The sixth season of Quincy, M.E. features the familiar cast from the past several seasons, chief among them Jack Klugman as Dr. Quincy, the star medical examiner of the L.A. County Coroner's Office. By this time, Quincy's superior and frequent adversary Dr. Robert Astin (John S. Ragin) is no longer the pompous bureaucratic boob that he'd been in the earliest episodes, but instead one of Quincy's closest friends and biggest public supporters -- even when our hero rubs the powers that be the wrong way with his relentless crusade against medical stupidity, organized crime and social iniquities. Also prominently featured, as before, are Quincy's police contact, Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg), his lab assistant, Sam (Robert Ito) and his restaurateur pal Danny (Val Bisoglio). New to the series this season is Diane Markoff in the recurring role of Danny's top waitress, Diane. Season six opens with a typically complex, multi-plotted entry, "Last Rights," in which Quincy tries to prove that a grieving father is covering up the facts of his son's death, while simultaneously doing battle with owner of a textile mill where several suspicious accidents have occurred. The issue of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is probed in "The Night Killer," with Quincy trying to find out if a woman has killed her baby in a fit of rage, or if the child's death was a tragic accident; and a later episode, "Seldom Silent, Seldom Heard," tackles the issue of Tourette's Syndrome -- and a solution for the ailment that may be worse than the disease. In "Welcome to Paradise Palms," Quincy runs into a wall of bureaucratic silence surrounding a possible bubonic plague epidemic at an Arizona Indian reservation. "Stain of Guilt" largely takes place at a movie studio where Quincy is acting as technical director for a film in progress -- and where, while watching the re-enactment of a real-life murder, he arrives at the conclusion that the person convicted for the crime may be innocent. Similarly, Quincy can't keep quiet while listening to the gaffes in the prosecution's case as he does "Jury Duty" in the episode of the same name. The sixth season ends with "Vigil of Fear," wherein Quincy tries to clear a group of well-meaning urban vigilantes from a charge of killing an innocent bystander. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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