Dr. Simon Locke
television series
Dr. Simon Locke (on-screen title is Doctor Simon Locke) is a Canadian medical drama that was syndicated to television stations in the United States from 1971 to 1974 through the sponsorship of Colgate-Palmolive. After the first season, the show was renamed Police Surgeon.
Plot
The series was initially a medical drama that originated from the fictional rural town of Dixon Mills, where a young physician, Dr. Simon Locke (played by soap opera star Sam Groom), yearning for more than the big-city medical environment, arrives in town to assist veteran physician Dr. Andrew Sellers (played by veteran actor Jack Albertson), with some pushback and resistance from the local citizens to the new doctor. The plot lines were more fitting for a big city medical drama, including a typhoid epidemic, child abuse, and even a murder. The series co-starred Len Birman as Sheriff Dan Palmer and Nuala Fitzgerald as Nurse Louise Wynn.
In 1972, Albertson left the show, and the series was renamed Police Surgeon, where Dr. Locke moved back to the city and worked for the police department's emergency unit, where he assists the cops in solving crimes that require medical research.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Dr. Simon Locke” is television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Simon, Locke and television, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “television series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3714527. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1974 and 1972.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Dr. Simon Locke”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Dr. Simon Locke primary sources, Dr. Simon Locke archive and Simon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dr. Simon Locke”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Dr. Simon Locke” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.