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Section I: About 7 Days
Contents:
1. What's this show about?
2. When is it on?
3. Where is 7 Days filmed?
4. Does anybody watch this show? (Ratings and related issues)
5. How can I contact UPN?
6. How can I contact members of the cast?
7. Inconsistencies and unresolved issues
1. What's this show about?
"We have a device that can allow us to send one human being back in
time...seven days." -- Olga Vukavitch, Pilot
episode
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,
N.M., 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?
Generally 7 Days is aired on Wednesdays at 7 Central/8 Eastern. However,
in some areas, that may vary. For example,
K13VC-TV occasionally pushes it back to 9 p.m. Central to accommodate
live broadcast of University of Texas basketball
games. Watch your local listings, and hang in there.
If you don't know which of your local stations carries UPN, you can
search a list of affiliates by city on UPN's Web site at
http://www.upn.com.
3. Where is 7 Days filmed?
In the second season, the production has moved to Vancouver, British
Columbia (Canada). First season episodes were filmed
in and around Los Angeles, California, with parts of some episodes
filmed in Washington, D.C.
4. Does anybody watch this show? (Ratings and related issues)
Short answer: Yes.
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 have been reported up by about 40 percent
from last 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 has been slow. However, at least two
weeks in December 1999, UPN has bested its nearest competing network,
the WB, so things are looking up a little,
ratings-wise.
Early in season 2, 7 Days' ratings have been averaging about 2.6, with
each ratings point representing slightly more than 1
million viewers. It has been ranking in about the mid-90s. That's an
improvement over last season, but the show's second
ranking on UPN has fallen by the wayside. (Thursday night wrestling
has blown away everything else on the network, and 7
Days now appears to be duking it out for third place with a sitcom
titled (ironically enough) The Parkers.)
The good news is that the show has had considerable support from some
critics like TV Guide's Matt Roush and is getting 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 reports 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."
What all this means is that it's important for fans to keep talking
up the show and to let UPN know we support it and want to
see it continue.
5. How can I contact UPN?
UPN's address is:
United Paramount Network
11800 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Or you can send e-mail to: feedback@upn.com
6. How can I contact members of the cast?
You can send fan mail to:
Seven Days Office
Paramount Studios
5555 Melrose Ave.
Hollywood, CA 90038-3197
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
"Sometimes I get the feeling there's nobody in charge of the unit." - Frank B. Parker, The Gettysburg Virus
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?
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.
Section II: About the Sphere and time travel in 7 Days
Contents:
1. How does the Sphere work?
2. What happens when Frank Parker Back Steps?
3. But what happens at NNL?
4. Where has the Sphere landed?
5. Hey, what about that microchip?
6. How can the fuel supply be a problem?
II. About the Sphere and time travel in 7 Days
1. How does the Sphere work?
"Klaatu barada nikto, baby." - Frank B. Parker, As Time Goes By
Here is what the show has told us about how the Sphere works:
The Sphere was built using alien technology recovered from a UFO that
crashed near Roswell, N.M., 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 is powered by a reactor that creates its own gravitational
field. Within that gravity field, space and time become
elastic and can be distorted. Operation Back Step's scientists have
theorized that the aliens use this characteristic of gravity to
navigate to other worlds, such as the Earth.
It's the size and power of the reactor that imposes the seven-day maximum
limit on how far in time the device can travel. (Josef
Vukavitch's craft, much larger and powered by a different kind of reactor,
was able to make a much longer Back Step, but the
NNL team wasn't able to salvage the technology aboard his craft. (As
Time Goes By)) The Sphere's fuel is the lethally
radioactive "Element 115," of which a limited amount was recovered
from the Roswell UFO. The fuel is used to send a pulse of
energy into the reactor from a console in the hangar.
It's not clear whether the reactor is actually on board the Sphere or
is located in the hangar at NNL. Ballard referred to the
black box containing the fuel as the "core," a word generally used
in connection with a reactor. However, in A Dish Best
Served Cold, Ballard said the reactor (whether it's in the Sphere or
out in the hangar) had melted after Rance blew up the
Sphere, but then the team was able to launch the Sphere that had been
lost in the Amazon jungle, suggesting that the reactor
must have been on board the Sphere.
The Sphere itself doesn't move, but the Earth does--it rotates around
its own axis and is constantly revolving around the Sun,
which is also moving, revolving around the galaxy at the blistering
pace of one revolution every 266 million years. That means
the Earth is not in the same place today that it was seven days ago.
In theory, that can be used to navigate the Sphere right to
where the team wants it to go. In practice, the geographic navigation
is the least reliable aspect of the Sphere's operation (see
Section II, 4., Where has the Sphere landed?), and that caused the
Sphere to be dangerous in its early trials. Seven
chrononauts who went before Parker were killed when the Sphere ended
up floating in space or buried underground; another
one was lost for many years in the Amazon and presumed dead. And this
same kind of malfunction could and has occurred as
Parker is piloting the Sphere, too. (Buried Alive)
To counteract this navigational problem, the Back Step team invented
a kind of "fine-tuning knob," a joystick-like control that
the pilot uses to line up with points on a computer graphic in a process
called "flying the needles." But flying the needles is
difficult, especially when hurtling through another dimension, and
Parker can't always get it right.
Traveling in the Sphere is strenuous and painful. Because certain laws
of "physics as we know it" are being violated, not all of
the outer molecules of Parker's body actually accompany him all the
way to his destination. Parker's ability to keep his head
while enduring pain is one of the main reasons he was chosen as the
team's chrononaut. He usually loses a micro-layer of skin
and ends up sweaty, sooty and bleeding at the end of each time-jump.
He's also had his suit catch fire, lost a filling and suffered
miscellaneous other (mostly minor) injuries. The Sphere itself seems
to suffer damage during a Back Step, spewing sparks and
smoke whenever it lands. It also tends to fry miscellaneous electronic
devices, including Parker's cell phone and the built-in
homing beacon that's supposed to make it easy for the people at NNL
to find it after it's landed.
The Sphere won't launch without a pilot on board, and in fact Dr. Mentnor
has said that without a qualified pilot, it'll blow itself
to bits on launch (A Dish Best Served Cold). He didn't specify what's
meant by "qualified," nor did he explain why the Sphere
couldn't be piloted by a robot, rather than a human being. As it powers
up, a strong electrical field forms around the Sphere.
Equipment in the Back Step compound sends out a "temporal compensating
wave" to stop the time displacement and finish the
Back Step. If this wave is not generated, a "time-loop" is created,
in which similar events repeat over and over again at a set
interval. (Come Again?)
Other capabilities attributed to the Sphere (mostly as a result of malfunctions,
damage or other unexpected factors) include the
healing of injuries inflicted shortly before the Back Step (but see
Section I, 7., Inconsistencies and unresolved issues), the ability
to cause the chrononaut temporarily to revert to the mental state of
a child and the ability to split the chrononaut into two
individuals who look identical but have different personalities.
The Sphere's operations depend to some extent on wider government systems,
such as the HAARP communications system
that's used as a navigational aid. On a couple of occasions, that dependence
has proved a liability when the crisis motivating the
Back Step has affected those systems (HAARP Attack, Parker.com), preventing
or complicating the launch of the time jump.
2. What happens when Frank Parker Back Steps?
"When you make even one tiny change to the past, everything that follows
it is affected...ultimately, everything
changes." - Olga Vukavitch, Pilot episode
This subject has sparked more debate than anything else about the series. Here is what the show has told us:
For starters, when Parker and the Sphere arrive in the past the rest
of the team doesn't know what's happened to motivate the
Back Step until he contacts them. When Parker arrives, only he knows
about the events that are to come in the next seven
days, because those events haven't happened yet for the others.
In the Pilot episode, we're told that Parker's mere arrival changes
history to some extent, and the series has made that point
repeatedly, sometimes in small things, sometimes in large differences.
(Ex., in Daddy's Girl, one of the Serb captors is shown
teasing the Americans with an apple in the original timeline. After
the Back Step, the apple sequence doesn't happen.) In an
interview on Paramount's official site, executive producer Christopher
Crowe says this changed-past factor is part of the "bible"
that was written to govern how the Sphere is used in episodes.
But what happens when the Sphere launches?
First, let's talk about what doesn't happen: Multiple Parkers are not
created by a Back Step. The one case where multiple
Parkers were created was caused by a modification to the Sphere that
resulted in a malfunction. And in the cases when the
Sphere has landed in the hangar, we don't see two of them. Under normal
conditions, there is only one Frank Parker, and thus
he can't meet himself coming and going after a Back Step.
What does happen is that Parker and the Sphere vanish. And hoo-boy,
are we glad the writers finally cleared this up! (See the
episode titled Buried Alive, in which Dr. Mentnor clearly states that
the Sphere has disappeared from the hangar.) Some fans
have hypothesized that this could be an explanation of why Parker's
kept so firmly under wraps at NNL--it would be a security
breach if he suddenly disappeared at a time when outsiders could see
it happen. Note that people elsewhere can see the
Sphere when it lands outside the hangar.
Some episodes have featured imagery indicating that time is running
backward during the Sphere's flight, suggesting the "tape
rewind" theory of how this could work. The theory is that a Back Step
is like time being rewound like a videotape, but one of
the characters (Parker) isn't subject to the rewind and thus is capable
of changing what's on the tape when he rejoins the action.
Or as Osco eloquently put it: "You watch a show up to a certain point,
when suddenly one of the characters blasts out of the
TV set in a little sphere and floats in your living room as you rewind.
That character isn't on the tape as you rewind, so he's not
there...until you stop rewinding and he drops back onto the videotape.
Thus begins the new 'timeline.'"
However, the series has been inconsistent about showing time "rewinding,"
making some fans skeptical that the intent of the
writers and producers is anything more meaningful than to add a cool
special effect for us to watch while Parker's flying around
in the Sphere.
Also in the second season, the Sphere is seen traveling through a very
Sliders-esque tunnel special effect. Whether that's
intended to mean anything or is just there because it looks cool is
anybody's guess. (It does, however, look very cool.)
3. But what happens at NNL?
"Hey, nice landing, Mr. Parker!" - Dr. John Ballard, Come Again?
Here are some of the things we know and some common theories.
First, remember that only Parker knows what happened to motivate the
Back Step. Thus it seems logical that the crew left
behind at NNL never has remembered (and never will remember) the actual
launch of the Sphere because, from their
perspective, it hasn't happened yet. Only Parker is in a position to
remember the launches after the Sphere has landed.
But we have now been told that the team at NNL knows a Back Step has
occurred because the Sphere vanishes. At that
point, there's an alarm that goes off (a klaxon that sounds like the
last groan of a dying moose).
Also the team members have witnessed the Sphere landing in the cradle
at NNL on several occasions. In particular, Ballard
observed something when the Sphere lands in the hangar while he's there
(Come Again?), although the audience doesn't see
what he sees.
So the team does know that Back Steps have occurred. There's no reason
they wouldn't remember what happens after Parker
lands the Sphere, unless a second Back Step is launched within a few
days. Likewise, what they learn from Parker in debriefing
would be recorded, and unless another Back Step undid that record-keeping
within a few days, it would remain in place.
It also appears that there are is some kind of automatic, manual or
electronic record kept of each launch. In Come Again?,
Ballard offers to check "the error log," when Parker reports an unusual
flash he observed on landing. Presumably, to keep this
log from being subject to changing when the timeline changes, it would
be kept on board the Sphere.
4. Where has the Sphere landed?
"Theoretically, we should be able to land that baby in space A-16 in
the parking lot at Kennedy International." - Dr.
John Ballard, Vows
(Most information for this section kindly provided by Jon Stipe.)
We know that the Sphere was launched at least seven times before Parker
became its pilot, but we don't know where it landed
on every one of those occasions. We have seen it floating in space
after one failed mission; Donovan told Parker it had landed
"deep underground" on at least one other attempt; Ballard mentions
that it once landed underwater and in a volcano (that would
hurt!); and once it came down in the Amazon jungle and was lost for
many years. The Sphere's touchdown isn't shown in every
episode, but since Parker became the chrononaut, here are the places
where we know it has landed.
Pilot episode: Landed in the desert east of Las Vegas. No witnesses.
The Gettysburg Virus: A forest adjacent to the battlefield site in Gettysburg, Pa. No witnesses.
Come Again?: Safely back in its cradle at NNL (every time). Witnessed by Ballard and other NNL crew.
Vows: A park near the Washington monument in Washington, D.C.
