Space cowboys

  In the last few decades, the Western has become an unfashionable genre. But even if you haven't seen a lot of popular formal Western films and television series of late, you've likely still been watching and enjoying Westerns for some time, just in a different set of clothes than you might expect: under the guise of science fiction television. [...] Recently, new seasons of two popular science fiction television shows trotted into town: Star Trek: Discovery, which is found on CBS All Access; and the Star Wars drama The Mandalorian, which is streaming on Disney+. [...] Both shows also take a number of elements from the conventions of Western film and television.
  The Season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, titled “That Hope is You,” posits Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Marrin-Green) as a literal stranger in a strange land, placing her light years in time and distance from anyone she knows, on an unfamiliar world. This is the new frontier, and before long she's entering the local saloons and getting involved in brawls and disputes over precious dilithium. [...]
  Like Star Trek, Star Wars has never been particularly shy about its Western influence, and that remains true with The Mandalorian. The premise immediately conjures up an older Western television show called Have Gun – Will Travel (1957-1963), in which a mysterious character called Paladin journeys the United States as a mercenary with a heart, taking on the concept of the “noble gunslinger.” The Mandalorian also mirrors this show's time period: Have Gun – Will Travel is set in the late 1800s, after the end of the American Civil War, whereas The Mandalorian is set five years after the end of the Galactic Civil War, during which the Rebels defeated the Empire as seen in the 1983 Star Wars film Return of the Jedi.