Star Trek: Assignment Earth (The TV show that never was...)

Star Trek: Assignment Earth (Memory Alpha Page)

Star Trek - 55 - Assignment, earth Part 2

Star Trek - 55 - Assignment, earth Part 3

Star Trek - 55 - Assignment, earth Part 4

Star Trek - 55 - Assignment, earth Part 5

I really enjoyed this little episode. It is a complete departure for the other episodes because the main focus of the show is not on the Enterprise crew, but on the Character Gary Seven. There is a reason for this; the episode is backdoor pilot for a spin-off show starring Robert Lansing.

From the Wiki page, ((This episode served double duty, not only as an episode of Star Trek, but as a pilot for a proposed spin-off television series, that would have been produced by Roddenberry, under the same name, Assignment: Earth. The show would have featured actor Robert Lansing as Gary Seven, a futuristic "James Bond", as the lead character. The episode stars Teri Garr as Roberta Lincoln, who would have been a co-star in the series, had it continued on its own.))

Sounds interesting doesn’t it? It was to be though.

Basically, it was spy-like show where Gary Seven was going to solve problems and fight people bent on destroying humanity. Teri Garr was supposed to be his assistant.

Here are a few notes about this episode.

-The Enterprise is barely even in the show. This was also the last episode of the second season. At this point, Gene Roddenberry had very little interest in doing more Star Trek episodes and probably wanted to move on with this Assignment Earth show. Gene would leave the show before the third season and another showrunner came in.

-Good Guy Aliens sent the human Gary Seven to Earth to save it. Because of this, Gary has some neat toys to play with, kind of like James Bond.

-Teri Garr and Robert Lansing have a great amount of chemistry. You could see a relationship growing if they had a full season. Garr is very cute in this episode too.

-Teri Garr downright will not talk about her role on Star Trek. She really hated her time on the show, so much so that she won’t mention it ever. (Make sure to read her interview) She’s almost hostile at any mentioning of it. Makes you wonder what happened behind the scenes with her on the show.

Make sure to read the complete guide to what was going to the series called Assignment Earth.

Yes, the cat was supposed to be a real woman. This would have been carried on throughout the series. Garr would see her and no one else would notice.
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This is only episode (TOS) where a guest star received credit during the show.