(both times). Witnessed by a bunch of
picnickers - Parker covered each landing by telling them it was
a publicity stunt for movies titled Mars Needs a
Tax Break and Mars Needs a Tax Break II.
Doppelganger, Parts 1 and 2: In a desert near a forest, apparently
some distance from the NNL complex
(both times). No witnesses.
Shadow Play: The desert outside Los Angeles. No witnesses.
As Time Goes By: A wilderness area where young couples go to make
out; apparently not too far from NNL.
Two teen-agers are in the area when Parker lands, but they're
too pre-occupied to notice. However, they do
notice when Parker takes their car. (Note: An Indian boy and
his grandfather observe Josef Vukavitch's time
craft as it lands. They believe they've been visited by the sun
god.)
Sleepers: On a hill, can't tell where. No witnesses.
HAARP Attack: The playground at an elementary school in Branchville,
Va. Witnessed by a lot of children on
the playground, one of whom eventually walked off with Parker's
suit. Ramsey covers by pinning the event on
NASA.
Last Card Up: Happywood Duck Campground, somewhere in Idaho. No witnesses.
Last Breath: Deep in the Arctic Ocean, near the site of a downed Russian nuclear sub. No witnesses.
Parkergeist: The cradle at NNL. Witnessed by crew at NNL.
Daddy's Girl: Bosnia, at 42 degrees, 17 minutes north, 20 degrees,
35 minutes west. Witnessed by a group of
soldiers on the ground nearby.
There's Something About Olga: The cradle at NNL. No witnesses were seen.
A Dish Best Served Cold: Next to a highway somewhere near NNL. No witnesses.
Vegas Heist: Las Vegas. Unknown whether it was witnessed by anyone.
EBEs: Near the Mothership Diner, Payute Springs, Nev. No witnesses.
Walter: Somewhere in or near Los Angeles. Unknown whether it was witnessed by anyone.
Lifeboat: Unknown, but must've been somewhere at or near NNL. Unknown whether there were witnesses.
The Football: Unknown, but somewhere in or near Washington, D.C. Unknown whether there were witnesses.
Pinball Wizard: Landing site not shown.
Parker.com: Landing site not shown.
For the Children: Landing site not shown.
Two Weddings and a Funeral: Not shown, but probably at or near
NNL. Shortly before the episode begins,
Parker had landed the Sphere off the coast of Cabo San Lucas,
almost deep-sixing a tuna boat. That one
apparently was witnessed by the boat's crew.
Walk Away: The cradle at NNL. Witnessed by NNL crew.
Sister's Keeper: Just outside Henderson, Nev. Unknown whether there were any witnesses.
The Collector: Crashed through a wall at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.
Witnessed by large crowds of
people who had gathered for the execution of a notorious serial
killer; it was probably broadcast on CZN.
Fortunately, they just thought it was a meteor.
Love and Other Disasters: Not specified, but appears to be somewhere
in France. Unknown whether there
were any witnesses.
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Not shown; no witnesses mentioned.
Time Gremlin: First time, in a forest, unknown where; witnessed
by the "gremlin" clinging to the side of the
Sphere. Second time, on the beach in Malibu; witnessed by a female
jogger.
Buried Alive: Lost Hills Mines, Copper Springs, Colorado. No witnesses,
but the Sphere's re-entry was
caught on tape by a satellite camera and registered as a "seismic
event" by two geologists in Colorado.
Backstepper's Apprentice: Landing site not shown. Witnessed (in
a manner of speaking) by Morgan Walker,
the kid who fell into the Sphere from the jetliner.
Deja Vu All Over Again: Landing site not shown, but presumed to
be downtown Vancouver. No witnesses.
5. Hey, what about that microchip?
"Suddenly I'm Tommy Lee...maybe you'll give me a nipple ring, while you're at it." - Frank B. Parker, Pilot episode
In the Pilot episode, Parker was provided with a microchip (implanted
under the skin just below his left armpit) that contained
all the information necessary to prevent the terrorist bombing, in
case he didn't make it back in good enough condition to tell the
Back Step team what was about to happen. Since then, he's sometimes
had a chip with him and sometimes not, which has
raised questions for fans.
During his first Back Step, the time jump expelled the implanted chip
with such force that it burst through not only Parker's skin,
but his suit, as well (you know that's gotta hurt) and ended up on
the deck in the Sphere. The implanted chip hasn't reappeared,
and we don't blame Parker a bit for preferring it that way.
However, on at least two other occasions, he has had a chip on a chain
around his neck (Doppelganger and EBEs). Sometimes
the situation is such that it wouldn't be practical to outfit him with
a chip, as in The Gettysburg Virus, where most of the rest of
the Back Step crew was dead. But there have been other times where
it would seem perfectly logical to give him a chip, and he
didn't get one (HAARP Attack and Parkergeist) -- episodes where exactly
the sort of thing the chip is meant to address
actually occurred.
Is this part of the series producers' plan, or is it inconsistent writing? We don't know.
6. How can the fuel supply be a problem?
"With each failure, we lose more of the element needed to fuel the reactor,
so if we fail again, we may not have enough
left for another attempt." - Dr. Isaac Mentnor, Pilot episode
"All we need is a pulse to launch. Once that gravity field is created,
the Sphere just travels, without the need for more
fuel." - Dr. John Ballard, As Time Goes By
Another perplexing paradox has to do with whether the Sphere's non-renewable
fuel supply is a logical reason to limit the
events for which a Back Step can be authorized, and whether launching
the Sphere actually depletes the fuel supply.
The fuel recovered from the alien space ship apparently can't be duplicated
on Earth. Thus, if that fuel should ever be used up,
the Sphere would be dead in the water, so to speak. However, note that
"Adam" the alien apparently was able to substitute
power from a nuclear plant for his escape pod (Lifeboat), and on one
occasion, a lightning bolt (generating 1.21 gigawatts, we
presume) that struck the Sphere was able to launch it. (A Dish Best
Served Cold)
In the Pilot episode, Dr. Mentnor said that each time a mission failed,
the amount of the fuel available for future missions was
reduced. He didn't say what would happen to the fuel supply in the
case of a successful mission, and a persuasive argument
has been put forward that the Sphere doesn't actually use up the supply
of fuel that's already on hand. Here's how the theory
goes:
There's a certain amount of fuel when the Sphere takes off. However,
the Sphere lands at a point in the timeline when, as far as
everything and everybody except Parker and the Sphere are concerned,
the launch hasn't happened yet. And if the launch
hasn't happened, no fuel has been used.
It all seems to hinge on whether there is any fuel on board the Sphere
that gets expended during the Back Step (that's strongly
implied by Mentnor's statement about losing fuel when Spheres are lost
in failed missions). If that's the case, then that portion of
the fuel really would be gone after the timeline is changed. But if
all the fuel really is in the hangar (which has been indicated in
episodes more than once), then it can be argued that the Sphere doesn't
deplete its own supply.
Section III: About relationships in 7 Days
1. What's up with Parker and Olga?
2. What's up with Ramsey and Parker?
III. About relationships in 7 Days
1. What's up with Parker and Olga?
"Adult women want romance, Mr. Parker, and you are not a romantic." - Olga Vukavitch, Come Again?
"Damn, we're gonna have beautiful babies...if we ever get married." - Frank B. Parker, Doppelganger, Part 1
Bottom line: He's fallen for her like a lemming off a cliff; she's not
so sure, though she's progressed to the point where she's at
least willing to look at the cliff now and then.
It's no surprise that Parker found Olga instantly attractive--after
being locked up for a couple of years with nothing but a lot of
men and "Nurse Sunshine," hey, it was only natural. Still, he's out
now, and there are other women working at Never Never
Land, and his attention remains riveted on Olga. They seem to have
understood each other in a fundamental way, right from the
start--despite their numerous differences, there's an appealing sense
of destiny in this relationship.
Olga, too, seems to like Parker right away, but her situation is considerably
more complex, and her on-again, off-again
reactions reflect that. First of all, when Parker arrives at Never
Never Land, she's married. Granted, her husband, Josef, has
been gone a long time, but it's Dr. Mentnor who says he's been presumed
dead. Olga herself, after Josef is really dead, says, "I
would've waited forever." And one must wonder, because Parker's doing
for a living the same thing that got Josef lost in the
future, whether part of her hesitancy to get involved has to do with
the certain knowledge that Parker could end up lost the
same way in the course of any mission. It doesn't take much for her
to get very worried about him when he's on a Back Step,
and it clearly seems more than professional concern for the fate of
the mission.
But Olga seems reluctant to break too far out of her professional mode,
and probably with some justification. Of all the team
members, she's the one with the least job security, what with flag-waving
Ramsey never entirely letting anyone forget she hails
from "Red Paradise." While no one with the project seems to be discouraging
her from becoming involved with Parker, there
remains a certain stigma attached to intra-office romance. And both
science and medicine demand some degree of objectivity,
which would be difficult to maintain while engaging in an intimate
relationship with the subject of her study. Olga appears to be
paying lip service, if not much else, to that sort of professional
standard.
Then there's the question of his approach to her, which is unsubtle
at best, and downright juvenile at worst. (If you like your
romantic characters politically correct, change the channel.) He's
right in her face about it all the time, only backing off
temporarily when Josef reappears. Parker has tried just about every
ploy imaginable--from spiking her drinks to speeding up
his Russian language tapes to getting her to perform mouth-to-mouth
by pretending to be dead. His mating dance is all right out
in the open, no effort to hide the agenda. He expends a lot of thought
and energy on the pursuit. And the more she backs him
off, the more he keeps at it. "The man's a pit bull," Donovan observes.
The problem is, as Olga points out, there's nothing especially romantic
about this approach--it's more reminiscent of a cheetah
trying to run a zebra to ground than a courtship. She complains that
he comes off looking like he's in it just for the chase, and it
does seem that he's enjoying the challenge. Olga's right up to speed
with him mentally, and she handily defeats most of his tricks
(although he did pull off the mouth-to-mouth ploy on her). But he keeps
coming up with new ones, as if he likes the process, in
and of itself, of figuring out the tricks and springing them on her.
At one point he even tells her that he's impressed with her
ability to "give it back to me as good I give it."
On the other hand, he's also occasionally frustrated that she's not
turning around faster. He complains that she insists on
retaining the right to define "romantic," and if you believe that Doppelganger's
"evil Parker" reflects part of his personality, he
has thoughts that she could be more accessible. He has better luck
with her when he just talks to her like a person, and he
seems to be applying that technique more as time goes on. But he can't
seem to maintain it for long before he falls back on the
same goofy let's-have-a-bath-in-champagne lines that turn her off.
It's attention-getting behavior, the kind of "look at me!" stuff an
eight-year-old does for reassurance of his own importance in
the mind of someone he cares for. Often such behavior intentionally
tests the limits, as if daring the other person to reject it. And
that's consistent with Parker having been raised outside a normal nuclear
family. We don't know at what age he was orphaned
or any details of the circumstances. But as he's brought up the issue
himself repeatedly, it clearly still weighs on his mind.
"Nobody wanted to hang out with the new orphan kid," he says, recounting
a story of his youth.
Despite his outer cockiness, there are clear signs of insecurity and
even low self-esteem in some of what he does. For example,
he wonders out loud to Olga if a divorced former mental patient who
drinks a lot is really quite the right the person to be
undertaking missions as serious as those requiring a Back Step--"I'm
an animal," he says darkly, in The Football--hardly
evidence that he holds a positive self-image. That little Sally Jensen
reached out to him (HAARP Attack) plainly left an
impression--maybe he just needs more reassurance than the average man.
For her part, Olga seems to have discovered (or perhaps rediscovered)
more of a sense of fun as a result of his influence. She's
moved from wanting to make sure her hotel room has CNN to trying to
drag an unwilling Parker to a magic show, from putting
him on a treadmill in a lab to dancing with him at a nearby bar. She
seems conscious that it's his nature to be something of a
cut-up and to have adopted an attitude that she might as well have
a good time, too...up to a point. She's plainly impressed with
his ingenuity and courage, and she has learned to trust his instincts
in the field. They work well together. And isn't it interesting
that when "Adam" went to manipulate her mentally, it was Parker's image
he found in her mind and used to influence her?
