Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Would you please see if that telegram's arrived yet?

Look at his hat.

Looks like a Chinaman.

Colleen.

You know him?

What do you think you're doing?

No Chinese allowed.

No understandee, Chinee boy?

I don't let you in here. Get out.

Aw, he don't understand English.

I bet he understands this.

Get your stinkin', dog-eatin' carcass out of my sight

'fore I shoot you.

I hope you don't, sir,

because Mr. Tait would then be forced to shoot you.

His father saved my life.

I'd take it personally if you did him any harm.

By the way, his name's Peter.

Well... long as he's with you.

Are you with the, uh, railroad?

A surveyor for the Kansas Pacific.

- Name's Jackson Tait. - Loren Bray.

- This is my friend Jake... - Mayor Slicker.

What brings you here?

Doing surveying work.

Railroad's looking for a route to El Paso.

You mean the railroad might come through here?

It's either here or Soda Springs.

- May I look? - Now you can.

This is where we're gonna live.

Oh, Sully, it's beautiful.

Come on.

This is what I was planning on building for our new house.

- You like it? - I love it.

Sully, do I get my own room?

Everybody gets their own room.

- Except for you. - Yeah.

Too bad you got to go off with Ingrid and miss out on all this.

If I start now,

I should be done by spring, when we get married.

Well, where's Grandma and your sisters gonna sleep

- when they come for the wedding? - Don't you worry.

There's gonna be room enough for everybody.

And by then, they may be able to ride the train

all the way from Boston to here.

What makes you say that?

Jake tells me there's gonna be a contest between our town

and Soda Springs to see who gets the railroad.

A real train? With engines and everything?

Well, first, there's gonna be a town meeting so everyone

can have their say as to how the town council votes.

But if the council approves it and if the railroad chooses us,

we could see a steam engine

puffing into town by next spring.

Train coming. Clear the tracks!

Clear the tracks!

You clear the tracks!

Come here.

Train's coming too fast for you.

Come here.

Matthew, would you get the picnic basket?

Sully?

I hope they pick Soda Springs.

What do you mean?

It's a beautiful piece of land,

but don't get your heart set on living here.

Railroad comes to Colorado Springs, we're moving.

Sully! Sully! I'm gonna be an engineer.

All you need's a whistle.

I think Brian's gone train crazy.

- It's Cloud Dancing! - He's back.

- Hello. - Haho.

I'm so glad you're back from your vision quest.

My soul has made peace with my son's death.

We were beginning to think we wouldn't see you again.

So much has happened since you've been gone.

- You're to be married. - How do you know?

Spirits told me.

I guess the spirits were wrong when they said we'd be apart.

They said something would separate you.

They did not say for how long.

Did the spirits tell you the railroad's coming?

Yes. That is why I have returned.

I am worried for my people.

I heard the Dog Soldiers promised to stop it.

I hope the spirits say you can stay for supper.

We're having fried chicken.

I'm sure they would want that.

Right there. That's right.

I've never seen so many people going to church,

especially on a Saturday.

They're having a meetin' about the train.

Hey, aren't you with the railroad men?

That's right. Hey, did you make these things?

- Yes, sir. - Boy, that engine, huh?

Why, this locomotive looks like she's built for highballing.

What's that?

Going fast.

You know, with the throttle wide open

and the... the wind so hard on your face

that there's tears in your eyes and you...

you can't catch your breath.

Ah, there's nothing like it.

And then, when you really want to cut her loose, send a signal

to the engineer just by waving your lantern like that.

- You ever been on a train? - Yes, sir.

All the way to Boston and back.

Boston?

Did you know that the train might be coming here?

That's what my ma says.

Who might that be?

She's a doctor.

Dr. Quinn.

A lady doctor?

Yes, sir. But she's real smart.

- Does your ma like trains? - Sure.

Don't everybody?

Trains make a lot of smoke and a lot of noise.

When I lived in St. Louis, they woke me up every night.

So we won't let them run at night.

We don't have a say in that, Loren,

or in who buys the tickets.

Saints and sinners ride the same train.

We don't know what kind of folks the railroad's gonna bring here.

Enough talk. Let's vote.

Me first.

I say anybody stands in the way of this train's

gonna get run over.

I think we should spend the money we got in the treasury

to do whatever we can to bring this railroad here.

I vote yes. Loren?

I'm a businessman.

I like to make money.

Railroad comes to town,

I'm gonna make a lot of money, and so is everyone in this room.

We're all gonna get rich!

This town's never gonna get a chance to grow

- unless we have the railroad. - That's right.

So let the contest begin, and may the best town win.

That's... That's two for it.

Horace?

Well, at first, I was for it,

but things are pretty nice here the way they are.

I-I want to have kids someday.

And... And I want them to grow up in a small town like I did.

So I'm voting no.

No?

- You fearful son of a... - No!

Stop it! Stop it!

Jake!

Quiet. Quiet, all of you!

Never heard such avarice and greed here before.

There has been a change here, a change I don't like.

I am voting no.

All right, that's...

that's two for it and two against it.

Looks like it's up to you.

If the train comes here, I could do my job better.

I could save more lives.

I could save your lives, your children's lives.

And I'm confident that we could work together

to find compromises...

that we could overcome the difficulties

that change and progress may bring into our lives.

And therefore, I'm voting yes.

Hallelujah!

This meeting's adjourned.

Sully.

Sully, we have to talk about this.

Well, I don't expect us to...

to go on through our lives agreeing about everything,

but I think we agree that we want the best life

for our children.

I do agree.

That's why I think we should be moving on.

I want the children to see the reason why I came west.

Well, they will.

Things won't change overnight.

Every mile of track that they lay is gonna kill something.

The buffalo and the antelope and the elk,

they won't cross those rails.

So once winter comes, they're gonna starve to death.

With nothing to hunt, the Cheyenne are gonna starve

right along with them.

10 years from now, there's gonna be fences everywhere.

I don't want to be here to see it.

We can't move now. We... We have roots here.

The children have friends.

And I've worked very hard to build this practice.

The railroad comes, it's gonna bring other doctors.

What are you gonna do about that?

I'll still have patients.

Why don't we go someplace else,

someplace where they don't have a doctor, where you'd be needed?

I know how you feel about this.

But right now, I'm needed here, and so are you.

We don't have to decide anything yet.

We don't even know if the railroad is coming here.

We don't have a library, do we, Ma?

No, we don't.