Twelve years prior to the filming of this episode, Warner Brothers made a film called "Strange Lady in Town" starring Greer Garson. It, too, was about a female physician in the old west (and is probably the real basis for Jane Seymour's interpretation of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman). According to the internet movie database description, "Strange Lady" is about 'a brilliant woman who has studied medicine in Europe and has several new techniques to try to update the staid, older doctor.' We sort of see some of that in this episode of The Virginian. It was also done again in an episode of Gunsmoke called 'Dr. Sam McTavish M.D.' in which Milburn Stone's doc has to learn to accept the new ways of a lady medic. That episode first aired on October 5, 1970 (more than three years after this episode of The Virginian) and featured Vera Miles. I am sure there are more examples in other western films and television series.
What's important here is the way the writers of The Virginian show how it affects our lead male character. In this case, James Drury's character, a ranch hand, is the one whose life is most affected by the arrival of a doctor named Pat. In fact, in one scene, he helps her operate! There is a nice romance that develops but is ended somewhat abruptly at the close of the episode. It would've been nice had she returned to Medicine Bow in a later season and they had reconnected.
What also strikes me about this episode is how like Hitchcock's last film "Family Plot," it has two very separate plots that do not really intersect until more than two-thirds of the way into the story. We sort of figure that the crooks will eventually need medical attention and that Pat will cross paths with them. But I like how these people seem rather isolated in their criminal pursuits, then with an interesting twist of fate, they suddenly jeopardize her standing in the community through no fault of her own. There is a great line of dialogue in which the lady crook seems to speak on behalf of Pat and the entire medical profession when she says they are who they are, but they are not murderers.
It's a nicely done episode. The only flaw I found with it is that I would think some of the ranch hands in town would go to her not because they needed treatment, but because she was so attractive and they would find any excuse to interact with her. There could've been a cute comic relief scene with Trampas feigning an injury and being her first 'real' client. Instead, we find her being completely shunned in the beginning which I don't think would exactly happen.
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