On Dying High begins with Quincy (Jack Klugman) and Dr. Emily Hanover (Anita Gillette) at a nightclub watching a folk singer, J.J. Chandler (Roger Miller), perform and make crude jokes about drug use. Quincy and Hanover are put off by some of the commentary and the blatant drug use going on around them, but they are soon called to action when J.J. freebases cocaine near a lit cigarette backstage setting himself on fire and running out horrifying the audience. He survives the incident thanks mostly to the swift actions of Quincy, and this calls to attention the dangers of drug abuse by performers like J.J. as well as the impressionable young people that follow him.
While this episode does make a legitimate point about the dangers of drug use, we have already seen this theme addressed many times in prior episodes of the Quincy series which makes this comes across as a recycled plot with a few tweaks. There is no mystery whatsoever and no one is even arrested in connection to the drug activity which seemed ridiculous concerning the disastrous circumstances. Another thing I couldn't believe was that the setting in the opening scenes appeared to be a respectable nightclub where the script acknowledges that there are prominent citizens in attendance sitting at tables, but they are freely engaging in drug use and openly making exchanges of contraband. I could see something like this happening at an outdoor concert venue or in an underground club with minimum security, but at such a formal setting where they would be enforced standards and code of conduct it just didn't add up to me.
Overall this is a pretty weak late Season 8 episode which addresses the problem of drug abuse but doesn't accomplish much else or entertain the audience in any way and I do not recommend viewing unless you are a die hard Quincy fan that wants to see it all.
