Navy Blues (15 Oct. 1997)

A female Navy pilot kills an officer over their affair. However, McCoy suspects that the Navy may be impeding the D.A. office's investigation because she is a valuable asset and a positive female role model.

Director:

Jace Alexander

Writers:

Dick Wolf (creator), Kathy McCormick (teleplay),

Stars:

Jerry Orbach, Benjamin Bratt, S. Epatha Merkerson

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Jerry Orbach	...	Detective Lennie Briscoe
Benjamin Bratt	...	Detective Rey Curtis
S. Epatha Merkerson	...	Lt. Anita Van Buren
Sam Waterston	...	Jack McCoy
Carey Lowell	...	A.D.A. Jamie Ross
Steven Hill	...	D.A. Adam Schiff
Kate Walsh	...	Lt. Kirstin Blair
Daniel von Bargen	...	Commander Billings (as Daniel Von Bargen)
Molly Price	...	Quartermaster Stroud
Joyce Reehling	...	Lt. Commander Coleman
Reuben Jackson	...	Lt. Lopez
Jack Gwaltney	...	Jack Young
John Speredakos	...	William T. Ottenberg
Patti LuPone	...	Ruth Miller
Lee Shepherd	...	Lt. McIntyre

Storyline

When two patrolman find a dead body in a park Detectives Briscoe and Curtis think the man, Navy Chief Robert Stroud, is the fifth victim of a mugger who also kills his victims. They break the case rapidly but when ballistics confirms that Stroud was shot with a different gun, they still have a murder to solve. They soon learn that the married Stroud was having an affair with a pilot, Lt. Kirstin Blair. The DA's office soon finds itself in a tussle over jurisdiction with the Navy but manages to charge Blair with murder. She's a very cool customer and claims that Stroud was shot accidentally. Her lawyer bases her case on the defendant's character. So does ADA Jack McCoy.

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Plot Keywords:

pilot | affair | love triangle | us navy | sexual harassment | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 October 1997 (USA)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wolf Films, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The case involves a female Navy pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Minnesota; there have been two US Navy vessels named Minnesota: the first was a wooden steam frigate launched in 1855 and sold in August 1901; the second was a Connecticut-class battleship comissioned in 1905 and sold for scrap in 1924. A third USS Minnesota, a Virginia-class submarine, is scheduled to be commissioned in 2014. Aircraft carriers are currently named after presidents and senior military generals and admirals.

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Goofs

The case involves a female Navy pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Minnesota; there is no such vessel. Nowadays, state names are used in the US Navy for submarines, not for aircraft carriers.

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Quotes

Jack McCoy: Statement or not, the facts are on our side.
D.A. Adam Schiff: Facts don't win cases.

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Connections

References The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

User Reviews

Civilian Justice and Military Requisites.

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.