Boone is held captive and scheduled for hanging at a British fort. The commandant's (Patrick O' Moore) daughter (Lyn Peters)has been seen off by her officer fiance (Joe Jenks) by coach to Salem and is promptly captured by the Shawnee. The commandant offers a reprieve for Boone if he will see to her rescue.
The best action-adventure of season 4 is offered here; the flintlock confrontations start early and are then brought on in rapid succession, enhanced greatly by no need to check in at Boonesborough. British model-actress Peters makes a fetching damsel in distress, though again the D. I. D. Would have further enhanced the hour with more development. O'Moore and Jenks mainly offer stand-in duty, but to no great detriment; the chase and fight scenes are the hour's stock in trade.
Redcoats marching in full dress through the woods are intended to invoke the defeat of British Gen. Braddock's 1755 defeat in Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War, and Boone's redcoat companion makes reference to such. Beyond that the historical waters muddy quickly. The episode has to be set prior to the Revolution (improbably, Dan is to be hung for "treasonous statements;" no
British official attempted such before the war broke out), and might be tied into the post F&I British-Indian conflict during Pontiac's Rebellion (1763-66); the real Boone was involved in that. But colonial tax tensions and the frontier crisis were not really concurrent.
The Shawnees, as always, are deployed as Boone's adversaries. They were involved in Pontiac's war, and while by 1967 DB's costumers are achieving a semblance of Great Lakes tribesman looking reasonably authentic (using captured redcoat gear is a nice touch), Rex Holman (Morgan Earp in "Star Trek: TOS's" Tombstone episode) is given embarrassingly one-dimensional material as Shawnee chief Penango.
Redcoat report: a substantial corps of about 20, again shown as the Royal American Regiment (which was engaged in Pontiac's War); Jenks' lieutenant appears to be with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, in Europe at the time.
The weak historical background drags on the episode a bit, but the hour provides the season's best action outing to date.
