The cornerstone of all the series in the “Star Trek” universe is that they take place far in the future, when the world has integrated space travel into citizen life — but interestingly enough, one episode of “Star Trek: The Original Series” was meant to launch a 20th-century-based spin-off show.
The Season 2 finale of “Star Trek,” titled “Assignment: Earth,” saw the starship Enterprise traveling back to the 20th century, where the crew meets a man named Gary Seven. Along with his black cat, Isis, Seven plans to interfere in the settled history of the 20th-century world, and he ends up at odds with the Enterprise crew despite both parties trying to do their best to protect Earth.
The character — along with the episode’s other central character, Roberta Lincoln (played by a young Teri Garr) — was specifically introduced to audiences ahead of a spin-off series they would headline that would take place in the 20th century. That, ultimately, never happened.
Assignment: Earth could have replaced Star Trek
“Star Trek: The Original Series” creator Gene Roddenberry wrote a pilot script that starred Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln two years before the “Star Trek” Season 2 finale aired — but it had no mention of “Star Trek” and was meant to stand on its own.
The fate of TOS began to hang in the balance during Season 2 due to middling ratings. So after his original script failed to garner any interest on its own, Roddenberry attempted to soft launch a potential new series to replace “Trek” by reimagining the pilot and turning his original draft into “Assignment: Earth.”
Ultimately, Roddenberry’s spin-off dreams were dashed, as the show never went into production, just like another “Star Trek” sequel series that fans never got to see. But that doesn’t mean those characters didn’t make appearances over the years. Seven and Lincoln would go on to pop up in a few “Star Trek” novels and comic books, as well as star in a five-issue “Assignment: Earth” comic series.
