Semper-Fidelis

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 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.