Storylines of Shortland Street (1994)

Last updated September 01, 2020

This article details the storylines that took place on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street in 1994.

Storylines

Nick Harrison (Karl Burnett) suffered a huge identity crisis after Adam Brady's shock introduction to his life in 1993 claiming they were swapped at birth. Jenny (Maggie Harper) accepted this but preferred Nick in her life. Nick adopted the persona of Slash, a leather wearing rebel. Jenny was devastated when he ran away from home and hid in the Toroa. Nick soon returns home and forgives his mother. The two decide to embrace Adam into their lives but are shocked when he turns out to be delusional and not Jenny's son at all. Nick is pleased to have his mother back. Soon afterward, Olivia returned from Taupo but Nick soon learned that she had slept with another boy during her holiday. Nick was understandably upset (after all Olivia had previously refused to sleep with him, claiming that she wasn't ready) and broke up with her.

Henry Tamariki (Tamati Rice) returned to Shortland Street. Jaki Manu (Nancy Brunning) was initially cold towards him given the circumstances of their break-up the year prior. (See 1993) Henry had returned to Shortland Street seeking medical advice on a knee injury that may have hampered his playing career, and while doing a photo shoot wound up injuring his knee and ended up having to have surgery. Over the course of his rehabilitation, he and Jaki reconciled. Jaki decided that she was still in love with him and left Ferndale with him for London.

Michael (Paul Gittins) and Alex McKenna (Liddy Holloway) struggled to accept their son Jonathon's (Kieren Hutchison) sexuality, and Michael hit the roof when he learned that Jonathan had gone to the McKenna bach with his boyfriend Jamie (Karl Urban). Michael confronted the pair at a nightclub but ended up saving them from a group of homophobic attackers who were trying to beat them up. Jamie eventually broke up with Jonathan, realising that he wanted a more serious commitment whereas Jonathan only wanted to have fun. The two split up. Both Jamie and Jonathan left Ferndale, Jamie decides to travel the world before accepting a job in Christchurch, while Jonathon goes off to Otago to study.

Things took a dark turn for Dr. Katherine Blake. After an elderly patient from the UK claimed to recognise Katherine from somewhere, Katherine attempted to cause a cardiac arrest via injection while she slept! However, due to young patient Sarah-Jane Ross (Lauren Porteous-Morcom) taking quick action and calling for help, the elderly patient was saved and transferred to Central. Soon afterwards Kirsty Knight (Angela Dotchin) became suspicious of Katherine after contacting her past universities and their claim that they do not know her and Katherine responded by framing her for theft. However Kirsty eventually found out Katherine was a fraud, her real name was Wendy Mulligan, had slain her husband, been imprisoned and Katherine ended up attempting to run Chris down with her car however she only ended up breaking his leg.

Chris Warner (Michael Galvin)was stunned when Kirsty exposed Katherine as a fraud and murderer, and swore to give up on women forever. However Chris soon returned to his 'Dr Love' ways and began sleeping with a succession of women. Chris soon had Jo Jordan (Greer Robson) lined up in his sights.

Carmen Robert's (Theresa Healey) stepbrother Greg Feeney (Tim Balme) turned up in town and quickly attracted the interest of Alex and Kirsty. Guy Warner (Craig Parker) was jealous when Carmen revealed that she and Greg had been lovers. Greg and Alex had a quick dalliance but in the end Greg ended up with Kirsty. Kirsty was also jealous of Carmen and Guy's close relationship and this strained their friendship. When Carmen apparently won the lottery, Kirsty correctly suspected that Carmen had stolen the winning ticket off a dead patient. Guy managed to convince Kirsty that it was her jealously that led her to suspect Carmen of thieving off a dead patient and Kirsty dropped her accusations, not realising that Guy also knew the truth and was covering up for Carmen.

Nick Harrison was stunned when he was elected as a prefect at school. This brought him into contact with Charlotte Olsen (Nicola Cliff), head girl of Ferndale High. Charlotte was a liar and manipulative and as such had the entire school wrapped around her finger. As one would expect, she and Rachel McKenna (Angela Bloomfield) did not get along.

Michael headhunted Grace Kwan (Lynette Forday) from St Katherines, much to the shock of Sir Bruce Warner (Ken Blackburn) who was in love with her and begged her to stay at St Katherines. Alex was immediately jealous of Grace and Michael's friendship and since she had only just finished her affair with Greg, she began to suspect Michael was also having an affair with Grace.

Grace recommended her best friend Ellen Crozier (Robyn Malcolm) to take over as Head Nurse. Soon afterwards, viewers met Ellen's husband Johnny Marinovich (Stelios Yiakmis), and her 13-year-old daughter Minnie Crozier (Katrina Devine). Minnie was not Johnny's biological daughter, having been conceived when Ellen was still a teenager, but even so Johnny and Ellen had been married for the past 8 years and as such Minnie considered him her father because he had been in her life for so long.

