star trek picard assignment earth

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Assignment: Earth

• Episode aired Mar 29, 1968

While back in time observing Earth in 1968, the Enterprise crew encounters the mysterious Gary Seven who has his own agenda on the planet. While back in time observing Earth in 1968, the Enterprise crew encounters the mysterious Gary Seven who has his own agenda on the planet. While back in time observing Earth in 1968, the Enterprise crew encounters the mysterious Gary Seven who has his own agenda on the planet.

• Marc Daniels
• Gene Roddenberry
• Art Wallace
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 41 User reviews
• 14 Critic reviews

Top cast 25

• Captain James T. Kirk

• Mister Spock

• Mister Seven

• Roberta Lincoln
• (as Terri Garr)

• Col. Nesvig
• First Policeman

• Second Policeman
• Security Chief

• Beta 5 Computer
• (uncredited)
• Lieutenant Hadley
• Lt. Clifford Brent
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia While at the launch base and showing his ID to the security person, Mr. Seven shows a National Security Agency credential card. The NSA was one of the worst kept government secrets, but was not publicly acknowledged until nearly 25 years after this episode originally aired.
• Goofs When Spock is trying to subdue Roberta, he apparently forgets the Vulcan neck pinch.

Roberta Lincoln : [indicating Isis] Would you mind telling me who that is?

Mister Seven : That, Miss Lincoln, is simply my cat.

• Alternate versions Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
• Connections Featured in The Best TV Shows That Never Were (2004)
• Soundtracks Theme Music credited to Alexander Courage Sung by Loulie Jean Norman

User reviews 41

• Rainey-Dawn
• Jan 11, 2017
• March 29, 1968 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (Stock Footage)
• Paramount Television
• Norway Corporation
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 50 minutes

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Den of Geek

Picard Season 2 Episode 4: The Biggest Star Trek Easter Eggs and References

Picard Season 2 continues to probe the distant past of Star Trek canon and the deepest cuts are also the most game-changing.

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This article contains Star Trek: Picard spoilers.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 4

The topsy-turvy time travel antics of Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 4 , continue with “Watcher,” an episode in which we do, in fact, meet the mysterious Watcher, as well as someone else who we didn’t expect to see in this century at all . Along the way, Picard manages to dive deep for those Trekkie Easter eggs, some of which fix some very old mysterious, lurking in the strange Star Trek timeline for years and years.

Here are the five deepest cuts in the latest episode of Picard and what they mean for the larger Star Trek universe as a whole.

Picard’s accent  finally explained

Why does a guy from France speak with an English accent, and essentially, act English? For decades, the Doylist (real world) reason has dominated the Trek discourse: Gene Roddenberry conceived of Picard as French, but when nobody could agree on a French actor to cast (Belgian actor Patrick Bauchau was briefly considered) Patrick Stewart won the role. Despite Picard dropping a “merde” in the Star Trek: The Next Generation classic “Elementary Dear Data,” and singing in French in “Disaster” there’s not a ton in TNG to indicate this very English-seeming guy is actually French.

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And yet, with one very brief scene in “Watcher,” a brilliant Watsonian (in-universe) explanation has finally been offered for Jean-Luc’s very English Frenchness. After he and Jurati sneak into the 21st-century version of Chateau Picard, Jean Luc explains that the house was abandoned by his family during WWII, as they fled from the Nazis.

“My ancestors only survived by hiding in the tunnels,” Picard says. When Jurati asks him where they went, he replies simply, “England… though the chateau remained in the family, there were various caretakers…it will be generations before the Picards reside here again.”

So there you have it. It’s very possible that the Picard family (as we know it in Star Trek canon) resided in England until sometime in the late 23rd century. In fact, aspects of the flashbacks in this season’s premiere, “The Star Gazer,” certainly indicate that it was Picard’s mother and father who emigrated back to La Barre, France. In those flashbacks, it seems as though Chateau Picard is a new home for young Jean-Luc’s immediate family.

The Voyage Home Bus Punk Returns — Again!  

As Seven and Raffi attempt to track down Rios, they hit up some Los Angeles public transportation and encounter a very familiar punk, blasting a new version of a familiar, old song. Yes, that is Kirk Thatcher (credited here as Kirk Randolph Thatcher), who played the punk on the bus in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , and, in 1986, blasted the rage-rock-punk song “I Hate You,” on a boombox until Spock gave him the Vulcan nerve pinch. 

This is the second time Kirk Thatcher has played the punk in Star Trek canon, but the third time he’s played this character overall. In 2017, he appeared as the punk in Spider-Man: Homecoming , mostly because Marvel boss Kevin Feige is a big Star Trek fan. Thatcher also narrated the 2019 animated Short Treks episode “Ephraim and DOT,” which was directed by Michael Giacchino.

In Picard’s “Watcher,” the punk seems to be blasting a new version of the song “I Hate You” called “I Still Hate You,” which is a joke that works on several levels. First, the original song “I Hate You” was not a “real” song, but instead, was invented by the quickly-formed band Edge of Etiquette, which consisted of Kirk Thatcher and Mark Mangini. In the ‘80s, Thatcher was a producer and prop-maker who worked on several Star Trek films while Mangini was a sound engineer on The Voyage Home . “I Hate You” was written on the fly for The Voyage Home to create some extra authentic grit to shock Kirk and Spock’s sensibilities. 

Interestingly, the 2024 punk in Picard is considerably nicer than his 1986 counterpart and seems bewildered when Seven says “Would you mind stopping that noise?” echoing Admiral Kirk’s “would you mind stopping that damn noise?” in The Voyage Home . This is played as a joke, however, because the future timeline of Starfleet has been altered, it would seem that this version of the punk never met Kirk and Spock in 1986, but, perhaps, recognizes the statement from Seven because of a kind of “time sickness.”

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Later, when Picard meets the younger Guinan (Ito Aghayere), he mentions this kind of time sickness while repeating a phrase Guinan said to him from the redacted future. Arguably, the punk’s sudden change of heart is connected to Seven accidentally paraphrasing Jim Kirk. The punk heard something from an alternate timeline, which kind of foreshadows the time sickness moment with Guinan.

This also makes you wonder if this punk is the key to a multiverse that can span entire franchises. If he can appear in the MCU and in Star Trek, and the multiverse was broken by Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home , does that mean the punk could cause Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to meet Professor X (also Patrick Stewart)? Probably not, but let’s dream big, shall we?

Guinan knows about “Supervisors” 

For most of the episode, Jean-Luc assumes that the coordinates from the Borg Queen were designed to lead him to the “Watcher” who can, in theory, help the crew with fixing the timeline. And, once he finds Guinan living on Earth, he insists that she must be the Watcher he’s been looking for. However, it turns out that the younger Guinan is not a “Watcher,” and tells Picard that “you’re looking for a supervisor otherwise known as a Watcher…They’re peppered through the galaxy assigned to protect the destiny of certain individuals.”

The word “Supervisor” is almost certainly a reference to Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), a “Class 1 Supervisor” from the classic Original Series episode, “Assignment: Earth.” In that episode, Gary was a human from 20th century Earth, assigned there by a greater alien intelligence to prevent meddling from time travelers. Gary’s transporter had an interesting fog effect, and when the human-looking Laris (Orla Brady) meets Jean-Luc at the end of the episode, they vanish in what seems like a similar fog transporter!

Is this new Supervisor version of Laris part of the same organization that Gary Seven was part of? If so, Picard is seriously expanding the canon of one small and tantalizing part of TOS that hasn’t been touched by the on-screen canon since 1968.

Interestingly, the writer of “Assignment: Earth,” Art Wallace, and Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, briefly pitched the basic premise of the Supervisors and Gary Seven as a futuristic agent on present-day Earth as a full spin-off series to Star Trek . Seemingly, one early version of the episode was a stand-alone pilot for a series without a Trek connection. 

Had it been picked up, the “Assignment: Earth” show would have been the first spin-off of Trek, which, if you squint, is kind of what Picard Season 2 is doing now. Fingers crossed for a new Gary Seven and his cat Isis, at some later point in Picard .

Jackson Roykirk Plaza 

At the very end of the episode, Q (John de Lancie) is sitting outside of something called “Jackson Roykirk Plaza,” which seems to be connected with the “Europa Mission,” which we’ve seen a few billboards for in and around 2024. As far as deep-cuts go, Jackson Roykirk is pretty deep. The name comes from the TOS episode “The Changeling,” in which we learn that Roykirk was responsible for the AI space probe called Nomad, which, in the Star Trek timeline, was launched from Earth in 2002. In “ “The Changeling,” the Enterprise encounters a highly modified version of Nomad, which at some point had merged with an alien intelligence called Tan Ru.

But, since that Starfleet-centric future is all hanging in the balance, what’s most interesting here is the way the existence of Jackson Roykirk Plaza seems to establish his importance to the Trek-version of the Early 21st-century space programs. In Star Trek “history” Jackson Roykirk would have been a big space probe guy in 2002, which means, 22 years later in 2024, it seems reasonable there would be a space-travel plaza named after him. 

Jackson Roykirk only appeared in canon as an archival photograph in Spock’s library computer and was “played” by frequent TOS director, Marc Daniels. Presumably, Jackson Roykirk could still be alive in this version of 2024, but, if they named an entire plaza after him, probably not? 

Dixon Hill and 12 Monkeys 

In the same scene at the end of “Watcher,” Q is speaking and seemingly trying to implant a suggestive notion into a young woman’s mind. The woman (Penelope Mitchell), who appears to be wearing a shirt associated with the Europa Mission, is reading a book called The Pallid Son by Tracy Tormé.

This is not a “real” book, because when you look closer you’ll see that The Pallid Son is “Dixon Hill Mystery.” First introduced in the TNG episode, “The Big Goodbye,” Dixon Hill is a fictional detective who appeared in various hardboiled detective novels of the 1930s. In our universe, there are no actual Dixon Hill novels because he was invented by TNG writer, Tracy Tormé, who also penned “The Big Goodbye.” Although TNG ’s first season is generally considered to be the rockiest of all of its episode runs, “The Big Goodbye” was notable because it was the episode from that inaugural season that received a Peabody Award for Excellence in Television. This episode also gave the Star Trek canon the concept that Picard was really into a Philip Marlowe -esque private detective. Earlier in this same episode, Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill) says to Picard, “Look at you Dixon Hill,” as Picard starts to put pieces of a mystery together.

Who this woman is and what Q wants with her isn’t clear. But the fact that she likes this Dixon Hill novel could be suggestive of time travel shenanigans. The title of this book is The Pallid Son , which is not one of the previously mentioned Dixon Hill novels from TNG . Instead, the title probably mentions the 12 Monkeys character “The Pallid Man” (Tom Noonan) who, in that series, was born as the result of complex time travel. The SyFy 12 Monkeys series was produced by Terry Matalas, the co-showrunner for Picard Season 2 and Season 3.

And, in addition to the basic time travel plot of Picard Season 2, there have been several references to 12 Monkeys throughout this season so far. In the previous episode, Seven and Raffi went to “Markridge Tower,” a direct reference to a corrupt company from 12 Monkeys . Meanwhile, in the second episode of Picard Season 2, “Penance,” the Borg Queen can be heard muttering, “Trapped in the forest of red, the blood..”

This refers to the oft-repeated phrase in 12 Monkeys , “you’re walking through a red forest, most of the blood has washed away.” In that series, the concept of a red forest was an anti-time state in which linear time would not exist and the spacetime continuum simply would not work normally. The Pallid Man in 12 Monkeys was in favor of such a thing occurring. Who knows what “the Pallid Son” is doing in that Dixon Hill novel, but it would seem Q has similar goals about destroying the basic flow of time. Or does he?

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 airs new episodes on Paramount+ on Thursdays

Ryan Britt is a longtime contributor to Den of Geek! He is also the author of three non-fiction books: the Star Trek pop history book PHASERS…

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Star Trek: The Original Series

“Assignment: Earth”

Air date: 3/29/1968 Teleplay by Art Wallace Story by Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace Directed by Marc Daniels

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

Review Text

The Enterprise travels back in time to Earth, 1968, to witness a historic nuclear crisis unfold. But once there, they encounter the mysterious Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) beaming in from another planet, and Kirk must decide whether his presence is a proper aspect of history or an alien threat. Meanwhile, Mr. Seven escapes his holding cell and begins conducting his undercover operation on Earth, centering on the scheduled launch of a nuclear device into orbit.

The time-travel motivation is dubious (why in the world would Starfleet risk timeline contamination to research history?), but the story has some good ideas. Unfortunately, the execution is off-kilter, with so much cross-cutting and off-pacing that the show turns choppy. Also, the episode comes across like the spin-off pilot show that it was intended as; at times it's more interested in providing a backdrop to a series that would never come to be than it is in making its story the priority.

Robert Lansing is on target as Mr. Seven, but Teri Garr is too annoying and unfunny as his secretary. The plot is reasonably good, but the bottom line is that I felt more like I was watching a good marketing ploy than I was watching good science fiction.

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76 comments on this post.

Yours is the first source that I have ever read (seen) that speaks of Assignment: Earth as being a Pilot for a spin-off. Where in Trekdom is this substantiated? I actually liked the episode - and Ms. Garr's quirky playing of her out-of-sorts character I thought proved effective in showing her total confusion with all the high-tech stuff that was flashing in front of her. PLUS - shes was supposedly just filling in for a friend at that job - wasn't she?

^ Re: "Assignment: Earth" as a pilot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment_Earth

I remember watching Assignment:Earth when it first aired; I was 7 years old. It was all anyone could talk about in school the next day. Gary Seven seemed like the coolest guy ever. So maybe my love of the episode is tinted by some boyish nostalgia.

1. Assignment: Earth is listed as a potential pilot in David Gerrold's "The World Of Star Trek", from 1973. I'm pretty sure it's received wisdom. 2. Since we're listing 'favorite middle-tier episodes', I want to put my two cents in for "Metamorphosis". While justly not considered among the series' very best, I have always been deeply moved by 1) the Companion's indelible passion for Cochrane, 2) the analysis of love provided by Kirk/Spock/McCoy, and 3) Cochrane's surprisingly parochial response to the Companion's affection for him. Is it because he's centuries old? Regardless of the reason, it adds the perfect left-field touch to what I consider the most achingly romantic episode TOS ever did.

Personally, I thought this episode was godawful. The Enterprise just intentionally flies back in time to 1968 just to observe stuff? Seriously? They're serious with that? And best of all, it all happens off camera, before the episode even starts. Not even Voyager at its worst would do this. Stargate might. But the worst is that Kirk and Spock stand around a room waiting for permission to grab a communicator to beam over to Seven's secret base, so they can stop him, but in the end just let him do what he wants, because "it's for a good reason." Yeah I'm sure detonating a nuclear weapon over another country can only have POSITIVE consequences for history, and sure enough the episode insults the viewer enough to pretend that's indeed what happens as a result, and they all smile and wink at the camera as they drop this incredibly morally questionable act and end the second season (and almost the entire show) with it.

Simon Hawkin

I have just watched the episode for the first time. And the last time. What utter BS on all levels, from the awful acting to the pompous idiotism of the script. If the second season ended with this I am not surprised the original series was cancelled prematurely -- I am just glad it did not do the whole Star Trek in.

Oh, this episode isn't that bad. Clearly, the creators were trying to set up "Assignment: Earth" as its own show, but if you get past that conceit, this episode works OK, not great. There are FAR worse episodes of TOS. This middle-of-the=pack fair.

Absolute bottom-of-the-barrel, the nadir of TOS. It's the worst episode of the original Star Trek because it ISN'T an episode of Star Trek at all; Gary Seven is the prime mover of events from beginning to end, while Kirk and Spock are reduced to standing around like idiots who can do little more than hope everything works out. As for the real stars of this ep, Seven's a smug prick and Roberta's an insufferable airhead. And all of this happens under the "Star Trek" title because "oh hey, by the way, we time-traveled back to 1968." From this, through the idea that there were orbital nuke platforms in '68 (which would have been a surprise to everyone in the viewing audience) and that Seven's purposefully detonating one in the lower atmosphere would save the Earth rather than trigger World War III, right up to the Enterprise's history tapes spoiling the entire spin-off series before it can even get started with the revelation that everything that just happened was supposed to happen all along and Seven and Roberta are destined to succeed in all of their missions, the episode treats its audience like complete morons. The worst the third season had to offer still beats "Assignment: Earth", and the third season featured a whinny-ing Kirk being ridden around the room by a midget.

Actually, orbiting nuclear platforms were indeed a concern of the mid-1960s. Check out the beginning of the space sequence of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (released Summer 1968) - it looks like everyone has militarized space!

The episode was intended as a pilot for a spin off series (Assignment:Earth). The most interesting thing for me is that Gary Seven is like an American Doctor Who! He travels in time, has a companion, and even a sonic screwdriver! Maybe Gene Roddenberry was inspired by the famous British sci fi series. Who knows?

DutchStudent82

While in general an enjoyable episode, I HAVE to point out : -There WAS no time travel possible in kirk's era.. time travel was only possible in the 27th century, and only became mainstream in the 29th. -the technolony kirk supposingly uses to time travel, is not even remotely fitting technobabble, even in 1970's fysics had improved way beyong this kind of unfitting crap. So I may be a critic looking back on a show that was aired over a decade before I was born.. but still I am glad they became more professional (though not enough) in later star trek series.

-I THOUGHT this episode seemed like an attempt at a spinoff. Jammer mentioning it in his review made it all makes sense. Would have been a silly but probably entertaining show if it had actually gotten picked up by the network. -Roberta came to work like she'd done it many times. . . so why is she surprised to meet her boss? They didn't explain that at all. . . was she just . . . like. . .a temp showing up to work somewhere she'd never been before? Weird. -The cat clearly had a human making the "meow" sounds for it the entire episode. This made me laugh more times than it probably was meant to. When the cat attacked a red shirt in the transporter room I started cracking up. "RREEEEEEOOOOWWWWW!" Those poor redshirts always get the short end of the stick. -The time travel: It was indeed silly to have the enterprise travel back in time for historical research. That said, I must disagree with DutchStudent here: Time travel in the 23rd century was "nearly routine.The Enterprise had traveled in time before using a "slingshot around the sun" technique, back in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" (season 1). And they did the same thing again in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. I'd say two TOS episodes and a movie make it canon: Starfleet personnel could travel in time if they wanted to. There was some "temporal prime directive" background on this in later episodes of Deep Space 9 and Voyager.

It's that time again. Ratings for the season, where my ratings are distinct from Jammer's (with the difference in parentheses). Amok Time: 4 (+1) The Apple: 1 (-1) Catspaw: 1.5 (-1) I, Mudd: 2.5 (-.5) (a little distance made this drop a little) Journey to Babel: 3.5 (+.5) Friday's Child: 1.5 (-.5) Wolf in the Fold: 2.5 (-.5) The Gamesters of Triskelion: 1.5 (+.5) Return to Tomorrow: 3 (+.5) Patterns of Force: 2 (-.5) The Omega Glory: 0.5 (-.5) Bread and Circuses: 2 (-.5) Assignment: Earth: 2 (-.5) Season overall: Season two is definitely a step down from season one; the first season was bursting with invention, running in many directions at once, occasionally stumbling but almost always in an interesting way. There is a shagginess to this season, especially as it gets closer to the end. It's nothing compared to what season three will bring, and season two, unlike season three, has a number of remarkable highlights, breaking new ground: Amok Time, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel, and The Trouble with Tribbles are very obviously *essential* TOS, in terms of both quality and in terms of what people think of when they think of the show and in terms of laying the groundwork for these characters' histories (and the movies and spinoffs), with Obsession, A Piece of the Action, and The Ultimate Computer not far behind. There are other fine episodes, as well as some episodes with some successful elements in an overall story that doesn't gel. There is also a real sense of repetition. I actually liked both Return to Tomorrow and By Any Other Name -- but they are very similar to each other, and I feel as if combining the best episodes of each into one could have led to one classic rather than two good episodes with a lot of Venn overlaps. There was no reason to have A Piece of the Action, Patterns of Force, The Omega Glory, and Bread and Circuses so close to each other -- especially when only one of them (A Piece of the Action) was actually successful, and there successful as a lighthearted romp with serious subtext. The Deadly Years' moving moments about the nature of aging and obsolescence ultimately fail to buoy the episode from its various significant problems -- so I feel as if a little more time spent on that fear of obsolescence in The Ultimate Computer could have "covered" those themes admirably. Obsession and The Immunity Syndrome are both very good episodes, but they suffer a bit from being so close to The Doomsday Machine (for different reasons). The Ultimate Computer is a somewhat new take on the evil computer regular theme of TOS, but it's still a little familiar, and The Changeling and I, Mudd feel redundant in the wake of season one's various man vs. machine plots. There are only so many stories to tell, and I don't begrudge a certain amount of repetition of themes -- that is to be expected, and even encouraged to a degree, if the series is going to establish and reestablish a firm POV. In the case of something like Obsession, I think it's worth being glad the series returned to familiar themes and plot elements from The Doomsday Machine, since the result was so successful. But the problem comes when so many of the episodes feel halfhearted and lazily or incompetently put together, and I get the impression that the reason for this is a lack of anything new to say in these episodes. And this is to say nothing of the cynicism of "Assignment: Earth" as the season finale. I don't think it's a bad episode exactly, and as just a random episode of TOS it's...well, below average, I think, but okay. As a season finale and possible *series* finale, it's really disappointing. Roddenberry didn't particularly think that Trek would be renewed, so he used the last chance to spend with these characters to do a backdoor pilot? Classy! I wouldn't really have minded this earlier in the season, or even as second-last episode, but really. It adds to the feeling that even in season two, the creative forces were losing things to say. Which, again, makes it weird that there are so many absolute gems this season! This season seems to me like a good argument for the cable channel model of shorter seasons. It's possible that if they were given 13 eps instead of 26, they would have just produced a season of The Apple, Catspaw, Friday's Child, The Gamesters of Triskelion, The Omega Glory etc. But I prefer to think that they would have given a season of Amok Time, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel, The Trouble with Tribbles, etc. Combining the ideas from Return to Tomorrow and By Any Other Name into one mega-classic instead of two decent episodes. That type of thing. All that said, I'm very glad to have season two of TOS. It's rough and rocky, and especially toward the end there is a pervasive sameness, but its highs are very high and essential, and its middling episodes still have a lot to offer.

