Daniel is leading a wagon train of the first settlers into Kentucky - hold on a bit for the explanation on that. Scouting ahead he rescues gambler Jim Santee (Armando Silvestre) from a whipping. Santee accompanies Dan back to the wagons, whete he helps repel a Shawnee attack, but also takes a shine to the - unmarried! - Rebecca.
To finish up Season 2, DB is redoing its origin story. To reset the cast, San Diego born former bullfighter and Mexican TV star Silvestre provides the handsome yet dangerous stranger persona. Dan is unmarried, and Rebecca is a de-aged Cincinatus's indentured servant; the Boone kids - a temporary relief - are of course not around. English actress Jacquline Evans, who played Rebecca in the 1956 Mexican production "Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer," is the wagon train matriarch who takes 1966's Rebecca under her wing. A whip-smart Mingo is re-introduced to Dan during a scrape with the Shawnee. (Whose designated-villain status carries on regardless of continuity.)
The point of all this was to stitch a two-part saga into theatrical release - "Daniel Boone: Frontier Trail Rider." This was attempted a couple of times as well for other 1960's series. Uneconomical in today's ocean of content; the last time I recall it being attempted was in the 1980's with a pairing of "Battlestar Galactica" episodes. Higher production values are present - extra town sets, and we get the "Wagon Train" fun of seeing Conestogas being moved over incredibly rough country. Plus, we get to see the building of Boonesborough, with the aid of two incredibly patient and prodded draft oxen.
Unusually, Dan spends a lot of time on horseback, and a fair amount of the budget was spent on the soundtrack, including a "Sing Along With Mitch"-like vocal narration.
History for this second pilot is a bit loose. Episode 1.1 had Dan with fully formed family unit heading into Kentucky on orders of a pre-Revolution George Washington and having Boonesborough functioning by roughly the second commercial break. Here, Dan is working for a settler group with little to no backstory. The episode date is implied to be 1775 prior to the war's outbreak, and the establishment of a Loyalist settlement at Fort 96 in South Carolina is an element in the drama. In reality, Fort 96 was a factor in the war 5-6 years later, and had little to no relationship with the very distant Boonesborough.
"Clinch Station" is purported to be a supply point for Boonesborough; there is a Clinch Mountain, Va. On the Cumberland Gap route, but no settlement by that name. Wagons are shown rolling all the way to Boonesborough, but as of 1775 only pack trains could traverse the Gap. The real Boone, who took his family to Kentucky as part of a North Carolina-backed land speculation scheme, oversaw expansion of the Gap's Wilderness Road into a wagon route only by the 1790's.
Well-paced and produced action sequences gets Part 1 of the season's denouement off to a rousing start.
To finish up Season 2, DB is redoing its origin story. To reset the cast, San Diego born former bullfighter and Mexican TV star Silvestre provides the handsome yet dangerous stranger persona. Dan is unmarried, and Rebecca is a de-aged Cincinatus's indentured servant; the Boone kids - a temporary relief - are of course not around. English actress Jacquline Evans, who played Rebecca in the 1956 Mexican production "Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer," is the wagon train matriarch who takes 1966's Rebecca under her wing. A whip-smart Mingo is re-introduced to Dan during a scrape with the Shawnee. (Whose designated-villain status carries on regardless of continuity.)
The point of all this was to stitch a two-part saga into theatrical release - "Daniel Boone: Frontier Trail Rider." This was attempted a couple of times as well for other 1960's series. Uneconomical in today's ocean of content; the last time I recall it being attempted was in the 1980's with a pairing of "Battlestar Galactica" episodes. Higher production values are present - extra town sets, and we get the "Wagon Train" fun of seeing Conestogas being moved over incredibly rough country. Plus, we get to see the building of Boonesborough, with the aid of two incredibly patient and prodded draft oxen.
Unusually, Dan spends a lot of time on horseback, and a fair amount of the budget was spent on the soundtrack, including a "Sing Along With Mitch"-like vocal narration.
History for this second pilot is a bit loose. Episode 1.1 had Dan with fully formed family unit heading into Kentucky on orders of a pre-Revolution George Washington and having Boonesborough functioning by roughly the second commercial break. Here, Dan is working for a settler group with little to no backstory. The episode date is implied to be 1775 prior to the war's outbreak, and the establishment of a Loyalist settlement at Fort 96 in South Carolina is an element in the drama. In reality, Fort 96 was a factor in the war 5-6 years later, and had little to no relationship with the very distant Boonesborough.
"Clinch Station" is purported to be a supply point for Boonesborough; there is a Clinch Mountain, Va. On the Cumberland Gap route, but no settlement by that name. Wagons are shown rolling all the way to Boonesborough, but as of 1775 only pack trains could traverse the Gap. The real Boone, who took his family to Kentucky as part of a North Carolina-backed land speculation scheme, oversaw expansion of the Gap's Wilderness Road into a wagon route only by the 1790's.
Well-paced and produced action sequences gets Part 1 of the season's denouement off to a rousing start.