Stuart became jealous of Jo's friendship with Steve, knowing that she had previously had a crush in him. Eventually, Jo told Stuart that she was over Steve and the two slept together for the first time. However, their happiness was not to last and their relationship became unstuck and Jo developed a friendship with Chris Warner, oblivious to the fact that he only wanted to bed her. Steve Mills (Andrew Binns); who had hated Chris for the way that he treated Alison, was devastated to learn that Chris was in fact the biological father of Carrie's triplets and his anger towards Chris only grew when he learned of Chris' interest in Jo, whom he had always been protective of.

Sam Aleni (Rene Naufahu) and his wife Talita (Elizabeth Skeen)'s relationship encountered trouble when a woman claiming to be the mother of Sam's daughter made an appearance. Eventually, it turned out that Sam's dodgy former flatmate Wayne, whom he last heard of back in 1992 was using his identity, and that Wayne was the father of the woman's baby after all. Sam and TP made up.

Gina (Josephine Davison) and Leonard Rossi-Dodds (Marton Csokas) decided to move to California after Leonard began having doubts about his competence as a medical professional, in addition to wanting to move there to study at the UCLA. Gina and Chris argued about who would replace her at Cafe Stromboli. Leonard suggested his friend Lionel Skeggins (John Leigh) and Chris and Gina reluctantly agreed. For their leaving party, Gina and Leonard had a picnic on the beach. On the way home, Steve, T.P, Chris and Kirsty were in the car together when Steve and Chris began arguing about Jo. Their car ended up crashing, Chris was thrown from the car, while Kirsty and T.P were trapped inside. Steve managed to free Kirsty and went back for T.P. However, just as Sam arrived the car exploded and Steve and T.P were killed. Sam was devastated to witness the death of both his wife and best friend.

In the aftermath of the car accident, Kirsty (who began to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder) had unprotected sex with Greg. Greg disappeared soon after and Kirsty was stunned to learn that Greg had been an IV drug user in the past, putting her at risk for HIV. Lionel Skeggins supported Kirsty through her ordeal and was going to propose to her at her 21st birthday party. Unfortunately, Greg returned. Kirsty was torn between Greg and Lionel and in the end she choose Greg.

Chris had been left paralysed in the car accident, and Chris blamed himself for killing Steve and T.P. Chris hired Sam's new partner Rebecca Frost (Luisa Burgess) as his nurse, but fired her when Hone uncovered the fact that she was only looking for a way to get revenge for her sister, whom Chris had slept with and discarded some months before.

Stuart and Jo reconciled in the aftermath of the car accident, but their relationship quickly turned sour again when Stuart developed an attraction towards Rebecca. Eventually Stuart and Jo broke up, but Rebecca decided that she didn't want to pursue a relationship with Stuart.

Guy and Carmen finally got together in the aftermath of the car accident as well, but kept their relationship a secret from Sam, fearing that their happiness would upset him as he was still mourning his wife. Sam eventually found out and gave the two his blessing.

Feeling old and wrongly believing that Michael was sleeping with Grace, Alex demanded a facelift. Unfortunately she had a bad reaction to the anaesthesia and was left comatose for weeks. The police suspected Michael of attempted murder when they found evidence that he had prescribed drugs to Alex that would cause her to go into the coma and Jonathon (who had returned to be with Alex) began to believe the suspicions since Alex had told him that Michael was having an affair with Grace. Rachel was unconvinced. and unearthed evidence that Alex had been forging her prescriptions. When Alex finally awoke she confirmed Rachel's story. Michael and Alex reconciled and went away on a cruise.

Hone Ropata (Temuera Morrison) became involved with Hillary Sturgess (Susan Brady), the daughter of Noel Sturgess, who owned the majority share in the clinic. While Michael was away, Noel died and Hillary immediately organised a takeover of the clinic by Australian HMO Ideal Health. The staff reacted against these changes, but when Michael and Alex returned from their cruise, Michael quickly managed to regain control. Hone then called it quits with Hillary. When Rachel wondered why it had taken so long for Michael to return after Hillary's takeover bid, he revealed that Alex had suffered a nervous breakdown on the cruise.

Stuart found himself in a world of trouble after getting involved in business with Hillary. After finding out about the dubious dealings of a man named Byron (John Dybvig), Stuart would be kidnapped, but would eventually be let go by Byron's secretary Ingrid (Kiri Mills), who had feelings for Stuart.

Ideal Health hired Paul Churchill (Simon Prast) back at the clinic much to Carmen and Jo's disgust. Paul claimed that he was sorry for what he had put Jo through, and Jo decided to forgive him, but Carmen remained distrusting. While new CEO Ethan Gill (Stephen Lovatt) wanted to axe the clinic's treatment for prostitutes, Guy, with Paul's help managed to convince Ethan to the program in place. However, prostitutes began coming into the clinic after being beaten up. One prostitute named Tina told Carmen that she managed to injure her attacker's ribs, and when Carmen walked into a ward, witnessed Paul taping up his ribs. Realising Carmen was onto him, Paul tried to attack Carmen, but with Guy and Lionel's help, Carmen managed to fend off Paul and get him arrested and sent to jail.

