The Return of Dr. Thackeray

In this episode, I will not add more about the plot that was covered by previous reviewers. However, in this somewhat ordinary episode there was one extraordinary, and unexpected, result.

In this episode, the title character, Dr. Thackeray (played by the lovely June Lockhart) is being threatened by a group of cowpokes who have been exposed to smallpox, and are ordered under quarantine by her, with the quarantine being enforced - and Dr. Thackeray being protected - by Paladin. This does not go over well with the rambunctious cowpokes, one of them goes so far as to engage in physical altercation with Paladin (from which Paladin emerges victor, of course).

If you look in the credits, you will see that the young cowpoke who fights Paladin is Steve Pauley, played by Johnny Western. Johnny Western was a young actor and a bit of a singing cowboy - no less than Gene Autry had taken a liking to him and helped him early in Western's career. When he got the job on HGWT, Western was thrilled - his chance to play in a scene opposite the legend, Richard Boone as Paladin. So thrilled was Western that he had trouble with his lone scene - how could he bring himself to strike Paladin, his hero? After a few poor takes, Richard Boone realized how nervous the young man was. To his credit, rather than simply asking for another bit player to step in for the inexperienced youngster, Boone offered to work with him on the scene, and with Boone's help, they were able to complete the scene.

Western was so thankful that he went home that night and did what he did best - he wrote a song. The next day, though he was not needed on the set, Western went there, approached Richard Boone, and presented him with a gift - the song he wrote the night before. Boone was stunned. After the surprise wore off, Boone, ever the artist, asked Western could again play the song on his guitar, but with a rhythm that was more upbeat. Western complied, and Boone approved. Boone then went to Herb Meadow (the creator of the show) and suggested they use the song for the theme song of the show. Meadow agreed, and they set up a music production company to act as the business entity that would collect any royalties due for the song - an entity that would be owned in equal parts by Western, Boone, and Meadow.

That song - "The Ballad of Paladin" - is the theme song you will hear at the conclusion of each of the subsequent episodes of Have Gun Will Travel, to this day. And to this day, the royalties are shared equally by Johnny Western, and the estates of Mr. Boone and Mr. Meadow.

You can hear a clip of the song, performed by Mr. Western, at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgvxu8QY01s

This episode mixes together three elements - unfortunately none of them quite convincing enough to make it gripping.

The first, driving the story, goes around the risks of a smallpox epidemic and the difficulties of Dr Thackeray, already encountered by Paladin in the episode No Visitors, to enforce a quarantine upon a band of unruly cowboys. There is not much flesh in it, as the cowboys are really just that, unruly; and the story does not succeed or even, strangely, attempt to create any real dramatic tension around the epidemic, which appears mainly as a pretext.

A pretext for what? On one side - this is the second and more substantial element -, a story of coming of age of a young man who has a hard time being taken seriously by his father, which is where Paladin intervenes to chastise the father and help the son to find trust in himself. This is a recurring theme in the series, more strikingly handled for instance in the episode The Reasonable Man. In the present one, the idea is just illustrated, and not very strongly.

And then, third but not least, there is the possible renewal of a tentative love entanglement between Paladin and the alluring Dr Thackeray, so full of qualities and played by an actress with real charm and personality. But despite of that, is it such a bright plot idea to rekindle a relationship which had fizzled out, when we know in advance - and from their previous acquaintance, Dr Thackeray should know as well - that one of the trademarks of Paladin is being adverse to real love entanglements? One thing we have learned repeatedly about Paladin is that he seems quite satisfied with the highly busy, though absolutely inconsequential love life which he leads in San Francisco while resting and enjoying the simple pleasures of life in between two adventures. He is not even a Don Juan : effortlessly charming good-looking women seems to be mostly on a par with opera, cigars and poker games as the main components of his dolce vita, neither more nor less important, and of very little meaning whatsoever - from what we see of them, his easy conquests are quite interchangeable and obviously not chosen for their strong personalities. And when he goes on his assignments, Paladin appears to have a strong rule not to mix business with pleasure, and therefore never to seek casual conquests. He does not become insensitive : in a few cases - like in episodes The Bride, Ella West, ... - a chance encounter with a stronger feminine character seems to be moving him more than he had planned for, and to require a certain dose of sacrifice to prevent him from pursuing the relation any further. It is however to be understood that on his side, if not for the lady in question, it does provoke a slightly painful but most probably short-lived regret - not being made for lasting bonds remaining his basic tenet. In this respect he is a worthy predecessor of another later charmer not any keener on a lasting bond - James of the same name. During their first encounter, Dr Thackeray had been the one clear exception to his principles. Above average in charm, wits and personality, she had managed to push the hardened bachelor out of his usual comfort zone, towards imagining the possibility of a more substantial and lasting relation. The only thing we had been left to know about it, at the end of No Visitors, was that because of having also been himself struck by measles, Paladin was to spend three more days than anticipated at the place of the good doctor - and that he had certainly appeared rather delighted by the mishap. The rest is deduction : three days of bliss, probably a few more it seems - but in the end they had obviously concluded, maybe with regrets on the side of Dr Thackeray, that they had to go their own way. So now they meet again, at a sick bedside again; so now they remember with slight nostalgy that past bliss; so now they discuss it out again, through rather witty dialogues; and so now, again, they come basically to the same conclusion. Well, how surprising...