An Eastern newspaperwoman becomes a thorn in Cheyenne Bodie's side from the moment she asks him to pose for her with his gun, "as if you're about to kill a man." His look of contempt as he declined should have made her heart sink to her toes. But this would-be Nellie Bly remains undeterred in her march to disaster. Her ignorance of the workings of the new frontier is matched only by her ruthless ambition to become the best-known journalist in the world, which includes betraying the Sioux warrior who had trusted her.
When a miner is killed and an accused Sioux brave is shot down in retaliation without trial, the tensions between the army and the Sioux intensify, and it's up to Cheyenne to de-escalate the situation, first by reasoning with the Indian chief and then by bringing in the white man who's responsible for the trouble in the first place. Drawing on his experience with the Indians, he uses diplomacy and, in the end, a bow and arrow. Justice is served.
In this episode, Chief Sitting Bull and George Armstrong Custer make an appearance, and we get a glimpse of the Little Big Horn where, according to a tribal medicine man, the Sioux nation will come out victorious in a great battle. "Cheyenne" scripts often alluded to historical events and people; whether or not the references were strictly accurate, they often added to the authenticity of the story, and gave us a context for the times in which Cheyenne Bodie traveled the West.
Jean Byron is sufficiently annoying as the aggressively ambitious Fay Kirby, who assures Cheyenne that women were destined to take over what had long been considered a man's domain; that is, the world. His wry response indicates that, even though she might be right, coming from her it isn't the best news he's ever heard. John Dehner is Nagel, the real villain of the piece; he learns the hard way that just taking away Cheyenne Bodie's gun does not disarm him. As the base commandant, Paul Birch shows a fair and balanced approach to maintaining peace with the Sioux. Unfortunately for him, the episode ends with his telling Cheyenne that he's been reassigned to Custer's Seventh Cavalry. He invites Cheyenne to join him as a scout, but Bodie declines, choosing "the Yellowstone" instead. It wouldn't be long before he realized what a wise decision that was.
I liked this story, mainly because it put Cheyenne in another different setting that gave Clint Walker the chance to demonstrate what a versatile actor he was. He's not given nearly the credit he deserves for his ability to adapt to the storyline and play the same character week after week yet let us discover new qualities about him. Besides his expertise with horses and guns, he could deliver well-written lines as if the thought had just occurred to him. For someone who'd never aspired to be in, much less the star of, a tv show, it's amazing how he stayed the same humble, modest man he was at heart while he handled it all as if he'd been born to it. Which, considering the unconventional and serendipitous road he took to stardom, he very well might have been.
When a miner is killed and an accused Sioux brave is shot down in retaliation without trial, the tensions between the army and the Sioux intensify, and it's up to Cheyenne to de-escalate the situation, first by reasoning with the Indian chief and then by bringing in the white man who's responsible for the trouble in the first place. Drawing on his experience with the Indians, he uses diplomacy and, in the end, a bow and arrow. Justice is served.
In this episode, Chief Sitting Bull and George Armstrong Custer make an appearance, and we get a glimpse of the Little Big Horn where, according to a tribal medicine man, the Sioux nation will come out victorious in a great battle. "Cheyenne" scripts often alluded to historical events and people; whether or not the references were strictly accurate, they often added to the authenticity of the story, and gave us a context for the times in which Cheyenne Bodie traveled the West.
Jean Byron is sufficiently annoying as the aggressively ambitious Fay Kirby, who assures Cheyenne that women were destined to take over what had long been considered a man's domain; that is, the world. His wry response indicates that, even though she might be right, coming from her it isn't the best news he's ever heard. John Dehner is Nagel, the real villain of the piece; he learns the hard way that just taking away Cheyenne Bodie's gun does not disarm him. As the base commandant, Paul Birch shows a fair and balanced approach to maintaining peace with the Sioux. Unfortunately for him, the episode ends with his telling Cheyenne that he's been reassigned to Custer's Seventh Cavalry. He invites Cheyenne to join him as a scout, but Bodie declines, choosing "the Yellowstone" instead. It wouldn't be long before he realized what a wise decision that was.
I liked this story, mainly because it put Cheyenne in another different setting that gave Clint Walker the chance to demonstrate what a versatile actor he was. He's not given nearly the credit he deserves for his ability to adapt to the storyline and play the same character week after week yet let us discover new qualities about him. Besides his expertise with horses and guns, he could deliver well-written lines as if the thought had just occurred to him. For someone who'd never aspired to be in, much less the star of, a tv show, it's amazing how he stayed the same humble, modest man he was at heart while he handled it all as if he'd been born to it. Which, considering the unconventional and serendipitous road he took to stardom, he very well might have been.
