Seven Days (TV series)

Seven Days (also written as 7 Days) is a science fiction television series based around the premise of time travel. It was produced by UPN from 1998 - 2001.

Production

Three seasons of Seven Days were produced. All three seasons (with the exception of a single episode) have been shown in North America. In the UK, all three seasons have now been shown on Bravo and BBC2. All three seasons have also been shown in Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Brazil and the show was quite popular in Italy where it was shown in Sunday prime time. All seasons had been shown in Spain, Israel and Slovakia, but in a very untimely schedule that prevented a wide audience.

The series was filmed in California, USA during season one, and British Columbia, Canada during seasons two and three.

In May 2001, the series was cancelled.

Synopsis

The plot follows a secret branch of the United States' National Security Agency who have developed a time travelling device based upon alien technology found at Roswell. As the opening of the show says, the Chronosphere, or Backstep Sphere, sends one human being back in time seven days to avert disasters. The show's name refers to the fact that the Backstep Project can only backstep seven days because of limitations imposed by the fuel source and its reactor. As the fuel source is limited, there is a strict mandate that they only Backstep for events relating to "National Security". The backstep team and the equipment are stationed in a base called Never Never Land, which is in a secret location somewhere in the desert of Nevada.

Project Backstep

Project Backstep was initiated by the National Security Agency (NSA) after the Roswell incident of 1947. The crashed alien saucer was taken to a secret base called "Never Never Land" (inspired by Groom Lake in Area 51, nicknamed in real-life as "Dreamland") in the Nevada Desert where it was reverse-engineered (similar to Bob Lazar's story about his job at the S-4 base).

By reverse-engineering the alien technology, they were able to create a time machine. The time machine is not the Chronosphere itself, but encompasses the Chronosphere's hangar and the supporting equipment. The Chronosphere is mainly just a vessel to transport the Chrononaut through space and time.

The time machine uses Element-115 salvaged from the Roswell crash. This transuranic element allowed them to generate a time distortion field around the Chronosphere which will displace it through space and time. The sphere is usually teleported away from the hangar and into space, after which the chrononaut, Frank Parker, will steer the sphere towards the required space and time coordinates (referred to as 'flying the needles' in the early episodes).

The Time Machine

Descriptions of how the Chronosphere and the time travel mechanisms work were revealed in the early episodes, and in episodes where Russian time travelers or spies attempt to steal Element-115 or the secrets of the Backstep Project (for example, in Season 3, Episode 21 - "Born in the USSR" and in Season 1, Episode 9 - "As Time Goes By").

While it may appear that the time machine is the Chronosphere itself, this is not the case. The Chronosphere has its own power source for navigation and avionics, but it doesn't produce the time displacement field for time travel (explained in Season 1, Episode 9 - "As Time Goes By").

Instead, the Element-115 fuel source, the reactor and the gravitational field generators are located outside the Chronosphere. A waveguide conduit connects the reactor to the Chronosphere, whereby the gravity wave generated by the Element-115 fuel source is "pumped" towards the sphere. The sphere will then latch on to this gravity wave whereby it is converted into a time displacement field, which is a localized region of spacetime distortion (see Season 1, Episode 9 - "As Time Goes By"). Due to the limited amount of Element-115 fuel, it has to be used sparingly. Furthermore, due to the limitations of the reactor size and output power, the time displacement field has sufficient energy to send the Chronosphere back in time for only seven days (see Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2).

It was also mentioned that they can only go back in time seven days due to the quantity of the fuel source. The Element-115 fuel source can "regenerate". It will be depleted after each backstep and it will take seven days for the fuel to regenerate to an amount necessary to charge the reactor up to 100 percent (see Season 3, Episode 8 - "Tracker").

However, in another episode - Season 3, Episode 21, "Born in the USSR" - the Soviets mentioned that they encountered a mathematical limitation of the time travel mechanism that they were working on, in which it would appear that time travel is limited to only seven days to the past, and nothing more than that. They mentioned that they were unable to overcome this "barrier".

Project Backstep was indicated to still exist many decades into the future. In Season 2, Episode 23 - "The Cure", an NSA agent from the future traveled far back in time to stop a doctor from developing a cancer cure. He revealed that this cure would mutate and cause an epidemic that brought mankind to the edge of extinction. The NSA of the future salvaged more Element-115 from another saucer crash, and used all the Element-115 fuel that they had at one go, thus enabling the Chronosphere to be transported decades into the past.

Roswell technology

In the final episode of the first season (Episode 21, "Lifeboat"), it was revealed that the Roswell crash was actually an alien craft transporting convicts to a penal colony in another solar system when it developed a malfunction and crash-landed on Earth. The aliens were preserved and kept in a secret holding facility deep within Never Never Land, but one of them (nicknamed "Adam") came back to life and attempted to cause a nuclear power plant meltdown.

These aliens are referred to as "Greys" and were said to originate from the Zeta Reticuli system. Donovan explained to Parker in the pilot episode that in order to cross the vast distances between stars, the aliens have developed a propulsion technology that bent space and time (similar to a warp drive).

The NSA have been reverse-engineering the technology left behind from the crash, but was still unsuccessful at replicating a warp drive for faster-than-light travel. They have, however, harnessed the alien fuel source, Element-115, to bend spacetime and the end result was the ability to time travel (explained by Donovan in Season 1, Episode 1).

