Assignment: Earth…The Series

It is well known that TOS’s "Assignment: Earth" was originally a pilot concept from Gene Roddenberry for a show centering on the character of Gary Seven. This week’s Friday Night Movie is a glimpse at a possible opening theme for that show…

This was created by musician and school teacher Andy Patterson (with help from his brothers Michael and Phillip). Andy wrote the music for the theme and recorded the original music using real live musicians. Big thanks to Daren Dochterman for introducing me to Andy and this great vid. Visit Andy’s Gary Seven Website where there is more info.

Here is the ‘jazzier, sexier’ version:

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Awesome!! Gary Seven is the James Bond of STAR TREK!

Reminds me of The Man From UNKLE. The music is spot-on! I’d swear it was from the sixites!

Too cool for school! Love it. Man it triggered a memory of mine back in the 80s. I was visiting a friend at their college in the Malibu area. We took a trip to Disneyland and on one of the rides a we went there were two couples a few seats behind. One of the women was Terri Garr. What a fun ride hearing her yells in the background.;)

Well in some parallel earth this series probably happened. Too bad not ours. Fun episode of TREK though.

Einstein said there were only 47 people in the universe. Lansing looks a lot like Peter Weller – or vice versa. He looked more comfortable flying a B17 back in the day. Nice job by the Patterson Brothers.

Pretty cool stuff.

Kind of makes you wonder how Star Trek history would be different today if Gary 7 got his own program.

Ive always wanted to hear Teri Garr scream…moan…whatever lol. I was a friskly lad back then lol

I loved the Khan series of TOS novels, particularly how Gary Seven and Roberta were featured alongside Khan himself. They’re the only Trek novels I’ve ever read (apart from one Voyager novel by Jeri Taylor). This would have made for a very entertaining series had it been picked up by NBC.

Heh, for some reason the openings reminds me of a 1980s style series. And who knows it could have worked.

Great stuff ! This reminds me of a story that I think would have made a great episode for the “Assignment: Earth” series. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds III, the story “The Aliens Are Coming!” deals with Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln meeting up with Captain Christopher (“Tomorrow is Yesterday”). Gary Seven and Roberta act as Men in Black in this story, which even ties in the Ferengi “invasion” of Roswell, NM, from the Deep Space Nine episode “Little Green Men.”

There are some scenes in the opening videos that show Robert Lansing fighting some security guards, etc…Where did these scenes come from?

This is a hint! JJ Abrams isn’t planning a new Star Trek movie, that’s just a smokescreen. It’s really a film about Gary Seven using his transport machine to go into the Nexus and….

…wait for it…

BRING BACK KIRK!!!!!

Remember, you heard it here first. ;-)

Actually, I’ve had these videos on my Youtube Favorites list for quite a while. Excellent use of shots from Assignment: Earth. They are very cool little glimpses of what might have been. Fun, fun stuff!

Now if they would only bring back Questor

That was at least as cool as “It Takes a Thief.”

If only… if only….

Yeah there’s a few of these on you tube-

The one with the jazzy theme and no voice over is really cool!

However, I was deeply disturbed by the one that features the Friends theme and font. Worlds Colliding!

Nitpick: Star Trek TOS Font not lookie so good without a Space or a StarShip.

Otherwise, kudos and thanks to the creators.

The first clip could’ve been from season 1 / ’68-’69 Season, & the second clip from the ’69-’70 season and thru the end of the series.

Very Cool Concept! I would’ve watched it.

That was fan-frickin-tastic. Perfectly conceptualized, great execution, wonderful editing and the music was spot-on. Kudos and compliments all around.

Its a shame Robert Lansing wasn’t a bigger star. He really had a great quiet intensity and charisma. He was ***superb*** in one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, with Mariette Hartley, which I believe was called “The Long Morrow”. And a great late career turn as the spy chief Control on the Edward Woodward series “The Equalizer” (itself with a great opening theme I believe by The Police’s drummer Stewart Copeland).

