The 4400

The 4400
Genre Science fiction / drama
Created by
Starring
Theme music composer Amanda Abizaid
Opening theme "A Place in Time"
Performed by Bosshouse featuring Amanda Abizaid
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 44 (list of episodes)
Production
Location(s) Vancouver, British Columbia
Running time 42 minutes
Production company(s)
Distributor
Release
Original network USA Network
Original release July 11, 2004 (2004-07-11) – September 16, 2007 (2007-09-16)

The 4400 (pronounced "the forty-four hundred") is a science fiction TV series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with BSkyB, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network.[1] The show was created and written by Scott Peters and René Echevarria, and it starred Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie. The series ran for four seasons from 2004 until its cancellation in 2007.[2]

In the pilot episode, an enormous ball of light deposits a group of exactly 4400 people in the Cascade Range foothills near Mount Rainier, Washington. Each of the 4400 had disappeared at various times starting from 1938 in a beam of white light. None of the 4400 have aged from the time of their disappearance. Confused and disoriented, they remember nothing between the time of their disappearance and their return.

Title

Creator Scott Peters has stated that the series was originally titled "A Light in the Sky", but looking for something unique he decided to "play around with numbers" instead and arrived at "4400" because it "just sounded cool" and "was a very round number with two 4s and two 0s".[3]

Cast and characters

The season(s) during which each actor has been included in the main cast are marked in green. When a starring actor also has appeared as a guest star during other seasons, this is marked with the number of guest appearances. Gray square means the actor doesn't appear in that season at all.

Series regulars

Actor Character Appearances
S 1 S 2 S 3 S 4
Joel Gretsch Tom Baldwin
Jacqueline McKenzie Diana Skouris
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali Richard Tyler 2
Patrick Flueger Shawn Farrell
Conchita Campbell Maia Skouris
Chad Faust Kyle Baldwin 3
Laura Allen Lily Tyler 1° 1
Kaj-Erik Eriksen Danny Farrell 7 1 3
Brooke Nevin Nikki Hudson 1 1
Peter Coyote Dennis Ryland 2 5
Samantha Ferris Nina Jarvis
Karina Lombard Alana Mareva 5
Megalyn Echikunwoke Isabelle Tyler 8°°
Billy Campbell Jordan Collier 3 6 4
Jenni Baird Meghan Doyle

° Older Lily (Actress-Tippi Hedren)

°° Baby Isabelle (Actress-Jordan Lasorsa-Simon)

Recurring guest stars

Actor Character Appearances
S 1 S 2 S 3 S 4
Richard Kahan Marco Pacella 3 9 9 11
Natasha Gregson Wagner April Skouris 5 3 1
Jeffrey Combs Kevin Burkhoff 5 6 6
Kavan Smith Jed Garrity 7 9 6
Summer Glau Tess Doerner 2 3 4
Jody Thompson Devon Moore 4 10 1
Garret Dillahunt Matthew Ross 6 5
Kathryn Gordon Heather Tobey 1 3 2
Sharif Atkins Gary Navarro 1 3
Tristin Leffler Cassie Dunleavy 8

Synopsis

Season three cast of The 4400

The National Threat Assessment Command (NTAC), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, is in charge of dealing with the return of the 4400. Dennis Ryland is the head of NTAC. Ryland assigns Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris as the lead team to investigate the 4400. In season 2, Ryland goes to Washington and is replaced by Nina Jarvis. In Season 4 Meghan Doyle takes over as the head of NTAC.

Many of the returnees have trouble getting their lives back on track after being gone from the world for years. More significantly, a small number of the returnees begin to manifest paranormal abilities, such as telekinesis, telepathy and precognition, as well as other "gifts". For example, in the pilot, Shawn Farrell manifests an ability to heal the broken neck of a dead bird, bringing it back to life. In addition, one of the 4400, Lily Moore, has become pregnant between her disappearance and return.

The first-season finale, "White Light", reveals that the 4400 were abducted not by aliens, but by humans from the Earth's future, that Kyle Baldwin was to be their "messenger", and that they were returned to avert a catastrophe.

By the second season, it is revealed that all 4400 have a fictional neurotransmitter, promicin, in their brains, which gives them their powers. The government, afraid of what this large group would do with such power, had secretly been dosing all of the 4400 with a promicin inhibitor, which had worked on most, but not all, of the 4400. One of the inhibitor's side effects is a potentially fatal immune deficiency. The inhibitor is ultimately removed from the 4400 by a dose of promicin extracted by Kevin Burkhoff from the blood of the infant Isabelle, who was never given the inhibitor.

