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Assignment: Earth (episode)

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"Assignment: Earth" was the 55th episode of Star Trek: The Original Series , the 26th and final episode of the show's second season, first aired on 29 March 1968 . The episode was written by Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace MA , directed by Marc Daniels MA and novelized in Star Trek 3 by James Blish .

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References [ ]

Characters [ ], episode characters [ ], novelization characters [ ], starships and vehicles [ ], locations [ ], races and cultures [ ], states and organizations [ ], other references [ ], appendices [ ], related media [ ].

"Assignment: Earth" was originally intended to be a back door pilot episode for a spin-off TV series from Star Trek: The Original Series . The series never made it into production but Gary Seven has subsequently been featured in numerous stories in other spin-off media. Assignment: Earth finally became a series of sorts in 2008 when IDW Publishing produced a comics miniseries inspired by the original idea of a TV series: Star Trek: Assignment: Earth , detailing the adventures of Gary Seven in the late 1960s and early 1970s .

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Timeline [ ], translations [ ], external links [ ].

• Assignment: Earth (episode) article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Assignment: Earth article at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.
• ↑ The character of Clifford Brent was not named in the episode but the same actor, wearing an officer 's Starfleet uniform , was addressed as Brent in TOS episode : " The Naked Time ". The same actor also played the character of Vinci .
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Assignment: Earth

• While back in time observing Earth in 1968, the Enterprise crew encounters the mysterious Gary Seven who has his own agenda on the planet.
• When the Enterprise is assigned to observe Earth's history in 1968, suddenly it intercepts a transporter beam which originates at least a thousand light-years from Earth, bringing aboard a humanoid alien 'agent Gary Seven' holding a black cat called Isis, who warns them to step back and let him go to accomplish his mission to save Earth; initially phaser-struck down, he manages to beam himself away, actually on a mission to prevent a nuclear rocket being launched at McKinley base because earth is socio-politically not ready for its technological progress. He assumes a classified identity to override a powerful computer, and mistakes the wrong girl, Miss Lincoln, for another agent; the computer reports both other agents he seeks are deceased in an accident. Meanwhile Kirk and Spock beam down to investigate if the alien isn't hostile, realizing the risk of changing their own past. When they get on his trail, the girl sees Spock's ears, calls the police and Seven gets away; they must first beam back aboard, then down to the base looking for Seven who overpowers security and sabotages the missile; however they get caught before Scotty locates Seven and beams him up, but he beams himself back grumbling he wasn't finished... — KGF Vissers
• While assigned to observe Earth's history in 1968, the Enterprise intercepts a transporter beam originating over a thousand light-years away, bringing aboard a seemingly trustworthy humanoid named Gary Seven and his black house cat, Isis. When it's apparent he's no ordinary human, Kirk holds him for questioning - but would doing so alter the past, or would releasing him be the wrong move? While Kirk debates, Gary escapes, beaming to Earth to accomplish his mission, the sabotage of a nuclear rocket about to be launched at McKinley Rocket Base. With Kirk and Spock on his heels, Gary must also deal with ditzy secretary Roberta Lincoln, whom he mistakes for one of two missing colleagues already on Earth, and an alien computer with a slight attitude. — statmanjeff
• The Enterprise is assigned to visit the 20th century to study critical political tensions. After arriving, they intercept a transporter beam that originates at least a thousand light-years from Earth. Who is the 20th century human who seems to command technology superior to that of the 23rd century Federation? Is he here to preserve humankind as he claims or has he arrived on this critical day to start World War III? — CommanderBalok
• Having traveled back in time to visit Earth on a historical information-gathering exercise, the Enterpise intercepts a space traveler being beamed to Earth. Gary Seven is human but clearly comes from an advanced civilization who claims to have been specially trained for a mission to save mankind from itself. Captain Kirk isn't at all sure that Seven isn't there for malicious purposes and puts him in the brig. Seven does manage to escape however and with Kirk and Spock in pursuit, tries to complete the mission that two missing agents were unable to finalize. For Kirk, the decision he has to make is very real: does he stop Seven or let him finish - a wrong decision may mean altering Earth history altogether. — garykmcd
• The ENTERPRISE, on a historical research mission to observe earth in 1968 (they traveled back in time using the light-speed breakaway factor). It intercepts a powerful transporter beam from a distant part of the galaxy (from at least a 1000 light yrs away). A human male dressed in 20th century business suit and carrying a black cat materializes on the pad. Calling himself Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) informs Capt Kirk that he is on a vital mission to help Earth survive (he claims he is from the 20th century and has been living on a hidden planet with far advanced tech, which wants to remain hidden). Kirk unsure of his identity and motives orders him to be taken to brig. Seven and his cat, Isis, attack the ENTERPRISE crew in attempt to escape and overpower Kirk and his men. Even Spocks "Vulcan Neck Pinch" is ineffective against him. Kirk finally stuns him with phaser and orders "Bones" Mccoy to examine him and determine if human. In the briefing room Kirk and Spock receive McCoy's report. Seven is human, in fact is a perfect human specimen with no scars or imperfections. Spock reports that on this day in 1968 US was to launch an orbital nuclear platform to match similar deployment by other powers. In the brig Seven removes what appears to be pen from his pocket which uses to disable the force field and stun the security officer. Heading to the transporter room is joined by Isis and beams down to an office suite in New York City. Seven attempts to access the Beta-5 computer, hidden behind a sliding bookcase, but the computer refuses to recognize him. Declarng himself to the computer as Supervisor 194 attempts to access it. He describes his mission, humans taken from earth 6,000 years in the past have been selectively bred and trained by a superior alien civilization to ensure that the fast progress is science on the planet doesn't lead to its destruction before it can mature into a peaceful society. Seven asks the computer for status of Agents 201 and 347. The computer informs that the US plans to launch orbital nuclear devices from McKinley Rocket base, in 1.5 hrs. At this time a young woman enters the office. Seven mistakes her for Agent 201 and ask where she had been for past 3 days and to write a report using voice activated typewriter When the woman reacts with confusion to Seven's request, Seven has computer to scan her. The computer reveals she is Roberta Lincoln (Teri Garr), a 20 yr secretary hired by 201 & 347 to supposedly do research for an encyclopedia. Realizing his mistake has the computer scan all communications to locate the missing agents. The Beta-5 reveals that 201 and 347 were killed in a car crash near McKinley Rocket base. Their mission was to arrange for a failure in an upcoming launch of an orbital nuclear platform by the United States. Meanwhile Spock and Kirk disguised in 20th century clothing track Seven to the suite (through the location of his beam down). Rushing in they demand that Roberta tell them where Seven is. Roberta calls the police while Spock and Kirk try to break into the inner office. Seven uses a transporter device hidden in large walk-in safe to transport to McKinley Rocket base. Kirk and Spock beam back to the Enterprise after seeing plans of the McKinley Rocket base on Seven's desk. Seven in meantime has materialized at McKinley Rocket Base where he is captured by a security officer. Seven warns Isis to be careful and not get stepped on. Isis emits an cry and Seven uses the distraction to stun the security officer. He then conceals himself in the trunk of the launch director's car when he inspects the launch pad. Seven then rides up the gantry to the top of the rocket where he opens an access panel and begins to rewire the rocket's guidance system. Kirk and Spock having discovered Seven's target have the ENTERPRISE transport them to McKinley Rocket Base. Materializing outside a hanger they are captured by the security officer who has regained consciousness. Mr Scott, who has been keeping McKinley Rocket Base under observation spots Seven and attempts to beam him aboard the ENTERPRISE. But before Seven was beamed off, he managed to get into the rocket and fiddle with the control wires of its payload. Roberta has discovered Seven's secret transporter portal by moving a pen on a desk set. She then accidentally activates the transporter which beams him from the ENTERPRISE back to the office suite. The rocket blasts off, Seven asks the Beta- 5 computer if his tampering with the rocket's guidance system was sufficient to take over. The Beta-5 answers affirmative if done on manual. Roberta watches as Seven takes over control sending the rocket off course and arming the warhead, becomes concerned. She takes a metal cigarette case and strikes him on the head. She then takes his Servo device and holds him prisoner. Seven attempts to get Roberta to let him finish what he started, otherwise the warhead will detonate on impact triggering a thermo-nuclear war. Spock and Kirk have been taken to the launch control center and held at gunpoint by security. Mr Scott attempts to contact Kirk to inform him of the rocket launch and malfunction. Spock uses the Vulcan Neck Pinch to disable the security officer when he picks up Kirk's communicator in response to Mr Scott's call. Kirk and Spock are beamed to Seven's suite. Seven disarms Roberta, handing his servo to Kirk and informing her that it was set to kill. Kirk asks Spock if he can take over the rocket and detonate the warhead. Spock said he does not have sufficient time to study the Beta-5 to safely detonate the warhead. Kirk is forced to trust Seven and tells him to complete the job and detonate the warhead. Seven has the Beta-5 detonate the warhead at 104 miles above earth, sufficient to convince governments of need to ban such devices. Roberta looking at Isis on the couch sees a beautiful exotic woman instead. Questioning Seven as to who the woman is she is told by Seven that is merely his cat. Isis having transformed back to a cat. As Kirk and Spock bid Seven and Roberta farewell inform them that will have some interesting experiences in store.

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Star Trek: The Original Series

“Assignment: Earth”

Air date: 3/29/1968 Teleplay by Art Wallace Story by Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace Directed by Marc Daniels

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

Review Text

The Enterprise travels back in time to Earth, 1968, to witness a historic nuclear crisis unfold. But once there, they encounter the mysterious Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) beaming in from another planet, and Kirk must decide whether his presence is a proper aspect of history or an alien threat. Meanwhile, Mr. Seven escapes his holding cell and begins conducting his undercover operation on Earth, centering on the scheduled launch of a nuclear device into orbit.

The time-travel motivation is dubious (why in the world would Starfleet risk timeline contamination to research history?), but the story has some good ideas. Unfortunately, the execution is off-kilter, with so much cross-cutting and off-pacing that the show turns choppy. Also, the episode comes across like the spin-off pilot show that it was intended as; at times it's more interested in providing a backdrop to a series that would never come to be than it is in making its story the priority.

Robert Lansing is on target as Mr. Seven, but Teri Garr is too annoying and unfunny as his secretary. The plot is reasonably good, but the bottom line is that I felt more like I was watching a good marketing ploy than I was watching good science fiction.

Previous episode: Bread and Circuses Next episode: Spock's Brain

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73 comments on this post.

Yours is the first source that I have ever read (seen) that speaks of Assignment: Earth as being a Pilot for a spin-off. Where in Trekdom is this substantiated? I actually liked the episode - and Ms. Garr's quirky playing of her out-of-sorts character I thought proved effective in showing her total confusion with all the high-tech stuff that was flashing in front of her. PLUS - shes was supposedly just filling in for a friend at that job - wasn't she?

^ Re: "Assignment: Earth" as a pilot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment_Earth

I remember watching Assignment:Earth when it first aired; I was 7 years old. It was all anyone could talk about in school the next day. Gary Seven seemed like the coolest guy ever. So maybe my love of the episode is tinted by some boyish nostalgia.

1. Assignment: Earth is listed as a potential pilot in David Gerrold's "The World Of Star Trek", from 1973. I'm pretty sure it's received wisdom. 2. Since we're listing 'favorite middle-tier episodes', I want to put my two cents in for "Metamorphosis". While justly not considered among the series' very best, I have always been deeply moved by 1) the Companion's indelible passion for Cochrane, 2) the analysis of love provided by Kirk/Spock/McCoy, and 3) Cochrane's surprisingly parochial response to the Companion's affection for him. Is it because he's centuries old? Regardless of the reason, it adds the perfect left-field touch to what I consider the most achingly romantic episode TOS ever did.

Personally, I thought this episode was godawful. The Enterprise just intentionally flies back in time to 1968 just to observe stuff? Seriously? They're serious with that? And best of all, it all happens off camera, before the episode even starts. Not even Voyager at its worst would do this. Stargate might. But the worst is that Kirk and Spock stand around a room waiting for permission to grab a communicator to beam over to Seven's secret base, so they can stop him, but in the end just let him do what he wants, because "it's for a good reason." Yeah I'm sure detonating a nuclear weapon over another country can only have POSITIVE consequences for history, and sure enough the episode insults the viewer enough to pretend that's indeed what happens as a result, and they all smile and wink at the camera as they drop this incredibly morally questionable act and end the second season (and almost the entire show) with it.

Simon Hawkin

I have just watched the episode for the first time. And the last time. What utter BS on all levels, from the awful acting to the pompous idiotism of the script. If the second season ended with this I am not surprised the original series was cancelled prematurely -- I am just glad it did not do the whole Star Trek in.

Oh, this episode isn't that bad. Clearly, the creators were trying to set up "Assignment: Earth" as its own show, but if you get past that conceit, this episode works OK, not great. There are FAR worse episodes of TOS. This middle-of-the=pack fair.

Absolute bottom-of-the-barrel, the nadir of TOS. It's the worst episode of the original Star Trek because it ISN'T an episode of Star Trek at all; Gary Seven is the prime mover of events from beginning to end, while Kirk and Spock are reduced to standing around like idiots who can do little more than hope everything works out. As for the real stars of this ep, Seven's a smug prick and Roberta's an insufferable airhead. And all of this happens under the "Star Trek" title because "oh hey, by the way, we time-traveled back to 1968." From this, through the idea that there were orbital nuke platforms in '68 (which would have been a surprise to everyone in the viewing audience) and that Seven's purposefully detonating one in the lower atmosphere would save the Earth rather than trigger World War III, right up to the Enterprise's history tapes spoiling the entire spin-off series before it can even get started with the revelation that everything that just happened was supposed to happen all along and Seven and Roberta are destined to succeed in all of their missions, the episode treats its audience like complete morons. The worst the third season had to offer still beats "Assignment: Earth", and the third season featured a whinny-ing Kirk being ridden around the room by a midget.

Actually, orbiting nuclear platforms were indeed a concern of the mid-1960s. Check out the beginning of the space sequence of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (released Summer 1968) - it looks like everyone has militarized space!

The episode was intended as a pilot for a spin off series (Assignment:Earth). The most interesting thing for me is that Gary Seven is like an American Doctor Who! He travels in time, has a companion, and even a sonic screwdriver! Maybe Gene Roddenberry was inspired by the famous British sci fi series. Who knows?

DutchStudent82

While in general an enjoyable episode, I HAVE to point out : -There WAS no time travel possible in kirk's era.. time travel was only possible in the 27th century, and only became mainstream in the 29th. -the technolony kirk supposingly uses to time travel, is not even remotely fitting technobabble, even in 1970's fysics had improved way beyong this kind of unfitting crap. So I may be a critic looking back on a show that was aired over a decade before I was born.. but still I am glad they became more professional (though not enough) in later star trek series.

-I THOUGHT this episode seemed like an attempt at a spinoff. Jammer mentioning it in his review made it all makes sense. Would have been a silly but probably entertaining show if it had actually gotten picked up by the network. -Roberta came to work like she'd done it many times. . . so why is she surprised to meet her boss? They didn't explain that at all. . . was she just . . . like. . .a temp showing up to work somewhere she'd never been before? Weird. -The cat clearly had a human making the "meow" sounds for it the entire episode. This made me laugh more times than it probably was meant to. When the cat attacked a red shirt in the transporter room I started cracking up. "RREEEEEEOOOOWWWWW!" Those poor redshirts always get the short end of the stick. -The time travel: It was indeed silly to have the enterprise travel back in time for historical research. That said, I must disagree with DutchStudent here: Time travel in the 23rd century was "nearly routine.The Enterprise had traveled in time before using a "slingshot around the sun" technique, back in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" (season 1). And they did the same thing again in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. I'd say two TOS episodes and a movie make it canon: Starfleet personnel could travel in time if they wanted to. There was some "temporal prime directive" background on this in later episodes of Deep Space 9 and Voyager.

