Daniel is taking a load of furs to trade when he comes upon a burnt wagon, two dead parents, and three surviving children. Adolescent Jed (Kurt Russell) tells him the family was attacked by Indians and that the younger members were sent to safety in the brush (actually a pair of oaks in an open field. Daniel starts to escort the survivors into Boonesborough, but complications ensue.
Jed steals Dan's horse and embarks on a side mission early, then the two younger ones turn manipulative fast. Encountering a wagon train, the kids claim Daniel is their father and trying to offload them ASAP. The distrustful emigrants knock out Dan, and eventually beat and flog him for purported child abandonment.
Every season of every series produces a bottom-of-the-barrel episode, and this one does it for DB, season 3. In a melodrama, there is absolutely nothing entertaining about an hour devoted to the abuse of kids, or in this case the reverse, kids egging on the abuse of adults. We really gain nothing in character development from seeing a bloodied and humiliated Dan, and the look on Fess Parker's face in the denouement might reflect what he really thought about the script.
Always a couple of minimally redeeming features - we get to see Kurt Russell early in his career. His Reaganesque earnestness here and continuing all the way to his recent roles as of 2022 has always indicated his easy affability toward his audiences, and tremendous versatility in portraying characters in all stages of life. One suspects we are the poorer that he did not choose to deploy his formidable communications talents in the political sphere. Plus, we see "Young and the Restless" matriarch Jeanne Cooper as a pioneer wife, and she makes a convincing frontier woman.
Nonetheless, there are just too many arrows in this wagon. Production values are strictly dollar store - the hour seems confined to the same two California ranch acres, and a rather unexciting fight with a four-man tribal war party is hardly worth the rest of the hour. At least the name of the Shawnee doesn't get dragged into this mess.
If this episode comes out pixelated on your DVD, consider yourself relieved and fast forward toward better adventures to come.
Jed steals Dan's horse and embarks on a side mission early, then the two younger ones turn manipulative fast. Encountering a wagon train, the kids claim Daniel is their father and trying to offload them ASAP. The distrustful emigrants knock out Dan, and eventually beat and flog him for purported child abandonment.
Every season of every series produces a bottom-of-the-barrel episode, and this one does it for DB, season 3. In a melodrama, there is absolutely nothing entertaining about an hour devoted to the abuse of kids, or in this case the reverse, kids egging on the abuse of adults. We really gain nothing in character development from seeing a bloodied and humiliated Dan, and the look on Fess Parker's face in the denouement might reflect what he really thought about the script.
Always a couple of minimally redeeming features - we get to see Kurt Russell early in his career. His Reaganesque earnestness here and continuing all the way to his recent roles as of 2022 has always indicated his easy affability toward his audiences, and tremendous versatility in portraying characters in all stages of life. One suspects we are the poorer that he did not choose to deploy his formidable communications talents in the political sphere. Plus, we see "Young and the Restless" matriarch Jeanne Cooper as a pioneer wife, and she makes a convincing frontier woman.
Nonetheless, there are just too many arrows in this wagon. Production values are strictly dollar store - the hour seems confined to the same two California ranch acres, and a rather unexciting fight with a four-man tribal war party is hardly worth the rest of the hour. At least the name of the Shawnee doesn't get dragged into this mess.
If this episode comes out pixelated on your DVD, consider yourself relieved and fast forward toward better adventures to come.
