View source for Assignment: Earth

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2025}}
{{Infobox television episode
| series         = [[Star Trek: The Original Series]]
| image          = 
| image_alt      = 
| caption        = 
| season         = 2
| episode        = 26
| director       = [[Marc Daniels]]
| writer         = 
| story          = * [[Art Wallace]]
* [[Gene Roddenberry]]
| teleplay       = [[Art Wallace]]
| photographer   = [[Gerald Finnerman|Jerry Finnerman]]
| editor         = 
| production     = 055
| airdate        = {{Start date|1968|03|29}}
| length         = 50 minutes
| guests         = * [[Robert Lansing (actor)|Robert Lansing]]{{snd}}[[Gary Seven]]
* [[Teri Garr]]{{snd}}Roberta Lincoln
* [[Don Keefer]]{{snd}}Mission Control director Cromwell
* [[Morgan Jones (actor, born 1928)|Morgan Jones]]{{snd}}Col. Jack Nesvig
* Lincoln Demyan{{snd}}Sgt. Lipton
* [[Paul Baxley]]{{snd}}security chief
* [[Ted Gehring]]{{snd}}second policeman
* [[Bruce Mars]]{{snd}}first policeman
* April Tatro{{snd}}Isis (Human form) {{Small|(uncredited)}}
* [[Barbara Babcock]]{{snd}}Beta 5 computer voice {{Small|(uncredited)}} and Isis' cat vocalizations {{Small|(uncredited)}}
| prev           = [[Bread and Circuses (Star Trek: The Original Series)|Bread and Circuses]]
| next           = [[Spock's Brain]]
| season_article = Star Trek: The Original Series season 2
| episode_list   = List of Star Trek: The Original Series episodes
}}

"'''Assignment: Earth'''" is the twenty-sixth and final episode of the [[Star Trek: The Original Series season 2|second season]] of the American [[science fiction on television|science fiction]] television series ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]''. Written by [[Art Wallace]] (based on a story by Wallace and [[Gene Roddenberry]]) and directed by [[Marc Daniels]], it was first broadcast on March 29, 1968.<ref>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708419/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. Retrieved October 2, 2018. {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date= March 2022}}</ref>

In the episode, engaged in "historical research", the  [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS'' Enterprise'']] [[Time travel|travels back through time]] to 1968 Earth, where they encounter an interstellar agent planning to intervene in 20th-century events. [[James T. Kirk|Kirk]] and [[Spock]] are uncertain of his motives.

It was originally written as a standalone half-hour television series; when no network chose to order a pilot, the script was reworked to fit into ''Star Trek'' as a [[backdoor pilot]] for the proposed ''Assignment: Earth'' series.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.orionpressfanzines.com/articles/assignment.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181222083212/http://www.orionpressfanzines.com/articles/assignment.htm |archive-date=2018-12-22 |title=Pilot: Assignment: Earth (non-Star Trek version) |website=www.orionpressfanzines.com |access-date=2018-11-13}}</ref> The spin-off series was never produced.

This was [[Teri Garr]]'s first significant TV role.<ref name="Garr-2005">{{Cite book |title=Speedbumps: flooring it through Hollywood |last1=Garr |first1=Teri |date=2005 |publisher=Thorndike Press |last2=Mantel |first2=Henriette |isbn=0786282010 |location=Waterville, Maine |oclc=61499903 }}</ref>

== Plot ==
The [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS'' Enterprise'']], which has travelled through time to 1968 Earth for historical research, intercepts a powerful [[Transporter (Star Trek)|transporter]] beam originating from at least one thousand [[light-year]]s away. A man called [[Gary Seven]] ([[Robert Lansing (actor)|Robert Lansing]]), dressed in a 20th-century business suit and accompanied by a black cat he calls Isis, materializes on board the ''Enterprise''. Realizing that Captain Kirk and his crew are from the future, Seven warns Kirk that history will be changed if he is not released immediately. Having no proof of Seven's claim, Kirk has him held in the brig. Meanwhile, Spock searches the history database and finds that the United States will launch an orbital [[nuclear weapon]]s platform in a few hours.

