Back to the Klondike is the thirty-third episode of DuckTales 1987, and the first episode in production order. It is a loose adaption of the Carl Barks story of the same name, and as such, it also marks Glittering Goldie's first appearance in animation.
Synopsis[]
One mid-February evening at McDuck Manor, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby and Mrs. Beakley are getting ready for Valentine’s Day, making their own valentines. Scrooge tells them that he could care less about valentines, but the kids soon discover him obsessing over an old valentine in a closet. Scrooge explains that he received the valentine from an old flame back when he was a prospector during the Klondike Gold Rush, and he proceeds to tell the kids a story.
As a prospector at White Agony Creek, although not wealthy yet, Scrooge was far from being a wimp. One night he brought his earnings to Dangerous Dan’s honky-tonk, where he met Glittering Goldie as she sang for a crowd. Dangerous Dan taunted Scrooge, saying that he couldn’t afford a mint soda, but Scrooge displayed his earnings: a gold nugget, to the crowd, and impressed everyone. Goldie and Dan forced Scrooge into playing poker, with his nugget at stake, but Goldie rigged the deck in order to win.
Goldie hid the nugget in a piano, but Scrooge and Dan quickly got into a fight, causing Dan to get knocked onto the piano as he rolled outside, and he soon discovered the nugget. When Scrooge was unable to get his nugget back from Goldie, he demanded that she dig him up another one. Despite their initial dislike towards each other, Scrooge and Goldie actually got along well as they dug for more gold over the next little while. When Scrooge got ready to return to Duckburg with Goldie, he hid his gold under a rock, and received a valentine and a kiss from Goldie. Unfortunately, the gold got stolen, and Dan told Scrooge that Goldie made off with it. Depressed, Scrooge instead dug for gold by himself at Red Agony Creek, and finishes his story.
Dewey asks if there’s still any gold left in White Agony Creek, to which Scrooge responds by saying that he only took a small amount to start with, and that he still owns the claim. So Scrooge and the boys head up to the Klondike on Scrooge’s train, and are quickly spotted by Dan and his partner. Scrooge returns to his claim, only to discover that a claim jumper has taken up residence in his cabin. To avoid being shot at, Scrooge waits until nightfall to approach the cabin, but is chased around by a bear. After a while, the claim jumper calls off the bear and returns to the cabin.
While Dan concludes that Scrooge returned just because there was more gold on the claim, Scrooge and the boys try to set up a bear trap. The bear easily breaks through the trap and chases Scrooge some more, while the nephews use a rope to pull the claim jumper’s shotgun out of her hands. At this point the boys tell the claim jumper (Goldie) to call off her bear from attacking Scrooge. Surprised by Scrooge’s return, Goldie quickly freshens up, but only to chase after Scrooge with a revolver.
Before shooting Scrooge, Goldie explains that she’s living on his property because she had no place else to go. Scrooge apologizes to Goldie, telling her that he thinks of her every day. Scrooge and Goldie then make up and go for a walk, but their harmony ends when they get into an argument over what happened to Scrooge’s stolen gold. Goldie fires at Scrooge, but hits a rock, blasting open a small cache of gold within. When Scrooge tells Goldie she can pay him back with some of the gold she just discovered, she gets mad and heads to town with her bear, whose name is then revealed to be Blackjack.
Scrooge and the boys mine some gold, and later they leave the Klondike by train. Dan tries to convince Goldie to help him rob the train, but she declines his offer. When Dan and his partner catch up to the train on horseback, they begin to shoot, and Dan climbs up onto the roof. Scrooge takes on Dan, and ends up taking off his belt and tying him up. But Scrooge gets knocked off the roof by a branch, while Dan’s partner forces the engineer to stop the train.
Dan tells Scrooge that he was the one who stole his gold, and that he simply lied about Goldie being the thief. At that point, Goldie rides up to the train on Blackjack, shooting at Dan and his partner, who then ride off. Now that they know the truth, Scrooge and Goldie properly apologize to each other. Although Goldie declines Scrooge’s offer to come back to Duckburg with him, Scrooge presents to her the deed to his claim. He then tells Goldie that while she didn’t steal his gold, she did steal his heart.
Cast[]
- Joan Gerber as Mrs. Beakley and Glittering Goldie
- Will Ryan as Dangerous Dan
- Hal Smith as Witlow
- Russi Taylor as Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck and Webby Vanderquack
- Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck
Video releases[]
VHS
- DuckTales: Earthquack (International release)
DVD
- DuckTales: Volume 2 (Reg. 1)
- DuckTales: 2nd Collection (Reg. 2)
Adaptations[]
- Picture book: Back to the Klondike and Superdoo!
Trivia[]
- Although the serial "The Treasure of the Golden Suns" was written as the show's pilot, and aired as such, "Back to the Klondike" was the first episode to be produced, and hence is the pilot of the series in terms of production.
- Scrooge is the very first character to speak in the production code, coincidentally, he was also the very first character to speak in the first aired episode.
