I completely disagree with the author's depiction of this ep as dull. It doesn't have the obvious action of, say, the recent Trek film, but it's got great concepts and moves along at a brisk pace. It is intelligent in conception. I mean, a race of people who use a kind of reverse Prime Directive to actively interfere in the lives of other races in order to *save* them? The concept of taking people from a native species decades earlier, then raising and training those aliens to one day function as agents of helpful change back on their home worlds? An alien race so advanced that it can beam an agent across light years, and even hide their entire planet? (Okay, that last is a bit of a stretch). I thought Gary Seven was too cool, the way his perfect human physiology was immune to a Vulcan Neck Pinch, and how he instantly deduced that Kirk was from the future. Teri Gar was good as comic relief, though I'd like to see that last remade with today's sensibilities so she'd be more of an equal partner to Seven. The metamorphic cat woman didn't bother me either...
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kelwyn" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 8:10:56 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [scifinoir2] 21 TV episodes that tried and failed to spawn spin-offs http://www.avclub.com/articles/tonights-special-guests-the-cast-of-a-whole-new-sh,40445/1/ 9. Star Trek, "Assignment Earth" (1968) "Assignment Earth" is full of dull action, exposition, and a constantly yowling cat. Also, Teri Garr turns up as a secretary roped into the main storyline via an improbable series of coincidences. Focusing on Robert Lansing's "Gary Seven," a human descended from people abducted from Earth millennia ago and arriving back on Earth in 1968 (conveniently, just when the starship Enterprise shows up), the show wanted to make all of Gene Roddenberry's utopian liberalism subtext into text, then add a dash of secret-agent excitement. Instead, Lansing talks a lot, Garr listens wide-eyed, Kirk and Spock get in the way every so often, and Gary's cat turns into a woman for no apparent reason. Roddenberry would have to wait until Star Trek was over to get another show on the air, though Gary Seven lives on in a few Star Trek novels.
