One Star Trek: The Original Series Episode Shouldn’t Be Considered Canon

by

Even if it didn’t kick off a huge franchise, I still really enjoy watching the original Star Trek. Some episodes, like “The City on the Edge of Forever,” “Balance of Terror,” and “Mirror, Mirror,” are classics that hold up even today. I truly believe its impact on science fiction and popular culture is massive and can’t be overstated.

As much as I love Star Trek: The Original Series – and I really do think it’s one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever – there are a few episodes that just don’t quite hit the mark. One that always felt a little off to me is the season two finale, “Assignment: Earth.” It first aired way back in 1968, and it’s the one where the Enterprise crew goes back in time to… well, 1968! They run into this really strange guy named Gary Seven, played by Robert Lansing, who has all sorts of futuristic tech, and the whole thing just felt a bit weird compared to the rest of the series.

“Assignment: Earth” isn’t a bad episode overall, but it doesn’t feel like a typical Star Trek story. Its unusual plot is one of the strangest in the show’s three seasons, and many fans would agree it’s best considered outside the official storyline.

“Assignment: Earth” Wasn’t Supposed To Be A Star Trek Episode

The story originally known as “Assignment: Earth” was first developed by Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, as a potential TV series. In this initial concept, the character Gary Seven was a lone human survivor from the 24th century, sent back in time on a crucial mission. He was tasked with stopping the Omegans – aliens who could change their shape – from altering Earth’s history in 1968, as this would allow the Omegans to conquer humanity in the future.

Following the completion of the initial script, Roddenberry and Art Wallace developed a pitch for a series called Assignment: Earth. When no television network showed interest in the pilot, Roddenberry revised the story to integrate it into Star Trek: The Original Series, hoping it would serve as a launchpad for a potential spin-off show. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and the “Assignment: Earth” episode ultimately remained a single, self-contained story within the five-year mission of the Enterprise.

“Assignment: Earth” Sits Awkwardly Against Star Trek Canon

“Assignment: Earth” doesn’t quite fit neatly into the established timeline of Star Trek. The way the Enterprise arrived in 1968 feels a little forced, and the reasons behind Gary Seven’s mission to stop the McKinley Rocket Base from launching a nuclear weapon into space aren’t very clear.

The episode presented time travel as surprisingly simple. Captain Kirk explained that the Enterprise used a “light-speed breakaway factor” to travel back to the 20th century to study how Earth overcame challenges in 1968. His description made it seem like going back in time was a routine task.

That particular method of time travel – often called the “slingshot effect” – worked flawlessly only once. It had been attempted before in the episode “Tomorrow is Yesterday,” and later in the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and the Star Trek: Picard episode “Assimilation.” Each attempt was incredibly risky and challenging. It seems unlikely the Enterprise would go to such lengths, facing so much danger, simply to observe 1968 based on unreliable historical information.

It’s true that Captain Kirk has bent the rules about time travel before, but in the episode “Assignment: Earth,” he and Spock realized their actions were actually meant to happen all along. Essentially, the Enterprise crew was fulfilling a preordained mission, which is acceptable. However, the mystery surrounding Gary Seven’s origins remains a problem.

As a big fan, one thing that really bugged me about this episode was the mystery surrounding who Seven of Nine and her team – Agents 201 and 347 – actually worked for. We had no clue why these shadowy figures cared so much about Earth, or how they knew the weapons platform had to be taken out. It wasn’t until the Star Trek: Prodigy two-parter, “The Devourer of All Things,” which came out in 2024, that we finally got some answers. Wesley Crusher revealed they were all agents of the Travelers, which was a pretty cool reveal!

But the strangest thing of all was Gary’s cat, Isis. She could communicate with him using her mind and even transform into a human – nobody knew how! Even after almost 60 years, where Isis came from and how she did these things remains a mystery.

“Assignment: Earth” Is Far From Star Trek: The Original Series’ Greatest Moment

The characters of Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln, introduced in the ‘Assignment: Earth’ episode, continued their story in novels and comics. However, the episode itself felt quite different from the rest of Star Trek: The Original Series. While many episodes from that time were designed to be self-contained, this one still stood out as tonally inconsistent with the show’s overall style and themes.

I really wish Gene Roddenberry’s idea for Assignment: Earth had gotten the chance to become its own show. It had such a cool concept, and I honestly think it could have been a huge hit – maybe even bigger than Star Trek! If enough people had supported it, it could have run for years and even spawned its own series of shows. It’s a shame it never got that chance.

The events of “Assignment: Earth” don’t really fit with the rest of Star Trek, so it might be best if it wasn’t considered official canon. The franchise already has plenty of continuity problems and unresolved storylines, and removing this one story wouldn’t be a big deal.

“Assignment: Earth” isn’t a standout episode of the original Star Trek series. Most fans would be better off ignoring its story when considering the overall franchise. It didn’t quite work, and it might have been better received if it had been a standalone adventure, as Gene Roddenberry originally intended.

Read More

2026-05-24 02:39