It's that time again. Ratings for the season, where my ratings are distinct from Jammer's (with the difference in parentheses). Amok Time: 4 (+1) The Apple: 1 (-1) Catspaw: 1.5 (-1) I, Mudd: 2.5 (-.5) (a little distance made this drop a little) Journey to Babel: 3.5 (+.5) Friday's Child: 1.5 (-.5) Wolf in the Fold: 2.5 (-.5) The Gamesters of Triskelion: 1.5 (+.5) Return to Tomorrow: 3 (+.5) Patterns of Force: 2 (-.5) The Omega Glory: 0.5 (-.5) Bread and Circuses: 2 (-.5) Assignment: Earth: 2 (-.5) Season overall: Season two is definitely a step down from season one; the first season was bursting with invention, running in many directions at once, occasionally stumbling but almost always in an interesting way. There is a shagginess to this season, especially as it gets closer to the end. It's nothing compared to what season three will bring, and season two, unlike season three, has a number of remarkable highlights, breaking new ground: Amok Time, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel, and The Trouble with Tribbles are very obviously *essential* TOS, in terms of both quality and in terms of what people think of when they think of the show and in terms of laying the groundwork for these characters' histories (and the movies and spinoffs), with Obsession, A Piece of the Action, and The Ultimate Computer not far behind. There are other fine episodes, as well as some episodes with some successful elements in an overall story that doesn't gel. There is also a real sense of repetition. I actually liked both Return to Tomorrow and By Any Other Name -- but they are very similar to each other, and I feel as if combining the best episodes of each into one could have led to one classic rather than two good episodes with a lot of Venn overlaps. There was no reason to have A Piece of the Action, Patterns of Force, The Omega Glory, and Bread and Circuses so close to each other -- especially when only one of them (A Piece of the Action) was actually successful, and there successful as a lighthearted romp with serious subtext. The Deadly Years' moving moments about the nature of aging and obsolescence ultimately fail to buoy the episode from its various significant problems -- so I feel as if a little more time spent on that fear of obsolescence in The Ultimate Computer could have "covered" those themes admirably. Obsession and The Immunity Syndrome are both very good episodes, but they suffer a bit from being so close to The Doomsday Machine (for different reasons). The Ultimate Computer is a somewhat new take on the evil computer regular theme of TOS, but it's still a little familiar, and The Changeling and I, Mudd feel redundant in the wake of season one's various man vs. machine plots. There are only so many stories to tell, and I don't begrudge a certain amount of repetition of themes -- that is to be expected, and even encouraged to a degree, if the series is going to establish and reestablish a firm POV. In the case of something like Obsession, I think it's worth being glad the series returned to familiar themes and plot elements from The Doomsday Machine, since the result was so successful. But the problem comes when so many of the episodes feel halfhearted and lazily or incompetently put together, and I get the impression that the reason for this is a lack of anything new to say in these episodes. And this is to say nothing of the cynicism of "Assignment: Earth" as the season finale. I don't think it's a bad episode exactly, and as just a random episode of TOS it's...well, below average, I think, but okay. As a season finale and possible *series* finale, it's really disappointing. Roddenberry didn't particularly think that Trek would be renewed, so he used the last chance to spend with these characters to do a backdoor pilot? Classy! I wouldn't really have minded this earlier in the season, or even as second-last episode, but really. It adds to the feeling that even in season two, the creative forces were losing things to say. Which, again, makes it weird that there are so many absolute gems this season! This season seems to me like a good argument for the cable channel model of shorter seasons. It's possible that if they were given 13 eps instead of 26, they would have just produced a season of The Apple, Catspaw, Friday's Child, The Gamesters of Triskelion, The Omega Glory etc. But I prefer to think that they would have given a season of Amok Time, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel, The Trouble with Tribbles, etc. Combining the ideas from Return to Tomorrow and By Any Other Name into one mega-classic instead of two decent episodes. That type of thing. All that said, I'm very glad to have season two of TOS. It's rough and rocky, and especially toward the end there is a pervasive sameness, but its highs are very high and essential, and its middling episodes still have a lot to offer.

Along those lines, my ideal lineup for a shorter, tighter season two: 1. Amok Time 2. Mirror, Mirror 3. The Doomsday Machine 4. Metamorphosis 5. Journey to Babel 6. Obsession 7. The Trouble with Tribbles 8. A Piece of the Action 9. The Immunity Syndrome 10. A Private Little War - with heavy rewrites 11. Return to Tomorrow with some ideas from By Any Other Name 12. one other "parallel Earth society" episode -- maybe mostly based on Patterns of Force but with some heavy rewrites. The Spock/McCoy material from Bread and Circuses can go here. 13. The Ultimate Computer Obviously any season of standalone episodes can be improved by just chucking out the worst episodes, but I think the big gap between the best and the worst of season two makes it an ideal candidate for some rejiggering.

As it happens, William B, I've been pondering a similar experiment for all of ST:Voyager. Throwing out all the episodes that don't advance the overall plot, theme, or characters, the entire series can be boiled down to approx. 26 episodes of essential material (though some are two-parters), plus an equal number of runners-up. The "essential episodes" experiment could also be done for DS9, though it had a lot more ongoing threads. However, I never contemplated the "cable channel model" for TOS because of its minimal continuity. It was always an anthology, not a novel.

@Grumpy, agreed on the anthology format of TOS. With an anthology, then, the big qualities you're looking for are consistency of quality and novelty over the course of the different episodes, making sure the "important themes" the series returns to (which form the bedrock of the...I'm going to say "thematic continuity" between episodes) as well as the character development that does occur, to the extent that TOS does explore characters, particularly with the Big Three. A cable channel model for an anthology brings the advantage that the anthology can just be less meandering and more forceful in the episodes that remain. I think a similar case can be made for trimming down, say, The Twilight Zone, which I watched all the way through a few years ago whose hit to miss ratio is probably around that of TOS -- it's a true anthology series. All that said, it's hard for writers, producers, actors etc. to know which episodes are going to be hits and which misses while making them. So, it's not as if reducing the number of episodes will mean that the episodes that get tossed are going to be the bad ones. With DS9 and Voyager (and TNG), there's actually a similar problem, if you want to emphasize continuity and character/plot development: it is not obvious, on a first pass, which elements of a story are going to be important and which are going to be dropped. To take TNG as an example, if you want to be a strict adherent to continuity as the guideline, then "Lonely Among Us" can't be discarded because it's the start of Data's Sherlock Holmes fascination; this could easily have been a recurring subplot that was binned, but instead it became a pretty essential facet of Data's character. I'm not sure what point I'm making, except that it's much easier to do this type of thing with the benefit of hindsight and the whole series before us than it would have been for the writers at the time. To elaborate on my choices, I do enjoy "The Changeling," "I, Mudd," and "Wolf in the Fold" enough that I probably would keep them on if I were really limiting myself just to "episodes I think are worth rewatching," rather than picking a (somewhat arbitrary) 13, which is chosen as half of 26 (and is a standard, though by no means the only, choice for cable shows, i.e. Mad Men mostly did 13-episode seasons before the split final season). I'd be curious which episodes you peg as essential and runner-up for Voyager. Maybe on one of the Voyager pages (Endgame?).

Whatever point you're making, William B, I get it. Even anthologies can center on a theme, though obviously in the case of TOS (and Twilight Zone, which I've recently watched, as well) the theme emerged without conscious design. Roddenberry didn't set out, as far as I know, to make a show that consistently illustrated how, for instance, humans are not ready for paradise (or, in Rod Serling's case, how you can't go home again). But toss out stories that don't service that through-line, you've got a coherent package of episodes. With Voyager, though, the premise was clear from the get-go (though Elliott might still disagree about what constitutes a "premise"). Therefore, it's immediately obvious which episodes are germane and which are time-fillers, put into production because there were no other ideas for scripts that week. It's not a matter of retroactively recognizing quality or serendipity of execution, or capitalizing on unforeseen potential. Voyager (more so than DS9) had a story from the beginning, which becomes more evident when 5/7 of its episodes are stripped away. I'm tempted to post my list, but I don't know where. It would be lengthy and deserves much debate (as I am not uniquely qualified as curator). I considered "Eye of the Needle," since that's what inspired the list, but I dunno.

This episode was just awful, a preposterous and silly plot from beginning to end. The cavalier attitude towards time travel to do historical research was beyond ridiculous.

I enjoyed season two, but one thing that hurt it was that they had to many parallel earth. Not only that, but these parallel earth episodes were aired to close together. Ironically this is what Gene Roddenberry wanted to do with Trek is time parallel earth stories that mirrored problem of the present or past. I love that fact that Scotty and Uhura got a lot more to do this season. Chekov was a great addition to the cast and I'm glad he didn't turn into boy wonder the wiz kid. I feel bad for George Takei who lost out on a lot of great moment for his Sulu character due to filming the Green Beret. It's pretty obvious a lot of great moments that he could have had went to Scotty and Chekov. Takei likes to blame Shatner for his shortcoming on Trek, but he obviously lost out on a chunk of good material because of Green Beret. Top 5 episodes. Amok Time Doomsday Machine Mirror, Mirror, The Trouble With Tribbles. Journey to Babel Honorable mention goes out to Obsession.

Not sure there's much sense in criticising this episode for breaking Time Travel continuity rules, when they weren't established yet... It's not the best episode of TOS but still fun in its way, I thought.

Good episode, although Gary Seven telling his office computer in the first act that he's on a mission to prevent earth's nuclear holocaust lets the cat out of the bag (pun intended) a bit too early, robbing the episode of some tension. To give us more investment in the Enterprise crew's pursuit, it might have been better to let us keep guessing up to the end whether he was friend or foe. Nevertheless, this show is still a tightly-paced time travel yarn with contemporary overtones in classic Trek fashion, setting the tone for this type of episode on future Trek series -- I would give it 3 out of 4 stars. The young Teri Garr, a delightful actress with great comic timing, adds a sassy and fresh voice to the male-dominated cast that makes the show a bit more fun to follow than usual. Her body language even in simple scenes, as when she tries to get around a pedestrian on the sidewalk, is pretty amusing. And although she's not always integral to the main plot, her charismatic screen presence allows us a sympathetic then-contemporary viewpoint on the proceedings which makes them a bit more accessible. Robert Lansing's Gary Seven oozes 1960s cool, adding to the Cold War espionage vibe of the story, and I liked his gadgets. The cat Isis (phrasing?) is pretty cool too. Overall, lots of interesting stuff here, including the orbiting nuclear weapons plot point that still feels somewhat relevant today. Unfortunately, once Mr. Seven starts crawling around the nuclear warhead and our heroes follow him, the pace of the episode stalls out. Considering that Gary Seven might have explained his mission to Roberta (Garr) and our heroes sooner, all the double-crosses between the lot of them in the last act felt a bit frustrating, as one had the impression it might have been avoided. Having said that, the pro-disarmament plot of Mister Seven traveling back in time to destroy US warheads in the interest of preventing earth's self-destruction is a nice idea, fitting with Star Trek's idealism. The time paradox dialogue at the end doesn't really make sense, but I do appreciate the humanitarian optimism of this one. Not really sure why some people here dislike it so much; "Assignment: Earth" is not great or perfect by any means, but it's an entertaining hour with some nice ideas, and that's pretty much all I ask from an episode of Trek.

Now it makes sense to me that "Assignment: Earth" was some kind of pilot for another show - Kirk/Spock aren't close to being the main character(s) and as a TOS episode it comes across as kind of odd. I was getting a bit bored with all the footage of the rocket launch/control center. Have to also say that the plot is a bit ridiculous - like the Enterprise can just go back in time to whenever no problem. And then the final resolution, Kirk/Spock just have to trust Gary Seven that he intends to detonate the nuclear warhead at the right altitude - since they cannot in time. Not much to it. It is noteworthy for a young Teri Garr (Tootsie) - her character was sort of ok but makes sense that it's part of a pilot. I want to know: was the black cat the same as the one in "Catspaw"? Not a really strong episode but not awful as some other commenters have said. I'd give it 2 stars out of 4.

@Stubb, Wholeheartedly agree with you re. "Metamorphosis" - nobody will consider this episode one of the TOS classics or among its very best, but it is one of my favorites. It is the best sci-fi love story I've ever seen. George Duning's terrific soundtrack is perfect for making it a very moving story.

RandomThoughts

Hello Everyone! @Rahul Yep, it was a pilot for another show. And what you wrote got me to thinking... I read recently that the original series never broke the top 50 in ratings, and of course we know NBC tried to cancel it after each of its first two years. Now, taking all of that into consideration, why in the world were they using it as step-stone for a new show? If they did not believe many people were watching, how was this going to help the new one get off the ground? That just seems weird to me... Have a Great Day Everyone... RT

Anyone have an idea why the lady was disguised as a cat?

When Roddenberry has big input, the result is usually a terrible script. Here he realizes that Star Trek is about to be cancelled and so turns an episode into a secret (and awful) pilot for another show. Real classy Gene. I think we can basically pretend that this is not really a Star Trek episode.

Good idea for a series. Poor storytelling. If AE had been on the air and lasted into the early 70s it could have been really good. Oh well.

Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" had nothing on this one!

Am going to watch this episode in the coming days but must point something out: this is now the fourth episode in which the crew visit 20th Century earth (or recreation thereof), and the fifth of which the crew visit Earth's history if you count the Adonias episode, THIS SEASON. And these are the pre-Braga days! My overriding impression of TOS from my youth was the lack of creativity in the setting. They were on the edge of the Final Frontier and yet it seems like even the crew of DS9 did more exploring! The precedent for repetition was set by TOS. Brannon Braga is a one-trick pony (I heard there is no explanation of "one-trick pony" in the dictionary, it simply says "See Braga, Brannon"). But to be honest, the more I revisit TOS, the more I realise the man revered by generations, Gene Roddenberry, was like a 60s version of Braga. It's all redshirts dying, a single female character introduced who happens to be a major babe, close-ups on Shatner's face with light across his eyes and trips to old Earth. It's ironic that the ones which avoid these cliches happen to be the absolute shining stars of the series. For example, the mind-f*** episode with Scotty being possessed. Fair enough, this also borrowed straight from Earth's past, but it took the Ripper idea and brought it forward to other worlds and other species. TOS created a living, breathing universe that we rarely see in TNG, VOY or ENT, which all focus on one ship and one crew with no consequences for 99% of their actions. It's easy to see why TOS was so popular/influential. But it's also easy to see why it was canned after the shortest run of any live action Trek. If it had shown more creativity in its storylines and explored that optimistic future more, it might have run for longer.

I remember watching the rerun of this episode as a kid and I felt at the time that it was the most memorable episode of Star Trek. I watch it today and still think it is a really cool episode just from the idea of a person that they don't know is a human or an alien, the tech he uses, his cat, etc etc. Also the time travel is great. I don't see why this is not one of the best episodes of Star Trek (though I'm just throwing that out there... I'm not exactly that well versed as you guys about all the episodes).

Even if Kirk and Spock play second-fiddle to some new characters, chasing after them and generally watching what's going on, I think this episode manages some suspense, originality and fun. It's a wonky, entertaining ride. I mean, c'mon, Seven (Seven?) can speak cat and his cat is actually a very attractive woman (alien?) and some people don't find that at all fun? I revisited this one to prepare a bit for reading Assignment: Eternity.

