Actor Jonathan LaPaglia. Photo copyright of CBS.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Jonathan LaPaglia talks about stepping into the role of ex-CIA Agent Frank Parker in Seven Days.
The pilot episode for Seven Days opens with Frank Parker as a patient in a CIA psychiatric hospital. His present condition is a result of a mission he was on two years ago in Somalia that went wrong. Parker was captured and tortured and eventually broke down. Although he has made a remarkable recovery since his ordeal Parker is still somewhat unstable.
When a national disaster occurs the United States government has no choice but to solicit Parker’s help. He is trained to operate a high-tech spherical device code named Back-Step which will take him back in time and allow him to prevent this catastrophe from ever happening. According to LaPaglia the ride is anything but smooth.
“It’s not like Quantum Leap where they punch in a few coordinates and I appear somewhere else. My character physically has to fly this sphere but they [the scientists] haven’t worked out all the kinks with the system, so he really gets beat up during his flights. The special effects department is trying to use a lot of computer-generated effects for the time travel sequences. We’re also working to incorporate into the show the fact that Frank sometimes hallucinates when he time travels, so that will give us dramatic license to do some pretty wild things with the computer-generated images.
“Frank can only travel backwards seven days, hence the name of the program,” adds the actor. “It’s not as if he ends up somewhere hundreds of years in the past carrying a spear or something silly like that. Seven Days is set in contemporary times and because of this it has a sense of urgency. Frank will have a discussion with someone today but when he’s sent back seven days that previous conversation might be erased. I think it’s a pretty clever concept.”
Those responsible for selecting Parker to carry out these covert missions are Donovan (Don Franklin), Back-Step’s chief military advisor whose life Parker once saved, Doctor Isaac Mentor (Norman Lloyd), and the attractive and brilliant scientist, Olga Vukavitch (Justina Vail). The only member of the team opposed to Parker is Nate Ramsey (Nick Searcy), who believes he is undeserving of such a responsibility. Parker is determined to prove him wrong, however, by focusing his energies on his intensive training, all the time being guided by an elite team of scientists, doctors and military advisors.
“In the pilot everyone considers Frank to be a wild card, which he is. In the first episode that we filmed after the pilot, although I don’t know whether it’s necessarily going to be the first one that’s aired, his relationship with the others takes on a bit more dimension. They come to know him and trust him on another level and visa versa, and I think that bond will continue to grow with the show.”
Steve Eramo
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