This episode of "Quincy" begins with Dr. Quincy at Danny's watching a western on TV. Quince talks and talks about how great this old-time movie star is, so you KNOW that within seconds you'll hear that the old guy is dead--which is EXACTLY what comes next!! Talk about telegraphing your plot!! For the next 40 minutes or so, Monahan accuses everyone but the guilty party (what else is new?). But, in the end, Quincy is able to piece together all the puzzle pieces and catches the murderer. Who needs cops when we've got Quincy?! Overall, a decent but VERY predictable episode. I thought I knew who the killer was only minutes into the show--and I was right. My guess is that you'll probably have the same thing happen to you. Not bad...but predictable.
3 Reviews
Fairly good episode
rayoflite2429 August 2015
Last of the Dinosaurs begins with Quincy (Jack Klugman) at Danny's watching a classic western movie on the television that one of his favorite actors, Will Presstin, starred in. He then receives a call from Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) to come to Will Presstin's home because the actor has been found dead. It is unclear whether Will died from natural causes or foul play and Quincy eventually discovers that the actor was diabetic which was a contributing factor in his death. Meanwhile, Monahan brings in two young men who occasionally worked for Will and his wife and believes they murdered him in a robbery gone bad.
This is a fairly good Season 3 episode which does feature a murder investigation. There are plenty of suspects played by good guest stars and we see Carolyn Jones (Sybil Presstin) appear again on the series. I must say that I thought Carolyn looked much better here than in her last appearance in the Valleyview episode where she was sporting an extremely odd and unflattering chopped hairdo (see my comments in that review). It looked to me as if she was wearing a wig in this episode, but I still thought it was a huge improvement.
One problem I do have with this episode is that the person responsible for the crime gives a full confession at the end. This is becoming a repetitive theme in Season 3 episodes and I really don't like it. I want to see Quincy present irrefutable scientific evidence that nails the guilty party at the end of an episode so that a confession is not even necessary. Resolving several of these murder mystery episodes by having the culprit confess to the crime is way too convenient and causes them to lose a point in my book.
This is a fairly good Season 3 episode which does feature a murder investigation. There are plenty of suspects played by good guest stars and we see Carolyn Jones (Sybil Presstin) appear again on the series. I must say that I thought Carolyn looked much better here than in her last appearance in the Valleyview episode where she was sporting an extremely odd and unflattering chopped hairdo (see my comments in that review). It looked to me as if she was wearing a wig in this episode, but I still thought it was a huge improvement.
One problem I do have with this episode is that the person responsible for the crime gives a full confession at the end. This is becoming a repetitive theme in Season 3 episodes and I really don't like it. I want to see Quincy present irrefutable scientific evidence that nails the guilty party at the end of an episode so that a confession is not even necessary. Resolving several of these murder mystery episodes by having the culprit confess to the crime is way too convenient and causes them to lose a point in my book.
"After all the abuse I took, he was going to dump me for a 25 year old with an over developed chest." Scientifically questionable Quincy episode!
poolandrews5 December 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Quincy M.E.: Last of the Dinosaurs starts as Los Angeles coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) is enjoying at drink at Danny's when he receives a call from Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) saying the famous film star & his idol Will Prestin (Chuck Robertson) has been found dead. Being a huge Will Prestin fan Quincy gets out there as quick as he can, Prestin's body has been found in his ransacked living room with two fairly mild blows to the head & Quincy isn't sure how he died. Back in the lab after the autopsy Prestin's cause of death still isn't any clearer since the blows to the head definitely didn't kill him on they're own, Quincy has to work fast & find out what did kill Prestin to find a killer & save two innocent lives as Monahan is convinced two junkies broke into Prestin's house & killed him which Quincy is positive didn't happen...