It would appear that the aliens, who were used to faster-than-light travel, had developed cognitive functions that made them aware of multiple timelines and realities. This was revealed in the first season finale in which the alien Adam was aware of the timelines before and after Parker's backstep (Season 1, Episode 21 - "Lifeboat").

The aliens also had advanced surgical procedures whereby an implant was able to bridge the signals in a damaged spinal cord, allowing paralyzed aliens to walk again (Season 2, Episode 6 - "Walk Away"). Ballard tried out this implant and it enabled him to walk again, but the neural profile of Adam (from which the implant was taken) was also imprinted in the implant, and it gradually 'leaked' into Ballard's consciousness, effectively causing the residual 'mind' of Adam to possess Ballard.

Time Gremlin

Other than the Zeta Reticulians, another extraterrestrial entity that was shown on the series was the "Time Gremlin" (Season 2, Episode 11 - "Time Gremlin").

The Chronosphere passed through a wormhole rift just outside of Earth orbit and was drawn towards it due to its gravitational effects. While lingering around the wormhole's event horizon, an alien creature caught on to the Chronosphere and followed it back to Earth. In transit, the gremlin damaged the sphere, causing Frank Parker to "lose the needles" for the very first time, leading to his first failed Backstep.

It was later revealed that the creature originated from the Hydra system. Ballard somehow traced the origin of the wormhole and suggested to the Backstep team that they should launch the sphere into space again with the hatch open, and let the gremlin return to where it came from.

Soviet time travel projects

In two episodes (Season 1, Episode 9 - "As Time Goes By" and Season 3, Episode 21 - "Born in the USSR"), it was shown that the Russians had their own time travel projects.

The Soviet time travel project also had possession of Element-115 from a similar alien craft crash in Siberia (Season 3, Episode 21 - "Born in the USSR"). However, Soviet physicists were unable to refine the physics needed to harness the ability of Element-115 for spacetime distortion.

In the episode "As Time Goes By", a Russian time machine from the future returned to the past to visit Project Backstep. The Russian chrononaut tried to steal the Element-115 fuel source and damage the Chronosphere. The Russian time machine was shown to be powered by a "Photon Reactor" that has a similar output to a hydrogen bomb (according to Ballard), something that Ballard is also working on. This allowed the time machine to generate sufficient power to create its own localized time displacement field without relying on Element-115. The Russian chrononaut also claimed that his time machine is able to travel forward in time, not just backward.

Cast

• U.S. Navy Lieutenant Francis "Frank" Bartholomew Parker (Jonathan LaPaglia), a former military and ex-CIA operative who was brought out of a secret CIA mental institution - due to a mental breakdown he had suffered as a result of being tortured while being a prisoner in Somalia - to be the project's chrononaut. It is often said than Parker's mental problems is what allow him to be such a good chrononaut. Parker's youth was spent in a Philadelphia area orphanage. He is divorced and has a son he doesn't see often. He is continually chasing Olga, but she keeps refusing him. He also occasionally drinks to excess and has a gambling problem. Technically, he's an NSA agent but, outside of a mission, he can't leave the Project's headquarters, which chafes him. He always tries to get around the rules in an ongoing battle of wills with security chief Nathan Ramsey. His codename is "Conundrum".
• Dr. Olga Vukavitch (Justina Vail), a Russian doctor who worked in the Russian version of the Backstep Project, which, without any technology from the Roswell crash, never reached operational level. She lost her husband in an accident. She grows to like Frank (calls him Mr. Parker) at times, but is almost invariably put off by some new crassness or arrogance of his.
• U.S. Navy Captain Craig Donovan (Don Franklin), A Navy SEAL and Project Backstep's military advisor/tactical coordinator and backup chrononaut. He's also an old friend of Frank's, who led the team which rescued him.
• Dr. Bradley Talmadge (Alan Scarfe), director of the Backstep Project operations and a long-time member of the NSA intelligence community. Although middle-aged, he is shown several times to still have excellent combat skills.
• NSA Agent Nathan Ramsey (Nick Searcy), Backstep Project security chief. A short-tempered, highly opinionated man, he opposes Frank becoming chrononaut and is therefore made the prime target of Parker's practical jokes.
• Dr. Isaac Mentnor (Norman Lloyd) (seasons 1-2, guest appearances in season 3), a scientist with a shadowy past that's tied into the Roswell cover-up, Dr. Mentnor was the man who initially conceived the Backstep project.
• Dr. John Ballard (Sam Whipple) (seasons 1-2). The wheelchair-bound resident genius on the Backstep Project. In the fourth episode of season 3, he won a tropical island in a poker match in Las Vegas and got married but he's not sure with whom, since he was a little drunk at the time. So he took some time off to straighten things out. (In reality, Sam Whipple was battling cancer at the time he left the show, and died shortly thereafter.)
• Andrew "Hooter" Owsley (Kevin Christy) (season 3). A young physics prodigy whom Ballard suggested as his replacement.

Episodes

Of Note

The plot of first episode was that of a terrorist group, named "The Sons of Saddam" (but in reality a reactionary Russian Communist group) flew a private Cessna type airplane into the White House, killing the President and Vice President of the United States and the President of Russia. This episode originally aired on October 7, 1998, two years and eleven months before the attack on the Pentagon in Washington D.C. on September 11, 2001. In reality a passenger jetliner, American Airlines Flight 77, hit The Pentagon. However, a second plane United Airlines Flight 93, was reputedly heading for Washington D.C. but crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after a passenger uprising. Its reputed specific target was either the United States Capitol--or the White House.

References

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