From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seven Days
Seven Days intertitle
Format	Science fiction
Created by	Christopher Crowe Zachary Crowe
Starring	Jonathan LaPaglia Justina Vail Don Franklin Sam Whipple Nick Searcy Norman Lloyd Alan Scarfe Kevin Christy
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	66 (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	United States Canada
Running time	approx. 45 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	UPN
Original run	October 7, 1998 – May 29, 2001

Seven Days (Seven 7 Days in the title sequence; also written as 7 Days^[1]) is a science fiction television series based around the premise of time travel. It was produced by UPN from 1998 - 2001.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Project Backstep 3 The Time Machine 4 Roswell Technology 5 Soviet Time Travel Projects 6 Production 7 Cast 8 Episodes 9 References 10 External links

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

Because the show was about time travel, it was unusual in that it could both dramatize a catastrophic event and have its characters prevent it in the same episode.

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

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

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

Descriptions of how the Chronosphere and the time travel mechanisms work were revealed in the early episodes, and in episodes where Soviet time travelers or spies attempt to steal Element-115 or the secrets of the Backstep Project.

While it may appear that the time machine is the Chronosphere itself, this is not the case. The Chronosphere has its own power source for navigation and avionics, but it doesn't produce the time displacement field for time travel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In two episodes, it was shown that the Russians had their own time travel projects.

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

In one episode, a Russian time machine from the future returned to the past to visit Project Backstep. The Russian chrononaut tried to steal the Element-115 fuel source and damage the Chronosphere. The Russian time machine was shown to be powered by a photonic power source, something that Ballard is also working on. This allowed the time machine to generate sufficient power to create its own localized time displacement field without relying on Element-115.

Three seasons of Seven Days were produced. All three seasons (with the exception of a single episode^{[citation needed]}) have been shown in North America. In the UK, all three seasons have now been shown on the Bravo (satellite channel). Terrestrial broadcast of the series began on BBC2 in May 2001 and continued up to Episode 12 ("Last Breath"). They are due to resume on Monday 26 February 2007 beginning with Episode 13 ("Parkergeist") and will be shown on BBC2 every weeknight just after midnight, with the exception of Friday night/Saturday morning when the slot is occupied by Star Trek. In Canada, Australia, India,New Zealand, Germany, Norway, Finland and Sweden all three seasons have been shown, and the show was quite popular in Italy where it was shown in Sunday prime time. All seasons had been shown in Spain, Israel and Slovakia, but in a very untimely schedule that prevented a wide audience.

The series was filmed in California, USA during season one, and British Columbia, Canada during seasons two and three.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2001, the series was cancelled.^[1]

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

Main article: List of Seven Days episodes

• Seven Days at the Internet Movie Database
• Seven Days at TV.com