WI "Assignment Earth" gets produced as a spinoff from "Star Trek"

Elidor

The last episode of the 2nd season of Star Trek was intended as pilot of a spin-off TV series featuring Gary Seven as a "futuristic James Bond", in case Star Trek got canceled after the second season. However, Star Trek was renewed for a third season and Assignment Earthwas never produced.

WI Somebody at CBS really liked the idea and decided to produce it anyway? What would be the effect on the future of the Star Trek series? Would the movies and series still be produced?

I for one, am a big fan of the pervasive sixties-ness of the concept. You can't get more sixties than a Interstellar Spy in a Nehru jacket with a shape shifting cat-woman and a Blond secretary defusing cold war tensions.

How would it turn out if it was made? Would it be a successful as Star Trek: The Next Generation?
 
MrP

MrP

Banned
I watched that the other month, and it was so obviously a trailer for/tie-in another series that I blithely assumed the same had been made. Judging by TOS, I'd think they'd have the secretary showing Gary what life was like on Earth and he'd behave oddly, then in the next episode they'd both be foiling a villainous plot. I feel a little disappointed now that it didn't exist. I might have to go watch that TOS ep in a minute.
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

I'm liking this trend in pop-culture AH's lately. Much better than "WI: Hitler Farted at Munich" and the like (I'm sick of WW2 PODs).

Anyway, Assignment: Earth was one of a long line of Gene Roddenberry pilot failures; after Star Trek, he'd have quite a string of failures with piloted but never picked up series. It did have some promise, though; it was basically a spy show with sci-fi elements. The espionage aspect would make it close to Mission: Impossible, like Star Trek that series was also produced by Desilu, so I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch both in coming to production and finding an audience. Then again, it might be seen as too close to Mission: Impossible (note the colon in both), and that may hurt it with critics and may be an oversaturation of the market.

I don't think Star Trek needs to be canceled for it to come to production, btw. It could still come. Hell, Gene Roddenburry could even still head it; he left Star Trek by season 3.
I think if it did come to production, it wouldn't really interlock with Star Trek all too much beyond occasional cameos or crossover episodes. What effect the Star Trek canon would take from this is unknowable; nothing is set in stone and anything could have been different, from the backgrounds to characters and species, to the design to follow.
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

I just thought of something: The series could take on a Doctor Who element. When an actor wanted to stop playing Gary Seven, there could be a hand wave where he'd change form when he died and was reborn, and then take on new companions. This could keep the series going on and on and on. Hell, there could even be crossovers; he's working for aliens after all. Think of it! Doctor Who, Assignment: Earth, and Star Trek all existing in the same universe O.O!!!!


MrP said:
I watched that the other month, and it was so obviously a trailer for/tie-in another series that I blithely assumed the same had been made. Judging by TOS, I'd think they'd have the secretary showing Gary what life was like on Earth and he'd behave oddly, then in the next episode they'd both be foiling a villainous plot. I feel a little disappointed now that it didn't exist. I might have to go watch that TOS ep in a minute.
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There was an Assignment: Earth comic Miniseries not long ago

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Assignment_Earth
 

Elidor

Emperor Norton I said:
I just thought of something: The series could take on a Doctor Who element. When an actor wanted to stop playing Gary Seven, there could be a hand wave where he'd change form when he died and was reborn, and then take on new companions. This could keep the series going on and on and on. Hell, there could even be crossovers; he's working for aliens after all. Think of it! Doctor Who, Assignment: Earth, and Star Trek all existing in the same universe O.O!!!!
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That would be interesting. With Gary Seven being replaced with Gary Eight, Gary Nine, etc. Poor Roberta Lincoln would have a hard time keeping up.

And yes, Star Trek doesn't have to be canceled. The first season of E:A might have an episode where Gary and Roberta travel to Kirk's time to "serve" on Enterprise. That way Kirk and Gary are even.

Will this alternate Star Trek spinoff be less "geeky" than its predecessor and thus make subsequent series less geeky as well?
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

Elidor said:
That would be interesting. With Gary Seven being replaced with Gary Eight, Gary Nine, etc. Poor Roberta Lincoln would have a hard time keeping up.
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Roberta could be like Doctor Who's other companions and be replaced.

