Josh (Jimmy Dean) is on a trip to meet his cousin at a missionary outpost, but arrives to find the inhabitants massacred by tribesman except for Sister Cecillia (Mariette Hartley). He attempts to escort her back to safety in Boonsborough.
Putting nuns in precarious situations was for some reason an occasional favorite of 1960's screenwriters, as evidenced by "lWhere Angels Go, Trouble Follows" and "Two Mules for Sister Sarah." Hartley does serviceable duty as the postulant, and reprises to an extent her Zarabeth role in "Star Trek: TOS" as a damsel able to shift back and forth between self-reliance and the need for rescue. And as in ST much of the hour takes place underground, exchanging the Ice Age cave for a springhouse. Too bad Leonard Nimoy could not have shown up as a Shawnee chief. Dean strives manfully to break out into a spinoff series, but his need for Fess Parker as a foil shines through.
Historical context is largely given the week off - 1780's Kentucky was unlikely to host any Catholic missions, and the lower Mississippi valley might be a more likely setting. Our favorite weekly villains, the Shawnee, are brought back for at least one more appearance before series' end, identified specifically as the Chillicotte band.
What might have been a decent chase episode is largely reduced to accent-heavy dialogue between Dean and Hartley, and again action is kept at a budget-friendly minimum. Fess Parker shows up to collect his check and little else, and we are left with another forgettable anthology hour.
