Assignment: Earth

[T'Girl]

Wasn't it Gary's mission to save the Earth from this accident?

My impression is that Gary was there to cause the accident. Without his actions the missile platform would have gone safely into orbit. He wanted it to come back down and explode.

it's the shocker that Gene Roddenberry, the man who's genius created TOS, is responsible for writing such a half-baked story.

Roddenberry had relatively few decent ideas in his life, most of his television pilots and movies were trash.

The whole idea of sending the Enterprise back in time for a 'research' mission seems a bit ridiculous, very ridiculous.

Oh I don't know, it's kind of a theme through-out Star Trek that they don't have the best record keeping. Phlox developed a treatment for Borg nanites that completely disappeared by the 24th century.

It's possible by the 23rd century that huge sections of 20th century history were simply gone.

 

[scotpens]

Wasn't it Gary's mission to save the Earth from this accident?

My impression is that Gary was there to cause the accident. Without his actions the missile platform would have gone safely into orbit. He wanted it to come back down and explode.

The idea was to have the nuclear warhead "accidentally" detonate, but at a high enough altitude so as not to cause any destruction. The result was "a new and stronger international agreement against the use of such weapons," which was Gary Seven's intention all along.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Gary was there to find out what happened to the other two agents, the ones who were there to cause the accident. When he found out they'd been killed near the rocket base on their way to carry out the mission, he took it up.

 

[plynch]

See, we are having a hard time remembering exactly what was going on plot-wise. Not real compelling. Cute moments, I love Teri Garr generally, like Robert L as a lead. Maybe a better plot coulda sold the show?

 

[EnriqueH]

See, we are having a hard time remembering exactly what was going on plot-wise. Not real compelling. Cute moments, I love Teri Garr generally, like Robert L as a lead. Maybe a better plot coulda sold the show?

See, that's what I think.

The plot was hard to follow. The whole time I was wondering, "What the hell is Gary Seven up to?"

One minute he's urgently trying to get off the Enterprise in a real hurry, but once he gets to his office, he's screwing around with his computer. Which makes me think things weren't all that urgent.

Kirk and Spock are after him, but they don't seem to be in much of a hurry.

Hey, waitaminute, why are Kirk and Spock there to begin with?

It's a combination of a poor set up, i.e. we don't know why the regular cast is there and we don't know what the guest star is doing. And the pace is off, nobody is in much of a hurry.

 

[Push The Button]

It's a combination of a poor set up, i.e. we don't know why the regular cast is there and we don't know what the guest star is doing. And the pace is off, nobody is in much of a hurry.

Not quite as confusing or bizarre as the infamous Cheers/St. Elsewhere crossover (see Youtube if you're not familiar with it), but it does kind of feel like someone was trying to build an airplane by nailing a bicycle to a piano.

 

[Armored Saint]

Push The Button, I heard Scotty when I read your last phrase. As I already said, I don't have problem with Gary 7 narrative style, but it's not made for Star Trek. It's like doing a Columbo/Hercules Poirot crossover or even worst, a Columbo/Perry Mason crossover.

Sometimes, it's really awesome when an episode doesn't follow the typical pattern of the series, but it needs creative ambition. In this case, the only ambition was to sell a pilot.

 

[mos6507]

I liked how the Trek half of the story largely relegated them to spectators who didn't have a lot of agency on the story, as it's really the only story that breaks the rules that way. It's kind of like the few times Bugs Bunny gets owned in Looney Tunes. I found the Gary Seven and Ms. Lincon interesting enough to follow them as protagonists instead.

 

[EnriqueH]

I wasn't opposed to focus on Gary 7, but I am opposed to th confusing, unclear storyline.

 

[Marsden]

I thought the story was very clear, the aliens that trained Gary, and the other agents he was supervising, wanted Earth to survive and not have a nuclear war, which according to TOS they succeded, but then TNG shit all over that.

I thought it was ok, but what I don't like is Rodenberry was basically throwing Star Trek under the bus to get this show made, he barely had anything to do with it in the third season, past sneaking his jewelry into an episode, because he didn't think he was making enough off of it. Chasing the money make various artistic choices null, he needed to get a pilot on tv, he used Star Trek to do it. Really used.

