Ghost of a Chance

This is yet another relatively weak episode of "Quincy". I say relatively weak because there really is no crime involved and Quincy mostly spends the show yelling and pushing for social changes--a sure recipe for a sub-par show. Although "Quincy" began as a show about forensics, over the years it became more and more a show about social issues--and in the process became far less entertaining. "Ghost of a Chance" is a great example of these less entertaining shows.

A patient dies following heart surgery. The family thinks it might be a case of malpractice, so they pay to have an autopsy. While no real incompetence is seen, the surgery appears to have been done by a different doctor than the doctor of record. The rest of the show is about Quincy's campaign against so-called 'ghost surgeries'--operations performed by inexperienced interns instead of the doctor that patients THINK are doing the job.

Because ghost surgeries might be unethical but not necessarily illegal, the impact of this episode is pretty slight. Sure, it might be a problem but it might not--so the audience is left confused and flat. Not terrible but it's hard to get excited about this one.

Ghost of a Chance begins with a man undergoing heart surgery and then dying shortly after the procedure is completed. His family doesn't understand what went wrong and requests an autopsy from the Los Angeles coroner's office which Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs. During his investigation, Quincy learns that the renowned surgeon (Jose Ferrer) that was scheduled to conduct the operation was called away for another patient and a less experienced surgeon (Jonathan Frakes) acted in his place, a substitution known as a "ghost surgery". Quincy becomes very concerned by this practice and confronts the doctors and hospital where this has been taking place.

My initial reaction to this episode was that it is a recycled plot with similarities to previous episodes, one in particular being the Season 5 episode Cover-Up where an inexperienced doctor was substituting for another in an emergency care setting. In that episode we also saw a nurse acting as a whistleblower which is the exact same thing that happens in this story. For this reason and the fact that there is no crime whatsoever and very little mystery, this episode loses points in my book and makes it below average. While there are no gaping plot holes or anything actually wrong with it, it just isn't very original or interesting.

Overall this is a pretty disappointing second episode of Season 8 which features a recycled plot along with no crime or mystery and not one that I would recommend viewing.

... as there was a very similar episode of Quincy in season five.

Dr. Stanley Royce (Jose Ferrer) loses a patient while performing heart surgery on him. Royce at first convincingly argues that the patient died because of calcium in the arteries. But then Quincy finds out that an old technique was used on the dead patient when Royce had perfected a more modern technique that would likely have saved the patient. So Quincy comes to believe that Royce is performing "ghost surgery" - letting residents finish up operations, maybe when Royce isn't even in the OR to supervise so that Royce can do multiple procedures. Royce denies the accusation, but Quincy continues to dig.

This was one of those "issue" episodes that made the last season of Quincy so tiresome. There's no mystery here - You hear Royce discussing with hospital officials that he is indeed doing what Quincy says he is doing, and it's not illegal. Without a mystery and without what most people think of as a traditional crime, this episode just misses the mark.

I give it 6/10 rather than 5/10 for the presence of Jose Ferrer as the surgeon.

Several of Quincy's later episodes were cause related. I happen to think this is one of the better ones. There is a great tension between Royce and Quince, played so well by Ferrar and Klugman. I think they elevate the story quite a bit. It's a very real problem of the day. And shows how the profession protects its own, to a fault. Not every show has to be about a criminal whodunit. Yes it started out that way as part of the mystery wheel, but the show had to evolve over 8 seasons. Everyone remembers and loves Columbo, I certainly do. But Quincy is hands down the most successful of all the wheel shows. And one of my all time favorites.