is that the Navy's investigation is moving along very slowly. Lieutenant Blair is one of the first women pilots in the Navy and, stunningly gorgeous, is a poster child for both the Navy and the women's movement.
Superficially it looks like an ordinary jurisdictional dispute, which is interesting in itself. Some of the scenes are shot aboard Navy ships. But it goes beyond that. Lieutenant Blair isn't really a very good pilot, as McCoy demonstrates in court. The limit for major mistakes in an F-14 pilot is two. Blair has managed to rack up five and she's still flying.
The issue behind the issue is more like affirmative action than anything else. The Navy is forced to modernize by training women pilots and the standards have been lowered in order for Blair to continue flying F-14s instead of, say, helicopters. Is it proper? Or, to put it differently, is it just? Should the Navy make up for its former discriminatory practices by rushing people like Blair through the system? The issue hangs over the case but is never directly dealt with.
In the last scene, McCoy and Ross leave the courthouse and pass a gaggle of reporters interviewing Blair, who has been convicted and sentence to jail, and she's explaining to the press that with the entire might of the state of New York and the U. S. Navy against her, she confessed to a crime of which she might not be guilty.
