Israel Boone and pals sneak out at midnight to play pirate (transporting a suburban 1950's sitcom trope to the unlikely locale of 1780's Kentucky; most kids then were too exhausted from subsistence agriculture work for midnight hijinks). They spy on cabin dweller Zach Pike) (John Carradine, who offs visitor Harry Basch when he comes by to collect a debt. Israel grapples with disbelieving adults over what he saw.
This is an early effort by scriptwrite Rick Husky, who as of 2023 is still going strong with the current iteration of TV's "SWAT" (though I think "SWAT's" rehash of oft-repeated action scenarios would now play better as a comedy). We should probably assign this one to a youthful learning curve on his part. The mashup of Disney kids fun and homicide, while
an interesting experiment, really does not work well in the DB format.
John Carradine, patriarch of a notable Hollywood family and one who enjoyed a film career running from the silent era to work with John Ford to big-budget 1980's horror, is easily believable as a gaunt and sinister frontiersman. Unfortunately what should have been a showcase episode for him is largely taken up by the kids' doings. His victim is Harry Basch, also seen as henchman Dr. Brown in "Star Trek: TOS's" "What Are Little Girls Made Of." Again, too much is expected of child acting by Darby Hinton, and anyway the times prohibited a more accurate depiction of a kid's homicide-induced trauma on prime time. Hinton recently showed up on the innovative independent production of "Wild Faith" (2018), a post-Civil War drama; he has matured well into the Cincinatus role. Another light week for Fess Parker; Daniel shows up late in the hour on a part-time basis to stumble around toward a resolution.
No real production values this hour, except the skull on a pole makes its third appearance in four weeks, this time in the kids' pirate cave.
A brief flurry of drama at the end, but this one should be taught in film school as how to write a filler episode.