At the beginning of the third season, the Nova Group, a terrorist faction made up of 4400s, emerges. Originally formed as a "defensive" group in the aftermath of the promicin-inhibitor scandal, the Nova Group eventually carries 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; the framing of Baldwin for murder; and the driving of another person to insanity.

During the third and fourth season, it is revealed that only a certain faction from the future wants to see history changed. Another faction, which prefers the status quo, opposes the 4400, and has sent their own operatives, including Isabelle Tyler and "the Marked", into the past. The exact motives of both factions have not yet been revealed.

Eventually, Jordan Collier, a returnee who declares himself the savior of humanity, makes promicin shots available to the general public. However, only half of the human population can actually tolerate promicin, and thus develop superhuman abilities, while the other half die upon taking the shot. Although the government outlaws promicin use, thousands of previously ordinary people have developed superhuman abilities, severely complicating NTAC's task. Collier later annexes a part of Seattle and transforms it into "Promise City", a self-proclaimed paradise open to all people with superhuman abilities. The US government attempts to reclaim Promise City but meets with little success.

At the conclusion of the series, Danny Farell's uncontrolled ability exposed some of the residents of Seattle to promicin, resulting in about 9,000 deaths and as many newly empowered humans, while at the same time forcing the remains of NTAC (now themselves mostly promicin-positive) to ask Jordan Collier and his followers (as the only group immune to the 50% chance of death from exposure) to become the de facto government of Seattle. The series ended with a cliff-hanger, with Collier pledging to build the future he had promised, while the government watches uneasily as Collier's militia remains in control of Seattle, now known as Promise City.

Ripple effect

Early in the first season, theorists at NTAC suspect that the 4400s have been placed in the timeline with their enhanced abilities for a purpose, to cause some change that could propagate and redirect the course of history. An example of this was when a 4400 named Carl Morrissey attempted to use his enhanced strength and reflexes to fight crime in his neighborhood park. Although Morrissey was killed by a group of thugs, his death inspired others to become involved in various neighborhood clean up projects.

Another example of this effect at work came during the season two episode "Wake up Call". In that episode a mentally ill returnee uses mind control powers to force the other residents of her mental hospital to build an unusual machine. When the machine is activated it cures fellow patient Kevin Burkhoff of his crippling schizophrenia. When NTAC looks into Burkhoff's background they discover that prior to falling ill he was a brilliant neuroscientist who was working on gene therapies which could end up being the basis of the technology which created the 4400.

Episodes

Season Start date End date
Season 1 July 11, 2004 August 8, 2004
Season 2 June 5, 2005 August 28, 2005
Season 3 June 11, 2006 August 27, 2006
Season 4 June 17, 2007[4] September 16, 2007[4]

The 4400 ran for four seasons. The first season is presented as a miniseries of five episodes, which aired weekly from July 11, 2004 to August 8, 2004, with a two-hour premier. Seasons two, three and four are each 13-episode seasons (counting the two hour premiers in seasons two and three as two episodes). A special episode, "The 4400: Unlocking the Secrets", aired between seasons two and three, on June 3, 2006, originally on NBC.[5]

Production of the third season was shot in Vancouver until July 26, 2006. The third season premiered June 11, 2006, with 4.2 million viewers tuning in.[6] Executive Producer Ira Steven Behr described season three as "bigger and more mythic. It feels like 26 episodes instead of 13 because we're cramming so much stuff in".

Production of the fourth and final season began in early 2007 for a mid-year premiere, returning with the episode "The Wrath of Graham".[4] Billy Campbell, the actor who plays Collier, took most of season three off to sail around the world.[7] The show was rewritten to explain the character's absence, making him the victim of an assassination. In the fourth season, Campbell returned to the series as a regular, rather than a guest star as in the previous three seasons,[8] with the revelation that the character had been alive after all, but had wandered as an amnesiac for two years until he reappeared to assume his role as the leader of the 4400.