Episode 12 from season 3 this Quincy story was directed by Ray Danton is a reasonable murder mystery entry into the series but there are a few things with the plot which bugged me. The old trick of using diabetes as a method for murder comes into play here, the script states that Will Prestin was a diabetic & the reason Quincy was having so much trouble discovering why he died was because of this fact & he didn't notice the needle marks because Prestin injected himself on old scar tissue from a stunt gone bad on one of his old films. First of all I will say that I have been diabetic for the majority of my life, over 20 years in fact & I inject myself on average four times a day. If Prestin had diabetes extreme enough to send him into a diabetic coma after only a few hours (mild forms of diabetes can be treated by diet alone) then he would probably have been injecting himself the same number of times as me. The script also states that Prestin's friend Granger had been picking up his insulin from the pharmacy for 15 years so that would mean Prestin had been injecting insulin into himself on a daily basis for at least 15 years, right? Well even if we suppose he had injected himself once a day which I find highly unlikely that's still 365 injections times 15 which is still 5475 injections over that period. If Prestin had been injecting four times a day which is much more likely than that would be 365 times 4 which is 1460 & then you would times that by 15 which comes to 21900! Are the makers of this seriously trying to tell me that a pathologist as experienced as Quincy would miss all his injection sites? Don't forget as a diabetic you can only use a few different sites on your body to inject. An old wound wouldn't be able to take over 20,000 separate injections, it just wouldn't. My injection sites look horrible & bruised even now & these days us diabetics have ultra fine needle pens rather than the bloody great huge syringes back in the late 70's. I suppose if you don't know much about diabetes then you probably wouldn't pick up on this but since I do know a lot about diabetes it bugged me as basically it was total bull & the whole story & twist hinged on it.
Since this series was made in the 70's you have to cut it some slack & generally speaking Quincy hasn't dated too badly, sure Quincy does wear some horrible shirts with huge collars but otherwise the show still looks OK. However there are times when you can't quite believe what your seeing, for instance Sybil Prestin's hair-do. It's awful, it's some large bob with a horrible bitty fringe & two silly tufts of hair sticking out on either side of her head, I don't think I've ever quite seen another hair-do like it & frankly considering how bad it looks that's no big surprise. Also check out the little portable telly Quincy whips out at the end, the screen looks like it's the size of a postage stamp! The acting is alright a experienced TV & film actor Cameron Mitchell has a small role.
Last of the Dinosaurs is an OK Quincy murder mystery that if you examine the plot closely doesn't hold much water, then again that's probably the same with most Quincy episodes & it's just in this case I happen to know more about diabetes than the makers did.
Episode 12 from season 3 this Quincy story was directed by Ray Danton is a reasonable murder mystery entry into the series but there are a few things with the plot which bugged me. The old trick of using diabetes as a method for murder comes into play here, the script states that Will Prestin was a diabetic & the reason Quincy was having so much trouble discovering why he died was because of this fact & he didn't notice the needle marks because Prestin injected himself on old scar tissue from a stunt gone bad on one of his old films. First of all I will say that I have been diabetic for the majority of my life, over 20 years in fact & I inject myself on average four times a day. If Prestin had diabetes extreme enough to send him into a diabetic coma after only a few hours (mild forms of diabetes can be treated by diet alone) then he would probably have been injecting himself the same number of times as me. The script also states that Prestin's friend Granger had been picking up his insulin from the pharmacy for 15 years so that would mean Prestin had been injecting insulin into himself on a daily basis for at least 15 years, right? Well even if we suppose he had injected himself once a day which I find highly unlikely that's still 365 injections times 15 which is still 5475 injections over that period. If Prestin had been injecting four times a day which is much more likely than that would be 365 times 4 which is 1460 & then you would times that by 15 which comes to 21900! Are the makers of this seriously trying to tell me that a pathologist as experienced as Quincy would miss all his injection sites? Don't forget as a diabetic you can only use a few different sites on your body to inject. An old wound wouldn't be able to take over 20,000 separate injections, it just wouldn't. My injection sites look horrible & bruised even now & these days us diabetics have ultra fine needle pens rather than the bloody great huge syringes back in the late 70's. I suppose if you don't know much about diabetes then you probably wouldn't pick up on this but since I do know a lot about diabetes it bugged me as basically it was total bull & the whole story & twist hinged on it.
Since this series was made in the 70's you have to cut it some slack & generally speaking Quincy hasn't dated too badly, sure Quincy does wear some horrible shirts with huge collars but otherwise the show still looks OK. However there are times when you can't quite believe what your seeing, for instance Sybil Prestin's hair-do. It's awful, it's some large bob with a horrible bitty fringe & two silly tufts of hair sticking out on either side of her head, I don't think I've ever quite seen another hair-do like it & frankly considering how bad it looks that's no big surprise. Also check out the little portable telly Quincy whips out at the end, the screen looks like it's the size of a postage stamp! The acting is alright a experienced TV & film actor Cameron Mitchell has a small role.
Last of the Dinosaurs is an OK Quincy murder mystery that if you examine the plot closely doesn't hold much water, then again that's probably the same with most Quincy episodes & it's just in this case I happen to know more about diabetes than the makers did.
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