Little House on the Prairie

When Harriet Olseon's niece, Kate, comes to Walnut Grove for a visit, she has a slight injury which requires her to see Doc Baker. Kate is quite young and very beautiful and the good doctor is certainly as aware of her as she is of him. Soon romance blossoms (mostly against the doctor's better judgement as he sees the age difference as insummountable.) Kate, however, wants to marry him and have a family and finally, the two agree that that is exactly what they will do.



It was pretty obvious from the beginning that the romance was not going to work out but it took Doc Baker (after a chat with Laura) to decide to call the whole thing off. In a way, I'm glad, I really like the doc and am used to him being single (as I'm sure he is too.) Kate was far too young to be his wife but he determination to become so was commendable. When she left Walnut Grove to pursue her future, we all felt pain for our favourite country doctor, but, of course, right from the opening credits, we knew how it would end up, and that was a great shame because the writing for this show is usually so much better than that. Ah well, at least he can still play cards with Mr. Hansen.

Mrs. Oleson's niece, Kate (played by a very beautiful and young Anne Archer, Michael Douglas' wife in "Fatal Attraction"), comes to town, she and Doc Baker fall in love, and he proposes marriage. She accepts. But Doc Baker starts to have doubts about the marriage because of their age difference (I'd guess he's about 20 years older than her). Everything comes to a head when Kate assists Doc Baker with a childbirth and he realizes that he also delivered the parents of the newborn. He tells Kate that he's "just too old" to marry her, and she just kind of drifts away.



After spending the first 3/4 of this episode establishing a beatuiful relationship between the Doc and Kate, the hasty "I'm too old for you" ending seems unrealistic and forced. Why couldn't they have either just let them marry or have him fall in love with someone more age appropriate? A chance to help establish the character of Doc Baker as more than just a bit player was "blown" here. Too bad, Kevin Hagen was a great actor and should have been given more to do.