A Fresh, New Way To Expand the Franchise: Finally Spin Off ‘Assignment: Earth’
After more than 50 years, Paramount should make series Roddenberry once dreamed of
With some 56 years between production of the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage” and production of the latest franchise spinoff — Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — the quip has been that Strange New Worlds had the longest lag time between pilot and series in television history.
The conceit being, of course, Strange New Worlds is the story of USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike before the years of Jim Kirk as we saw in the first original pilot, “The Cage,” which was rejected by NBC and eventually reworked into the two-part original series story, “The Menagerie.”
Now Paramount should greenlight a new and novel series that would be nearly as long in the making.
That would be a new series based on the episode from the second season of the original series, “Assignment: Earth.”
It would have an impeccable pedigree, as Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry always intended “Assignment: Earth” to launch a new series.
Guest starring Robert Lansing and a very young Teri Garr, “Assignment: Earth” told the story of an encounter on Earth in 1968 between the Enterprise crew and an interstellar agent — played by Lansing — codenamed Gary Seven, who was planning to intervene in 20th-century events.
Garr played Roberta Lincoln, a human secretary employed by two of Gary Seven’s fellow agents who have gone missing.
Roddenberry produced “Assignment: Earth” as a backdoor pilot for what would have been what would have been Star Trek’s first spin-off.
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Lansing described Roddenberry’s vision for his planned series in a 1989 interview with Starlog Magazine, quoted on an Assignment: Earth fan website, The Complete “Assignment: Earth.”
“What Gene had done, was to go to futurists and scientists and ask them what advanced societies out in space might do towards more primitive societies like ours. One of the futurists said that they would probably kidnap children from various planets, take them to their superior civilization, raise them, teach and enlighten them, and then put them back as adults to lead their worlds in more peaceful ways. That was the idea behind Gary Seven.”
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Roddenberry, himself, described it this way in his original pitch to the network:
“‘Assignment: Earth’ is the Star Trek spin-off pilot of a new show, ‘Assignment: Earth,’ a totally new today concept which can be described as ‘Science Fiction 1968!’ Laid against 1968 backgrounds and stories, but without losing the excitement and imagineering which identified futuristic Star Trek.”
The proposed series had a very Doctor Who sort of vibe, with a mysterious traveler — Gary Seven — wandering the cosmos with a human companion, Roberta Lincoln. Gary Seven even had his own device which was very much like The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.
The network passed on Roddenberry’s pitch.
But NBC and 1968’s loss today could be Paramount, 2023’s — and our — gain, as the studio ought to reach back and fire up “Assignment: Earth” as a modern-day series.
Such a series could well be perfect as the next extension of the Star Trek franchise, and even its largest expansion ever.
Why?
Star Trek has, through its history, mostly told stories of Starfleet and a the crews aboard a variety of hero ships.
The series, Assignment: Earth, would represent a radical departure.
It would, by definition, tell very different kinds of stories, the more-intimate sorts of stories folks expect from, well, Doctor Who.
And that would be its genius.
It would be both Star Trek and non-Star Trek simultaneously.
To be sure, just as with the crew from Strange New Worlds, Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln would have to be recast. (Lansing passed away nearly 30 years ago and Garr has been seriously ill for years, nevermind her advanced age today.)
Indeed, Assignment: Earth even would be a budget-conscious series for the financially ailing Paramount to pick up (once the current Hollywood strikes are resolved) given that it would feature just a two-person main cast with others coming on as guest players.
But such a series also could be a perfect vehicle for Paramount, as it could attract Star Trek fans as well as the kind of broader audience that gravitates towards series like Doctor Who and Quantum Leap.
It might even function as a gateway, of sorts, luring casual fans and the broader non-fans into the rest of the Star Trek franchise.
Which is precisely the kind of series Paramount and its Paramount Plus streaming service need both to hold existing subscribers while picking up new ones.
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