The Gunfighters - Johnny Ringo

Despite the tone of the story having gone up a bit we still have put up with more singing. We have the prospect of Steven being hanged which is the closest I think they come to putting a regular in serious peril. The opening part of this episode is a nice little stalemate with guns and its only thanks to the dopey looking barman that Steven doesn't meet a sticky end. It's a solid opening five or six minutes.

There are some cracking bits of dialogue which I haven't noticed in the previous two episodes. My favourite line comes from the barman when he says "The next extractions gonna be a tooth". There are some good camera shots which is where Rex Tucker deserves credit because being in a studio its difficult to make this western look interesting. Despite not being a 100% fan of the barman it was a bit of a shame that he got shot because he could have just hidden under the bar and stayed there.

The Johnny Ringo of the piece is well cast and he seems the perfect person to go up against Doc Holiday. Whilst its clear that Donald Cotton has taken dramatic licence with the story, it means that the characters are larger than life and that helps move the story along because without them then the adventure would just grind to a halt. Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp are still two of my favourite characters. Even Dodo is used well in this story but that might be to do with that she was with Doc Holiday.

All in all this was another good episode with a few weak moments kept to a minimum. The story isn't going to be a classic and I don't think it's better than I had thought of it in the past but its still got some good characters and the have managed to pull off a western on a BBC budget but it wouldn't be until the new era tha we would see a western done well.