2x26 Assignment: Earth - Star Trek: The Original Series Episode Guide

Star Trek: The Original Series

- Episode 02x26

Episode: 02x26
Title: Assignment: Earth
Type: Regular Episode
Production Code: 60355
First Aired: Mar. 29, 1968

Season 2 » Episode #26 - Assignment: Earth

Star Trek: The Original Series - 02x26 Assignment: Earth

Summary: The Enterprise has travelled back in time to the year 1968 and are in orbit around Earth. They are monitoring transmissions on a fact-finding mission to see how Earth survived such a terrible time. While in orbit, they are struck by a transporter beam from a thousand light years away, and a human dressed in a 20th century business suit and carrying a cat appears. The man, Gary Seven, insists that he is part of this era and Kirk must let him go to Earth, or history will be irrevocably altered.

Who appeared in this episode?

Mr. Spock

Guest Stars:

Captain James T. Kirk	played by William Shatner
Dr. McCoy	played by DeForest Kelley
Mister Seven	played by Robert Lansing
Roberta Lincoln	played by Teri Garr
Scott	played by James Doohan
Sulu	played by George Takei
Uhura	played by Nichelle Nichols
Chekov	played by Walter Koenig
Cromwell	played by Don Keefer

Season 2 / Episode 26: - Assignment: Earth

Captain James T. Kirk: [narrating] Captain's log. Using the light-speed breakaway factor, the Enterprise has moved back through time to the 20th 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.

Season 2 / Episode 26: - Assignment: Earth

Mister Seven: Roberta, you've gotta let me finish what I've started, or in six minutes world war three begins.

[More Quotes]

MISTAKES/GOOFS

FAKE: When Gary Seven dictates the tail end of his report into his voice-activated typewriter at the end, a close look at the sheet of paper in the typewriter reveals that the rest of his report up to this point consists of repetitions of the very sentence we hear him saying.
CONT: The outside view of the gantry elevator shows it has a solid metal walls up to about 3 feet, and then grating to the top. But when the view changes to within it, the grating is floor to ceiling. (It's also a different patterned grating.)
FAKE: As the gantry elevator rises with Gary Seven, a shadow of the grating wall is cast on the floor of the elevator. But as the elevator car passes girders, their shadows should also be cast on the floor, but they are not. (This shows that the passing girders are simply backdrops being scrolled by.)
CREW: A hand can be seen reaching over and adjusting the light display on Mr. Seven's computer.
CONT: When Scotty is looking for Mister Seven, some of the shots of the Saturn rocket are of when its being transported to the launch pad.

TRIVIA

No scenes for this episode were actually shot at Cape Kennedy itself. The illusion of being in Florida was achieved by using a combination of stock footage and Paramount studio locations.
The original draft script didn't even feature the original star trek crew; Gary Seven was an Earthman from the future who had been sent back in time to combat the Omegans, an evil alien people who'd mastered time travel. When ASSIGNMENT EARTH didn't sell as a separate television series, the concept was rewritten into the STAR TREK format
Spock mentions all the events that would happen the week of 1968 that they arrived in. Among the events he mentioned was an important political assassination. A few days after that episode aired, 'Martin Luther King Jr.' was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee.
The script called for Isis, when in cat form, to make various cat sounds on cue (meows, purrs, growls, etc.) Since finding appropriate real cat sounds for the soundtrack proved problematic, when the director discovered that Barbara Babcock (I), who was hired to do the voice of the Beta 5 computer, and for a cameo as Isis in human form anyway, could vocalize convincing cat sounds, Barbara Babcock was called upon to vocalize Isis' cat sounds as well. I note that in the trivia it recounts how Barbara Babcock was the voice of the computer, but also has a cameo as "Isis in Human Form"...but in the credits Victoria Vetri of "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" fame has the credit...who was it? I haven't seen the episode in awhile, but my recollection is that Isis looked more like Vetri...???
The episode "Assignment: Earth" was written to introduce a hoped-for spin-off series that never materialized. It would have featured Robert Lansing (I) as Gary Seven, Barbara Babcock (I) as Isis, and Teri Garr as Roberta Lincoln. In the new series, the intrepid three would have worked to make sure humanity achieved the destiny glimpsed via the Trek characters and Seven's mysterious extraterrestrial information. In the episode, Barbara Babcock supplied the cat voice of Isis, but Victoria Vetri (Victoria Vetri), Playboy Playmate of 1968, played the human form of Isis. It is not known that Vetri would have been available to play in the spin-off.