Hopefully “Assignment: Earth – the Series” was a big hit on Earth-2.

You know, it was partly inspired by It Takes a Thief. At least the second theme was. That kind of vibe is what I was going for on the second jazzier theme. Robert Wagner was so cool. It has long been my assertion that “Thief” was the show the networks opted for instead of Assignment: Earth. We endeavored real hard to cop as close to the sixties as possible. I however like the first one I wrote more. I can SEE this show happening, as if it did. Thanks for the comments. As for JJ Abrams doing a Gary Seven movie. That’d be great. Especially if they pay me to use my theme and let me write the incidental stuff inside the movie. Are you listening JJ? Call me. Hey Daren thanks while I’m thinking about it.

Nicely done. I was always disappointed that Teri Garr pooh-poohed Star Trek in interviews.

fantastic! nice editing:) perfect 60’s type music, Could have brought in a big demographic and possible could have helped star trek in the ratings if more TOS visits to the new series

That was fun.

Lansing was an eyebrow havin’ dude!

#7 Thomas,, agreed. I loved those Khan/Seven books

I always thought this could be updated and make a fine series on TV now.

Gary Seven 5 minute teaser remastered coming soon on HD in special futuristic case for a mere $899.00 plus tax

And to answer Steve Johnson’s post from a few above…..if you remember Mr. Seven fights Spock, Scotty and some crew men in the original episode. Trouble is, the transporter control console is in the way the whole time. My brother Michael expertly created more of a body for Seven and superimposed in some guards for him to fight complete with a flickering flaming torch on the dungeon wall. You know G7 would be in a dungeon some time as a spy. I thought it worked quite well.

G7: (tied to a wire basket)”Do you expect me to talk?”

Khan: (opening a large trap door with boiling oil) “No, Mr Seven, I expect you to fry”

Honestly, could this be started as a series today. Imagine it, Gary 7 and Roberta Lincoln in today’s world. With link to teh Star Trek Universe…I think it would be a good thing…maybe three seasons on Newwork TV and two more on Sci-Fi.

Network TV is evil. We get to glimpse great shows, then they screw the best ones to death (West Wing was almost an exception, until they canned Sorkin for having ‘shrooms) : FireFly Sports Night, The Tick (both of them), Greg the Bunny… the list is endless – and oh yeah, STTOS!

SciFi would be a better bet from the get go, in my unhumble opinion.

Love the themes and the animations and the cool graphics!

At what windmill wilt thou tilteth next, Mr. Patterson??

What a great video, it certainly plays like a 60’s title opener. If I didn’t know better I’d swear the theme was from the 60’s! Wonderfully done. You know, if Gene Roddenberry had something like it to show NBC it certainly could have helped the potiential series chances.

Ditto everyone’s admiration for the Khan novels, as well as “Assignment Eternity” also by Greg Cox.

Not bad at all. They should actually consider this as a series on some network. It’s a way to exploit Roddenberry and it would certainly have a lot of interest. Obviously, it would be recast, and could be set in 2007, but it wasn’t a bad idea at all.

Wow, that was awesome. I just assumed the music was borrowed from some other 60s series. I’m blown away that it’s completely original and made just for this.

alright. Let’s all petition the powers that be with that idea

As a 52 year old who grew up in that era, I must tell you, the music is perfect! Sweet job!

And to think…We knew him when. Congrats, Daddy!

This would make a great series on TV now, and I have the cast for it:

Gary Seven: Kiefer Sutherland

Roberta Lincoln: Elisha Cuthbert

Hell, this character’s better than Jack Bauer any day.

The music for this video could also be used for a X-Men TV show in the 60’s as well.

I have to say I didn’t think much of the video: the stop-start effect was annoying.

I liked the music, though, and the voiceover.

Thanks again Andy, goos stuff.

