Assignment Earth Series

[Marc_Seven]

Hi folks -

I'm the guy with the AE website. I check my access logs and saw some visits coming from here and checked it out. Glad you enjoyed what's there.

If anyone has more information/documents on AE, I'd gladly add it to my site and give credit where it's due (unless you're a secret agent and crediting you would jeopardise your life). My info came from Starlog articles and a few books (all listed at the bottom of the intro page).

Re: Teri Garr, her Trek experience and MS

The site has been up in one form or another since 1999. I, too, was taken aback by the strength of her response to the Trek question in her Starlog interview, which is quoted on the intro page.

I've heard/read that actors either enjoyed their Trek experience, or were somewhat bemused they were known for Trek more than other work they would rather be remembered for.

So, I feel a bit bad now that Ms. Garr's illness is taking a toll on her and that the quote is part of the record, but I don't think we'll ever learn the context that would fuel such bitter feelings.

Thanks for sharing what you know.

 

[MANT!]

Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd ) stated in an interview (I really cannot recall what magazine but it was in the early 80's) that HE had been approached by Paramount execs for a spin off based on Harry Mudd...my mind boggles at how FUN that series could have been...

 

[Botany Bay]

The thing I want to know about AE is how they got this thing to air past Shatner and Nimoy - I bet they wouldn't have been too thrilled about it

 

[Therin of Andor]

aussie said:
The thing I want to know about AE is how they got this thing to air past Shatner and Nimoy - I bet they wouldn't have been too thrilled about it

Not so sure why you think Shatner and Nimoy wouldn't be "thrilled"? They'd be paid for the episode whether it got a second life as a pilot or not, and their episode wouldn't have necessarily been Episode #1 of an "Assignment: Earth" TV series.

It wasn't unusual or difficult to get a so-called "backdoor pilot" to air, because the costs are absorbed by the parent show. I also recall "Kelly's Kids" (featuring TNG's Brooke Bundy), an unusual backdoor pilot/episode of "The Brady Bunch" where Mr and Mrs Brady council potential adoptive parents about their forthcoming inter-racial family.

See also Backdoor_pilots

 

[doctorwho 03]

Valin said:
Which came first--The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver or Seven's pen?

If I remember my DW history, the sonic screwdriver came about during the Pertwee era, sometime in the early to mid 70's, which means they 'copied' the concept of Sevens pen in AE, which is fair because later when TNG was on in the late 80's-early 90's, Star Trek took the Cybermen concept and turned them into the Borg.

They steal from us, so we steal from them. That sounds pretty fair, don't you think.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

^^^Nah, Troughton first had the sonic screwdriver--pretty sure it was in one of the wiped eps. In fact, I've read somewhere (probably Wikipedia) that the sonic screwdriver premiered the same month A:E was broadcast. So they were simultaneous; nobody stole the idea.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Jptrekker]

since nobody has posted these to this topic yet,

somebody came up with some ideas for the opening of an AE series:

Theme 2

Theme 1

And then one that plays on Teri Garr's association with a famous group of coffee drinkers

 

[Robert Treat]

Teri Garr's illness

I just found out on this thread about Teri Garr's illness. That's what claimed Madeline Rhue (Marla McGivers of "Space Seed") IIRC

 

[Botany Bay]

Therin of Andor said:

aussie said:
The thing I want to know about AE is how they got this thing to air past Shatner and Nimoy - I bet they wouldn't have been too thrilled about it

Not so sure why you think Shatner and Nimoy wouldn't be "thrilled"? They'd be paid for the episode whether it got a second life as a pilot or not, and their episode wouldn't have necessarily been Episode #1 of an "Assignment: Earth" TV series.

It wasn't unusual or difficult to get a so-called "backdoor pilot" to air, because the costs are absorbed by the parent show. I also recall "Kelly's Kids" (featuring TNG's Brooke Bundy), an unusual backdoor pilot/episode of "The Brady Bunch" where Mr and Mrs Brady council potential adoptive parents about their forthcoming inter-racial family.

See also Backdoor_pilots

The two were at war by this point over their status as "star" of the show, and morale was at an all time low as the show barely missed being axed just after "The Deadly Years". NBC gave them a last minute reprieve to finish off season 2.

Then again, for all they knew, AE would be the final episode, so maybe they backed off as a favour to Roddenberry.

Memos have proven that both men fiercely fought over every single word each character got. When they were handed a script that barely had them in it I bet it raised a few eyebrows to put it mildly

 

[Ssosmcin]

Gerr's attitude toward the show may have stemmed from Roddenberry's insistence on altering her costume repeatedly. He kept on making it shorter and shorter, and knowing what we know about Gene, he most likely tried (succeeded?) in getting Garr to stick around for "overtime" on Gene's couch. A possibility...