Will this alternate Star Trek spinoff be less "geeky" than its predecessor and thus make subsequent series less geeky as well?
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Star Trek wasn't really geeky until it moved to the death slot of Friday nights at 10, and then was canceled only to be kept alive in the 70's by hard core fans. That situation kinda removed all but the hardest core for a while. Before that, it was huge with collage kids and that demographic.

But whatever followed would be subject to butterflies. Maybe Star Trek would not go to the death slot or somehow or otherwise avoid cancellation for a while longer, enough to make sure that it had a more mainstream audience (albeit that could well mean it would be just some 1960's sitcom and wouldn't be a franchise). Maybe Star Trek:phase II would get picked up.
 

ColeMercury

I reckon that "Star Trek" would still be cancelled on schedule. Having a spinoff, successful or otherwise, wouldn't change the fortunes of the show itself -- especially as "Assignment: Earth" would in practice be totally unrelated to its parent show. It'd be like "Mork & Mindy" was to "Happy Days".

If "Assignment: Earth" is a success, this could be bad news for the revival of "Star Trek". Gene Roddenberry only wanted to revive "Star Trek" after all his other ideas (e.g. "Questor", "Genesis II") failed. If he has a success he may very well put the whole thing behind him.

Emperor Norton I said:
Star Trek wasn't really geeky until it moved to the death slot of Friday nights at 10, and then was canceled only to be kept alive in the 70's by hard core fans. That situation kinda removed all but the hardest core for a while. Before that, it was huge with collage kids and that demographic.
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Post-cancellation syndication actually made Star Trek's audience numbers go way up, because it was being showed every weeknight at 6pm or thereabouts so the whole family would watch it. Thing is, Star Trek developed its own set of hardcore fans but also had a mainstream audience -- it only really became completely "geeky" once the mainstream audience gave up on trying to follow it and got stripped away.
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
Emperor Norton I said:
I just thought of something: The series could take on a Doctor Who element. When an actor wanted to stop playing Gary Seven, there could be a hand wave where he'd change form when he died and was reborn, and then take on new companions. This could keep the series going on and on and on. Hell, there could even be crossovers; he's working for aliens after all. Think of it! Doctor Who, Assignment: Earth, and Star Trek all existing in the same universe O.O!!!!
Click to expand...

In this country "Assignment Earth" is quite often viewed as a blatant Doctor Who ripoff, mainly because of Gary Seven's "servo" which is so obviously a sonic screwdriver.
 

G.Fieendish

Thande said:
In this country "Assignment Earth" is quite often viewed as a blatant Doctor Who ripoff, mainly because of Gary Seven's "servo" which is so obviously a sonic screwdriver.
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It would have been worse, had Terry Nation's Dalek "Spin-off" show, provisionally titled The Destroyers, had been accepted by U.S Networks in the Mid 1960's, as he was touting this concept, to U.S Networks at the time...
"The Destroyers" reportedly, would have had Jean Marsh reprising her Dr.Who role of Special Space Security (SSS for short) Agent Sara Kingdom, while Ed Bishop was reportedly pencilled in for the role of her android assistant, Mark Seven...
As for the series concept itself, given fan's reaction to the Temporal Cold War arc from Enterprise, which I would argue that Assignment: Earth is a part of, I suspect this would have gone down like the proverbial lead balloon...
 

WCDouglas

Thande said:
In this country "Assignment Earth" is quite often viewed as a blatant Doctor Who ripoff, mainly because of Gary Seven's "servo" which is so obviously a sonic screwdriver.
Click to expand...

The 1st appearance of the Sonic Screwdriver was "Fury from the Deep" aired 16 March 1968 (1st episode), "Assignment: Earth" first aired 29 March 1968. Unless Gene regularly exchanged ideas with the Who team, doubt he knew about the Doctor's true best friend (and greatest SF gadget ever....) as they were likely in development and production at the same time (if Assignment wasn't started earlier as US TV showes tended to have longer lead times due to the "studio," network relationship).

