The 4400
The 4400 is a
science fiction program on the
USA Network,
Space: The Imagination Station, and
Sky One. It began as a
miniseries of five episodes, which aired weekly from
July 11 to
August 8,
2004; a second season of twelve episodes began airing on
June 5,
2005 and concluded on
August 28,
2005. The third season premiered on
June 11,
2006. It was created and written by Scott Peters and
René Echevarria. It stars
Joel Gretsch and
Jacqueline McKenzie. The theme song of the show is "A Place in Time" written by Robert Phillips & Tim Paruskewitz, performed by
Amanda Abizaid.
The 4400 is produced by
CBS Paramount Network Television (known as Paramount Network Television during season 2, and was produced by
Viacom Productions during season 1 before being folded into Paramount Network Television in 2005) in association with
Sky Television for
Sky One, Renegade 83, and
American Zoetrope for
USA Network.
The series is filmed in
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada.
In the
pilot episode, what is originally thought to be a
comet deposits a group of exactly four thousand, four hundred people in the
Cascade Range foothills near
Mount Rainier,
Washington. All of the 4400 had disappeared at various points starting from
1946[Maia's profile states her abduction date as 1946.] in a beam of white light. After their return, none have aged, all are disoriented, and they remember nothing between the time of their disappearance and their return.
* Note:
Billy Campbell, who plays Jordan Collier, has never been listed on the opening credits with the regular characters, instead as a "Special Guest Star"; however he is generally considered a regular.
National Threat Assessment Command
NTAC (
National Threat Assessment Command), a division of the
Department of Homeland Security, is in charge of dealing with the return of the 4400. There are a multitude of agents assigned to the case. The series mainly follows two of them, as well as their immediate superior and theory room consultant:
*
Tom Baldwin*
Diana Skouris*
Dennis Ryland: Baldwin's and Skouris's supervisor and director of the Seattle bureau of NTAC during season one. At the end of season 2, he is arrested for his role in the creation/approval of the
promicin inhibitor that afflicted the 4400 during the end of the season. He is currently employed in the private sector. His conglomerate has been hired as a defense contractor aiding the
NSA in the tracking of the Nova Group, a terrorist organization of 4400 returnees.
*
Nina Jarvis: Nina succeeds Ryland in season two, but he takes his role back as a guest star on the 11th and 12th (season finale) episodes of season two. In season three, she is again the director of NTAC's Seattle bureau.
*
Marco PacellaReturnees (the 4400)
Most have trouble trying to get their lives back on track after being separated from their world for years. More significantly, a small number of the returnees begin to manifest
paranormal abilities, such as
telekinesis,
telepathy,
precognition, as well as other gifts that are even stranger. In addition, one of the 4400 had become pregnant between her disappearance and return.
At the end of the first season, we learn that the 4400 were abducted, not by
aliens, but by people in
Earth's future, and that they were returned in order to prevent some sort of catastrophe.
At the end of the second season, it was revealed that all 4400 had a new
neurotransmitter called "promicin" in their brains; it was this which gave them their powers. The government, afraid of what this large group would do with such power, secretly dosed all 4400 with a promicin inhibitor which worked on the majority of the group, but not those who were later seen with powers. The inhibitor caused a potentially fatal immune deficiency as a side effect in the returnees. It was ultimately removed from the 4400 by an antibody developed from the blood of the infant Isabelle, who was never given the drug.
At the beginning of the third season, the Nova Group, a terrorist faction made up of 4400s, has made itself known. Originally formed as a "defensive" group in the aftermath of the promicin-inhibitor scandal, the Nova Group eventually went rogue and carried out numerous terrorist attacks against the government and NTAC. The group is responsible for many terrorist attacks including the assassination of the men involved with the promicin-inhibitor conspiracy, the attempted assassination of Ryland, framing Tom Baldwin for murder, and making Shawn go temporarily insane.
Main 4400 characters
The series follows the lives and stories of a select few of the 4400. The main characters are:#
Richard Tyler, disappeared
May 11,
1951, at age 29, while in
South Korea during the
Korean War. Originally an
African American fighter pilot from
St. Louis, Missouri, he was in a relationship with Lily Moore's
white grandmother, Lily Bonham. He is the father of Lily Moore's second daughter, Isabelle. When he discovered Shawn funded the Nova Group, he was convinced by Matthew Ross to take over the 4400 Center.
