My vote of nine (9) is rounded up from an 8.5 and is for this episode of TTT relative to the other episodes of the series...just wanted to get that out of the way! (Sorry, but as a teacher, I'm used to explaining my grading to the students!)
Why a 9? Because I was very impressed with the casting and the writing of William Welch who wrote about six or seven other episodes of the series. His writing was clever and, when given to the cast, made this one of my top five episodes of the 30 in the series.
This time, good ole' Doug and Tony crash landed in Lincoln, New Mexico Territory in 1881, but before you can say, "Stick Em'-up," a gang on horses chases them into the sheriff's office where you would think they'd be safe. But this is TTT and the first five minutes of every episode that I recall, never proves safe for our duo for most of the 51 minutes of airtime! Why isn't the sheriff's office safe? Billy the Kid is being held in the jail cell in the sheriff's office. Just WHY he is there with only one person watching him, is never explained. Oh well!
What impressed me the most was the casting of Robert Walker, Jr. as William H. Bonney, aka, "Billy the Kid." Walker was PERFECT for this role from his similar appearance, build, facial shape, and even his height (approx 5' 8" or 1.73 m). In addition, writer, William Welsh, was great having "Billy" use the word, "Dude" throughout the episode. At first, I thought "dude" was a huge mistake for 1881. But it turns out that "dude" was one of the new, "in" words in the late 1800's! I had no clue, but Welsh sure did!
I wasn't crazy about the last 10-15 minutes of the episode including when Tony wore "The Kid's" unique hat and carrying his gun with all those notches....a rather novice mistake for the character.
So, to me, the episode started out well but slowly lost its sizzle. But the idea of incorporating Doug and Tony meeting The Kid, was one of the show's better historical meetings...NOT the best, but slightly better than most others. The icing on the proverbial cake was with Welsh and Walker -- they made this episode an 8.5/10 to this dude!
Why a 9? Because I was very impressed with the casting and the writing of William Welch who wrote about six or seven other episodes of the series. His writing was clever and, when given to the cast, made this one of my top five episodes of the 30 in the series.
This time, good ole' Doug and Tony crash landed in Lincoln, New Mexico Territory in 1881, but before you can say, "Stick Em'-up," a gang on horses chases them into the sheriff's office where you would think they'd be safe. But this is TTT and the first five minutes of every episode that I recall, never proves safe for our duo for most of the 51 minutes of airtime! Why isn't the sheriff's office safe? Billy the Kid is being held in the jail cell in the sheriff's office. Just WHY he is there with only one person watching him, is never explained. Oh well!
What impressed me the most was the casting of Robert Walker, Jr. as William H. Bonney, aka, "Billy the Kid." Walker was PERFECT for this role from his similar appearance, build, facial shape, and even his height (approx 5' 8" or 1.73 m). In addition, writer, William Welsh, was great having "Billy" use the word, "Dude" throughout the episode. At first, I thought "dude" was a huge mistake for 1881. But it turns out that "dude" was one of the new, "in" words in the late 1800's! I had no clue, but Welsh sure did!
I wasn't crazy about the last 10-15 minutes of the episode including when Tony wore "The Kid's" unique hat and carrying his gun with all those notches....a rather novice mistake for the character.
So, to me, the episode started out well but slowly lost its sizzle. But the idea of incorporating Doug and Tony meeting The Kid, was one of the show's better historical meetings...NOT the best, but slightly better than most others. The icing on the proverbial cake was with Welsh and Walker -- they made this episode an 8.5/10 to this dude!