56. Assignment: Earth
FORMULA: Tomorrow Is Yesterday + Catspaw + The Ultimate Computer
WHY WE LIKE IT: The charming Teri Garr as Miss Lincoln.
WHY WE DON'T: Is it even Star Trek?
REVIEW: So they didn't manage to sell a pilot for an Assignment: Earth series, so they just fiddled around with the script to fit it into the Star Trek format. And that's just what it looks like. A story from another series into which our favorite characters make an appearance. Kirk, Spock and the rest are basically bystanders in this one, only managing to delay the real hero of the story with their meddling. This wouldn't be so bad if we didn't know Gary Seven's motives were pure, but we do, and I do so hate to know more than the characters.
Oh, there are things to like here. Teri Garr gives a fun performance as the clueless but intelligent Roberta. Robert Lansing is cool and intense as Gary Seven. The cat is well-trained and being a cat person, I enjoy watching these animals onscreen (though see below). There's a lot of production value added by NASA footage of the rocket going into space, etc. And the Assignment: Earth premise isn't uninteresting, with lots of neat gadgets (that seem to have inspired such movies as Men in Black). It might have been a cool show. Maybe.
Of course, there are problems even with those things. Roberta can annoy as much as charm, for example. Though I love cats, this one strains even my patience with the incessant meowing. I know American Shorthairs are vocal, but this is ridiculous. And the unncessary complication of revealing Isis shape-changing into a woman at the end, well, it's fluff, and disturbing fluff while we're at it, considering Gary Seven's treatment of the animal. The NASA looks good, except for an atrociously cheap still photograph that keeps coming up.
I also have misgivings about the alternate history shown here, really splitting off from actual events, not in the faraway 90s like the Eugenics Wars, but in the current 1968. Weird. The initial idea of having the Enterprise go back in time for historical research also doesn't work, not fitting the concept of the show. And Kirk's final assessment that Seven's gang would have many adventures is overly optimistic, as we never hear from these characters again. Overall, it's a bad way to end the possibly last season of your show.
LESSON: Spinoffs should flow naturally from a successful show, not be one-off implants that take you right out of the story.
REWATCHABILITY - Low: Truly inconsequential. Might as well have happened out of the canon. It can be fun at times, but it's just another show, plain and simple, with the Star Trek characters sticking out like sore, useless thumbs.
FORMULA: Tomorrow Is Yesterday + Catspaw + The Ultimate ComputerWHY WE LIKE IT: The charming Teri Garr as Miss Lincoln.
WHY WE DON'T: Is it even Star Trek?
REVIEW: So they didn't manage to sell a pilot for an Assignment: Earth series, so they just fiddled around with the script to fit it into the Star Trek format. And that's just what it looks like. A story from another series into which our favorite characters make an appearance. Kirk, Spock and the rest are basically bystanders in this one, only managing to delay the real hero of the story with their meddling. This wouldn't be so bad if we didn't know Gary Seven's motives were pure, but we do, and I do so hate to know more than the characters.
Oh, there are things to like here. Teri Garr gives a fun performance as the clueless but intelligent Roberta. Robert Lansing is cool and intense as Gary Seven. The cat is well-trained and being a cat person, I enjoy watching these animals onscreen (though see below). There's a lot of production value added by NASA footage of the rocket going into space, etc. And the Assignment: Earth premise isn't uninteresting, with lots of neat gadgets (that seem to have inspired such movies as Men in Black). It might have been a cool show. Maybe.
Of course, there are problems even with those things. Roberta can annoy as much as charm, for example. Though I love cats, this one strains even my patience with the incessant meowing. I know American Shorthairs are vocal, but this is ridiculous. And the unncessary complication of revealing Isis shape-changing into a woman at the end, well, it's fluff, and disturbing fluff while we're at it, considering Gary Seven's treatment of the animal. The NASA looks good, except for an atrociously cheap still photograph that keeps coming up.
I also have misgivings about the alternate history shown here, really splitting off from actual events, not in the faraway 90s like the Eugenics Wars, but in the current 1968. Weird. The initial idea of having the Enterprise go back in time for historical research also doesn't work, not fitting the concept of the show. And Kirk's final assessment that Seven's gang would have many adventures is overly optimistic, as we never hear from these characters again. Overall, it's a bad way to end the possibly last season of your show.
LESSON: Spinoffs should flow naturally from a successful show, not be one-off implants that take you right out of the story.
REWATCHABILITY - Low: Truly inconsequential. Might as well have happened out of the canon. It can be fun at times, but it's just another show, plain and simple, with the Star Trek characters sticking out like sore, useless thumbs.
Comments
This was Trek's equivalent of "Hello Larry." Look that one up if you want a good read/fodder for your blog.
Thank God for your blog, BTW! I got a good laugh out of it today. :)
Glad you enjoyed it.
Hello Larry, that's that Different Strokes spinoff right?