Aside from the pilot for a spinoff series stuff, it seems pretty obvious to me that the goal of this episode was to use Apollo launch footage to profit. This was 1968. That was a big deal. I'm surprised nobody mentioned that.

Love this episode and as usual am surprised at the bad reviews, I grew up with star trek so I guess my opinion is biased by the sweet memories I have.Gary seven was so cool and Im guessing the cat was some type of bond reference.Of course there is plenty of goofs, ,seven can fight of a whole group of people and is even immune to spocks neck pinch but is knocked out by a metal cigarette case that roberta clunks him with, but then again they got somethings right, spock said there will be an important assassination and there were two, MLK and RFK.My only real complaint is the going back in time to witness something, I guess they didnt have any books or video on past events, a much better idea IMHO is that the enterprise is near earth and when they accidentally intercept gary sevens beam it drags the enterprise back in time with him.

Good episode. The story held my interest and I liked both our guest stars - their characters and performances. The cat was intriguing. One of my favorites for the series. Didn't really care for the fact that the Enterprise is shown as easily traveling through time, at will and for no compelling purpose, but it's won't be the first, and definitely not the last, time we'll see the franchise play fast and loose with this sort of thing. I especially liked that our "alien of the week" was refreshingly honest and non-hostile.

Sarjenka's Brother

M5 computer from "Ultimate Computer" is put back into use for Gary Seven. OK episode.

Goodness, I had no idea what I was getting into when I watched this. So, I agree with all the criticisms (shoehorned pilot for other show, etc., etc.) but it wasn't all bad. I think the one thing they got right was the dramatic tension for the episode. The show framed Gary Seven as the villain of the episode with an obviously nefarious agenda, although it mentioned the possibility he could be doing his assignment for the greater good. I think the direction worked in a way that made us forget he was possibly doing "the right thing" - which, in turn, made for an interesting reversal in the end. I suppose the problem with all this is, it's hard to relate to Gary Seven when you're being told by all the scripting, visual, and music cues that he's a bad guy. it would be like if they were using DS9 as a pilot for Edington and a Maquis show (who's rooting for that guy?). Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out what that cat that turns into a woman was all about. It looks like a template for a Sailor Moon character. :3

Sleeper Agent

Great guest appearances, nice props and an interesting intrigue; but as many have mentioned, it drops the ball half way in and has a hard time recovering from what turns into a boring mess. On another note: from what I can remember NSA's existence wasn't officially admitted until the 80s (?), thus making this episode (one of) the first soft disclosure of the organisation? And yeah, what was that woman/cat all about? Her name being Isis certainly is interesting.

I'm a sucker for anything in the orbit of TOS. I would have been all in for a season 4 even if it was twice as bad as season 3. So it pains me to speak ill of an episode of which there are only 79. But try as I might, I can't bring myself to say anything positive about Assignment: Earth. In my mind, this should not even be viewed as a ST episode, but rather a pilot for another show that guest-starred the crew of the Enterprise. That's exactly the vibe I get whenever I watch it, which is why I can't even bring myself to review it. (Even though I kinda just did.) Shame on Gene for unofficially concluding season 2 at episode 25.

There's a website dedicated to the stillborn series: https://www.assignmentearth.ca

Hotel bastardos

Execrable pisspoor backdoor pilot. Christ, imagine if the show had gotten cancelled on that wretched note... Thank fuck that utterly charmless twat Gary seven and that pathetic dizzy bint were mercifully left stillborn in the miserable graveyard of failed pilot shows. Dangleberry should've been ashamed of himself for trying to chance it with that wet fart of a concept.... Oh, and I ain't a cat person which made matters worse...0 stars.

Assignment: Earth is the culmination of the central theme of Season 2, the exploration of late-1960’s society. Star Trek finally shows its hand, what it has been building up to all year, starting with Mirror, Mirror, and through all the alternate Earth episodes, and now this: an examination of the central pressing issue for real life 1960’s Earth. https://youtu.be/-DhkY6d9uqQ Season 1 had a more personal touch because the theme of the season was Man. Or rather man with increasing powers, up to and including the power of the gods. Whether we had gods as teenagers (Charlie X) or men and women as gods (Where no Man has Gone Before) or man & paradise (This Side of Paradise) or enhanced man (Space Seed), the point of Season 1 was to explore man, especially how man would react to being placed at all levels of power and pleasure up to and including ultimate power and total bliss. Season 2 was more impersonal by design. So many episodes were thought-experiments that put a slight spin on society - an alternate Earth almost like our own planet, but just different enough to accentuate a particular aspect of society - some aspect the show wanted to explore or highlight for the audience (like public manipulation through television in Bread and Circuses, or the cruelty of a purely intellectual elite in Triskelion). Assignment: Earth also gives us vivid insight into the mindframe of the 1960’s audience. In that way, it is a model for Star Trek: Voyager episodes like "11:59" and "Future’s End," both of which did a good job exploring the mindset of the 1990’s. Assignment: Earth's 1960’s audience was obviously a nervous lot - neurotic about all sorts of events transpiring around them. If we have Climate Change today, they had nuclear holocaust to worry about back then. And in all that upheaval, who was there to protect them? Not God. Maybe it gave the audience comfort to think that Kirk and Spock - or Gary Seven - was up there looking down at us - looking out for them, like an Angel. ROBERTA: Mister Seven, I want to believe you. I do. I know this world needs help. That's why some of my generation are kind of crazy and rebels, you know. We wonder if we're going to be alive when we're thirty. What were they so worried about? SPOCK: Current Earth crises would fill a tape bank, Captain. There will be an important assassination today… 5 days after this episode aired, Martin Luther King was killed. He was 39. I wonder what the theme of Season 3 will be? https://youtu.be/8A_3jqiix0Q

A very uneven episode that is redeemed by Teri Garr’s portrayal of Roberta Lincoln, a refreshingly different female role in TOS. I agree with Jammer - not only is it questionable WHY Starfleet would be interfering with history, it’s barely explained HOW they were able to time travel. There were many good moments, most of them supplied by Miss Garr’s ability to convey naivety, kooky disbelief, and resourceful intelligence, all at the same time. The cat was also an interesting addition, especially when briefly adopting human form at the end. But the geopolitical angle of the 60s was heavy handed and obvious, and not something that escapist sci-fi should have been involved with except in a ‘parallel’ type of story, e.g. a similar scenario set on a different world, as a metaphorical parable. But I recognise that setting it on Earth was a budget-saving exercise. Not a bad way to end Series 2, entertaining to watch. But “could have done better “. I’d give it 3 stars... just about. I just wish they’d found a role for Roberta Lincoln on the Enterprise.

It's on TV right now... and it's pretty damn awful. The regular cast are reduced to guests in their own show! I suppose the story involving Gary 7 could be interesting except for the crucial fact that I DON'T CARE.

Alhough I reemember seeing it I had completely forgotten the plot. Not fantastic but thanks to the reference in Picard I gota reason. The slightly outdated potrait of a secretary was amusing and entertaining.

A couple of commentators seem to think Seven was also a time traveller but he made it very clear at the beginning of the episode when he argues that he is a Twentieth Century man and the Enterprise crew have no right to interfere with his mission. He and others, such as the couple who were supposed to have got on with destroying the rocket but died in a car crash, were descendants of human beings taken from Earth six thousand years before and specially bred and trained to carry out missions on Earth to help ensure its survival. That is all in Seven's dialogue with Roberta. To answer the point about why didn't the secretary know Seven, her employers were the couple who died. She'd never met him before. This is one of my least favourite episodes. The ditsy secretary is just irritating to me. The normal cast are reduced to hanging around, at a loss what to do or prisoners in the case of Kirk and Spock. It is fairly boring. I did wonder when I rewatched it recently if the same cat was used for Catspaw. I imagine the cat/woman mystery would have continued in the projected series and that Isis was one of the aliens despite having the name of an Ancient Egyptian goddess. Anyway for me, this really is a pilot for a show that wasn't picked up that the ST crew were unfortunate enough to be forced to appear in.

Something I forgot to mention is I think the woman provided the voice for the computer also did the Companion's voice in Metamorphosis

This particular episode was a little far out for me. Below average rating. Barbara Babcock did the voice work of the computer. She had an active role in a couple of the other shows. And, April Tatro was the cat girl at the end of the show.

This is indeed a pilot to potentially introduce another series that never blasted off (a small pun there..very small...I digress) However, it s also the most insidious idea for a Star Trek episode ever in the history of all mankind! (besides Spock's Brain)...but still the idea aside - it is still very watchable and likable. Any time travel episode is a good one when it comes to Trek. I dig it! Besides, I like the kitty... by that I mean Teri Garr, of course.

Assignment: Earth is, well, adequate. It’s inoffensive and fairly well executed, has some ok moments and some good tension. It’s also a cynical exercise in television marketing, made brutally ironic given that it follows right on the heels of Bread and Circuses, a show that lambasts such cynicism in TV. The fact that this back-door pilot also doubles as the season 2 finale really calls into question Gene Roddenberry’s creative ethics. Other than this not *really* being a Star Trek episode, its main failure is the initial setup. Time travel is already problematic enough without it being treated like a lark, engaged in for seemingly low stakes research. That premise feels so half baked that it compounds the sense that this whole outing is just a callous failure of integrity. 2/4 inexplicable, shapeshifting catwomen. As far as season 2 goes, overall it’s a pretty good grouping of episodes, although I’d say season 1 had a steadier hand. Season 2 has some dizzying highs such as Amok Time, Doomsday Machine, or Journey to Babel, but also had some ‘yikes’ moments such as The Apple, Catspaw, or The Omega Glory. It’s a bit more of a rollercoaster than season 1 in my opinion. My top 5: 1- Doomsday Machine 2- Amok Time 3- Mirror, Mirror 4- Journey to Babel 5- Obsession Bottom 5: 5- Gamesters of Treskelion 4- The Apple 3- Wolf in the Fold 2- Catspaw 1- The Omega Glory Note: in this situation Assignment: Earth is not measured as it’s not really a Star Trek episode and thus is both the worst and best episode of the unpicked up show: Assignment: Whatever. Or whatever.

Michael Miller

Fun and edge of your seat thrilling episode, but the plot was very weird and could have been better. 1st of all, what is this casual crap that the enterprise used "Light speed break away factor" to move back in time? Did they do another cold anti-matter implosion engine start from the Naked Time or something, or one of those stupid slingshot around the sun?? The 1st one was barely tested and the 2nd made no sense as if you are already going at warp speed how does the tiny bit of extra speed from whipping around a star going to slingshot you anywhere? That's not how general relativity works anyway even if the concept was remotely valid, and it isn't. 2nd, what was the purpose of the cat-woman alien? She served no purpose in the entire episode, other than attacking and distracting security guards by acting like a mean cat LOL. 3rd, The 1000 light year transport thing. Since when can transporter beams travel faster than light. If it's energy of some kind how does it exceed the speed of light? I know you're gonna say that the aliens were way more advanced, but even in normal star trek episodes they sometimes make it seem like transporters can beam people faster than light, such as a few million kilometers being in "transporter range", to keep it somewhat in normal physics range they should have kept it to 100,000 miles or half a million miles to be more believable, even if transports had to take a few more seconds to be realistic. It isn't through subspace obviously as subspace transporting was addressed and rejected in TNG. 4th, the ridiculous advanced alien technology 1920s style controls! Like why is there a steering wheel on the secret transporter room that opens automatically anyway? How the fuck is that operated by a grand total of 8 BUTTONS??? You're seriously telling me the secretary who had no clue what any of this was, just happened to exactly lock on to the guy's position and beam him back by randomly fiddling with a few dials, yeah...RIGHT. So a 9 year old could have disrupted his mission. Or the "survo" that could perform dozens of random functions by hitting 3 buttons. How does it lock a purely mechanical door btw? 5. The secretary herself. Was she an agent as well or just a random earthling hired by one of the agents? They kept bouncing back and forth on this. First it seemed like they knew each other, then she seemed clueless, then she knows how to operate the transporter but is shocked seeing people beamed in and out, which is it?? Huge plot question that was never resolved. 6. The whole thing with the guy crawling on the rocket gantry. How was he planning to get out of there in time if he wasn't accidentally beamed out? By jumping off? The launch was seconds later and he would have been incinerated or knocked clear off the thing. 7. I don't know much about nuclear physics, but wouldn't the detonation ultimately release lethal radiation over the countries it blew up over? Does the atmosphere need to transmit it, or would that not matter anyway as 104 miles is above the space line, serious question.

Truly horrendous episode. 0 stars.

I don't hate this episode at all, even though it's insultingly not the show we've been watching all this time (I always thought the backdoor pilot thing was obvious, as the device was used in a lot of shows back then). The premise was interesting. Gary Seven is cool, Isis is cool, Teri Garr was appealing. The whole thing felt more like Irwin Allen than Roddenberry. Had it gone to series, I would have watched it. It probably would have been kind of Austin Powers-ish. The most annoying thing about this episode is the ridiculous (if understandable given the era) use of a Saturn V with the full Apollo lunar payload to represent fairly modest nuclear delivery system. Even as a kid ten years later I always thought that was weird as Walter Cronkite etc had explained the whole thing to everyone by then. Use of stock footage was a poor excuse.

