The Big Valley (TV Series) A Time to Kill (1966) User Reviews

Wasted talent

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 27 October 2012]

This episode of The Big Valley involves one of Richard Long's old law school buddies played by William Shatner who comes for a visit. He's never practiced law, but looks prosperous enough as he tells the Barkleys about his business ventures. What he is is a charming con man and crook. He's got Linda Evans giving him the once over. But he's also got Secret Service man Frank Marth trailing him as well who thinks he's carrying counterfeit.

Counterfeiting is only one of his sidelines as Shatner and confederates James Griffith and Jason Wingreen have a rather elaborate plot involving the phony money in robbing the Stockton bank.

Shatner is one of those people who are born with it all, brains, looks, and charm. People like that become leaders in their field and that includes crime. But there it is all a waste. It's a role that suits William Shatner well.

When Marth confronts him with the truth, Richard Long has a crisis of conscience. How he handles it is for you to see in this good Big Valley episode.

Great Fun for fans of "Star Trek"!

[summerfields · 7/10 · 13 April 2010]

An okay episode.

Here we have that famously likable but rather inept thespian William Shatner show up as one of Jarrod's college buddies.

Naturally, he's involved with counterfeiting crooks and there's an interesting scene with a newly applied electrical alarm system, circa 1878.

Shatner is young and likable here, but there was never anything about him to suggest a great actor. No matter, his legion of Trekkies will stand up for him!

Not a particularly memorable episode aside for the fact that it has Captain Kirk of the Enterprise guest-starring.

Shades of the wild west

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 4 October 2015]

This episode reminds me a lot of the Robert Conrad series 'The Wild, Wild West.' I looked up the writer's credits, and it seems Peter Packer wrote mainly for 'The Big Valley' and 'Bonanza.' But with his story about agents and counterfeiters, Packer gives us as much intrigue as we would find on 'The Wild, Wild West,' which was in production at this time. Packer also gives us more dimension to Jarrod, especially in the relationship that Jarrod has with his law school buddy, played by William Shatner. Shatner makes a great villain and serves the western genre rather well. The last few scenes, where he tries to re-collect the counterfeit money from the bank, are fairly suspenseful.

Not much excitement in this episode

[kfo9494 · 6/10 · 4 March 2014]

William Shatner plays Brett Skyler an old college buddy of Jarrod that has come to town on a visit. Jarrod is so happy to see his old pal that he invites him to stay with the family at the ranch. But things take a bad turn when a Secret Service officer comes to visit Jarrod asking questions about Brett and his involvement in counterfeiting. And when Jarrod finds a large sum of money in Brett's suitcase things look bad for his old friend.

Jarrod takes the money to the officer only to find that the money is real. Jarrod feels so much better that he offers Brett a partnership into the law office. But things are not quite over.

William Shatner does an excellent job of playing the quick talking college chum that sweet talks his way through the entire episode. In fact the entire plot was very interesting and made for a nice summary for the episode. But when it came down to watching the show- it left for lessen excitement. We were introduced to Brett and the Secret Service officer all in the first ten minutes of the show. There was no anticipation or mystery that surround the episode since we all knew what was ahead. Don't mean to be a buzz-kill concerning the episode because the episode was well acted. But the way the story was introduced left for little in our imagination.

I'm not a Shatner fan

[mlbroberts · 6/10 · 27 March 2021]

I'll admit that up front but at least in this episode he is not "over the top" Shatner. His Brett Skyler is trying to keep his illegal activities hidden while he visits his old law school buddy Jarrod. My first problem with this episode - why in the world would a con man and otherwise successful counterfeiter visit an old friend and try to run his con on his old friend and his friend's family and associates? Skyler coming to Stockton and "visiting" Jarrod after years of no contact, only to run a con he could run anywhere makes no sense.

Shatner plays it restrained here but the plot is rather boring. The best part is probably the talk Jarrod has with Victoria about doubt - about how once someone plants it in your mind, you can even mistrust someone you once trusted with your life. Jarrod's stumbling through doubting and wanting to believe in Shatner is the only interesting part of the story. The counterfeiting ring, the bank "robbery" - not so much

Note: I read an old newspaper interview with Richard Long about counterfeiting in the old west. He did his homework on this and knew a lot about how easy it was because banks printed their own money and counterfeiters could move from state to state an avoid getting caught. Then I learned what a source Long had for his research - his older brother was a professor of history at SMU, specializing in western history. Long had his own "internet source" before there was an internet - it was a family "internet."