New Blood begins with LA City Councilman Lawrence Bridges (James Callahan) running for Governor and having tense confrontations with political rivals and a mistress when he attempts to end their relationship. He is later found dead at the bottom of a stairwell, but the evidence suggests that the body was moved and that he was murdered. Quincy (Jack Klugman) is supposed to be taking time off from the job, but he rushes back to the coroner lab when he hears of the death expecting to do the autopsy, but Dr. Asten (John S. Ragin) has already assigned it to a young female pathologist filling in, Dr. Jerri McCracken (Beverly Sassoon). Quincy has a hard time accepting a young and less experienced pathologist taking the lead on such a high profile case and remains involved much to the frustration of Dr. McCracken and Dr. Asten.
This is a good murder mystery episode and such a refreshing change after the last two stinkers. It is not revealed who the killer is right in the beginning like other Season 5 episodes, so with that and the fact that there are multiple possible suspects the story remains interesting and compelling. The guest stars featured do a pretty decent job as well giving solid performances.
My only criticism of this episode is the cliché of Quincy meeting yet another female professional that he immediately starts coming on to and borderline harassing. At first she rebuffs his advances which I thought was realistic considering how attractive she was not to mention young enough to be his daughter, but then of course later in the episode she acquiesces and starts dating him. I could see something like this happening on a rare occasion, but it occurs way too frequently in this series and just comes across as slimy, ridiculous and plain annoying after awhile.
Aside from that aspect, this is a very good Season 5 episode which is quite entertaining and highly recommend viewing!