Proud Capitalist Pig

1968 turned out to be such an eventful and important year that there’s a whole book written about it (by Mark Kurlansky -- you should read it). We were neck-deep into the Cold War. The Space Program was in full operation. There were two different assassinations on American soil. It was one of the most significant presidential election years in history for the United States. And television, while still technically in relative infancy, was quickly becoming the loudest soapbox commentator on our cultural life (and also the opiate of the masses, but that’s another discussion). Obviously, we’re all here on this discussion board because one of those key shows was Star Trek. In “Assignment: Earth,” Spock delivers the key line, “There will be an important assassination today, an equally dangerous government coup in Asia, and, this could be highly critical, the launching of an orbital nuclear warhead platform by the United States countering a similar launch by other powers.” (That describes Star Trek’s times pretty accurately, I’d say.) Now, they know the year is 1968. But the episode conveniently (and smartly) leaves the exact date unrevealed. But here’s the thing. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and Bobby Kennedy on June 6. The “dangerous government coup in Asia” that Spock mentions could be interpreted as the Iraqi coup on July 17. “Assignment: Earth” was broadcast on--get this--March 29. Yikes. Star Trek may have been a hammy science fiction show, but it had its finger on the zeitgeist pulse so presciently that its episode “Assignment: Earth” predicted a horrible assassination, a government overthrow, and international nuclear tensions in the very year it was written (as a matter of fact, Jesus H. God, they were off by less than a week in terms of the King assassination). I concede that if that’s not relevant television, I don’t know what is. So I’ll say this for Star Trek: It may only show us paper moons sailing over cardboard seas, and mere canvas skies hanging over muslin trees… but it created legions of fans who subscribe to that refrain, “It wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me.” This particular episode “Assignment: Earth,” a fitting close-out to a very eclectic and interesting season of television, captures the essence of what has made this allegorical space opera endure for so long. “Assignment: Earth” as an episode of Star Trek deals heavily with time travel. That’s a smart move, because such stories are tricky. We’re invested in seeing Kirk and Seven succeed in stopping an existential crisis on Earth, but there’s the added concern about just how much they’re able to do, or even supposed to, in terms of interfering in the first place. Yes, Seven could be telling the truth about being a benevolent time traveler looking out for history, but he could also be a lying charlatan. For those complaining about Kirk and Spock being “powerless” and watching things happen, I’d advise that you go back and rewatch the episode, paying attention this time. Kirk is simply *unsure* about whether or not he really should be committing any actions at all, because that’s the caveat about time travel. For a while there’s really nothing he *can* do except to watch things unfold and then step in if it turns out Seven is an interloper. I liked Robert Lansing’s portrayal as Seven very much, but Teri Garr (!) was no slouch here either. She gave Lincoln a winning sense of humor, and I fell right in love with her klutzy but patriotic foundation. Garr would have nicely matched Lansing in her own right. And plus, yeah, she looked great. Lansing and Garr can absolutely carry an episode. Speaking of which, some of you above don’t like that the Enterprise crew is “barely in” this episode. I didn’t think that at all. The balance here is actually fine. Seven appears on the Enterprise in the teaser. The stakes of what we’re about to see are explained pretty effectively in the first act. So rather than The Seven Show, it’s more of a back-and-forth between Seven’s efforts and the efforts of Our Usual Heroes. The two threads have to have an equal value of importance in this case because this episode is a backdoor pilot, granted, but since the story is so engaging and the performances are pitch-perfect, so what?! Isis the Cat was such a hoot. I too cracked up at the obviously voice-overed “meows” emanating from her (one of the meows is even designed to sound like “uh-oh!”) Sambo delivered a fine performance. But really, Star Trek--as @Rahul points out, there are other cat colors besides black (but I kid). And as a cat dad myself, I can appreciate how Seven dotes on Isis. About that “backdoor pilot” thing… One of the best such pilots was the All in the Family episode “Maude,” which Norman Lear created so that Bea Arthur could get her own series. Archie Bunker is only seen in the very beginning and then at the very end, but it’s still one of the best episodes they did because *it’s so entertaining.* Backdoor pilots can be damn engaging and turn out to be absolute gems. The Simpsons, after all, started as a backdoor pilot--so there you go. Not for nothing, but I’d watch “Assignment: Earth,” the series. It’s too bad that it wasn’t picked up, as it seems to me that they would have had a pretty engaging, versatile hit on their hands. Maybe the U.S. government stepped in and refused to let it be picked up as a series, for they feared that it hit too close to home and would end up almost revealing a lot of true dirty secrets about this country and what its leaders actually know (but I kid). "Assignment: Earth" may have been a bit of a different spin on Star Trek, but I'd say it captured the spirit of it pretty well. Speak Freely: Lincoln -- “Not even the CIA could do all this.” My Grade: A

SEASON 2 TOP FIVE: 5th Place -- The Doomsday Machine 4th Place --. The Ultimate Computer 3rd Place -- Assignment: Earth 2nd Place -- Mirror, Mirror 1st Place -- The Immunity Syndrome SEASON 2 BOTTOM FIVE: 22. Return to Tomorrow 23. The Apple 24. Friday’s Child 25. The Gamesters of Triskelion 26. The Omega Glory

I don't think anything could keep Journey to Babel from being on my top 5 list of S2, but I kinda like that you had to guts to put Assignment: Earth on yours.

@Peter G. A LOT of folks seem to hate this one, yes. But I loved it. I'm clamoring for "Assignment: Earth," The Series. Hell, it can easily be updated / rebooted for modern television. A guy from the distant future getting into all kinds of international shenanigans while trying to make sure that he both succeeds in saving the planet and protects his cover -- maybe fighting a shadowy cabal that wants to create a new timeline for their own nefarious ends (with plants in each of Earth's most powerful governments), and accompanied by a hot sidekick and shapeshifting cat? I'd watch that! "Journey to Babel" was a competent outing, but it didn't impress me. The best part of that episode, for sure, was the Spock-Sarek struggle and the corresponding Kirk-Spock friendship showcase. It also had some good dialogue. High marks for that. But Jane Wyatt's performance got in the way, the murder mystery was woefully half-baked, and too much emphasis was placed on the Convening of Funny Foreheads. It got a B- from me.

The fact that this episode's premise was appropriated for Picard Season 2 forever taints its memory. To quote Martok in similar circumstances, "it is a grave dishonor" (to the episode)

@ PCP, "A guy from the distant future getting into all kinds of international shenanigans while trying to make sure that he both succeeds in saving the planet and protects his cover" Yes, if only we had been treated to a Star Trek series involving time travel agents from the future working with people from the past, and maybe even a temporal cold war. That would have been GREAT.

Wait was Gary 7 even from the future? I didn't think so...

@Jason R Maybe I misinterpreted a line or two? He seemed to have foreknowledge that the imminent rocket launch would have apocalyptic repercussions for Earth unless he stopped it. I inferred from this that he's a time traveler.

@Peter G - "Yes, if only we had been treated to a Star Trek series involving time travel agents from the future working with people from the past, and maybe even a temporal cold war." You sure have a way with words, my friend. "Temporal Cold War." Love it! What are the chances that something like that is going on *right now*? (We, of course, wouldn't know about it).

@ PCP, At the risk of committing the sacrilege of explaining a joke, you have seen ST:ENT, right?

"Maybe I misinterpreted a line or two? He seemed to have foreknowledge that the imminent rocket launch would have apocalyptic repercussions for Earth unless he stopped it. I inferred from this that he's a time traveler." It's unclear as I recall but my impression was Gary 7 and other humans were removed from Earth by some group (maybe the cat woman's people?) and trained from childhood as "agents" to effect changes on their home planet. It may be the aliens have foreknowledge of the future (which is heavily implied I guess) but I don't think Gary 7 or the other agents are actual time travellers.

@Jason R I thought about it some more and read the episode transcript, and yes, your take is correct. It's the foreknowledge Seven has that's most beguiling about this. But for alien influences, all possibilities apply! Thanks. Still a great concept. @Peter G I am working my way through all of Star Trek by airdate order, so no, I have not seen anything past Assingment: Earth except for the flowing exceptions, which I will address more fully when each comes up in my list: STAR TREK II -- Saw bits of it as a kid, but not the complete movie. STAR TREK IV -- Same as II STAR TREK GENERATIONS -- Saw on opening night with the Trekkie girl I was dating at the time. STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT -- Saw in the theater because "lets destroy some cyborg AI zombies" spoke to my inner spirit lord. STAR TREK the 2009 reboot STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS STAR TREK BEYOND Saw in all the theater with my family 1-2 sporadic Next Generation episodes, which I will review when they come up in my list Saw a scene or two of STAR TREK DISCOVERY and/or PRODIGY when my sons were watching but left the room so as not to be spoiled. So no... I wouldn't get a STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE joke, hahaha. (If indeed that's what you mean by ST:ENT). Always good to hear from you!

Ah ok, enjoy the watchthrough!!

@Peter G. Thanks! So far I'm enjoying the journey. I wouldn't call myself a fan yet but I'm open to all possibilities, and @Jammer, I'm *already* a fan of this site and thank you so much for it! This weekend I'll be pulling the family together to watch "Spock's Brain." My sons can't wait. Apparently, it's so bad that it's a hilarious hoot. But I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

"This weekend I'll be pulling the family together to watch "Spock's Brain." My sons can't wait. Apparently, it's so bad that it's a hilarious hoot. But I'll give it the benefit of the doubt." Seriously, try to forget its reputation when you watch it. I don't think it's justified.

Just watching this episode and Gary 7 confirms he is a human from the 20th century, so he is not a time traveller. But he recognizes Spock and clearly knows something about the 23rd century so as to state that his alien benefactors are unknown even in the future. So his alien benefactors are clearly time travellers or have some kind of awareness outside of time similar to the Organians who seemed to know the future or possibly the Traveller who also claimed to be from another time (sort of).

Yesterday, Feb. 16, 2024, the New York Times reported that Russia is developing an orbital nuclear warhead that , when deployed, will be able to destroy weather and communication satellites that are currently in orbit around the Earth. It will be the first nuclear weapon in space. Talk about life imitating art! I hope there is a Gary Seven on the way to save us from ourselves.

Yeah, not that I would ever question the New York Times but https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/russia-seen-highly-unlikely-put-nuclear-warhead-space-2024-02-15/ It is somewhat self explanatory. Putting an actual nuclear warhead outside of the borders of Russian Federation is a bad idea. Putting a nuclear warhead into space would be so extremely risky because of radiation alone. How would one even hit more than a very low number of strategically important satellites? I would assume that for example the US spreads out it's vital communication satellites as to make hitting enough to limit their counterstrike capabilities near impossible. They also certainly have backup systems. Most importantly, if you want to use a nuclear weapon to destroy satellites, then Russia could just use a ballistic missile, or a regular missile. Oh and then there is this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prlIhY3e04k

@Booming: Appreciate the information you provided about space and current weapons - thank you. I was more just pointing out how amazing it is that a science fiction series in the late 1960’s could envision equipment and issues that actually materialize (no pun intended) over 50 years later. Kind of like “The Ultimate Computer” and our current AI debates. I will turn age 70 later this year. Star Trek, in all its many adaptations, has accompanied me on my life journey since I was 13 and I still enjoy its relevance.

@Lorene That sounds nice. I'm happy that it inspired you in a joyful way for so many years. :)

Eastwest101

Views very much like Roddenberry smoked a few cones and watched a bit of James Bond and Dr Who for inspiration to do a back-door pilot. As Jammer says the premise is beyond stupid, the script risible, the pacing choppy, the stock footage lazy and boring etc and yet despite all its obvious flaws this is the most cold war/disaster movie and eerily prescient attempt at addressing the issues of militarization of space & mutually assured destruction/nuclear armageddon, computerization and even some counter-culture and hippie themes thrown in. Some of the early stuff in the episode was pretty good and entertaining once I had picked myself up off the floor about the utterly stupid premise but as Jammer says - once Seven was on the gantry the entire episode derailed itself so much that all it needed was the Fonz to literally jump the shark and it would have been perfect.... Did anyone else get a giggle out of Colonel Seven's exposition dump recalcitrant and snippy computer? The line about having the planet around for us to live on was a highlight for me. Its difficult to believe that this came out the same year as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Oddessey, that film immediately made Roddenberry and his crew of whacky juvenile writers pretty much demoralized, dated, stale and redundant overnight and looking like Gunsmoke with a couple of lizard suits/model spaceships and mini-skirts, they must have been so close to giving up even starting Season 3..... This had so much potential, and failed so spectacularly in logic/execution and a too convenient poorly signaled resolution, that its almost impossible to judge, I don't even know if it is an episode of Star Trek or not, but I can see why the episode has so many varied opinions. I bet this is a regular feature in many screenwriting courses as an example on what not to do.

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Star Trek: Assignment: Earth

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A trade paperback omnibus was released in December 2008 ; the series was also collected in volume 23 of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection in November 2017 .

• 2 Characters
• 4 External link

Creators [ ]

• Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry .
• John Byrne (#1-5)
• Tom Smith (#1-5)
• Robbie Robbins (#1, #3-5)
• Chris Mowry (#2)
• Chris Ryall (#1-5)

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• Roberta Lincoln
• " Brighter Than a Thousand Suns "
• " Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow "
• " My Name Is Legion "
• " We Have Met the Enemy... "
• " Too Many Presidents "

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Star Trek – Assignment: Earth (Review)

The first Star Trek pilot, The Cage , was produced in 1964. To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, this December we are reviewing the second season of the original Star Trek show. You can check out our first season reviews here . Check back daily for the latest review.

Assignment: Earth was almost the last episode of Star Trek ever produced.

It was also possibly (although nowhere near “almost” ) the pilot for a spin-off television show.

Seventh heaven?

At the last minute, following a very high-profile fan campaign, Star Trek was renewed for a third season.

Fans would have to wait decades to see an actual Star Trek finalé that reduced the main cast to guest stars.

“Wait, who just hijacked my show?”

On one level, Assignment: Earth feels like something of an insult to the cast and the crew who worked on the series, as well as the fans who had campaigned so hard to save the show. It was Gene Roddenberry very clearly and transparently fashioning a parachute for himself. This was an attempt by Roddenberry to line up his next job, to produce a piece of television that would secure him gainful employment for the next couple of years. It is a very cynical piece of television.

Despite the fact that Roddenberry would become inexorably linked with Star Trek for the rest of his career, there is some indication that the television producer had been plotting an escape for some time. Roddenberry’s attention had been focused away from  Star Trek for considerable stretches of the second season, affording producer Gene L. Coon more freedom than he might otherwise have enjoyed. During that time away, Roddenberry returned to the police procedural genre. Police Story was written as a pilot for a television show, but aired as a stand-alone movie on NBC in September 1967.

Hey! The opening credits of Enterprise!

Indeed, Assignment: Earth seems very consciously and very clearly designed as a showcase for Roddenberry and his proposed television show. The sets were built on the budget for Star Trek , and look surprisingly lavish. Might this money have been better spent on an adventure featuring the Enterprise? There is some suggestion that Assignment: Earth was the most expensive episode of Star Trek ever produced , and it feels very much like it is only a Star Trek episode as a matter of convenience, because that way it can be folded under the parent show’s expenses.

According to documentation that Marc Cushman dug up for These Are the Voyages , Roddenberry also fought viciously for the final “producer” credit on the episode, replacing John Meredyth Lucas. This possessive streak would later find expression in the mythology that Roddenberry would build up around himself, fanned by supporters like Richard Arnold. Over the years, Roddenberry would come to downplay the involvement of other people in defining Star Trek , dismissing and diminishing contributions by figures like Gene L. Coon or D.C. Fontana, who had overseen the series during his own absences.

In need of a lift…

It seems like Roddenberry had firmly taken control of Star Trek towards the end of its second season, despite his considerable absences during the middle stretch of the season. He seemed to be bringing Star Trek consciously backwards, even further than John Meredyth Lucas had done. The penultimate episode produced was The Omega Glory , a rejected pilot for series. With Assignment: Earth , Roddenberry pushed even further back; not only did he take Kirk and the Enterprise back to 1968, but he put them in a pilot for somebody else’s show.

To be entirely fair, this was not unheard of. Using pre-existing television shows to launch new television shows is a logical and sustainable business model. It helps with budgeting; it also provides audience-members with a gateway into this new world. The technique is still in common use, with shows like CSI frequently teasing spin-offs in the parent show before launching the new series itself. Even the Star Trek spin-offs would makes some effort to help launch the next iteration of the franchise, whether setting up the Cardassian withdrawal of the Maquis conflict.

Gary on, nothing to see here…

In fact, the idea of using the final episodes of an existing series to launch a potential spin-off was common enough. The Killin’ Cousin , the last episode of Barnaby Jones produced, was intended to spawn a new television series. The last episode of Quincy, M.E. , The Cutting Edge, was similarly conceived as a launchpad for a new television show. The final season of Happy Days spin-off Charles in Charles features no less than three would-be pilots that never took off – Fair Exchange , Almost Family , Lost Resort . So Assignment: Earth is not a freak occurrence.

Assignment: Earth began life as a half-hour television pilot without any reference to the Enterprise . The pitch was obviously heavily influenced by James Bond. Tall, dark and handsome, actor Robert Lansing makes a convincing stand-in for Sean Connery. The name “Gary Seven” seems designed to evoke the iconic “Double-Oh-Seven.” The servo resembles a device that Bond might receive from the Q Department – although it should be noted that Bond would not receive his first gimmick pen until Moonraker , a decade after Assignment: Earth aired.

A cool cat…

Nevertheless, the influence of the Bond films can be keenly felt on Assignment: Earth . Gary Seven is a secret agent in a sharp suit, paired with a beautiful young secretary. In particular, it seems like Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace watched You Only Live Twice before plotting the episode. Not only does Assignment: Earth featured Gary Seven involving himself in the space race, it also gives him a cute cat that he can stroke as a way of suggesting moral ambiguity around the character.