Along those lines, my ideal lineup for a shorter, tighter season two: 1. Amok Time 2. Mirror, Mirror 3. The Doomsday Machine 4. Metamorphosis 5. Journey to Babel 6. Obsession 7. The Trouble with Tribbles 8. A Piece of the Action 9. The Immunity Syndrome 10. A Private Little War - with heavy rewrites 11. Return to Tomorrow with some ideas from By Any Other Name 12. one other "parallel Earth society" episode -- maybe mostly based on Patterns of Force but with some heavy rewrites. The Spock/McCoy material from Bread and Circuses can go here. 13. The Ultimate Computer Obviously any season of standalone episodes can be improved by just chucking out the worst episodes, but I think the big gap between the best and the worst of season two makes it an ideal candidate for some rejiggering.

As it happens, William B, I've been pondering a similar experiment for all of ST:Voyager. Throwing out all the episodes that don't advance the overall plot, theme, or characters, the entire series can be boiled down to approx. 26 episodes of essential material (though some are two-parters), plus an equal number of runners-up. The "essential episodes" experiment could also be done for DS9, though it had a lot more ongoing threads. However, I never contemplated the "cable channel model" for TOS because of its minimal continuity. It was always an anthology, not a novel.

@Grumpy, agreed on the anthology format of TOS. With an anthology, then, the big qualities you're looking for are consistency of quality and novelty over the course of the different episodes, making sure the "important themes" the series returns to (which form the bedrock of the...I'm going to say "thematic continuity" between episodes) as well as the character development that does occur, to the extent that TOS does explore characters, particularly with the Big Three. A cable channel model for an anthology brings the advantage that the anthology can just be less meandering and more forceful in the episodes that remain. I think a similar case can be made for trimming down, say, The Twilight Zone, which I watched all the way through a few years ago whose hit to miss ratio is probably around that of TOS -- it's a true anthology series. All that said, it's hard for writers, producers, actors etc. to know which episodes are going to be hits and which misses while making them. So, it's not as if reducing the number of episodes will mean that the episodes that get tossed are going to be the bad ones. With DS9 and Voyager (and TNG), there's actually a similar problem, if you want to emphasize continuity and character/plot development: it is not obvious, on a first pass, which elements of a story are going to be important and which are going to be dropped. To take TNG as an example, if you want to be a strict adherent to continuity as the guideline, then "Lonely Among Us" can't be discarded because it's the start of Data's Sherlock Holmes fascination; this could easily have been a recurring subplot that was binned, but instead it became a pretty essential facet of Data's character. I'm not sure what point I'm making, except that it's much easier to do this type of thing with the benefit of hindsight and the whole series before us than it would have been for the writers at the time. To elaborate on my choices, I do enjoy "The Changeling," "I, Mudd," and "Wolf in the Fold" enough that I probably would keep them on if I were really limiting myself just to "episodes I think are worth rewatching," rather than picking a (somewhat arbitrary) 13, which is chosen as half of 26 (and is a standard, though by no means the only, choice for cable shows, i.e. Mad Men mostly did 13-episode seasons before the split final season). I'd be curious which episodes you peg as essential and runner-up for Voyager. Maybe on one of the Voyager pages (Endgame?).

Whatever point you're making, William B, I get it. Even anthologies can center on a theme, though obviously in the case of TOS (and Twilight Zone, which I've recently watched, as well) the theme emerged without conscious design. Roddenberry didn't set out, as far as I know, to make a show that consistently illustrated how, for instance, humans are not ready for paradise (or, in Rod Serling's case, how you can't go home again). But toss out stories that don't service that through-line, you've got a coherent package of episodes. With Voyager, though, the premise was clear from the get-go (though Elliott might still disagree about what constitutes a "premise"). Therefore, it's immediately obvious which episodes are germane and which are time-fillers, put into production because there were no other ideas for scripts that week. It's not a matter of retroactively recognizing quality or serendipity of execution, or capitalizing on unforeseen potential. Voyager (more so than DS9) had a story from the beginning, which becomes more evident when 5/7 of its episodes are stripped away. I'm tempted to post my list, but I don't know where. It would be lengthy and deserves much debate (as I am not uniquely qualified as curator). I considered "Eye of the Needle," since that's what inspired the list, but I dunno.

This episode was just awful, a preposterous and silly plot from beginning to end. The cavalier attitude towards time travel to do historical research was beyond ridiculous.

I enjoyed season two, but one thing that hurt it was that they had to many parallel earth. Not only that, but these parallel earth episodes were aired to close together. Ironically this is what Gene Roddenberry wanted to do with Trek is time parallel earth stories that mirrored problem of the present or past. I love that fact that Scotty and Uhura got a lot more to do this season. Chekov was a great addition to the cast and I'm glad he didn't turn into boy wonder the wiz kid. I feel bad for George Takei who lost out on a lot of great moment for his Sulu character due to filming the Green Beret. It's pretty obvious a lot of great moments that he could have had went to Scotty and Chekov. Takei likes to blame Shatner for his shortcoming on Trek, but he obviously lost out on a chunk of good material because of Green Beret. Top 5 episodes. Amok Time Doomsday Machine Mirror, Mirror, The Trouble With Tribbles. Journey to Babel Honorable mention goes out to Obsession.

Not sure there's much sense in criticising this episode for breaking Time Travel continuity rules, when they weren't established yet... It's not the best episode of TOS but still fun in its way, I thought.

Good episode, although Gary Seven telling his office computer in the first act that he's on a mission to prevent earth's nuclear holocaust lets the cat out of the bag (pun intended) a bit too early, robbing the episode of some tension. To give us more investment in the Enterprise crew's pursuit, it might have been better to let us keep guessing up to the end whether he was friend or foe. Nevertheless, this show is still a tightly-paced time travel yarn with contemporary overtones in classic Trek fashion, setting the tone for this type of episode on future Trek series -- I would give it 3 out of 4 stars. The young Teri Garr, a delightful actress with great comic timing, adds a sassy and fresh voice to the male-dominated cast that makes the show a bit more fun to follow than usual. Her body language even in simple scenes, as when she tries to get around a pedestrian on the sidewalk, is pretty amusing. And although she's not always integral to the main plot, her charismatic screen presence allows us a sympathetic then-contemporary viewpoint on the proceedings which makes them a bit more accessible. Robert Lansing's Gary Seven oozes 1960s cool, adding to the Cold War espionage vibe of the story, and I liked his gadgets. The cat Isis (phrasing?) is pretty cool too. Overall, lots of interesting stuff here, including the orbiting nuclear weapons plot point that still feels somewhat relevant today. Unfortunately, once Mr. Seven starts crawling around the nuclear warhead and our heroes follow him, the pace of the episode stalls out. Considering that Gary Seven might have explained his mission to Roberta (Garr) and our heroes sooner, all the double-crosses between the lot of them in the last act felt a bit frustrating, as one had the impression it might have been avoided. Having said that, the pro-disarmament plot of Mister Seven traveling back in time to destroy US warheads in the interest of preventing earth's self-destruction is a nice idea, fitting with Star Trek's idealism. The time paradox dialogue at the end doesn't really make sense, but I do appreciate the humanitarian optimism of this one. Not really sure why some people here dislike it so much; "Assignment: Earth" is not great or perfect by any means, but it's an entertaining hour with some nice ideas, and that's pretty much all I ask from an episode of Trek.

Now it makes sense to me that "Assignment: Earth" was some kind of pilot for another show - Kirk/Spock aren't close to being the main character(s) and as a TOS episode it comes across as kind of odd. I was getting a bit bored with all the footage of the rocket launch/control center. Have to also say that the plot is a bit ridiculous - like the Enterprise can just go back in time to whenever no problem. And then the final resolution, Kirk/Spock just have to trust Gary Seven that he intends to detonate the nuclear warhead at the right altitude - since they cannot in time. Not much to it. It is noteworthy for a young Teri Garr (Tootsie) - her character was sort of ok but makes sense that it's part of a pilot. I want to know: was the black cat the same as the one in "Catspaw"? Not a really strong episode but not awful as some other commenters have said. I'd give it 2 stars out of 4.

@Stubb, Wholeheartedly agree with you re. "Metamorphosis" - nobody will consider this episode one of the TOS classics or among its very best, but it is one of my favorites. It is the best sci-fi love story I've ever seen. George Duning's terrific soundtrack is perfect for making it a very moving story.

RandomThoughts

Hello Everyone! @Rahul Yep, it was a pilot for another show. And what you wrote got me to thinking... I read recently that the original series never broke the top 50 in ratings, and of course we know NBC tried to cancel it after each of its first two years. Now, taking all of that into consideration, why in the world were they using it as step-stone for a new show? If they did not believe many people were watching, how was this going to help the new one get off the ground? That just seems weird to me... Have a Great Day Everyone... RT

Anyone have an idea why the lady was disguised as a cat?

When Roddenberry has big input, the result is usually a terrible script. Here he realizes that Star Trek is about to be cancelled and so turns an episode into a secret (and awful) pilot for another show. Real classy Gene. I think we can basically pretend that this is not really a Star Trek episode.

Good idea for a series. Poor storytelling. If AE had been on the air and lasted into the early 70s it could have been really good. Oh well.

Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" had nothing on this one!

Am going to watch this episode in the coming days but must point something out: this is now the fourth episode in which the crew visit 20th Century earth (or recreation thereof), and the fifth of which the crew visit Earth's history if you count the Adonias episode, THIS SEASON. And these are the pre-Braga days! My overriding impression of TOS from my youth was the lack of creativity in the setting. They were on the edge of the Final Frontier and yet it seems like even the crew of DS9 did more exploring! The precedent for repetition was set by TOS. Brannon Braga is a one-trick pony (I heard there is no explanation of "one-trick pony" in the dictionary, it simply says "See Braga, Brannon"). But to be honest, the more I revisit TOS, the more I realise the man revered by generations, Gene Roddenberry, was like a 60s version of Braga. It's all redshirts dying, a single female character introduced who happens to be a major babe, close-ups on Shatner's face with light across his eyes and trips to old Earth. It's ironic that the ones which avoid these cliches happen to be the absolute shining stars of the series. For example, the mind-f*** episode with Scotty being possessed. Fair enough, this also borrowed straight from Earth's past, but it took the Ripper idea and brought it forward to other worlds and other species. TOS created a living, breathing universe that we rarely see in TNG, VOY or ENT, which all focus on one ship and one crew with no consequences for 99% of their actions. It's easy to see why TOS was so popular/influential. But it's also easy to see why it was canned after the shortest run of any live action Trek. If it had shown more creativity in its storylines and explored that optimistic future more, it might have run for longer.

I remember watching the rerun of this episode as a kid and I felt at the time that it was the most memorable episode of Star Trek. I watch it today and still think it is a really cool episode just from the idea of a person that they don't know is a human or an alien, the tech he uses, his cat, etc etc. Also the time travel is great. I don't see why this is not one of the best episodes of Star Trek (though I'm just throwing that out there... I'm not exactly that well versed as you guys about all the episodes).

Even if Kirk and Spock play second-fiddle to some new characters, chasing after them and generally watching what's going on, I think this episode manages some suspense, originality and fun. It's a wonky, entertaining ride. I mean, c'mon, Seven (Seven?) can speak cat and his cat is actually a very attractive woman (alien?) and some people don't find that at all fun? I revisited this one to prepare a bit for reading Assignment: Eternity.

Aside from the pilot for a spinoff series stuff, it seems pretty obvious to me that the goal of this episode was to use Apollo launch footage to profit. This was 1968. That was a big deal. I'm surprised nobody mentioned that.

Love this episode and as usual am surprised at the bad reviews, I grew up with star trek so I guess my opinion is biased by the sweet memories I have.Gary seven was so cool and Im guessing the cat was some type of bond reference.Of course there is plenty of goofs, ,seven can fight of a whole group of people and is even immune to spocks neck pinch but is knocked out by a metal cigarette case that roberta clunks him with, but then again they got somethings right, spock said there will be an important assassination and there were two, MLK and RFK.My only real complaint is the going back in time to witness something, I guess they didnt have any books or video on past events, a much better idea IMHO is that the enterprise is near earth and when they accidentally intercept gary sevens beam it drags the enterprise back in time with him.

Good episode. The story held my interest and I liked both our guest stars - their characters and performances. The cat was intriguing. One of my favorites for the series. Didn't really care for the fact that the Enterprise is shown as easily traveling through time, at will and for no compelling purpose, but it's won't be the first, and definitely not the last, time we'll see the franchise play fast and loose with this sort of thing. I especially liked that our "alien of the week" was refreshingly honest and non-hostile.

Sarjenka's Brother

M5 computer from "Ultimate Computer" is put back into use for Gary Seven. OK episode.

Goodness, I had no idea what I was getting into when I watched this. So, I agree with all the criticisms (shoehorned pilot for other show, etc., etc.) but it wasn't all bad. I think the one thing they got right was the dramatic tension for the episode. The show framed Gary Seven as the villain of the episode with an obviously nefarious agenda, although it mentioned the possibility he could be doing his assignment for the greater good. I think the direction worked in a way that made us forget he was possibly doing "the right thing" - which, in turn, made for an interesting reversal in the end. I suppose the problem with all this is, it's hard to relate to Gary Seven when you're being told by all the scripting, visual, and music cues that he's a bad guy. it would be like if they were using DS9 as a pilot for Edington and a Maquis show (who's rooting for that guy?). Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out what that cat that turns into a woman was all about. It looks like a template for a Sailor Moon character. :3

Sleeper Agent

Great guest appearances, nice props and an interesting intrigue; but as many have mentioned, it drops the ball half way in and has a hard time recovering from what turns into a boring mess. On another note: from what I can remember NSA's existence wasn't officially admitted until the 80s (?), thus making this episode (one of) the first soft disclosure of the organisation? And yeah, what was that woman/cat all about? Her name being Isis certainly is interesting.

I'm a sucker for anything in the orbit of TOS. I would have been all in for a season 4 even if it was twice as bad as season 3. So it pains me to speak ill of an episode of which there are only 79. But try as I might, I can't bring myself to say anything positive about Assignment: Earth. In my mind, this should not even be viewed as a ST episode, but rather a pilot for another show that guest-starred the crew of the Enterprise. That's exactly the vibe I get whenever I watch it, which is why I can't even bring myself to review it. (Even though I kinda just did.) Shame on Gene for unofficially concluding season 2 at episode 25.

There's a website dedicated to the stillborn series: https://www.assignmentearth.ca

Hotel bastardos

Execrable pisspoor backdoor pilot. Christ, imagine if the show had gotten cancelled on that wretched note... Thank fuck that utterly charmless twat Gary seven and that pathetic dizzy bint were mercifully left stillborn in the miserable graveyard of failed pilot shows. Dangleberry should've been ashamed of himself for trying to chance it with that wet fart of a concept.... Oh, and I ain't a cat person which made matters worse...0 stars.

Assignment: Earth is the culmination of the central theme of Season 2, the exploration of late-1960’s society. Star Trek finally shows its hand, what it has been building up to all year, starting with Mirror, Mirror, and through all the alternate Earth episodes, and now this: an examination of the central pressing issue for real life 1960’s Earth. https://youtu.be/-DhkY6d9uqQ Season 1 had a more personal touch because the theme of the season was Man. Or rather man with increasing powers, up to and including the power of the gods. Whether we had gods as teenagers (Charlie X) or men and women as gods (Where no Man has Gone Before) or man & paradise (This Side of Paradise) or enhanced man (Space Seed), the point of Season 1 was to explore man, especially how man would react to being placed at all levels of power and pleasure up to and including ultimate power and total bliss. Season 2 was more impersonal by design. So many episodes were thought-experiments that put a slight spin on society - an alternate Earth almost like our own planet, but just different enough to accentuate a particular aspect of society - some aspect the show wanted to explore or highlight for the audience (like public manipulation through television in Bread and Circuses, or the cruelty of a purely intellectual elite in Triskelion). Assignment: Earth also gives us vivid insight into the mindframe of the 1960’s audience. In that way, it is a model for Star Trek: Voyager episodes like "11:59" and "Future’s End," both of which did a good job exploring the mindset of the 1990’s. Assignment: Earth's 1960’s audience was obviously a nervous lot - neurotic about all sorts of events transpiring around them. If we have Climate Change today, they had nuclear holocaust to worry about back then. And in all that upheaval, who was there to protect them? Not God. Maybe it gave the audience comfort to think that Kirk and Spock - or Gary Seven - was up there looking down at us - looking out for them, like an Angel. ROBERTA: Mister Seven, I want to believe you. I do. I know this world needs help. That's why some of my generation are kind of crazy and rebels, you know. We wonder if we're going to be alive when we're thirty. What were they so worried about? SPOCK: Current Earth crises would fill a tape bank, Captain. There will be an important assassination today… 5 days after this episode aired, Martin Luther King was killed. He was 39. I wonder what the theme of Season 3 will be? https://youtu.be/8A_3jqiix0Q

A very uneven episode that is redeemed by Teri Garr’s portrayal of Roberta Lincoln, a refreshingly different female role in TOS. I agree with Jammer - not only is it questionable WHY Starfleet would be interfering with history, it’s barely explained HOW they were able to time travel. There were many good moments, most of them supplied by Miss Garr’s ability to convey naivety, kooky disbelief, and resourceful intelligence, all at the same time. The cat was also an interesting addition, especially when briefly adopting human form at the end. But the geopolitical angle of the 60s was heavy handed and obvious, and not something that escapist sci-fi should have been involved with except in a ‘parallel’ type of story, e.g. a similar scenario set on a different world, as a metaphorical parable. But I recognise that setting it on Earth was a budget-saving exercise. Not a bad way to end Series 2, entertaining to watch. But “could have done better “. I’d give it 3 stars... just about. I just wish they’d found a role for Roberta Lincoln on the Enterprise.

It's on TV right now... and it's pretty damn awful. The regular cast are reduced to guests in their own show! I suppose the story involving Gary 7 could be interesting except for the crucial fact that I DON'T CARE.

Alhough I reemember seeing it I had completely forgotten the plot. Not fantastic but thanks to the reference in Picard I gota reason. The slightly outdated potrait of a secretary was amusing and entertaining.

A couple of commentators seem to think Seven was also a time traveller but he made it very clear at the beginning of the episode when he argues that he is a Twentieth Century man and the Enterprise crew have no right to interfere with his mission. He and others, such as the couple who were supposed to have got on with destroying the rocket but died in a car crash, were descendants of human beings taken from Earth six thousand years before and specially bred and trained to carry out missions on Earth to help ensure its survival. That is all in Seven's dialogue with Roberta. To answer the point about why didn't the secretary know Seven, her employers were the couple who died. She'd never met him before. This is one of my least favourite episodes. The ditsy secretary is just irritating to me. The normal cast are reduced to hanging around, at a loss what to do or prisoners in the case of Kirk and Spock. It is fairly boring. I did wonder when I rewatched it recently if the same cat was used for Catspaw. I imagine the cat/woman mystery would have continued in the projected series and that Isis was one of the aliens despite having the name of an Ancient Egyptian goddess. Anyway for me, this really is a pilot for a show that wasn't picked up that the ST crew were unfortunate enough to be forced to appear in.

Something I forgot to mention is I think the woman provided the voice for the computer also did the Companion's voice in Metamorphosis

This particular episode was a little far out for me. Below average rating. Barbara Babcock did the voice work of the computer. She had an active role in a couple of the other shows. And, April Tatro was the cat girl at the end of the show.

This is indeed a pilot to potentially introduce another series that never blasted off (a small pun there..very small...I digress) However, it s also the most insidious idea for a Star Trek episode ever in the history of all mankind! (besides Spock's Brain)...but still the idea aside - it is still very watchable and likable. Any time travel episode is a good one when it comes to Trek. I dig it! Besides, I like the kitty... by that I mean Teri Garr, of course.