And yes, I'm a fan of both, the ABC affillate here, in the mid 70s ran TOS and the "US Cut" Dr. Who back to back on Sunday mornings....
 

G.Fieendish

WCDouglas said:
The 1st appearance of the Sonic Screwdriver was "Fury from the Deep" aired 16 March 1968 (1st episode), "Assignment: Earth" first aired 29 March 1968. Unless Gene regularly exchanged ideas with the Who team, doubt he knew about the Doctor's true best friend (and greatest SF gadget ever....) as they were likely in development and production at the same time (if Assignment wasn't started earlier as US TV showes tended to have longer lead times due to the "studio," network relationship).

And yes, I'm a fan of both, the ABC affillate here, in the mid 70s ran TOS and the "US Cut" Dr. Who back to back on Sunday mornings....
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In the U.S, Assignment Earth did run on the above date, however in the U.K, we did not get to see Star Trek until the Summer of 1970, hence Thande's comment...
Ironically, Star Trek was thought by the BBC as the "Summer replacement", for Dr.Who in the BBC's Programming schedules at the time...
 

WCDouglas

G.Fieendish said:
In the U.S, Assignment Earth did run on the above date, however in the U.K, we did not get to see Star Trek until the Summer of 1970, hence Thande's comment...
Ironically, Star Trek was thought by the BBC as the "Summer replacement", for Dr.Who in the BBC's Programming schedules at the time...
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Ah.... It is fascinating two ScFi showes creating similar "tools" at the same time.
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

Why is it threads I'm interested in never pop up as having new posts when I look at my browser. Something's screwy with my interweb cookies.

Cyrano said:
If Assignment: Earth continued, I could seevarious geeks delighting and arguing over this for YEARS...
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It'd be the Denis the Menace of Sci Fi
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Elidor said:
Will this alternate Star Trek spinoff be less "geeky" than its predecessor and thus make subsequent series less geeky as well?
Click to expand...

I figured it'd have more in common with Mod Squad and I, Spy and shows like that.

The weird thing is, my mom (who watched TOS back when it was still being broadcast new) said that most folks didn't regard Star Trek as "geeky" until the '70s when it started getting into the stoner and hard-core sci-fi subculture in syndication.
She got into it because her dad watched it since almost everyone on it had been in Westerns and it was basically the same thing, but with phasers instead of revolvers and aliens for Indians.


I suppose that where Star Trek was Gene Roddenberry's "Wagon Train to the stars", Assignment: Earth could've been like I, Spy.
 

ColeMercury

G.Fieendish said:
As for the series concept itself, given fan's reaction to the Temporal Cold War arc from Enterprise, which I would argue that Assignment: Earth is a part of, I suspect this would have gone down like the proverbial lead balloon...
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Well, you'd be wrong. They have nothing to do with each other. At all. I mean literally nothing. They're not even similar in basic concept.

And in any case, the reason why people hated the Temporal Cold War story was because it was a badly-planned, badly-written shaggy dog story.
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

MacCaulay said:
The weird thing is, my mom (who watched TOS back when it was still being broadcast new) said that most folks didn't regard Star Trek as "geeky" until the '70s when it started getting into the stoner and hard-core sci-fi subculture in syndication.
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Thank you.

LorienTheYounger said:
Well, you'd be wrong. They have nothing to do with each other. At all. I mean literally nothing. They're not even similar in basic concept.

And in any case, the reason why people hated the Temporal Cold War story was because it was a badly-planned, badly-written shaggy dog story.
Click to expand...

The Temporal Cold War wasn't even planned. They literally started it having no idea where it was going, and writing it as they went along.
 

usertron2020

Donor
As John Byrne's Assignment:Earth comic book series showed, the idea had a major conceptual problem. Seven's computer represented a Deus Ex Machina that potentially could solve all non-alien related issues. So unless Seven is fighting time-travelers, or aliens, all the time he really won't have much to do that the computer can't do for him.

Also, has anyone considered the idea that Isis may have represented a member of the alien race responsible for the creation of people like Seven, and was there to assist and "watch" him?:cool:
 
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