Most movie and TV show treatments of Doc Holliday portray him as a partner or sidekick to the legendary frontier lawman Wyatt Earp, so it was refreshing to catch this episode with the emphasis on John Henry Holliday from his early years as a dental student to his gradual transformation into a vicious and unprincipled outlaw, gambler and gunman. That transformation appeared to occur following Holliday's diagnosis of tuberculosis, commonly called consumption during the 1800's due to it's nature of consuming a host body from the inside out. His mother died from it, and because there was no cure, Holliday ditched his medical degree to head West and die on his own terms.
Because Holliday's reputation is so closely linked with that of the Earp Brothers, the episode does maintain a focus on Doc's relationship with Wyatt Earp, how they first met and how Doc's career paralleled Earp's as both headed Westward and crossed each other's path at various times. In Dodge City, Kansas, Doc got Wyatt out of a tough spot, outmanned and outgunned in a situation that could have been his final gunfight. That event cemented their relationship and created what might be the most unlikely friendship in the history of the Old West.
As a follower of the Earp saga, I wasn't surprised by the approach of this episode the way many modern day viewers might be. Portrayed as a legendary lawman in a multitude of movie, television and historical novel treatments, the real Wyatt Earp was an opportunistic individual who operated on either side of the law as it suited him. Though the term wasn't used here, Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil Earp, by the time they arrived in Tombstone, Arizona in 1879, operated pretty much along the lines of a protection racket. Their main opposition was a 'Cowboy' faction headed by a family of rustlers and outlaws known as the Clantons, who along with the McLaury's faced off against the Earps and Doc Holliday at what's become known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Perhaps because the emphasis of this episode is on Doc Holliday, a conclusion is drawn that it might have been Doc who fired the first shot at the Corral showdown. Roughly thirty shots were exchanged in thirty seconds, leaving Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton dead. Ike Clanton and young Billy Claiborne fled the scene when gunfire broke out, as the 'good guy' side all suffered wounds except for Wyatt. A couple months following the gunfight, Virgil was shot in an ambush but survived, while Morgan was killed in a separate incident. These events gave rise to the Earp Vendetta Ride as it's known in history, as Doc Holliday joined up with Wyatt to exact revenge on four more cowboys for the attack on the Earp brothers.
As time passed, Wyatt Earp married and headed to California, while Doc Holliday eventually succumbed to his illness in a Colorado sanitarium. One is left to surmise that if he had his own way, Doc might have preferred to go out in a blaze of glory rather than be taken out by tuberculosis, but sometimes Fate has different plans. As presented in this 'Legends and Lies' episode, the story of Doc Holliday is probably one of the more colorful chapters in the history of the Old West.
Because Holliday's reputation is so closely linked with that of the Earp Brothers, the episode does maintain a focus on Doc's relationship with Wyatt Earp, how they first met and how Doc's career paralleled Earp's as both headed Westward and crossed each other's path at various times. In Dodge City, Kansas, Doc got Wyatt out of a tough spot, outmanned and outgunned in a situation that could have been his final gunfight. That event cemented their relationship and created what might be the most unlikely friendship in the history of the Old West.
As a follower of the Earp saga, I wasn't surprised by the approach of this episode the way many modern day viewers might be. Portrayed as a legendary lawman in a multitude of movie, television and historical novel treatments, the real Wyatt Earp was an opportunistic individual who operated on either side of the law as it suited him. Though the term wasn't used here, Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil Earp, by the time they arrived in Tombstone, Arizona in 1879, operated pretty much along the lines of a protection racket. Their main opposition was a 'Cowboy' faction headed by a family of rustlers and outlaws known as the Clantons, who along with the McLaury's faced off against the Earps and Doc Holliday at what's become known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Perhaps because the emphasis of this episode is on Doc Holliday, a conclusion is drawn that it might have been Doc who fired the first shot at the Corral showdown. Roughly thirty shots were exchanged in thirty seconds, leaving Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton dead. Ike Clanton and young Billy Claiborne fled the scene when gunfire broke out, as the 'good guy' side all suffered wounds except for Wyatt. A couple months following the gunfight, Virgil was shot in an ambush but survived, while Morgan was killed in a separate incident. These events gave rise to the Earp Vendetta Ride as it's known in history, as Doc Holliday joined up with Wyatt to exact revenge on four more cowboys for the attack on the Earp brothers.
As time passed, Wyatt Earp married and headed to California, while Doc Holliday eventually succumbed to his illness in a Colorado sanitarium. One is left to surmise that if he had his own way, Doc might have preferred to go out in a blaze of glory rather than be taken out by tuberculosis, but sometimes Fate has different plans. As presented in this 'Legends and Lies' episode, the story of Doc Holliday is probably one of the more colorful chapters in the history of the Old West.
