Daniel saves Shawnee Chief Red Eagle (Ken Renard) from an avalanche, but breaks his rifle in the process. In a rare example of good relations between Dan and the Shawnee, Red Eagle gives him a "quipu" passport that will allow him travel to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to get a new gun. En route, he runs afoul of a scheme to rob a gold shipment bound for the Philadelphia Mint.
An above-average DB road adventure, well away from the Boonesborough clutter. A pair of established supporting actors enliven the hour, 1950's movie villain stalwart Robert Middleton as the heist mastermind, and 1960's-70's TV journeyman Milton Seltzer as an upright German gunsmith. Dee Carroll, who accumulated 124 screen credits before dying tragically young after surgery in 1980, is Seltzer's bond-servant love interest.
Action on the road and in Lancaster is kept up at a good pace, and the hour is noticeably engaging minus Rebecca's scolding and Israel's yammering. In an innovative twist, Dan has to fall back at one point on using a horse pistol. Lancaster is presented as a rough log settlement, when in reality it had originated in 1734; more besides Seltzer's contrived accent might have been used to depict the area's Dutch and German heritage.
As well, some research might have refined the shown inner workings of Seltzer's gunsmith business. He claims to have made Charleville muskets, which would have actually been done in a French armory and not a Pennsylvania shop, and he first tries to foist off a Brown Bess musket on Dan - fine for massed military use but far too inaccurate for frontier hunting. The series does have it right that the long rifle was an American refinement developed by Pennsylvania gunsmiths for frontier use; it's variously called a "Pennsylvania" or "Kentucky" rifle, and found its forte as a special forces weapon during the Revolutionary War.
Unexplained is why Dan has to travel through Shawnee-controlled Ohio to get to Lancaster; a much easier unhindered trek over the Cumberland Gap and through Virginia. Also, why is gold being sent by wagon through the Lancaster area for coinage manufacture at the Philadelphia Mint (established 1792, which dates the episode)? Finally, the "quipu" macguffn is entirely fabricated.
Continental soldier count: four, all KIA and uniformed as Washington's Life Guard during the Revolution.
But strict historical accuracy aside, the hour uses Dan and a new setting well; more Fess Parker solo hours would often be the series' best.
An above-average DB road adventure, well away from the Boonesborough clutter. A pair of established supporting actors enliven the hour, 1950's movie villain stalwart Robert Middleton as the heist mastermind, and 1960's-70's TV journeyman Milton Seltzer as an upright German gunsmith. Dee Carroll, who accumulated 124 screen credits before dying tragically young after surgery in 1980, is Seltzer's bond-servant love interest.
Action on the road and in Lancaster is kept up at a good pace, and the hour is noticeably engaging minus Rebecca's scolding and Israel's yammering. In an innovative twist, Dan has to fall back at one point on using a horse pistol. Lancaster is presented as a rough log settlement, when in reality it had originated in 1734; more besides Seltzer's contrived accent might have been used to depict the area's Dutch and German heritage.
As well, some research might have refined the shown inner workings of Seltzer's gunsmith business. He claims to have made Charleville muskets, which would have actually been done in a French armory and not a Pennsylvania shop, and he first tries to foist off a Brown Bess musket on Dan - fine for massed military use but far too inaccurate for frontier hunting. The series does have it right that the long rifle was an American refinement developed by Pennsylvania gunsmiths for frontier use; it's variously called a "Pennsylvania" or "Kentucky" rifle, and found its forte as a special forces weapon during the Revolutionary War.
Unexplained is why Dan has to travel through Shawnee-controlled Ohio to get to Lancaster; a much easier unhindered trek over the Cumberland Gap and through Virginia. Also, why is gold being sent by wagon through the Lancaster area for coinage manufacture at the Philadelphia Mint (established 1792, which dates the episode)? Finally, the "quipu" macguffn is entirely fabricated.
Continental soldier count: four, all KIA and uniformed as Washington's Life Guard during the Revolution.
But strict historical accuracy aside, the hour uses Dan and a new setting well; more Fess Parker solo hours would often be the series' best.
