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Most Trekkies would be capable to inform you that the unique sequence “Star Trek” episode “Task: Earth” was meant to be a backdoor pilot. “Task: Earth” closely featured a then-new character named Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) a time-traveler from the twenty fourth century. Gary Seven was found by the crew of the united statesS. Enterprise after it had traveled again to the twentieth century for analysis functions.
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Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) briefly work together with Gary, however the bulk of the episode focuses on his adventures and the sci-fi widgets he has at his disposal. Gary carries round a futuristic, screwdriver-like system he calls a Servo and might teleport round Earth by way of a high-tech portal constructed right into a vault in his workplace. He is accompanied by Isis — a cat who, in a mysterious flip of occasions, transforms right into a humanoid lady (April Tatro) — and ultimately will get a modern-day human sidekick named Roberta (Teri Garr), a secretary who stumbles upon his fantastical cave.
On the finish of its second season, the way forward for “Star Trek” was nonetheless unsure. A letter-writing marketing campaign was the one factor that saved it from being canceled, forcing NBC to present the present a 3rd season. If “Star Trek” had failed, although, creator Gene Roddenberry had “Task: Earth” as a backup sequence all able to go. Therefore, when “Star Trek” was rescued, plans for the Gary Seven TV present had been shelved. It was the final time anybody would hear of Gary Seven till (bafflingly) an episode of (the very cluttered) “Star Trek: Picard” in 2022.
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After all, since Trekkies love expanded universe lore, Gary Seven did have a life outdoors of official “Star Trek” canon. The character has appeared in quite a few comedian books and was talked about in a number of of the extant “Star Trek” novels. The Gary Seven TV sequence may’ve by no means come to be, however we sort of obtained one anyway.
Gary Seven appeared in different Star Trek tasks after his TV present was deserted
Gary Seven had a reasonably fascinating backstory. He was born on Earth within the yr 4,000 BCE, however was kidnapped by time touring aliens who raised him on a distant world. He then grew up and took a job with a time-travel bureau, incomes the title of Supervisor. Particularly, he was Supervisor 194. As a result of Roddenberry needed to depart extra to probe for a possible spinoff, he left the broader particulars of Gary Seven’s life imprecise on “Star Trek.” Trekkies have by no means discovered how, for example, Isis may remodel from a cat right into a humanoid lady.
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In novel type, nevertheless, Gary Seven lived on. From 2001 to 2006, Pocket Books revealed three novels within the “Eugenics Wars” sequence, a Greg Cox-penned trilogy centered on the lifetime of Khan Noonien Singh (the character performed by Ricardo Montalbán in “Area Seed” and “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”). The primary two books within the trilogy (“The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh” Volumes 1 and a pair of) element Khan’s life from childhood within the twentieth century as much as the occasions of “Area Seed.” Trekkies can inform you that Khan was a tyrant who dominated nice swaths of Earth throughout the damaging Eugenics Wars. When he was lastly overthrown, Khan fled Earth on a ship known as the Botany Bay, whereon he and a few compatriots entered cryogenic stasis. He was thawed a few years later throughout the occasions of the “Area Seed” episode.
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Plainly Gary Seven was a key determine in Khan’s life. Based on Cox’s novels, Khan was grown in a eugenics lab in 1974. The lab was going to be destroyed, however Gary rescued Khan and his fellow augments, hoping to make use of their superior power and intelligence to usher in a brand new age of peace on Earth. This can be a fairly large deal in “Star Trek” lore.
The Star Trek novels revealed Gary Seven and Khan had a sophisticated relationship
The connection between Khan and Gary Seven obtained much more sophisticated. Plainly Khan was too formidable for Gary’s utopian plans, feeling as a substitute that he ought to rule the world, not serve it. As such, he and Gary ended up alienating each other. Gary additionally tried to cease Khan from instigating the Eugenics Wars, however was unsuccessful. They raged for years. When the Wars began to go south for Khan, it was Gary who, feeling compassionate, offered him with the Botany Bay earlier than retiring within the wake of the complete kerfuffle.
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Gary Seven was additionally featured in Cox’s 1998 novel “Task: Eternity,” an gratifying time-travel story in itself that happened shortly after the occasions of “Task: Earth.” It appears Gary, having discovered that Spock was going to be assassinated in a few century, traveled to the yr 2269 (which is about when “Star Trek” season 3 takes place) to cease the assassination plot earlier than it may begin. (Roberta was there too.) “Task: Eternity” additionally asserted that Gary helped scale back the results of the Three Mile Island catastrophe, stopped an assassination try on the lifetime of Chairman Mao, and uncovered the Watergate scandal. In a enjoyable extra crossover tease, Gary stated that he labored with a pair of horny British clever brokers, implying that “Star Trek” and the ’60s spy present “The Avengers” happen in the identical universe.
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Gary and Roberta had been additionally featured in a five-issue comedian ebook mini-series revealed by IDW in 2008. This was after a number of visitor appearances within the DC-backed line of “Star Trek” comics revealed from 1993 to 1996. For DC, although, Gary solely ever dropped in for a problem or two; he did not stick round.
Whereas he wasn’t formally canonical once more till “Star Trek: Picard,” some authors — Greg Cox particularly — had been keen on Gary Seven. It appears to me {that a} new Gary Seven TV sequence may simply be made for Paramount+.