Paranormal abilities:
telekinesis#
Lily Tyler (last name
Moore before marriage to Richard), disappeared
May 26,
1993, at age 26. (Deceased). At time of abduction, she was married to Brian Moore, mother to Heidi Moore. She returned pregnant, but by Richard Tyler, not Brian. In the season 3 opener, she ages from 29 to mid-70s and passes away. Executive producer
Ira Steven Behr originally pitched season three with the continuation of this character, but was told by the network to write her out of the show for "business reasons."[
1]
Laura Allen, the actress who played Lily subsequently accepted a role on another show. During the season 3 opener, this character was played by
Tippi Hedren instead.
Paranormal abilities: unknown. She had all of Isabelle's powers when she was pregnant, and aged rapidly as Isabelle aged.#
Shawn Farrell, disappeared
April 22,
2001, at age 17, from Highland Beach,
Washington. After his return, he began an affair with his brother's girlfriend and eventually ran away to the 4400 Center after nearly killing him. He takes over the Center after Jordan Collier's death. He secretly funded Nova, a defensive group for the center turned radical. When he realized that Nova was willing to kill for their goals, he cut ties with them and even helped Tom and Diane capture a Nova member. When he revealed to Richard and the board what he'd done, he was forced to resign as head of the center.
Paranormal abilities:
Healer and life taker, or vitakinesis.#
Maia Skouris#
Jordan Collier, disappeared
April 10,
2002, from the
Seattle, Washington area, a former
real estate mogul. He starts the 4400 Center and mentors Shawn. Also, after being assassinated by Kyle Baldwin, he disappears and reappears alive at the very end of the second season finale which suggests an ability to reincarnate (although he could have simply been resurrected by humans from the future, or by Shawn's attempts to save him after being shot).
Billy Campbell, the actor who plays Collier, took most of season three off to sail around the world.
[MSNBC: The 4400's power-hungry tycoon returns] Paranormal abilities: As yet unrevealed; possible enhanced power of
suggestion over other people..#
Alana Mareva, disappeared
September 5,
2001. Artist and art gallery owner. She becomes a rock to fall back on for Tom, and affectionately calls him Thomas. Before she was abducted she was a widow, and had a son, Billy, who died before her abduction. Fled with Gary Navarro after she helped him evade NTAC pursuit.
Paranormal abilities: Ability to create a mental-only
alternate realities through mind links with other people. Given to her by the future so she could develop a relationship with Tom Baldwin to sustain him through the "coming troubles". Alana Mareva was not in Season 1, had a supporting role in Season 2, and is a regular in Season 3.
Minor 4400 characters
:Main Article:
List of The 4400 minor characters.
Due to the nature of the show,
The 4400 includes many minor returnees as guest characters. In many cases, these returnees play a role as a 'problematic 4400 of the week'.
[ This terminology is discussed by Ira Steven Behr, a creator of the show at IGN].
Other characters
Other characters that do not belong to NTAC nor are members of the 4400 include:#
Kyle Baldwin, Tom Baldwin's son and Shawn Farrell's cousin. He was with Shawn when he was abducted and was in a three-year coma because of it; when Kyle came out of his coma he was possessed by a force from the future that caused blackouts. During Kyle's blackouts he would do things that he would have no recollection of doing, including the assassination of Jordan Collier. He is currently in prison awaiting trial. It is unknown what will happen to Kyle once Jordan Collier returns in the later part of Season 3, though he is set to return.#
Danny Farrell, Shawn's younger brother who, because Shawn stole his girlfriend, is a staunch anti-4400 college student. Danny goes to the same college as Kyle. During season two, however, Matthew Ross suggested to Shawn that he should mend things with his family to help his image. Since then, Danny has healed his relationship with his older brother, though tensions still exist.#
Nikki Hudson, Danny's girlfriend and neighbor until Shawn returns. When this happens Nikki and Shawn develop feelings for each other and date until Shawn runs away. She returns in the third season asking for Shawn's help curing her cancer-stricken father. They seem on the verge of renewing their relationship but Shawn calls it off, fearing that Isaebelle will try to kill Nikki as an obstacle to her and Shawn's happiness.#
Kevin Burkhoff (
Jeffrey Combs), world-renowned scientist and father of the 4400 technology. Kevin was the one who discovered how to cure the side effects of the promicin-inhibitor during the season two finale. In the third season, Kevin begins to inject himself with promicin in order to gain 4400-type abilities. The drugs have disfigured his appearance by causing wounds on his chest and a loss of his teeth, in exchange for the rapid (but inconsistent) healing of muscle tissue (which was demonstrated when he put a scalpel through his hand and it healed within seconds). After several months of injections, his entire body was covered in lesions and decaying tissue, but his regenerative abilities are now fully active, as he literally resurrects himself after taking four nine millimeter rounds to the chest at the hands of one of Ryland's agents and being placed in a body bag for autopsy. After a failed attempt by him and Tess Doerner to perform the same procedure on Diana Skouris, he shed his skin like a snake, revealing an untarnished appearance. The assumption we are forced to make is that Burkhoff is now a fully-operational 4400.