Seven, with the help of his pen-sized "servo" device, escapes and beams down to an office in Manhattan, emerging from a vault door hiding a teleporter. Addressing a voice-activated computer, he identifies himself as "Supervisor 194" (code name Gary Seven) and inquires as to the whereabouts of two agents, "201" and "347", who he learns have not been heard from in three days. Seven decides to complete their mission himself. A young woman arrives, whom Seven mistakes for Agent 201, but who is actually Roberta Lincoln ([[Teri Garr]]), a secretary employed by the missing agents. Seven then tells Roberta he is a [[CIA]] agent, and, appealing to her patriotism, asks her to remain and assist him. The computer eventually discovers that Agents 201 and 347 have died in an automobile accident.

Kirk and Spock track Seven to his office. Roberta stalls them while Seven and his cat enter the vault and are teleported away. Arriving at "McKinley Rocket Base", Seven gains access to the [[service structure|gantry]] and climbs onto an access arm to begin rewiring some circuits of the soon-to-launch rocket. When Kirk and Spock pursue Seven to McKinley Rocket Base, they are immediately detained by police. On the ''Enterprise'', Chief Engineer [[Montgomery Scott|Scott]] ([[James Doohan]]) locates Seven and initiates beaming him up. At the same moment, in Seven's office, Roberta is experimenting with the vault controls and inadvertently intercepts Scotty's transporter beam, bringing Seven to the office.

Seven takes control of the rocket remotely, arming its warhead and sending it off course. McKinley Base controllers frantically try to regain control and, failing that, send a [[self-destruct]] command to the missile, without success.  After a failed attempt to call the police, Roberta hits Seven with a heavy cigar box and seizes the servo. Seven pleads with her to allow him to proceed, "...or in six minutes, [[World War III]] begins!" Kirk and Spock beam to Seven's office. Seven pleads with Kirk to let him complete his plan, which is to destroy the missile at a low enough altitude to deter the use of such orbital platforms in the future. Kirk tells Spock that if he can't destroy the rocket, he will have to trust Gary Seven. Spock replies that without facts, the decision cannot be made logically. Kirk decides to trust Seven who, with only seconds to spare, safely detonates the warhead at an altitude of 104 miles.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekS2E26AssignmentEarth|title=Star Trek S2 E26|website=TV Tropes|access-date=2019-03-20}}</ref>

In the epilogue, Spock and Kirk explain to Seven that the ''Enterprise'' was [[Novikov self-consistency principle|meant to be part of the day's events]], citing their historical records. Seven is curious to know more, but they reveal only that he and Roberta will have an interesting future.

==Production and reception==
"Assignment: Earth" is the only original series episode to list the guest star after the episode title but before the writing credit.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.orionpressfanzines.com/articles/startrekmyths4.htm|title = Reflections on the Second Season Production Staff}}</ref>

"McKinley Rocket Base" is a fictional location resembling [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station]], from which much of the [[stock footage]] in the episode came. [[NASA]] provided [[Gene Roddenberry]] with the footage of a [[Saturn V]] rocket, with the [[Apollo 4]] capsule, and additional footage shot especially for the episode.<ref>Cushman, Marc, and Susan Osborn (2014).  ''These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two''.  San Diego, CA: Jacobs Brown Media Group.</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2019}}

''Futurism'' ranked "Assignment: Earth" as one of the best of what they called "second tier" episodes of the original series.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://futurism.media/best-second-tier-star-trek-episodes-from-the-original-series|title=Best Second Tier 'Star Trek' Episodes from The Original Series|website=futurism.media|access-date=2019-07-08}}</ref>

===Isis the Cat casting===
The uncredited human form of Isis was portrayed by [[actress]], [[dancer]], and [[contortionist]] April Tatro. Her identity was unknown until 2019, when ''The Trek Files'' podcast cited a production [[Daily call sheet|call sheet]] for [[Extra (acting)|extras]] dated 5 January 1968. Host [[Larry Nemecek]] interviewed her for confirmation.<ref>{{cite podcast |last=Nemecek |first=Larry |title=The Trek Files |publisher=Roddenberry Podcast Network |date=2019-03-12 |url=http://thetrekfiles.trekfm.libsynpro.com/3-4-assignment-earth-extras-casting-january-5-1968 |access-date=2019-03-12 }}</ref> Tatro was paid US$84.51 ({{Inflation|US|84.51|1968|fmt=eq}}) for her performance.<ref name="trekmovie">{{cite web |url=https://trekmovie.com/2019/03/12/star-trek-mystery-solved-isis-actress-from-assignment-earth-identified/ |title='Star Trek' Mystery Solved – Isis Actress From "Assignment: Earth" Identified |first=Anthony |last=Pascale |work=TrekMovie.com |date=2019-03-12 |accessdate=2024-05-28 }}</ref>

