| Review : |
A pilot of a series that never was, in fact a handover episode ("Emissary" and "Caretaker" would do the same thing). It was handled very well, and the focus shifted gradually from the Enterprise to Seven and Lincoln. From there, the story flowed fairly well, with some decent writing. Seven was played very well by Robert Lansing, with a curious touch of menace to him. Roberta Lincoln might not have been entirely filled out, but there was potential for writers to work with there. Isis the cat intrigued me, and the way that Seven seemed to be communicating directly with her, I really did wonder what was going on. It added an "is he good or bad" question as well. That left us divided over whom we wanted to succeed in what. Curiously, the writers got both the prediction of a Saturn V going off course (although Apollo 6 stabilised) and an important assassination correct (unfortunately for Martin Luther King) - they both happened on the 4th of April, 1968. The rocket shots were Apollo 4, a slightly odd choice given that the Saturn V was an exclusively NASA rocket and a nuclear launch would have been handled by the USAF. I might have edited in some USAF markings if I had been in charge of the remastering process, and perhaps use the real 2nd stage separation for the shot, not the 1st. Seven also had something very like a sonic screwdriver. With all this, and the excellent setup, I get the sense that "Assignment: Earth" the series might have been good, but I suppose we will never know. |
