Disreputable trapper Flathead Joseph (Chris Alcaide) comes upon settler girl-turned Cherokee Tekwatha (Lynn Loring) and re-abducts her back to Boonesborough. This irritates the Cherokee with potentially violent consequences for the settlement.
The niceties of the pilot accomplished, Season 1 proceeds with a basic frontier adventure to establish the core setting. Guest appearances are fairly light; Alcadie, a "Maltese Falcon" alumni, is out of the picture early, and Loring is only given pidgin-native dialogue. She would go on to far greater things as president of MGM/UA Entertainment.
The Boone family unit is further established - domestic Rebecca, emerging adolescent Jemima, and cute-mischievous Israel. Yadkin and Cincinatus are assigned sidekick duties, Albert Salmi as the former keeps rough-hewing his persona, and Dal McKennon has the later is a far more active agent than he will be by series end. Mingo (Ed Ames) is a more complex protagonist in this early outing, looking after Cherokee interests as well as his friendship with Daniel.
The episode is correctly dated by the "Boonesborough, Kaintuck Territory, 1775"
sign over the stockade; that is the correct date of Boonesborough's founding. No mention of the Revolution however, which began in April
of that year. As will be noted down the road, DB producers are often unable to master the correct look of mid-South Indians, but its far less intrusive. And period-correct to see settler wives pressed into service as rifle-loaders. The Boonesborough folk do pull off a fair impression of 18th-century Americans in their garb and accoutrements.
Boonesborough is shown as up and running in this first regular hour; the origin story will be altered somewhat and retconned in the Season 2 two-part conclusion.
Elements of "The Alamo" (both John Wayne's and Fess Parker's in the Crockett series are present in the final act, though the action payoff is minimal; interestingly, the Cold War writers might be exploring brinksmanship and consequences rather than veering straight into frontier gun play. But, a good first time around the track.