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Within the “Star Trek” episode “Task: Earth” (first aired March 29, 1998), the Enterprise travels again in time to the yr 1968 — one thing, it appears, the Enterprise can simply do — for historic analysis functions. Whereas in hiding out in orbit, nonetheless, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) detect that another person close by is utilizing super-advanced transporter know-how, which means they are not the one time vacationers within the neighborhood. Interrupting a transporter sign, the Enterprise beams aboard a good-looking and mysterious stranger holding a black cat. That is Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), a time traveler from the twenty fourth century, which is a century past from the place Kirk got here from.
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Gary Seven declares that he’s on a mission of his personal, and that it’s of the utmost significance. It concerned taking on management of a nuclear missile, nonetheless, so Gary would not appear very reliable. Gary additionally has to take care of the suspicions of a secretary named Roberta (Teri Garr), who has entry to his workplace. Gary’s workplace, by the best way, is outfitted with a secret high-tech pc, and has a financial institution vault with a transportation portal inside. Gary additionally makes use of a palm-sized, screwdriver-like device that he calls a Servo, and his cat, named Isis, often turns right into a humanoid girl (April Tatro). When Gary makes use of his pc, he refers to himself as Supervisor 194, so he’s clearly a part of some time-traveling paperwork that commonly sends brokers on temporal missions.
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I guarantee you that “Task: Earth” is an episode of “Star Trek,” even when it did instantly simply turned “The Gary Seven Present.” Kirk and Spock are in it, however Gary is the protagonist, and the majority of the episode’s runtime is dedicated to his character and skills. It could not shock the reader, then, to be taught that “Task: Earth” was intentionally constructed as a backdoor pilot for a Gary Seven-based “Star Trek” spinoff.
Task: Earth was the backdoor pilot for a brand new sci-fi sequence, simply in case Star Trek acquired canceled
One ought to recall that “Task: Earth” was scheduled to be the ultimate episode of “Star Trek’s” second season. On the time, the present’s score had been flagging, and NBC was on the cusp of canceling the sequence. It was solely stored on the air for a 3rd season because of a concerted letter-writing marketing campaign from “Star Trek” mega-fans Bjo and John Trimble. Gene Roddenberry, nonetheless, primarily wrote an insurance coverage coverage with “Task: Earth,” utilizing it to arrange Gary Seven because the potential star of his personal spinoff TV sequence. Certainly, Gary Seven was recycled from a TV pilot remedy that Roddenberry had written again in 1966, so the thought for an “Task: Earth” TV sequence was already totally fashioned.
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The concept for the “Task: Earth” TV sequence was largely because it was introduced on “Star Trek.” Gary Seven was a stern, clever, resourceful time-traveling agent with entry to a transportation cupboard and an all-seeing pc. His sidekick was to be a 20-year-old “mod” lady. Within the unique pilot, she was to be known as Roberta “Bobbi” Hornblower, named after Gene Roddenberry’s favourite e book sequence. On “Star Trek,” her identify was modified to Roberta Lincoln.
The opening narration ran thus:
“Within the fingers of this one man may relaxation the way forward for all mankind. His identify, Gary Seven. Born within the yr 2319 A.D. The one survivor of Earth’s try to ship a person again by way of time to at this time. Task: battle an enemy who’s already right here, making an attempt to destroy us. If he fail, there will be no tomorrow!”
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Another enjoyable particulars: Gary’s dad and mom had been people from Earth, kidnapped from the yr 4,000 BC. Gary was raised on a distant planet to be hyper-intelligent and hyper-strong. He is the time-traveling super-child of Bronze Age dad and mom.
Was Gary Seven a Physician Who knockoff?
In fact, the thought of a time-traveling super-agent with a younger, feminine, “mod” companion — together with the usage of a high-tech screwdriver-like gadget — will definitely have sci-fi followers making fast comparisons to “Physician Who,” a sequence that was already on its fifth season in 1967. It is unclear if Gene Roddenberry had seen “Physician Who” in 1967, because the present wasn’t syndicated in the US till the Seventies. It is doubtless that the similarities to “Physician Who” are a coincidence.
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Many Trekkies take into account “Task: Earth” to be one thing of an aberration within the “Star Trek” canon, and Gary Seven’s background wasn’t addressed for a lot of many years. Trekkies had come to see the Supervisors as solely semi-canonical at greatest, understanding that Gary Seven lived in his personal universe. If there had been an “Task: Earth” TV sequence, it is unlikely that it will have contained quite a lot of “Star Trek” references. In any case, in 1967, “Star Trek” was failing. Why contain Captain Kirk or the Starship Enterprise in a brand new sequence? Had “Star Trek” been canceled and “Task: Earth” picked up, it is totally doable that “Star Trek” would have been misplaced to time.
Gary Seven existed outdoors of the official “Star Trek” canon for years, solely returning in expanded universe novels and comedian books. In one of many novels, Gary was mentioned to have evacuated Earth in 1996, stowing away with the Eugenics Wars tyrant Khan(!). One other e book introduced that Gary’s bosses had been a corporation known as the Aegis, a corporation that was later explored in Nineteen Nineties “Star Trek” comics. One can purchase collections of these comics. In a while, in 2018, Gary Seven acquired his personal spinoff comedian title from IDW. Comics and novels, nonetheless, are merely overseen by Paramount, and never a part of any official Trek canon.
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How canonical are the Supervisors?
Gary was finally folded again into the primary Trek canon, but it surely took fairly a very long time. It wasn’t till the “Star Trek: Picard” episode “Fly Me to the Moon” (throughout its terrible second season) that the Supervisors could be talked about once more. Whereas visiting the yr 2024, Admiral Picard (Patrick Stewart) met a super-futuristic Supervisor named Tallinn (Orla Brady) who was overseeing Earth’s historical past to retain a sure cleanliness within the timeline. Picard name-checked Gary Seven when speaking to her, and she or he mentioned that she “was recruited by superior beings as an agent who would, in [her] phrases, defend the tapestry of historical past.” For a lot of Trekkies, it was downright surreal to listen to Picard say “Gary Seven” out loud, as we had all wordlessly agreed that the character was outdoors canon. Now, because of “Picard,” Gary Seven was formally official.
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The Supervisors returned once more shortly thereafter. Within the “Star Trek: Prodigy” episode “The Devourer of All Issues,” Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) appeared, saying that Supervisors had been brokers of the Vacationers, a strong cadre of psychic space-wanderers beforehand established on “Star Trek: The Subsequent Era.” Wesley was now a Traveler, and he additionally appeared on “Picard,” linking the 2 reveals. Wesley had his personal hideout, which was decked out to seem like Gary Seven’s condominium because it regarded in “Task: Earth.” It took 57 years, however the Supervisors had been lastly accepted as “Star Trek” canon. “Prodigy” deserved higher.
It is virtually illogical that Paramount+ hasn’t tried to provide a contemporary retooled model of “Task: Earth” for the streaming age. The premise is all set, and it appears that evidently it will require a smaller particular results price range than one’s common “Star Trek” present. Additionally, it will be “Star Trek”-adjacent, giving it that all-important shot of recognizable I.P., however leaving it unbiased sufficient to function as its personal animal. I, definitely, would like to be taught what that shape-shifting cat was all about.
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