TOS Assignment Earth

[+OverSword]

The final episode of Star Trek tos season 2 is titled Assignment Earth, costarring Teri Garr and Robert Lansing in which the Enterprise has travelled back to the 1960’s to observe the earth but accidentally intercept a human raised by enigmatic aliens sent to earth to act as their agent along with a beautiful alien disguised as a black cat to help guide humanity safely through this most difficult stage of their development. 

I was just watching this and can’t help but wonder if this episode was meant to introduce these people as the characters of a new tv series that never aired. Does anyone know if this is the case or shares my impression?

[Kenemet]

Yes, it was a possible introduction for a new Gene Roddenberry series.  Never made it off the drawing boards.

[+Hammerclaw]

It was a spinoff pilot attempt that failed. Questor and another failed stand-alone pilot about a post apocalyptic world were other Roddenberry projects. Years later, it was rather loose inspiration for Andromeda. Questor inspired the character, Data in STNG. Back then, Networks grew tired of the relatively high production cost of science fiction dramas. They wanted ones which needed a minimum of technical gloss and could, mostly, use available assets like any other show. It wasn't until Star Wars that that attitude began to change.

Edited July 9, 2019 by Hammerclaw

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

There’s a rather nifty duology of books called “Rise of Khan Noonisn Singh” that Stars Roberta and Gary Seven and details a lot of their career defending humanity from itself.