In fact, watching Assignment: Earth , Gary Seven feels like a cross between James Bond and a James Bond villain. He is a sauve secret agent capable of infiltrating any secure location on the planet, but he also hijacks a rocket carrying nuclear missiles in order to send a message to the world’s governments. Steering the rocket through a fancy console in an otherwise fashionable office, Gary Seven seems like he might be ready to make some sort of ransom demand or calculated threat.

It’s not rocket science…

Assignment: Earth was a collaboration between Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace. Wallace is perhaps best known for his work on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows , but he also contributed the script for Obsession . According to Captain’s Logs , Wallace had pitched a similar idea independent of Roddenberry:

“Assignment: Earth is interesting in a sense,” Wallace points out, “because I had gone to Paramount and pitched a series idea to them. They had said that Gene Roddenberry had come up with a very similar idea. So I saw Gene and we decided to pool the idea, which was about a man from tomorrow who takes care of the present on Earth. That was intended to be the pilot, although it was never made into a series. It was a good pilot and it’s a shame, because I think if they had done it as a series with just Gary Seven, it would have been a very successful show.”

Ultimately, Assignment: Earth never did manage to launch that spin-off show, but it has remained a focal point of fan interest over the years. Gary Seven still holds no small amount of interest for fans and writers alike, popping in various tie-in and spin-off media over the years.

“Nobody steals my show and gets away with it!”

However, the appeal of Gary Seven seems rather strange. Assignment: Earth is a very clunky piece of work. It feels like a half-hour pilot that has been padded out with the addition of the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock spend most of the episode’s runtime following Gary Seven around like lost puppies while he drives the plot; when he is not outwitting Kirk and Spock in order to show how clever he is. Inevitably, Assignment: Earth ends with Kirk and Spock endorsing Gary Seven – trusting him to save the day, rather than saving it themselves.

The viewer might be forgiven for wondering what exactly the Enterprise is doing in 1968 in the first place. “Using the lightspeed breakaway factor, the Enterprise has moved back through time to the twentieth century,” Kirk explains. “We are now in extended orbit around Earth, using our ship’s deflector shields to remain unobserved. Our mission, historical research. We are monitoring Earth communications to find out how our planet survived desperate problems in the year 1968.” That is all the explanation we receive.

And he’s toyetic, too!

Given how dangerous the temporal excursions in Tomorrow is Yesterday or The City on the Edge of Forever had been, it is strange to see Kirk and his crew behave so flippantly about time travel. Writing for the semi-official Inside Star Trek newsletter, Ruth Berman struggled to explain this story element as…

An experiment in duplicating the accidental time travel in Tomorrow is Yesterday — the experiment apparently worked, since the Enterprise made it to the 20th century and back to their own time. But, presumably, further experiments in time travel will only be made with great caution because of the danger of changing history.

It is not at all convincing, and Assignment: Earth stands out as the most nonchalant use of time travel in the history of the franchise. Of course, it was written at a point where Roddenberry likely suspected there would be no more Star Trek , so it probably did not seem to be too big a problem at the time.

“Captain, I believe he gets HBO…”

Looking at Assignment: Earth as an episode of Star Trek seems to miss the point. The Enterprise crew are really just spectators, existing to introduce the audience to the team of Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln and Isis. Assignment: Earth is a stealth pilot with the budget and the cast from a cult science-fiction show to pass the torch. However, Assignment: Earth never went to series. Instead, the series was stillborn – becoming a quirky footnote in the history of Star Trek rather than the beginning of something more significant.

To be fair, it is easy to see why Assignment: Earth didn’t get picked up for series. Although the teleplay is credited to Art Wallace, it is packed with the sort of awkward exposition and stilted moralising that one expects from Gene Roddenberry. Pondering what Gary Seven might be doing, Kirk observes, “Weren’t orbital nuclear devices one of this era’s greatest problems?” Spock replies, “Most definitely. Once the sky was full of orbiting H-bombs, the slightest mistake could have brought one down by accident, setting off a nuclear holocaust.” The episode is not subtle.

Blowing a fuse…

There is something just a little bit uncomfortable about the basic premise of Assignment: Earth . A bunch of anonymous aliens have abducted children from Earth, and raised them to become covert “operatives” on the planet surface. These operatives then work – using advanced technology and no accountability – to “protect” mankind. The implication is that operatives like Gary Seven have been guiding mankind from the shadows for decades, at least – all at the behest of secretive alien taskmasters.

This is a rather problematic set up. After all, The Omega Glory featured Kirk getting very upset at Captain Ronald Tracey for violating the Prime Directive on Omega IV. Then again, Kirk had gone on to nudge the planet’s civilisations towards traditional American values. The original Star Trek was never entirely consistent in its attitude towards the Prime Directive. In effect, this the philosophy of The Apple reflected back upon twentieth-century America, with a more advanced culture imposing their own norms upon a civilisation they deem “primitive.”

“Oh, sorry, I seem to have arrived on the wrong sets.”

However, Assignment: Earth never seems too bothered by this. Indeed, it is interesting that these issues have never really been explored in many of the tie-in materials surrounding Gary Seven and his mission on Earth. It is a pretty sizable issue with the episode, and while the pilot might have been setting the idea up to subvert it later, Assignment: Earth seems to have inherited the worst imperialist tendencies of Star Trek . Kirk (and Starfleet) may have made some questionable decisions, but they have a general philosophy of non-interference. Gary Seven’s philosophy is explicitly one of interference.

This aspect of Assignment: Earth also seems at odds with Roddenberry’s own moral philosophy. Roddenberry was a vocal opponent of the popular ancient astronauts theory, arguing that aliens did not build the pyramids. Roddenberry’s argument – one grounded in the humanism that defines Star Trek – is that humanity did not need mystical alien creatures to help them accomplish wonders . However, Assignment: Earth is the story about how mankind does need alien guidance because they are not capable of assuring their own continued existence.

Cat attack!

Sure, Gary Seven is human. However, he is merely the puppet of an anonymous extraterrestrial power. Gary Seven is a cog in a well-oiled machine; he is a replacement part. The “operatives” are so interchangeable that Gary Seven can just step right into the shoes of his predecessors. As such, Assignment: Earth represents quite the departure from the humanism and optimism associated with Star Trek . The best we can hope for is that an alien race decides to meddle in human affairs to make things better.

Even aside from the troublesome subtext of the episode’s basic premise,  Assignment: Earth serves to illustrate that perhaps Star Trek (and Gene Roddenberry) were not quite as consistent in their philosophy as hindsight would suggest. Roddenberry did a great deal of myth-making in the years after Star Trek went off the air, and a lot of it has lodged in the popular consciousness. As any rewatch of the series will demonstrate, Star Trek was not always as progressive and utopian as many fans like to believe.

Beta testing…

Even aside from the problems with the premise of the show, Art Wallace’s script is decidedly clunky. To be fair, it has a lot of heavy-lifting to do as it integrates the Enterprise, but it has no real focus or levity. Instead, Assignment: Earth is stuffed with awkward exposition. When Gary Seven tries to convince the Beta V of his identity, it does not ask for a pass code or a DNA sample. Instead, it demands a plot dump. “Please confirm identity as supervisor by describing nature of agents and mission here.”

Of course, this seems like a rather arbitrary way of proving Gary Seven’s identity. After all, one assumes that any of his enemies would likely have a working knowledge of who he is and what he is doing. Certainly, if his adversaries know about the existence of the Beta V computer and can fake his voice pattern, it seems unlikely that a broad question about the nature of his assignment will slow them down. The question exists primarily to enable a long and cumbersome television show pitch from Gary Seven.

“Ay, I tried to pitch them ‘The Young Scotty Chronicles’, laddy, but they were having none of it.”

“Agents are male and female, descendants of human ancestors taken from Earth approximately six thousand years ago,” Gary Seven explains. “They’re the product of generations of training for this mission. Problem: Earth technology and science have progressed faster than political and social knowledge. Purpose of mission: To prevent Earth’s civilisation from destroying itself before it can mature into a peaceful society.” As pitches go, it is hardly “space, the final frontier…”

The rest of the episode is similarly clunky, with none of the central characters seeming particularly well-formed. Although clearly influenced by James Bond, Gary Seven has none of the wit and charm of the playboy spy. Instead, Gary Seven plays like a watered-down version of Spock. However, Lansing is not quite as comfortable with dry and emotionless as Leonard Nimoy, and Gary Seven comes off as rather stilted and awkward. To be fair, given that Gary Seven was raised without human contact, this makes some degree of sense. However, he lacks the sort of charisma needed from a series lead.

One of these days, Gary… right to the moon!

In an interview with Starlog , Robert Lansing confessed that he was originally reluctant to do genre television:

“At the time,” he confides, “Gene was a good friend, but I was a New York snob actor, come out to Hollywood. Many folks in my self-perceived position didn’t do Star Trek because it was considered a kid’s show, or a young show at any rate. Gene said, ‘I’m writing this for you and we can play with it. It might be a series.’ He said, ‘Well, you don’t have to, but just do this one thing for me.’ So, I did. It was a damn good script and a lot of fun.”

Although he seems to have softened in the years following the episode, it is interesting that Roddenberry would recruit a lead actor so disinterested.

Card-carrying secret agent…

Terri Garr does a better job with Roberta Lincoln. Garr seems a lot more comfortable with the comedic banter than Lansing, and makes the most of some truly terrible lines. Indeed, Assignment: Earth is downright painful when it tries to be funny, putting awful gags into the mouths of its lead characters. “Where’s three four seven?” Gary Seven demands on Roberta’s arrival. “With three four eight?” Roberta quips, which is painful enough. However,  Assignment: Earth goes for the low-hanging fruit and has Gary Seven misunderstand. “Two oh one, code responses are not necessary.”

There is a similarly cringe-inducing scene with a dictation machine, which Assignment: Earth presents as the height of modernity. It is hilariously quaint. More awkward is the script’s patronising attitude towards sixties counter-culture. Asked if she wants to save the world, Roberta explains, “I know this world needs help. That’s why some of my generation are kind of crazy and rebels, you know. We wonder if we’re going to be alive when we’re thirty.” It is horribly condescending, suggesting that counter-culture just needs an older and more authoritative hand to guide it.

Computer says, “Exposit!”

However, like Lansing, there is a sense that Terri Garr was not entirely ready to commit to a television series. In her own interview with Starlog , Garr confessed that she did not like to talk about her time on Star Trek , and was almost relieved that Assignment: Earth never went to series:

Teri Garr appeared in Assignment: Earth. However, Garr responds, “I have nothing to say about it. I did that years ago and I mostly denied I ever did it.” She does admit that she would have been in the TV series that the episode was a pilot for, but it didn’t sell. “Thank god,” she says with genuine relief. “Otherwise, all I would get would be Star Trek questions for the rest of my natural life – and probably my unnatural life. You ever see those people who are Star Trek fans? The same people who go to swap meets.” How about Marc Daniels, who directed that episode? “He’s dead. I liked Gene Roddenberry, but I don’t remember those people. I really don’t want to talk about Star Trek. That’s what I told them about this interview. If it’s a science fiction magazine, they’re going to ask me about this stuff I don’t – ” She breaks off abruptly. So much for that line of inquiry.

Based on these conversations, it seems rather unlikely that Assignment: Earth would have been particularly happy behind the scenes. There is a sense that Roddenberry and Wallace really had no idea of what they would do with the show if it did get picked up.

It’s all rather forced…

Assignment: Earth was almost the last episode of Star Trek . It is interesting how many episodes of the second season came close to being the last episode of the series. None of those episodes were particularly good – none of them seemed to encapsulate the essence of what made Star Trek great; none of them seemed to speak to the heart of the show. Assignment: Earth is a woefully cynical piece of television; more than that, it is also a very poorly-constructed episode of television. As with The Omega Glory before it, it suggests that Roddenberry was a better inspirational figure than he was a storyteller.

Still, Star Trek managed to limp on into a (deeply troubled) third season. Gary Seven and his supporting cast faded into history, abandoned forever in 1968. Maybe there is a happy ending, after all.

You might be interested in our other reviews from the second season of the classic Star Trek :

• Supplemental: (Gold Key) #1 – The Planet of No Return!
• Supplemental: (Marvel Comics, 1980) #4-5 – The Haunting of Thallus!/The Haunting of the Enterprise!
• Metamorphosis
• Friday’s Child
• Who Mourns for Adonais?
• Supplemental: Spock’s World by Diane Duane
• Supplemental: New Visions #3 – Cry Vengeance
• Wolf in the Fold
• The Changeling
• Supplemental: (DC Comics, 1984) #43-45 – The Return of the Serpent!
• Supplemental: (IDW, 2009) #13 – The Red Shirt’s Tale
• Supplemental: Deep Space Nine – Crossover
• Supplemental: New Visions #1 – The Mirror, Cracked
• Supplemental: (DC Comics, 1984) #9-16 – New Frontiers (The Mirror Universe Saga)
• Supplemental: Mirror Images
• Supplemental: Mirror Universe – The Sorrows of Empire by David Mack
• Supplemental: (IDW, 2009) #15-16 – Mirrored
• The Deadly Years
• Supplemental: (Gold Key) #61 – Operation Con Game
• Supplemental: (DC Comics, 1984) #39-40 – The Return of Mudd
• Supplemental: The Galactic Whirlpool by David Gerrold
• Supplemental: Alien Spotlight – Tribbles
• Bread and Circuses
• Journey to Babel
• A Private Little War
• The Gamesters of Triskelion
• The Immunity Syndrome
• A Piece of the Action
• By Any Other Name
• Return to Tomorrow
• Patterns of Force
• The Ultimate Computer
• The Omega Glory
• Supplemental: Assignment: Eternity by Greg Cox
• Supplemental: (DC Comics, 1989) #49-50 – The Peacekeepers
• Supplemental: (IDW, 2008) Assignment: Earth

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: art wallace , assignment , assignment: earth , cancellation , Gary Seven , gene roddenberry , NBC , robert lansing , sixties , spin-off , star trek , Television , terri garr , the original series , time travel , tos |

19 Responses

“Based on these conversations, it seems rather unlikely that Assignment: Earth would have been particularly happy behind the scenes. There is a sense that Roddenberry and Wallace really had no idea of what they would do with the show if it did get picked up.”

I’ve never understood what they were planning to do with the series. Make it about Gary Seven attacking the problems of society, like he did with the arms race in A:E? That would be far more direct – and “preachy” than Star Trek’s “show us a future where these problems have been overcome.” I wouldn’t necessarily have minded, but I think the audiences and censors of the sixties would’ve been less than pleased.

Make it about Gary Seven fighting supervillains, like he does in Eugenics Wars and like most spies in the TV shows of the era did? That would just be boring, and a complete waste of the “alien operative with a socially conscious mission” hook.

A cool story might have been to have Gary Seven discover operatives from another alien power also on Earth, but for less benign missions, so the main plot would be about them struggling over control of the planet and their different visions for it – but that would take the kind of serialization and world building that they’d never have tried in the sixties, if it even occurred to them.

I just don’t see how the show would’ve worked.

(On the other hand – and now for something completely different – I DEMAND that someone, somewhere, write a Gary Seven/Men In Black crossover someday).

Yep. It is weird to imagine how the show would have worked without devolving into an inferior imitation of shows like I, Spy or Mission: Impossible.

Even I am wary of the preachy stuff, because there’s no telling what the writing staff might have looked like. I’m not sure I’d want twenty-odd weeks of Roddenberry preachiness, but from Gene L. Coon or D.C. Fontana, maybe.

