Would 'Assignment Earth' really make it as a series?

I didn't know until years later that was Roddenberry's plan. Still I never thought it had enough room to grow. And Teri Garr had several issues with it. I think it would have flopped.

 

I think the fact it never made it past the "backdoor pilot" phase indicates the studio and the networks agree with you.

 

I agree with your concerns. If it were to have gone to series, I think its only chance for success would have been to riff on The Fugitive/The Incredible Hulk/Route 66 with different guest stars each week around whom the story would revolve. There are other ways to tell stories for this show, but no one was using them until much later.

 

I don't know. The whole concept has a real Doctor Who flavor to it. It could have been made to work.

 

I'm always struck by how many similarities Assignment: Earth as a concept has to Doctor Who. I don't at all think it's intentional, since as far as I know Doctor Who never aired in the U.S. until well after it was made, but I think Roddenberry and the DW producers came up with a lot of similar ideas because they were marinating in a similar late-60s Anglosphere cultural zeitgeist. You've got the older wise male hero figure who has advanced knowledge and a mysterious background connected to incredibly-advanced aliens who seem to have time-travel capabilities; you've got the beautiful young female assistant; you've got the innocuous-looking door that can actually take you anywhere in the world (TARDIS for Doctor Who, the vault transporter in Assignment: Earth); you've got the pen-like gizmo that can seemingly open any door and do any number of fantastic scientific things as the plot requires.

Anyway, I think Assignment: Earth could have worked as a concept, but "Assignment: Earth" the actual episode is hindered by some really bad pacing and a lack of chemistry between Garr and Lansing.

 

A miniseries perhaps, or a movie

 

Sounds fun but, what kind of missions would they do that regular Starfleet or Federation Intelligence, or S31, could not?

Being an alternative to S31 sounds nice but again, what missions would they be given that S.I. or F.I. could not do it by themselves?

 

Department of Temporal Investigations?

 

I mean, the entire concept of Assignment: Earth was that it would have been set in the then-present-day of the 1960s, so I don't really see why you would compare it a Starfleet Intelligence of Section 31 show?

 

The travellers probably know a lot more

 

Yeah, even more competition. Too many cooks already.

 

After Star Trek, Roddenberry had one big idea: a hero and his little team would travel the Earth solving everybody's problems. Genesis II, Planet Earth, The Questor Tapes, and (newly flavorized with spooky stuff) Spectre. "Assignment: Earth" was just the first one, and none of them went to series.

 

There was a comic series though (haven't read it yet)

 

I quite like the idea but as part of the Trek universe it feels weird. It could have been something like 60s "The X Files" or sci-fi "Mission: Impossible." I agree with NCC-73515 a miniseries might have been cool. It would be fascinating to think what it's impact on the wider Trek universe and in-universe history would be if it had gone ahead.

 

Doctor Who varied over the years (of the original series). It's primary difference from "Assignment: Earth" was that the Doctor was defending Earth from extraterrestrial threats, while Gary Seven (and later Questor) were protecting humanity from itself. And that was my gripe with the Roddenberry stories. What good is a civilization that cannot make it without a nanny—or coercion, as in The Day The Earth Stood Still? (A people coerced into submission cannot claim to be "peaceful".) When does such a civilization grow up?

Assignment: Earth's one redeeming aspect was that it was a Trek time travel tale without invoking paradoxes (I'm looking at you, "City on the Edge of Forever" and "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"). The travelers in "Assignment: Earth" discover at the end of it all that they were part of the shape of history.

 

Off topic slightly, but the UK broadcast I first watched bizarrely blended the fade-outs with the following fade-ins. Nothing was cut as far as I am aware, but it looks like they blended it to remove all commercial fades. Not seen any other episodes like that.

 

Do you ever really know? Buffy the Vampire Slayer was considered a mediocre and forgettable movie, but someone made a TV series of it and it was a huge hit.

 

I'm not so sure. Miss Garr never liked the ever shrinking mini skirts.