Quincy M.E. (TV Series) Semper-Fidelis (1979) User Reviews

OK murder mystery episode focused on the military

[rayoflite24 · 7/10 · 1 October 2015]

Semper-Fidelis begins at a U.S. Marine military base with a drill sergeant waking his regiment up in the middle of the night for a surprise endurance training exercise. After the group crosses through a lake, a young Marine is found drowned in the water which prompts a subsequent investigation into his death as well as Congressional speculation that the rigorous trainings young recruits are subject to are brutally extreme. After the military performs their own autopsy, Captain Harry Collier (Alan Miller) asks Quincy (Jack Klugman) to further examine the body to validate the findings due to the sensitivity of the case. Quincy's autopsy reveals additional findings which indicate that the young Marine's death was not an accident as initially believed.

I found this to be an OK episode which does feature a murder mystery along with some twists and turns, but just wasn't all that exciting to watch. I think this was partly due to there being a lot of scenes with stoic, military brass types who were pretty sedate characters. I also found some of the determinations made to be a little questionable. One of these involves algae being found in only one specific area of the lake which seemed highly unlikely, and another involves the injury sustained by the victim from a high fall onto a rock which seemed very understated as described.

One thing I did particularly enjoy about this episode is that each of the coroner lab regulars contribute and participate in the autopsy and analysis of the findings at various points which made for a good balance rather than Quincy just doing everything. It is nice to see Dr. Asten (John S. Ragin), Sam (Robert Ito) and Marc (Marc Scott Taylor) all pitching in and working right alongside Quincy as a functional team.

Overall, not a great Season 4 episode, but it certainly has enough plot to make it one worth-watching.

A Few Good Men

[xgraeme · 7/10 · 19 August 2021]

Semper-Fidelis reminds me of the 1992 film A Few Good Men (1992). In the end no Code Red had been ordered to take out the marine, but some characters were very similar, like the 2 recruits, one black, one white, who take the witness stand in the courtroom.

Decent but the mystery wasn't all that mysterious.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 21 April 2013]

A Marine is found dead--face down in the water during a late night training exercise. The military approach Quincy, as they'd like to have an impartial pathologist examine the body. Quincy determines that the guy drowned, but, oddly, the water in the lungs appears to be from the bottom--and the guy never had time to sink to the bottom. No one thinks anything of it--other than Quincy.

As far as the case goes, the Marines are court martialling the man. The accused, the tough drill sergeant, readily takes the blame for it. And, a gung-ho Congressman, looking to grandstand, is anxious to blame the military for this death. No one seems to care that Quincy isn't 100% certain WHAT happened (what else is new?!).

This episode was a bit anti-climactic for me. I predicted the actual cause of death and figured out the chain of events well before the show ended. It reminded me, a bit, of the great war film "The Eagle and the Hawk"--which had a similar sort of ending. Overall, a good episode but far from a great one.

Flawed Quincy episode.

[poolandrews · 6/10 · 26 February 2008]

Quincy M.E.: Semper-Fidelis starts at 2AM early one morning in Camp Pendleton US Marine Corp where Gunnery Sgt. Alistair Adams (John Karlen) wakes his squad up for an unexpected training mission over rough terrain & a river, however tragedy strikes & a young recruit named Charles Casey is found dead face down in the river. Wanting independent verification of his findings Capatin Harry Collier (Allan Miller) contacts his close friend Los Angeles coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) who agrees to autopsy the body & give a second opinion. What started out as a simple case of neglect & accidental drowning turns into a full blown murder investigation as Quincy finds proof that Casey was deliberately & premeditatedly killed...

Episode 20 from season 4 this Quincy story was directed by Tony Mordente & is a nice little mystery based episode which has one or two decent twists like Quincy having to change his mind several times about what really happened to Casey as conflicting & confusing evidence piles up. Like a lot of Quincy episodes this tries to have a moral message about the establishment & bureaucracy although it doesn't get in the way of the main story that much. What I didn't like about Semper-Fidelis is the eventual outcome, without wishing to give the ending away completely the medical & physical probability of what is supposed to have happened is rather small. If you drop an egg from waist height onto concrete it will smash, right? Of course it will. If you drop a man off a 30 foot plus high bridge & his head lands smack bang on a solid granite rock what do you think will happen? The writers of this episode would try & have us believe that the man would sustain a small bruise behind his ear & nothing else, I think not guy's.

This is one of those Quincy episodes where the majority of the action takes place out of the laboratory environment & out of Los Angeles, in this case Camp Pendleton in San Diego which is probably where some of it was actually filmed. For those of us who don't know the strange sounding title Semper-Fidelis is actually Latin for 'Always Faithful' & is the motto of the US Marine Corp. One of the few totally Lt. Monahan & Danny free episodes. The acting is alright here with the regulars better than the guests as usual.

Semper-Fidelis is an OK Quincy episode let down by some very shaky medical & physical explanations that I struggle to find credible. It's a decent enough watch but a little sloppy at times.