The First Star Trek Spinoff Would Have Explored a Very Different Kind of Frontier
As Star Trek was meeting its potential end, Gene Roddenberry tried to make a very different sci-fi spinoff with Assignment: Earth.
By the end of Star Trek‘s second season, Kirk and the Enterprise had encountered many godlike beings and advanced technologies. Yet, they still reacted with shock when, during a trip back to 1968, a mysterious person interferes with the ship’s transporters, and even more so when the person reveals himself as a serious-looking human holding a black cat named Isis.
That man, they discover, is Gary Seven a 20th-century human and member of an alien peacekeeping force. Seven has been sent back to his home planet to prevent a rocket launch that would further enflame the Cold War, a mission that Kirk and Spock take too long to understand.
Such is the plot to “Assignment: Earth,” the 1968 finale to the Original Series‘ second season, which was also almost the last episode of the entire series. But even if that had been the end of Kirk and crew on television, it may not have been the end for Gary and his feline companion. After all, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had originally hoped to turn “Assignment: Earth” into an ongoing spinoff series, one that would have taken a slightly more grounded approach than exploring the final frontier.
A Missed Assignment
“Captain, we could say that Mister Seven and Miss Lincoln have some… interesting experiences in store for them,” says Spock at the end of “Assignment: Earth.” The line was intended as a tease for the audience, capping a backdoor pilot that Roddenberry hoped would lead to his next hit sci-fi series. But even before it was folded into Star Trek, the idea for “Assignment: Earth” began life as its own standalone show. Unfortunately, when none of the networks showed interest in ordering a pilot, Roddenberry and co-creator Art Wallace reworked the idea, instead launching “Assignment: Earth” via the also imperiled Star Trek.
For that reason, “Assignment: Earth” spends more time with Seven than it does Kirk and Spock. Played with stoic reserve by Robert Lansing, Seven goes about his mission to disrupt the launch at the (fictional) McKinley Rocket Base with utter seriousness. Along the way, we learn a bit about his backstory. The descendent of humans abducted by aliens in 4000 BC and brought to peak mental and physical ability, Seven has returned to his people’s planet to prevent Earth from destroying itself before they can achieve harmony.
Along the way, Seven dazzles audiences with his high-tech equipment, including a massive computer hidden behind a bookcase in his apartment, his voice-activated typewriter, and his “servo,” a pen-shaped device that operates as a multipurpose tool.
The episode also gave Seven two partners, the first was Isis, who may or may not also sometimes be a sexy lady (this is a Roddenberry show, after all). The second is a hip ’60s woman called Roberta, played by Teri Garr. In her first major role, Garr shows off the comic timing that will make her a star, playing Roberta as sometimes overwhelmed by the advanced technology, but with a strong moral core and moments of bravery.
But despite all of the pieces in place for a cool sci-fi series, in which Gary and his crew continue to protect Earth’s timeline from being altered, neither audiences nor networks wanted more of Gary Seven. And when we next saw the Enterprise crew, they had much more important issues to deal with, namely finding Spock’s Brain in the season 3 opener.
The Assignment Continues
Even if Lansing and Garr never returned as Seven and Roberta, Trekkies didn’t forget about them. The characters play key roles in the Eugenics Wars novels by Greg Cox from the early 2000s. In those stories, Seven finds the boy Khan Noonien Singh in a secret lab in 1974 India. Seven rescues the boy and plans to raise Khan in the ways of the aliens who taught him, hoping that Khan will use his augments for the good of humanity.
But when Khan takes steps that lead to the Eugenics Wars, Seven and Roberta try to stop him, essentially becoming his first nemeses. Seven’s failure to prevent Khan’s rise leads to his retirement from his post, with the mature Roberta taking over in his place.
Seven and Roberta have also appeared in several Star Trek comics, including a 2008 five-issue miniseries Star Trek: Assignment Earth by IDW Comics, written and penciled by none other than comics legend John Byrne. The comic picks up three months after “Assignment: Earth,” and follows the duo on a series of adventures, which involve more nuclear facilities, secret cloning labs, and even a return trip to the Enterprise.
All of these stories present Seven and Roberta as secret agents, which makes sense, given that Roddenberry modeled the characters on popular British agents James Bond and The Avengers. However, sci-fi fans will notice quite a few similarities between the “Assignment: Earth” heroes and another popular franchise timey-wimey franchise following an alien protagonist: Doctor Who.
Like the Doctor, especially William Hartnell‘s first incarnation, Seven has a stoic demeanor, which sometimes clashes with his cool young female companion. He uses alien equipment to go where he needs to anywhere on the planet (not through time, but given how easily the Enterprise time travels, it’s hard to believe that Seven didn’t have a few tricks to pull it off).
Seven solves problems by pointing his pen-shaped servo at things, which allows him to open and unlock doors, turn on computers, and that can even be set to stun, just like the sonic screwdriver. He even gets past security with a wallet full of fake ID cards, which feels a lot like psychic paper. Of course, psychic paper wasn’t added to Who lore until the Russel T Davies reboot. And even the sonic screwdriver didn’t appear until the Second Doctor serial Fury from the Deep, which aired at the same time as “Assignment: Earth.” Clearly, Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln were onto something in 1968.
“I have never felt so helpless,” Kirk confesses in a supplemental log late in the episode. It’s a telling statement. Not only does Seven get most of the attention in “Assignment: Earth,” but Kirk and Spock spend the entire episode following his trail, confused and inert.
Had a letter-writing campaign not convinced CBS to produce one more season of Star Trek, “Assignment: Earth” would have been an ignoble end to the series but perhaps also the jumping off point for new adventures starring Mr. Seven and his companions. But even if Trek‘s legacy is more than secure in 2024, it would still be nice to see the characters of Seven and Roberta make some sort of return. After all, humanity still needs a lot of help.
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Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!