Before ‘Star Trek,’ Gene Roddenberry Made His Mark on This Classic Western Series

The big picture

• Gene Roddenberry wrote 24 episodes of the Western series
  Have Gun – Will travel
  showing his versatile talent as a writer.
• The show was ahead of its time, with a unique main character, Paladin, who avoided unnecessary violence and embraced different cultures.
• Roddenberry's work continues
  Have Gun – Will travel
  foreshadowed his creation of
  Star Trek,
  as both series sought to challenge narrative norms.

Before creating Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry He worked as a freelance writer for a number of different programs beginning in the mid-1950s. But back then, the American Western genre was the most popular genre on television, which meant that Roddenberry wrote a few gunslinger tales back in the day. Among the hour-and-a-half shows, there was almost always a western on one of the big three television networks, and one of the most popular at the time was Have Gun – Will travel. The six-season television series starred Richard Boone (from The T Cut) and ran from 1957 to 1963, telling just about every traditional Western tale you can imagine. Roddenberry wrote his fair share of these stories himself, which left his own mark on his most popular sci-fi series.

What is “Have Gun – Will Travel”?

With a title like Have Gun – Will travelone might wonder what this “adult” western is all about. Richard Boone stars as Paladin, a smart, erudite gunslinger who travels the country doing odd jobs and solving all sorts of problems.. There are few recurring characters beyond the Paladin himself, but that's actually to the benefit of this show. Paladí was always kind to others, but ultimately worked best on his own. The character's name is derived from the legendary medieval knights of the same name, and he actually has a white chess knight embroidered on his scabbard. More than capable as a soldier in his own right, Paladin wanders the post-Civil War United States (once serving in the Union Army) as a “knight without armor,” hoping to avoid violence at every step

Have Gun – Will travel deals with everything from Native American conflicts, cattle rustling, bank robberies, interracial marriages, outlaw gangs, and more. If it happened in a western, it probably happened at some point Have Gun – Will travel. In accordance with Tim Brooks i Earle Marsh in The complete cable television and cable television program directory, 1946-presentthe series was an instant hit. It ranked as one of the top 5 TV shows in the ratings from its first season and was the third most popular western of its time.right behind gun smoke i wagon train. It's also worth noting that the show's portrayal of its main gunslinger was probably part of the reason it was so popular. Unlike other Western TV protagonists, Paladin was college-educated, well-read, and did everything he could to avoid unnecessary violence after his time in the Civil War. He was also willing to engage with different cultures and had an expensive palate that cost a considerable amount to maintain. No wonder their rates were so high.

Also, Paladin was one of the fastest guns in the Old West. Although he never expected to fire his weapon in battle, he often found himself in situations where violence was necessary. While many other Western heroes wore lighter colors to signify their position in the fight between good and evil, Paladin dressed in black and prided himself on his ethics despite his almost evil appearance. Have Gun – Will travel it ran for 225 episodes, each recounting a new half-hour adventure that would once again see our hero put to the test.. Simultaneously, a Have Gun – Will travel A radio program was also produced, with John Dehner of gun smoke fame instead Paladin.

Gene Roddenberry wrote 24 episodes of “Have Gun – Will Travel”

From the beginning, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry participated Have Gun – Will travel. The third episode of the series, “The Great Mojave Chase”, was the first episode written by the future science fiction author, and immediately helped set the tone of the series. He would write several episodes throughout the first season, including “The Yuma Treasure” and the excellent Christmas tale “The Hanging Cross,” which begins with Paladin withdrawing his weapon in the infamous opening sequence. Despite this, Roddenberry would not be recognized for his contributions to the series until the sixteenth episode, “Helen of Abajinian”, aired. in late 1957. The following year, the Writer's Guild of America awarded him a “Best Original Screenplay” award for the episode. And no wonder, as “Helen of Abajinian” is a ton of wedding-themed fun.

In total, Roddenberry wrote 24 episodes of Have Gun – Will travel in the six seasons of the series. Although he only wrote a single episode in the show's fourth and fifth seasons, he wrote between five and six episodes per season for the rest of the series. Roddenberry writes Paladin as cool and collected, emphasizing his peculiar brand of morality. He has an air about him that makes him feel like a man out of time, and while this is Paladin's aesthetic throughout the series, Roddenberry's episodes capture it best.. “The Hanging Cross” is a particularly compelling episode where Paladí mediates between a grieving rancher, Nathaniel Beecher (Edward Binns), and local chief Pawnee Cah-la-te (Abraham Sofaer) for Christmas. As Paladin seeks to uncover the truth behind Beecher's missing son, he preaches a message of peace and hangs up his gun so he can prevent Beecher from killing the Pawnee without any bloodshed. It's a powerful moment when Paladin is challenged by his belief, and Roddenberry pulls it off in the climax.

In Have Gun – Will travel, Roddenberry's distinct voice is seen throughout his episodes. Although the show would also help launch other people's careers, including Superman director Richard Donner, mission impossible creator Bruce Geller, The wild group director Sam Peckinpahi dirty harry co-writer Harry Julian Fink—Roddenberry was the show's most prolific writer, in addition to series creators Herb Meadow and Sam Rolfe.. It's no surprise then that he created his own series for CBS three years after Paladin's last adventure.

Roddenberry's plans for 'Star Trek' can be seen in this western

It has long been said that when Gene Roddenberry first pitched Star Trek on CBS, he did so by calling it “Wagon train to the stars.” The Star Trek The creator hoped to adapt the traditional Western theme of “manifest destiny” to outer space with the concept of the USS Enterprise exploring the vast reaches of the universe, the “final frontier”. Although the original Star Trek The series only lasted three seasons, becoming a cult classic that spawned a massive franchise that is as strong as ever. But while Star Trek it can seem like the exact opposite of a series like Have Gun – Will travel (set in the future rather than the past, an ensemble cast instead of a single hero, alien species instead of mythical Native Americans, etc.), there were a few more common threads than you might initially think. In accordance with Edward Gross' The Fifty Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 YearsRoddenberry wanted to break free from the western formula he had been forced to write before.

But this is not all. Roddenberry felt limited by what topics he could and could not talk about on network television, so Star Trek's futuristic setting was designed to change the entire conversation. Of couse, we can see Roddenberry's yearnings for more in his Have Gun – Will travel episodes, too. The acclaimed “Helen of Abajinian” features no shooting and instead ends with a wedding that mixes two cultures (Star Trek it would later feature one of the first interracial kisses on television). “The Hanging Cross” doesn't conclude with a shootout, either, though it almost escalates there. Instead, a Christmas miracle (and Paladin's willingness to lay down his weapon) changes the entire outcome. And let's not forget how, in most of Roddenberry's episodes, Native Americans have more depth and complexity, rarely (if ever) portrayed in a negative light.

It's easy to see how a character like Paladin, who seemed relatively progressive in his day and age, would appeal to Gene Roddenberry.whose political and cultural tendencies would serve as a foundation for the Star Trek franchise Have Gun – Will travel it was like someone liked him Rod Serling (who once tried his own hand at the Western) might call “a thinking man's Western.” It made the audience stop and consider the implications of each and every conflict and, like Paladin himself, look for another, more peaceful solution. In the wake of the Vietnam War, this would have been a Western that most audiences could relate to. He was quite conservative in his material but progressive in his solutions. Gene Roddenberry certainly contributed to the impressive legacy of Have Gun – Will travelwhich in turn contributed to the creation of Star Trek same

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