Assignment: Earth

TOS Season 2 Episode 26
Air Date: March 29th, 1968

The episode starts with the Enterprise in the year 1968 with a mission to monitor Earth to figure out how Earth survived "desperate problems" in that year including the launch of a sub orbital nuclear missile system. While monitoring communication, the Enterprise intercepts a transporter beam which brings a man over 1000 light years away. He identifies himself has Gary Seven, a person from the 20th century who is also from Earth, a human, but with knowledge of a more advance race that he was travelling from.

Seven tries to escape, and almost successfully defeats the security officers and even withstands the Vulcan neck pinch. Only a phaser blast stops him. But not brig can hold Seven. His technology disables the force field and subdues the security officer and he transports down to Earth. When he gets there, his computer system doesn't recognize him, which indicates something had changed. He mentions his mission is to ensure that Earth survives long enough for humans to become peaceful.

Seven's secretary shows up for work but she doesn't recognize him. Her name is Roberta Lincoln played by Tari Garr. Kirk and Spock find their way to the building that Seven is at, but before they can catch up with him, he transports to the McKinney base where the sub orbital nuclear missile system is being launched from.

He gets past the guards and uses the elevator to get to the top of the rocket and starts tampering. Kirk and Spock transports to where Seven does but gets caught by security. Scotty finds Seven using their visual scanners and tries to transport him to the Enterprise, but Ms Lincoln was tampering with Seven's transporter and pulled him back.

The rocket launches and Seven is able to take control of it and it arms it and redirects it. But Ms Lincoln hits Seven and takes his pen device. He claims if he doesn't complete his mission, World War III will be the result. Kirk and Spock knock out the security guard and transports to Seven's office. Seven explains to Ms Lincoln that for centuries humans are taken from Earth, trained and sent back to help control the development of the planet.

Kirk decides to trust Seven in order to get him to detonate the missile which he does just close enough to it's target to scare humanity in giving up the arms race.

This episode was actually a backdoor pilot for a new series about Seven, a person hired by aliens to help Earth get through it's tough times. The series was never picked up by any network.

"Captain, we could say that Mister Seven and Miss Lincoln have some... interesting experiences in store for them." - Spock

"Computer, I caution you. I have little love for Beta-5 snobbery." - Seven

"Without facts, the decision cannot be made logically. You must rely on your human intuition." - Spock