User Reviews

Quincy M.E.: Welcome to Paradise Palms starts as Los Angeles medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman) gets a call from Roberta Wanaka (Silvana Gallardo) saying that her son & his foster son Chester (Eddie Garcia) is badly ill & ask's him for help. Quincy sets off for the town of Paradise Palms where Roberta & her son Chester lives nearby on a native Indian reservation, once there Quincy quickly diagnoses Chester with the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death. Then more bubonic plague cases start being reported, with the grand opening of a new hotel & golf course Quincy & local doctor Paul Minnara (Ronald Joseph) face a race against time to find the source of the bubonic plague before the guests arrive & an epidemic occurs but local officials don't want any bad publicity & are very unhelpful...

All the six's episode 6 from season 6 this Quincy story was directed by Georg Fenady & one has to say that while it's alright it's nothing amazing & is a fairly standard 'race against time & bureaucracy' type plot, considering it's set on or near a new golf course it's all rather par for the course. Welcome to Paradise Palms is one of those Quincy episodes which ditches the traditional & familiar Los Angeles laboratory setting & takes place almost entirely in the small town of Paradise Palms where Quincy's foster son Chester lives. After a potentially deadly outbreak of botulism in Deadly Arena (1980) from the end of season five here Quincy has a race against time to find the source of bubonic plague & prevent an epidemic & again much like Deadly Arena Quincy works with another doctor & they both come up against unhelpful officials who are only interested in money rather than public health. Instead of the football stadium in Deadly Arena it's a hotel here, instead of the football spectators who are in danger in Deadly Arena it's the hotel guest's here, instead of botulism in Deadly Arena it's bubonic plague here, instead of the little girl Pele in Deadly Arena it's the young boy Chester here & instead of the unhelpful stadium manager refusing to start a panic & seemingly only interested in money here it's the unhelpful hotel manager who has the same motivations. To be honest the whole episode feels very familiar & there really isn't anything new here although it is fun & passes fifty odd minutes harmlessly enough. This episode also has a stab at highlighting the exploitation of native Indians, their land & the evils of big business which is also rather unoriginal but at least it tries.

As usual this episode is well made but unremarkable, I would have imagined the shooting schedule was tight & it was a pretty much 'point the camera in the right direction & shoot' type policy on Quincy. The scenery is quite nice I suppose if nothing else. The acting is alright & there's a nice sentimental moment for Quincy as he speaks with his ill foster son Chester referring to why he never had children of his own.

Welcome to Paradise Palms is a pretty good 'race against time & bureaucracy' type Quincy episode although Deadly Arena is better, there's a moral & social message which gets in the way at times but overall this is well worth a watch especially if you like the show anyway.

If the Bubonic Plague is EVER diagnosed, the Health Department is IMMEDIATELY notified. This is because of the possibility of it becoming Pneumonic Plague. In this episode, FIVE cases happen. The State as well as the County health Departments along with the CDC would be involved if there were probably even THREE cases.

The pure fiction of this episode is the stupid meeting where "Causey" exhorts about the plague to a small town and a resort owner. NEVER WOULDA HAPPENED. The State would have shut EVERYTHING down and quarantined the region until the cause was found, isolated and destroyed.

Nobody plays around with the plague, not even when forced to by TV writers and anti-development producers.

This episode, once the first case of plague is discovered, goes off to fantasy land led by "Causey the Exhorter." It returns to reality when near the end the county health department in suits is moving around the resort killing every rodent in sight.