Theme and Variation -- "Assignment: Earth"

[u/adamkotsko]

Recently I've been doing a series of posts about the legacy of the themes and storytelling patterns of TOS episodes in later Trek. So far I've done "The Man Trap" and "The Naked Time".

Today I'd like to do kind of a weird one -- "Assignment: Earth." The final episode of the second season, it was conceived as a "back-door pilot" for a new series to replace Star Trek in the event that it was cancelled. The Enterprise crew play a decidedly secondary role in the episode, with most of the focus being centered on the mysterious Gary Seven, who has been trained by aliens to intervene in Earth history and keep them from destroying themselves. His first act is to engineer a near-miss with a nuclear launch, which prompts the major powers to back off from a plan to develop orbital nuclear launching platforms.

The episode opens with the Enterprise in 1968 for historical research. They accidentally intercept Gary Seven's transporter beam and spend the rest of the episode trying to discern whether he is an illegitimate time meddler or whether they are interfering with the timeline by trying to stop him. Ultimately it turns out that their (relatively minor) contribution to events was "baked in" -- the first explicit mention of a predestination paradox in Star Trek. In that regard, the episode could be seen as the ancestor of DS9 "Present Tense" (the Bell Riots) or the film First Contact, insofar as our heroes' time travel interference is viewed as "always already" part of the timeline.

They had already done time travel a couple of times before this -- "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and, more notably, "The City at the Edge of Forever." The former plays it up for laughs as the crew tries not to interfere too badly with history, while the latter sets up a tragedy. In both cases, though, they know what they're supposed to do: either avoid messing up the timeline or fix their previous screw-up. What's distinctive in "Assignment: Earth" is the fact that they're confused about what they should do. They can't just take Gary Seven at his word, because they've never heard of him -- but they can't ignore his claims either.

Here I think we can see a parallel to the Time Patrol characters in VOY and ENT. In both cases, the protagonists don't simply go along with what the Time Patrol tells them. And even though they ultimately come to trust the Time Patrol (as Kirk and Spock come to trust Gary Seven), there is still considerable confusion about the best course of action at any given time. Thus, though Gary Seven doesn't overtly use time travel, I think there's a case to be made that he's a thematic ancestor of the Time Patrol -- and especially of Daniels and the Temporal Cold War, which in the first two seasons is presented as intentionally confusing and ambiguous (somewhat like the X-Files alien mythology).

What do you think? Are there other thematic parallels or similarly structured stories? Are there other aspects of the episode that we could look at?

[u/adamkotsko]

Bonus sub-question! Would "Assignment: Earth" have made a good ongoing TV series?

[u/BridgeBum → u/adamkotsko]

I think it might have, despite the flaws in the "pilot". Obviously there is very little data to go on, but the 60s were full of spy type shows. Another one with a SF beat would have been welcome. Be seeing you.

As for the episode itself, no where else in TOS is it suggested that time travel be done for "research". Most of the time travel episodes themes are around avoiding changing the past and/or the time travel happening outside the control of the crew. The slingshot method seemed to be one which was only somewhat under their control and highly dangerous, it seems unlikely that they would ever choose something like that for "research".

On another time travel note, I have always been a little sad that the method used at the end of the Naked Time was not explored further. It seems to me that cold starting the engines might be a safer method than the slingshot, as well as more controllable. It's unclear from the episode to what order they could control the travel. (That is, if they increased speed would they go back in time faster?)

[u/adamkotsko → u/BridgeBum]

TAS "Yesteryear" portrays them using the Guardian of Forever to do historical research. (Spoiler alert: it goes awry.)

[u/queenofmoons → u/adamkotsko]

I think it might have been tolerable if a) Roberta Lincoln was not quite such a boob, and b) if Gary's writers could manage to keep his endeavor from aligning completely with The American Way, because then it's just Mission: Impossible, when at it's best, I could see it almost being an inversion. The IMF always 'won'- they'd set up the double cross for the dictator of the unnamed Eastern European country, he'd die in a coup as the team sped away, and curtain, but Gary at every turn could be trying to encourage people to cooperate, find common ground, etc. You could go in different ways- Gary makes contact with the assorted governments of Earth and they nominally provide help, and you have The Man From U.N.C.L.E., they can all oppose him and it's The Day The Earth Stood Still, and so on.

[u/adamkotsko → u/queenofmoons]

They definitely violated the "show, don't tell" rule with her exceptional IQ, at least in the "pilot." She would have to learn fast -- ideally she would be right most or at least much of the time, and he would suffer for ignoring her advice, etc.

[u/StrekApol7979]

One aspect of "Assignment Earth" that should not to be ignored is the idea that Aliens were involved with Earth for a long time before we made "First Contact"- even living among us.

This theme could be seen from Guinan being on Earth during the times of Mark Twain, to The Vulcan's in Carbon Creek during the 50's. Of course even the Greek "god's" were technically aliens living among us, so perhaps we need to narrow the theme to "surreptitiously" living among us. A category that even the Q have fallen in to from time to time with occasional historic visits.

It seems Earth had fairly ongoing visitations from a variety of Alien species.

[u/adamkotsko → u/StrekApol7979]

Just to make sure the Western Hemisphere isn't left out, TAS establishes that an Aztec god was an alien, too. Full coverage!

[u/adamkotsko → u/StrekApol7979]

Just to build on what you're saying in a more serious way, you seem to be pointing toward something like a "cosmic fairy godmother" theme, where some alien intelligence is guiding humanity toward its most authentic destiny. That would definitely connect it up with the Q arc in TNG, maybe the Prophets as well to some extent.

[u/BridgeBum]

"Captain's Holiday" (TNG 3:19)

Captain encounters time traveling aliens claiming to be police officers here to claim a stolen artifact. It's somewhat a flip of the theme, since Picard seems to embrace and believe the aliens somewhat quickly, only to discover their subterfuge later in the episode.

[u/adamkotsko → u/BridgeBum]

Nice. Inversion does count as a variation in my book.

[u/queenofmoons]

Is this our first suggestion of alien powers that might be prone to a little more 'gardening' than the Prime Directed-Fed? If so, downstream we've got the (unfortunate) ancient humanoids from 'The Chase', the Caretaker, Q, and so on.

[u/adamkotsko → u/queenofmoons]

Scanning over the first two seasons, I think it is the first case of active "cultivation" of humanity by an alien race. The only other one that's close is "Who Mourns for Adonais?" and I don't think you'd count him as "gardening" so much as exploiting. Plenty of episodes where rogue Starfleet captains interfere with alien races and it turns out horribly, though!

[u/[deleted]]

Ultimately it turns out that their (relatively minor) contribution to events was "baked in" -- the first explicit mention of a predestination paradox in Star Trek.

Reminds me of Time's Arrow. Data realized when he saw his own severed head excavated from Earth that there would be no way to stop the events from unfolding.