Lindsay Wagner, formerly television's Bionic Woman, moves into the front ranks of TV's dramatic stars in the NBC movie The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story, which also happens to be one of the best TV movies of the year.

Lightly regarded by many critics until recently, Wagner has spent most of the last decade working in TV melodramas such as Scruples and Passions, while occasionally taking on increasingly more difficult dramatic challenges such as the TV remake of I Want to Live! and this season's Evil in Clear River.

But in this movie, the fact-based account of the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight in the Middle East, Wagner steps up into Emmy territory with an inspired, moving performance as the heroic TWA purser Uli Derickson.

Not only did Wagner have to master Derickson's pronounced German accent, but also had to speak large sections of her dialogue wholly in German in her role as interpreter for the terrorists who took over the aircraft.

As if the technical challenge weren't enough, Wagner also had to convey the inner turmoil of Derickson, who feared for her own life, but bravely held her emotions in check to keep panic from spreading through the passengers being brutalized by the hijackers.

In one heartbreaking scene, the hijackers try to force Derickson to go through the passenger list with them and identify all the Jews on board. Knowing that to refuse may mean her death; she still balks at such a terrible task.

"I'm German," she tells the hijacker holding a gun to her head. "Don't you understand? You can't expect me to select Jews. I can't do that!"

In another sequence, the most moving in the film, the hijackers force Derickson to sing to them in German. She chooses a wistful, sad song about homeless people and, her voice trembling with emotion, quietly sings it, touching one terrorist so deeply that he asks her to marry him once the crisis is over.

It's bravura acting by Wagner, who so hauntingly portrays Derickson's soulful courage that her image lingers in the mind hours after the film is over.

Even without Wagner's outstanding work, The Taking of Flight 847 would be a standout film. Veteran director Paul Wendkos creates an atmosphere of relentless tension as the terror builds within the narrow confines of the TWA jet.

Norman Morrill's taut teleplay is drawn from the accounts of witnesses who survived the 16-day crisis, including Derickson herself, who served as a consultant on the film.

Flight 847 left Athens on June 14, 1985, bound for Rome. Two fanatic members of the Hezbollah group of Lebanese Shiite Muslims took over the plane in mid-flight, wielding guns and grenades, diverting it first to Beirut, then to Algiers, then back to Beirut.

By a bizarre stroke of fate, the leader of the hijacking team missed the flight in Athens. He was the only one who could speak English. None of the passengers or crew could speak Arabic, but one of the hijackers spoke fluent German. That fact propelled Derickson into the foreground and set the stage for her heroic performance as impromptu negotiator.

Viewers should be forewarned that The Taking of Flight 847 is extremely realistic and, at times, uncomfortably violent. Several passengers were severely beaten by the two hijackers and one was shot and dumped onto a runway later in the crisis. Much of this is graphically re-created.

Derickson herself was kicked to the floor of the aircraft, dragged about roughly with a loaded gun at her temple and slugged repeatedly until she had won the confidence of the principal terrorist on board, a man known as "Castro," who responded to her calmness under duress and finally began to accede to some of her requests for mercy for the passengers.

Ron Miller, Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)