Assignment: Earth is, well, adequate. It’s inoffensive and fairly well executed, has some ok moments and some good tension. It’s also a cynical exercise in television marketing, made brutally ironic given that it follows right on the heels of Bread and Circuses, a show that lambasts such cynicism in TV. The fact that this back-door pilot also doubles as the season 2 finale really calls into question Gene Roddenberry’s creative ethics. Other than this not *really* being a Star Trek episode, its main failure is the initial setup. Time travel is already problematic enough without it being treated like a lark, engaged in for seemingly low stakes research. That premise feels so half baked that it compounds the sense that this whole outing is just a callous failure of integrity. 2/4 inexplicable, shapeshifting catwomen. As far as season 2 goes, overall it’s a pretty good grouping of episodes, although I’d say season 1 had a steadier hand. Season 2 has some dizzying highs such as Amok Time, Doomsday Machine, or Journey to Babel, but also had some ‘yikes’ moments such as The Apple, Catspaw, or The Omega Glory. It’s a bit more of a rollercoaster than season 1 in my opinion. My top 5: 1- Doomsday Machine 2- Amok Time 3- Mirror, Mirror 4- Journey to Babel 5- Obsession Bottom 5: 5- Gamesters of Treskelion 4- The Apple 3- Wolf in the Fold 2- Catspaw 1- The Omega Glory Note: in this situation Assignment: Earth is not measured as it’s not really a Star Trek episode and thus is both the worst and best episode of the unpicked up show: Assignment: Whatever. Or whatever.

Michael Miller

Fun and edge of your seat thrilling episode, but the plot was very weird and could have been better. 1st of all, what is this casual crap that the enterprise used "Light speed break away factor" to move back in time? Did they do another cold anti-matter implosion engine start from the Naked Time or something, or one of those stupid slingshot around the sun?? The 1st one was barely tested and the 2nd made no sense as if you are already going at warp speed how does the tiny bit of extra speed from whipping around a star going to slingshot you anywhere? That's not how general relativity works anyway even if the concept was remotely valid, and it isn't. 2nd, what was the purpose of the cat-woman alien? She served no purpose in the entire episode, other than attacking and distracting security guards by acting like a mean cat LOL. 3rd, The 1000 light year transport thing. Since when can transporter beams travel faster than light. If it's energy of some kind how does it exceed the speed of light? I know you're gonna say that the aliens were way more advanced, but even in normal star trek episodes they sometimes make it seem like transporters can beam people faster than light, such as a few million kilometers being in "transporter range", to keep it somewhat in normal physics range they should have kept it to 100,000 miles or half a million miles to be more believable, even if transports had to take a few more seconds to be realistic. It isn't through subspace obviously as subspace transporting was addressed and rejected in TNG. 4th, the ridiculous advanced alien technology 1920s style controls! Like why is there a steering wheel on the secret transporter room that opens automatically anyway? How the fuck is that operated by a grand total of 8 BUTTONS??? You're seriously telling me the secretary who had no clue what any of this was, just happened to exactly lock on to the guy's position and beam him back by randomly fiddling with a few dials, yeah...RIGHT. So a 9 year old could have disrupted his mission. Or the "survo" that could perform dozens of random functions by hitting 3 buttons. How does it lock a purely mechanical door btw? 5. The secretary herself. Was she an agent as well or just a random earthling hired by one of the agents? They kept bouncing back and forth on this. First it seemed like they knew each other, then she seemed clueless, then she knows how to operate the transporter but is shocked seeing people beamed in and out, which is it?? Huge plot question that was never resolved. 6. The whole thing with the guy crawling on the rocket gantry. How was he planning to get out of there in time if he wasn't accidentally beamed out? By jumping off? The launch was seconds later and he would have been incinerated or knocked clear off the thing. 7. I don't know much about nuclear physics, but wouldn't the detonation ultimately release lethal radiation over the countries it blew up over? Does the atmosphere need to transmit it, or would that not matter anyway as 104 miles is above the space line, serious question.

Truly horrendous episode. 0 stars.

I don't hate this episode at all, even though it's insultingly not the show we've been watching all this time (I always thought the backdoor pilot thing was obvious, as the device was used in a lot of shows back then). The premise was interesting. Gary Seven is cool, Isis is cool, Teri Garr was appealing. The whole thing felt more like Irwin Allen than Roddenberry. Had it gone to series, I would have watched it. It probably would have been kind of Austin Powers-ish. The most annoying thing about this episode is the ridiculous (if understandable given the era) use of a Saturn V with the full Apollo lunar payload to represent fairly modest nuclear delivery system. Even as a kid ten years later I always thought that was weird as Walter Cronkite etc had explained the whole thing to everyone by then. Use of stock footage was a poor excuse.

Proud Capitalist Pig

1968 turned out to be such an eventful and important year that there’s a whole book written about it (by Mark Kurlansky -- you should read it). We were neck-deep into the Cold War. The Space Program was in full operation. There were two different assassinations on American soil. It was one of the most significant presidential election years in history for the United States. And television, while still technically in relative infancy, was quickly becoming the loudest soapbox commentator on our cultural life (and also the opiate of the masses, but that’s another discussion). Obviously, we’re all here on this discussion board because one of those key shows was Star Trek. In “Assignment: Earth,” Spock delivers the key line, “There will be an important assassination today, an equally dangerous government coup in Asia, and, this could be highly critical, the launching of an orbital nuclear warhead platform by the United States countering a similar launch by other powers.” (That describes Star Trek’s times pretty accurately, I’d say.) Now, they know the year is 1968. But the episode conveniently (and smartly) leaves the exact date unrevealed. But here’s the thing. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and Bobby Kennedy on June 6. The “dangerous government coup in Asia” that Spock mentions could be interpreted as the Iraqi coup on July 17. “Assignment: Earth” was broadcast on--get this--March 29. Yikes. Star Trek may have been a hammy science fiction show, but it had its finger on the zeitgeist pulse so presciently that its episode “Assignment: Earth” predicted a horrible assassination, a government overthrow, and international nuclear tensions in the very year it was written (as a matter of fact, Jesus H. God, they were off by less than a week in terms of the King assassination). I concede that if that’s not relevant television, I don’t know what is. So I’ll say this for Star Trek: It may only show us paper moons sailing over cardboard seas, and mere canvas skies hanging over muslin trees… but it created legions of fans who subscribe to that refrain, “It wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me.” This particular episode “Assignment: Earth,” a fitting close-out to a very eclectic and interesting season of television, captures the essence of what has made this allegorical space opera endure for so long. “Assignment: Earth” as an episode of Star Trek deals heavily with time travel. That’s a smart move, because such stories are tricky. We’re invested in seeing Kirk and Seven succeed in stopping an existential crisis on Earth, but there’s the added concern about just how much they’re able to do, or even supposed to, in terms of interfering in the first place. Yes, Seven could be telling the truth about being a benevolent time traveler looking out for history, but he could also be a lying charlatan. For those complaining about Kirk and Spock being “powerless” and watching things happen, I’d advise that you go back and rewatch the episode, paying attention this time. Kirk is simply *unsure* about whether or not he really should be committing any actions at all, because that’s the caveat about time travel. For a while there’s really nothing he *can* do except to watch things unfold and then step in if it turns out Seven is an interloper. I liked Robert Lansing’s portrayal as Seven very much, but Teri Garr (!) was no slouch here either. She gave Lincoln a winning sense of humor, and I fell right in love with her klutzy but patriotic foundation. Garr would have nicely matched Lansing in her own right. And plus, yeah, she looked great. Lansing and Garr can absolutely carry an episode. Speaking of which, some of you above don’t like that the Enterprise crew is “barely in” this episode. I didn’t think that at all. The balance here is actually fine. Seven appears on the Enterprise in the teaser. The stakes of what we’re about to see are explained pretty effectively in the first act. So rather than The Seven Show, it’s more of a back-and-forth between Seven’s efforts and the efforts of Our Usual Heroes. The two threads have to have an equal value of importance in this case because this episode is a backdoor pilot, granted, but since the story is so engaging and the performances are pitch-perfect, so what?! Isis the Cat was such a hoot. I too cracked up at the obviously voice-overed “meows” emanating from her (one of the meows is even designed to sound like “uh-oh!”) Sambo delivered a fine performance. But really, Star Trek--as @Rahul points out, there are other cat colors besides black (but I kid). And as a cat dad myself, I can appreciate how Seven dotes on Isis. About that “backdoor pilot” thing… One of the best such pilots was the All in the Family episode “Maude,” which Norman Lear created so that Bea Arthur could get her own series. Archie Bunker is only seen in the very beginning and then at the very end, but it’s still one of the best episodes they did because *it’s so entertaining.* Backdoor pilots can be damn engaging and turn out to be absolute gems. The Simpsons, after all, started as a backdoor pilot--so there you go. Not for nothing, but I’d watch “Assignment: Earth,” the series. It’s too bad that it wasn’t picked up, as it seems to me that they would have had a pretty engaging, versatile hit on their hands. Maybe the U.S. government stepped in and refused to let it be picked up as a series, for they feared that it hit too close to home and would end up almost revealing a lot of true dirty secrets about this country and what its leaders actually know (but I kid). "Assignment: Earth" may have been a bit of a different spin on Star Trek, but I'd say it captured the spirit of it pretty well. Speak Freely: Lincoln -- “Not even the CIA could do all this.” My Grade: A

SEASON 2 TOP FIVE: 5th Place -- The Doomsday Machine 4th Place --. The Ultimate Computer 3rd Place -- Assignment: Earth 2nd Place -- Mirror, Mirror 1st Place -- The Immunity Syndrome SEASON 2 BOTTOM FIVE: 22. Return to Tomorrow 23. The Apple 24. Friday’s Child 25. The Gamesters of Triskelion 26. The Omega Glory

I don't think anything could keep Journey to Babel from being on my top 5 list of S2, but I kinda like that you had to guts to put Assignment: Earth on yours.

@Peter G. A LOT of folks seem to hate this one, yes. But I loved it. I'm clamoring for "Assignment: Earth," The Series. Hell, it can easily be updated / rebooted for modern television. A guy from the distant future getting into all kinds of international shenanigans while trying to make sure that he both succeeds in saving the planet and protects his cover -- maybe fighting a shadowy cabal that wants to create a new timeline for their own nefarious ends (with plants in each of Earth's most powerful governments), and accompanied by a hot sidekick and shapeshifting cat? I'd watch that! "Journey to Babel" was a competent outing, but it didn't impress me. The best part of that episode, for sure, was the Spock-Sarek struggle and the corresponding Kirk-Spock friendship showcase. It also had some good dialogue. High marks for that. But Jane Wyatt's performance got in the way, the murder mystery was woefully half-baked, and too much emphasis was placed on the Convening of Funny Foreheads. It got a B- from me.

The fact that this episode's premise was appropriated for Picard Season 2 forever taints its memory. To quote Martok in similar circumstances, "it is a grave dishonor" (to the episode)

@ PCP, "A guy from the distant future getting into all kinds of international shenanigans while trying to make sure that he both succeeds in saving the planet and protects his cover" Yes, if only we had been treated to a Star Trek series involving time travel agents from the future working with people from the past, and maybe even a temporal cold war. That would have been GREAT.

Wait was Gary 7 even from the future? I didn't think so...

@Jason R Maybe I misinterpreted a line or two? He seemed to have foreknowledge that the imminent rocket launch would have apocalyptic repercussions for Earth unless he stopped it. I inferred from this that he's a time traveler.

@Peter G - "Yes, if only we had been treated to a Star Trek series involving time travel agents from the future working with people from the past, and maybe even a temporal cold war." You sure have a way with words, my friend. "Temporal Cold War." Love it! What are the chances that something like that is going on *right now*? (We, of course, wouldn't know about it).

@ PCP, At the risk of committing the sacrilege of explaining a joke, you have seen ST:ENT, right?

"Maybe I misinterpreted a line or two? He seemed to have foreknowledge that the imminent rocket launch would have apocalyptic repercussions for Earth unless he stopped it. I inferred from this that he's a time traveler." It's unclear as I recall but my impression was Gary 7 and other humans were removed from Earth by some group (maybe the cat woman's people?) and trained from childhood as "agents" to effect changes on their home planet. It may be the aliens have foreknowledge of the future (which is heavily implied I guess) but I don't think Gary 7 or the other agents are actual time travellers.

@Jason R I thought about it some more and read the episode transcript, and yes, your take is correct. It's the foreknowledge Seven has that's most beguiling about this. But for alien influences, all possibilities apply! Thanks. Still a great concept. @Peter G I am working my way through all of Star Trek by airdate order, so no, I have not seen anything past Assingment: Earth except for the flowing exceptions, which I will address more fully when each comes up in my list: STAR TREK II -- Saw bits of it as a kid, but not the complete movie. STAR TREK IV -- Same as II STAR TREK GENERATIONS -- Saw on opening night with the Trekkie girl I was dating at the time. STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT -- Saw in the theater because "lets destroy some cyborg AI zombies" spoke to my inner spirit lord. STAR TREK the 2009 reboot STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS STAR TREK BEYOND Saw in all the theater with my family 1-2 sporadic Next Generation episodes, which I will review when they come up in my list Saw a scene or two of STAR TREK DISCOVERY and/or PRODIGY when my sons were watching but left the room so as not to be spoiled. So no... I wouldn't get a STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE joke, hahaha. (If indeed that's what you mean by ST:ENT). Always good to hear from you!

Ah ok, enjoy the watchthrough!!

@Peter G. Thanks! So far I'm enjoying the journey. I wouldn't call myself a fan yet but I'm open to all possibilities, and @Jammer, I'm *already* a fan of this site and thank you so much for it! This weekend I'll be pulling the family together to watch "Spock's Brain." My sons can't wait. Apparently, it's so bad that it's a hilarious hoot. But I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

"This weekend I'll be pulling the family together to watch "Spock's Brain." My sons can't wait. Apparently, it's so bad that it's a hilarious hoot. But I'll give it the benefit of the doubt." Seriously, try to forget its reputation when you watch it. I don't think it's justified.

Just watching this episode and Gary 7 confirms he is a human from the 20th century, so he is not a time traveller. But he recognizes Spock and clearly knows something about the 23rd century so as to state that his alien benefactors are unknown even in the future. So his alien benefactors are clearly time travellers or have some kind of awareness outside of time similar to the Organians who seemed to know the future or possibly the Traveller who also claimed to be from another time (sort of).

Yesterday, Feb. 16, 2024, the New York Times reported that Russia is developing an orbital nuclear warhead that , when deployed, will be able to destroy weather and communication satellites that are currently in orbit around the Earth. It will be the first nuclear weapon in space. Talk about life imitating art! I hope there is a Gary Seven on the way to save us from ourselves.

Yeah, not that I would ever question the New York Times but https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/russia-seen-highly-unlikely-put-nuclear-warhead-space-2024-02-15/ It is somewhat self explanatory. Putting an actual nuclear warhead outside of the borders of Russian Federation is a bad idea. Putting a nuclear warhead into space would be so extremely risky because of radiation alone. How would one even hit more than a very low number of strategically important satellites? I would assume that for example the US spreads out it's vital communication satellites as to make hitting enough to limit their counterstrike capabilities near impossible. They also certainly have backup systems. Most importantly, if you want to use a nuclear weapon to destroy satellites, then Russia could just use a ballistic missile, or a regular missile. Oh and then there is this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prlIhY3e04k

@Booming: Appreciate the information you provided about space and current weapons - thank you. I was more just pointing out how amazing it is that a science fiction series in the late 1960’s could envision equipment and issues that actually materialize (no pun intended) over 50 years later. Kind of like “The Ultimate Computer” and our current AI debates. I will turn age 70 later this year. Star Trek, in all its many adaptations, has accompanied me on my life journey since I was 13 and I still enjoy its relevance.

@Lorene That sounds nice. I'm happy that it inspired you in a joyful way for so many years. :)

Eastwest101

Views very much like Roddenberry smoked a few cones and watched a bit of James Bond and Dr Who for inspiration to do a back-door pilot. As Jammer says the premise is beyond stupid, the script risible, the pacing choppy, the stock footage lazy and boring etc and yet despite all its obvious flaws this is the most cold war/disaster movie and eerily prescient attempt at addressing the issues of militarization of space & mutually assured destruction/nuclear armageddon, computerization and even some counter-culture and hippie themes thrown in. Some of the early stuff in the episode was pretty good and entertaining once I had picked myself up off the floor about the utterly stupid premise but as Jammer says - once Seven was on the gantry the entire episode derailed itself so much that all it needed was the Fonz to literally jump the shark and it would have been perfect.... Did anyone else get a giggle out of Colonel Seven's exposition dump recalcitrant and snippy computer? The line about having the planet around for us to live on was a highlight for me. Its difficult to believe that this came out the same year as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Oddessey, that film immediately made Roddenberry and his crew of whacky juvenile writers pretty much demoralized, dated, stale and redundant overnight and looking like Gunsmoke with a couple of lizard suits/model spaceships and mini-skirts, they must have been so close to giving up even starting Season 3..... This had so much potential, and failed so spectacularly in logic/execution and a too convenient poorly signaled resolution, that its almost impossible to judge, I don't even know if it is an episode of Star Trek or not, but I can see why the episode has so many varied opinions. I bet this is a regular feature in many screenwriting courses as an example on what not to do.

Although I have been watching Star Trek off and on since I was 4 years old (my first experiences while sitting in my father's lap), I don't think I ever saw this episode till recently in 2024. I knew a tiny bit about it because at some point I had read that Teri Garr had a horrible experience with it as a job, having fought with the powers that be (Roddenberry, costume people) over the length of her skirt. She was not proud of the work she did and didn't include it when talking about her accomplishments. I didn't like the episode. Although I had not read that it was a pilot for a different show, that fact immediately became obvious on viewing. It's like a different TV show with different characters suddenly invade Star Trek, and the regulars we all love are demoted to bit players on the side. You find yourself asking, what is this? Well, whatever it was, I was annoyed and bored, and I think that must have been the consensus back in 1967 or whatever it was, because it looks like it didn't go anywhere. The world already had James Bond and Dr. Who. Maybe they should have tried a "Get Smart"-type episode where somebody had a phone in his shoe. I would like to add here, that though I love Star Trek (TOS), and have no problem at all with the cheesy plastic and paper mâché sets and somewhat campy acting, the extreme sexism is sometimes hard to take. The indignities some of the female actors are put through is painful. The dopey-dumb, wide-eyed characters they sometimes must portray are unlike virtually anybody I've ever known in real life. Of course, their clothes often cling to their bodies precariously, held in place by tape. (There must have been some mortifying wardrobe malfunctions on the set.) Roddenberry recognized that sex sells, but the assumption of the era was that only the men needed to be catered to, and clearly they wanted very young, very scantily clad, noticeably stupid or naive females to fantasize about, regardless of what planet they hailed from. The actress playing Janice Rand was raped by a producer, and it is not overly surprising as sexual assault is alluded to number of times over the course of the series, I guess because it was titillating. Into this comes Teri Garr, who did a poor job playing a too-cute-by-half nitwit--and she hated it. That is to her credit. Granted, Star Trek also broke ground for women simply insofar as women at times appear as officers, scientists, fellow adventurers. Nichelle Nichols alone helped raise Star Trek from exploitative dreck to something actually important. This was huge. I think though the sexists of the universe (all the little people out there is TVLand) had to be placated with a plethora of bimbos. I guess that was the trade-off. In the midst of all that, Star Trek at times soars to actual poetry. However, not in this episode.

I find it a bit ironic to blast the show for displaying women in tight clothing, when the men are also in tight clothing, and in particular they found every excuse to get the male star of the show to have his shirt torn or removed completely.

Peter: True. I am not claiming this aspect (the sexism) cannot meet a counter-argument. But I don't think the men associated with the show went through the same degree of exposure and humiliation. In that era, skin was the way to get ahead, and the show was always looking to insert some cheesecake. It was the era of the Playboy bunny. There might have been some desperation involved as the show never really did well at the time. Some of the costumes are positively absurd, especially when the alien women are supposedly warriors and they are wearing barely-there backless bikinis and high heels and the most airy expressions on their faces that they could manage. But I am constantly advising young friends to keep in mind, it was a different time, and it was actually PROGRESS at that point! Everything builds on the thing that came before, at least we hope so.

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Assignment: Earth (episode)

"Assignment: Earth" was the 55th episode of Star Trek: The Original Series , the 26th and final episode of the show's second season, first aired on 29 March 1968 . The episode was written by Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace MA , directed by Marc Daniels MA and novelized in Star Trek 3 by James Blish .

• 1.1.1 Episode characters
• 1.1.2 Novelization characters
• 1.2 Starships and vehicles
• 1.3 Locations
• 1.4 Races and cultures
• 1.5 States and organizations
• 1.6 Other references
• 2.1.1 Adaptations
• 3.1.1 Translations
• 3.2 External links

References [ ]

Characters [ ], episode characters [ ], novelization characters [ ], starships and vehicles [ ], locations [ ], races and cultures [ ], states and organizations [ ], other references [ ], appendices [ ], related media [ ].

"Assignment: Earth" was originally intended to be a back door pilot episode for a spin-off TV series from Star Trek: The Original Series . The series never made it into production but Gary Seven has subsequently been featured in numerous stories in other spin-off media. Assignment: Earth finally became a series of sorts in 2008 when IDW Publishing produced a comics miniseries inspired by the original idea of a TV series: Star Trek: Assignment: Earth , detailing the adventures of Gary Seven in the late 1960s and early 1970s .