Previously, fans had speculated that the briefly seen human form of the cat Isis was portrayed by actress [[Victoria Vetri]]. This has been repeated so often that many articles and websites treat it as fact. However, Vetri confirmed that she was not in the episode.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reed|first=Michael Augustine|title=Interview with Victoria Vetri — 'Sanna'|journal=LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS Magazine #41|page=71|date=2018-10-01}}</ref>

==Other media==
Characters from the episode have appeared in various [[Star Trek canon|non-canonical]] ''Star Trek'' works.

===Comic books===
In 2008, [[IDW Publishing]] launched an [[Star Trek: Assignment: Earth|''Assignment: Earth'' five-issue comic book series]] written and drawn by [[John Byrne (comics)|John Byrne]]. The stories show the characters' lives from 1968 up to 1974, including Seven and Roberta's peripheral involvement in the events of a prior episode, "[[Tomorrow Is Yesterday]]" (occurring before "Assignment: Earth" for the ''Enterprise'' crew, but after for Seven and Roberta). An epilogue set in 2008 depicts an annual reunion between Roberta and Isis (in her humanoid guise) at the [[Vietnam Veterans Memorial]] to honor a friend who had been killed in that conflict.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

In 2010, the characters appeared in issues #3 and #4 of ''Star Trek: Leonard McCoy Frontier Doctor''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.startrekcomics.info/idwmccoy.html|title=Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor from IDW 2010|website=www.startrekcomics.info|access-date=2019-03-12}}</ref>

===Novels===
Author [[Greg Cox (writer)|Greg Cox]] has included Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln in three of his ''Star Trek'' novels: ''Assignment: Eternity''; and a two-part novel, ''[[The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh]]''. In the latter two novels Seven and Roberta go on to eventually stop [[Khan Noonien Singh]] and his fellow genetically engineered humans from taking over the planet.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Star-Trek-The-Eugenics-Wars-The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Khan-Noonien-Singh/Greg-Cox/Star-Trek-The-Original-Series/9780743451635|title=Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh|date=2002-04-10|isbn=9780743451635|language=en|last1=Cox|first1=Greg|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>

In the [[Peter Clines]] novel ''Fold'', a character comes from an alternate universe with a cat named Isis, after the cat from her favorite TV series, "Assignment Earth". She has no knowledge of the show ''Star Trek''. Her version from this dimension has a cat named [[Spock]].{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

===Music===
The band [[Five Year Mission]] has a song based on this episode that imagines the spin-off series was actually produced, and doubles as a theme song for that show.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Speculative fiction|Television}}
{{wikiquote|Star Trek: The Original Series#Assignment: Earth|"Assignment: Earth"}}
* {{StarTrek.com|assignment-earth|"Assignment: Earth"}}
* {{IMDb episode|0708419}}
* {{Memory Alpha|Assignment: Earth|"Assignment: Earth"}}
* {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181222083212/http://www.orionpressfanzines.com/articles/assignment.htm |date=2018-12-22 |title=Synopsis of original pre-''Star Trek'' pilot script}}
*[http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/55.htm Star Trek transcript - Assignment: Earth]

{{Star Trek: The Original Series episodes|2|state=expanded}}
{{Star Trek time travel episodes}}
{{Gene Roddenberry}}

[[Category:Star Trek: The Original Series season 2 episodes]]
[[Category:Television pilots not picked up as a series]]
[[Category:Television pilots within series]]
[[Category:1968 American television episodes]]
[[Category:Star Trek time travel episodes]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1968]]
[[Category:Television episodes written by Gene Roddenberry]]
[[Category:Television episodes directed by Marc Daniels]]
[[Category:Television episodes set in the 1960s]]