 

[Phillip Culley]

Sir Rhosis said:
^^^Nah, Troughton first had the sonic screwdriver--pretty sure it was in one of the wiped eps. In fact, I've read somewhere (probably Wikipedia) that the sonic screwdriver premiered the same month A:E was broadcast. So they were simultaneous; nobody stole the idea.

Sir Rhosis

Season 5's 'Fury from the Deep' - the sonic screwdriver appeared in Episode 1 (broadcast March 16, 1968). However, in that episode it was just used as a screwdriver (albeit using ultrasonics to unscrew things) rather than the handy machine that can do anything in the Pertwee era.

However, this sounds like the very similar 'who came up with the planet Vulcan first' - it appears in Doctor Who's 'The Power of the Daleks' (first broadcast 5th November 1966) and although I don't think Star Trek's Vulcan is named until after that, it's very likely that the episode where it was first named was filmed and completed long before the Doctor Who episode (which was usually filmed a week or two before broadcast).

Yet another of those serendipitous moments when both series come up with the same concept

 

[Nebusj]

Phillip Culley said:
Yet another of those serendipitous moments when both series come up with the same concept

Just as a point of note, both shows coming up with a Planet Vulcan may not be completely luck. A ``Planet Vulcan'' was hypothesized as a way to explain anomalies in the orbit of Mercury in the mid-19th century (the way Neptune was for anomalies in the orbit of Uranus) and while observationally the idea had pretty well been dead from the 1880s, it wasn't really thoroughly killed (by the development of general relativity) until about 1920. Very likely the writers of both shows would have picked up old popularizations and treatments describing the hypothetical Vulcan in childhood, and the name is quite catchy.

Also, there was a little fuss in the early 60s with the thinking that building hardware in space would require new tools that would avoid passing torque on to astronauts assembling things in orbit, and the like. This, rather like the dangers of ``vacuum welding'', turned out not to be an actual problem, but there was a while you could pick up children's books on space and see it explained how they had to use special space screwdrivers and the like, so ``high tech tools'' was somewhat in the air.

 

[doctorwho 03]

Phillip Culley said:

Sir Rhosis said:
^^^Nah, Troughton first had the sonic screwdriver--pretty sure it was in one of the wiped eps. In fact, I've read somewhere (probably Wikipedia) that the sonic screwdriver premiered the same month A:E was broadcast. So they were simultaneous; nobody stole the idea.

Sir Rhosis

Season 5's 'Fury from the Deep' - the sonic screwdriver appeared in Episode 1 (broadcast March 16, 1968). However, in that episode it was just used as a screwdriver (albeit using ultrasonics to unscrew things) rather than the handy machine that can do anything in the Pertwee era.

I did not know that. I guess you do learn something everyday. :thumbsup:

 

[Valin]

Sir Rhosis said:
^^^Nah, Troughton first had the sonic screwdriver--pretty sure it was in one of the wiped eps. In fact, I've read somewhere (probably Wikipedia) that the sonic screwdriver premiered the same month A:E was broadcast. So they were simultaneous; nobody stole the idea.

Sir Rhosis

Thanks

 

[Jeri]

Doomsday said:
But Ms. Garr went on to play basically the same ditzy role in Oh God!, Close Encounters, Mr. Mom, and other roles no more serious than ST. It's not like ST detracted from an otherwise heavy-weight acting career, you know?...

Maybe she blames Trek for starting her off on that path to typecasting.

I'm fond of a one-season sitcom, called "Greetings from Tucson" (2003); Terri's in that as the maternal grandmother, in the wheel chair. Her husband is played by Martin Mull. They're in one ep, called "Coffee."

Maybe I'll pull out my DVD's and make a screencap at some point. GFT's still playing on a DirecTV HD channel on Sunday mornings. The series was executive produced by Rob LaZebnik (The Simpsons), Peter Murrieta (Second City), Howard Klein (King of the Hill) and David Miner.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

At the risk of a reprimand for bumping a five-week-old thread, here is a synopsis I wrote of the original "Trek-less" Assignment: Earth pilot script. Might give you an idea of what the series would have been like had it been given a go-ahead in 1966.

Follow this link, or click on the first link in my sig for all my script reviews:

http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/articles/assignment.htm


Sir Rhosis

 

[presence]

I, for one, really enjoyed Assignment Earth. I still think it would be great if some other trek series had an episode with Gary Seven or another individual sent by the same alien race. They might have also raised Klingons, Vulcans, Andorians, and others in the same way they raised Gary Seven. A Eugenics War mini-series featuring Gary Seven would also be interesting. Greg Cox did a great job bringing Gary Seven back in three novels.

 

[Jack Bauer]

It's still a good idea begging to be made into a tv series.

 

[Ronald Held]

Who owns the rights to that property?

 

[Sir Rhosis]

Since the characters and concept were incorporated into a Trek episode, I imagine whoever own Trek (Paramount, CBS?) owns the rights.

Just a guess, though.

Sir Rhosis