Assignment: Earth by: Art Wallace from a story by: Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace and directed by: Marc Daniels

 

“Assignment: Earth” is written by Art Wallace, from a story by: Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace, and is directed by Marc Daniels.  It was filmed under production code 55, was the 26^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 55^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on March 29, 1968.

 

It’s clear that Gene Roddenberry believed that Star Trek would be ending after its second season.  The budget between the first and second season had been cut and the ratings weren’t entirely satisfactory for NBC.  Cancellation was coming and while in between seasons fans Bjo and John Trimble would spearhead a letter writing campaign that would renew the show for a third season, it became clear that Roddenberry was ready to move onto other things.  With Art Wallace, he had devised a half hour pilot for a show called Assignment: Earth, mashing up spy tropes and science fiction with Gary Seven being a human agent from the future sent back in time to stop the alien Omegans from changing Earth’s history so they can win a war and subjugate humanity.  As a premise, it’s one that probably would work quite well, but no television studio wished to even order the half-hour pilot, so Roddenberry and Wallace decided to use what may have ended up being the final episode of Star Trek as “Assignment: Earth”, reworking the pilot to a full hour with the Enterprise crew, mainly Kirk and Spock, integrated into the plot, having gone back in time for mysterious purposes, revealed at the end knowing that interstellar human agent Gary Seven, played by special guest star Robert Lansing, will be stopping the destruction of a world as the United States intends to launch a hydrogen bomb into space.  The Omegan threat was written out and Teri Garr was cast as the potential female lead of the show, normal secretary from the swinging ‘60s Roberta Lincoln.

 

“Assignment: Earth” has some very big issues, mainly due to the retrofitting of a pilot to be a backdoor pilot.  The big reveal at the end of the episode is that the Enterprise records showed a knowing that Gary Seven is interfering to keep history on the correct path, but this means that Kirk and Spock’s actions, continually being untrusting of Gary Seven making the episode feel as if there is a collapse of general structure with this one tiny reveal.  The episode also puts the Enterprise crew on the backseat, basically every major character has an appearance here bar Nurse Chapel, but really Kirk and Spock are the ones to really be involved in the plot.  Much of their actions are seemingly to discover who Gary Seven is and stop whatever potentially time altering plan he is executing.  The individual sequences are quite good, outside of that final reveal meaning much of the episode feels pointless.  Marc Daniels is in the director’s chair and the rather large sets that are built have enough spectacle to look as some of the best: Gary Seven’s office has several hidden gadgets and computers that are wonderfully 1960s, almost James Bond-esque.  The integration of stock footage of the Saturn rocket launches are also particularly well integrated, with simple color separation overlay effects to make it work.  William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are also giving some genuinely fun performances, it’s always fun when Spock has to hide his ears while Kirk is in a trenchcoat and there are some little bits of worldbuilding that are particularly fun.  Nimoy also gets to hold a cat for a bit and the cat is such a calm actor.

 

The episode does fall down, however, when establishing Teri Garr as Roberta Lincoln.  Wallace, who is writing the final script of the episode from his and Roddenberry’s outline, is clearly attempting to write a liberated and free woman of the 1960s, feeling partially inspired by The Avengers’ Cathy Gale and Emma Peel, but sadly Garr doesn’t get much material to work with.  Gary Seven is also clearly written in the same vain as John Steed or the quite unlikely inspiration from Adam Adamant Lives!.  Roberta is underwritten: while there are moments where she spouts ideas of women’s liberation and the growth of culture in the 1960s, those are few and far between and Garr is forced to deal with just being wide eyed at the male characters.

 

Overall, “Assignment: Earth” as an idea for a pilot suffers largely from being just a bit too stretched for the one-hour format of Star Trek.  Having Star Trek characters interact with this pilot could be more interesting if there was more for those characters to actually do and work better.  The ideas are there and much of the style of the episode is quite good, the plot largely working except for one final line making quite a lot of it fall down.  You can really see why this wouldn’t have been picked up as a series, stylistically and in terms of characterization it’s going for something like The Avengers but American and never quite reaches that potential.  It’s still at least an enjoyable watch despite numerous issues holding it back, especially the sexism from Gene Roddenberry’s outline and Wallace’s script.  6/10.

And with that Star Trek's second season has come to a close and with it comes my Worst/Best episodes of the Season and the show so far:

Top 5 Worst Episodes of Season 2:

5. Who Mourns for Adonais?

4. The Changeling

3. The Deadly Years

2. The Gamesters of Triskelion

1. The Omega Glory

Top 5 Worst Episodes...So Far

5. The Deadly Years

4. The Alternative Factor

3. Charlie X

2. The Gamesters of Triskelion

1. The Omega Glory

Top 5 Best Episodes of Season 2:

5. Journey to Babel

4. The Doomsday Machine

3. The Trouble with Tribbles

2. Amok Time

1. Mirror, Mirror

Top 5 Best Episodes...So Far:

5. Space Seed

4. Amok Time

3. Mirror, Mirror

2. The City on the Edge of Forever

1. Balance of Terror