Although, as Ben mentions below, John Byrne’s five-issue Assignment: Earth offers an example of how that writer would have handled it – a series of five done-in-one episodic adventures that feature cameos, crossovers, social commentary and world building. Vietnam, Cold War, Nixon. I like the idea, but the execution is so-so. However, Byrne’s style does feel quite like what a later sixties or early seventies television show might look like.

I remember thinking during the last MIB movie that Assignment: Earth could be done still. Would have to have been in this time period.

My take on what it might have looked like our homemade credits and homegrown theme music for the show that might have been….

and,…

I cannot help wondering how an Assignment: Earth ongoing television series might have worked out, if only because Robert Lansing was such a great actor. Also, there is a certain potential to the premise. But as you observe, given a closer examination, the set-up may not have been especially well thought out. It’s really difficult to tell how it could have turned out based solely on a backdoor pilot.

Even if Assignment: Earth had gotten the green light as an ongoing series I honestly could not imagine it lasting more than a couple of years at the most. There really was not much of a market for science fiction television back in the late 1960s. Star Trek’s difficulty in barely managing to last for three years is proof of that.

I did think that the Assignment: Earth miniseries that John Byrne did a few years ago was pretty decent, although it had it’s flaws. But I still see that potential to the concept, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it revisited again.

Yep. It is hard to judge from an episode of another show. Nevertheless, it’s always fun to speculate based on what we know! (And even what we don’t!)

Actually, there’s a review of that Byrne series a-comin’. Tomorrow morning I think. Gary Seven appeared in a lot of spin-off material!

Yeesh! Teri Garr is the greatest, but I’ve read her book and she strikes me as an Midwestern housewife who can never be pleased. (My aunt’s from Ohio, I know the sort.)

And what’s wrong with swap meets? 🙂

I did like of the image of a man in period dress neutralizing the Enterprise crew. That’s a moment that makes you sit up and take notice. Good thing they recycled it for Encounter At Farpoint.

Very nice observation.

I think Gary Seven is a cool idea, at least in theory. I’m less convinced that the version that appeared in the episode is workable. But, you’re right, the imagery is fun and striking in a way that the rest of the episode… isn’t.

Just occurred to me – if you do want to see how Robert Lansing would have done with his own spy show, he played Control in The Equalizer (TV show, not movie). Not the main character, but one of his oldest friends who remains in CIA and often appears when the CIA wants something from McCall, or vice-versa, or when their interests are clashing.

No science fiction element, but worth a look all the same.

Ah, cheers!

I hope you’ll go on to review the third season someday!

The plan is provisionally to review the third season the month that Star Trek III comes out – so May 2016?

In the meantime, 2015 has a lot of Star Trek reviews, if you are interested in the franchise outside of TOS? Planning do all of ENT as a “prequel” to the show’s fiftieth anniversary (January, April, August, December). Also hoping to do the fourth season of DS9 and the second season of VOY (across September and October). And then hoping to get through a significant portion of the rest of the franchise in 2016, if everything goes to plan.

I was a TOS fan from 1969 – 1986, then I moved into a TV-free household and lived with a man who thought that television was the root of all evil. So when TNG came out in 1987, I not only didn’t own a television, I didn’t even know it was on.

I have a lot of problems with what they’re doing in the reboot movies, but seeing them did remind me of how much I’d adored TOS as a child and a teen, and the first thing I did was to re-watch all 79 episodes of TOS, then insist that Mr. TV-Is-Bad watch them with me. 🙂

Then I started on the other Star Trek shows. I watched the first couple of episodes of TNG and persevered through an unexpectedly racist episode, an episode that tried to redo “The Naked Time” and failed miserably, and a couple of other bad episodes, but I balked at “Lonely Among Us.”

In “Lonely Among Us,” Picard ADMITS to the ship’s doctor that he’s been TAKEN OVER BY AN ALIEN CREATURE. The first officer and doctor try to do something about this, but Picard tells them to go away and stop bothering him, and they run away with their tails between their legs.

Say WHAT? If Kirk had admitted to Spock and McCoy that he was possessed by an alien creature, first they’d have tried to talk to it. But if that didn’t work, Spock would have neck-pinched him or McCoy would have hypoed him unconscious. I couldn’t believe that Riker and Crusher just kinda shrugged and told each other that there was nothing they could do. How the hell are these people going to SURVIVE in a dangerous galaxy?

Where’s my confident, in-charge captain? Where’s my knows-everything, ready-for-anything Vulcan? Where’s my crusty, fearless doctor? *sigh*

Friends tell me that TNG is going to get MUCH better. I’m amazed it survived long enough to do so. I really WAS trying not to expect the new guys to be like the old ones. But when the new ones are stupid and ineffectual, it’s a lot harder to maintain that position.

I’ll go back to TNG eventually, since people tell me that it eventually becomes wonderful, but I’ve stopped watching it and started working my way through Voyager. Hmm, a dynamic, take-charge captain, a Vulcan (even if he’s not as cool as Spock), and a snarky doctor … yeah, this show is a much easier transition for the TOS fan. 🙂 And watching a female captain geek out with a female chief engineer in one of the early episodes … be still my heart! I have waited for a moment like this for SO long!

Friends tell me that Voyager is eventually going to become awful, just as they tell me that TNG is eventually going to become wonderful. But for the first seasons of each, at least, I’m finding Voyager a lot easier to swallow.

Still, no matter which other Star Treks I end up liking, I don’t think anything will ever dislodge TOS from the place it has in my heart. I first saw it at the age of eleven, when I simply took it all in uncritically, and although my middle-aged self now sees the sexism, the heavy-handedness of the messages, the wrong-headeness of Kirk’s cultural imperialism, and all of that, some part of me is still that eleven-year-old who loved TOS unreservedly … and always will.

TNG starts hitting it out of the park in its third season. I think the third season of TNG is one of the best seasons of television every produced. (The first two are pretty terrible, with the occasional highlight. If you want to skip ahead to the good stuff in the first two seasons, I’d recommend “Home Soil”, “Heart of Glory”, “Conspiracy”, “Elementary, Dear Data”, “A Matter of Honour”, “Q Who?” and “The Emissary.”)

Voyager is much maligned among fans. Probably my least favourite Star Trek, even though I don’t think it is as bad as people make it out. It is very episodic – quite like TOS in that way. It has some highlights, but a lot of it is formulaic. But when it does hit it out of the park, it ranks up there with the best of the franchise. I remember being quite fond of the third through fifth seasons, and finding quite a few underrated gems in there.

However, given that it is largely using the formula defined from the third season of TNG onwards, I’m kinda curious what your reaction might be watching VOY first. Is it just over-familiarity that prompted fandom’s backlash to Voyager? Let me know your opinion if you do jump back to TNG after VOY, if it seems like TNG is perhaps more repetitive, if that makes sense?

I do notice you didn’t mention DS9. That is probably, from the fourth season onwards, my favourite Star Trek hands down. (Although it is interesting for the entirety of the run.) It is perhaps a little quirkier than the other spin-offs, but I think it has probably aged a little better than some of the nineties Star Trek.

This was one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. Lansing was brilloant. In my opinion, which counts for nothing, this review is garbage.

Well, you’re entitled to your opinion.

Would you care to elaborate upon it? Explain to me why it’s garbage? What precisely you disagreed with? What you like about Assignment: Earth and what I’ve missed about it?

I once thought it might be interesting to circle back to the “Gary Seven” types and their mysterious benefactors (not the novels we saw, but the TV shows). Their apparent benevolence could be a subtle source of conflict.

It might be interesting to see the Federation deal with the manipulation of Earth’s history by high-minded and mysterious extraterrestrial benefactors acting through almost-human agents (though I doubt we’d see the original, awkward eugenics angle reappear). There are a few themes that could be used to explore, a prominent one being the struggle between choice and fate, since Seven seemed to pinpoint the Enterprise in history as soon as he saw Vulcans and humans together, and he knew the “right” outcome of his own actions on Earth.

Nowadays, though, I wouldn’t really trust the franchise to handle that well. The two latest series have gotten a little too eager with their use of shades-of-gray secret societies as plot engines.

It’s a theme that Roddenberry would spin again in another attempt at piloting the series in “The Questor Tapes” which is mostly memorable for future “BJ” Robert Farell playing sidekick to an incompletely programmed Android who’s the last of his ancient line apparently sent here to influence the Human Race since prehistory.

This wasn’t the last seen of Agent 194. The now Senior Supervisor would make returns in several novels and comics, most notably the one that echoes the spirit of the intended series. Star Trek: Assignment Earth put out by IDW.

As I recall, the android was an inspiration for Data on The Next Generation .

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekS2E26AssignmentEarth

Recap / Star Trek S2 E26 "Assignment: Earth"

Edit locked.

Original air date: March 29, 1968

The Enterprise goes back in time to visit the year 1968 to observe and report. Amazingly, they discover a transporter beam signal, something that didn't exist in 20th Century Earth. They intercept and beam aboard a humanoid called Gary Seven and his black cat, Isis. Mr. Seven soon escapes, sending a few Redshirts to la-la land. (No one dies in this episode. In fact, they all have blissful smiles on their faces as they're incapacitated.) As he beams down to Earth, Kirk and Spock follow to make sure he doesn't pollute the time stream since his excuse of being from a planet they never heard of and being there as an agent of protection seems far fetched.

Who is Gary Seven, and why is he so insistent on getting to McKinley Rocket Base?

Assignment: Tropes:

• And the Adventure Continues : Kirk and Spock refer to interesting experiences Roberta and Gary will have once NBC green lights their (never realized) series.
• As You Know : Gary Seven explains to his computer (and thereby the audience) what his mission is; the computer already knows, but insists on a demonstration that he knows, as proof that he's who he says he is.
• Cat Girl : In human form, Isis wears her hair to vaguely look like cat ears.
• Crapsack Only by Comparison : Gary Seven disgustedly describes the 20th century world of the episode's original audience as "primitive" and comments "It's incredible that people can exist like this."
• Curse Cut Short : Roberta stops a computer before it can say where her star shaped mark is located . (Granted, the computer probably would've used medically acceptable terminology for whatever part of the anatomy her mark was on.)
• Distant Sequel : The events of this episode go completely unremarked in canon for the next fifty-four real-life years (and fifty-six years in universe) before the presence of Supervisors on late-20th/early-21st century Earth becomes a major plot point in season two of Star Trek: Picard . Furthermore, the Supervisors are revealed to have been recruited by the Traveler's species.
• Early-Installment Weirdness : While time travel is possible in subsequent Star Trek works, it's never again done so easily by a Starfleet crew, and the Temporal Prime Directive would have made a mission like this unlikely.
• Exact Time to Failure : Gary says that it's necessary to detonate the platform while it's at least a hundred miles up (it ends up being detonated at 104 miles). Possibly justified in that the nation it was about to fall on could more easily go along with sweeping the incident under the rug if it happened "in space" rather than "in our airspace".
• Field Trip to the Past : It's a time travel story. Gary must convince the people of Earth to be excellent to each other by not blowing each other up.
• Forcefield Door : Gary is kept locked in by one, until he opens it with a pen that's remarkably like a sonic screwdriver .
• Good Versus Good : Kirk and Gary Seven spend the episode butting heads because, what with the risk of totally derailing the course of history, Kirk simply can't take Gary's alibi at face value.
• Hammer and Sickle Removed for Your Protection : The U.S. is putting a nuclear warhead into orbit in response to a similar act of aggression by another power. Which power is never specified, but we all know who they're talking about, don't we? Later on, the malfunctioning warhead is headed for "the heart of the Euro-Asian continent." Look at a map from 1968, and you'll see there's pretty much only one country in that vicinity.
• Impersonating an Officer : Gary creates a batch of fake ID cards with various police and intelligence credentials. When he realizes that he's let Roberta Lincoln see more than she should, he covers himself by claiming to be a CIA agent.
• Informed Ability : The computer reports that despite her erratic behavior, Roberta possesses high IQ but we never actually get to see that.
• Intelligible Unintelligible : Gary Seven responds to Isis's mewing as if it were intelligible speech.
• Gary Seven regularly holds and pets his cat Isis. He is on Earth to save it from nuclear arms race in space and saves Captain Kirk from being killed by Roberta.
• Spock is shown petting Isis, who seems to adore the attention. Spock has an even harder time hiding his affection for her than he did with the Tribbles! Spock is presented a positive character in the series.
• Mundanization : Again with the modern day Earth!
• No Communities Were Harmed : The fictional McKinley Rocket Base stands in for the real-life Kennedy Space Center.
• No Endor Holocaust : In two ways. Not only does the nuclear explosion have no consequences (compared to the crippling electromagnetic pulse and cloud of fallout that would happen in Real Life ) but somehow it defuses tensions in the Cold War instead of ramping them up.
• No-Sell : One of the first indications that Gary Seven is not a normal human is when Spock's nerve pinch has no effect on him.
• Orbital Bombardment : The U.S. puts a nuclear warhead platform in orbit. During the episode it falls out of orbit and drops toward an enemy country: it will go off on impact.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot : This was meant to be a half hour show conceptualized by Roddenberry. It was written way back when Star Trek 's first season was still in production. It never got off the ground, but why waste a good story? It's actually pretty obvious they barely rewrote an existing script to feature the Enterprise crew, since they only play a very limited role and have no effect on events whatsoever.
• Punk in the Trunk : Gary hides from security in the trunk of a car.
• Recurring Extra : Lieutenant Leslie (Eddie Paskey) wears simultaneously his usual red shirt, a yellow shirt and an engineering suit. Lieutenant Hadley (William Blackburn) is also a NASA technician.
• Right-Hand Cat : Isis seems a bit nicer than Sylvia from "Catspaw". She's a sweetheart as cats go, as long as you don't harm Gary.
• Scare 'Em Straight : Gary Seven's plan is to sabotage an orbital nuclear weapon platform so that it malfunctions and almost starts World War III in order to scare governments out of deploying such weapons.
• Secret History : Suggested by the closing scene, in which Kirk notes that the Enterprise's history records for the current date describe a "never generally revealed" detonation of a nuclear-armed warhead platform exactly 104 miles above the Earth.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism : The missile carrying the orbital nuclear warhead platform has a self destruct device to destroy it in case it goes off course. Gary Seven deactivates it as part of his plan to scare the Earth governments into not using such weapons.
• Shout-Out : East 68th Street is also the street that was home to the main characters from I Love Lucy . (Recall that Star Trek was produced by Desilu Studios .)
• The '60s : Like, man, can you dig Roberta's groovy threads? (Dig 'em? I wanna bury 'em!)
• Special Guest : Robert Lansing is the only actor in the entire run of the series to warrant a "Special Guest Star" credit in the first act.
• The establishing shot of downtown Manhattan used to open the second act is also seen in numerous episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. throughout that series.
• A closeup of Scotty behind the transporter station is recycled from " The Enemy Within ". James Doohan looks noticeably thinner, and has a different hairstyle in this shot.
• Recycled footage of the Enterprise orbiting Earth (without clouds) is taken from " Miri ".
• A shot of crewmembers on a corridor, listening to Kirk's speech on the intercom is recycled footage from " The Corbomite Maneuver ". The same shot appears in " Balance of Terror " and " The Menagerie, Part I " as well.
• A large amount of NASA stock footage is used in the episode. The Saturn V stock footage is of the SA 500f dummy and of Apollos 4 and 6.
• The Stoic : Gary Seven is never anything less than brusque and completely focused.
• Swiss-Army Weapon : In addition to being able to stun or kill others, Gary's servo can also disable force fields.
• Sword of Damocles : The U.S. is about to launch an orbital nuclear warhead platform. Gary Seven's mission is to make it malfunction to scare other nations into not using them.
• Time Police : Gary Seven implies he works for them. He's explicitly trying to preserve history by saving the rocket launch and knows humans and Vulcans will meet at some point.
• Transplanted Humans : Gary Seven claims to come from Earth in the 20th century, but he's been on an advanced alien world for an unspecified amount of time and they've apparently done some work on him since he's physically completely flawless.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting : Is Isis a cat who can turn into a woman or a woman who can turn into a cat? Or something else ?!
• The Worf Effect : Gary Seven is shown to be resistant to the Vulcan neck pinch, something very few Trek characters can lay claim to.
• You Already Changed the Past : At the end of the episode, Kirk checks the Enterprise 's historical records and finds a mention of the orbital platform being destroyed exactly as it was, suggesting that not only Gary Seven's mission but also the delays caused by Kirk's interference were already part of history.
• Star Trek S2 E25 "Bread and Circuses"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Original Series
• Star Trek S3 E1 "Spock's Brain"

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Assignment: Earth

The Enterprise has used the "light speed breakaway" technique to travel to Earth in the year 1968, to study how humans survived the desperate problems of that era. Then, they intercept a man beaming back to Earth from at least a thousand light years away, a technical feat beyond even Federation science! Who is Gary Seven, how did he get access to such advanced technology, and why has he come to Earth? He has a story, but Kirk has trouble believing it. Worse, he has trouble knowing whether he should allow Seven to pursue his agenda, or try to stop him. One of those choices is certain to destroy the future... but which?

