Quincy M.E.: Speed Trap starts one one Sunday afternoon as Los Angeles coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) & his laboratory assistant Sam (Robert Ito) are enjoying watching a Grand Prix on the telly, Kevin Bannon driving his Red Phantom car for the Reddon team is way out in from & miles ahead of anyone else. Then on one of his final laps Kevin loses control & crashes, Kevin dies from his injuries & ends up on Quincy's autopsy table. Apart from a small amount of amphetamines the autopsy proves Kevin died from massive injuries sustained in the crash, case closed. Then Kevins chief mechanic Chick Thomas (Simon Oakland) assures Quincy that Kevin would never take drugs, Quincy investigates further & discovers that Kevin had hypoglycemia & that the drugs would have made him pass out in his car which turns an accident into a murder...
Episode 2 from season 4 this Quincy story was directed by Ronald Satlof & after a the fantastic The Last Six Hours (1978) which opened season four the second episode isn't half bad either. Speed trap is a very murder mystery based Quincy episode without a moral message or social issue in sight which is just fine by me. There's pretty much everything here that I like about Quincy as a show, the humour, the now established relationships between the character's with the cast & crew having fun with them, Quincy's use of medical & forensic science, a fairly clever murder plot which isn't too obvious & all packed into a neat little fifty minute duration. The science on show here feels plausible although I'm not sure whether you could inject a rubber tyre with acid. The plot revolving around the world of motor sport & racing is pretty cool too & I love the scenes with Dr. Asten moaning at Quincy especially the garbage bag incident...
There's some on track location filming here, I have no idea which race track they used but it's a fair bet it's one in Los Angeles somewhere. The one thing that stood out for me in this late 70's production was how ugly & horrible the race cars looked, they are all ungainly square box like angles which don't look very aerodynamic or sexy at all. When compared to todays ultra sleek & stylish sporty race & Grand Prix cars there's no comparison. There are a couple of car crashes although I suspect that stock footage was used. The acting is fine by all involved.
Speed Trap is a great Quincy murder mystery based episode that has kept the very strong start to season four going & is almost as good as the previous episode the excellent The Last Six Hours, a must for fans & armchair detectives everywhere.
Episode 2 from season 4 this Quincy story was directed by Ronald Satlof & after a the fantastic The Last Six Hours (1978) which opened season four the second episode isn't half bad either. Speed trap is a very murder mystery based Quincy episode without a moral message or social issue in sight which is just fine by me. There's pretty much everything here that I like about Quincy as a show, the humour, the now established relationships between the character's with the cast & crew having fun with them, Quincy's use of medical & forensic science, a fairly clever murder plot which isn't too obvious & all packed into a neat little fifty minute duration. The science on show here feels plausible although I'm not sure whether you could inject a rubber tyre with acid. The plot revolving around the world of motor sport & racing is pretty cool too & I love the scenes with Dr. Asten moaning at Quincy especially the garbage bag incident...
There's some on track location filming here, I have no idea which race track they used but it's a fair bet it's one in Los Angeles somewhere. The one thing that stood out for me in this late 70's production was how ugly & horrible the race cars looked, they are all ungainly square box like angles which don't look very aerodynamic or sexy at all. When compared to todays ultra sleek & stylish sporty race & Grand Prix cars there's no comparison. There are a couple of car crashes although I suspect that stock footage was used. The acting is fine by all involved.
Speed Trap is a great Quincy murder mystery based episode that has kept the very strong start to season four going & is almost as good as the previous episode the excellent The Last Six Hours, a must for fans & armchair detectives everywhere.
