You’re kidding! That explains so much about this awful episode! What show was this, and did it take off?
Oh it never happened. Not all backdoor pilots are successful.
A Gary Seven TV series with those two leads would have had legs IMO. A good counterpart for British shows of the time and to come, shows like The Saint, The Persuaders, The Avengers. Alien spy Gary Seven saves the world every week? I’d watch it.
Roddenberry had a few interesting ideas that didn’t pan out.
The Questor Tapes was a pilot for a television series. In fact, a 13-episode go-ahead was given for the series before the television movie was aired, with both Foxworth and Farrell having signed to reprise their roles. Joining the actors behind the scenes were producers Michael Rhodes and Earl Booth and story editor Larry Alexander. The green-lighted series was slated for Friday nights at 10 p.m. on NBC — the “death slot” where the final season of the original Star Trek had withered.
Conflict between Roddenberry and both Universal and NBC over the content of the proposed series doomed it, most notably ignoring the revelation at the end of the TV movie and eliminating the key character of Jerry Robinson. These changes were too much for Roddenberry, who abandoned the project. No episodes were produced.
The Questor Tapes was one of a series of television movies in which Roddenberry was involved, which also included Genesis II , Planet Earth , Strange New World and Spectre. All were intended as pilots; none led to a series.
I watched the Questor Tapes at the time. Also the Genesis 2 / Planet Earth pilot movies.
Yeah, me too. I really wanted a Questor series.
By the way, if someone were to ask me right now which is the worst episode in the first two seasons of Star Trek, right now my answer would be Assignment: Earth.
Am I forgetting some other egregiously bad episode, and maybe it’s just that this one is fresh in my mind?
I’m looking forward to Spock’s Brain. I like that episode. It’s fun.
“Brain and brain, what is brain?”
Dude, I LOVED Assignment Earth. It was so fun. Let’s parse this out. It’s Space James Bond. What didn’t you guys like about it? It was the most 60s episodes yet. And there were tons of cool touches.
For instance:
The shots of Gary Seven working on the rocket. That has got to be some iconic footage, him laying prone (or supine sometimes) on the girder trying to rig the the rocket, dressed nicely. That was time travelling James Bond shit! I totally would watch that series.
Or how about:.
That multitool. I forget what he called it, but it had some name. That was a neat little thing! And his hidden computer. I liked right at the end when the mission is on the line he goes “fuck it!” and reveals the computer in front of the secretary.
Now Teri Garr pushing random buttons to intercept him? That was a dumb plot device. I would rather have had hot cat lately transform early and do that part with an eyebrow smirk.
Agree. IMO, there are two others in S3 that tie “Factor” for the title of Worst Episode. “Assignment” Is weak, but not in that rarified air.
I liked The Alternative Factor. It was trippy.
Ok, Mr. Barrymore.
Ditto.
The weird thing is, the Enterprise is doing historical research for the Federation and makes the astonishing historical discovery that human history has been guided by an advanced alien race that kidnaps people and trains them to do their bidding on Earth-- and may well still be manipulating events-- and that’s the last we hear of it.
That’s what happens when the backdoor pilot dosn’t get picked up. :) To the ashbin of Canon-history with you!
For those who may be interested, Wikipedia tells me that Gary Seven did make future appearances in several books and comics after this episode.
Of course there’s a whole wikipedia entry on an obscure 60s sci fi one off character.
I’m not good with names, so I had to go back through the thread and find which one was Alternative Factor.
I very much enjoyed reading my comments on it just now. Brought a smile to my face, like I’m McCoy in the scene I described.
I was very much looking forward to a Space James Bond! But he’s thwarted by a lady randomly turning dials. And he’s down there working on that rocket forever! Ok, we get it, he’s working on the rocket. Nope, we have more time to fill in this episode, let’s show it some more. I wonder if he’s doing anything interesting fiddling in there? We don’t know, we just see his face as his hands can’t be seen. So why am I still looking at this guy? Oh look, the Enterprise’s probes have seen him. And now we get to look at him some more from this angle. Then they cut to him again and he’s still fiddling with the damn thing. Good god, DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING.
You guys keep repeating the name Teri Garr as if you all know her or something? Was she in something famous?
She was cute, and appeals to a certain Gen X male sensibility. She was mainly known for being in movies with Micheal Keaton in the '80s like “Mr. Mom”. I forget if she was in “Night Shift” or not.
Edit: She wasn’t. She had a small part in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and was in “Tootsie” too. A B-Actress.