Star Trek: Assignment Earth (Star Trek (IDW)) [Paperback]

John Byrne (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 2008 | Series: Star Trek (IDW)

The 1968 TV episode "Assignment Earth" had been the Season Two finale for the original Star Trek series, and was intended by Gene Roddenberry as the pilot for a spin-off series that never came to pass. Now, John Byrne delivers the series 40 years after it would have debuted, recounting the adventures of interstellar agent Gary Seven and his Earth-born assistant as they covertly confront threats to the past so that they can save Star Trek's future. Byrne writes and draws the series, which steps one year forward with each installment, beginning with 1968, the year that the spin-off series would have appeared.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: IDW Publishing (December 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600102913
• ISBN-13: 978-1600102912
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #367,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Someone get John Byrne an inker!, December 29, 2008

By 

Babytoxie (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: Assignment Earth (Star Trek (IDW)) (Paperback)

If not for the artwork, I'd give writer/artist John Byrne's STAR TREK - ASSIGNMENT: EARTH a full 5 stars. This is an excellent furthering of the original series episode "Assignment: Earth", in which agent Gary Seven, his assistant Roberta, and cat (more or less) Isis, must avert threats to the existence of the human race. That episode was intended as a pilot for an unrealized spin-off series, and the 5 stories collected here fill the void wonderfully with a stab at what might have been. Gary and his companions battle nuclear saboteurs, mad geneticists, and Richard Nixon in their mission, and they even become mixed into another Trek episode. The actions of some characters do get a bit repetitive, such as Seven's heavy reliance on his servo device to get them out of jams, or Roberta's worried cries of "Ooohhhh... Mr. Seven!", but when you're working with a property like Star Trek, I guess it's best to make it as familiar as possible to the fans. But while Byrne's stories are right on the money, his art is really rough. It looks rushed and sketchy, and not at all what I would expect from someone who loves Star Trek as much as he claims. Oh, to see a talented inker enhance those lines...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More John Byrne Classic Trek Goodness, November 15, 2009

By 

Luke Styer "Luke" (Huntington, WV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek: Assignment Earth (Star Trek (IDW)) (Paperback)

Star Trek's second season finale was an episode entitled "Assignment: Earth," in which Kirk and Spock ceded much of the spotlight to Robert Lansing's Gary Seven, a sort of interstellar secret agent who has come to Earth to protect humanity from itself. Gene Roddenberry feared that Star Trek was on its last legs and so used an episode of its second season as a backdoor pilot for a new series, but the next season it was Kirk and Spock, not Gary Seven who had a place on America's airwaves.

I was a latecomer to John Byrne's Star Trek: Assignment: Earth, missing the trade paperback collection in its original release, and I hate that I deprived myself of these really fun stories for almost a year. These aren't exactly Star Trek stories. Instead, they're Byrne's vision of what the Gary Seven series might have been, and if his vision was accurate, we probably missed out on a very cool series.

Ultimately, though, Star Trek: Assignment: Earth is not quite Star Trek, and while Byrne paints a tantalizing picture of a series that wasn't, I've enjoyed his recent comics which are more firmly entrenched in traditional Star Trek settings and situations more satisfying, though this collection remains well worth purchasing for any Trek fan. As an added bonus one story in Star Trek: Assignment: Earth is the direct prequel to a story in Byrne's incredible Star Trek: Crew collection, demonstrating one the the strengths of the comic-book format -- crossover potential unlimited by concerns of budget or the availability of actors.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Retro cool, March 9, 2009

By 

Mou "It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive!" (Rural Kentucky) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: Assignment Earth (Star Trek (IDW)) (Paperback)

I've been a fan of comic book writer/artist John Byrne's work since the late 1970's, and I've been a "Star Trek" fan about the same amount of time. This trade paperback collects Byrne's follow-up to the "Assignment: Earth" episode of the original "Star Trek" series, which was to serve as a pilot for a series featuring the time-traveling Gary-7, Roberta Lincoln, and Isis. It's a lot of fun, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

(Incidentally, I bought the trade paperback as a gift for a friend; I read the five original comic books.)