Adaptations [ ]

Connections [ ]

Timeline [ ].

Translations [ ]

External links [ ].

• Assignment: Earth (episode) article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Assignment: Earth article at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.
• ↑ The character of Clifford Brent was not named in the episode but the same actor, wearing an officer 's Starfleet uniform , was addressed as Brent in TOS episode : " The Naked Time ". The same actor also played the character of Vinci .
• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 Odyssey class
• 3 Typhon class

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Published Aug 13, 2024

Striving to Create Our Own 'Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel'

The Next Generation's 'Darmok' has lessons to teach us, still.

StarTrek.com

In the second episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's fifth season, " Darmok ," the Enterprise is on-route to the El-Adrel system to make contact with a race called the Children of Tama. Although the race has been peaceful, a failure to communicate pervades — the Children of Tama's language is seemingly indecipherable.

"But are they truly incomprehensible," Picard asks the officers on the bridge as they set a course for the El-Adrel system. "In my experience, communication is a matter of patience, imagination. I would like to believe that these are qualities that we have in sufficient measure."

It is this attitude that separates the Enterprise crew from the " first contact " stories between European explorers and the native inhabitants of North and South Americas in the 15th and 16th Centuries here on Earth. Instead, Spanish Conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés entered these "new worlds" with the intent to conquer rather than communicate.

"Darmok"

At first, the Enterprise believes this may be the case with the Tamarians. After the Enterprise hails the Tamarian ship and the two captains attempt to communicate, Picard's mouth straightens into a line, his signature "this-is-not-going-well" expression. The Tamarian captain argues with his bridge crew, takes a dagger from one of his officers, and, now holding a weapon in each hand, addresses the  crew with, "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra." Abruptly, the two captains are beamed to the surface of the planet El-Adrel IV below the ships.

Unable to transport Captain Picard back due to a particle scattering field on the planet's ionosphere created by the Tamarian ship, Commander Riker asks Security Officer Worf his read of the situation. "It is a contest between champions, perhaps," Worf replies, channeling his Klingon sensibilities. In his culture, this is how an analogous situation would play out.

Meanwhile, the two captains struggle to understand one another on the plant. Picard thinks the Tamarian captain wants him to take the knife for a fight and keeps refusing it even as the Tamarian continue to insist he take it. Night falls and no progress has been made.

The first moment of clarity, when Picard begins to understand, happens when the Tamarian captain, seeing Picard cold that night on El-Adrel IV's surface, tosses Picard a flaming branch for warmth. He pairs the gift with the phrase, "Temba, his arms wide."

"Temba is a person," Picard realizes. "His arms wide because he's holding them apart, in generosity. In giving. In taking.”

It's a genuine moment of language exchange and acquisition, part of the Tamarian captain's plan all along — through shared experiences, the two races would be able to gain a common vocabulary. Picard's words serve as a metaphor for the process of language learning, and also hint at the key to understanding the Tamarian language — metaphor.

It is also a moment of charity — of gift-giving to aid Picard in an unfamiliar, foreign place. This scene is pivotal; isn't generosity just the culmination of the characteristics Picard referred to before — patience and imagination?

During the 1527 Narváez expedition, Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca spent eight years traveling across the U.S. Southwest, interacting with different native cultures and even acting as a faith healer and trader. His generosity and attitude toward the native populations was an outlier among the Spanish explorers who tended to be conquistadors, entering with the intent to claim, rather than explore. One of these seminal conquistadors was Hernán Cortés.

Shortly before de Vaca, Hernán Cortés marched into Mexico in 1519 and laid claim to everything. Instead of bothering to learn the language of the land, he used a shipwrecked priest and took an indigenous mistress to facilitate all of his orders.

The remaining Bridge crew, unable to understand the Tamarians but unwilling to throw out all attempts and take the forceful Cortés route, instead try to find ways to bring Picard back onboard the ship. The Tamarian vessel thwarts each of the Enterprise 's efforts because the crew understands "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra." They know what the captain is attempting to do.

Picard begins to understand the Tamarian captain is using allusions or references to communicate. The metaphors serve as analogous situations and insinuate the next move that should be made. The generosity of the Tamarian captain has facilitated the beginning of understanding. This comes to a head the following day after a common foe emerges in a creature native to El-Adrel IV.

Just as Picard figures out the Tamarian speaks by "citing example," the Enterprise attempts to beam out Picard, causing the Tamarian captain to face the beast alone. Subsequently, he is gravely injured. After Picard is released from the grasp of the teleportation beam, he cares for the wounded Tamarian who still works to teach Picard his language. As he lies dying, the Tamarian captain is more concerned at bridging the language barrier than conserving his energy. For him, the ability to communicate supersedes life itself.

He urges Picard to share a story from his culture.

Perceptive as always, Picard deduces "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" must be the myth of a friendship forged by two people poised as adversaries. He shares the 1800 BC Sumerian myth of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. In the Sumerian myth, the two enemies Gilgamesh and Enkidu come together to fight a common foe and become brothers in arms. When Enkidu is eventually killed in battle, Gilgamesh mourns. The parallels between not only the Tamarian myth but the current situation are not lost on either the Tamarian captain nor Picard.

An oft overlooked aspect of Earth mythologies are their commonalities. In the Gilgamesh epic, Gilgamesh encounters Atrahasis, the lone survivor of a great flood the gods inflicted to restart humanity. To survive, Atrahasis built a large ship. If this sounds familiar, it's a story that also appears in the Bible, of Noah and his ark. But it also appears in Greek mythology as Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, sailing in a chest or ark for nine days to survive a flood that destroyed humanity. Ancient Aztec myths told of a couple that survives a large deluge by hiding in a hollow vessel. In the Incan mythology of South America, a great flood Unu Pachakuti kills the first creations of their creator god after he has deemed them inadequate. His second attempt was humanity. One version of this tale has a man and woman escaping Unu Pachakuti by floating in a wooden box.

This is only one salient commonality among Earth mythologies and religions — a flood myth 'rebooting' humanity. Instead of using the commonalities among their cultures as a bridge to understanding, Spanish Conquistadors insisted their version of events were the gospel truth. Hernán Cortés forced the indigenous people he encountered to convert to his system of belief. What could have been a shortcut to understanding was instead used as a tool of oppression.

By the end of the "Darmok" episode, Picard returns to the Enterprise and is able to communicate to the Tamarian crew what happened on the planet's surface, including the demise of their captain. After making religious gestures akin to last rites, the Tamarian first officer says, "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel." The tale of Picard and the Tamarian captain crossing the language barrier is now part of the Children of Tama's lexicon.

Nearly all of Earth's religions and mythologies contain stories of male friendship, travels into the underworld, deluge myths, and analogous gods and goddesses. If cultures looked at their commonalities as bridges instead of focusing on the differences, a connection such as the one forged by the end of "Darmok" may be possible.

As Picard points out to Commander Riker at the episode's end, "Now the door is open between our peoples. That commitment meant more to [the Tamarian captain] than his own life." We too, here in the 21st Century, could stand to be that committed to communication across cultures.

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This article was originally published on September 30, 2021.

Brooke Knisley (she/her) teaches writing at Emerson College and has written for Playboy, VICE, McSweeney's, The Boston Globe Magazine, and others. She has balance issues. Find her on Twitter @BrookeKnisley.

Marvel and 'Star Wars' take note. 'Star Trek' is now Hollywood's ultimate shared universe

From 'Discovery' to "Strange New Worlds' via 'Lower Decks' and 'Prodigy', 'Star Trek' is leading the way.

Shared universes go back way further than Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and co sitting down for some post-Chitauri shawarma. Superheroes have been moonlighting in each other's comic books for decades, while Cheers regulars frequently paid Frasier a visit in Seattle. It wasn't until Marvel Studios launched the MCU ( Marvel Cinematic Universe ), however, that the concept started to gain serious mainstream traction. 

By incorporating the contrasting adventures of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Black Widow into one gigantic, overarching narrative, Marvel successfully blended cinematic spectacle with the "must-watch-every-episode" ethos of serialised TV. The MCU's famous end-credits stings also had the unexpected side-effect of convincing us all to stick around until the end of the closing titles of every movie, y'know, just in case. 

From a business point of view it's one of the shrewdest creative decisions ever made in Hollywood, a move that helped turn the MCU into the most lucrative franchise in history, while spawning an army of imitators. Some fell quickly by the wayside — Universal's planned Dark Universe didn't survive beyond its first release, "The Mummy" — while others (most notably DC's original answer to the MCU) simply felt tired in comparison. But with apologies to box-office behemoths Marvel, Star Wars and the Monsterverse home of Godzilla and King Kong, the most exciting shared universe of them all is currently located somewhere on the final frontier.

It's not quite "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" (sorry, Mr Spock), but " Star Trek "'s guiding principle since "Discovery" brought the franchise back to TV in 2017 has been variety. "Discovery" started out as an "Original Series" prequel, before warping off to the even-more-distant future of the 32nd century. That left a gap in the timeline for the less serialized voyages of a pre-Kirk Enterprise in " Strange New Worlds ". "Picard" picked up the story of the ageing Jean-Luc Picard two decades after "The Next Generation" crew's final voyage, while a pair of animated series — kids' show " Prodigy " and all-out comedy "Lower Decks" — were given freedom to take the most daring swings in "Trek" history. 

Throw upcoming spy adventure " Section 31 " and cadet-themed "Disco" spin-off " Starfleet Academy " into the mix, and it's clear that — beyond the obligatory warp drives, phasers and frequent violations of the Prime Directive — the main element unifying these very different series is their shared universe. Even their settings are far enough apart — geographically and chronologically — that there's little danger of storylines colliding in Spacedock. 

The contrast between the Alpha Quadrant and a certain galaxy far, far away is stark. Until " The Acolyte ", every canonical "Star Wars" movie and TV show had been set within a few generations of the Skywalker family tree. But even ignoring the limitations of that brief timeline, there's a creeping homogeneity to much of the saga's storytelling and dialogue. 

Scenes from "The Acolyte" (set around a century before "The Phantom Menace") feel interchangeable with moments in " Ahsoka " (several years after "Return of the Jedi"), while the powers-that-be at Skywalker Ranch seem more preoccupied with plugging holes in existing lore than telling stories for their own sake. What was the final episode of "The Acolyte" season one if not a prequel to the prequel trilogy?

"Star Wars" should be an exhilarating interstellar playground capable of supporting any story you can imagine, but it's increasingly constrained by strict rules that must, it seems, never be broken. "Star Wars" is calling out for its own "Lower Decks"-style comedy" , while the upcoming "'Goonies' in space" " Skeleton Crew " could be the kid-oriented launchpad that Prodigy has been for "Trek". "Star Wars" arguably needs both because right now, all that canon could easily feel daunting to anyone eager to take those precious first steps into a larger world.

Not that the current iterations of "Star Trek" deny the franchise's rich past. The glorious final season of "Picard" was a nostalgia-fest from start to finish, bringing back familiar friends and foes to give the "TNG" crew the send-off they deserved — if it's possible to replicate your cake and eat it, that season showed the way. "Prodigy" also goes big on the deep cuts, but crucially, it doesn't matter if you have no idea that the name of the USS Voyager-A's resident whale (Gillian) is a reference to "Star Trek IV". Or that a mention of the "dysfunctional" crew of the Cerritos is a callback to "Lower Decks". All of the in-jokes are simply window dressing holding the universe together, without excluding newcomers. 

That's the genius of the modern "Star Trek" universe, whose guiding lights clearly understand that expecting every viewer to be up-to-speed with the more than 900 episodes and 13 “Star Trek” movies in the back catalogue would be a surefire route to failure. The MCU and "Star Wars" lived charmed lives when they were built around a relatively small number of movies, but both franchises are now too vast and unwieldy to demand that even casual viewers become completists. 

Nobody should have to watch everything , so surely it's better for everyone if we accept that some people will set their targeting computers on "The Mandalorian" but avoid " Andor ", just as some "Discovery" fans can skip "Picard" without feeling they're missing out. 

Besides, we probably shouldn't be surprised that it's "Trek" leading the way, because this isn't Starfleet's first away mission to a shared universe. Back in the ’90s "The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine", "Voyager", four movies and even prequel series "Enterprise" shared characters and plotlines, to the extent that after hundreds of hours of TV, planet Earth was losing interest in shows that were becoming increasingly formulaic. Sound familiar? The franchise's latest overseers have boldly taken note — now "Star Wars", the MCU and the rest should follow in their warp trails.

"Discovery", "Picard", "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks" are all available to stream on Paramount Plus, along with "The Original Series", "The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine", "Voyager" and "Enterprise". "Prodigy" is available on Netflix.

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Richard's love affair with outer space started when he saw the original "Star Wars" on TV aged four, and he spent much of the ’90s watching "Star Trek”, "Babylon 5” and “The X-Files" with his mum. After studying physics at university, he became a journalist, swapped science fact for science fiction, and hit the jackpot when he joined the team at SFX, the UK's biggest sci-fi and fantasy magazine. He liked it so much he stayed there for 12 years, four of them as editor. 

He's since gone freelance and passes his time writing about "Star Wars", "Star Trek" and superheroes for the likes of SFX, Total Film, TechRadar and GamesRadar+. He has met five Doctors, two Starfleet captains and one Luke Skywalker, and once sat in the cockpit of "Red Dwarf"'s Starbug.  

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• Mars Tafts I have been a Star Trek fan since 1966 and even I don't believe this article. Reply
• Amin Abakery Is this some kind of Joke? Paramount did worse to Star Trek than they did to Halo, than Disney ever did to Star Wars, its an insult not just to science but to morality and human decency. I used to grow up watching star trek, proud that it was written by scientists and good people like her. Now it seems to be written by your average twitter user. With an adulterer Spock and mushroom drive spinning ships. Reply
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‘Star Trek’ Mystery Solved – Isis Actress From “Assignment: Earth” Identified

| March 12, 2019 | By: Anthony Pascale 50 comments so far

Once again our friends at Roddenberry Entertainment have unearthed a piece of Star Trek history. Today’s episode of Larry Nemecek’s The Trek Files solves a casting mystery that dates back to Star Trek: The Original Series .

A Star Trek mystery

One of the memorable performers from the second season finale of  Star Trek: The Original series had no lines and shared billing with a cat, but is still enduring to this day. That season finale, titled “Assignment: Earth,” was a sort of backdoor pilot from Gene Roddenberry as a backup plan in case  Star Trek didn’t get a third season. It was a time travel show, with the Enterprise traveling back to 1968, the year the second season was on the air. The focus of the episode was on the mysterious character Gary Seven, trained by aliens to save the Earth from itself. Gary’s constant companion was a shapeshifting pet cat named Isis. While Isis seemed to speak telepathically with Gary Seven, the actress who played Isis in her human form never spoke. As such, she was one of many extras who was never credited, leaving her identity a bit of a mystery.

Kirk, Gary Seven and his cat Isis in “Assignment: Earth”

For years Playboy pinup and actress Victoria Vetri was associated with the role, even garnering her a page on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki. TrekMovie even did an article about Vetri back in 2010 when she ran into some legal trouble. However, in 2018 the actress and model revealed she was never part of Star Trek , and her credit was subsequently  removed from Memory Alpha , leaving the identity of the performer as “unknown.”  Star Trek history knew the name of one of the cats who played Isis (Sambo), but the name of the human actress remained a mystery. Until today.

Isis in her human form in “Assignment: Earth”

Isis Identified

Combing through Gene Roddenberry’s archive of documents from  Star Trek: The Original Series , the team from The Trek Files  came upon documents for “Assignment: Earth.” These documents regarding production details for the episode could finally solve this mystery of the Isis actress. The standard actors call sheet for  January 5th – the one day Isis was on set in her human form – includes a listing for a performer to be on set 10:00 AM, but only lists that performer as “1 Female (New)” under “Atmosphere and Standins.”

Actor call sheet for “Assignment: Earth” doesn’t give the name for the “new” actress due on set at 10:00 am

However, the “Extra Talent Call Sheet” for that day was the key. Along with other familiar “Standing” background extra actors such as Eddie Paskey , there is a listing for “1 Cat Girl” to be on set at 10:00 AM. Importantly, it includes the performer’s name as April Tatro. Tatro herself was contacted by The Trek Files and confirmed she played Isis in human form for “Assignment: Earth.” According to the sheet, Tatro was budgeted to be paid the standard rate for all the extras of $29.15 for the day, plus the cost for time for being fitted with her costume and body makeup. An additional production report unearthed by The Trek Files  shows her adjusted rate of $84.51.

Extra Call Sheet for “Assignment Earth” identifies actress who played Isis as April Tatro

April Tatro worked mostly as a contortionist , performing on stage and on television. Just months after her work on Star Trek she appeared again on NBC, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson . Tatro also appeared on Laugh-In,   Fernwood Tonight and The Gong Show . Her career on television ran through to 2001, appearing again as a contortionist on an episode of  Malcolm in the Middle. 

April Tatro in a 1997 episode of the sitcom Ellen

Isis actress April Tatro interviewed by Trek Files

Larry Nemecek had a chance to speak to April Tatro about her time working on Star Trek’s  “Assignment: Earth” on the episode of The Trek Files released today. Nemecek tells TrekMovie: “This week’s episode is one of those  that makes the whole concept of The Trek Files worthwhile. We’re going to be solving a Star Trek mystery.”

Larry Nemecek with April Tatro (The Trek Files)

On the podcast, Tatro talked about her fitting for her rather skimpy costume, saying, “I’d never had so much attention in all my life.” Speaking of attention, Tatro also reveals that Star Trek star William Shatner asked her out. Even though she was engaged to be married in just two weeks, she accepted the offer and went out to lunch with Shatner.

Get all the details by listening to the podcast available on iTunes , or you can warp on over to podcasts.roddenberry.com .

You can download the “Assignment: Earth” production documents on Google Drive . For more on April Tatro in “Assignment: Earth” and other Trek Files head on over to the program’s hub on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/TheTrekFiles/posts/1160454300795482?__xts__[0]=68.ARCOlXil2QMrfyaDUduPfK_bOIGeEgtr2uOMjEkRnVUQGdNKOeJLJ4uJAEI274s9z-Id1wIHUG_QjP3q_koO392RjThcoBezZT3cXLSgbQo9Q9zzStM69KXlQFSNxN4KR6dtBPRsGjptIp9k5nKAiEEtBEX7qIVlgvuLTDCTXdcTVYgiBVFq1voodX47e9nM10_xXSyZbog3Xc1SeLxpN6SO3LgY-xyRGi6H90aA2yk_KerqmivkQo6f6ohIWfR_tHMavxCrGNRozXUksDRU6pQMLT5WZ6lSIKdHYv2SrUvS_xeYZTpUqf6M2xWZbLI7ikfUEcUkYOS9oS8cPTsfe7og5GdwaOebB6yW8-_4N2YVHA4TUQg4zeeYIGwfn6asii1EgHWU8dXVG2ELDn5gW1s2EkyUOYyOrrMLSjSny_H5EI0hPrqf53gx9wiXo392QXI66vYFIJgt_IXNn2dA&__tn__=-R

Keep up with all our coverage of Star Trek history at TrekMovie.com .

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“Tatro also reveals that Star Trek star William Shatner asked her out. Even though she was engaged to be married in just two weeks, she accepted the offer and went out to lunch with Shatner.”

Of course, Shatner was married as well. But lunch seems innocent.

His marriage was already over at that point; papers may not have been yet been signed, but it was done.

WOW WOW WOW! What an incredible find. Larry Nemecek is truly the Jeffrey Burton Russell of Trekdom.

That is really good.

Very neat trivia. Shatner, you Rascal! :)

Oh, cool! It’s so amazing that we’re still learning new things about TOS after all the time. I mean, it’s not as if there haven’t been innumerable books and articles published about the show already. :-)

Corylea TOS has a gold mine of information we don’t know yet.

That is a incredibly cool trivia! What a neat find! It’s stuff like this that makes me proud to be a Trek fan, that we love the show so much and want to know every possible bit of information about it. I should start to listen to Larry’s podcast!

What a cool bit of trivia. Good work Detective Nemecek.

So odd that this has taken this long to come out. For years I fought the notion that it was Victoria Vetri. I never understood that. Didn’t look like her to me.

Again, a really cool bit of trivia to know here.

And now that I’ve seen her contortionist video it seems they cast well….an actress as, or more, flexible than a cat.

What ever happened to starships time traveling to the past all willy nilly for “historical research” anyway?

So there was some inner Kirk in Shatner himself :))

He did this for a lot of the women. The bellydancer from Wolf in the Fold has an account in her book of her being shocked when he came to pick her up without his toupee. He was married as well.

What a great find. Great story!

Oh. Pondering if the aliens who sent Gary Seven could be the Red Angels in Discovery? Or if there’s some connection between those aliens and the ones behind the Red Angels.

