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1. What's this show about?

7 Days is about the daring exploits of Operation Back Step, a team of scientists and military personnel who use a sophisticated but not-yet-perfected time-travel device to pull the world back from the brink of cataclysm by changing history.

When a crisis occurs, the team works from its secret base in Nevada (called Never Never Land or NNL) to gather as much information as possible about what caused the disaster. Then, before seven days pass, they send "chrononaut" Frank B. Parker back to a point in time before the crisis occurred. The time jump is called a Back Step. Parker's job when he arrives in the past is to warn the authorities of impending events in an effort to prevent the catastrophe before it happens. Sometimes he doesn't wait for the government agents to catch up but just takes action to solve the problem on his own.

The time-travel device, called the Sphere, was built using alien technology recovered from a UFO that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. However, the Back Step team's understanding of that technology is incomplete. Consequently, the team's ability to predict and control the Sphere's behavior isn't terribly reliable.

The Sphere has two serious limitations that the team must contend with. First, it can only go back a maximum of seven days into the past. That means the team has at most seven days to understand the nature of whatever crisis is at hand and figure out how to prevent it. Second, the fuel that powers the Sphere is limited and non-renewable. That means the team can justify going back and changing history only when the situation is truly devastating.

Some of the situations that have occasioned a Back Step include massive radiation leaks, an attempted military coup to overthrow the U.S. government, the release of a terrible virus, and the assassination of important American and Russian officials.

2. When is it on?

3. Where was 7 Days filmed?

4. Does anybody watch this show? (Ratings and related issues)

Nielsen Media Research ranked 7 Days second among UPN's offerings (after Star Trek: Voyager) for the 1998-99 season. However, UPN is a newcomer in an intensely competitive industry and still is struggling to establish itself. There still are markets where UPN is not available (most current numbers indicate it has about 95 percent coverage), and the ratings for all the network's shows reflect that. Final rankings put ST:V at 128 out of 167, and 7 Days at 140 of 167 for the year.

The entire network's ratings were reported up by about 40 percent from the previous season, but bear in mind that UPN lost about 30 percent in the ratings last year, so the network's progress in finding its audience was slow. However, at least two weeks in December 1999, UPN bested its nearest competing network, the WB.

Early in season 2, 7 Days' ratings averaged about 2.6, with each ratings point representing slightly more than 1 million viewers, ranking it about the mid-90s. That was an improvement over season 1, but the show's second ranking on UPN had fallen by the wayside. (Thursday night wrestling blew away everything else on the network, and 7 Days now appeared to be duking it out for third place with a sitcom titled (ironically enough) The Parkers.)

The good news is that the show had considerable support from some critics like TV Guide's Matt Roush and got a sizeable jolt of publicity via regular coverage in some of the science fiction fan magazines like Cult Times and Cinescape. And Sci-Fi TV's December issue reported that viewers surveyed after the first season gave the show high marks, with special kudos going to what Christopher Crowe has called "the best cast since Bonanza."

5. How can I contact UPN?

Or you can send e-mail to: feedback@upn.com

 

6. How can I contact members of the cast?

If you are asking for a photograph, remember to include a large envelope with sufficient return postage affixed to it.

 

7. Inconsistencies and unresolved issues

Like all television series, 7 Days has had its share of inconsistencies, flubs and little details left hanging or unanswered from one episode to another. Here are a few:

Parker's bar-code tattoo: Now you see it; now you don't. 'Nuff said.

Donovan as Backup pilot: Numerous times during the first season it was made clear that Donovan is supposed to be the backup pilot for the Sphere and has been trained to take over if something should happen to Parker. But even when something has happened to Parker, as in There's Something About Olga, Donovan hasn't launched. In For the Children, when Parker's been suspended for misbehavior, Talmadge is looking right at Donovan when he says the project will have to look for another chrononaut to replace Parker - as if there were no backup pilot. What's up with that? In season 3 the situation is much clearer. In Tracker Donovan is expected to be Frank's replacement, but Frank makes the trip despite being "hung over". In Top Dog, Donovan is again assumed to be Parker's backup, as he is in The Final Countdown.

Ranks and military status: Donovan most often has been referred to as a (navy) captain, but Paramount's official Web site calls him a commander. As he's 32 years old in the first season, he seems awfully young to be a captain, and probably a little young for commander, as well. Likewise, early promos referred to "Lieutenant Parker," but the invitation in Sleepers was addressed to "Captain Parker," and in Love and Other Disasters he was seen wearing a uniform with a captain's four stripes on the shoulder boards. But if Donovan's too young at 32, Parker's even more so at 29.

Olga's age: Paramount's site says that Olga is 31 in season 1, but in There's Something About Olga her birthdate is given as October, 1969. Somebody didn't do the math.

The receptionist's name: She was Sergeant Myers in the Pilot episode but also has identified herself as Sergeant Walker in The Gettysburg Virus and Sergeant Bly in Doppelganger.

What happens to Parker when he Back Steps: There's a great deal of confusion about what happens when Parker Back Steps. (See Section II., 2. What happens when Frank Parker Back Steps?). Viewers have never actually seen what happens on screen, and that has raised lots of questions and sparked lots of theories and debate.

The "healing" properties of the Sphere: In There's Something About Olga, Parker's injuries are mysteriously healed when he Back Steps, suggesting that his body reverted during the time-jump to its state seven days previously. So why didn't the Sphere take care of that nasty strain of ebola in The Gettysburg Virus? One possibility is that, because he was in the sealed suit, he wasn't exposed to the virus until he removed the suit and its breathing apparatus. Then he might've contracted the virus by breathing the air inside the Sphere, which could well have been carrying the airborne bug. However, if that's the case, he certainly came down with the disease a lot faster than most other people who were exposed to it, unless the virus entered his body through one of the numerous minor abrasions he suffers during the backstep. And you have to wonder why, if his body reverts, his consciousness doesn't revert, too.

Parker's microchip: Sometimes Parker carries a microchip designed to provide all the necessary information to avert the crisis that sparked the Back Step, just in case he's in no shape to tell the Back Step team what's about to happen. And sometimes he doesn't carry a chip. (See Section II., 5. Hey, what about that microchip?) The omission of the chip sometimes doesn't seem logical.

Parker's "serial number": Parker's referred a couple of times to his "serial number" as 923880305, in the Pilot episode and in Doppelganger, Part 2. However, at one point during the Pilot episode, he identifies himself by number as 378349081. We don't know why.

"Element 115": The Sphere's fuel has been seen as a solid, glassy blue substance in As Time Goes By and Lifeboat, but it was a liquid in EBEs. We're hoping there's some cool, rational explanation for this, like that it's rendered into a solid in order to make it safer to handle in the hangar, but we don't know that for sure.

Take me home. 

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