Stuart Neilson

Dr. Stuart Neilson is a fictional character in the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street who was portrayed by Martin Henderson as part of the original cast until early 1995. The character returned after 22 years off screen to celebrate the show's 25th anniversary episode which aired on 25 May 2017.

The character's three years on the soap featured several major story lines as well as social commentary on youth, religion and mental illness. Stuart was introduced alongside mother, Marj (Elizabeth McRae) and father, Tom Neilson (Adrian Keeling) as a core family-unit alongside recurring brothers, Darryl (Mark Ferguson), Damien (Mark Ferguson) and Patrick.

The character was generally well received with Henderson winning the "Best Male Dramatic Performance in a Television Show" in the 1993 New Zealand Television and Film Awards.

With the intention of creating a diverse and ethnically representational cast for a New Zealand soap opera, Caterina De Nave, Bettina Hollings, and Jason Daniel decided to incorporate two teenage heartthrobs to draw in the teenage audience. The characters of Stuart and Nick were created with the intention of Nick being a drug-smoking rebel whilst Stuart was to be an articulate homosexual. The character was written as part of a family unit consisting of himself, his father Tom (Adrian Keeling), mother Marj, (Elizabeth McRae) and a recurring elder brother Darryl (Mark Ferguson). The middle-class family grouping enabled greater reflection of the show's core audience demographics.

Martin Henderson was in his final year of high school when he auditioned and won the role over 900 other contenders, including Oliver Driver, who ended up getting the role of Mike Galloway several years later. Henderson signed an initial 1-year contract and originally intended to depart following the singular year to pursue a corporate career outside acting. Stuart debuted in the first episode with the gay storyline set to be exposed over several months when a female character – Kirsty Knight (Angela Dotchin), became interested in Stuart. However, the character of Nick as portrayed by Karl Burnett proved to be vastly different from the character's original badboy synopsis and was hastily rewritten to suit Burnett's more comedic portrayal. This change left viewers with only one heartthrob on screen in Stuart, and nervous Television New Zealand producers requested that the character was rewritten to be straight so that the show remained appealing to the target audience of young teen women. On screen, Stuart was shown to be rebuffing Kirsty's advances and writers quickly rewrote the character's backstory so that rather than being gay, he was heavily religious and celibate. Two children were added to the Neilson family unit to emphasise the Catholic nature of the family. Following the completion of Henderson's first-year contract and the win of a New Zealand Television Award, he decided to pursue acting full-time and committed to the role.

By 1994, Henderson began to tire of the character's lack of diversity snd challenge and felt that the character was becoming one-dimensional. He agreed to sign a final 1-year extension to his contract before he would leave to pursue a film career, committing to this decision when his acting ambition was dismissed by a producer on the soap. Henderson subsequently left the show at the end of his extended contract and departed New Zealand to further his acting career. His departure was leaked to the press, and there was speculation that Stuart would leave the show following the 1994 December cliffhanger. Some storylines that were suggested by media included the idea of Stuart winning Kirsty over Lionel and marrying before fleeing the country and also a series of episodes that would see Stuart become a priest and flee. None of the stories came to fruition, and the character made his last appearance on 27 February 1995, episode 707. Henderson later reflected on the "immense pressure" he had experienced in the role and believed he "listened to my inner voice and knew I needed to step away from it. I poured my heart and soul into that role. I did everything that was asked of me, all the press, all the media, until I gave too much of myself."

Producers discussed bringing back Henderson in 1998 as part of the write off of the Kirsty Knight character. However, he ended up not returning. Henderson was asked to reprise the role for the show's 15th anniversary in 2007 but declined due to a busy workload. However, he expressed interest in returning in the future as the idea "still appeals" to him. In 2014, Henderson dismissed a suggestion by a journalist to return to the soap but acknowledged the "exciting times" he had during his 3 years on screen. When planning for the show’s 25th anniversary in 2017, producers decided to kill off the character of Marj. It was decided to approach Henderson to reprise his role for the episode. He agreed to return. However, issues arose with Henderson filming Grey's Anatomy in the United States, meaning scheduling proved difficult. Ultimately the whole episode was filmed, then Stuart's scenes were filmed at a different date and integrated in. Henderson described the experience as feeling like an "alien" as there had been "water under the bridge" since his last appearance.

In 1992 the sensitive teenage Stuart shocked his mother Marj (Elizabeth McRae) when he claimed his pregnant friend Lisa Stanton (Anne Cathie) was his lover and claimed to be the father of her child though it soon turned out the true father was Stuart's manipulative brother Darryl Neilson (Mark Ferguson) and Stuart was covering for him out of loyalty. Stuart grew close to his best friend Nick Harrison's (Karl Burnett) friend Miles (Hamish MacFarlane) but was devastated when Miles committed suicide following his 17th birthday party. The ordeal drew Stuart to Marj's co-worker hospital recepitonist Kirsty Knight (Angela Dotchin) and he struggled to balance his lust with his Catholic faith. Marj was devastated to later learn Stuart had succumbed to Kirsty's charm. Stuart and Kirsty continued an on-off relationship which saw Darryl attempt to rape her and a dramatic falling out between the brothers.