Maybe Gary Seven is the Red Angel!

spock said the red angel was human and female

Larry, thanks for this Trek Files episode that reveals the true identity of Isis. I see the article mentions that in 2018 Victoria Vetri denied being Isis. I would like to point out that way back in 2012, I revealed that Vetri was not Isis in my self-published comic, 3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics, issue 3. I corresponded with her while she was in prison! I tried to let the Trek world know, but no one would listen! Anyway, thanks for the scoop! Mike Fisher Instagram: galacticfishproductions

What a great discovery, especially since “Assignment: Earth” is one of my favorite episodes! Listening to the podcast, Miss Tatro sounds like such a kind person. :}

Any relation to the late Richard Tatro, who played Norman in “I, Mudd?”

The same question occurred to me. Can somebody call her back and ask her?

Or composer Duane Tatro, who scored episodes of Quinn Martin’s superb ’60s TV series, THE INVADERS?

This is a strange synchronicity. I was just thinking about Gary Seven yesterday. I had an image of the British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor playing him on the new Philippa georgiou section 31 series. Interesting coincidence.

His semblance to Robert Lansing is indeed quite uncanny. :P

This is amazing — what a find!

You know there are whole pages dedicated to the watch Gary Seven wore (evidently was a Rolex – I’d never even noticed or thought about it) http://www.rolexmagazine.com/2008/11/start-trek-rolex-gmt-master-at-nasa.html https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=83222 http://rolexdiamond.blogspot.com/2011/07/ https://forums.watchuseek.com/f2/watches-star-trek-4674575-2.html

There’s even a crazy guy who wrote and recorded music and put together opening credits for what an Assignment: Earth show might have been like…. http://supervisor194.com/

All forms of minutia the internet and fandom feed into and off of, but I’m still very surprised this bit of information never came out.

Fascinating!

All those wasted years she could have been on the convention circuit! She’s a legit Star Trek legend!

I was thinking that. Hopefully she’ll get a lot of bookings now.

Did she not realize what a big deal this is? Who knows, maybe not. She has to have known what Star Trek became.

What a neat story. She looks good today.

Shatner took her to lunch? I wonder if that worked out to be an entry for his captain’s log!

What, nobody has a comment for my double entendre??

oooooh, nasty, man! How much you wanna bet he buttered her muffin at lunch?

Very cool. Nice detective work, Roddenberry Entertainment.

She really was perfect for that role…such supernatural feline grace ! Old Cat-Man .

You call that a skimpy outfit? Even with the stricter rules of the times, there were women on Star Trek who wore more revealing costumes than that.

What a great story! She looks wonderful today and as many said here, it’s nice to learn new things about TOS all these years later. The question that was never answered: Is she a woman, is she a cat, ot a shapeshifter? GREAT article, thanks :)

Interesting bit of Trek hisstory. I wonder why there was so much pussy-footing around this casting issue for years. Though, it was classy of Tatro not to pounce on the false attribution.

I see what you did there :)

Oh come on., She’s didn’t want to come off like a clawed.

Gary Seven is one of the intriguing corners of TOS that has never been explored on screen beyond the one episode. I wonder if the Discovery team is sniffing around story possibilities for ol’ Gary and Isis.

I hope not.

I would have felt that way too until I saw how elegantly they revisited The Cage. Probably they won’t touch Gary Seven as he would not have shown up in the Discovery timeline yet.

TOS, Fernwood tonight AND the Gong Show!

sorry that english not my first language.

my feeling are, as usual, mr shatner was a very naughty rascal!

Now identified, instant elevation to iconic role.

Yep….

https://www.vidoevo.com/video/MXlwbDVWcWuRpWVhlZEU/april-tatro-show My friend, Jim found this video on YouTube of April Tatro performing on the Gong Show. And as Chuck Barris notes, she’s from my home town of Astoria, Oregon.

dang she missed out on so many star trek conventions…

I’m surprised that Marc Cushman missed that detail when he researched his very thorough and complete ‘These Are The Voyages’ volumes.

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Whether related to the show or the man, this is the place for all things PICARD!

[s2] Assignment Earth- A Rio's Spin off

I was thinking that maybe they are setting up a spin off with Rios that is based off the premise of Assignment earth. They would have a good working cast Adam Soong as a villain. Guinan as an advisor, Kori as his watcher/supervisor. With both the callback to the episode Assignment earth and that they set in 2024 would could be the airdate of the spinoff, if its lauches after Picard ends. I think its likely.

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Planetary data [ ]

"The Blue Marble"

Earth was a spheroid terrestrial planet with a circumference of 24,874 miles (40,075 kilometers ), a mass of 5.98 e24 ×10 24 kilograms and a mean density of 5.517. Its atmosphere had an average temperature of 75 °F (24 °C) and consisted of 78% nitrogen , 21% oxygen , and smaller percentages of krypton , neon , and argon . ( TOS : " Miri ", " Metamorphosis ", " Bread and Circuses ")

The Earth system consisted of a large natural satellite named Luna . ( TOS : " The Changeling ")

Location [ ]

Earth as seen from Luna

Earth's orbit around its sun , Sol , measured more than two hundred million kilometers in diameter. ( TNG : " Relics ") Earth was located in the Alpha Quadrant , less than ninety light years from the boundary to the Beta Quadrant . ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " Two Days and Two Nights "; Star Trek Into Darkness production art ) It was a little over sixteen light years away from the planet Vulcan, less than ninety light years away from the Klingon homeworld , and approximately ninety light years away from Risa . ( ENT : " Two Days and Two Nights ", " Home ")

In "Two Days and Two Nights", the NX-class Enterprise is depicted as setting a milestone several months after a mission to the Klingon homeworld, Qo'noS (visited by the ship in ENT pilot episode " Broken Bow "), by becoming the first Earth ship to travel ninety light years away from the Sol system . In Star Trek Into Darkness , the location of Sector 001 was labeled on a map displayed on a powerwall in the offices of Admirals Alexander Marcus and Christopher Pike . Lastly, Qo'noS was identified as a Beta Quadrant planet.

According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia , Earth marked the border between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. A specific display graphic on a PADD in Star Trek: Insurrection seems to confirm this. [1] [2] Canonical lines of dialogue in Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , however, firmly establish that Earth was located on the Alpha Quadrant side of the border. In his reference book Star Trek: Star Charts (p. 19), Star Trek production artist and designer Geoffrey Mandel wrote, " While the Sol system is divided equally between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, it is considered to be a part of the Alpha Quadrant. " The star chart seen in the Star Trek: Discovery episode " The War Without, The War Within " sets Earth at some distance from the border, while the star chart seen in the Star Trek: Picard episode " Maps and Legends " sets Earth on the border.

In the late 19th century , the orbit of Earth was depicted on a German map of the inner system. ( Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits )

In 2024 , the position and orbital path of Earth were depicted on a map of the Solar System, which was seen at the gala held for the Europa Mission astronauts . ( PIC : " Two of One ")

In 2254 , the orbit of Earth was depicted on a map of the inner system, which was stored in the USS Enterprise library computer . This was one of multiple records that were scanned by the Talosians in 2254. ( TOS : " The Cage " production art )

In 2259 , the location of this planet was labeled on a stellar cartography chart that was seen on the USS Enterprise 's ready room viewscreen . As the capital planet of the Federation, it was represented by the Starfleet Command seal colored blue . ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ", " A Quality of Mercy ")

In 2267 , the orbit of Earth was depicted on "Chart 14A: The Sol System", which was stored in the Enterprise library computer. This chart was scanned by the probe Nomad in auxiliary control . ( TOS : " The Changeling " production art )

The planet's location was labeled in a Federation star chart that was in Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy 's office at Starfleet Headquarters in 2399 and on the bridge of the USS Titan -A in 2401 . Earth was in or near to Federation space . ( PIC : " Maps and Legends ", " The Next Generation ", " Disengage ")

In 2401, this planet's position was labeled on a star chart used by Captain William T. Riker during his attempt at finding the last known location of the SS Eleos XII . ( PIC : " The Next Generation ")

In 3189 , the location of Earth was denoted on a holographic star chart of the galaxy at Federation Headquarters . ( DIS : " Die Trying ")

In 3190 , the location of Earth was labeled on a star chart used by Commander Paul Stamets for tracking the movement of the Dark Matter Anomaly through the galaxy . ( DIS : " The Examples ")

A star chart seen in TNG : " The Naked Now ", " The Last Outpost ", " Datalore ", and " Conspiracy " – naming stars within twenty light years of Sol – was drawn by Rick Sternbach for the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology in the late 1970s. Found on page 77, this chart showed Earth commercial and exploration routes after the use of warp drive began. ( For more information, see Federation star charts#LCARS star charts ) "The Explored Galaxy" star chart was first seen, chronologically, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , set in 2293 . It was also seen in several Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes set in the 24th century , from the year 2364 to 2370 . ( For more information, see Federation star charts#"The Explored Galaxy" )

History [ ]

Around 4.5 billion years ago , ancient humanoids seeded many worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy , including Earth, with a DNA code to guide evolution to a form resembling their own . Approximately 3.5 billion years ago , the first life on Earth was formed from a group of amino acids that combined to form the first proteins . ( TNG : " The Chase ", " All Good Things... ") Nonetheless, according to James T. Kirk , three hundred million years ago life had not yet emerged on Earth. ( TAS : " Beyond the Farthest Star ")

According to current real-world science, there is evidence that suggests life took hold on Earth already at least between 3.8 and 4.1 billion years ago [3] and flourished in the oceans by at least 3.7  billion years ago. [4] In light of the seeding it is also worth noting that the first appearance of DNA might have postdated the appearance of life.

In the early 21st century, a small group of Human scientists had formed a school of thought that believed Earth's lifeforms originated from Mars . They believed that life was carried from one world to another on rocks blasted off into space by comet or asteroid impacts. This idea was known as lithopanspermia . ( PIC : " Two of One ")

Over four hundred million years ago, in the Devonian period, the genus Eryops was the last common ancestor of both warm-blooded and cold-blooded lifeforms . ( VOY : " Distant Origin ")

According to real-word science, Eryops lived some one hundred million years later during the Permian period.

Approximately sixty-five million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, a comet collided with the planet Earth. This mass extinction event resulted in the death of many reptilian lifeforms. One of the surviving lifeforms belonged to the genus Hadrosaur , which evolved into the Voth. The Voth eventually left Earth, leaving no apparent trace of their civilization , and colonized a world in the Delta Quadrant . Around the same time, mammals rose to prominence on the land and in the sea, eventually leading species like Humans and Humpback whales , respectively. Humans and their immediate ancestors shared the basic humanoid appearance, which may be the result of genetic seeding that occurred long ago, by the first sentient species to inhabit the galaxy. ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ; TNG : " The Chase "; VOY : " Distant Origin "; ENT : " Azati Prime ")

To portray a primordial Earth in "All Good Things…", Dan Curry drew a concept sketch of the landscape. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission , p. 213) The depiction of the prehistoric Earth ultimately consisted of multiple elements. One of these was a small set, on which live-action footage of the actors was filmed. The set contained a pool of water and some miniature cliffs. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 25/26, No. 6/1, p. 63) The set was on Paramount Stage 18 . ( Information from call sheets ) The establishing shot of the planet in its primordial stages was created mainly through a foreground miniature constructed by Tony Doublin , working from photographs of the set that the actors were filmed on. Another element was ocean waves, filmed at Laguna Beach by Dan Curry along with fellow visual effects artists Joe Bauer and David Stipes . Apart from the live-action set, everything in the shot of the primordial Earth was created by Curry, who digitally combined, manipulated and blended the many separate elements, yet another of which was lava . ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 25/26, No. 6/1, p. 63) Twenty years later, Roger Lay, Jr. found the "All Good Things…" storyboards Curry had created and discovered that the storyboard of the establishing shot of Earth was virtually identical to the same view of the planet in the televised version. Brannon Braga once commented that, of all the scenes in "All Good Things…", he likely remembered the primordial Earth scene most vividly. Both he and Ronald D. Moore commented the establishing shot of the planet is "not bad." Moore went on to remark, " That's a classic Star Trek look, too. The composition of that, from the cave to the sky piece and the foreground element, that is sort of Trek and the way Trek 's ascetic was. " ( All Good Things (Blu-ray) audio commentary )

Earth produced several major religions , including Christianity , Judaism , Islam , Hinduism , Buddhism , Shinto , and Wicca . Some of these religions, in one form or the other, survived into the 23rd and 24th centuries . ( TOS : " Balance of Terror "; DS9 : " Penumbra "; VOY : " The Killing Game ")

In the 17th century , scientist Galileo Galilei taught the masses that Earth moved around the sun and not the opposite way. For these teachings, he was tried and convicted of heresy by an inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church , and his books were burned. ( DS9 : " In the Hands of the Prophets ")

Earth was also visited, observed, and occasionally manipulated during its history, prior to official First Contact by Vulcans . One of the earliest extraterrestrial visits was by a race known as the Sky Spirits , originally native to the Delta Quadrant. These visits also included those by an ancient humanoid species, the Preservers , descendants of Humans abducted around 4000 BC , and Vulcans themselves, although this was disputed, as there was no proof or evidence offered by the Vulcan High Command . The Humpback whales were being observed by an unknown entity who, upon loss of contact with the species, sent a probe to investigate the absence of whale song . In the 19th century , a race called the Skagarans abducted several thousand Humans from the American West and then used them as slave labor. The El-Aurian Guinan also stayed discreetly on Earth. In the 1930s , the Briori visited Earth and abducted several individuals , including famous pilot Amelia Earhart . In 1947 , three Ferengi inadvertantly crash landed near Roswell , New Mexico . In the 1950s , a team of Vulcan explorers were temporarily stranded on Earth. ( TOS : " Assignment: Earth ", " The Paradise Syndrome "; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ; TNG : " The Chase "; TNG : " Time's Arrow "; ENT : " Carbon Creek "; VOY : " The 37's "; VOY : " Tattoo ")

Earth in 1969

From the mid- 20th century onward, manned and unmanned spacecraft were launched from either the surface or the orbit of Earth. Several prominent craft that were launched from Earth include Apollo 11 , Nomad , Phoenix , Friendship 1 , Enterprise , and the USS Enterprise . ( TOS : " The Cage ", " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", " The Changeling "; Star Trek: First Contact ; VOY : " Friendship One ")

In 2026, World War 3 fully broke out which caused the eradication of 600,000 animal and plant species and 30% of Earth's Human population. The war decimated Earth causing nuclear winters, the destruction of most of Earth's major cities and natural climate. Radio Isotopes from nuclear weapons were ejected into the atmosphere exposing all life remaining after the war to dangerous radiation. ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ")

After the war ended in 2053, Humanity slowly began to rebuild civilization and the planet, eliminating sickness, hunger, poverty, and despair within two generations. Earth was mostly restored by the 22nd century as the United Earth Government formed, however there were still some lingering effects from the post atomic horror. ( Star Trek: Enterprise )

By the 23rd century, Earth had been completely restored and even had climate control systems that maintained the weather in certain places, preventing tornados and destructive weather. Some area on Earth such as deserts were also terraformed, allowing people to live there. One notable person to grow up in this kind of environment was Christopher Pike. ( TOS : " The Cage ")

Starting in the 22nd century and continuing on into the 24th, there were major construction projects on the surface and in orbit of Earth that supported the burgeoning expansion of Humans into space. Some of these projects were the Warp Five Complex , the San Francisco Fleet Yards , Spacedock One , and Earth Station McKinley . ( ENT : " Broken Bow "; TOS : " Where No Man Has Gone Before "; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ; TNG : " Family ")

In 2063 , with the successful flight of the Phoenix , Earth became warp-capable . ( Star Trek: First Contact ; ENT : " Broken Bow "; VOY : " Year of Hell ", " Relativity ", " Homestead ")

Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual stipulated that at least two other species of marine mammals ( Pacific bottlenose dolphins and Takaya's whales ) served on board Galaxy -class class starships as either crew or civilian navigation consultants. This was supported in canon by a hatchway label, seen in " We'll Always Have Paris ", that read "Tursiops Crew Facility".

According to Daniels , while Earth still existed in the 31st century , it did not exist in the same way as it was defined nine hundred years before. ( ENT : " Cold Front ")

Following the Burn in the 31st century , Starfleet became concerned about security on Earth and ultimately moved Starfleet Headquarters off the planet. Earth subsequently seceded from the Federation, and remained independent – even from other worlds in the Sol system such as Titan – as of 3189 . ( DIS : " People of Earth ")

The following year when the Federation kept Earth from being destroyed by a Dark Matter Anomaly , Earth decided to rejoin the Federation, marking the return of another founding world of the Federation. ( DIS : " Coming Home ")

Attacks on Earth [ ]

During its long history, the existence of the planet has been threatened by both natural disasters and actions of alien intelligence.

Ronald D. Moore noticed a trend in Star Trek films in general, which was that many of the films portrayed Earth as being endangered. [5] Chris Black expressed that it's typically difficult to tell such huge story arcs – where the fate of the Earth (or even the universe) was at stake – as they challenged the writers to personalize the plot for the characters involved. (" The Forgotten " audio commentary , ENT Season 3 Blu-ray special features)

• In 2153 , Earth was preemptively attacked by the Xindi , who were unwittingly helping a faction fighting the Temporal Cold War . Using a smaller, prototype version of the planned Xindi weapon , the weapon destroyed a section of the planet stretching from Florida to Venezuela , killing seven million people. This event began what was later known as the Xindi crisis . ( ENT : " The Expanse ")

The Xindi's preemptive strike against Earth was inspired by the September 11 attacks . The idea of endangering Earth with the Xindi weapon came about after Executive Producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga noticed that two of the most popular Star Trek films , only ten of which had been created by that time, involved efforts to save Earth. The two films were Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek: First Contact . ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 107 , p. 6) Having Earth be threatened was one of the first parts of the season-long Xindi story arc which, at the start of Star Trek: Enterprise 's third season , Braga and Berman envisaged for the rest of that season. (" The Forgotten " audio commentary , ENT Season 3 Blu-ray )

• On February 14th of 2154 , a working version of the Xindi weapon entered Earth orbit to destroy the planet. The weapon was destroyed by Captain Jonathan Archer before it could complete its task. This marked the end of the Xindi crisis. ( ENT : " Zero Hour ")
• In 2155 , Terra Prime – under the command of John Frederick Paxton – used the verteron array on Mars to attack Starfleet Headquarters . Thanks to the efforts of Commander Charles Tucker III , the array fired harmlessly into the San Francisco Bay . ( ENT : " Terra Prime ")
• In 2257 , Earth was the intended target of a Klingon fleet during the Federation-Klingon War , shortly after the fall of Starbase 1 . This attack was aborted shortly before it could begin after L'Rell , the new leader of the Klingon High Council , ordered a cease fire . ( DIS : " Will You Take My Hand? ")
• In the 2270s , a massive machine lifeform called V'ger threatened to destroy all biological life on Earth, if its demands were not met. The attack was narrowly averted by the crew of the USS Enterprise . ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture )
• In 2286 , an alien probe of unknown origin wreaked ecological havoc while trying to contact an extinct species of Humpback whale by transmitting massive amounts of energy into Earth's oceans and unintentionally caused them to begin evaporating. The threat was ended when the former crew of the USS Enterprise , having used a stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey to travel back in time to before the species' extinction , returned to the present with two Humpbacks; after the two whales gave a response to the probe, it departed the Solar System with little, if any, real harm done to the planet. ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )
• In 2367 , a Borg cube entered Earth orbit following the Battle of Wolf 359 with the intention of assimilating the planet and its population . It was destroyed by the USS Enterprise -D before it could attack the planet. ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II ")
• In 2373 , a second Borg cube attacked Earth and, after a devastating battle , was destroyed in orbit by a Starfleet armada . As the cube exploded, a Borg sphere escaped from within the craft and subsequently traveled into the past, where its complement of Borg drones attempted to prevent Humanity's First Contact with Vulcans in 2063 . ( Star Trek: First Contact )
• In 2375 , the Borg decided to create another strategy, since all direct assaults on Earth had failed, thus far. They planned to detonate a biogenic charge in Earth's atmosphere , infecting all lifeforms with a nanoprobe virus , triggering a gradual assimilation . According to the Borg Queen , half the population would be drones before the effects were discovered. ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ")

It is uncertain whether this plan was ever attempted. According to the non- canon novelization of " Endgame ", the nanoprobe virus was brought to Earth and rapidly infected the population.

Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, damaged after a Breen attack

• Also in 2375 , the Breen Confederacy attacked Earth in a surprise attack on Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco during the Dominion War . ( DS9 : " The Changing Face of Evil ")
• In 2379 , Praetor Shinzon attempted to destroy all life on Earth using a thalaron weapon built into the Reman warbird Scimitar . The Scimitar was destroyed by the USS Enterprise -E , Valdore , and an unidentified Valdore -type warbird in the Battle in the Bassen Rift . ( Star Trek Nemesis )
• On Frontier Day in 2401 , the Borg Queen – aided by a band of rogue Changelings led by Vadic – remotely assimilated much of Starfleet and, after disabling Sol Station in orbit, attempted to destroy Earth's population centres via orbital bombardment . The bombardment was narrowly averted by the crew of the rebuilt Enterprise -D, who destroyed the Borg Queen's cube and returned the fleet to Federation control. ( PIC : " Vox ", " The Last Generation ")
• By 3189 , Earth had left the United Federation of Planets and was under the protection of the United Earth Defense Force . Raiders like Wen made several attacks on the planet for supplies like dilithium . The tensions were settled by Captain Saru and Commander Michael Burnham of the USS Discovery . ( DIS : " People of Earth ")
• In 3190 , Earth and Ni’Var found itself under attack by the Dark Matter Anomaly , showered by debris caused by its actions. The Federation, lead by Admiral Charles Vance , initiated an evacuation of the planet to save those they could. The Discovery and the team of diplomats were able to convince the DMA’s creators, Unknown Species 10-C , to shut down the anomaly, sparing the planets. As thanks, Earth moved to rejoin the Federation in gratitude. ( DIS : " Coming Home ")

Climate and geography [ ]

A map of Earth in the 24th century

Earth was a class M world by planetary classification standards. ( TOS : " Return to Tomorrow "; TNG : " Justice ") It had just about every ecosystem one could think of. ( VOY : " Hope and Fear ") These included ice caps and deserts . There were a number of continents .

By the 24th century , Humans had installed a Weather Modification Net to alter the natural weather patterns , including dissipating destructive weather phenomena such as tornadoes . ( TNG : " True Q ")

Once Humans began leaving Earth in the 20th century, they photographed and drew pictures of the planet for various reasons. These pictures were then displayed in homes, offices, and recreation facilities. The earliest images of Earth were from the space agencies which sent Humans into space. These included official mission photos and insignia. Many of these images were preserved into the 22nd century and beyond. ( TOS : " The Cage "; ENT : " First Flight ")

Alternate timelines and universes [ ]

Earth in an alternate timeline where an anti-time eruption fills the sky

In 2370 , an alternate past was created for Earth by the anti-time eruption , where 3.5 billion years ago , amino acids never combined with the first proteins , and life never formed on the planet. This was how the Q Continuum fulfilled its judgment to deny Humans existence. ( TNG : " All Good Things... ")

Accidental time travel from 2371 led to the premature death of Gabriel Bell in 2024 . An altered future was created where the more inhumane wars of the 21st century left Earth a pre-warp civilization that never even expanded to the solar system. Consequently, the Romulan Star Empire had expanded to include Alpha Centauri . ( DS9 : " Past Tense, Part I ", " Past Tense, Part II ")

Dystopian Earths [ ]

In two alternate timelines, the history of Earth was significantly altered when Nazi Germany was not defeated in World War II . In one, Doctor McCoy saved the life of Edith Keeler in 1930 . Keeler went on to form a massive pacifist movement in America, delaying the country's entry into World War II, allowing Nazi Germany time to develop the A-bomb first and take over the world. ( TOS : " The City on the Edge of Forever ")

Nazi Territory in North America

In another alternate timeline, Lenin was assassinated in 1916 , preventing Russia from turning to communism . This allowed Adolf Hitler to concentrate his war effort on the West. With assistance from the Na'kuhl , France and England were conquered before the American East Coast by 1944 . ( ENT : " Storm Front ", " Storm Front, Part II ")

Borg-assimilated Earth

In an alternate timeline, the Borg were successful at preventing First Contact in 2063 and assimilated the Earth. In 2373 , the assimilated Earth had an atmosphere containing high concentrations of methane , carbon monoxide , and fluorine . It had a population of approximately nine billion Borg drones . ( Star Trek: First Contact )

See below for background information .

Earth under the Confederation

In an alternate timeline created by Q preventing Renée Picard from joining the Europa Mission in 2024 , Earth became united under a totalitarian government called the Confederation of Earth . With Picard having never made a discovery on Io that allowed Humanity to repair the damage they had caused to Earth's environment, the Confederation resorted to using solar shields to stave off ecological collapse on the planet. By the dawn of the 25th century , the Confederation had enslaved the Romulans and waged brutal wars against alien species throughout the galaxy. ( PIC : " Penance ", " Mercy ")

Devastated Earths [ ]

In 2257 , Spock was shown a possible future where Earth, as well as all other life-bearing worlds, were devastated by Control . Gabrielle Burnham 's mission logs also mention this destruction which Gabrielle had witnessed for herself. ( DIS : " If Memory Serves ", " Perpetual Infinity ")

Earth devastated in the 31st century

When the temporal agent Daniels was instructed to remove Jonathan Archer from the timeline in 2152 and bring him to the 31st century , an alternate future was created where the United Federation of Planets was never formed and the planet where Daniels had come from was almost completely destroyed. ( ENT : " Shockwave ", " Shockwave, Part II ")

In the review reference book Beyond the Final Frontier (p. 370), Mark Jones and Lance Parkin stated that the ruined planet was "deliberately evocative of Ground Zero at the World Trade Centre."

To portray the devastated planet, ruined city vistas and a vast library were created in CGI by Eden FX . The methods they employed for this assignment included the creation and use of digital set extensions. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 106 , p. 45)

Earth, moments before exploding

The Earth was completely destroyed in two alternate timelines. In one of the timelines, Jonathan Archer's brain was infected by interspatial parasites and Earth was destroyed by the Xindi weapon in 2154 . This timeline was erased in 2165 when the parasites were destroyed by a subspace implosion aboard Enterprise – because the organisms existed outside normal space-time, their elimination prevented Archer from ever being infected in the first place. ( ENT : " Twilight ")

Although "Twilight" was initially conceived for Star Trek: Voyager , the annihilation of Earth was included in the plot only once the story was intended to be developed for Star Trek: Enterprise . Michael Sussman , who wrote the installment, stated obliquely about how the episode's final version portrays Earth, " It's always fun when you can toast Earth before the opening titles . " [6] With similar gusto, Brannon Braga rhetorically asked, " What could be better than starting the show off with blowing Earth up? " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 151 , p. 30) The script for "Twilight" described the destruction of Earth thus; " The planet starts to literally split at the seams… magma and debris ERUPTING along fault lines! Then, in a blinding flash… the Earth EXPLODES … mountain-sized chunks of debris flying everywhere! "

In an alternate timeline created by the Romulan operative Sera destroying Toronto in 2022 , Humanity became embroiled in a war with the Romulan Star Empire that lasted over two centuries. Earth was first devastated by the war, then occupied by the enemy, and ultimately rendered uninhabitable. ( SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ")

In another alternate timeline, Earth and the entire solar system was destroyed by a massive temporal explosion in the 29th century . The explosion was caused by Henry Starling , when he used the stolen timeship Aeon to travel from the 20th century into the 29th century through an unstable temporal rift . ( VOY : " Future's End ", " Future's End, Part II ")

Mirror universe [ ]

The USS Defiant in orbit of Terra

In the mirror universe , Earth's counterpart, locally named Terra by 2256 , was the throne world of a totalitarian expansionist state known as the Terran Empire . Unlike the Earth of the prime timeline, Terra was still a wasteland from the post-atomic horror and parts of the population still suffered from despair, poverty, famine and disease. Though still damaged, most of the major cities on Terra had been rebuilt. The world was ruled by the Terran Emperor or Empress. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ", " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

In 2256, the Terran Emperor Philippa Georgiou temporarily moved her ruling location onto a giant starship powered by Mycelial spores. This ship was later destroyed, forcing the return of the throne to Terra by the 2260s. ( DIS : " Vaulting Ambition ", " What's Past Is Prologue ", " Terra Firma, Part 1 ", " Terra Firma, Part 2 "; TOS : " Mirror, Mirror ")

History followed a similar yet skewed course on Terra, by comparison to the history of Earth in the United Federation of Planets, with a more violent, war-ridden past. According to Jonathan Archer , the Empire existed "for centuries" prior to 2155 . The main divergence in the timeline was the official First Contact with the Vulcans in 2063; Zefram Cochrane shot the Vulcan who greeted him , and, with the other Terrans present, stormed the Vulcan ship, taking its technology, which allowed the Empire to expand. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly "; DIS : " Terra Firma, Part 1 ", " Terra Firma, Part 2 "; DIS : " Die Trying ")

The Klingon-Cardassian Alliance conquered the Terran Empire sometime before 2370. ( DS9 : " Crossover ")

Professor Jennifer Sisko had an image of Terra on a uniform she wore while working for the Alliance in 2371. ( DS9 : " Through the Looking Glass ")

Although the script of "Crossover" was co-written by Peter Allan Fields and Michael Piller , it was Robert Hewitt Wolfe who devised Earth's history for that installment. He recalled, " I just thought that if the parallel [mirror] Earth [we saw in Kirk 's time] was that brutal, there had to be a reason. And the reason was that the barbarians [the Klingons and the Cardassians] were at the gate. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 143)

According to William Shatner 's novel Spectre , which deals with the mirror universe, Alliance ships destroyed the Imperial fleet in their version of the Battle of Wolf 359 , and proceeded to reduce mirror-Earth to a barren wasteland. Humans were enslaved by the Alliance.

In Decipher 's Mirror Universe , Earth is subjected to a Klingon planetary bombardment during the fall of the Terran Empire. The western half of North America is reduced to wasteland, Ireland and New Zealand are smashed into tiny islets, and the new continent of East Africa is created when a fault line is cracked open. In the aftermath, Earth's cities are rebuilt by the Alliance as giant labor camps and factory complexes. Kolara (the former site of Paris) houses Alliance officials.

Alternate reality [ ]

Narada firing on Earth

In the year 2258 of the alternate reality , the Romulan mining vessel Narada fired on Earth using a drill platform . Nero was attempting to dig a hole to Earth's core and create a black hole using red matter to destroy the planet. Luckily, Spock was able to destroy the drill well before it could reach the planet's core. ( Star Trek )

A year later , Starfleet traitor John Harrison masterminded a bombing on the Kelvin Memorial Archive in London and then attacked Starfleet Headquarters . He later returned to Earth, having commandeered the USS Vengeance , crashing it into San Francisco. ( Star Trek Into Darkness )

Reverse universe [ ]

Karl Four on the planet Arret

In the reverse negative antimatter universe , where the flow of time was reversed, Arret was Earth's counterpart. In 2270 , Karla Five and her son Karl Four helped the crew of the USS Enterprise to return to the prime universe. ( TAS : " The Counter-Clock Incident ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

A list of all actual appearances of planet Earth (excluding holodecks, simulations, visions, opening credits, etc.)

• " Tomorrow is Yesterday " (Season 1)
• " The City on the Edge of Forever "
• " Assignment: Earth " (Season 2)
• " The Magicks of Megas-Tu " (Season 1)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• " Conspiracy " (Season 1)
• " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II " (Season 4)
• " The First Duty " (Season 5)
• " Time's Arrow "
• " Time's Arrow, Part II " (Season 6)
• " All Good Things... " (Season 7)
• Star Trek Generations
• Star Trek: First Contact
• Star Trek Nemesis
• " Past Tense, Part I " (Season 3)
• " Past Tense, Part II "
• " The Visitor " (Season 4)
• " Little Green Men "
• " Homefront "
• " Paradise Lost "
• " Tears of the Prophets " (Season 6)
• " Image in the Sand " (Season 7)
• " Shadows and Symbols "
• " The Changing Face of Evil "
• " Caretaker " (Season 1)
• " Non Sequitur " (Season 2)
• " Death Wish "
• " Future's End " (Season 3)
• " Future's End, Part II "
• " In the Flesh " (Season 5)
• " Pathfinder " (Season 6)
• " Inside Man " (Season 7)
• " Author, Author " (Season 7)
• " Endgame "
• " Broken Bow " (Season 1)
• " Fortunate Son "
• " Shadows of P'Jem "
• " Shockwave "
• " Shockwave, Part II " (Season 2)
• " Carbon Creek "
• " Regeneration "
• " First Flight "
• " The Expanse "
• " Twilight " (Season 3)
• " Carpenter Street "
• " Zero Hour "
• " Storm Front " (Season 4)
• " Storm Front, Part II "
• " Borderland "
• " Affliction "
• " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II "
• " Terra Prime "
• " These Are the Voyages... "
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• " Will You Take My Hand? " (Season 1)
• " New Eden " (Season 2) (recording)
• " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 "
• " People of Earth " (Season 3)
• " Coming Home " (Season 4)
• " Strange New Worlds " (Season 1)
• " Ad Astra per Aspera " (Season 2)
• " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow "
• " The Trouble with Edward " (Season 2)
• " Children of Mars "
• " Remembrance " (Season 1)
• " Maps and Legends "
• " The End is the Beginning "
• " Nepenthe "
• " The Star Gazer " (Season 2)
• " Penance "
• " Assimilation "
• " Watcher "
• " Fly Me to the Moon "
• " Two of One "
• " Monsters "
• " Hide and Seek "
• " Farewell "
• " The Next Generation " (Season 3)
• " Seventeen Seconds "
• " No Win Scenario "
• " The Last Generation "
• " Where Pleasant Fountains Lie " (Season 2)
• " Grounded " (Season 3)
• " A Mathematically Perfect Redemption "
• " The Stars At Night "
• " Twovix " (Season 4)
• " A Few Badgeys More "
• " Old Friends, New Planets "
• " Supernova, Part 2 " (Season 1)

Related topics [ ]

• Earth animals
• Earth cities and towns
• Earth insects
• Earth geography
• Earth plants
• Earth regions
• Duplicate Earth
• Objects in Earth orbit

Background information [ ]

Origins [ ].

In such episodes as TOS : " The Cage " and TAS : " How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth ", the name "Earth" is used interchangeably with "Sol" when referring to the whole Sol system . Gene Roddenberry preferred that Star Trek writers used the name "Earth" for the planet instead of "Terra". ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 113 , p. 13)

That Star Trek was obviously to be filmed on Earth led Gene Roddenberry to suggest, in his original 1964 pitch Star Trek is... , the notion of making Star Trek affordable by setting episodes on planets similar to Earth (for instance, those with class M environments as well as those fitting Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development ). He wrote, " It means simply that our stories deal with plant and animal life, plus people, quite similar to that on earth [....] The 'Parallel Worlds' concept makes production practical by permitting action-adventure science fiction at a practical budget figure via the use of available 'earth' casting, sets, locations, costuming and so on. " Among several story ideas Roddenberry proposed in Star Trek is… were "Mr. Socrates" (which hypothesized that Earth of Star Trek 's era may have been secretly under telepathic observation by an alien society over centuries), "Reason" (which seemed to suggest that the decimation of intelligent life on Earth, leaving merely a robot society, had been a "long speculative" issue on Earth) and "Torx" (which pertained to "the first major menace to Earth," a non-corporeal alien being that "devours" intelligence such as that which "the Earth could supply in quantity").

In a fantasy scene included in the script for first Star Trek pilot episode " The Cage " (dated 20 November 1964 ) but not included in that installment, an Earth trader referred to Captain Pike as having sent Earth "blistering" reports about Orion traders. [7] Similarly, in an ultimately unused Kirk voice-over which originally introduced the second pilot " Where No Man Has Gone Before " (for example, in that episode's final revised draft script, dated 9 July 1965 ), Kirk was scripted to say, " Our Earth is but a pinpoint [in our galaxy], one speck of dust. " [8] A filmed but deleted version of this voice-over featured Kirk instead citing the planet as one of multiple "specks of dust" while the Enterprise was on a heading out of the Milky Way Galaxy . ("Where No Man Has Gone Before" (Rare and Unaired Alternate Version), TOS Season 3 Blu-ray special features)

When it came to depicting a digital matte painting of Mojave in the remastered version of "The Cage" and " The Menagerie, Part II ", the ethos behind Star Trek 's presentations of the planet proved inspirational. Dave Rossi , VFX Line Producer for Remastered TOS, clarified, " The whole idea about Earth in the 23rd century is that it's a paradise and [....] that also the environment has changed. So, it was very important for us to make sure that everything looked beautiful and lush and green and living, because that's the planet of the future. " (" The Menagerie, Part II " Starfleet Access , TOS Season 1 Blu-ray )

During the making of Star Trek: The Original Series , representing Earth of the 23rd century was virtually impossible. ( text commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition) DVD ) Ronald D. Moore noted, " Kirk and company never went to present day 23rd century Earth, their contemporaneous Earth, ever. Gene wouldn’t do it. " [9] This was due to budgetary limitations. ( text commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition) DVD ) Specifically, portraying future Earth believably would necessitate elaborate sets and matte paintings , all of which would be extremely expensive. Visiting Earth might also involve the use of costly spacedocks and other ships, though these were all in very short supply on TOS. The financial impracticability of depicting Earth resulted in few visits to the planet, with one of the foundations of Gene Roddenberry's concept for Star Trek consequently being that the show almost never voyaged to Earth. Another motive for this was that Roddenberry believed portraying future Earth might also require showing how the planet's political and economic systems had developed. Politically liberal, Roddenberry was anxious that such revelations might bring about arguments with sponsors and others who might not share his views. (" The Menagerie, Part II " text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD ) Earth of the future was nonetheless imagined as a unified if not peaceful planet, as was implied by the fact that the Enterprise 's "U.S.S." designation were initials that stood for "United Space Ship". [10] Roddenberry also intended for Earth to be metaphorically alluded to aboard the Enterprise , with the planet's many nationalities being represented by the ship's multinational crew. The idea of reflecting the unified diversity of Earth on board the starship was central to Roddenberry's vision of Star Trek . ("The Birth of a Timeless Legacy", TOS Season 1 DVD and TOS Season 1 Blu-ray special features)

In the document The Star Trek Guide , Gene Roddenberry wrote, " For one thing, we'll never take a story back [to Earth] […] and therefore don't expect to get into subjects which would create great problems, technical and otherwise [....] References by our characters to Earth will be simply a logical projection of current scientific and social advances in food production, transportation, communications, and so on. If you want to assume that Earth cities of that future are so splendidly planned with fifty-mile parkland strips around them, fine. But for obvious reasons, let's not get into any detail of Earth's politics of Star Trek 's century; for example, which socioeconomic systems ultimately worked out best. " Despite the instructions that writers not write specifically about the future political state of Earth, the same article did indicate the planet was now a unified if not peaceful place, politically. After making it clear that any stories representing "an autocratic, regimented, inhuman Earth of the future" would be rejected, the article continued by stating, " We must have an optimistic projection from Earth of today if we are to approve of and identify with Captain Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise , and their mission. " [11] Roddenberry later often postulated that the Earth of both Kirk's and Picard 's time periods was a paradise, with no poverty, crime or war. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 138)

First serialized depictions [ ]

In a story document dated 21 March 1966 , an undeveloped TOS episode entitled " Kafka's Trial " was described as involving a potential threat to Earth; the Enterprise crew was told by a "universe alien patrol" which invaded the ship that a trial was being held, aboard the vessel, to decide whether Earth would be destroyed.

Amid the making of the first season (i.e., on 5 April 1966 ), writer Barry Trivers pitched a story concept (the genesis of the episode " The Conscience of the King ") in which Earth was established as having been horrifically invaded by "an army of marauders," in James T. Kirk 's childhood. Gene Roddenberry was completely opposed to portraying such a bleak future for Earth, so a similar incident was established as having instead occurred on Tarsus IV . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One )

On 12 April 1966 , Robert Justman sent a memo to Gene Roddenberry which outlined a potential story for the series that centered on Earth as the main setting. The memo read, " The Enterprise is returning to Earth [....] The Enterprise does arrive back at Earth, but this is Earth of 1966 and not of their time [....] Kirk begins to see, by breaking through time, he is starting off a whole sequence of events which will affect the history and civilization of our planet in future years. " The way Earth was featured in this story springboard pre-empted but didn't directly inspire the contemporary Earth setting of the episode " Tomorrow is Yesterday ", which was written by D.C. Fontana and whose first story outline was submitted roughly half a year later (on 3 October 1966 ). ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One )

In the final draft script of TOS : " The Naked Time ", Kirk specified that he wanted the Enterprise to head "toward Earth", upon setting the ship on a reverse course during the episode's climax, though he also admitted that the heading was of no consequence. In the final version of the episode, the reference to Earth is omitted, though the rest of that line of dialogue remains exactly as it was in the final draft script.