(Lifeboat)
However, the first few episodes of Season 2 have signaled what appears
to be a distinct change in the relationship as it's being
portrayed. Olga seems to make an effort (consciously or unconsciously)
to shift the balance of power in the sexual equation in
The Football, railing against Parker for treating her as helpless and
naive. The meaning (or lack thereof) of her avowed
willingness to strip for members of the Penn State defensive line will
never be clear, because it's impossible to know whether
she actually did it or not--we just know she was unwilling to strip
with Parker watching. Is that just because she thought it was
easier to do it in front of strangers than friends, or because she
knew she was going to wimp out and didn't want Parker to think
her "prudish"? Parker, on the other hand, was ready to fight for her
honor until it occurred to him he might get to see something,
too--he seemed perfectly prepared to let her go for it...until she
threw him out of the room. There are fans who'd like to forget
this episode ever occurred, largely because of reservations about this
sequence, and it's easy to see why.
Things get even murkier in Parker.com, which gives us a view of Parker,
at the height of his politically incorrect glory, indicating
he thinks the best way to deal with an intractable woman is to lie
to her--and then have meaningless sex with her. Olga, in the
unenviable position of watching on the sidelines while Parker gets
intimately involved with a woman who's not even real,
responds by giving him an equally meaningless kiss to remind him what
is real--and then walking away, as if to underscore what
he can't have. There are still more fans who'd like to roll back time
and undo this episode for the way it depicts Parker as your
basic Neanderthal and Olga as your basic tease.
Recently we were treated to a more intriguing side of Parker; in the
otherwise less-than-memorable episode Pope Parker,
Frank displays a firm knowledge of what the relationship is about,
what stops it from moving forward, and what its potential is.
He's even smart enough to know what he can do to move it on, and how
to explain it to Olga in a way that won't offend or
alienate her. Interestingly, the manner in which he messes it up at
the end (what, you didn't think he would? Shame on you!),
suggests that he did it on purpose, possibly an indication that he
enjoys the "game" a little more than what might come after.
Based on that, it's hard to guess where this relationship might be going.
For it to work, they're both going to have to achieve a
balance. He'll have to share more of his real inner self with her than
he's readily inclined to and treat her more as an adult, and
she'll have to overlook more psycho-sexual horseplay than she seems
to find desirable--and get over whatever fears she may
have of losing him on a mission. They're not there yet, but they have
made some progress, and we can hope through the
process of trial and error with each other they may find the right
balance.
6. What's up with Ramsey and Parker?
"Ramsey has...trust issues." - MIB #1, The Gettysburg Virus
The fact is, under normal conditions, Ramsey would have a point--it's
not usual procedure to use former mental patients who
drink, gamble compulsively and are determinedly anti-authoritarian
to carry out super-secret missions on which the fate of the
world hangs. But in the 7 Days universe, conditions are rarely normal,
and Parker never is. However, that doesn't stop Ramsey
from trying to impose normal standards on Parker. "You expect him to
behave rationally?" Donovan asks in Come Again?
"What a concept," Ramsey retorts.
Of course, what Ramsey would regard as normal is an interesting question,
as he himself often seems a hidebound dinosaur
whose thought patterns froze solid in about 1967. We're told that Ramsey's
background is CIA, and he certainly seems to have
been thoroughly indoctrinated in a "trust no one" mentality. But that
has come in handy at times, like when he continued to
pursue the truth about the NSA official in Shadow Play. Once persuaded
to keep digging into the situation at the cult's
headquarters in Last Card Up, he showed no hesitation in marching "Big
Dog" to the prison bus at gunpoint.
You see, "Big Dog" broke the rules, and above all, Ramsey believes in
rules, especially the kind you read in an old-style military
book. Among his rules:
* Act rationally.
* Don't get drunk.
* Don't gamble and get in debt.
* Don't cheat in sports.
* Stay in your quarters when you're supposed to be there.
* Be careful what you do with women.
* Follow (his) orders.
* Get a haircut.
OK, that last one wasn't directed at Parker, but it's indicative of Ramsey's approach to things.
Now, Ramsey's problem is that he's working with a bunch of scientific
types who think all those rules are needlessly
constraining--the classic clash between scientists and the military
personnel they sometimes work with. Members of the team
break Ramsey's rules all the time and think little of it. There's all
Ballard's girlfriends and his impulses to share information,
Olga's Russian-ness and tendency to follow her scientific curiosity
wherever it leads her, and Dr. Mentnor's occasional opting
to forget about security and do what he regards as the moral thing.
And then there's Parker, who has an anti-authoritarian streak about
a mile wide and flaunts Ramsey's rules partly just to prove
he can, and because he enjoys it. Worse yet, it's Ramsey's job, as
security chief for Back Step, to enforce the rules. He's
supposed to know where everybody is and what they're doing at all times;
it's his job to make sure they aren't getting
themselves and the project in trouble. Parker can't work inside the
rules, and Ramsey can't work without them--there'll never
be peace in this house.
On top of Ramsey's initial distrust and disapproval of Parker, he's
now got to contend with Parker continually needling him,
both in word and in deed--sometimes even inspiring others to do the
needling for him. ("Is dis de bonehead Ramsey?" Pyotr
Federov asks, rephrasing Parker's description of his teammate. (Last
Breath)) Parker appears to take great joy in
circumventing Ramsey's security procedures--he just loves doing stuff
like rewiring or outright stealing the cameras, and
shorting out the lock on his door. He can't resist crawling through
the air vents into areas of the Back Step compound that are
supposed to be off-limits and going off-mission on crusades of his
own, as in Walter and Shadow Play. When Parker does the
former, it casts doubt on Ramsey's effectiveness internally, and when
he does the latter, it sometimes forces Ramsey to stick his
neck out, gambling that Parker is right. And gambling is something
Ramsey doesn't like to do.
"Now do you understand why I want to plant a homing bug in his head?"
he asks, in a moment of supreme exasperation.
(HAARP Attack)
Not that Ramsey's job seems in danger--he's pretty good at it, for the
most part, and smart enough to pull off things like
unmasking "Big Dog" and figuring out Parker's telephone code in order
to find him in the bomb shelter (There's Something
About Olga).
Ramsey more than once has shown a willingness--if not enthusiasm--to
bet on Parker, as in Walter, when he stuck his neck out
to warn Parker that agents were on the way to capture the savant. And
his reaction to the several occasions when Parker has
been injured or "killed" while on missions have been downright caring.
For his part, Parker opted not to report to anybody officially about
the incident in the Pilot episode when a drugged and
deranged Ramsey tried to kill him. And three times now Parker's Back
Steps have brought Ramsey (among others) back to
life. The most dramtic step towards an understanding between these
two strong personalities came in the episode Brother, Can
You Spare a Bomb?, when Parker altered the perameters of his Backstep
to allow Ramsey to keep his job and protect his
deranged brother Nick. But the progress toward anything resembling
real trust has moved forward with a geologic slowness,
and is continually retarded by Parker's aggravations. So get comfortable
and enjoy while these mismatched teammates take
two steps forward and one step back with each other.
Section IV: About the characters and cast of 7 Days
Part A: The characters
1.
Frank B. Parker
2. Olga Vukavitch
3. Craig Donovan
4. John Ballard
5. Nathan (Nate) Ramsey
6. Isaac Mentnor
7. Bradley
Talmadge
8. Andrew "Hooter" Owsley
9. Other recurring characters
Part B: The cast
1. Jonathan LaPaglia
2. Justina Vail
3. Don Franklin
4. Sam Whipple
5. Nick Searcy
6. Norman Lloyd
7. Alan Scarfe
8. Kevin Christy
9. Christopher Crowe/Crowe Entertainment
IV. About the characters and cast of 7 Days
Part A: The characters
1. Frank B. Parker
"He's a drunk; he's a gambler. He's had problems with authority all
his life--hell, he's got criminal eyes!" - Nathan
Ramsey, Pilot episode
Frank B. Parker (Jonathan LaPaglia) is the intrepid--if slightly loony--first-line
chrononaut who time travels to save the world.
A highly skilled former naval intelligence operative with a photographic
memory, he's a crack shot with a pistol and with his
mouth, and has an astonishingly high pain threshold. Parker suffered
a breakdown, exhibiting psychotic behavior, after being
captured while on a mission and tortured by Somalian "technicals" who
confined him in a metal "hot box" without food or water
for a week. But he still didn't tell his captors what they wanted to
know--the names and locations of other American agents in
the area.
Parker's breakdown led to the breakup of his marriage and landed him
in "a CIA nut house" on Hansen Island in South
Carolina. But when a group of Chechen terrorists assassinated the U.S.
and Russian presidents by bombing the White House,
Parker's name came up as a candidate for Operation Back Step--a top-secret
agency in possession of a time travel device.
Rigorous testing revealed that Parker was the best candidate for the
job of going back in time to "undo" the bombing, despite
the obvious questions about his mental stability. Additionally, he
was highly motivated to succeed, both because he wanted to
be free of the "nut house" and because his son, Jimmy, was killed in
the explosion of poison gas at the White House. His
selection as the time traveler was sealed when an old friend and established
member of the Back Step team, Craig Donovan,
vouched for him, offering a personal guarantee that "if this gets real,
(Parker) won't let you down."
And he hasn't. In fact, he has exhibited a great deal of ingenuity,
courage, and the ability to size up a dangerous situation
accurately in a heartbeat, leading many fans to believe he's a lot
more intelligent and a lot less crazy than he likes to let on.
Parker was raised in an orphanage in Philadelphia, where he still holds
the record for most rulers broken in the process of
disciplining any child (Walter); privately he refers to the Mother
Superior there as "Sister Sledgehammer" (Sister's Keeper). He
has never been exactly the shy, retiring, suit-and-tie type. He enjoys
all sorts of games of chance--including staging a sort of
lab-rat Kentucky Derby--and sucking down a few cold ones, even if they're
not cold. He appears to compensate for the
insecurity of his youth by seeking family-like connections in organizations
like the military. More than once he has compared the
Back Step team to a kind of family. He instensely dislikes being cooped
up in the Back Step complex and plays pranks and
practical jokes on the other members of the team to keep himself entertained.
(Once he has been the victim of a retaliatory
prank played on him by security chief Nathan Ramsey, who set him up
to lose a lot of money on a boxing match.)
Right from the start, Parker has been attracted to Back Step scientist
Dr. Olga Vukavitch and has pursued her affection with
uneven results. He's not very subtle, which puts her off--and of course,
there are times when he Back Steps, and "undoes"
some of the progress he's made toward winning her over.
Although the official Paramount character sketch says Parker's background
is CIA, most of what we've seen on the show
suggests he was in naval intelligence. Despite what you read in Tom
Clancy novels, they're not the same organization.
Parker is 29 years old in season 1. While on assignment, his code name
is "Conundrum," and his National Security Agency
serial number is 923880305. Frank is short for Francis, and his middle
name is Bartholomew, but don't call him Frankie. He
sings a lot better in the shower than he does in a karaoke bar. We
don't know why this is so.
2. Olga Vukavitch
"I haven't known a lot of women like you, who have it going on upstairs,
and who look as good as you, and who can
give it back to me as good as I give it." - Frank B. Parker, Come Again?
Dr. Olga Vukavitch (Justina Vail) and her husband, Josef, were working
on the Soviet equivalent of Project Back Step. But
Josef disappeared and was presumed dead while on a time-travel mission,
and then came the fall of the communist government.
Olga had already attracted the notice of the American team when she
was credited with independently discovering the
relationship between gravity and temporal displacement. When the Soviet
project fell into neglect, she defected to the U.S. and
has been employed by the Back Step team to work on fine-tuning controls
in the Sphere.
In There's Something About Olga, we learned she's also a medical doctor.
She has been assigned to watch over Parker's
mental and physical health, and has been called on to perform various
biological analyses.
That she's Russian and turned her back on her former country has occasionally
brought her under suspicion from the team's
ever-paranoid security chief, Nathan Ramsey. But when Josef returned
from the future to sabotage Back Step, Olga killed him
to save the Project, demonstrating her loyalty to the team and her
adopted country, the United States.
Her response to Parker's interest in a more intimate relationship has
run hot-and-cold. She clearly cares for him, but the
situation's complicated by her professional ethics--and the fact that
sometimes progress they've made in the relationship over
the past seven days is lost when Parker Back Steps.
Her mother, too, was a scientist and her father was an aeronautical
engineer. Olga was born in October 1969; she has a sister,
Svetlana, who is three years her junior. Their parents commonly referred
to Olga as "the smart one" and Svetlana as "the pretty
one," appellations that left both sisters envious of each other. Even
now, they don't get along well, though Olga, at least,
appears to have a deep affection for her sibling.
Olga admits to occasionally smoking cigarettes when under intense stress
and has an unusually strong fantasy about a lady being
magically turned into a tiger. She says she's a "cat person." She also
has the occasional dominatrix dream (as seen in Olga's
Excellent Vacation). Go for it, Freudians.
