March 29th, 1968, "Assignment: Earth"
Fiver (by IJD GAF)
Transcript
Memory Alpha
PART ONE
Introduction
Okay, let's get this out of the way first: it was wrong for Gene to usurp an entire episode in an effort to get another show to replace TOS just in case it's cancelled. This isn't really a TOS episode, but....
I still enjoy the concept behind Gary Seven's mission (even if it wasn't necessary for generations of his ancestors to be trained and bred for this job), and I do enjoy the expanded universe material concerning his mission.
The Episode
SPOCK: It appears we have accidentally intercepted someone's transporter beam, Captain.
Ugh. This isn't Stargate where one set of transport rings can intercept a signal sent by another. Gary's transporter technology would have nothing in common with our heroes'.
SPOCK: The beam is originating at least one thousand light years away.
SCOTT: No transporter beam can reach that far, not even in our century.
One wonders if the Aegis (I'll come back to this) have mastered the subspace transporter technology that Bok will use a hundred years later.
KIRK: This is the United Spaceship Enterprise. I'm Captain Kirk, commanding.
SEVEN: (to the cat) Yes, I heard him, Isis. We're aboard a space vessel. From what planet?
This statement is painful given what is later done with Seven, when his transporter can go through time and the Beta 5 computer can scan all of history. Again, I'll come back to this.
SEVEN: That's impossible. In this time period, there weren't (notices Spock) Humans with a Vulcan? You're from the future, Captain.
Yes, exactly. He knows roughly when humans and Vulcans will man starships together, but he doesn't know what 23rd-century Starfleet uniforms look like?
SEVEN: I've been living on another planet far more advanced. I was beaming to Earth when you intercepted me.
KIRK: The location of that planet?
SEVEN: They wish their existence kept secret. Even in your time, it will remain unknown.
SCOTT: It's impossible to hide a whole planet.
SEVEN: Impossible for you, not for them.
Since when does "unknown" automatically mean "hidden"? By the by, cloaking entire planets is patently ridiculous even if Star Trek will keep doing it. You can't cloak gravity wells...
SEVEN: This is the most critical period in Earth's history. The planet I'm from wants to help Earth survive.
Okay, the Aegis doesn't have a Prime Directive, fair enough. We could have such discussions about what ten-year period is most critical to humanity's survival, and why Hitler wasn't assassinated by Aegis agents.
(Seven attacks the security men. Spock neck-pinches him but is thrown off.)
Here we go. How much would a human beings' biology have to be altered to make them immune to nerve pinches? You'd have to redesign our nervous systems from the ground up to make sure that a sufficient number of critical nerves aren't present in the same place...
Captain's log, supplemental. A man in a twentieth century business suit. What is he? Not even Spock's Vulcan neck pinch could stop him. Without our phasers, he would have over powered all five of us. I find it difficult to believe the mysterious Mister Seven can be human, and yet, suppose he is?
This is interesting: is Gary's species the most important thing right now? Isn't his motives and intended actions a bit more important right now?
KIRK: What do you make of the cat, Mister Spock?
SPOCK: Quite a lovely animal, Captain. I find myself strangely drawn to it.
Spock's a big softie. First tribbles and now this. Plus his pet sehlat I'Chaya...
KIRK: This is the captain. All science, engineering, and supervisory personnel, lock into the briefing room.
So the vast majority of the crew has to participate in a videoconference? Why? I know that e-mail and instant messaging didn't exist yet, but the command structure exists for a reason. Furthermore, this "everyone takes part in the briefing" thing never happens again (unless you want to include STTMP, which still confuses me).
(Seven tests the forcefield blocking the doorway. Then, behind the guard's back, he takes a pen from his pocket and turns it into a device that shuts the forcefield off. He also uses it to stop the guard from shooting him.)
SEVEN: You're tired. Go to sleep.
(The guard slides down the wall with a grin on his face as Seven makes his escape.)