When the first draft teleplay of "Tomorrow is Yesterday" was delivered on 1 November 1966 (though the script itself was dated 31 October 1966), Robert Justman issued some advice about the upper parts of Earth's atmosphere. Since Fontana and Gene Coon intended the outing to incorporate stock footage of airplanes, Justman suggested to the pair that a limit of up to about 60,000 or 70,000 feet would be possible for the planes and stated, " This is still within the atmosphere limits of the Earth, and there is still daylight up there – we are not in inky blackness at that altitude. " Justman concluded that the sky would also have to serve as the background for several shots of the Enterprise , necessitating the creation of new effects footage. Because the script referred to the Enterprise as being detectable but not discernible from a ground installation using radar, Justman proposed "a large body of water, such as the Atlantic or Pacific" might be under the starship. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One )

Blue screen was used as a replaceable background for the filming of scenes showing the cockpit of Captain John Christopher's jet. Some footage involving Earth's atmosphere, with the Enterprise flying through it, was shot by the Howard A. Anderson Company (though the Westheimer Company was also used for the episode). One such shot, of the ship climbing through the atmosphere, was filmed by the Howard Anderson Company but never used. Also, footage of Earth was reused from the earlier season 1 outing " Miri ", in which the globe had been used to represent Miri . Despite the planet having been depicted without clouds in that installment, clouds were added for the shots of Earth in "Tomorrow is Yesterday". ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One )

Even though Gene Roddenberry publicly blamed Harlan Ellison for apparently not being able to write " The City on the Edge of Forever " without making it go hugely over budget, Allan Brennert – a writer and former producer – subsequently assured Ellison that the episode's 1930s Earth scenes clearly necessitated over-expenditure. This was largely because, as Brennert informed Ellison, " The planet's surface […] [and] all the Old Earth interiors had to be constructed. " Brennert went on to say, " Roddenberry had to've known this from the very first [story] treatment, as did the people responsible for budgeting the segment, it didn't take them by surprise, and both they and NBC gave you the green light to go to teleplay first draft. " ( The City on the Edge of Forever , 1996 ed., "Perils of the 'City'")

After receiving the story outline for " Space Seed " (written by Carey Wilber ), NBC executive Stan Robertson enthusiastically wrote to Gene Coon , " There is an exciting blend of past Earth history – the similarity of the plot with the colonization of Australia; [plus] a current problem of our contemporary society – over-population. " How "Space Seed" actually portrayed Earth at first, though, initially frustrated Gene Roddenberry. Following delivery of the episode's second-draft script, Roddenberry commented in a memo to Coon, " It is hard to believe the world of the 1990s sending men off to a penal colony in the stars. Romantic, but impractical. No 'advanced' world of the 1990s would do this; no barbaric or dark ages world of the 1990s would spend the hundreds of millions required to do it, when a simpler expedient for a barbaric world would be simply to put the men to death. So the entire concept is rather shaky to start with. " Instead, a reference in the script to what Wilber termed "The Dark Ages of the 1990s" influenced Roddenberry to devise the era of Earth's Eugenics Wars and suggest that, in the 1990s, the planet had gradually come under the control of Augments . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One )

For stories set on Earth in contemporary times, maintaining the audience's suspension of disbelief could be quite challenging. " It's always a dangerous idea to take the Star Trek characters into the present, " stated Director Marc Daniels , who helmed the TOS installment " Assignment: Earth ". " Suddenly you're in a very tangible situation. The show's reality becomes that much harder to maintain. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 63) Such episodes were often extremely successful, though. In a 1968 letter which Gene Roddenberry wrote in an unsuccessful attempt to pitch a new television series based on "Assignment: Earth", he commented, " It is a matter of record that Star Trek 's most exciting and successful audience shows were those three in which Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock returned to 20th-century Earth and played out their story there. " ( Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry , p. 334)

First film appearance [ ]

Shortly before Star Trek: The Motion Picture was written, a story idea which Harlan Ellison verbally pitched to Paramount as one of many ultimately nixed stories , each of which were separately conceived as a potential narrative foundation for the first Star Trek film, was set primarily on Earth. " The story did not begin with any of the Enterprise crew, but started on Earth where strange phenomena were inexplicably occurring, " recorded writer James Van Hise . Both a building in India, wherein a family had been having dinner, and one of the Great Lakes in the United States suddenly vanished. In a public square, a woman suddenly screamed and collapsed to the pavement, where she turned into a form of reptilian creature. Though the truth was suppressed, the Federation realized these sudden changes on Earth were due to alterations in the planet's distant past, caused by an alien race of intelligent humanoid reptiles from a planet in a far away galaxy where snakes had become the dominant lifeform. Earth had been likewise populated by the snake-aliens eons ago, in the Pleistocene period, but the snake-creatures there had been destroyed by early Humans. After submitting the story, Ellison explained, " A snake-creature who had come to Earth in the Star Trek feature, had seen its ancestors wiped out, and […] had gone back into the far past of Earth to set up distortions in the time-flow so the reptiles could beat the Humans. " The mission of saving Earth, journeying into the planet's far past, was made the responsibility of the Enterprise and its crew. ( The City on the Edge of Forever , 1996 ed., "Perils of the 'City'")

Earth was also a setting in another of the multiple stories that were suggested as the first Star Trek film, this one titled Star Trek: Planet of the Titans . In a story treatment which Philip Kaufman wrote for that movie, the planet was described thus; " We have never seen the Earth of the 23rd century before on Star Trek . Seeing it for the first time, we are struck by the progress mankind can make. It's a thoughtful, optimistic world. The industrial revolution has long ago given way to the organic revolution. Much of the surface of the Earth has been restored to nature; man has returned to living comfortably in the earth. The great cities of centuries past are now public parks, their ruins preserved for pleasure and for education. "

Despite Gene Roddenberry's fears about the dangers of portraying future Earth's political and economic systems, later incarnations of Star Trek featured futuristic depictions of the planet more than TOS had. (" The Menagerie, Part II " text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD ) Though an illusory version of 23rd-century Earth appeared in "The Cage", the first real glimpse of the planet in that century was in Star Trek: The Motion Picture , which includes only a single scene set on Earth's surface. The concept that the first Star Trek film would feature Earth being jeopardized with destruction by a massive object (which eventually became V'ger ) approaching the planet was conceived as early as the writing of the Gene Roddenberry script The God Thing . ( The Longest Trek: Writing The Motion Picture , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Blu-ray) special features) The opportunity to visit the planet was extremely attractive to Robert Goodwin . " I suggested to Gene that since it had never been done in the series before, that we should come up with a story in which Earth was threatened, " he recalled. " In all the Star Trek episodes before, they never even came close to Earth. " Subsequently, the agenda of depicting Earth fit well with the story for " In Thy Image ", written by Alan Dean Foster . ("The Next Phase", The Fifty-Year Mission: The First 25 Years ) Depicting the planet in Star Trek 's future time period was ultimately made doable in The Motion Picture only because the makers of that film were able to take advantage of the higher budget associated with a feature film project. ( text commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition) DVD )

At first, Director Robert Wise was attracted to the prospect of directing The Motion Picture specifically because it entailed him doing a science fiction movie imbued with a greater scope than if it had been set entirely on Earth, as The Day the Earth Stood Still had been. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 8 , p. 14) On the other hand, Wise was insistent that part of The Motion Picture be set on Earth's surface, saying, " It is very important that we show the Earth in this film. " ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 173 , p. 63)

In the script for The Motion Picture , a view of Earth as the Enterprise leaves the planet was described as a "lovely bluish, cloud-laced image of Earth." [12]

Various techniques were used to represent Earth in The Motion Picture . ( audio commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Blu-ray) special features) The planet was depicted from orbit in the film via matte paintings illustrated by Matthew Yuricich . ( The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , pp. 211 & 212) These illustrations were incorporated into shots via use of a matte. Daren Dochterman – who served as a visual effects supervisor for a director's edition DVD release of the movie – reckoned, " I don't think they built [a model of the planet]. " However, Michael Okuda claimed that the different methods of depicting Earth in the movie included a dome onto which powder was sprinkled to create cloud shadows. ( audio commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Blu-ray) special features)

Upon creating new views of the San Francisco Bay area for the Director's Edition of the film, the associated visual effects artists took inspiration from how Gene Roddenberry had imagined Earth. " Part of Star Trek 's future is that it's not just more technologically advanced, it's more ecologically advanced, " commented Adam Lebowitz , another visual effects supervisor on the project. " Humans have taken great pains to clean up the planet, to remove the pollution from the atmosphere, and to beautify the landscape. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 86 , pp. 52–53) Some new CGI shots featuring the planet as seen from orbit, being encountered by V'ger , were also created for the Director's Edition, generated by Foundation Imaging . ( audio commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition) DVD )

The movie's only scene set on Earth's surface was met with varying reactions. Michael Okuda described it as " such a simple scene, but it says so much about Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future. " ( audio commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Blu-ray) special features) Roddenberry himself was unhappy with an establishing shot that, in the film's theatrical cut, begins the scene and is the only establishing shot used to represent the planet's surface. " It didn't really present the look of 23rd-century Earth that Gene was hoping to show, " explained Robert Wise. ( audio commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition) DVD )

Later portrayals [ ]

Other films and spin-off series showed future Earth even more than it had been depicted in both TOS and The Motion Picture . The growth in visitations to the planet was made possible thanks to advances in visual effects technology and increases in Star Trek 's budgets. (" The Menagerie, Part II " text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD )

Frank Ordaz paints a studio model of the Earth for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

The script for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock poetically referred to "the grandeur of the horizon arc of the great blue marble." [13] In that film, Earth was portrayed using matte painting in some cases and a model in others. Painted by Frank Ordaz , the model had two halves. Clouds and part of the planet's surface were on one half, whereas the other side showed only clouds atop a dark under-layer. The clouds on the latter half were later to be double-exposed over the planet surface at a slightly different rotation speed. ( Cinefex , No. 18, p. 47)

Like the script for Star Trek III , the revised shooting script for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and the revised final draft script for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier also referred to Earth as the "blue marble." Elsewhere in these descriptions, both scripts specified the planet's name and the screenplay for Star Trek V referred to the marble as "big." [14] [15] Also, a visually spectacular journey through the cosmos which was originally to serve as the credits sequence for Star Trek V was intended to culminate in what was scripted as "a breathtaking shot of Earth." [16]

Earth orbiting the sun , as seen in the TNG opening sequence

Earth appears as the first planet in the opening sequence of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's first and second seasons . It is shown orbiting the sun and is followed by the moon , Jupiter , and Saturn before the USS Enterprise -D starts its exploration of unknown space.

The idea of featuring Earth as the central setting of TNG : " Family " was thought up by Michael Piller . Though many people were extremely hesitant about focusing on the planet in such a way, the concept was accepted by Rick Berman . Piller later recalled, " Rick said, 'I'll let you take Picard to Earth.' " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 22, No. 2, p. 36) To create views of Earth in "Family", satellite photos of the planet were used. ( To Boldly Go ) Piller ultimately suspected that using Earth as a central setting of the story resulted in the episode having some of the lowest viewing figures in Star Trek history. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 22, No. 2, p. 36)

When Michael Piller and other members of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's resident writing staff pitched the story for TNG : " The First Duty " to Rick Berman, the fact that Earth was the most used setting in the episode almost led Berman to disallow any subsequent progress on the installment. He furthermore declared that Star Trek was "not about going back to Earth," in Piller's words. Berman was eventually persuaded by Piller into approving the episode, on condition that only three sets were to be used to represent interiors on the planet. ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 242)

Earth is directly referred to in a scene which was deleted from TNG : " Sub Rosa ". ( TNG Season 7 Blu-ray special features)

In a scene which was scripted for DS9 : " Emissary " but not included in that episode's final edit, Commander Benjamin Sisko was to have received a recorded follow-up message from Earth, where a university chancellor told him that an old house he had inquired about, on Moravian Lane, was available if he wanted it. David Carson explained, " There were clear indications that he was being offered a job back at a university on earth. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 24, Nos. 3/4, p. 101)

Director Paul Lynch once commented that Earth could easily have been the main setting in DS9: " Battle Lines ", instead of an unnamed moon . Lynch remarked, " It could have happened on Earth, and that's what made it compelling to me. " [17]

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Ira Steven Behr took care not to contradict Gene Roddenberry's view of Earth as a paradise but started having the main characters examine the subject further. Likewise, whereas Roddenberry had been fond of describing the future Earth as a paradise, the DS9 writing staffers were more interested in demonstrating exactly how difficult it was to maintain that paradise. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , pp. 138 & 303) " The whole Roddenberry thing was believable when you're living back on Earth, " Behr observed. " We thought it was a fundamental thing to state. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 59) He further explained, " The one thing that ST:DS9 has done to its credit – it's probably backfired on us to an extent – is we keep questioning this whole thing that Gene Roddenberry came up with supposedly about the 24th century and Earth being a paradise and 'what is paradise?' We like to test it [....] We're not saying that it's not real or it's not a worthy goal, but paradise is a delicate commodity. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Official Poster Magazine , No. 10)

In DS9 Season 3 installment " Past Tense, Part II ", Special Effects Supervisor David Takemura was tasked with rendering a shot of Earth, with the USS Defiant orbiting the planet. " I used an eight-by-ten NASA transparency of the real Earth to create the footage, " he explained. To make it seem as if the shot wasn't still, Takemura devised a motion-control move in which the transparency panned in one direction while the motion control camera panned in the opposite direction. " I thought it was a nice shot, " Takemura concluded. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 202)

Earth was originally set to feature at the end of DS9's third season. " We were planning a big two-part episode where we go back to Earth – maybe the Academy – and realize that there has been changeling infiltration, " René Echevarria recalled. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 99) Explaining why Earth was chosen as the plot's setting, he admitted, " We'd decided that the scariest thing would be to set the story at home, with people we care about. " The two-part narrative focusing on Earth and events there was at first intended to provide a cliffhanger ending to season three and be concluded at the start of the fourth season . The Earth-based two-parter was thereafter planned, by the DS9 producers, to launch the show's fourth season, but was then delayed again, finally airing as " Homefront " and " Paradise Lost ", midway through season four. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , pp. 250 & 253)

In " Little Green Men ", Earth of the past was once again visited, specifically the Roswell Incident of 1947. " It's one of those things that Star Trek can do, " commented Quark actor Armin Shimerman . " It can combine fantasy and history, and do a take on it. That started in the original series when the Enterprise would visit Earth back in the past. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 61) Shimerman particularly liked how the planet was used as a setting for "Little Green Men". " In my wildest dreams, I never saw Quark going to earth ever, " he revealed. " So it was nice, not only to be on Earth, but to be on Earth in the Forties. " ("Period Piece", Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Official Poster Magazine , No. 6) Shimerman also remarked that, for DS9 recurring character Nog , being on Earth full-time (in order to attend Starfleet Academy) implied that Nog actor Aron Eisenberg would have less to do on the series. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 47)

During the development of "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost", the DS9 writing staff chose to create a story "focusing on Earth and Humanity, and being on Earth." ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 112) Indeed, the two-parter gave the writers a welcome opportunity to test how paradisical the planet actually was, in the 24th century. " We've tested it on other occasions too in the series, so this was a test to see what it was like, " said Ira Steven Behr. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Official Poster Magazine , No. 10) The notion of Earth being infiltrated by Changelings turned out to be popular, but viewers repeatedly pointed out to Behr that the setting wasn't really in the purview of the series. Even Behr himself conceded, " Earth isn't our franchise. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 422)

When it came time to shoot the Earth scenes of "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost", the planet had to be shown on a tight budget. " We had to paint that world a little better and we were really feeling the budget crunch, " Ira Steven Behr related. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 112) He elaborated, " I wish we could have had a little more location stuff, a little more outside stuff. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Official Poster Magazine , No. 10)

In the first draft script of DS9 : " Body Parts ", Earth was mentioned, Worf advising Miles O'Brien to send his wife and daughter, Keiko and Molly O'Brien , to the planet as that had worked, in Worf's opinion, between himself and Alexander Rozhenko and because Miles was stressed by his wife's activities, since she was pregnant. The planet is not referenced in the final version of that episode, though.

If the DS9 Season 6 episode " Waltz " had ended as it was originally scripted to – with Dukat threatening to kill Jake Sisko – sending Jake to Earth was one of two optional precautions which Ronald D. Moore suspected Jake's father, Benjamin Sisko, would have had to take, the other being the deployment of "a twenty-six-hour guard" to carefully watch Jake. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 522)

Earth was on Ira Steven Behr's mind as he invented Section 31 , during DS9's sixth season. " Why is Earth a paradise in the twenty-fourth century? " he pondered. " Well, maybe it's because there's someone watching over it. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 551)

Sending Captain Sisko to Earth was part of the story for DS9 Season 6 finale " Tears of the Prophets " at least as far back as when Ira Steven Behr gathered the writing staff and announced, for the first time, details of the plot to them. A real Native American chant about the planet, entitled "Only the Earth Endures", provided the genesis for a Klingon death chant (referencing Qo'noS instead) in "Tears of the Prophets". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , pp. 586 & 588)

Molly O'Brien actress Hana Hatae thought it made sense for the O'Brien family to relocate to Earth in DS9 series finalé " What You Leave Behind ". " Earth seemed like a safe move for a Human family with two young kids, " reckoned Hatae. [18]

Owing to the premise of Star Trek: Voyager , Earth could not be shown as a regular setting in that series. ( Star Trek: Voyager - A Vision of the Future , p. 164) Earth nonetheless did appear on the show. Ronald D. Moore observed, " There have been more episodes [in VOY] that have taken place on Earth, or alternate Earth, or past Earth than I think the original series did in its whole run, and the original series was set over in the Alpha Quadrant. " Brannon Braga even considered permanently returning the starship Voyager to the planet. Moore, who imagined an initial two-parter focusing on the vessel's arrival at Earth, argued against this option, believing it would waste Star Trek: Voyager 's "golden opportunity" to be different from all the other Star Trek series. [19]

Earth was additionally to have been featured in an ultimately undeveloped episode of Voyager . One idea which Brannon Braga concocted for the story was starting it with Voyager apparently above Earth, returning home to the planet, though the craft was actually a biomimetic duplicate of the actual starship Voyager . For the same story, Braga also suggested the planet be a point of convergence for about a thousand similar duplicates of the ship. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 49) One reason this story concept was abandoned was that the writing staff thought it would undermine the moment when the real Voyager returned to Earth, which the creative team, even then, intended to eventually have happen. ( Star Trek: Action! , p. 6)

Prior to learning the events of Star Trek: Voyager series finalé " Endgame ", many of the main cast members from that series were hopeful, at the beginning of the show's seventh season , that the crew of the USS Voyager would have time back on Earth to explore the implications of their return home. Tuvok actor Tim Russ perceived both positives and negatives in featuring Earth so prominently towards the end of the series. He said, " It will be very dramatic and exciting to return to Earth, and it has been the focus of our journey. But by the same token, the show will no longer be the Voyager of the series, as we will no longer be on our own in the far side of the Galaxy, making new discoveries. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 38 & 39)

Actor Ethan Phillips was glad Earth was not the final destination of his character of Neelix , Phillips not being able to imagine Neelix on the planet nor what he would have done there. Phillips also believed that, even if Neelix had ended up on Earth, the planet's population would have included no other Talaxians . [20]

Harry Kim actor Garrett Wang was highly frustrated by the fact Earth is shown from orbit in the last shot of "Endgame", with Voyager approaching the planet. " We don't even step foot on Earth, " Wang pointed out. " Hello! After seven years, I think the fans wanted to see us actually step foot on terra firma. " [21] B'Elanna Torres actress Roxann Dawson felt similarly about the depiction of Earth in Star Trek: Voyager , as one thing she thought would have been interesting for the series to have explored was what Torres and husband Tom Paris were like, once they were back on Earth. [22]

The series that became Star Trek: Enterprise was originally imagined as having an Earth-bound setting. In fact, when series co-creator Rick Berman first approached fellow series co-creator Brannon Braga about the initial concept of the show, Berman referred to it as a prequel series set "in the mud," featuring the construction of Earth's first warp 5 ship. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise , Part I: Countdown", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) The pair wanted at least the series' first season to be set on Earth, proceeded by the launch of the craft. ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 82, p. 12; "To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise , Part I: Countdown", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Braga once explained that this was their first idea for the show. ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 89, p. 12) The concept was vetoed, however, by executives at Paramount Pictures , who favored a more conventional Star Trek setting. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise , Part I: Countdown", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Nonetheless, much of the series' pilot episode, " Broken Bow ", was ultimately set on Earth. Braga remarked, " It's really a fun place to be, strangely enough, because it's kind of a fresh setting for us. " The series turned out to be conceived in such a way that more stories than usual were to have ramifications on Earth and references to the planet. " In terms of how close this Earth is to Roddenberry's vision, I think it falls somewhere between now and Kirk 's time. Not everything is perfect, " Braga pointed out. ( Broken Bow , paperback ed., pp. 256 & 250) He and Berman even established that Earth had an antagonistic relationship with Vulcan. ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 55, p. 15) Before it was decided whether the NX-class starship Enterprise would ever fly back to Earth, though, Braga announced that such visits to the planet would not be frequent. ( Broken Bow , paperback ed., p. 256)

Enterprise 's opening titles sequence begins with two shots of Earth. These were initially intended to be two particular IMAX shots taken from a space shuttle. However, Paramount failed to secure the rights to use them, so they asked Eden FX to intricately reproduce the shots exactly in CGI, allowing the visual effects house only two days in which to do so. Eden's Robert Bonchune recollected, " That was kind of tough, to put together Planet Earth and have it look like those IMAX shots [....] Fortunately, we have CG models of the Earth, fully mapped with clouds and everything. We had to up-res some detail on them [....] It had to look exactly like the IMAX shots in terms of cloud patterns and where the glint of the ocean is. That was pretty specific, so it took some work. But I don't think anyone would know, watching those opening shots, that they were pure CG shots of the Earth. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 106 , p. 46)

In the first draft script of ENT : " Fortunate Son ", this planet was mentioned when Matthew Ryan asked Captain Archer whether, if Ryan handed over a Nausicaan prisoner he was secretly holding prisoner aboard his ship , Enterprise would "fly all the way back to Earth" to put the Nausicaan on trial.