You forced me to go look up everything I could on this series

So Gary would have been working for group of [alien] time agents (The Aeges) fighting a time war of sorts? His computer also would have let him travel through time and set things right on earth.

In the hands of this one man…
could rest the future of all mankind.
His name…Gary Seven…
born in the year 2319 A.D.
The only survivor of Earth’s attempt
to send a man back through time to today.
Assignment…fight an enemy
who is already here, trying to destroy us.
If he fails…there’ll be no tomorrow!

So he definitely would have been from Kirk’s future. Cool..

Great music — captures the tone perfectly! The video was well done, too, though the stop-motion effect was perhaps a little over-used for my tastes. Wonderful concept!
Only thing that perhaps could be improved in “G7 2.0”: Perhaps the title card for “Assignment:Earth” could be larger. All the 60’s shows I remember had the titles full screen — not many 50″ screen back then, perhaps. But I love the TOS font. Great stuff!

Ah, the music evokes memories of Lalo Schifrin’s work, particularly on the “Bullitt” score. I love that acid jazz genre.

Fun stuff, thanks to everyone involved in putting that together!

#33

Take that back! And if you need to know why I’m so offended, click on my name and find out.

-The Jack Sack

Yeah, there’s a little Lalo, Dave Grusin……lot of my heroes to mine from.

that was REALLY cheezy

“These are all live musicians except for synthetic harpsichord and bass guitar.”

Really? regarding the first clip: I noticed the harpsichord was from a sampled source right away which led me to read the article . I thought it was very well done and 60s sounding but the clarinet / brass descending in semitones sounded typically sampled to me, especially the brass round about the 00:19. In other words, the same sampled note played back slower and faster like on most GM modules etc.

Don’t like to be critical because it was still good, just wondered why it said all real musicians. I suppose you could argue that real musicians were used to record the original single note samples, but that would be stretching it a bit!

Well done anyway.

Nothing was sampled. All original. May have sounded like typical stuff that was sampled. That was by design. The harpshichord is just a synthesized sound. I didn’t feel like scaring up a real harpsichord. Just a chromatic figure. In ’60’s spy music you had to have a harpsichord and bongos. As to the brass sounding sampled…real….I promise you. I played on it.

I definitely prefer the first one. Very cool.

Poor Gene R., unable to get a single pilot picked even AFTER the syndicated success of Star Trek. The Questor Tapes, Gensis 2 and Planet Earth all come immediately to mind.

It was sort of like watching a grooming video for a UFO cult.

#45
Okay, well it was very well done.

Andy wrote:
“Nothing was sampled. All original.”

Just to be clear, I wasn’t talking about what people these days think sampling is, IE, nicking a few of bars from someone else’s work, I was talking about what most sound modules and keyboards have used for years to reproduce instrument sounds that you play yourself on the keyboard — like your hapsichord sound.

Andy wrote:
“In ’60’s spy music you had to have a harpsichord and bongos.”
Yes, I always liked that. Not a spy program but Columbo often had a harpsichord in there somewhere as well.

Well again,….all of the instruments were real instruments. That was part of the fun of it. Using a live orchestra like what was being done in that era. I like to imagine these guys just got off the road with bands like Goodman, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett and the like and segued into studio work. In fact, that’s part of the instruction i gave the players. “Imagine you’re in your late 50’s, early 60’s and you’re now a studio guy doing TV shows and elevator music all day – and this is one of the fun sessions.” Real trumpets, trombones, flute, clarinet, sax, string section, etc. The only synthetic instruments were again, the harpsichord and bass guitar.

And thanks for the nice words.

I’m glad Andy is getting more attention on this… when he first emailed me and showed me this, I was bowled over. We showed it at one of our panels at Comic-Con and it was met with thunderous applause… Great job, Andy.

Hey, Daren. You’re the best. Thanks for, as Adam said, “spreading the word”(Way to Eden). Good meeting you finally in person the other night at Comic con by the way. Thanks again.