Daniel (Fess Parker) receives an unsolicited letter from President George Washington. Attempting to ascertain the motive, Boone makes contact with the Army and is thrust into a web of plots and counter-plots that may lead to an assassination attempt on Washington.
One appeal of the series is its use of actual historical personages from the Revolutionary and Federal periods - and up front, the historical grounding is often shaky at best and wanders well beyond dramatic license, plus the characters are not really permitted to stray much beyond high school textbook depictions. But contrast the lengthy run of the DB series with the present drought of historical drama on network, cable, and streaming - DB at least provided a fun introduction to its time periods that might have at minimum encouraged younger viewers to read further. In this episode Washington is purportedly visiting Kentucky as President; entirely fictional, though after the Revolution in 1784 Washington did make a trip deep into western Pennsylvania.
DB also struggled with historical chronology - although most episodes are set during the Revolution, the writers occasionally jumped into the Washington, Adams and Jefferson Administrations; continuity questions were disregarded and no explanations offered. Oh well - viewers will just have to accept the existence of a Daniel Boone multiverse.
Mingo (Ed Ames) joins Daniel for much of the chase, and a racial confrontation in town allows Ames to deepen the Anglo-Cherokee background of the character. Handling villain duties is Michael Rennie of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) fame, and Welsh actor Ivor Barry does the best he can with a dollar bill-portrait portrayal of Washington. A reasonable helping of outdoor action rounds off an engaging episode.
Continental soldier count: about 11-15, a fairly substantial army for a DB episode. Matching the period and uniform accuracy is always fun for all three of us nationally who pay attention to such matters; the fort troops and Washington's guards wear buff and blue, the historical colors of his Life Guards during the Revolution. But, that unit disbanded well before his presidency; more correct would be the blue coats with red facings of Gen. Anthony Wayne's Legion of the United States.
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