Assignment: Earth

The Enterprise travels back in time to observe Earth during a particularly tumultuous period in it's history. However, upon arriving they intercept a mysterious alien transmission and end up beaming aboard a man wearing a 20th century business suit and carrying a cat. So begins "Assignment: Earth", a Star Trek episode that was actually a pilot for a proposed series, a marrying of Ian Flemming's James Bond with Gene Rodenberry's socially relevant themes.

Robert Lansing plays Gary Seven, a human trained by an unnamed alien race to protect humanity against threats to world peace. In this story, his mission is to transport to earth and prevent the US from shooting a military satellite into space that could set off a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviet Union. But when the Enterprise captures Seven en-route to Cape Canaveral, Kirk is reluctant to let him go, fearing Seven's mission may not be as altruistic as he claims. Mr. Seven then escapes the ship, beaming down to the city of Manhattan with Kirk and Spock in hot pursuit.

Next we are introduced to Mr. Seven's hapless new secretary, Roberta Lincoln, (played by the unmistakable Terri Garr). Though Roberta is definitely a scene-stealing sidekick, and a quintessential '60's "dippy blonde", Rodenberry fleshes her character out having her express concerns, both about her country, and her generation's future during that strife ridden period of the 1960's. Of Garr's performance you can see that even at so young an age (in the episode they state she is 20), her comedic timing was already impeccable and she seemed to have genuine chemistry with Robert Lansing. Lansing is effective here, too, both as an action star, and as a straight man to Garr. His deep voice and those unique, vaguely sinister looking eyes of his made him well suited to play an enigmatic hero. His screen presence reminds one of Patrick Magoohan with an American accent.

Rounding out the trio is Mr. Seven's black cat, Isis, which he talks to as if it's purring is actually a language- which it is. Isis, we learn later, is really some sort of alien female in the form of a cat. We only learn this at the end when she reveals a glimpse of her true self in order to tease an already jealous Roberta.

"Assignment: Earth" had some high quality production values including the swanky office apartment Seven worked out of complete with a huge vault that was actually a teleportal like the Enterprise's transporter system. Mr. Seven's weapon of choice was a fountain pen that could short out electrical mechanisms, temporarily neutralize suspicious guards, and, if necessary, kill. His snooty female-voiced super computer looked very much like the M-5 unit from an earlier episode, "The Ultimate Computer", but that's okay. It's still a cool prop.

Veteran "Star Trek" director Marc Daniels keeps things moving at a nice pace and maintains the right balance between the straight-up action and the more comedic aspects of the episode. There is some particularly effective usage of stock footage from NASA, too. The incorporated shots of the rocket being prepped for launch are quite awesome.

Overall, as a "Star Trek" episode this one is a fine entry. As a pilot however, "Assignment: Earth" serves as a tantalizing indication of what might have been a great series. Such a shame it was not picked up by NBC, but then this was also the network that decided to axe "Star Trek" after 3 years so, *shrug* guess we shouldn't be all that surprised by this additional boneheaded decision.

The thing about this episode that stands out for me is my reaction to it when I saw it premier in early 1968, when I was 14. Terri Garr's character, far from playing as a ditzy blonde, instead read to all of us as a member of the baby boomer generation saddled with the hypocritical bs of those over 30, who we were learning to Not Trust. Thus her character suspiciously blowing the whistle on one and all, ultimately leading to her fine peroration toward the end where she expresses the hopes and fears of a generation. We all marveled at this episode in school during the course of the following week, and all boomer trekies have a soft spot in their hearts for Terri Garr on the strength of this performance. I'd also add that you have to remember we were all too close in memory to the Cuban Missile crisis of Oct 1962 for comfort. The notion of a nuclear war was physically felt back in those days in a way that it hasn't been since, well, 1962.

Casually going back in time for observation, the Enterprise catches a man in transportation, with cat like prowess he manages to get free, and save the planet from World War Three.

A curious end to the season, having seemingly exhausted all planets that can host humanoid life the only place left to roam is back home, albeit with a bit of time travel thrown in for good measure.

An enjoyable episode but I've decided to focus on a few perhaps lesser known points.

The Policeman who says 'Charlie' to his colleague (when beamed aboard the Enterprise) is the actor Ted Gehring who had a long career appearing in many well known series (Bonanza - The Virginian - The Fugative) to name but a few. He also met Mr Shatner again in TJ Hooker.

Meanwhile his sidekick was none other than Bruce Mars who played Finnegan in Shore Leave. He played that role very well but I cannot find a reason why his career ended in 1969.

Footnote Bruce is now known as Brother Paramananda, he is a senior monk in the Self-Realization Fellowship.

One other point which I do not understand is why - after the CGI enhancements - they left the rather obvious 'still' photographs of the rocket in the episode.

I noticed a few comments regarding Robert Lansing not being in the acting credits for the Assignment: Earth episode. Lansing was actually listed in the show's opening credits, along with the episode title. I believe he's the only Star Trek guest star to be introduced in such fashion, perhaps giving an early clue that the episode was indeed intended as a pilot for a new show. What's sad about Gary Seven (Lansing's character) not receiving his own show is that we missed out on a chance to watch Terri Garr develop her role as unwitting secretary Roberta Lincoln. Garr has since gone on to establish herself as a fine actress, both in comedy and drama. And she came back to science fiction with her role as Richard Dreyfuss' wife in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Among the best shots from the Assignment: Earth episode is the NASA footage of a rocket's stage separation high above the Earth. And who could forget the (all too) brief shot of Victoria Vetri as Gary Seven's mysterious cat in humanoid form? That appearance of Playboy's 1968 Playmate of the Year (as Angela Dorian) was just another in a long line of guest appearances of sexy '60s sirens on Star Trek.