3. Craig Donovan
"Do I ever get to Back Step?" - Craig Donovan, As Time Goes By
Craig Donovan (Don Franklin) is a former navy SEAL who has run several
covert intelligence operations around the world. He
serves as a military liaison for Project Back Step. (Paramount's official
character sketch lists his rank as commander, although
he's been repeatedly referred to as "Captain Donovan" on the show.
At 32, he's a touch young for either rank.) Donovan also
serves as backup pilot for the Sphere, but he hasn't been called on
to Back Step, yet.
Donovan and Parker served together in the navy and became close friends.
Donovan's loyalty to Parker is intense, even though
Parker now has a job Donovan would've liked to have for himself. But
Parker saved his life on a mission in Honduras when
Donovan stepped on a land mine, and Donovan clearly feels he owes Parker.
That motivated Donovan to vouch for him when
he arrived at Back Step. Even when he doesn't approve of Parker's antics,
he's willing to give his friend the benefit of the
doubt. Parker has Back Stepped in an effort to prevent Donovan from
committing suicide as a result of being brainwashed in
Bangladesh by the evil and mysterious Dr. Lee. (Sleepers)
Donovan is a dedicated, courageous and competent officer. Like Parker,
Donovan is divorced, but it's not known whether he
and his ex-wife have any children. He appears to have a close relationship
with his parents, especially his father. In his off-duty
hours he enjoys participating in triathlons, and he volunteers at the
YMCA, teaching children to play basketball. He has a very
pretty girlfriend whose name hasn't yet been revealed.
4. John Ballard
"I run the math around here." - Dr. John Ballard, Pilot episode
Dr. John Ballard (Sam Whipple) is one nuclear physicist who knows how
to have a good time. Addicted to Tootsie
Pops--especially when they've been dunked in a martini--Ballard has
a great system for winning at roulette and a knack for
attracting impressively endowed young women. And if you need somebody
to hack into the electric power grid, he's your man.
Numerous sources have suggested that Ballard's character is loosely
modeled after a real British physicist: Stephen Hawking,
whose research dealt with black holes and other aspects of astronomy/cosmology,
and who has been confined to a wheelchair
for many years as the result of a neurological disorder. (Hawking is
the author of the best-selling book, A Brief History of
Time.)
While working with a team at Area 51 to figure out the technology of
the UFO that crashed near Roswell, N.M., in the 1940s,
Ballard (independently of Olga's similar breakthrough) discovered the
link between gravity and temporal displacement. He then
began work to create the Sphere and take advantage of this new knowledge.
He continually strives to improve the Sphere by making modifications
to it--sometimes with alarming consequences, such as the
one that fortified the gravitational field and split Parker into good
and evil "twins."
Ballard lost the use of his legs in an accident at age 15 when he dived
off a cliff into a lake to impress some girls. He has been
confined to a wheelchair ever since, but you can't keep a good scientist
down--it hasn't slowed him down one bit.
Ballard's intelligence is accompanied by an alternately wry and goofy
sense of humor, and admirable courage--he refuses to
cooperate and then outsmarts General Starker and his troops in Doppelganger;
he attacks Josef to defend the Sphere in As
Time Goes By, crying, "Five years of Tae-Kwon Do, you snake!"
In season 1, Ballard is 42 years old. Little is known of his personal
life, but given the number of scantily clad babes hovering
around him, maybe it's better that way. After all, this is prime-time!
Note: In season 3, Ballard took an extended leave of absence after winning
a small carribean island in a card-game. In our last
sight of him to date, he was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, sipping a
martini and surrounded by an affectionate gaggle of beach
babes. The man has style!
5. Nathan (Nate) Ramsey
"My hero was going to nuke Death Valley and blame it on the Chinese!" - Nathan Ramsey, Doppelganger, Part 2
Nathan (Nate) Ramsey (Nick Searcy) isn't one of those characters who's
so bad you love to hate him, but on the other hand,
you sort of hate to love him, except that he's a little irresistible.
He's stubborn as a mule, admires nothing so much as an
American patriot, and is about as paranoid as you can get without being
locked up in a place like Hansen Island. A
foaming-at-the-mouth American nationalist, he's suspicious of all foreigners.
Getting a dose of Ramsey's politics is a little like
opening a time capsule and having the acidic anxiety of the Cold War
years come boiling out.
Ramsey has a temper like a nuclear bomb, even when it's not augmented
by stimulant drugs, as it was in the Pilot episode,
when he tried to kill Parker to keep him from going back in time. He
cast the one dissenting vote to Parker's selection as Back
Step's chrononaut, and never has yielded in his outspoken, vehement
distrust of Parker. He disapproves of Parker's drinking,
gambling and flaunting of authority--and it doesn't help the situation
that Parker constantly thwarts him by slipping his security
precautions. Intensely dedicated to his job, Ramsey appears to feel
Parker's antics make him look bad, on top of creating a
security threat to the Project, and that sends Ramsey ballistic on
a regular basis.
Still, the two men exhibit a grudging respect for each other on occasion,
and it's clear Ramsey would walk through fire--in the
line of duty--to save Parker's butt. Ramsey's dedication to the safety
of his own personnel and to his duty, even when he
doesn't agree or doesn't like what he's been asked to do, are endearing.
He may bitch and complain about it, but in the end,
he'll do the right thing.
Ramsey came to Back Step from the CIA, where he served in Germany and
Korea before becoming the project's head of
security. He is 45 in season 1. It's not known whether he is or ever
has been married, but he must have at least one sibling, as
he has mentioned having a nephew. He appears to enjoy boxing in his
off-duty hours. In For the Children, we learned that he
drinks Jack Daniels and came from a small town. And the man sure does
love his dog.
6. Isaac Mentnor
"It seems I've spent half a lifetime keeping others in the dark." - Isaac Mentnor, EBEs
Dr. Isaac Mentnor (Norman Lloyd), 84, is credited with unraveling the
meaning of the alien technology that led to the creation
of the Sphere. Before moving to Area 51, he worked with the Manhattan
Project, developing the atomic bombs that ended
World War II. That experience has given him a special perspective on
some of the moral questions raised by advances in
science.
As well as being scientific head of the Back Step project, Mentnor functions
somewhat as its conscience--his counsel is sought
when missions pose moral dilemmas, and he sometimes has put his job
aside to follow his ethics, as when he broke security to
tell Parker about the spill of radioactive "Element 115" (EBEs). He
also serves as something of a father-figure for Parker, who
occasionally has sought his advice on personal matters.
Mentnor has been married to his wife, Claire, for more than 50 years.
The couple has an unknown number of children and at
least one granddaughter, Rebecca, 9, who has a crush on Parker.
In The Dunwych Madness, we learn that Mentnor has several skeletons
in his closet, including work on at least one highly
questionable bio-warfare project, code-named Leviathan.
From season 2 onwards, Dr. Mentnor is a recurring character, and no longer a regular.
7. Bradley Talmadge
"Son, without NSA authorization, you are not going to the john." - Bradley Talmadge, Vows
Bradley Talmadge (Alan Scarfe) serves as Back Step's liaison to the
project's unseen NSA bosses. Aged 54 in season 1, he
holds degrees in marketing and law. He served in the military in Vietnam,
where he was awarded a Bronze Star for valor.
After becoming a deputy chief at the NSA, he learned about the experimental
work at Area 51 and was assigned to form a
team to implement Project Back Step. His title is "NSA Special Projects
Liaison to the Pentagon."
He is a tough but fair administrator, committed to keeping Back Step
running smoothly and maintaining the secrecy of its
existence. He likes Parker, but won't hesitate to crack the whip if
and when Parker gets out of line. He once nearly threw
Parker out of the project and sent him back to Hansen Island for committing
an error in judgment. (Vows)
Little is known about Talmadge's personal life, but he has one grandchild--Amanda,
10 years old and a talented artist.
Apparently his wife, now deceased, was named Alice. He appears to enjoy
fly fishing, and the occasional fine cigar. In season
3 we learned that he has a girlfriend, who believes he works at the
Census Bureau.
8. Andrew "Hooter" Owsley
"That's such an exaggeration. I was twelve." - Andrew Owsley, The Dunwych Madness
At 22, Andrew "Hooter" Owsley (Kevin Christy) is by far the youngest
member of the Backstep team. He's also the newest,
having been recruited to provide the teams technical know-how in the
absence of Doctor Ballard. Hooter, despite his
unconventional looks and techno-geek mannerisms, is a genius of the
highest calibre. He earned his Masters in Particle Physics
from Cal Tech at the age of 12, picked up a combined Doctorate in Quantum
Analysis and Astrophysics at the age of 14, and
was working towards Doctorates in Multiplane Calculus and Trans-Dimensional
Quark Symmetries when Doctor Ballard
recommended him to Bradley Talmadge.
It's obvious that Hooter and Ballard are old friends; Andrew refers
to Ballard as "the Old Pirate" in converastion with
Talmadge, and Ballard considers Owsley to be one of the finest brains
on the planet. Owlsey apparently helped Ballard with his
work on the string theory corollary to quantum redundancies, when he
was 12. Though Owsley's "traditional" education has
been cut short by his work for Backstep, the world will no doubt see
great things from this prodigy in the future.
We know that Andrew has a close relationship with his mother, as seen
in Adam & Eve & Adam, when the prospect of her
death combines with radiation sickness to drive the young man mad.
He also has the beginnings of a crush on Dr Vukavich,
though it's obvious he admires her more for her mind than her looks.
9. Other recurring characters
"Holy cow!" - Sergeant Myers, Pilot episode
Sergeant Myers/Walker/Bly (Stacey Stone) is the receptionist who often
takes the call when Parker checks in on a mission.
For the first part of the season, her usual response was to gasp, "Holy
cow!" when she realized the call was from "Conundrum."
Fans were happy to see her get some more substantive lines in Doppelganger,
Part 2, in which she coolly and cleverly gives
Parker the information he needs, without revealing anything to General
Starker's minion, who is hanging menacingly over her
shoulder throughout the conversation. It's not known why her name keeps
changing.
The other two recurring characters are MIB #1 (Charley Lang, the blond
one) and MIB #2 (Jerome Butler, the black one),
both members of Ramsey's security team.
The MIBs are the ones who were sent to pluck Parker out of the asylum
on Hansen Island. Administering the shock test
appears to have gotten Parker and MIB #1 off on the wrong foot. Parker
swore to kick his ass when he got out of the "nut
house," and he repeatedly has punched MIB #1 in the nose--sometimes
mostly just for the hell of it. MIB #1 is rather the more
hard-core of the two, when it comes to wanting to force Parker to behave.
He even shot Parker in the arm in Walter.
MIB #2 is a bit less uptight, seeming to find Parker's antics more amusing
than threatening or annoying. But then, he's not the
one getting bopped in the face all the time! Both MIB's have been replaced
by season 3, perhaps reassigned for their persistant
failure to contain Parker.
Part B: The cast
1. Jonathan LaPaglia
If you thought Frank B. Parker looked like he knew what he was doing
when he bound up Lieutenant Benson's sprained ankle
in Daddy's Girl, it's because Jonathan LaPaglia really does. The 7
Days star holds a degree in medicine and surgery from the
University of Adelaide, Australia, and before going into acting, he
worked as an emergency room physician in Australia and the
UK while studying drama part-time at night.
Medicine's loss has been fans' gain, as LaPaglia's delightfully athletic
performances and fine sense of comedic timing have
brought Frank B. Parker to life in a highly appealing way.
According to a recent TV Guide interview, his father owned an automobile
dealership, and his mother worked as a secretary.
He said he became interested in the fine arts at an early age, and
studied painting and sculpture in high school. But he said he
had doubts about his talent as an artist, and ultimately decided to
study medicine, instead.
But once he actually became a doctor, he felt dissatisfied. In a 1996
interview with the New York Daily News, LaPaglia said
medicine only satisfied his scientific interests, while leaving a creative
side of his personality unfulfilled. Encouraged by his
brother, actor Anthony LaPaglia, he eventually gave up practicing medicine
full-time and moved to New York to study at
Circle in the Square theater school, returning on long breaks to the
UK to keep his medical skills sharp.
He made his big break into television in '96 as a regular cast member
(Det. Tom McNamara) in New York Undercover.
Shortly after the premiere of 7 Days he was seen in a UPN movie of
the week, Inferno. He also has had a guest-starring
appearance in Law & Order. His theatrical movie credits include
Woody Allen's film Deconstructing Harry, as well as Origin of
the Species, The Cure, Poison Berries, and Rain, and independent films
Astoria Fix, Screening Frogs and Dog Tail.
