I just finished up season 2 of the original Star Trek. The final broadcast episode was ASSIGNMENT: EARTH. While it's well-known that this episode was a pilot for a proposed Gary Seven series to star Robert Lansing, nothing substantial Googles well on the story behind the pilot. Are there any tales of the pitch, or treatments for proposed episodes, backstory, etc? I'm still not clear on all Roddenberry's non-Trek output, but i know there were other TV movie pilots such as GENESIS II and PLANET EARTH, which never made it. (Speaking of which, where are THOSE on DVD???)

I believe Herb Solow and Bob Justman's essential book INSIDE STAR TREK has some additional info on the pilot. I'll try to remember to check it when I get home.

Coincidentally, I rewatched SPECTRE yesterday, which was a Roddenberry-written and produced pilot shot in England for NBC. The Fox Movie Channel print must be a version that played theatrically overseas, since it's missing commercial fadeouts and contains glimpses of topless women. It's a shame the show didn't sell, because the pilot is quite good. Robert Culp is an arrogant occult investigator who teams up with his old partner, a skeptical alcoholic physician played by Gig Young, to look into supernatural phenomena. I believe Chris Carter may have been influenced as much by SPECTRE as he says he was by KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, particularly in the sketching of the two leading characters.

GENESIS II, PLANET EARTH and THE QUESTOR TAPES used to play on TV a lot. I don't think I've ever seen STRANGE NEW WORLD though.

Solow and Justman don't say as much about "Assignment: Earth" as I thought in their book. One reason Roddenberry made it was because he feared STAR TREK wouldn't get a third season and he wanted to remain employed. He was perhaps more hands-on with this particular episode than any other 2nd-season show, meddling in everything from sets to costumes. In fact, according to Justman, he drove costumer Bill Theiss crazy by shortening guest star Teri Garr's skirts until not much fabric was left!

I don't think "Assignment: Earth" is a good pilot or a good STAR TREK. Robert Lansing was a very good actor, but a bit dour for an action lead (although he seems, on paper, perfectly cast as Steve Carella on 87TH PRECINCT).

Teri Garr talks about the spin-off episode for a few pages in her autobiography, SPEEDBUMPS. Her main focus, however, is how a lot of agents were trying to get their clients in for screen-tests, since it was evidently well-known that it was a pilot for a possible series. In answer to your questions, the only real comments she makes about future episodes if it had gone on to series was that she would have "continued on as an earthling agent, working to preserve humanity. In a very short skirt."

I took a look through an old Lincoln Enterprises catalog from 1975 that I have to see if anything popped up there. Lincoln, as some of you remember, was pretty much Roddenberry's outlet for selling things related to the series, including scripts and show bibles for everything from STAR TREK to GENESIS II, QUESTOR, SPECTRE, and even movie scripts (PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW, a TARZAN update, and several others). Unfortunately, there was nothing there to show any spin-off material for Gary Seven.

I always thought it amazing that no one in all these years thought to write spinoff books or comics featuring the character. Sure, he's kinda obscure... but nothing's obscure to Trekfans.

There are spinoff books which put Gary Seven in the Eugenics Wars and include Khan as a character... found that out by Googling. The fans seem to rate them highly. Haven't read 'em though. In fact I've never read any Trek fiction but a couple of the James Blish ones long long ago.

Keep those minority opinions coming, Marty!

I think most people agree with me on this one. All those in favor of "Assignment: Earth" being a good episode, shout out a hearty "Aye!"

AYE!

...but admittedly, that's more due to being a fan of Teri Garr than anything else. ;)

Actually, I didn't think it was that bad - the concept of a mystery man who is human and yet connected to an alien race (and from the future, if I remember correctly) helping to keep the world save from itself wasn't that bad of an idea for the time. Certainly better than some from the season and the dramatic pace was pretty solid throughout the episode (Is he there for good or evil? Is he fixing or sabotaging the rocket? Etc.). I could see it not being everyone's cup of tea, however.

Speaking of which, I do recall reading somewhere about one concept for the show involved Klingons from the future appearing periodically in the series in an attempt to undermine Earth's advancements. So it would have been a more direct spin-off than just the one-off drop-in by Kirk and Spock there.

Oddly enough, the above kinda reads like the evil nemesis in ENTERPRISE - the guy from the future who was trying to destroy the past.