In the final draft script of ENT : " Detained ", Earth was referenced a few times in dialogue that didn't make it into the episode. For example, Travis Mayweather told a Suliban girl named Narra that he lived on Earth, whereas his backstory actually established him as meanwhile living aboard Enterprise . In a later scene, T'Pol imagined Earth someday establishing "formal relations" with Tandar Prime .

Earth was further discussed between Archer and Zobral in ultimately unused dialogue from the final draft script of ENT : " Desert Crossing ". At one point in the conversation, Archer stated about the planet's ecology, " There's plenty of sea life, but most people live on land. " Archer later referenced the planet again in the script, as part of another excised comment, this time to Charles "Trip" Tucker .

If things had gone according to what the ENT producers had planned, Earth in Star Trek: Enterprise would have been literally left behind. Although that essentially is what happens in the first two seasons of the series, the threat to the planet posed by the Xindi was written to be a significant feature in second season installment " The Expanse " as well as the show's third season. " The irony of season 3 was that even though there was a threat to Earth, we only really spend one episode on Earth [i.e., 'The Expanse'] and then we're out exploring the Xindi, " observed writer/producer Michael Sussman . ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 82, p. 13)

In a deleted scene from ENT : " E² ", Earth was mentioned by Phlox ; he pointed out to Archer that, following the Xindi incident , the crew of a particular version of Enterprise from a specific alternate timeline would probably be happy to return to Earth. ( ENT Season 3 DVD and Blu-ray special features)

It wasn't until the Xindi arc came to an end that the choice to focus on Earth was made. Commented Mike Sussman, " It certainly seemed natural after spending an entire season in deep space saving the Earth from a threat, that we now had to deal with the repercussions of what had happened [....] How is the Earth recovering? " ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 82, p. 14)

When Manny Coto took charge of the Star Trek: Enterprise writing staff for the series' fourth season , he decided to develop stories that showed the links between Earth of "Broken Bow" and the 23rd century of the first Star Trek series. The planet's antagonistic relationship with Vulcan was of great interest to married writing couple Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens when they joined the series in season four. ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 55, p. 15) During the course of that season, Earth was impacted on by Coto intending to establish the specifics of how the Federation had come to be and how Humanity had evolved past xenophobia (resulting from the Xindi threat), both of which resulted in the planet becoming a major setting for stories about those issues. ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 82, p. 17)

When Mike Sussman was given the task of writing ENT : " Home ", setting the episode on Earth was pitched to him as the key component, as it was felt that an installment which took place on the planet needed to be done. This notion took its cue from TNG : " Family ", which is likewise set primarily on Earth. While penning "Home", Sussman considered some aspects of the planet which had never really been answered before, ultimately deciding that Earth's government would be United Earth (which had been canonically referenced beforehand, though hadn't been set up as the planet's government). ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 82, p. 14)

Earth was briefly mentioned in an extended scene from "Home" (included in the ENT Season 4 Blu-ray ). In the deleted portion of the scene, Charles Tucker suggested to Koss , who had never before met a Human, that he visit the planet at some point, to "broaden [his] horizons."

As described in the final draft script of ENT : " Demons ", Earth was to be shown in the episode's first establishing shot of the Orpheus Mining Complex on Luna. However, the planet doesn't appear in the final version of that shot.

If Star Trek: Enterprise had been renewed for a fifth season, how Earth was evolving would have been dealt with in many more stories. Because Manny Coto wanted to show the Earth-Romulan War in ENT, the planet's continual developments would have been portrayed, visibly leading to Earth becoming the center of the Federation and the utopia Gene Roddenberry had promised. ( Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 82, p. 17)

In Star Trek Nemesis , views of Earth from orbit were derived from 20K NASA images. Though these high-resolution pictures were completely accurate illustrations of the planet surface and visually appealed to Digital Domain Supervisor Mark Forker , the producers and director of the film were initially not entirely happy with them. Recollected Forker, " They requested some changes – England was too small, Italy was too close to Africa, and the boot [shape of Italy] was too big. " Manipulating the images, Digital Domain made the appropriate changes and added digital clouds. " Of course, by the time we added clouds and atmosphere, " said Forker, " the changes weren't that noticeable. " ( Cinefex , No. 111, p. 93)

Earth of the alternate reality [ ]

Earth and the planet's atmosphere backdrop an apparently doomed Enterprise in a poster for Star Trek Into Darkness

While the J.J. Abrams movies Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness were being conceived, Earth was considered important to establish as a major setting in the alternate reality . " The Earth needed to play more of a role in these movies, especially in the sense of giving the audience a degree of relatability, " commented writer/producer Damon Lindelof . " I think that in the same way that New York City becomes this anchor point for people in the Marvel movies ; that’s Spidey ’s stomping ground, that was the stomping ground for Tony Stark , that was the stomping ground for The Avengers , it’s New York. We wanted to do the same thing with Earth in the Star Trek movies. " [23]

In the script for the film Star Trek , Earth was metaphorically likened to a gazelle, with a parallel drawn between Nero observing the planet and a lion hunting the gazelle. [24]

For visually depicting Earth in the movies Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness , it was felt important that futuristic cities be kept realistic as much as possible, incorporating practical elements. By way of an example, Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett stated, " It's not a concept art version of […] a city, it's a working version. " [25] To represent Earth in Star Trek Into Darkness , location filming was used, most of which was done in Los Angeles . The locations were picked by Production Designer Scott Chambliss . ( Cinefex , No. 134, p. 72)

Star Trek Into Darkness ' visual effects team created the look of multiple cities on Earth, including London and San Francisco. " Our philosophy about doing cities, and respecting the canon of how the [world] is described by Gene Roddenberry, " explained Roger Guyett, " is that you're only a few [hundred] years into the future. You're not that far away [....] We go through this process of, 'What would have happened? What buildings would they have hung on to? How would it have changed the nature of some of the design choices they made?' We like to take things that are real and try to make the architecture scalable. In other words, a scale that is not just totally ridiculous and massive. At the same time, you want a few landmarks in those shots to get the sense of what city you are in [....] But, at the same time, we want to elaborate on that and use our imagination on how that might have changed. " ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 172 , pp. 48–49)

The futuristic cities in Star Trek Into Darkness took a design cue from the previous film. J.J. Abrams recalled, " We wanted terrestrial cities to be consistent with what we had established, but at a much higher resolution. We got to live, breathe and chase within the city streets this time, but we also wanted to maintain a level of potential truth and realism [....] We didn't want to get so fanciful that it felt unrelatable. " Abrams selected recognizable urban landmarks for both San Francisco and London, before Industrial Light & Magic created a model showing each of the two cities, both of which were added to with high-resolution CGI buildings. Abrams also described the challenge of imagining how cities might be changed in the future, based on their present conditions, as "fun." ( Cinefex , No. 134, pp. 72 & 74)

Responding to viewer criticism after the release of Star Trek Into Darkness , J.J. Abrams acknowledged, " I can understand that this movie might not have gone as far away from Earth for as long as some people would have liked. " [26]

Regardless of this, Nyota Uhura actress Zoë Saldana hoped that, in Star Trek Beyond , the crew of the Enterprise would " go back to Earth " and, for the first seven or eight minutes of the film, be shown there in the middle of having a day off. [27] However, Star Trek Beyond actually became the second Star Trek film, the first having been Star Trek: Insurrection , not to feature any scenes on or near Earth. A substitute was invented instead. " One of the notes that J.J. always directed towards us was that the threat in the movie have a very far-reaching effect and that it always come back to Earth, " explained Star Trek Beyond co-writer Simon Pegg . " So how can we make Earth a potential victim of whatever's going wrong here with it being so, so, so far away? Because what we're trying to get across in this movie is that they're not anywhere near Earth any more, and so we created a sort of proxy Earth, which is Yorktown . " ("Beyond the Darkness", Star Trek Beyond (Blu-ray) special features)

According to Star Trek: Star Charts (pp. 32, 36-37, 56-57, & "United Federation of Planets I") and Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library ("Federation Historical Highlights, [ [28] ]"), fifty years after Earth became warp capable, the United Earth government was founded on Earth in 2113 . The government of Earth was divided into six major regional powers that were governed from their respective capitals. These capitals were San Francisco (North America), Paris (Europe), Kyoto (Asia), Lima (South America), Cape Town (Africa), and Christchurch (Oceania). In 2161 , Earth was a founding member of the United Federation of Planets . The dominant species were Humans and Cetaceans. In the census of 2370 , there were counted 4.2 billion Humans and 8.1 million Cetaceans living on Earth.

According to Star Trek: Star Charts (pp. 36–37 & 56-57), Earth was a hub world on the mid-22nd century Earth trade routes. It traded with Alpha Centauri , Altair , Andoria , Denobula Triaxa , Draylax , Ophicus Colony, Tellar Prime , Trill , Vega Colony , and Vulcan . In 2378 , Earth was a hub world on the major space lanes. Points of interest on Earth included the UFP Council Chambers , Starfleet Headquarters , Starfleet Academy , Cochrane Memorial , Yosemite Valley , and Angel Falls .

According to Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library ("The Dominion War: Strategy and Battles, 2373-75"), Earth was raided by the Dominion in August 2375.

David Gerrold verbally drew a parallel between the typical circumstances found on Earth of one particular time period and those of the Federation in TOS. Regarding conditions on Earth of the 18th century, Gerrold explained, " Then too, communications over vast distances were slow and uncertain. The arrival of a courier was always an event. Even if the news he was carrying was several weeks, months, or years old, it was still the most recent news available. When one government had to deal with another, they used diplomatic notes and couriers – and in matters of highest policy, they depended upon their ambassadors. " Also, while criticizing the scientific accuracy of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (or lack thereof), Gerrold commented that "the flat-Earth theory" was slightly more advanced than the film's view of the workings of the universe. ( The World of Star Trek )

Borg-Earth info [ ]

The Borgified Earth being created by Alex Jaeger

At a very early stage of Star Trek: First Contact 's development, the film's writers – including Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore (as well as possibly Rick Berman ) – discussed the possibility of beginning the film in a Borg-assimilated city on Earth. ( audio commentary , Star Trek: First Contact  (Special Edition) DVD / Blu-ray )

In its assimilated state as shown in the movie, Earth was represented with CGI done by Alex Jaeger . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies , p. 335) He depicted the heavily polluted version of the planet by creating a series of digital matte paintings . ( Cinefex , No. 69, pp. 113 & 117) As Jaeger had only ever worked in the model shop at Industrial Light & Magic before serving as the company's visual effects art director on First Contact , he found the challenge of creating the altered Earth slightly daunting. " They kind of tossed me into this and said, 'Oh, yeah, we're going to need a Borg Earth,' and I go, 'Oh, OK,' so I did a few early Photoshop pieces that just showed a section of the Earth. Then they said, 'Yeah, that's good, but can you just make a texture for the whole planet that we'll just use in the movie,' and I'm like, 'Uhhh, OK – I've never done that before, but sure!' So, basically what I did was, I took a texture map of the Earth – it was this gigantic Photoshop file – and started changing it around. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 23 , p. 88)

Included in the assimilated Earth are details hardly visible in the actual film, such as industrial pipes spanning the oceans. ( Cinefex , No. 69, p. 113) " I saturated all the ground so it was gray and I added all these sort of factory-looking sections so it looked like the ground was completely covered by cities, " remembered Alex Jaeger. " Then, I painted little bridgeways across the oceans and turned the oceans brown. [ First Contact Director] Jonathan Frakes kept saying, 'No, the oceans have got to be brown, like they're full of crap! Just, you know, nasty; you don't want to be there.' " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 23 , p. 88) Jaeger also noted that, in addition to turning the oceans brown and making the land masses "desaturated and gray, as though they have become overrun with Borg power plants and machinery," he also turned the clouds and atmosphere yellowish-green. ( Cinefex , No. 69, p. 113)

Alex Jaeger was ultimately pleased with how he created the assimilated Earth, essentially destroying the planet visibly by doing so. He remarked, " It turned out fairly well [....] And to have something that I actually painted end up on screen, was kind of cool. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 23 , p. 88) Brannon Braga agreed that the optical of the assimilated Earth was "very cool." ( audio commentary , Star Trek: First Contact  (Special Edition) DVD / Blu-ray )

Apocrypha [ ]

According to Gene Roddenberry 's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , there is a dam across the Straits of Gibraltar. This allowed the level of the Mediterranean Sea to be lowered, creating new farm and park land along the coast, and the world's largest hydro-electric project.

In an alternate future in the Deep Space Nine book series Millennium , Earth was destroyed in 2388 by the violent Grigari. Among the casualties were William T. Riker , Deanna Troi , Geordi La Forge , Beverly Crusher , Tom Paris , B'Elanna Torres , and the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-F .

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars video game, if the player plays as the Dominion, the Founders destroy the Federation, bombard Earth, and then declare it to be a secondary homeworld from which to rule.

External links [ ]

• Earth at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Earth at Wikipedia
• Re-Used Planets in TOS  at Ex Astris Scientia
• Re-Used Planets in TNG  at Ex Astris Scientia
• Re-Used Planets in DS9  at Ex Astris Scientia
• 2 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Bell Riots

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• Star Trek Series | 2151 - 2270
• Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series

Assignment: Earth

• Thread starter EnriqueH
• Start date Aug 10, 2014

• Aug 10, 2014

I saw it tonight for the first time in a while. I could never get into this episode. I've tried to watch it a few times. Is it me or is it kinda dull? Particularly once Gary Seven starts fiddling with the rocket ship. One of the problems, for me, is that there's not a lot of screen time with the series regulars. Another problem is that there doesn't seem to be a lot at stake. I don't think the episode succeeds in making the audience feel like there's a sense of urgency. Gary Seven is fiddling with a rocket, Kirk & Spock are walking (not urgently) after him, Roberta is joking around. I'm not sure why I should be intrigued or even care about what's going on. It's took bad because I always thought Kirk and Spock looked very cool in their business suits walking around in the 1960s, and the whole thing LOOKED as if should've had a James Bond/Mission Impossible feel to it, but something was off the mark. I liked Robert Lansing as Gary Seven. Very cool actor, cool voice, and a POTENTIALLY cool character. Too bad he didn't get a better episode.  

LMFAOschwarz

Fleet captain.

Commishsleer

I agree with you EnriqueH . I think basically I didn't like this episode because the series leads looked a bit incompetent. Yes a secretary can best Starfleets finest captain. No offence secretaries - in RL I'm sure a lot of you are more intelligent than your bosses but Captain Kirk is a legend. The whole idea of sending the Enterprise back in time for a 'research' mission seems a bit ridiculous, very ridiculous. Just about the most stupid mission any series of Star Trek. Risking your very existence for historical purposes. It would have been OK if they had made Gary Seven/Roberta look good without making our heroes look stupid. The only thing I liked was Spock and ISIS.  

Lieutenant Commander

This episode was intended as a pilot for a new series, starring Gary Seven and Roberta Lansing, which is why the Enterprise regulars were reduced to being extras in their own show. I think the series could have been interesting, but watching Kirk and Spock be reduced to impotent observers of events is not much fun.  

Spockadelic, Baby

It what happens when the episode is a backdoor pilot for a new series.  

Yeah, I know it's a "backdoor pilot", but that's no excuse for the shoddy writing. After a cool pre-credits scene, and a cool conflict aboard the Enterprise, Gary fights his way out, beams down, and that's pretty much where the episode begins to fall apart IMO. I think part of the reason the episode is not very interesting is that Gary's mission is not clear. What the hell is he doing and why is it so critical? Further, the series regulars don't have much to do. They FINALLY begin to explain the plot as the end, but we're distracted by the delicious transformation of Isis. I like cats, but it would've been great to see more of that actress, but I digress... Part of the reason Star Trek is great is that there are great stories to tell. Assignment Earth lacks story. The Enterprise is there for historical reasons, but that seems vague. More importantly, Gary's mission is vague. And there's not a sense of urgency.  

EnriqueH said: Yeah, I know it's a "backdoor pilot", but that's no excuse for the shoddy writing. After a cool pre-credits scene, and a cool conflict aboard the Enterprise, Gary fights his way out, beams down, and that's pretty much where the episode begins to fall apart IMO. I think part of the reason the episode is not very interesting is that Gary's mission is not clear. What the hell is he doing and why is it so critical? Further, the series regulars don't have much to do. They FINALLY begin to explain the plot as the end, but we're distracted by the delicious transformation of Isis. I like cats, but it would've been great to see more of that actress, but I digress... Part of the reason Star Trek is great is that there are great stories to tell. Assignment Earth lacks story. The Enterprise is there for historical reasons, but that seems vague. More importantly, Gary's mission is vague. And there's not a sense of urgency. Click to expand...

Armored Saint

CommishSleer said: The whole idea of sending the Enterprise back in time for a 'research' mission seems a bit ridiculous, very ridiculous. Just about the most stupid mission any series of Star Trek. Risking your very existence for historical purposes. Click to expand...

EnriqueH said: Yeah, I know it's a "backdoor pilot", but that's no excuse for the shoddy writing. Click to expand...

I think part of the reason the episode is not very interesting is that Gary's mission is not clear. Click to expand...

Armored, I notice you live in Quebec City. I was just there a couple of weeks back. I was only there briefly, but it seemed like a nice city. Anyway, did they ever say why the Enterprise was there outside of "historical" reasons? Did Gary ever mention why he had to go to Earth? I'm wondering if I missed something.  

EnriqueH said: Armored, I notice you live in Quebec City. I was just there a couple of weeks back. I was only there briefly, but it seemed like a nice city. Anyway, did they ever say why the Enterprise was there outside of "historical" reasons? Did Gary ever mention why he had to go to Earth? I'm wondering if I missed something. Click to expand...

Captain's log. Using the lightspeed breakaway factor, the Enterprise has moved back through time to the twentieth century. We are now in extended orbit around Earth, using our ship's deflector shields to remain unobserved. Our mission, historical research. We are monitoring Earth communications to find out how our planet survived desperate problems in the year 1968 . Click to expand...

COMPUTER: Identify self. SEVEN: Simply check my voice pattern. You'll find me listed as Supervisor one nine four. Code name Gary Seven. COMPUTER: Voice pattern matches, but I have no listing of a Gary Seven assigned this planet. SEVEN: Computer, I am a class one supervisor. You are ordered to override previous instructions and answer my questions. COMPUTER: I am a Beta Five computer capable of analytical decisions. Please confirm identity as supervisor by describing nature of agents and mission here. SEVEN: Computer, I caution you. I have little love for Beta Five snobbery. Override. All right. Agents are male and female, descendants of human ancestors taken from Earth approximately six thousand years ago. They're the product of generations of training for this mission. Problem. Earth technology and science have progressed faster than political and social knowledge. Purpose of mission. To prevent Earth's civilisation from destroying itself before it can mature into a peaceful society. Click to expand...

Another weird thing about this historical research is that there would be no hurry whatsoever. If they waited another 10,000 years to go back to the 60's, what's the difference? The past isn't going anywhere!  

LMFAOschwarz said: Another weird thing about this historical research is that there would be no hurry whatsoever. If they waited another 10,000 years to go back to the 60's, what's the difference? The past isn't going anywhere! Click to expand...

The Old Mixer

Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si xim..

The Enterprise's real mission had to do with the first shots of Earth being transmitted from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve...Kirk planned to photo-bomb it.  

The time-travel/"historical research" contrivance is pretty lame. Having grown up during the Cold War, the business with the iconic Saturn V rocket carrying a supposedly "Star Wars"/SDI-style nuke payload did capture my imagination. YMMV. The business of Kirk and Spock wandering the streets of NYC was really over-the-top silly. With a starship filled with humans, why risk polluting the timeline by beaming a Vulcan down to the surface when you don't have to? Spock should've been put in command of the Bridge, with Scotty being a more sensible choice to accompany Kirk. (If they run into alien technology, who better to tamper with it?) Terri Garr is cute and hilarious. Her line "We wonder if we're going to be alive when we're 30" was pure 1968 young adult. The beam-up-with-the-cops thing was goofy; at that point you either enjoy the humor or you just can't stand it. ("Chah-lie…") Actually, the most inexcusable part is the less-than-flattering portrayal of NASA; they make Kirk's bumbling look mild by comparison. The bombshell in this episode isn't the notion of a nuke-on-a-Saturn V being depicted on a prime time TV show; it's the shocker that Gene Roddenberry, the man who's genius created TOS, is responsible for writing such a half-baked story. All in all, it was far from TOS at its best, but still entertaining in a humorous way. It was a flight-of-fancy; you know, like VOYAGER...  

Push The Button

We do get to see some nice Saturn V footage, and Spock wearing a few goofy hats, so it is not a total loss. Oh, and Terri Garr was super cute as Gary's clueless secretary/sidekick. Gary's pen gizmo was cool also. More proof that even the not-so-great episodes of TOS still had some greatness baked into them.  

Wingsley said: Actually, the most inexcusable part is the less-than-flattering portrayal of NASA; they make Kirk's bumbling look mild by comparison. Click to expand...

Professional Geek

Corylea said: This episode was intended as a pilot for a new series, starring Gary Seven and Roberta Lansing, which is why the Enterprise regulars were reduced to being extras in their own show. Click to expand...

Push The Button said: Gary's pen gizmo was cool also. Click to expand...

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