Slow Boat to Madness Part 1 begins with Quincy (Jack Klugman) and his friend, Dr. Janet Carlyle (Diana Muldaur), embarking on a vacation cruise together where some passengers begin falling ill. One man hallucinates before throwing himself overboard, and another experiencing similar hallucinations kills a crew member before dying himself. As more passengers begin to display symptoms, Quincy and Janet must work quickly to identify and contain the illness before an epidemic breaks out and more lives are lost.
This is an OK Quincy episode which features a public health crisis type story, the same exact type that we saw the Dr. Janet Carlyle character appear in last time she was on. I also found it very similar to the Season 2 episode Snake Eyes which dealt with containing a mysterious virus at a resort, so essentially we have the same story being told here and taking place on water rather than land which is pretty lacking in originality. Another similarity was that Snake Eyes was a two part episode as well, so I guess these epic public health crisis stories were difficult to tell in one hour.
While Quincy and Dr. Janet Carlyle don't make the most exciting couple, I did appreciate her return as they do have careers in common and at least the relationship is age appropriate for him unlike several other ridiculous pairings we've had to witness throughout the series. As a reminder of the latter, there are several actress/model types on the cruise that flirt with Quincy despite the fact that they are young enough to be his daughters, but thankfully he doesn't encourage this nonsense since Janet is around.
Overall this is a somewhat entertaining Season 7 episode which has a lot going on but at the same time seems pretty dragged out and is not very original in concept unless you count the cruise ship. Somehow I doubt things will pick up for Part 2 and I'm expecting more of the same.