User Reviews

A train arrives in Dodge City, and one of the passengers is extremely ill. A very wealthy man named Harl Townsend is traveling in a private car on the train, and the ill passenger is Townsend's butler.

Townsend's wife, Isabel, has been caring for the sick man. She can see his illness is not something minor, as his condition continues to worsen. Her husband is anxious to get to Chicago for an important meeting, but Isabel thinks they need to find a doctor. Although the train is only supposed to stop in Dodge City for ten minutes, Isabel leaves the train in search of medical assistance.

Of course, Isabel finds Doc Adams. He examines the sick butler and immediately orders the train car to be quarantined. Doc diagnoses the illness as "spotted fever," which was also seen as a precursor of "the plague." (The episode is not medically specific, which probably would have been true during the time this story is set.) This sudden turn of events does not please the anxious, arrogant Harl Townsend, who is not accustomed to being told what he can and can't do. There is another passenger named Purlie Loftis that is equally resentful at being held on the train car.

After Doc informs Matt Dillon of the situation, it is necessary for the Marshal to enforce the train quarantine while also attempting to appease the citizens of Dodge, who are not at all happy about having a train car with people suffering from a relatively unknown, infectious disease parked inside the town. As the story progresses, the tension escalates.

Another minor plot element involves the troubled relationship between Isabel and Harl. Isabel clearly loves her husband, but she finds his stubborn, dismissive, overbearing attitude frustrating. Harl spends much of his time acting like a privileged, spoiled brat.

As we have come to expect from Gunsmoke, this episode features another excellent cast. Morgan Woodward could play many different types of characters, but we are more accustomed to seeing him as a rough-around-the-edges type. Here, he is a more refined gentleman type, although certainly someone extremely self-absorbed who has little regard or compassion for others.

This is Dana Wynter's only Gunsmoke participation. She plays Isabel Townsend. Norman Alden is Purlie Loftus. Alden is one of those people you know you have seen before, but you are not necessarily sure what they were in. This is the first of his six different Gunsmoke appearances.

Mort Mills, Ed Bakey, Zalman King, and Sam Melville are other cast members that will be familiar to long-time Gunsmoke fans and anyone that has watched television programming from the 1960s and 1970s.

The premise of this story is different from many of the tropes we find in the Westerns genre. However, anyone looking for a lot of "shoot 'em up" action is going to be disappointed. The primary drama is focused on the building conflict both outside and inside the train car. There are many scenes of people talking and arguing.

Since this review is being written during a pandemic, it is fascinating to see some of the plot elements in this story compared to the current day. In this story - much like the COVID-19 pandemic - there are people who dismiss the serious nature of the disease, people who overreact, and people who are willing to take the measures required to attempt to contain the illness.

In the end, this episode falls short of some of the better episodes in the series. The acting is fine, but there are too many characters. There are several story lines, and they come across as disjointed. A lot of time is spent focusing on Harl Townsend's bullying tactics, and the portion of the story that involves the character is too predictable. The resolution of the story is too tidy and convenient, and it involves sudden, miraculous situational and attitude changes among many of the characters.

I liked the green curtains on the train. It was a shame they had to go up in flames.

I also liked seeing a character with crutches. There is a little gambling going on in this episode, which I don't approve of but at least it was make believe, so I didn't get too worked up like when I visited Las Vegas.

It was rather refreshing to see rural America take the threat of an infectious disease so seriously even if meant subverting the law and order of Marshall Matt Dillon. My how times have changed.

Today they would have conked him on the head for issuing a mask mandate.