LaPaglia, 31, lives in Los Angeles with actress Ursula Brooks.
2. Justina Vail
Justina Vail (Olga Vukavitch) never planned on becoming an actress.
Following in her mother's footsteps, she trained as a
painter at Canterbury Art College in the UK. Then one day, while visiting
her sister in Hong Kong, she indulged a whim and
auditioned for a part in an English television show being produced
there, a crime drama called Yellow Thread Street.
No one was more surprised than she was to find that she'd gotten the
part--and that she enjoyed it enough to want to make it a
career. For a time she performed in theatrical productions in England,
then moved to Los Angeles to pursue her new vocation.
She seems almost destined to have ended up doing science fiction or
fantasy: Shortly after arriving in L.A., she landed a part as
a computer in the pilot for Journey to the Center of the Earth, then
came close to landing the role of Seven of Nine in Star Trek:
Voyager (which ultimately went to Jeri Ryan) and the lead role in Highlander:
The Raven, after a guest appearance as an
immortal named Katya in a Highlander episode titled "Justice." (Ultimately
the part in Raven went to Elizabeth Gracen, who had
played the recurring role of Amanda in the original Highlander series).
But in a recent interview on UltimateTV Vail said she's
happy to have ended up where she did--less makeup and no swordfights.
She also said she's pleased with the extent to which she's been able
to make Olga a rounded, three-dimensional character.
"She's not the kind of superwoman that doesn't exist in real life,
the kind of character who can juggle babies and cooking and
be a kickboxer and save the world at the same time," Vail said in the
UltimateTV interview. "I don't know anybody like that."
Vail was born in Malaysia and has lived in Hong Kong and the UK. Previous
to starring in 7 Days, she had a guest appearance
on Seinfeld, and her film credits include Kiss the Girls and a role
as one of Tom Cruise's ex-girlfriends in Jerry Maguire. She is
single. She has hoomes in both Los Angeles and Vancouver. When she
is not working, she enjoys painting, sculpting and yoga.
3. Don Franklin
Don Franklin (Craig Donovan) is already familiar to many TV fans from
his previous roles in SeaQuest DSV, The Young
Riders and other series.
A Chicago native, he was born December 15, 1960, and began performing
while still in grade school. Accomplished as a
singer, musician and dancer as well as an actor, he has had a wide
of variety of roles in films, television and on the stage. He
started in musical theater, and then went to California for the first
time when he was cast as a dancer in the Sidney Poitier film,
Fast Forward. Later he returned to Chicago and starred on stage in
A Chorus Line.
He credits The Cosby Show with giving him his first big television break
(he played Lisa Bonet's boyfriend) in 1986, which he
says gave his career a real boost. He has been working steadily ever
since, mostly in television, including regular cast roles in
Knightwatch and Nasty Boys, a recurring role in Living Single, and
guest-starring roles in Outer Limits and Chicago Hope.
His other feature films include The Big Picture, Moving, and Somewhere
in Time; he has had appearances in the TV movies
Fighting for Justice and Asteroid. He lives in Los Angeles.
4. Sam Whipple
Sam Whipple (Dr. John Ballard) learned to be funny as a defense mechanism
while growing up in Venice, California. Eventually
he realized he enjoyed performing and began pursuing a career in show
business. He started out doing commercials and minor
television roles, then was cast in a short-lived sitcom called Open
All Night.
After that, his career picked up steam rapidly, and he has had myriad
appearances in films, made-for-TV movies and television
series, including Newhart, NYPD Blue, Seinfeld, Home Improvement and
The Pretender. He has been a series regular in
Birthmarks, Weldon Pond, Bagdad Cafe, Archie and Man About Town. His
film credits include The Rock, Airheads, True
Romance and Spinal Tap.
In real life, he's not wheelchair-bound, and he doesn't wear glasses.
In an interview from Sci-Fi TV's September/October 1999
issue, he recounts that he bought the glasses (they're a real prescription
pair) almost on a whim, stopping in a thrift store on his
way to the audition for 7 Days. But since he doesn't actually need
glasses, he can't see when he's wearing them, which has
made him something of a hazardous driver in that wheelchair. But he
says he doesn't want to substitute plain glass just to suit his
own convenience: "When you watch the show, you can see how thick those
lenses are, and that's part of the character. ... If I
just wore prop glasses, you would be able to tell."
Whipple lives in Los Angeles and is single.
5. Nick Searcy
That southern twang is real. Nick Searcy (Nathan "Nate" Ramsey) was
born in Collowhee, North Carolina, and still maintains a
home in his native state with his wife, Leslie, and daughter, Chloe.
In the June 1999 issue of Sci-Fi TV, he hints that an upcoming episode
of 7 Days may feature Ramsey taking the Sphere for a
spin. In the meantime, Searcy is focusing on trying to keep his ultra-paranoid
character on the right side of believable--keeping
Nate Ramsey from becoming a stereotype.
Unlike his character, he's not above an occasional wager. UltimateTV
reports that he had a pool going during the first season
on which character would get killed (and Back-Stepped back to life
again) most.
Like several other 7 Days cast members, he has been active in directing
and producing, as well as acting, and his independent
film, Paradise Falls, has won several awards.
He began his performing career while still in grade school, then continued
acting in college while he obtained a degree in English
at the University of North Carolina. From there, he moved to an array
of film and television roles, including what he calls his
favorite part, playing astronaut Deke Slayton in Tom Hanks' acclaimed
production for HBO, From the Earth to the Moon.
His other feature film credits include Fried Green Tomatoes, The Fugitive,
Nell and Days of Thunder, with Tom Cruise. He has
had a recurring role in the television series Thunder Alley, and was
a series regular as Sheriff Ben Healy in American Gothic.
Guest-starring roles include spots in Murder One and Nash Bridges.
Searcy recently won praise for his roles in "Tigerland",
and "Castaway" in which he played alongside Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt.
6. Norman Lloyd
If you don't recognize Norman Lloyd (Dr. Isaac Mentnor), you haven't
been watching TV in America--he has made regular or
guest appearances in more than a dozen series dating back to the 1950s.
Regrettably, reports indicate that he'll be a recurring character in
7 Days in Season 2, not a regular. There's no word yet on
why.
He was born in New Jersey in 1914 and began his career in the theater,
eventually garnering Broadway roles and working with
the original company of Orson Welles' and John Houseman's Mercury Theater.
He moved to California and on to a career in
films and television, working with such greats as Charlie Chaplin and
Martin Scorsese.
Lloyd's appearances in television series have ranged from a regular
cast role as Dr. Daniel Auschlander in St. Elsewhere to
guest spots in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wings, The Practice,
Wiseguy, and nearly the whole lineup in the classic TV
horror/suspense genre: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Night Gallery, and
The Twilight Zone.
He worked quite a bit with Hitchcock and cites the famous director as
a major influence. "What I owe to Hitch and his
influence, I could never state as fully as I'd like," he said in a
recent interview with Starburst magazine.
He also has produced and/or directed telefilms and television series, including Columbo and Tales of the Unexpected.
Lloyd has film credits beginning in 1942, when he played Fry, the man
who fell off the Statue of Liberty in Hitchcock's film,
Saboteur. His other feature film credits include The Age of Innocence,
The Battle Over Citizen Kane, Dead Poets Society, The
Nude Bomb, FM, The Southerner, and Spellbound. He is married and lives
in Los Angeles.
7. Alan Scarfe
Alan Scarfe (Bradley Talmadge) adds a touch of Shakespearean class to
the 7 Days mix. Born in London and raised in the
U.S., he returned to the UK to pursue a career in the theater beginning
in 1962. At first he worked mostly in Canada and
Britain, but since then he has amassed a long list of credits in American
television and films, as well.
His theater roles (more than 150 of them) have included many of Shakespeare's
plays, including Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello
and King Lear, and a Broadway production of MacBeth. He served as associate
director of Canada's Stratford Festival and of
Liverpool, England's, Everyman Theater. He has directed numerous stage
productions, including The Crucible, Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?, and Romeo and Juliet.
Scarfe's feature film roles have included Lethal Weapon 3, Double Impact
and Iron Eagle II, and he has appeared in such
telefilms as Gunsmoke, Gridlock and Jericho Fever.
His American television appearances have run the gamut from soap opera
(One Life to Live) to sitcoms (Cybill) to crime drama
(NYPD Blue, Hunter) to science fiction and fantasy (Highlander, Star
Trek: Voyager, SeaQuest DSV, Quantum Leap). He
also has appeared in more than 50 Canadian television shows.
He is married to actress Barbara March, who also is his writing partner.
He and March hope to pen one or more episodes of 7
Days in coming seasons. They also have been working on screenplays
for several films, and Scarfe is working on his first novel.
Scarfe has two children, and now lives in Los Angeles.
8. Kevin Christy
Kevin Christy portrays Andrew "Hooter" Owsley, an enthusiastic computer
whiz who joins the Operation Backstep team in the
third season. A California native from La Crescenta, Christy owes his
start in show business to his friend Wil Wheaton (Wesley
Crusher in "Star Trek: The Next Generation"), who took Christy on an
audition with him. Christy was a hit with the Casting
Director and he was soon cast in a high-profile commercial for 7-UP,
which aired during the 1999 Superbowl. He has also
appeared in commercials for products as diverse as Burger King, Chrysler,
am/pm and Midway Video Games.
Christy's feature film credits include starring in the upcoming John
Hughes film "Newport South." He also features with Ashton
Kutcher ("That 70's Show") in the comedy "Dude, Where's My Car?", scheduled
for release in 2001. His other film credits
include the independent features "A Time For Dancing," "Safe In Fiction,"
"Tragedy Is A Place In Texas," "Velcro Shoes And
An Ice Cream Stain" and "Before There Was You." His television credits
include guest-starring roles on "Dharma & Greg,"
"Malcolm In The Middle" and Paramount's "Love & Money."
Besides acting, Christy has other artistic aspirations. He is majoring
in illustration at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design,
and teaches art classes to kids on the weekends.
Christy resides in a suburb of Los Angeles. He enjoys illustration, skateboarding and hockey.
9. Christopher Crowe/Crowe Entertainment
Christopher Crowe and his son, Zachary, are the creators of 7 Days,
which is a joint venture of Crowe Entertainment and
Paramount Network Television.
Executive producer Christopher Crowe, a veteran writer and producer
for television, says he conceived the idea for 7 Days
after an executive at Paramount wondered out loud what it would be
like to have a machine that could go back in time--but no
more than seven days back--to undo past events. Crowe had been working
on a film about the story of a UFO that reportedly
crashed in New Mexico in the late 1940s, and the two ideas melded together
to yield 7 Days as fans now know it.
Like some of the cast members, Crowe didn't plan on a life in show business.
Born in Wisconsin, he spent the first part of his
adulthood as a race-car driver, only following his writing muse into
films and television somewhat later in life.
He went to California to take a job as a writer at Universal Television
in 1973, moving up through the ranks to story editor and
then producer. Some of the series he has worked on are Miami Vice,
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Streets of Justice and
Darkroom. He also was creator and executive producer for a UPN series
titled The Watcher, and executive producer of the
syndicated series The Untouchables.
Also a writer and producer of theatrical films, Crowe has tried to maintain
feature-film quality in 7 Days while bearing in mind
the different requirements of a weekly television series. That has
led him to emphasize quality special effects, even if doing so
means the show runs right on the razor's edge, budgetwise. "It's a
very ambitious show," he told Washington Post reporter
Harriet Winslow in March 1999. "It's big by its nature."
Fans have Crowe's vision of an action show's need for humor and humanity
to thank for the intriguing characters and lighter
moments that are a hallmark of 7 Days. "I think that action-adventure
shows that ignore humor really become Grade B," he said
in the Washington Post interview. He also said that the romantic tension
behind Parker and Olga's relationship is an element he
uses to try to keep the characters from becoming cartoonlike action
figures.
His feature film credits include The Last of the Mohicans, Fear, Whispers
in the Dark (with Jonathan LaPaglia's brother,
Anthony) and Bone Collector.
Crowe's poetry can be heard on a recently released CD, titled Crowe, with accompanying music by Joel Goldsmith.
Section V: Episode Guide
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Current episode - "Raven"
"This already happened." - Frank B. Parker, Come Again?
