Gene-ology: A Mission Log Look into Gene Roddenberry's Works

Gene-ology examines the last produced script Gene Roddenberry wrote for the western series Boots & Saddles, one which happened to mark his first collaboration with one DeForest Kelley. But did Gene's script land a knockout punch?

Guest starring Jeff Gauntt as Captain "Shank" Adams and Larry Nemecek as Captain Merriweather

Gene Roddenberry's short stint as a writer on the 1957-58 western Boots & Saddles continues in his second script, "The Prussian Farmer", which thrusts a pacifistic retired soldier into a situation where he may have to fight once more.

Guest starring John Billingsley as Franz Mueller, Bonita Friedericy as Mrs. Mueller, and Jeff Gauntt as Captain "Shank" Adams

Gene-ology jumps tracks to another late '50s western, Boots & Saddles, where Gene wrote a number of scripts chronicling the exploits of the Fifth Cavalry, including "The Gatling Gun", tackling the thorny issue of ageism.

Guest starring Jeff Gauntt as Captain "Shank" Adams, Kyle Clark as Colonel Hays, and Kerstan Szczepanski as Colonel Parker.

Gene-ology examines the Have Gun - Will Travel episode "Alice", a challenging, impressively nuanced Gene Roddenberry script that may be notable for what it avoids saying as much as for what it does say.

Paladin's next job may require him to do something he finds morally questionable. If he turns it down, innocent people may start dying. Gene-ology covers "El Paso Stage", Gene's only script from season 4 of Have Gun - Will Travel.

Gene-ology gives Gene Roddenberry's "Charley Red Dog" episode of Have Gun - Will Travel a fresh watch and finds the classic Roddenberry elements, messages aplenty for the audience, and a hard-to-ignore casting issue.

Gene's scripts for Have Gun - Will Travel continue with a third season entry that seems to be about the unlikeliest of antagonists: a "Tiger" is loose in Texas! But is it truly a threat, or will someone else show Paladin their real stripes first?

Gene-ology keeps hopping through Gene Roddenberry's scripts for Have Gun - Will Travel, examining "The Golden Toad", a tale dropping Paladin between two families fighting over the rights to what they believe is buried treasure...a treasure they're willing to kill for.

Framed for murder, Paladin walks a tightrope between justice and revenge, and even if he establishes the truth, someone dies at the hands of "The Posse", a grim but much-loved episode of Have Gun - Will Travel written by Gene Roddenberry.

Do you hear all the giggling cover from that covered wagon winding its way through Oregon? That's the sound of "Les Girls", one of the episodes Gene Roddenberry wrote for Have Gun - Will Travel, with a storyline and subject matter that Star Trek reused and expanded upon.