[Sirius Lee]

“Wagon train to the stars” was the verbatim pitch Gene Roddenberry used to the network execs to get Star Trek on the air.

[Gideonwoulfe]

That was the reason for the title, although I did not get around to discussing Star Trek in this article. Trek is certainly one of the American Scifi shows that owes its existence to the Frontier Mythos.

[tanknetter]

“Wagon train to the stars” was the verbatim pitch Gene Roddenberry used to the network execs to get Star Trek on the air.

Bear in mind that Roddenberry saw Star Trek as a trojan horse. Sell it as "Wagon Train to the stars" to win network sponsorship, but then load the actual show down with explicit and implicit social commentary.

Looking back, Star Trek (original series, anyways) ended up being a lot lighter on the social commentary than Roddenberry intended. Which is why it continues to appeal to people across the ideological spectrum. Conservatives see "Wagon Train to the stars", while Liberals get their social commentary fix.