Season 1
Pilot episode - 10/7/98
Story: Christopher and Zachary Crowe
Teleplay: Christopher Crowe
Director: John McPherson
Chechen terrorists bomb the White House, killing the Russian president,
and the U.S. president and vice president, and
incidentally, children attending a nearby school. In the aftermath
of this calamity, a secret government operation is called on to
use a dangerous and highly experimental time-travel device to prevent
the bombing. That's the good news. The bad news is, the
best man to pilot the device is a nut case named Frank B. Parker. Using
the Sphere to go back in time seven days, Parker must
try to "undo that event"--if he can survive the jump through another
dimension.
The Gettysburg Virus - 10/14/98
Story by: Harry Cason and Stephen Beck
Teleplay: Harry Cason
Director: Vern Gillum
A religious fanatic unleashes a genetically engineered strain of the
ebola virus, killing 98 percent of the world's population--and
most of the Back Step team. Near death herself, Olga manages to send
Parker back in time in a desperate attempt to prevent
global catastrophe. The question is, can he avoid taking the disease
back with him, thus defeating the purpose of the Back
Step?
Come Again? - 10/21/98
Written by: Evan Katz
Director: Aaron Lipstadt
Parker is sent back one day to prevent the death of a scientist who
may have discovered the secret to cold fusion. But the
Sphere goes haywire, forcing Parker to repeat his mission over and
over again in a five-hour time loop with the world's most
annoying man, and in which his efforts to impress Olga are repeatedly
foiled--one way or another.
Vows - 10/28/98
Written by: Thomas Ropelewski
Director: John McPherson
Parker's mission to head off a robbery that causes an international
incident has tragic consequences for his ex-wife's fiance,
Mike Clary. Believing he could've done something to save Mike, Parker
clashes with Talmadge about whether to Back Step
again to prevent Mike's death and make things right.
Doppelganger (2 parts) - 11/11/98
Written by: James Crocker
Director: John McPherson
A renegade American general uses a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as an
opportunity to stage a coup by setting off a nuclear
bomb in Death Valley and blaming the Chinese for the blast. When Parker
Back Steps to warn U.S. authorities of the disaster,
changes Ballard has made to the Sphere split Parker into good and evil
components of himself. The evil "twin" thinks the new
regime is a good idea, and buys his way into the general's good graces
by revealing the secrets of Operation Back Step, leaving
Parker battling himself in an effort to save the country and the project.
Shadow Play - 11/18/98
Written by: B.B. Smickers
Director: David Livingston
Parker's sent back to capture a woman suspected of conspiring to bomb
an NSA facility. But when he finds her, he's not so
sure she's guilty, and, to Talmadge's dismay, goes on the run with
her to find the real culprit.
As Time Goes By - 11/25/98
Written by: Tim Finch and Tamara Shaw
Director: John McPherson
Olga's husband, Josef, who was lost and presumed dead on a Russian
time-travel mission, suddenly reappears in a
Russian-built counterpart to the Sphere. He claims to have come back
from thirty-some years in the future out of love for his
wife, but Parker and Ramsey are immediately suspicious of his motives--and
for good reason.
Sleepers - 12/16/98
Written by: Gannon Kenney
Director: Charles Picerni, Sr.
An old navy buddy of Parker's and Donovan's kills a research scientist
and then himself. The mystery deepens when Donovan
does the same. When Parker Back Steps in an effort to save his friend,
he uncovers long-lost memories revealing that both he
and Donovan were brainwashed years ago in Bangladesh--but soon Parker
finds he, too, has been conditioned to kill at the
command of the mysterious, evil Dr. Lee.
HAARP Attack - 1/27/99
Written by: Paulette Polinski
Director: John McPherson
Islamic rebels attack a communications center and fool U.S. aircraft
into bombing an American base. Parker's effort to prevent
the tragedy goes awry when the Sphere malfunctions. When he lands,
he's 10 years old psychologically and has no memory of
his mission--or anything else, except his "field-trip buddy" Olga,
who must try to unlock his adult mind before it's too late.
Last Card Up - 2/3/99
Written by: Lyn Freeman
Director: Charles Picerni, Sr.
A government standoff at a religious cult's compound ends catastrophically,
and so does the Back Step team's investigation of
the disaster--a reporter goes public with damaging details about the
project after spending a night talking and drinking with
Parker. He denies having told her anything, but Talmadge is furious
and orders a Back Step to seal the security breach, save
the cult members and preserve an important human rights conference.
Once in the past, Parker and Olga pose as a married
couple inside the compound in an effort to save the cult members, and
the real story of how Back Step wound up on the nightly
news unfolds.
Last Breath - 2/10/99
Story: John McPherson and Howard Salus
Teleplay: Peter Farriday
Director: John McPherson
Parker tries to learn Russian to impress Olga. Meanwhile, a Russian
submarine's damaged nuclear reactor spreads radioactive
contamination over a wide area. To avert the disaster, Parker must
learn to use a fluid breathing system, land the Sphere deep
underwater and try to prevent a fanatical Russian political officer
from surfacing the boat and releasing the radiation. Worried
that Parker won't be able to overcome his claustrophobia while breathing
liquid, Olga fears he won't come back from this one,
and her tender feelings for him momentarily surface.
Parkergeist - 2/24/99
Written by: Peter Farriday
Director: David Livingston
Parker's killed (sort of) when the Sphere is sabotaged. With the help
of a blind man who is the only one who can hear him,
Parker's "ghost" must try to prevent the further sabotage of a satellite
designed to spy on drug traffickers...and get back into his
corporeal body, if he can.
Daddy's Girl - 3/3/99
Written by: Harry Cason
Director: Don Kurt
The vice president's unacknowledged, illegitimate daughter is shot
down over Yugoslavia, and the team of soldiers sent in to
rescue her are killed. Guilt- and grief-stricken, the veep shoots himself.
Parker Back Steps to try to prevent the tragedy.
There's Something About Olga - 3/31/99
Written by: Tim Finch and Tamara Shaw
Director: Jeannot Szwarc
A Russian scientist, trying to get hold of Back Step's secrets, kidnaps
Olga and replaces her with an impostor he has created.
But the impostor, Galina, is even more mentally unstable than Parker.
Hallucinating that Parker is her ex-husband, Galina
demonstrates to him all too clearly that "love hurts." By the time
it becomes known that she's a fake, Parker, Ramsey, the real
Olga and the project all are in mortal danger.
A Dish Best Served Cold - 4/21/99
Written by: Stephen Beck
Director: John McPherson
A former chrononaut, James Rance, lost in the Amazon rainforest back
when a ride in the Sphere was pretty much a death
sentence, returns to exact revenge for his lost years and make sure
the Sphere is never used again. He gives Mentnor's
granddaughter a slow poison to force his way into the compound so he
can destroy the Sphere. To save the little girl and
restore the program, Parker must Back Step using an older (and considerably
the worse for wear) version of the Sphere--the
one that didn't work and left Rance wandering out in the jungle with
the mind of a child.
Vegas Heist - 5/5/99
Written by: Dan York
Director: Kenneth Johnson
An African-American freedom fighter who once saved Parker's life stages
a robbery to get money for his people's
independence. But the crime results in a terrible explosion. Parker
has to try to help his friend get the money to save his
countrymen while preventing the blast and its massive loss of life--all
the while dodging Ramsey and the other members of the
team, whose vacation in Vegas puts them in his way.
EBEs - 5/12/99
Written by: Michael Cassutt
Director: John McPherson
A spill of radioactive "Element 115" that fuels the Sphere draws unwelcome
attention to legends about aliens visiting Never
Never Land. But are they really only legends? Mentnor and Talmadge
act suspiciously like they're covering something up, and
it's up to Parker and Olga to find out what.
Walter - 5/19/99
Written by: Harry Cason and Stephen Beck
Director: Charles Correll
Somebody's killing CIA agents right and left after their names are
revealed when an allegedly impenetrable code is broken.
Parker launches the Sphere to capture the code-breaker, but he balks
at his orders to terminate the culprit when he learns the
code-breaker is a savant who had no way of knowing the damage he was
doing. To save Walter's life, Parker finds himself
battling evil Chinese agents, NSA agents following the orders he rejected,
and Walter's tendency to get distracted by pigeons,
buses and a comic-book superhero named the Blue Avenger.
Lifeboat - 5/26/99
Written by: Thomas Ropelewski
Director: John McPherson
An alien survivor from the Roswell crash, in a coma since 1947, suddenly
wakes up and breaks free of the Back Step
compound in a small craft left behind in the debris of the crashed
UFO. Attaching the craft to a nuclear power plant, he appears
to be siphoning power off so that he can get back to his own people.
Dubbed "Adam," the alien seems to be communicating
with Parker, Olga and Ballard, pleading with them to let him return
home to die. But is "Adam" telling the truth about his
intentions?
NOTE: One episode planned for Season 1 was postponed to Season 2 (See
For the Children below): Originally it was
thought there were two missing episodes in Season 1. As it turns out,
however, there was only one, for which the setting and
title had changed a time or two, thus causing some confusion. The episode
was listed as Act of God on the official 7 Days Web
site and has been referred to as Save the Children in a couple of other
sources, with the show ultimately airing as For the
Children. On top of that, Cinescape magazine had quoted executive producer
Christopher Crowe describing the episode has
having to do with an airliner that blew up--the final version was set
on a subway train, instead of a jet. Originally scheduled for
late April 1999, shortly after the Littleton, Colo., school shootings,
this episode was pulled because Crowe felt it would've been
in poor taste to air it so soon after a similar real-life tragedy.
Season 2
The Football - 9/29/99
Story by: Thomas Ropelewski
Teleplay by: Julie Ann Park
Director: John McPherson
The President's mobile nuclear command center, a metal briefcase called
"the football," is lost and by some mysterious means is
triggered, resulting in worldwide nuclear holocaust. By the time Parker
can Back Step, it's almost too late to prevent
inconceivable destruction...and Olga's death. On the other side of
the timeline, he and Olga must desperately search for the
missing case through the urban jungle of Washington, D.C., as the clock
to the end of the world ticks down.
Pinball Wizard - 10/6/99
Written by: Dan York
Director: Charles Correll
Using disaffected young video game aces to fly a sophisticated missile
system, a disgruntled defense contractor turns his
weapons technology against the government that refused to buy it. The
attack reduces the Pentagon to a quadrangle and kills
dozens of federal employees. After the Back Step, Parker's investigation
leads him to one of the gamers: Nancy, an angry
young woman with a past of abuse and abandonment. He must try to help
her overcome her feelings of guilt and inadequacy in
hopes she can beat the weapons system and its hotshot pilot at their
own game.
Parker.com - 10/13/99
Written by: Peter Farriday
Director: Mike Vejar
An artificial intelligence resolves the Y2K computer bug, then transforms
itself into the persona of a young girl named Claire.
Then she meets Parker. Instantly lovestruck, she interprets his musings
on worldwide nuclear stalemate as a moral imperative to
solve all the world's problems overnight--no matter how many people
it kills. Unable to Back Step because of Claire's
interference with the Sphere's systems, Parker agrees to join Claire
in her virtual environment, hoping to distract her while Olga,
Ballard and Claire's creator try to shut down the system.
For the Children - 10/20/99
Written by: Ann Lewis Hamilton
Director: Don Kurt
Veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome take 33 people--12 of them
children--hostage in a subway train in an effort to
force the government to apologize and pay restitution to other victims
of the ailment. When the terrorists' demands are not met,
they blow up the train, killing the hostages. At first it's thought
that an important diplomat was on board, and a Back Step is
authorized. But it turns out the official wasn't among the hostages,
and the time jump is called off. Unable to sleep nights
knowing the children won't be saved, Parker quits the program.
Two Weddings and a Funeral - 11/3/99
Written by: Tim Finch and Tamara Shaw
Director: David Livingston
After sitting up for three days with a comatose Parker, Olga has a
weak moment and confesses that she has feelings for him.
Parker's angry when she tries to explain she didn't mean it quite the
way he took it, and he proposes marriage to prove his own
feelings are serious. Equally annoyed, she agrees, sure he won't go
through with it. But after much hemming, hawing and horsing
around, the deed is done. Only afterward does Parker discover that
Galina Komanov, Olga's evil double (There's Something
About Olga), has escaped from the maximum-security mental hospital.
Is his bizarre wedding a dream come true? Or is it a
living nightmare?
