As I’m sure that most of you know, the episode Assignment: Earth was a pilot for a series that Gene Roddenberry was working on. According to the linked article, Roddenberry was concerned that ST was going to be canceled and he wanted to have another show in the works.
Do you think it would have made a good show on its own? Would your opinion be different if ST had been canceled?
I’m having a hard time deciding but I’m leaning toward yes it would have been a good show. I like the cast of Robert Lansing and Teri Garr although apparently Garr had some bad feelings about it. I think Roddenberry could have pulled it off as another way to get his social commentary spread. I also think that if it were to be on in the same season as ST, its quality probably would have suffered (and ST’s too for that matter) since Roddenberry would have been pulled in 2 different directions.
The basic premise (alien/visitor from the future intervenes in Earth events to keep humanity from destroying itself or the planet) would have been serviceable, but probably less entertaining than Mission Impossible. A lot depends on execution. Would Gary Sevin simply push buttons on his magic computer each week, or would he have gotten in the middle of the crises, a la Jim Phelps and the Impossible Mission team? Would Roberta continue to be a Jimmy Olsen-type character, or would her part become more susbstantial? Would it be played more tongue-in-cheek, like The Man From U.N.C.L.E, or serious, like The Invaders?
Given Roddenberry’s social commentary, without the sci-fi elements of ST, it probably would have sunk under its own weight.
I think it would have stunk. He obviously couldn’t do anything to make the world better, since the show was set in the present. He wouldn’t even have been able to stop the Eugenics Wars. So, it would be very ordinary, if cheap to produce. I would have liked to see more of Isis the cat/girl though.
BTW, I think Gary Seven was plucked off Earth a long time ago and trained. I don’t think he came from the future.
Seven’s ancestors were taken from Earth 6000 years in the past and trained to help guide humans’ advancement. Seven himself was a descendant of those early people and not born on Earth.
Honesty compels me to admit the review/synopsis is by me. I answer the OP’s question at the end. The version we saw on Trek may have been slightly better as a series.
Ugh, another Temporal War. I suppose that during the 60’s this might have been a somewhat novel concept but we’ve seen so much of it the last decade that the idea generates a “meh” from me.