Have Gun - Will Travel (TV Series) Fight at Adobe Wells (1960) User Reviews

Have Commodore, Will Escort

[zsenorsock · 8/10 · 28 March 2007]

Once again, Boone has given himself a terrific show to direct.

Paldin is hired by Commodore Gilder (Ken Lynch) for $15,000 to escort him and his trophy wife Juliana (Miranda Jones, quite a trophy!) through Indian territory where a half breed named Quanah Parker (Brad Weston) ants to kill him. When the coach they are riding on is ambushed at Adobe Wells, Paldin tries to keep everyone alive while bargaining with Parker.

There's lots of good action, suspense and twists in this one. This episode has traces of Bogart's "Sahara" (in which Bogie holds a waterhole that the Germans, who are dying of thirst desperately want) and westerns like "El Dorado" where they're pinned down by the enemy. Boone does a great job building the tension. He's helped by a good script that reveals the reason the Indians are after Gilder and a hunter they find already at Adobe Wells is because they're buying Indian scalps for $1 a head. Paldin is naturally disgusted by the whole thing, including his own employer.

The only thing I didn't like was the casting of Ken Lynch, a very New York kind of guy who seems completely and totally miscast as a western character. He's been good in things like "The Rockford Files" where he gets to play tough modern gangster types. But he stands out here like a sore thumb.

Invisible hand of the writer

[macnoel · 8/10 · 12 June 2007]

I like this episode of Have Gun - Will Travel because Palidin once again shows his consistent moral stance. Unlike many western heroes, Palidin is at once a dark figure (a mercenary) and an enlightened, educated man. By his mind alone, Palidin resolves this conflict and comes out clearly superior to those who focus too much on immediate grudges or immediate gain. Of course, in this episode the conflict is also two-way: on one hand, he's in physical conflict with Parker and on the other hand his principles make him despise the Commodore who is paying him a huge sum for protection.

Song writer Johnny Western's theme song features the line, "a knight without armor in a savage land" - which perfectly describes Palidin's superior moral stance within a lawless environment.

The writer, Samuel Peeples, would go on to write the second pilot for Gene Rodinberry's Star Trek (1968). Its speculation but no stretch to think that Peeples' participation with Rodinberry in writing Have Gun scrips and his penchant for moral characters led to the their later collaboration on Star Trek. Thus these "invisible hands" - the writers - were setting a moral tone for the whole culture during their careers.