Walk Away - 11/10/99
Story by: Brad Markowitz and Thomas Ropelewski
Written by: Tim Finch and Tamara Shaw
Director: David Livingston
An autopsy of Adam, the alien with bad teeth who came to life briefly
in Lifeboat, reveals that the evil survivor of the Roswell
crash was a paraplegic who used a high-tech microchip to enable the
use of his legs. The chip is removed from Adam and
implanted in Dr. Ballard, who soon is able to walk, dance and play
basketball again, for the first time since he was 15 and lost
the use of his legs in a diving accident. But there's more of Adam
in the chip than just his prancing gait, and the psychopathic
alien still wants to take out the Earth...with Ballard's unwitting
help.
Sister's Keeper - 11/17/99
Written by: Brad Markowitz
Director: Kenneth Johnson
Olga's younger sister Svetlana is murdered after stealing half a million
dollars from her former boss, Ivan, a member of the
Chechen mafia. Parker's scheduled to Back Step to undo a plane crash,
so Olga gives him a note warning of Svetlana's death
and asks him to give it to her on the other side of the timeline. Parker,
of course, can't resist opening the envelope and reading
the note. After the Back Step, he and Olga hit the Vegas strip to find
Svetlana before Ivan catches up to her. But Svetlana turns
out to be nearly as treacherous, in her own way, as the Chechens.
The Collector - 11/24/99
Written by: Alfonse Ruggiero Jr.
Director: John McPherson
Parker makes a big score on a horse race and celebrates by indulging
in too much champagne, not knowing he's about to be
called on to Back Step. Giving a whole new meaning to "DWI," he loses
control of the Sphere on re-entry and crashes into a
prison, inadvertently allowing a psychotic serial killer to escape
the electric chair. When the freed murderer promptly goes on
another killing spree, Parker feels responsible for the mayhem. With
Olga's help, he goes after the killer himself.
Love and Other Disasters - 12/15/99
Written by: Paulette Polinski
Director: David Livingston
The attention of the world is fixed on the apparently storybook wedding
of Princess Lisette and Prince Hamal--even Ramsey's
a little teary-eyed at how "colorful" the story is. Dignitaries and
celebrities, including Ballard and Olga, gather for the occasion.
The first hint that things are not quite as warm and fuzzy as they
seem is Lisette's death shortly before the nuptials in an
"accidental" propane explosion. Ballard and Olga are pulled from the
rubble by the ever-so-gallant Kassim, Hamal's best man,
with whom Olga is slightly smitten. Parker Back Steps to save the princess,
then decides to hang around for the wedding and
see if he can attract Olga away from Kassim. But then Parker discovers
Kassim has a different ending in mind for Lisette's fairy
tale...which turns out not to have been such a happy yarn anyway.
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - 1/5/00
Written by: Harry Cason
Director: Charles Picerni, Sr.
A high-ranking admiral goes to sea aboard a sophisticated stealth warship,
only to have the ship sunk in a mysterious encounter
with a Chinese submarine near Taiwan. When Parker Back Steps to ease
the international tensions that have resulted from the
incident, he learns that the commander of the vessel is an old flame,
Captain Helen Keagle, a gung-ho officer determined to
prove herself in the man's world of the navy. Parker's history with
Keagle has left her persuaded he's a flake, so when the
admiral increasingly appears bent on provoking a hot war with the Chinese
on his own authority, Parker must struggle to regain
Keagle's confidence in him before things get out of control.
Time Gremlin - 1/12/00
Written by: Thomas Ropelewski
Director: Kenneth Johnson
A geological experiment goes horribly awry, creating an earthquake
that devastates California. Likewise, Parker's Back Step to
undo the experiment gets fouled up when the Sphere's flight takes it
close to a strange space-borne anomaly -- the Sphere
doesn't move back in time as it should, and Parker sees a strange,
troll-like creature clinging to the hatch. Then things really
start to go wrong. It turns out the creature came back with Parker,
and it just loves trashing the Sphere and messing with
everyone's time sense. Can the NNL crew get rid of the troublesome
gremlin before seven days pass and California's history?
Buried Alive - 2/9/00
Written by: Stephen Beck
Director: Mike Vejar
A Back Step to undo a catastrophic mine collapse results in the Sphere
landing a little too close to its target--buried
underground in the unstable mine tunnels. The Back Step team frantically
works to locate it while Parker tries to dig his way out
before the cave-in he was supposed to prevent kills him. With his air
and his strength rapidly ebbing, he remembers the
Catholic priest who inspired him to keep fighting against the odds
in tight spots like Honduras and Somalia.
Backstepper's Apprentice - 2/16/00
Written by: Dan York
Director: John McPherson
The Sphere's re-entry path intersects with a jetliner in mid-flight,
and the jet bursts into flame just as the two craft interact. A
young boy on his way to his grandfather's funeral falls out of the
exploding plane and right into Parker's arms, passing through
the outer skin of the Sphere while it's still not solid. Ballard reassures
Parker that the Sphere couldn't cause a plane crash, but
Parker can't resist trying to nix two catastrophes with one time-jump.
He goes looking for the boy, who is his only clue to which
plane is about to go down. But that involves finding the kid, who has
realized he's reliving a day and set out to do his own kind
of "back-step" to save his grandfather.
Deja Vu All Over Again - 2/23/00
Written by: Alfonse Ruggiero Jr.
Director: Charles Correll
Talmadge is captured by Chinese agents and takes a suicide pill rather
than give up the Project's secrets. But because he's been
on an enforced vacation, he isn't missed until almost too late for
a Back Step to save him. By the time the Sphere lands, Parker
has 12 minutes to find him and prevent his death. Along the way, a
strange phenomenon (Parker calls it "time burps") both
assists and bedevils him in his mission--the scenario keeps replaying
itself, giving him an opportunity to keep trying until it comes
out right, but he has to cope with slightly different complications
each time.
Space Station Down - 3/01/00
Written by: Stephen Beck
Director: Will Graham
A meteor hurtling toward Earth glances off the side of a new NASA space
station deflecting itself toward New York City and
Parker must Back-Step to convince the station crew to allow him access
to their vehicle in order to avert the tragedy. The
ship's Captain, Cassie MacKenzie, promoted largely because of her late
father's ultimate sacrifice to the space program, is a
hard sell, but convinces Parker that although she could never reach
her father's technical prowess, she has inherited the courage
and heart which made him a legendary figure.
The Cuban Missile - 3/22/00
Written by: Thomas Ropelewski
Director: David Livingstone
A long awaited match in America for a talented Cuban boxer, the adopted
son of Fidel Castro, turns into a potential nuclear
incident when the young man is assassinated in the ring. Because it
is a matter of honor, Parker must find a way to discredit the
Cuban leader in the eyes of the young man who adores him in order to
save the boxer's life, and prevent a nuclear attack.
X-35 Needs Changing - 4/05/00
Story: Harry Cason & Julie Ann Park
Teleplay: Harry Cason
Director: Charles Picerni, Sr.
A genetically engineered baby is kidnapped from the lab, and even Parker's
Back Step cannot retrieve him in time. Olga and
Parker are put on the trail in the colder regions of Chechnya, where
they find their parental instincts are tapped and deeper
emotions toward each other and the baby cannot be denied.
Brother, Can You Spare a Bomb? - 4/19/00
Story: Nick Searcy and Peter Farriday
Teleplay: Peter Farriday
Director: Charles Correll
Ramsey's worst nightmare comes true when he is informed by Parker that
his hermit-like brother is responsible for blowing
up a naturalization office and killing a U.S. Senator. To make matters
worse, Ramsey is forced to team up with his arch-enemy
Parker to chase down his brother.
Note: Nick Searcy, who co-wrote this episode, plays both Nathan Ramsey
and his brother Nick.
Pope Parker - 4/26/00
Written by: Paulette Polinski
Director: John McPherson
In an inexplicable Back Step glitch, Parker assumes the outward appearance
of the man he has come to save from an
assassin's bullet. Parker's mind, personality, and soul in the body
of the 75-year-old Pope, Sylvester V, creates some unholy
happenings in the Vatican and on the "Pontiff's" trip to New York for
a delicate diplomatic mission at the U.N.
Witch Way to the Prom - 5/03/00
Written by: Tim Finch & Tamara Shaw
Director: Don Kurt
Three boy-crazy teens try to conjure up a prom date for their lovelorn
friend, and mistake Parker, on a Back Step, as their
mystical creation. Angered by Olga's appearance on the scene, the sorcerers
will her an injury, which compromises Parker's
hunt for a political terrorist, until he realizes he can use the girls'
power to find his man.
Mr Donovan's Neighborhood - 5/10/00
Written by: Brad Markowitz
Director: Kenneth Johnson
How far would you go to save a friend's life? When Donovan's sister
is murdered at the hands of a neighborhood drug ring,
Donovan goes home blinded with revenge, and winds up in jail for murder.
The consequences, at the hands of the inmates,
prove too much for Parker to accept, and he takes drastic steps in
order to force the Agency into allowing him a time trip.
Playmates and Presidents - 5/17/00
Written by: Dan York
Director: Mike Vejar
Parker's quick actions to save the life of presidential candidate,
Gov. Jack Stevens, result in an offer to join the campaign elite
as a bodyguard. But the candidate's renegade daughter lets Parker know
that there's an evil underbelly to her father's pretense
of high ideals and elevated rhetoric - facts evident in Stevens's diary,
which Parker deftly removes from the safe.
The Cure - 5/24/00 (Season Finale)
Written by: Richard Blade
Director: John McPherson
Krista, an emotionally unstable and volatile scientist, has discovered
the cure for cancer, but in the century that follows her
theories prove to be in error, unleashing a new strain of genetic disease
which devastates the human population. This news is
brought to the agency's attention by Jack Dawes, a time traveler operating
from a base 168 years in the future, whose mission
is to destroy Krista and undo the world she has created.
Season 3
Stairway to Heaven - 10/11/00
Written by: Stephen Beck
Director: John McPherson
To avert a train spilling nuclear waste into the Colorado River, Parker
launches the sphere despite warnings that atmospheric
conditions could veer a Back-Step off the time line. When the sphere
intersects with limbo, he encounters the presence of a
young woman killed 20 years earlier, and becomes involved in her past
life and the catastrophic conditions resulting from her
unexpected return.
Peacekeepers - 10/18/00
Written by: Tim Finch, Reuben Leder
Director: Charlie Picerni
Three misguided American peacekeepers on a quest for illicit cash in
Bosnia jolt a tense military situation into all out warfare.
Parker Back-Steps to locate the soldiers, and help them with what intel
believes was a refugee rescue gone awry. Donovan
takes a second look at quitting Project Backstep when he and Parker
join forces in the fray and depend on each other's skills
to stay alive.
Rhino - 10/25/00
Written by: David Aaron Freed and Howard Salus
Director: Kenneth Johnson
When the newly-elected Colombian President is honored at a White House
dinner, deadly poison is administered through a
kiss. In a Back-Step aimed at preventing the incident, Parker teams
up with 'Rhino', an old friend from the SEALs. But the two
men must also begin a tandem push to save Olga's life when she is abducted
and wired to explosives by the elusive assassin.
The Dunwych Madness - 11/01/00
Written by: Stephen Beck
Director: John McPherson
Unexplained homicidal violence in a nowhere town prompts a Back-Step
and a FEMA investigation. The virus-like 'madness'
of the villagers also strikes Parker and Donovan, and Isaac Mentnor
recognizes it as linked to his work in a bio-warfare
experimentation project following WWII. New agency member Andrew (Hooter)
Owsley, a young prodigy who has worked
with Ballard in the past, comes aboard in time to hack into the CDC
database for information on a possible antidote before
FEMA carries out a destruct order on Dunwych.
Olga's Excellent Vacation - 11/08/00
Written by: Harry Cason
Director: John McPherson
When Olga melts into Parker's arms in her torrid dreams, she knows
it's time for a vacation in a remote mountain location to
regain her equilibrium. But when a terrorist bomb destroys the Alaskan
pipeline, it wipes her off the mountainside as well.
During the Back-Step to reverse the attack, Parker realizes that his
aim is as much to save Olga as it is to stop the explosion.
Deloris Demands - 11/15/00
Written by: Howard Salus and David Aaron Freed
Director: Mike Vejar
Parker rebuffs several phone calls from a voice pretending to be an
old girlfriend. The results, however, are catastrophic, when
her threats to immobilize San Francisco's air traffic control system
are realized. Parker Back-Steps to avert the tragedy, and
finds himself prey in a high stakes cat and mouse game in which failure
will cost thousands of lives.