Paranormal abilities:
Regeneration.#
Isabelle Tyler, born post-return, daughter of Richard Tyler and Lily Moore. She is technically not one of the 4400 returned (she was still in the womb at the time of the count). According to Matthew Ross (and seemingly confirmed by the 4400 faction in the future), her mission is to eliminate all of the 4400. As she was not affected by the ability-inhibitor, she provides blood used to heal Shawn Farrell and consequently all 4400s, activating their abilities. At the end of the second season she ages considerably and shows up in Shawn's office, naked. This rapid aging also aged her mother Lily.
Paranormal abilities:
Telepathic communication (with Lily Moore, Richard Tyler, and Jordan Collier),
telepathic suggestion,
materialization (getting whatever she wants), healing/injuring (Jordan Collier's injury, Lily Moore's first daughter's spleen, causing a
heart attack in an attacker), regenerating instantly from burns on her hand and significant blunt force trauma (multi-story fall), acceleration of biological growth (the growth of berries in one episode and herself in the season 2 finale),
precognition (warned Lily of a bomb before it exploded),
telekinesis (the bending trees in the final scene of Season 1, attack on Matthew Ross in Season 3), thermokinesis (heating up pool water), at least limited
shapeshifting (changing her eye color from brown to green), musical
prodigy or extremely rapid learning (acquired virtuoso level piano skill in a few hours), the ability to mimic or take control of other 4400's powers (the method she used to kill various Nova Group members and cause Armand to go insane). She is not affected by Shawn Farrell's ability to drain someone's life-force. Note that many of these powers duplicate those from among the 4400. Isabelle's character appears to be at least partly inspired by
Elizabeth Maxwell from the
V series of movies. She seems to be working with Dennis Ryland's covert enterprise and is the source of the promicin they used in attempts to induce 4400 mutations in people who were never abducted. Isabelle Tyler is in the first and second seasons, but doesn't join the cast as a regular until season three.#
Matthew Ross, (Deceased) lobbyist in the Collier organization who advises Shawn after Jordan Collier's death. Matthew runs the day-to-day business of the 4400 Center and it is hinted Collier gave him specific instructions of what to do. Recent episodes suggest that Matthew knows more about the 4400 and Jordan Collier's assassination than he has revealed. When Isabelle Tyler was contemplating suicide, Ross told her she was nearly invincible, but offered her a drug or toxin that he claimed would kill her. Where he got this and how he knew it would work remain unknown at this point. In a later episode, a similar drug or toxin was given to Tom Baldwin from the future in order to kill Isabelle. He is later killed by Isabelle through an instant stroke, after revealing that he is possibly from the future, his agenda being in line with the 4400-opposed faction which the future representative told Tom about; this side wishes for the timeline to remain unchanged. It is revealed shortly before Ross's death that, right after Isabelle's rapid aging, Ross had told her that her mission is to eliminate the 4400.#
Darren Piersahl. (deceased) A
US Army Sergeant, who was part of a program to produce 4400-enabled soldiers.
Paranormal abilities: "
Oxidizes" biological tissues, resulting in
death and a
mummified appearance.#
John Shaffner. (deceased) A soldier in the same program as Darren Piersahl. It's unknown wheather he had an ability.
Early in the show, the masterminds at NTAC suspected that the 4400s were placed in the timeline with their enhanced abilities for some purpose, to effect some change that could propagate and change the course of history.
