In fairness, within canon at the time, Starfleet, specifically Spock, had only recently discovered the means of time warp as a deus ex machina at the end of season one episode The Naked Time. Although Archer knew about the Temporal Prime Directive, it would have precluded him from officially telling Starfleet or later the Federation lest its natural formation be disrupted thereby changing the timeline. So it’s not that far fetched that Kirk’s era Federation would have been naive about the dangers of time travel. Though one assumes Bones complained about it from the beginning.
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Shhh— they’ll hear you. No callbacks! No callbacks ever! Please, make it stop!!
[Sorry, with the The Mandalorian, and now, The Book of Boba Fett being a relentless, unending series of insipid callbacks, the effects are apparently traumatic on the human psyche.]
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Gary Seven Gary Seven Gary Seven.
Who’s he? I mostly remeber…
Roberta Lincoln Roberta Lincoln Roberta Lincoln.
Just saw her on MASH last night from 1973.
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But, I like callbacks.
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It’s a cross between James Bond and Doctor Who
Who would want to watch THAT 
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Assignment:Earth is my favorite episode, followed by The Trouble With Tribbles, and A Piece of The Action.
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I remember Isis. MreooOOOWRRR
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At the time, everybody and their mother were making spy series: The Man From UNCLE, I Spy, The Avengers, and even comedy with Get Smart. The potential ratings were just not enough to justify production costs. Star Trek was already losing to Bonanza, so why add yet another unproven spy series?
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In retrospect I’m surprised Roddenberry didn’t name him Dylan Hunt.
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I know, right? Bond obviously is another Time Lord already.
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If you can connect the dots, it’s no longer a mystery why Assignment: Earth didn’t lead to a spin-off.
Exhibit A is at 15:57:
We are shown a (counterfeit?) ID card for the National Security Agency (NSA). The episode is from March 1968.
Exhibit B is at National Security Agency - Wikipedia there, we read that “The existence of the NSA was not revealed until 1975.[11]”. So how come Gene Roddenberry or the folks around him could have known of the NSA prior to its existence being revealed? The simplest answer is—they could have not, unless of course they were time travellers themselves.
Exhibit C is from the same Wikipedia article, quote: “In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, a congressional hearing in 1975 led by Senator Frank Church[35] revealed that the NSA […] had routinely intercepted the international communications of prominent anti-Vietnam war leaders such as Jane Fonda and Dr. Benjamin Spock” (emphasis mine).
It is now becoming clear, from the historical documents such as TOS-S2E26 and congressional records, that (1) Roddenberry sought to save mankind from its own actions, (2) so he put together a crew, (3) travelled back in time (and maybe space) to Earth in the 20th century. (4) As part of the plan, they convinced television producers to stage and disseminate documentaries of their past lives. Evidence for the veracity of this claim is, inter alia, the design of the spacecraft, which was absolutely unheard of and appearing out of nowhere in an era where most people and science fiction writers imagined space travel to be done with rockets, not space cruisers. (5) Spock, who in the historical records is always addressed as ‘Mr. Spock’ eventually took on the first name ‘Benjamin’ to better blend in with American society. (6) Mentioning the NSA might have happened intentionally or not; in any event, it must have greatly angered the Agency and explains their actions against Spock. (7) The Agency the used their influence to cause The Original Series to be prematurely terminated (after only three seasons, despite the popularity of the show) and also managed to convince studios not to continue working on a spin-off that would likely have revealed much, much more than the existence of a clandestine national agency—all under the guise of ‘entertainment’ but we know what’s in there just for the laughs and where facts are being told. The Russians no doubt did know that, too.
Just do your research people!
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Much like how the U.S. Government isn’t slated to officially confirm the existence of S.H.I.E.L.D. or its various helicarriers until 2035.
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Robert Lansing could never catch a break when it came to TV series. Prior to this episode he was the star of 12 O’Clock High for one season, and then his character was killed off. He mostly spent his career doing guest appearances or supporting roles in shows that didn’t last long.
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Federation Department of Temporal Investigations: “There shall be no peace while Kirk lives!”
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LUCSLY: James T Kirk.
SISKO: The one and only.
LUCSLY: Seventeen separate temporal violations. The biggest file on record.
DULMUR: The man was a menace.
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By character actor standards he had a pretty good career. Good runs in some good series, even if they only lasted a season or two. And Automan will run in our hearts forever.
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Only if you don’t count imposters, robot clones, shape-shifters, mirror-universe counterparts, transporter duplicates and J.J. Abrams reboots.
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Time Cops care none about those shenanigans. That is the other departments concern.
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He will always be “Control” to me.
Not a big part, but a fun one. He was always getting Edward Woodward fulminating over some info being withheld.
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But, what you’re suggesting, if I’m reading between the lines correctly, is that if we start an internet campaign of sufficient force, we could convince extant time travelers to go back in time and rearrange history so that we could have An Assignment Earth series. Or, rather, we did have one.
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