James Doohan

Nichelle Nichols

George Takei

Walter Koenig

Robert Lansing

Ted Gehring

Morgan Jones

Paul Baxley

Cast appearances.

William Shatner

Leonard Nimoy

DeForest Kelley

Episode discussion.

This episode was a "backdoor pilot" for a Roddenberry concept about interventionist aliens whose goal is to ensure the survival of less advanced races, including humans. The network passed.

Assignment: Earth

Cast & crew.

Robert Lansing

Roberta Lincoln

Lincoln Demyan

Morgan Jones

Col. Nesvig

Information

© 2009 CBS Corp.

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Star Trek Assignment Earth

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‘Star Trek’ Mystery Solved – Isis Actress From “Assignment: Earth” Identified

| March 12, 2019 | By: Anthony Pascale 50 comments so far

Once again our friends at Roddenberry Entertainment have unearthed a piece of Star Trek history. Today’s episode of Larry Nemecek’s The Trek Files solves a casting mystery that dates back to Star Trek: The Original Series .

A Star Trek mystery

One of the memorable performers from the second season finale of  Star Trek: The Original series had no lines and shared billing with a cat, but is still enduring to this day. That season finale, titled “Assignment: Earth,” was a sort of backdoor pilot from Gene Roddenberry as a backup plan in case  Star Trek didn’t get a third season. It was a time travel show, with the Enterprise traveling back to 1968, the year the second season was on the air. The focus of the episode was on the mysterious character Gary Seven, trained by aliens to save the Earth from itself. Gary’s constant companion was a shapeshifting pet cat named Isis. While Isis seemed to speak telepathically with Gary Seven, the actress who played Isis in her human form never spoke. As such, she was one of many extras who was never credited, leaving her identity a bit of a mystery.

Kirk, Gary Seven and his cat Isis in “Assignment: Earth”

For years Playboy pinup and actress Victoria Vetri was associated with the role, even garnering her a page on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki. TrekMovie even did an article about Vetri back in 2010 when she ran into some legal trouble. However, in 2018 the actress and model revealed she was never part of Star Trek , and her credit was subsequently  removed from Memory Alpha , leaving the identity of the performer as “unknown.”  Star Trek history knew the name of one of the cats who played Isis (Sambo), but the name of the human actress remained a mystery. Until today.

Isis in her human form in “Assignment: Earth”

Isis Identified

Combing through Gene Roddenberry’s archive of documents from  Star Trek: The Original Series , the team from The Trek Files  came upon documents for “Assignment: Earth.” These documents regarding production details for the episode could finally solve this mystery of the Isis actress. The standard actors call sheet for  January 5th – the one day Isis was on set in her human form – includes a listing for a performer to be on set 10:00 AM, but only lists that performer as “1 Female (New)” under “Atmosphere and Standins.”

Actor call sheet for “Assignment: Earth” doesn’t give the name for the “new” actress due on set at 10:00 am

However, the “Extra Talent Call Sheet” for that day was the key. Along with other familiar “Standing” background extra actors such as Eddie Paskey , there is a listing for “1 Cat Girl” to be on set at 10:00 AM. Importantly, it includes the performer’s name as April Tatro. Tatro herself was contacted by The Trek Files and confirmed she played Isis in human form for “Assignment: Earth.” According to the sheet, Tatro was budgeted to be paid the standard rate for all the extras of $29.15 for the day, plus the cost for time for being fitted with her costume and body makeup. An additional production report unearthed by The Trek Files  shows her adjusted rate of $84.51.

Extra Call Sheet for “Assignment Earth” identifies actress who played Isis as April Tatro

April Tatro worked mostly as a contortionist , performing on stage and on television. Just months after her work on Star Trek she appeared again on NBC, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson . Tatro also appeared on Laugh-In,   Fernwood Tonight and The Gong Show . Her career on television ran through to 2001, appearing again as a contortionist on an episode of  Malcolm in the Middle. 

April Tatro in a 1997 episode of the sitcom Ellen

Isis actress April Tatro interviewed by Trek Files

Larry Nemecek had a chance to speak to April Tatro about her time working on Star Trek’s  “Assignment: Earth” on the episode of The Trek Files released today. Nemecek tells TrekMovie: “This week’s episode is one of those  that makes the whole concept of The Trek Files worthwhile. We’re going to be solving a Star Trek mystery.”

Larry Nemecek with April Tatro (The Trek Files)

On the podcast, Tatro talked about her fitting for her rather skimpy costume, saying, “I’d never had so much attention in all my life.” Speaking of attention, Tatro also reveals that Star Trek star William Shatner asked her out. Even though she was engaged to be married in just two weeks, she accepted the offer and went out to lunch with Shatner.

Get all the details by listening to the podcast available on iTunes , or you can warp on over to podcasts.roddenberry.com .

You can download the “Assignment: Earth” production documents on Google Drive . For more on April Tatro in “Assignment: Earth” and other Trek Files head on over to the program’s hub on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/TheTrekFiles/posts/1160454300795482?__xts__[0]=68.ARCOlXil2QMrfyaDUduPfK_bOIGeEgtr2uOMjEkRnVUQGdNKOeJLJ4uJAEI274s9z-Id1wIHUG_QjP3q_koO392RjThcoBezZT3cXLSgbQo9Q9zzStM69KXlQFSNxN4KR6dtBPRsGjptIp9k5nKAiEEtBEX7qIVlgvuLTDCTXdcTVYgiBVFq1voodX47e9nM10_xXSyZbog3Xc1SeLxpN6SO3LgY-xyRGi6H90aA2yk_KerqmivkQo6f6ohIWfR_tHMavxCrGNRozXUksDRU6pQMLT5WZ6lSIKdHYv2SrUvS_xeYZTpUqf6M2xWZbLI7ikfUEcUkYOS9oS8cPTsfe7og5GdwaOebB6yW8-_4N2YVHA4TUQg4zeeYIGwfn6asii1EgHWU8dXVG2ELDn5gW1s2EkyUOYyOrrMLSjSny_H5EI0hPrqf53gx9wiXo392QXI66vYFIJgt_IXNn2dA&__tn__=-R

Keep up with all our coverage of Star Trek history at TrekMovie.com .

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“Tatro also reveals that Star Trek star William Shatner asked her out. Even though she was engaged to be married in just two weeks, she accepted the offer and went out to lunch with Shatner.”

Of course, Shatner was married as well. But lunch seems innocent.

His marriage was already over at that point; papers may not have been yet been signed, but it was done.

WOW WOW WOW! What an incredible find. Larry Nemecek is truly the Jeffrey Burton Russell of Trekdom.

That is really good.

Very neat trivia. Shatner, you Rascal! :)

Oh, cool! It’s so amazing that we’re still learning new things about TOS after all the time. I mean, it’s not as if there haven’t been innumerable books and articles published about the show already. :-)

Corylea TOS has a gold mine of information we don’t know yet.

That is a incredibly cool trivia! What a neat find! It’s stuff like this that makes me proud to be a Trek fan, that we love the show so much and want to know every possible bit of information about it. I should start to listen to Larry’s podcast!

What a cool bit of trivia. Good work Detective Nemecek.

So odd that this has taken this long to come out. For years I fought the notion that it was Victoria Vetri. I never understood that. Didn’t look like her to me.

Again, a really cool bit of trivia to know here.

And now that I’ve seen her contortionist video it seems they cast well….an actress as, or more, flexible than a cat.

What ever happened to starships time traveling to the past all willy nilly for “historical research” anyway?

So there was some inner Kirk in Shatner himself :))

He did this for a lot of the women. The bellydancer from Wolf in the Fold has an account in her book of her being shocked when he came to pick her up without his toupee. He was married as well.

What a great find. Great story!

Oh. Pondering if the aliens who sent Gary Seven could be the Red Angels in Discovery? Or if there’s some connection between those aliens and the ones behind the Red Angels.

Maybe Gary Seven is the Red Angel!

spock said the red angel was human and female

Larry, thanks for this Trek Files episode that reveals the true identity of Isis. I see the article mentions that in 2018 Victoria Vetri denied being Isis. I would like to point out that way back in 2012, I revealed that Vetri was not Isis in my self-published comic, 3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics, issue 3. I corresponded with her while she was in prison! I tried to let the Trek world know, but no one would listen! Anyway, thanks for the scoop! Mike Fisher Instagram: galacticfishproductions

What a great discovery, especially since “Assignment: Earth” is one of my favorite episodes! Listening to the podcast, Miss Tatro sounds like such a kind person. :}

Any relation to the late Richard Tatro, who played Norman in “I, Mudd?”

The same question occurred to me. Can somebody call her back and ask her?

Or composer Duane Tatro, who scored episodes of Quinn Martin’s superb ’60s TV series, THE INVADERS?

This is a strange synchronicity. I was just thinking about Gary Seven yesterday. I had an image of the British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor playing him on the new Philippa georgiou section 31 series. Interesting coincidence.

His semblance to Robert Lansing is indeed quite uncanny. :P

This is amazing — what a find!

You know there are whole pages dedicated to the watch Gary Seven wore (evidently was a Rolex – I’d never even noticed or thought about it) http://www.rolexmagazine.com/2008/11/start-trek-rolex-gmt-master-at-nasa.html https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=83222 http://rolexdiamond.blogspot.com/2011/07/ https://forums.watchuseek.com/f2/watches-star-trek-4674575-2.html

There’s even a crazy guy who wrote and recorded music and put together opening credits for what an Assignment: Earth show might have been like…. http://supervisor194.com/

All forms of minutia the internet and fandom feed into and off of, but I’m still very surprised this bit of information never came out.

Fascinating!

All those wasted years she could have been on the convention circuit! She’s a legit Star Trek legend!

I was thinking that. Hopefully she’ll get a lot of bookings now.

Did she not realize what a big deal this is? Who knows, maybe not. She has to have known what Star Trek became.

What a neat story. She looks good today.

Shatner took her to lunch? I wonder if that worked out to be an entry for his captain’s log!

What, nobody has a comment for my double entendre??

oooooh, nasty, man! How much you wanna bet he buttered her muffin at lunch?

Very cool. Nice detective work, Roddenberry Entertainment.

She really was perfect for that role…such supernatural feline grace ! Old Cat-Man .

You call that a skimpy outfit? Even with the stricter rules of the times, there were women on Star Trek who wore more revealing costumes than that.

What a great story! She looks wonderful today and as many said here, it’s nice to learn new things about TOS all these years later. The question that was never answered: Is she a woman, is she a cat, ot a shapeshifter? GREAT article, thanks :)

Interesting bit of Trek hisstory. I wonder why there was so much pussy-footing around this casting issue for years. Though, it was classy of Tatro not to pounce on the false attribution.

I see what you did there :)

Oh come on., She’s didn’t want to come off like a clawed.

Gary Seven is one of the intriguing corners of TOS that has never been explored on screen beyond the one episode. I wonder if the Discovery team is sniffing around story possibilities for ol’ Gary and Isis.

I hope not.

I would have felt that way too until I saw how elegantly they revisited The Cage. Probably they won’t touch Gary Seven as he would not have shown up in the Discovery timeline yet.

TOS, Fernwood tonight AND the Gong Show!

sorry that english not my first language.

my feeling are, as usual, mr shatner was a very naughty rascal!

Now identified, instant elevation to iconic role.

Yep….

https://www.vidoevo.com/video/MXlwbDVWcWuRpWVhlZEU/april-tatro-show My friend, Jim found this video on YouTube of April Tatro performing on the Gong Show. And as Chuck Barris notes, she’s from my home town of Astoria, Oregon.

dang she missed out on so many star trek conventions…

I’m surprised that Marc Cushman missed that detail when he researched his very thorough and complete ‘These Are The Voyages’ volumes.

Late UWF professor joins U.S. presidents, Star Trek cast on endless journey through space

T he last class University of West Florida physics professor James "Jim" Marsh taught before his retirement in 2008 was on black holes, those mysterious regions of spacetime where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape its grip.

Who knows? Maybe Marsh will run into a black hole during his perpetual flight that will travel to deep space.

Partial remains of Marsh, who died in 2022 at the age of 85, were launched into space on Jan. 8 as part of the Enterprise Flight , a venture by the Houston-based memorial space flight company Celestis .

On the spacecraft that departed from Cape Canaveral are 234 flight capsules, most of which contain DNA or cremated remains of its 264 participants . The remains of many from the original "Star Trek" series are onboard, including the show's creator Gene Rodenberry and series actors Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley and James Doohan. Also onboard are hair follicles from presidents George Washington, John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

What would Marsh think of his physical fate?

"Nifty," piped in his daughter, Rebecca Marsh of Pensacola.

Her siblings ‒ Jessica Marsh, Samantha Wachob and Jacob Marsh ‒ nodded in agreement.

"Nifty," Wachob echoed. "He would think it's nifty."

"Expensive," he would say. "But nifty."

Once the Enterprise Flight completes its approximately two-year journey to its deep space destination it will be renamed Enterprise Station − humankind’s furthest outpost − where it will remain in heliocentric orbit around the sun and journey endlessly (Deep space refers to space well beyond the Earth and Earth/moon orbit).

Celestis invited family members to the launch and allows them ‒ and the public ‒ to track the mission on satellite through its website .

Marsh was a beloved presence at UWF, where he began teaching in 1969 and was named a UWF professor emeritus in 2008. A true eccentric in the most wonderful sense of the word, Marsh dabbled in many fields, though he preferred wearing one hat ‒ a Greek sailor's hat he often wore, along with boots and a leather jacket. On a motorcycle, the bearded Marsh cut a dashing figure. In the classroom, he was cutting edge, teaching young minds about subjects ranging from holograms, lasers and optics to black holes, general and special relativity, as well as quantum mechanics.

He was also a college radio disc jockey, a founder of the Pensacola International Folk Dancers, a musician with both the Dogwood Dulcimer Association and the Blues Angel Music ukulele group.