An example of this effect at work came during the third season episode "Gone, Part II" in which five 4400 children were once again abducted by the future and "seeded" back into history at different time periods. Three "advances" accomplished by this feat included the development of clean-air technology for cars, a substitute for petrol and technology making moon bases possible, according to background conversations "overheard" at NTAC. These advances were negated (restoring the original timeline) in order for Tom Baldwin's continued cooperation in preventing the "disaster" to come â€" by killing Isabelle.
In
The 4400, bodies produce four main
neurotransmitters that control and regulate everything. Every 4400 produces a fifth neurotransmitter called promicin that enables him or her to use parts of the
cerebellum no human has previously used. This is the cause of the new abilities in each returnee. However, as part of a government conspiracy, a promicin-inhibitor was created that could neutralize the promicin in a returnee's body, supressing their potential new ability.
During season three, Dr. Kevin Burkhoff managed to devise a way to artifically create 4400 abilities through a series of promicin injections, using himself as a test subject, which appeared to give him incredible regenerative abilities. However, the government has found out about this breakthrough, and is now building up his own stockpile of promicin (extracted from Isabelle), which they have in turn used to create at least one group of soldiers with 4400 abilities.
The promicin-inhibitor piggybacks on
glucose, after entering the
brain through facilitated diffusion. It is a binding
protein. To counter-act the promicin inhibitor, NTAC medical developed a serum containing Isabelle's pure promicin. This serum neutralized the charge so the inhibitor was not able to cross membranes and could be flushed out of the body.
For a period of about five years, a Seattle hospital used a subtly malfunctioning radiation source in cancer treatments. This radiation induced a mutation in those treated that apparently is both harmless and conserved in offspring. While the offspring of a returnee normally do not retain the ability to generate promicin, a second-hand report from John Shaffner (an ex-government soldier) suggested that the offspring of a 4400 and a Starzl mutant will conserve the ability. This is believed by Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris to be the reason why the abductees were returned to the Seattle area - it is the only place they are likely to encounter individuals who possess the Starzl mutation and therefore the only place they are likely to produce children with 4400 talents.
This and other facts in his possession suggest Dennis Ryland has access to a source of information not generally available even to NTAC. Ryland will only say that such things happen far above his security clearance.
Season 1 was five episodes long.
Season 2 had 12 episodes, including the two hour long season premiere, "Wake Up Call".
A special episode, "The 4400: Unlocking the Secrets," was aired between seasons two and three.
Season 3 will have 11 episodes, including the two hour long season premiere, "The New World", and the two part episode, "Gone."
Production of a third season was shot in
Vancouver [http://www.the4400.com/behindthescenes_news_20051004.html] until
26 July 2006. The Third Season premiered
11 June 2006, with 4.2 million viewers tuning in.
In season three,
Megalyn Echikunwoke joined the cast as "the newly grown-up Isabelle".
Executive Producer
Ira Steven Behr said that season three "is going to be bigger and more mythic. It feels like 26 episodes instead of 13 because we're cramming so much stuff in." He also states that
Billy Campbell will return as Jordan Collier in the second half of the season, and "the initials in his name" have to do with his mysterious resurrection.
|
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, standing in as The 4400 Center during filming. |
Even though the series is set in Seattle, it is filmed in
Vancouver,
British Columbia. All the cars have fake Washington license plates and the 4400 Center is actually the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the
University of British Columbia. There is another nod to the filming location in the opening credits – the vintage car in the opening video has "Beautiful British Columbia" license plates.
*In
Australia and
New Zealand the first season was shown as a miniseries of two episodes. The second season was aired weekly but taken off air halfway through the season, while continuing to air in New Zealand. In February 2006, it was put back on air, starting from where it had left off.
*Early marketing for the series included stencilled
graffiti in public places across
San Francisco,
Houston, and
Boston raising ire among residents.
The first 2 seasons are currently available on
DVD from
Paramount Home Entertainment in the US and Europe. The 2nd season of
The 4400 will be available on Region 4 DVD from
August 10,
2006. [
2]
*
Official website*
The 4400 at EpisodeWorld.com
*
HollywoodNorthReport.com 4400 News*
The 4400 Wiki*
Episode List at EpGuides
*
The 4400 on
TV Squad*
The 4400 on
Space
