Legend - The Life, Death, and Life of Wild Bill Hickok
Legend
Episode 5 “The Life, Death, and Life of Wild Bill Hickok”
In this latest episode from the Stargate Archives we return to the 1995 Richard Dean Anderson series “Legend” and it’s fifth episode which deals with the arrival of Wild Bill Hickok a true legend of the west. In this episode Wild Bill (William Russ) arrives in Sheridan to recruit Nicodemus to capture the Jack McCall gang on behalf of the railroad. Ernest of course is not overly keen but well you know how it goes, he’ll get himself in the middle of this mess regardless.
After finding out that Wild Bill is having eye sight issues the Professor is brought in and after some eye tests hey presto Wild Bill is more or less cured which is a good thing since his failure in the recent gun fight has reached the ears of Jack McCall who decides that Legend needs dissuading from Wild Bills crusade. After a failed attack Ernest and the Professor track the gang via their ballon unknowing that Wild Bill is also tracking via horseback. They come to each others rescue after an ambush and after some chaotic events Ernest gets captured and finds out that Jack may hate more or less everything the literature of the dime novels is his pet peeve and berates Ernest for his slap dash storytelling and factual accuracy. A rather unexpected but entertaining twist in the narrative and portrayed wonderfully by John Pyper-Ferguson. Thanks to the professor Wild Bill is able to launch a successful attack on the camp but Jack gets away and Ernest is unable to convince Wild Bill to walk away so they take the prisoners to Deadwood and the two legends part ways….
Later that day Wild Bill goes to pay poker in the saloon and sits with his back to the entrance and soon after Jack walks in and shoots Wild Bill in the back, he slumps over dead and his cards aces and eights fall to the table.
What a blinder of an episode, two great new characters both portrayed excellently and a narrative that works well as pure fiction but slips between the gaps left by a legend of the west. Not sure about the choice of music for the scene in Deadwood but despite that it was still powerful more so for a basically comedic adventure series.
I’ll probably be covering another Legend episode next as everyone is busy over the holidays but as always love to hear from you and check out our social media presence and a review/rating on your chosen podcast app is always welcome.