Now, he's out there, traveling a world he could only study and peer up at while confined to Earth. He's part of the cosmos now, fitting for a man who seemed to explore new possibilities and challenges while here.

"He was such a good dad and so involved," said Jessica Marsh, the oldest of his children. "I looked up his name, his Google footprint in the last few years, and found all these physics articles he published. I wouldn't even understand the titles. But it struck me because at the end of the day after writing these articles, he would come home and dance around the living room to Disney music with me. He was a genius, but he was my dad."

Marsh's children ‒ his wife and the children's mother, Judith, died in 2005 ‒ learned about Celestis and the company's various memorial flights when looking over options for his remains.

"It seemed like something that was special, kind of crazy and off the wall while also very science minded," Jessica Marsh said. "Of course, it's perfect for him because that's how he was ‒ special and off the wall yet very science minded. It was perfect."

The Enterprise Flight launch was Celestis' 22nd memorial flight since the company's founding in 1994.

Celestis offers various memorial flight services ranging from Earth Rise ($3,495), where remains are flown to space then back where they are delivered to family members, to Voyager Service, which includes flights similar to the Enterprise Flight ($12,995). Flights also deliver remains to the moon, or into earth orbit where the capsule will eventually reenter the atmosphere, harmlessly vaporizing in a final burst of glory. For details, go to www.celestis.com .

Enterprise Flight, which will eventually become Enterprise Station, is charting new territory in terms of human burial ceremonies and rituals, said retired Air Force veteran Colby Youngblood, Celestis president who joined the company in February 2022.

"It will be there long after the Earth is gone," Youngblood said. "It will be become the longest lasting memorial in human history, and it will always be the first of its kind."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Late UWF professor joins U.S. presidents, Star Trek cast on endless journey through space

Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard in "All Good Things..."

Writer Brannon Braga

Star trek: the next generation 's series finale at 30 (exclusive), "all good things..." co-writer brannon braga on how he and former writing partner ronald d. moore made tv history..

Thirty years ago today, Star Trek writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore found themselves shouldering the unique responsibility of simultaneously writing The Next Generation cast's first Trek movie while also scripting their last episode of television.

For others, the dual writing duties would likely feel (at best) overwhelming. But that wasn't the case for Braga.

"We didn't flinch," Braga tells the Television Academy in an exclusive interview celebrating the 30th anniversary of TNG 's series finale, "All Good Things...," which aired in syndication on May 23, 1994. "I can't speak for Ron, but I don't recall us ever saying, 'Should we be doing this?' We were deeply immersed in these characters. And I think there was something cool about doing a two-hour finale and the movie at the same time, because they were very different stories."

But both "All Good Things..." and what would go on to be the seventh Star Trek feature film, Generations , were similar in that they dealt with one of Trek 's most popular plot and thematic devices: time. Ironically, time was also foremost on the then–writing team's minds as they juggled both scripts — with roughly three weeks allotted to write the series finale. Moore and Braga were in the middle of rewriting a draft of Generations when they were tapped by the late TNG showrunner (and Braga's mentor) Michael Piller to script "All Good Things...." The riveting two-part episode features Captain Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) moving back and forth across three different time periods — with the help of his omnipotent nemesis, Q (John de Lancie) — on a mission to save the galaxy from an anti-time anomaly. As Picard struggles to restore temporal order to the universe, he must interact with three different versions of his beloved Enterprise-D crew — past, present and future — in ways that remind the considerate and accomplished starship captain to better appreciate how vital the here and now is, even in the time travel–heavy world of Star Trek .

Whereas Generations would garner mixed reviews from both audiences and critics upon its release in November 1994, "All Good Things..." quickly became a fan-favorite and is regarded by many as one of the most creatively successful series finales in TV history.

"It proved ultimately to be what the movie should have been," Braga explains. "The movie had a lot of cooks in the kitchen. There were many studio mandates. It was conceived to be a 'passing of the baton.' On 'All Good Things...,' [Paramount] largely left us alone. We were left to do what we do, and I think you can feel the benefit of that in the final product."

In honor of the 30th anniversary of "All Good Things...," Braga takes us behind the scenes of the writing process, shares which pivotal scene he and Moore watched being filmed and why a fourth timeline featuring the Borg was ultimately cut from the story.

Television Academy: Traditionally, the showrunner writes the series finale, but not in TNG 's case. Do you recall when you and Ron were assigned the finale, and maybe what Michael's thinking was at the time with that assignment?

Brannon Braga: I don't know the exact timeline. But I do know that we received the movie assignment sometime in the seventh season of Next Gen . Because I remember we were pretty much in the throes of our 26-episode season and how excited we were. And that's a much longer development process, a movie. It's slower and bigger and more complicated. And, in the meantime, you're racing along with the TV show. I also remember not being too worried about [writing both the movie and the finale] because the TV schedule was such that the movie was a marathon, and the TV show was a sprint. And you just had to get the TV episodes written. So in some ways, I don't think we lost a step.

As for why we were chosen, I think [ TNG executive producer] Jeri Taylor was probably already working on Star Trek: Voyager . And Michael, I believe, was also developing Voyager , but he still had a hand in Deep Space Nine .

When during TNG 's run was it discussed that the seventh season would be its last, at the height of its ratings popularity?

Those conversations were happening really early. And the reason I remember that is because Michael Piller asked me to go [write on] Deep Space Nine at the end of season six of Next Gen . Piller wanted me to come over, and he really thought I would fit well with the concept. And I really liked Deep Space Nine . I love its concept, and I was really enchanted with the idea of working on that kind of Star Trek . But because he gave me the option, I declined. And the reason I gave him was, "I want to see Next Gen through to the end." And that's because I knew, at that point, that season seven was going to be the last season. But I didn't know about "All Good Things..." at that point. I didn't know that I would be working on the final episode. I just knew that I had to see Next Gen through, emotionally.

You and Ron seem to have taken the news rather well, of writing the last episode of Next Gen while in the middle of writing that cast's first movie.

I remember feeling excited. We didn't flinch. I can't speak for Ron, but I don't recall us ever saying, 'Should we be doing this?' We were deeply immersed in these characters. Ron had been writing the show for five seasons. I'd been writing it for four. That's nine seasons, collectively. And we were just in the middle of it. And I think there was something cool about doing a two-hour finale and the movie at the same time, because they were very different stories. For the finale, we were going to tell a movie-sized story with significant developments in the characters.

It's funny that "All Good Things..." was the easiest of the two. We wrote that much more quickly, I think we had three weeks on that script. It felt easier, because the movie had [input from] William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, the studio and [ TNG producer] Rick Berman. The movie had a lot of cooks in the kitchen. A lot of mandates. It was conceived as a "passing of the baton." It had to have [Captain] Kirk, it had to have the Klingons. And Leonard Nimoy, at one point, crossed paths [with directing Generations ].

What was the notes process like on the finale, or did the studio pretty much leave you alone?

[Paramount] largely left us alone. The studio wasn't giving us notes. We were left to do what we do, and I think one can feel the benefit of that in the final product. Rick gave us notes, I'm sure, but not many. And it was his suggestion for Picard's last line, in the poker scene, the "sky's the limit" line.

Speaking of that last scene, where Picard joins the crew's traditional poker game for the first time, I know that also was the last scene shot for the show. Were you able to go to set for that?

That was the one time Ron and I went to the set. We didn't go to the set often, because there was usually no time when you're doing 26 episodes. You're either writing or in the writers' room. But we went down for certain scenes. We went down to meet Stephen Hawking, who was in another poker scene [the season six episode "Descent, Part I"]. But for the finale's poker scene, we just wanted to be there, because we knew it was the final scene. It was the last scene to be shot. It was a strange mixture of emotions, because there were tears. Some people were very moved, because this was the end of seven years. The show was enormously popular at the time. It was taken off air at the height of its popularity, which was a smart move in some ways.

But despite the bittersweetness of it all, they were reconfiguring the sets for the movie. The movie started shooting in a week. There was a compartmentalization going on. The show was the show, and the movies were the movies. They were just different. But it was a very emotional moment. And I think that almost always comes across on-screen. I think you sense the authenticity of what the actors are going through in that scene. To me, that scene boils down to the subtlety of Patrick's performance. And I would credit Marina Sirtis [who plays the Enterprise 's empathic counselor Deanna Troi] with her delivery of the "You were always welcome" line to Patrick. It was very moving. Marina's a great actress, very instinctive.

The anomaly Picard and the Enterprise crew must stop concerns anti-time, which is a very clever concept and plot twist. How did you and Ron come up with that?

I distinctly remember sitting in Ron's office and coming up with the phrase "anti-time." That came out when we were writing; I think I was typing and Ron was pacing, which was usually the case. We hadn't really figured out all the particulars or what we sometimes called "technobabble," but in this case, I think it was conceptual. The conceit was coming up with the anti-matter equivalent of time. And it was just one of those things where you suddenly had something to hang your hat on, like, "If it's like anti-matter with time, I think I know how we can explain what's happening and why it's dangerous, because you don't want time and anti-time to collide, much like you don't want matter and anti-matter to come together, either.

In an early version of the story, instead of using Dr. Beverly Crusher's (Gates McFadden) medical ship, the Pasteur , the crew in the future timeline were going to take the mothballed Enterprise from a museum—  

Yes, and that was cut from an early draft. We really wanted to do it, too, but we ended up on Beverly's medical ship instead. But that's not what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be stealing the Enterprise out of a museum, which I think Terry [Matalas, Braga's former writer's assistant] ended up doing a version of on [the final season of] Picard . By the way, if you think about it for a second, it's much better, because you've got the three Enterprise s working together. That's perfection. With all due respect to Beverly's medical ship, it would have been more emotionally satisfying if it were the Enterprise .

There was a fourth timeline involving the Borg that stemmed from the events of TNG 's third season finale, "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I." Do you recall any scene specifics?

I may be misremembering, but it may have had to do with an assimilated Earth.

I believe it was a timeline where the Borg had won. But I know we added it because we thought we needed additional stakes, that the time anomaly might be too abstract. And we were eager to bring the Borg back, because we hadn't really dipped our toe into the Borg, full throttle, like we did with "Best of Both Worlds." I don't remember specific scenes, unfortunately. But I do remember it didn't last long. It wasn't working. Michael didn't want it. It became pretty clear, pretty quickly, that three was the right number. But that was something Ron and I carried into the development and script for Star Trek: First Contact [the 1996 sequel to Generations ].

I am surprised you didn't ask me about the "people getting younger" subplot that Michael Piller wanted to do.

Whoa, I didn't even know that was a thing, and I've watched this episode a ton. Can I ask you about that now?

I'm going to tell you about it. So there was a subplot that took place in the present-day storyline, where we were going to have all these ships that came and gathered around the anomaly, because it turns out that the anomaly had some anti-aging effect. It was de-aging people, and ships were gathering from all over to soak in the rays of the anomaly.

So that explains, in part, where a pregnant nurse on the Enterprise becomes "un-pregnant" and loses her baby. And why Geordi LaForge's [the blind engineer played by LeVar Burton] eyes start acting up.

Right. Those are little remnants of the storyline that got cut. And I think the reason it got cut out was it didn't have to do anything with anything. Ron and I were resistant to it, because we didn't think it really serviced the main plot of the episode, the emotional story for the characters. And, of course, Michael Piller would end up taking those ideas and using them in [the 1998 feature film] Star Trek: Insurrection .

How was it when you first watched the final episode? Do you remember where you were?

I had seen early cuts of the episode, but the first time I saw it was at the premiere on the lot that Paramount did. And Michael wasn't generous with his compliments. So when he did compliment you, it really meant something. And I remember every one, because he was a real mentor to me. And I owe so much to him. And he complimented us at the after-party. He was happy. And it was his legacy, too.

All seven seasons of  Star Trek: The Next Generation are now streaming on Paramount+.

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‘Choice’ Review: Winnie Holzman’s Play Deals With Life’s Big Decisions — Including Abortion

By Frank Rizzo

Frank Rizzo

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Making life-altering decisions is no small matter, especially for the characters in “Choice,” Winnie Holzman ’s provocative but imperfect play, which just completed a run at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center.

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That openness is anathema to her best friend Erica (Kate A. Mulligan), who fears Zippy’s piece will only fuel the anti-choice movement. (The play is set during the last year in the Trump administration, as the Supreme Court’s makeup turned further rightward.)

Avoiding polemics, Holzman, the writer of “My So-Called Life” and Broadway’s “Wicked” (as well as its upcoming movie adaptation), takes on the polarizing topic of abortion in a way that explores, in real and surreal ways, the various complexities and perspectives around the issue — and its personal, political and spiritual ramifications — with empathy and a welcome dose of humor.

But this revised work (first presented at Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company in 2015) is often cumbersome and confusing, becoming a pile-up of existential themes, credibility issues and some heavy-handed symbolism. The play would benefit from editing, sharpening, and perhaps recasting as it goes forward.

Zippy is not the only character examining their life’s journey. There’s her much-older, renowned writer husband Clark Plumly (Dakin Matthews, marvelously droll), who is writing his memoir and well aware of his own final chapters. (“You don’t get to finish everything,” he says when his wife urges him to write on.)

Adding to the play’s metaphysics are strange scratchings that only Zippy seems to hear; a mysterious cat that she confronts; portals that are curiously unclosed; and a reimagined visit to the health clinic where Zippy had her procedure. For good measure, there are plenty of literary and philosophical references to D.H. Lawrence, Kierkegaard and the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Adding a further, surreal element to the story is the arrival of Hunter Rush (Jake Cannavale), a young writer who desperately seeks to be Zippy’s research assistant — and who is about the same age of the child she would have born.

The character of Erica’s nice-guy but soon-jettisoned boyfriend Mark (Barzin Akhavan) adds little to the dynamic other than to offer a sweet counter to Erica’s astringency. Akhavan returns, however, as “The Other Mark,” the man who impregnated Zippy many years ago, whom Zippy seeks out when she decides to insert her personal experience into the feature story.

But in this production, staged by the theater’s artistic director Sarah Rasmussen, the calibrations are off in a script that needs focus, especially in sorting out the play’s ambiguities, symbols and cosmic musings, which threaten to overwhelm the story.

Levine (Broadway’s “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”) plays Zippy not so much as smart and sophisticated but as chirpy and naive, qualities one would not associate with a successful investigative journalist. Cannavale is a compelling presence, but as written the character isn’t intriguing so much as disturbing, if not creepy. Kinnunen (“The Prom”) is also strong in an underwritten part. A flirtation with Hunter is awkward, and a reference to Zoe’s previous suicide attempt feels like more of a careless aside than a significant event.

Hovering over the play — and beyond the narrative’s 2020 setting  — is the audience’s present-day awareness of the end of Roe V. Wade and the increasing threats to reproductive freedom. In “Choice,” flaws and all, Holtzman seeks to address the personal above the political with something that searches for grace, with choice framed not as a conclusion but a continuation. After all, as Zippy says, “It’s not nothing.”

Berlind Theater at the McCarter Theater Center, Princeton, N.J.; 360 seats; $60 top. Reviewed June 1, 2024. Running time: ONE HOUR, 30 MINS.

• Production: A presentation by the McCarter Theater Center of a play in one act by Winnie Holtzman.
• Crew: Directed by Sarah Rasmussen. Sets, Andrew Boyce; costumes, Raquel Adorno; lighting, Masha Tsimring; sound, Andre Pluess; stage manager, Alison Cote.
• Cast: Ilana Levine, Kate Mulligan, Dakin Matthews, Jake Cannavale, Caitlin Kinnunen, Barzin Akhavan.

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