Kate Mulgrew, LeVar Burton, and Avery Brooks are among than a dozen ‘Star Trek’ cast and crew who worked on the television movie, ‘Roots: The Gift.’
ABC
The logo for ‘Roots: The Gift’
No one could have known it at the time, but the made-for-television movie “Roots: The Gift” was pretty much a “Star Trek” convention… before most of its talent ever even worked on “Star Trek” or actually attended a convention. ABC premiered “Roots: The Gift” on December 11, 1988, according to the Internet Movie Database. The Christmas-themed movie followed the network’s landmark 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which was based on Alex Haley’s 1976 novel “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” and won nine Emmy Awards. A detailed look at the Internet Movie Database entry reveals that more than a dozen “Trek” actors or crew were involved in “Roots: The Gift.”
The site AlexHaley. com features the following synopsis of “Roots: The Gift”: “In December 1775, Cletus Moyer (Avery Brooks), is a free black Northerner in colonial America, helping slaves escape captivity. In the days just prior to Christmas, a group of bounty hunters led by Hattie Carraway (Kate Mulgrew), captures Moyer. Because of his capture, dozens of slaves who have already left their plantations are in danger of being captured as well. Cletus Moyer implores two slaves from a nearby plantation to take his place: Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton), a Mandinka in his mid-twenties who was captured in what is now called The Gambia, a country in West Africa, and Fiddler (Louis Gossett Jr.), an elderly man who was born into slavery. Kunta is eager to help (and to escape himself), but Fiddler is unwilling, fearful of the consequences if they are caught.”
According to the Internet Movie Database, in addition to Burton, Brooks, and Mulgrew, other “Star Trek” actors and behind-the-scenes talent who worked on “Roots: The Gift” included: Jerry Hardin, Fran Bennett, Tim Russ, Jimmie F. Skaggs, James McIntire, Gerald Fried, John A. Alonzo, Dodie Shepard, Julia Walker, and Greg Barbanell. Their contributions to ‘Star Trek,” in all cases according to Memory Alpha, StarTrek. com, or the Internet Movie Database, included:
LeVar Burton (actor): Burton reprised his groundbreaking role as Kunte Kinte in “Roots: The Gift.
