Hot Ice

Hot Ice begins at the airport with a man being poked by a cane containing a poisonous tip, but before this can take affect he walks into the path of a bus and is killed. The man who poisoned him removes a briefcase from the victim which he believes contains diamonds he was transporting. Later at the coroner lab, Quincy (Jack Klugman) conducts the autopsy and discovers that the man had diamonds surgically implanted into his body to resemble a pacemaker. The police and federal agents are called in and devise a plan for Quincy to pose as selling the diamonds to obtain evidence against the criminals who were supposed to purchase them in the first place, but Quincy refuses and heads to Las Vegas to judge the Miss Coroner's Beauty Pageant. As he arrives, though, he finds out that he is already a part of the under cover police operation.

In many ways this is a highly entertaining episode with crime, murder, underworld types and Vegas entertainment all featured. The main problem is that the whole story is so unbelievable and campy that it's hard to take any of it serious. As I was watching, I couldn't help but think that this would have made for a much better Charlie's Angels plot and there are two episodes of that series which I'm distinctly reminded of by this episode (The Vegas Connection and Pretty Little Angels All in a Row). Jack Klugman is no Farrah Fawcett, and the over the top plots just do not work as well here.

Among the silliest scenes are the ones of the Miss Coroner Beauty pageant being held at the casino, who ever heard of such a thing and what was the purpose? I think it would have added some credibility to just say Quincy was going on vacation to Vegas and got pulled into the under cover operation rather than adding this nonsense to an episode which already had too much going on anyway.

Overall, this is not a great Season 5 episode but one that you will likely find interesting and entertaining.

This episode of "Quincy" ("Hot Ice") was obviously inspired by a real-life murder. Back in 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident living in Britain, was killed with a diabolical device--an umbrella with a tip that contained a tiny bead filled with ricin! Not surprisingly, several TV shows were inspired by this. One was "Hawaii Five-O" and another was this "Quincy" show.

The program begins with a courier at the airport. He bumps into another man 'accidentally' and is stuck with the poison bead (this time, in a cane). But, before he could die from the poison, he steps in front of a bus and is killed. Quincy and Sam never detect the poison bead--mostly because he was JUST stuck and it would take a while for the effects of the digitalis inside it to take effect.

It turns out the dead man was transporting stolen diamonds--and Quincy finds them inserted surgically in his chest! Now here comes the devious part--the Feds want Quincy to pretend that he found the diamonds AND wants to sell them! But Quincy will have no part of this and leaves for his vacation in Vegas*. When he lands, however, he learns that the federal agents set him up--having called the bad guys and offered to sell them the diamonds...and telling them that the call was from Quincy!! So, almost as soon as he arrives, he's pulled into a crazy world of intrigue. Capturing the criminals is not the end of it, however, as in the process, the guy with the cane stabs Quincy and some time later, Quincy realizes he's been poisoned.

There is one huge reason to watch this program--to see what Asten does near the end of the show. I'll say no more--it might spoil it. In addition, this show is a lot of fun. Silly and ridiculous--but a lot of fun. Quite an interesting adventure story, that's for sure.