 

[plynch]

I thought the story was very clear, the aliens that trained Gary, and the other agents he was supervising, wanted Earth to survive and not have a nuclear war, which according to TOS they succeded, but then TNG shit all over that.

I thought it was ok, but what I don't like is Rodenberry was basically throwing Star Trek under the bus to get this show made, he barely had anything to do with it in the third season, past sneaking his jewelry into an episode, because he didn't think he was making enough off of it. Chasing the money make various artistic choices null, he needed to get a pilot on tv, he used Star Trek to do it. Really used.

I don't think I have that much of a problem with it (embedding a pilot). Other shows did that. Other than the unclear (to me) plot, it has nice elements, and one does need to get ideas bought in the creative realm, to be able to keep creating. It's a change-of-pace ep, which can be a good thing, and Star Trek was a network TV show, no sacred cow then. GR certainly assumed he would produce more decent things in his life. It turned out to be STAR TREK! but who woulda thunk it back then?

 

[Maurice]

I've said this elsewhere, but the realities of TV production—especially at that time—were that show creators tended to launch shows, get them on their feet, then staff them with people who could take over and go on to try to sell the next thing. In part that's because you never knew when the network was going to cancel your show (Gilligan's Island was cancelled despite being a top 25 show). That Roddenberry's attentions would largely be elsewhere after the first season would actually have been par for the course. The show was NOT a hit and Roddenberry surely wanted to try to sell another series so he'd have something when it finally ran its course.

 

[T'Girl]

See, we are having a hard time remembering exactly what was going on plot-wise.

There are well over seven hundred episodes, is that so unusually.

If it had been a "regular" pilot, instead of a backdoor one the Star Trek portions would have been absent and there would have been more time for the adventures of Gary Seven. Personally I think the story was quite a good one, it introduced the basic premise and two of the three main characters nicely.

Exploring who and what Isis was would have been interesting.

If it had gone to a series (imo) there would be a need for one or two more main characters. I liked the hint that maybe Seven would have on going personality problems with his computer.

 

[Maurice]

The problem is there's no "story" other than Kirk and Spock try to stop Gary, and Gary tries to avoid them. Drama is decision making, and Gary hasn't any to make other than "take over mission" and "accept secretary". Yawn.

 

[Indysolo]

Half the episode features stock footage. That isn't compelling, no matter what!

 

[Tim Walker]

See, we are having a hard time remembering exactly what was going on plot-wise.

There are well over seven hundred episodes, is that so unusually.

If it had gone to a series (imo) there would be a need for one or two more main characters. I liked the hint that maybe Seven would have on going personality problems with his computer.

In one of the novels, Gary Seven did recruit a young Khan.

Right, the Khan of Eugenics Wars fame.

 

[Terran_Empire]

Just finished it...worst episode of TOS I have seen for many of the reason mentioned already...now on to the notorious season 3!

 

[Push The Button]

When we were kids in the 70's, we never knew that Assignment Earth was a pilot for a spinoff series, we just thought it was weird. I didn't learn the whole story until I read about it in The Star Trek Compendium when I was a teenager, then it all made sense.

 

[plynch]

See, we are having a hard time remembering exactly what was going on plot-wise.

There are well over seven hundred episodes, is that so unusually.

Well, I only have 79 that I care about, and I actually could tell you the plot of most. (Ha - get out of danger, is usually it.)

After this thread, I THINK I now remember he wants to blow the rocket up to scare people away from nuclear war. It is almost a comedy of errors, people getting in each others' way, purpose-wise. Is the E in danger? Can't remember. They always threw that in to heighten things. The danger here would be not to blow it up would mean we would bumble into nuclear war. Unless for some other reason we didn't.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Had Assignment: Earth been picked up as a series, I can imagine a very different conversation now, probably revolving around discontinuities between this episode and the new series.

It's easy to imagine some changes being made. Possibly a different actor (or two), being located in a different city, a new sidekick, possibly a human taken into his confidence, that sort of thing.