Daniel and Josh are on a hunting trip, and find in a watertight pouch some drawings of Mayan artifacts produced by a female friend of Josh. While on his own Josh encounters Sir Hubert Spencer (Severn Darden) , an eccentric naturalist and collector. Spencer lures Josh to a cave full of said artifacts and takes him captive.
This hour is what happens when the writers' room runs out of coffee for the week. Darden was an obliging utility player of eccentrics, notably the mutant Kolp in the "Planet of the Apes" series, and he promptly serves up a mad English aristocrat far removed from any grounding in Kentucky frontier reality. Playing against down to earth country boy Jimmy Dean is an interesting clash, for all of about thirty seconds. Fess Parker again exits early, presumably to promote his upcoming post-series business ventures, and we again take an unwanted trip to Anthology Land. Minus any frontier drama, historical backdrop, or production values, this week's installment becomes an excuse for DB to use stored props and burn up
film.
The fanciful notion that refugee Mayans and Aztecs hauled bulky statues away from the conquistadors and north to concealment was a sub-current amomg 1960's TV Western writers; its also used in an earlier DB episode and on "Wagon Train." Its a minor league variant of the 1970's "Chariots of the Gods" claptrap; I've never heard of any archaeological evidence that the Mesoamericans took the slightest interest in the nomadic and semi-agrarian tribes north of the Rio Grande.
For good fantastical measure, ancient Egyptian figures and a Chinese gong are tossed in with the other fluorescent-illuminated treasure cave junk; surprised they did not include the skull on a pole used in several earlier episodes. The cave set looks like it was also in a few "Star Trek: TOS" outings.
The hour receives a slight bit of redemption by the appearance of 60's-80's TV everywoman Mariette Hartley, she of the cavewoman-trapped-with-Spock ST: TOS episode "All Our Yesterdays." At least some enterprising fan fiction author might someday meld together the character arcs of cave dweller Zarabeth and colonial maiden Millie Boyd.
Dan - fittingly punished for being AWOL by being made to wear a foppish red scarf for most of the hour - finally shows up for rescue duty, but the only rescue for the viewer comes when the credits start to roll. This one is the leading contender for cellar-dweller of DB, Season 5.
