re: Star Trek in the Old West
As you say, it's no coincidence that Roddenberry's "Star Trek" has a lot of elements of the western in it. In fact, I think the pitch line he used to sell it was "Wagon Train in outer space."
"Firefly" does a pretty good, and even less subtle, job of transplanting the western into outer space.
Of course, for the whole hog, there was "Outland," a rehash of "High Noon." Or "Battle Beyond the Stars," a cheesy take-off on "Magnificent Seven," which was a less-cheesy take-off of "Seven Samurai."