A new nurse by the name of Annie Flynn (Rebecca Hobbs) turned up in Ferndale, having previously dated Guy. Chris attempted to start a relationship with Annie, not knowing that she had left Guy for a woman and was a lesbian. When Meredith Fleming (Stephanie Wilkin) made a brief return to town, Chris hoped that maybe they would finally be able to get together. Unfortunately in the end, Meredith realised that she was actually more attracted to Annie, and the two decided to make a go of their relationship in Dunedin.

Nick eventually turned on Charlotte, so she had him demoted from his prefect position. Charlotte, realising that Minnie had a crush on Nick, decided to play a trick and locked Nick and Minnie in the school overnight. When Ellen and Johnny found the two the next morning, an irate Johnny blamed Nick, though Nick and Minnie managed to convince him that they had been the victims of a trick. Rachel tired of Charlotte's scheming and decided to get her own back by pursuing Ferndale High's headboy Tim Cunningham (Richard Vette, whom Charlotte had a crush on. Over time, Rachel began to fall for Tim, but at dancing lessons for the upcoming school ball, a jealous Charlotte stomped on Rachel's foot and broke it, meaning that Rachel wouldn't be able to make it as Tim's date. Michael and Alex stepped in to play the unlikely fairy godparents in this Cinderella tale. Michael made a special cast for Rachel's foot, while Alex redesigned her dress to go with it. The plan worked and Rachel became the belle of the ball. Unfortunately, Minnie opened her big mouth and spoiled things by revealing to Charlotte that the whole thing had originally been a set-up on Rachel's part. Tim was furious and dumped Rachel.

While Chris eventually recovered from his paralysis, he ended up developing an addiction to painkillers. Greg initially acted as Chris' supplier but grew worried when Chris became more and more addicted to the pills. Greg was also dissatisfied with Kirsty and began sharing seeing Jo behind Kirsty's back. Feeling the heat for his shady activities, Greg broke up with Kirsty and decided to skip town with Jo.

Rebecca helped Chris deal with his addiction and the two began a relationship as they learned to forgive each other for their past mistakes. However, Chris' mother Margot disapproved of their interracial relationship.

Ellen was furious to learn that Johnny had an affair many years and had secret daughter. Their marriage broke up as a result and Johnny moved in with Jenny and Nick. Overtime, Jenny and Johnny became closer and shared a kiss. Ellen burned her house down after falling asleep with a lit cigarette and she and Minnie moved in with Carmen and Sam. When Ellen had a one-night stand with an old friend, Johnny was angry and took Minnie off on a trip to the U.S.A to visit the set of her favourite soap opera Tides of the Heart.

Carmen and Guy missed each other terribly when Guy went away to Scotland for several weeks. Shortly after Guy returned, Carmen's father turned up in town after hearing of her lottery win and began extorting money from Carmen. Guy eventually used his entire trustfund to pay her father to go away and never come back.

Tim and Rachel eventually reconciled. Rachel then befriended a pregnant teenager Ramona Derby (Ashleigh Seagar), and championed her rights when she was denied the award of school dux because of her pregnancy. A manipulative Charlotte saw her chance to break up Rachel and Tim forever when she learned that Tim was the father of Ramona's unborn child. Charlotte informed Rachel of the truth and Rachel, disgusted that Tim was unwilling to take responsibility for the child, broke up with him. However, Rachel and Ramona were able to remain friends.

Rebecca became attracted to Hone's nephew Manny Ahutahi (Albert Belz) and broke up with Chris to be with him. Manny's continued presence in Ferndale would cause trouble for Hone, as Hone was soon accused of murdering one of Manny's friends.

Rachel was annoyed when her wacky country cousin Waverley Wilson (Alex's Niece) began living with the McKenna's after moving to Ferndale from the Taranaki. Kirsty was also annoyed when Waverley began working at Reception with her and even copied her hairstyle in a misguided attempt to befriend her. On the other hand, Nick was quite taken with Waverley but unfortunately for him Waverley only seemed to have eyes for Stuart though her feelings for Stuart were not reciprocated. After deciding that she needed some experience to make Stuart attracted to her, Waverley promptly marched Nick off to bed so she could lose her virginity. Nick was upset to learn that he had been used but Waverley soon realized that Nick was the man for her and the two began a relationship.

Kirsty and Lionel finally reconciled and decided to marry. Before they were due to be wed, Kirsty discovered that her old nemesis Darryl had faked the abduction of his kids in order to make his now ex-wife Diane more sympathetic towards him. She exposed Darryl to Diane, who refused to let Darryl ever see the kids again. Darryl immediately decided to get revenge and encouraged Stuart to act on his feelings for Kirsty before she married Lionel.

When Johnny and Minnie returned, Johnny began a relationship with Jenny. At Christmas, Jenny was shocked to learn that she was pregnant.

Gina and Leonard returned for Lionel and Kirsty's wedding to serve as bridesmaid and best man. Minnie was overjoyed to meet Gina as Gina had become a star on Minnie's favourite soap opera Tides of the Heart while she and Leonard were in California. The paparazzi were tipped off and Gina and Kirsty faced a barrage of press who were desperate to take photos of Gina as they tried to enter the church for Kirsty's wedding. The wedding itself did not go off without any hitches either. As Lionel and Kirsty were in the chapel about to be married, Stuart stood up and objected to the union.