{
  "id": 3136574,
  "title": "A Star Trek: The Original Series Episode Was Meant To Launch A 20th Century-Based Spin-Off",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/a-star-trek-the-original-series-episode-was-meant-to-launch-a-20th",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-24T23:12:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TVLine",
    "slug": "tvline",
    "url": "https://www.tvline.com/2240779/star-trek-the-original-series-episode-assignment-earth-20th-century-spin-off/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the final episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, \"Assignment: Earth\", the crew of the Enterprise encountered a man named Gary Seven and his cat, Isis. Seven was on a mission to alter the course of 20th-century history, which led to conflict with the Starfleet crew. These characters were intended to star in a spin-off series set in the 20th century, but this never materialized. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, created a pilot script for this spin-off two years before the season 2 finale aired, but it was not connected to Star Trek and was intended as a standalone story. After the lower-than-expected ratings for Star Trek, Roddenberry tried to launch a new series using this pilot, but it ultimately did not come to fruition. Despite this, Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln appeared in various Star Trek novels, comic books, and a five-issue comic series called \"Assignment: Earth\".",
  "summary": "Gene Roddenberry originally wrote this episode as a pilot script for another show. When it became a Star Trek episode, he hoped it could become a spin-off.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}