Fire Last Time - 11/22/00
Written by: Tim Finch
Director: Kenneth Johnson
Recurring guilty nightmares over his own survival and the deaths of
his comrades in Somalia weaken Parker into delusional
behavior during a dangerous Back-Step. While trying to prevent the
escape of a convict threatening the life of a politician,
Parker hallucinates that he is in battle and reenacts a bloody sequence
of events while subconsciously attempting to fulfill the
primary Back-Step mission.
Tracker - 12/20/00
Writtten by: Rueben Leder
Director: Chip Laughlin
A Russian criminal named Josef, seeking revenge on Parker for the death
of his brother (killed in the pilot episode), kidnaps the
crononaut and inserts a locator chip into his neck. After Parker Backsteps
to save the life of an ambassador, Josef is surprised
to find one of his locator chips suddenly activated in North Carolina.
After Josef kidnaps Parker and his beloved wife Petra is
killed, Josef starts to believe that time travel is possible, and resolves
to force the Backstep team to bring his wife back from the
dead, whatever the cost...
Top Dog - 01/03/01
Written by: Peter Farriday
Director: Kenneth Johnson
After Talmadge apparently suffers a nervous breakdown, Ramsey is appointed
chief of the Back-Step program by the NSA
oversight committee. When Ramsey removes Parker from active service
and begins a hardline regime, the Backstep staff unite
to topple him, unaware that Talmadge has been confined to Hansen Island,
where his condition is rapidly worsening.
Adam & Eve & Adam - 01/10/01
Written by: Peter Farriday
Director: John McPherson
When a military test goes horribly wrong, Parker, Olga, Hooter and
a surviving Army Major must trek through an apocalyptic
landscape to prevent life on Earth from being vapourised. When the
trip begins to be plagued by mysterious problems, it
becomes apparent that someone is attempting to prevent the Backstep.
But who is it, and why?
Headcase - 01/31/01
Written by: Harry Cason
Director: David Livingstone
Audio tapes of the President's sessions with his analyst are snatched
by two US Secret Service agents operating on behalf of a
dangerous Peruvian dictator. On a Back-Step to avert the theft, Parker
encounters the President's psychiatrist, Grace Weiman,
who believes he is an escaped mental patient, until they both become
targets of the corrupt White House Chief of Staff.
Raven - 02/07/01
Written by: Stephen Beck
Director: Kenneth Johnson
A Back-Step is initiated when a missile test-firing backfires into
a slaughter of the top military brass observing the event. Central
to the disaster is a missing computer control device, expertly lifted
by a beautiful and dangerous international thief working her
way up the ladder to the man she wants dead.
The First Freshman - 02/14/01
Written by: Peter Farriday
Director: Charles Correll
Parker is Backsteps to prevent the death of President Maxwell's rebellious
daughter.
Revelation - 02/21/01
Written by: Don Handfeild & Darren Maddern
Director: John McPherson
When a member of Operation Backstep arrives from the future, he tells
Parker that he must assassinate a powerful religious
leader. But is the future Backstepper all that he seems?
Note: Guest starring Robert Picardo from Star Trek:Voyager.
Crystal Blue Persuasion - 02/28/01
Written by: Dan York
Director: Michael King
Empty Quiver
Written by: Mike Mistovich
Director: Les Butler
Section VI: About alt.tv.sevendays
1. What's the purpose of alt.tv.sevendays?
2. What can I post to alt.tv.sevendays?
3. What should not be posted to alt.tv.sevendays?
4. What happens if I post the wrong thing?
5. What is a "spoiler," and why should I care?
6. What's a "flame"/"flame war"?
7. What should I do about abuse?
8. Who's this "PRGirl77"?
VI. About alt.tv.sevendays
"I've seen what you guys consider a vacation--I'd rather just spend
a night somewhere around here, if that's all right
with you." - Frank B. Parker, The Gettysburg Virus
1. What's the purpose of alt.tv.sevendays?
This news group was created to provide a place on Usenet for discussion of the television series 7 Days.
2. What can I post to alt.tv.sevendays?
Any discussion, commentary, analysis or news related to the show, its
cast, production or broadcast is welcome. For example,
reviews or comments about what you like or don't like about an episode;
your theory about how the Sphere and/or the process
of Back Step works; analysis of the characters' personalities and relationships;
announcements of cast appearances and any
books or magazines or fan activities (such as conventions) related
to the show; schedule information; time travel theories and
speculation; and anything else that has to do with the series.
Remember that news items you find on the Internet are not always true--you
can save yourself embarrassment by verifying
rumors before distributing them.
3. What should not be posted to alt.tv.sevendays?
Alt.tv.sevendays is an unmoderated alt.* news group - the kind your
mother warned you about. Technically, no one can stop
you from posting anything you please to the news group...but that doesn't
mean there won't be consequences for inappropriate
behavior. A good rule of thumb is: Never do anything on the Internet
that you wouldn't want your mother, your high school
principal, your boss, your priest or the cops to find out about.
In particular, the alt.tv.sevendays charter prohibits:
a) Off-topic posts. Messages that have nothing to do with the show should not be posted to alt.tv.sevendays.
b) Cross-posting. This involves posting the same message to more than
one news group. Cross-posting puts a strain on the
systems that send messages over the Internet, and because it does,
many Internet providers ban or limit cross-posting. You can
lose your access to the 'net if you get caught at it.
c) Binary files. Reduced to its simplest terms, a binary file is any
computer file that isn't plain text. This includes images (Ex.,
GIFs and JPGs), audio clips (Ex., WAVs and MP3s) and video clips (Ex.,
AVIs). It also includes files formatted by a word
processor, such as MS Word or WordPerfect, and program files such as
screen-savers and (eek!) viruses. HTML files are
plain text by definition, but there's not much point in sending HTML-coded
documents to a news group--they belong on the
Web, not in Usenet.
Binary files are a problem in part because they're large; like cross-posting,
sending binaries to a discussion group puts a strain
on the servers that make Usenet news groups possible. Remember, too,
that people access news groups with all kinds of
systems and software. You may have sophisticated equipment and applications,
but others don't. News groups use plain text
because it's the one thing everybody's system can read.
If you have great images or other binaries, please share them with the
many alt.binaries.* groups that are designed for exactly
that purpose. Or better yet, put them on a Web page.
Note that copying and distributing copyrighted images, audio clips and
video clips is illegal, even if you're not making any
money from it.
d) Advertising/spam. Do not post advertising or promotional announcements
for commercial products or services to
alt.tv.sevendays. Commercial, in this context, means anything from
which you hope to make money--if you stand to profit in
any way by posting the message, don't post it to the news group. Unsolicited
e-mail advertising is also called spam, and it is one
of the few things that's considered a no-no almost everywhere on the
'net, including in the alt.tv.sevendays news group.
Some other types of posts can get you in trouble, even though they're not specifically prohibited by the charter:
e) Trolls. A troll is any message sent to the news group purely for
the purpose of causing an uproar, or any person who sends
such a message, especially if he/she uses a false e-mail address to
send the message. An example would be a message with a
subject header that reads, "Seven Days sucks!"--which would motivate
fans in the news group to clog up bandwidth with a lot
of messages saying, in effect, "It does not!" You can also get electronically
yelled at for responding to a troll in the news group.
(Nobody cares if you respond in private e-mail--that's between you
and the troll.) While we understand the temptation to
respond may be strong, remember that trolls thrive on drawing attention
to themselves. The fastest way to get rid of them is to
ignore them entirely.
f) Virus warnings. Viruses are a real threat, but many e-mail virus
warnings are hoaxes distributed by people who think it's
funny to watch others scurry around in a panic for no reason. You'll
look smarter if you don't play their game. If you're worried
about viruses, invest in good antivirus software, use it and keep it
updated.
For your own benefit and that of others, please do make an effort to
keep your own system clean of viruses, so that you're not
spreading them to the rest of us. One easy and completely cost-free
way to head off e-mail viruses before they infect your
system is to turn off the function that automatically opens any files
attached to e-mail messages. (In Netscape, the function is
called "View attachment inline.") With that turned off, you will have
an opportunity to see what files are attached to a post, and
often you can determine whether the file is a virus and delete it before
it does any damage. You should be very wary of any
attachment with a filename that ends in ".exe"--that's how most virus
names end. Filenames that end in ".txt" or ".html" or ".htm"
are text files that usually are safe to open. If in doubt, don't open
it, even if it comes from someone you know--many viruses use
the address books of your friends and relatives to make themselves
look harmless and distribute themselves across the 'net.
So let's be careful out there, okay?
g) Pyramid schemes/chain letters. This includes messages asking people
to send stuff to an allegedly dying/chronically
ill/disabled child, most of which are hoaxes. Chain letters and pyramid
schemes are illegal in most U.S. states.
h) Messages that don't add to the discussion. This includes responses
that just say "LOL" ("Laughing Out Loud") or
"Ditto" (meaning you agree with the person who posted a message). These
are just plain annoying, especially if you post a lot of
them, and if people get annoyed enough, you may get flamed. If you
haven't got anything to say, please consider not posting at
all.
4. What happens if I post the wrong thing?
Despite what you may have heard, most people on Usenet are generally
polite, friendly and understanding. Almost all of us, at
one time or another, have posted something we wish we hadn't, so we
know how it feels. But your odds are good that
somebody will be having a bad day and will take offense at a post that
doesn't belong in the news group. You'll be better off if
you engage your brain before engaging the "send" button.
However, accidents do happen. Assuming your message isn't actually illegal
(such as a chain letter), at best, you may get a
polite request (or two or six or twenty) not to do it again. At worst,
someone may report you to your Internet provider, which
may or may not take action against you. Most news readers have a utility
allowing you to cancel a message you send in
error--if you act quickly. Find out how yours works, just in case you
ever need it. Failing that, a prompt apology may inspire
people to just forget about it.
5. What is a "spoiler," and why should I care?
A "spoiler" is any message that reveals an important plot or character
point, thus "spoiling" the suspense for people who haven't
seen the episode yet. People don't always see an episode immediately
when it airs, for any number of reasons. Complicating
the matter is that the Internet is globally instantaneous, but television
schedules are not--7 Days is also telecast in countries
beyond the U.S., but not necessarily at the same time it's aired in
the States. There could be a lag of months before some
overseas news group participants see a new episode.
Obviously, if we waited for everyone to see all new eps, we couldn't
discuss the show at all. So somebody somewhere came
up with the idea of posting the word "spoiler" in the subject header
or high up in a post that discusses a recently aired episode,
to warn people not to read on if they don't want to have the episode
"spoiled" for them. Some people think "spoiler" warnings
are stupid and unnecessary; others will become very annoyed if you
don't use them and will let you know in no uncertain terms
how annoyed they are. Use your best judgment.
6. What's a "flame"/"flame war"?
A "flame" is any post that takes another participant to task for something,
especially if the "flame" message is strongly worded
and/or personal in nature. A "flame war" is a series of such messages
zapping back and forth among two or more posters,
particularly if the exchange goes on for more than a day.
Disagreement and debate are healthy for a news group - they lead to
lively discussions - but flame wars are always unpleasant
for everybody in the forum and should be avoided or taken to private
e-mail. People who aren't involved in the initial exchange
should resist the temptation to involve themselves, as that generally
just fans the flames, so to speak.
7. What should I do about abuse?
First, take a deep breath and count to 10.
Where one person sees abuse, another sees his/her inalienable right
to freedom of expression. Before you do anything, think
hard about how serious the situation really is and whether the punishment
you have in mind really fits the offense.
The mildest thing you can do is privately e-mail the offender and attempt
to reason with him/her. The strongest thing you can do
is forward the entire message, including complete headers, to the offender's
ISP. Most ISPs have an abuse department that can
be reached by sending e-mail to abuse@[domain name]. Describe in your
message what you found offensive about the post,
but do not suggest a course of action - that can get you in trouble
for attempting a "denial of service" attack. Note that reporting
someone to his/her ISP is a serious matter that should only be pursued
in cases of truly gross abuse. Don't do it just because
you're having a bad day or you don't like the other person. You can
make a lot of enemies in a hurry by using this tactic
indiscriminately.
For more information about what constitutes 'net abuse and what can
be done about it, see the news.admin.net-abuse.misc
news group.
8. Who's this "PRGirl77"?
PRGirl77 is a regular poster in the newsgroup, and has been since Season
2. She's also the show's publicist, so what she says
can be taken as gospel. So far she's provided us with set reports,
news of upcoming episodes, writer and director credits, tips
on media articles and features, and advance warning of online chats
and TV appearances. She's tireless, enthusiastic and
generally an all-around nice person. Luckily for us and for the show,
she's also a fan.