Books

Production

The theme song of the show is "A Place in Time", written by Robert Phillips and Tim Paruskewitz and performed by Amanda Abizaid. All seasons are filmed in high-definition with closed captioning. USA Network broadcast episodes after season one in fullscreen 480i; the DVD releases contain the episodes in their native widescreen format.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to The 4400 was released on May 8, 2007 by Milan Records and includes music from the first three seasons, as follows:

  1. Bosshouse featuring Amanda Abizaid - "A Place in Time" (Theme from The 4400)
  2. Switchfoot - "This Is Your Life"
  3. People in Planes - "Falling by the Wayside"
  4. Thirteen Senses - "Into the Fire"
  5. Ivy - "Worry About You"
  6. Engineers - "How Do You Say Goodbye?"
  7. Maroon 5 - "She Will Be Loved"
  8. Jacqueline McKenzie - "Shy Baby"
  9. Bedroom Walls - "Do the Buildings and Cops Make You Smile?"
  10. Billie Holiday - "Cheek to Cheek"
  11. John Van Tongeren - "Salvation"
  12. The Landau Orchestra - "A Place in Time" (instrumental arrangement)

Note: The last track does not appear in the series. Although not included on the soundtrack, "Life for Rent" by Dido was used in the episode "The Starzl Mutation". The song "Where Is My Mind?" by the Pixies was later used in the series finale.

Filming locations

The 4400 is set in Seattle,[13] but actually filmed in the Vancouver, British Columbia area. The high-tech, glass-walled 4400 Center is the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia,.[14] Other cable science-fiction series, such as Kyle XY, Fringe, Stargate Atlantis,[15] and Battlestar Galactica[16] have also used the Chan Centre as a filming location.

DVD releases

Season Episodes Discs DVD release date
Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
1 5 2 December 21, 2004 January 10, 2005 June 10, 2005
The DVD contains no bonus features. The DVD is presented in a dual DVD case with a green-on-black cover showing the characters Tom, Diana and Dennis.[17]
2 13 4 May 23, 2006 June 5, 2006 May 23, 2006
Bonus features include featurettes and commentary from Jacqueline McKenzie, Joel Gretsch, Craig Sweeny and Ira Steven Behr.
3 13 4 May 8, 2007 July 23, 2007 June 7, 2007
Bonus features include an introduction by the series creator, four featurettes, six audio commentaries and a gag reel.[18]
4 13 4 May 6, 2008 June 30, 2008 July 10, 2008
Bonus features include 2 featurettes, blooper reel, deleted scenes, audio commentaries and The Great Leap Forward (Director's cut).
The Complete Series 44 15 October 28, 2008 October 6, 2008 August 6, 2009
Bonus features include video introduction by creator Scott Peters, pilot episode commentary by Scott Peters and Joel Gretsch, The 4400: Ghost Season, and deleted scenes (seasons 1, 2, and 3)

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Behind the Scenes News". usanetwork.com. Retrieved 2016-08-08.
  2. ↑ "Veteran USA sci-fi shows vaporized". Reuters.com. December 20, 2007. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  3. ↑ "Scott Peters Explains Why 4400 Should be Abducted". io9.com. October 27, 2008. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
  4. 1 2 3 "4,400, THE (USA)". The Futon Critic. 2006-05-26.
  5. ↑ "4,400, The: Unlocking the Secrets". The Futon Critic.
  6. ↑ "Development Update: June 12–16 (Weekly Round-Up)". The Futon Critic. 2006-06-13.
  7. ↑ "'The 4400's' power-hungry tycoon returns". MSNBC. 2006-07-25.
  8. ↑ "Billy Campbell Set To Return as Series Regular in Emmy-Nominated Hit Series "The 4400"".
  9. ↑ Cox, Greg (2008). The Vesuvius Prophecy. Pocket Star. ISBN 1-4165-4317-1.
  10. ↑ Ward, Dayton; Dilmore, Kevin (2008). Wet Work. Pocket Star. ISBN 1-4165-4321-X.
  11. ↑ Cox, Greg (2009). Welcome to Promise City. Pocket Star. ISBN 1-4165-4322-8.
  12. ↑ Mack, David (2009). Promises Broken. Pocket Star.
  13. ↑ "Pilot". The 4400.
  14. ↑ "Sightseeing with Google Satellite Maps - The 4400 Centre". Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  15. ↑ "IMDB - Stargate Atlantis Filming Locations". Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  16. ↑ Suwalski, Pat. "BSG - Season 1 Locations". Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  17. ↑ "Season 1 DVD". Amazon. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  18. ↑ "The 4400, Season 3 Date & Extras". tvshowsondvd.com. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
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