The simularity between Seven's servo and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver is obvious, but I'd argue that a miraculous bit of handheld tech would for practicality be in something akin to a pen-shape. Besides, if the Doctor Who Wiki is to be believed, the sonic screwdriver first made an appearance in "Fury From the Deep", which first aired around this same time...in England. The show wouldn't air in the US until 1972, and it wouldn't succeed until 1978. The first draft of the script appeared the prior December, so I call this parallel development.
MCCOY: Well, I must admit the sensor readings seem too good. Human readings, yes, but not a single physical flaw. Totally perfect body.
I admit that comparisons to Khan are obvious, but we don't have the space to talk about that here.
(A display case full of glasses splits in two, revealing a massive safe door behind it. The locking wheel turns, the safe door opens and Gary Seven carrying Isis the cat walks out of a fog into the main room. The safe door shuts itself behind him and is hidden again behind the shelves of glasses.)
If Gary has remote access to his transporter (via his servo, presumably), why did he need to use the Enterprise's transporters?
SEVEN: Specify locations of agents two oh one and three four seven.
COMPUTER: Identify self.
SEVEN: Simply check my voice pattern. You'll find me listed as Supervisor one nine four. Code name Gary Seven.
COMPUTER: Voice pattern matches, but I have no listing of a Gary Seven assigned this planet.
So...Gary was able to use his servo to link to the Beta Five to link the transporters before the computer accepted that he was an authorized user? If only he just used the Enterprise transporters to beam into his living room, then activated the Beta Five!
SEVEN: All right. Agents are male and female, descendants of human ancestors taken from Earth approximately six thousand years ago. They're the product of generations of training for this mission.
So six thousand years of humans (that's hundreds of generations!) were trained just so a handful of their decedents could do this job? Talk about useless college degrees...
SEVEN: Problem. Earth technology and science have progressed faster than political and social knowledge. Purpose of mission. To prevent Earth's civilisation from destroying itself before it can mature into a peaceful society.
So...why were agents sent now, in the sixties, instead of during World War II?
SEVEN: Where have you been?
ROBERTA: Oh, the subway got stalled
SEVEN: Where have you been for the past three days?
Wait...the Beta 5 doesn't have pictures of Agents 201 and 347 for Gary to look at? You'd think it could scan for Aegis-altered people, there can't be too many genetically perfect people walking around the city (I don't think that Khan and his fellow genetically-superior followers (I refuse to call them Augments) are walking around at the moment (later novels will place his birth in 1970)).
COMPUTER: Occurrence, automobile accident. Location Highway nine four nine, ten miles north of McKinley Rocket Base. Agents three four seven and two oh one were killed instantly.
Of course there is no McKinley Rocket Base, even if some of the stock footage is of Kennedy Space Center. There are multiple Highway 949s, but all are very short. One wonders why they couldn't just call it the Kennedy Space Center and use the nearby Highway 95.
(Kirk, Spock and the two policemen are beamed up. Kirk and Spock dash off the transporter pad leaving the flat-foots standing, slack-jawed.)
KIRK: Reverse and energise.
POLICE 1: Charlie.
(They are beamed back into the apartment, watched by Roberta.)
So...you're not going to wipe their memory or even turn off the lights in the transporter room to minimize the contamination? No wonder Temporal Investigations considers this guy a menace...
SEVEN: Meow? You are nervous, aren't you, doll?
"Doll"? How did Dixon Hill wander onto the set? Seriously though, this kind of characterization is nice if it wasn't making cameos of our cast. There has to have been a better balance possible between the Assignment: Earth stuff and the Star Trek stuff.
ROBERTA: (pointing the pen at Kirk) Listen you, get away from him.
Since when are you on Gary's side, Roberta? It's not like there weren't other scenes that could've been cut to better develop your character!
SPOCK: Captain, we could say that Mister Seven and Miss Lincoln have some interesting experiences in store for them.
KIRK: Yes, I think we could say that. Two to beam up, Scotty.
Too bad they'll be limited to novels and comic books...