By Steve Krutzler / 14:04, 9 July 2004 / TrekWeb Features

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What would happen if thousands of people mysteriously appeared after being missing for decades? The answer is the subject of THE 4400, an original sci-fi mini-series premiering on USA Network this Sunday at 9. Coming up with that answer, or perhaps just posing more of the kinds of questions that poke and prod at genre entertainment fans, was none other than former DEEP SPACE NINE writer and executive producer Ira Steven Behr.

Along with DS9 cohorts Rene Echevarria and Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Behr joined the 4400 as a consultant and eventually became intimately involved in writing the two-hour pilot episode and subsequent four installments to follow. In this first part of our interview with Behr, the STAR TREK veteran discusses his latest project and why it’ll be compelling for Trekkies and genre fans of all ilks.

TW: There are 4,400 returnees, so to speak. But who are the people that the audience is going to encounter when they tune in to THE 4400?

IB: We have an ensemble cast but if you could say we have two leads, it would be these two Homeland Security agents, ‘Tom’ and ‘Diana’, played by Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie. The difference from the usual ‘agents on weird sci-fi case’ scenario is that they both have personal stakes in their investigation. Tom’s nephew ‘Shawn’ (Patrick Flueger) is one of the 4400. When Shawn disappeared, Tom’s son Kyle was with him and he has been in a coma for three years, they don’t know why. Tom has given up his job when the show begins, and devoted himself to tracking down Shawn, who he thinks responsible for Kyle’s physical state. So he’s a guy obsessed with getting to the bottom of this thing before it even happens.

Diana, who is the opposite of Tom -- a family guy, his marriage in jeopardy, has a sister, a nephew -- is basically alone. She’s very intelligent, comes from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), has a scientist attitude toward things, opposed to cop/investigator’s [point of view]. She winds up getting involved with one of the 4400 when they return and also has a personal stake. So it’s a different type of situation. People expect their relationship to be more than it is, people will read into it more than it is and that will be the surprise. Everyone thinks they see what’s coming on all different levels, and there are little surprises along the way. Tom and Diana’s relationship is one them.

TW: What about some of the other characters we follow in these first six hours?

IB: Some of the other characters we follow on a week to week basis, even though we have a lot of characters supporting them, include Peter Coyote as ‘Dennis Ryland who is the head the Pacific Northwest division of Homeland Security, as we like to call it (in years to come will people be scratching their heads going ‘these people, we thought they were heroes? It’s 2020 and they took over the country and turned it into a fascist dictatorship!’ [laughter])

TW: Took over? [chuckle] Anyway… who are the rest of these people and do they have any “special powers” from their apparent abduction?

IB: We don’t call them ‘special powers’, but they come back and some of them come back changed, which is pretty cool. They have abilities that they did not have when they left. Maia (Conchita Campbell), a ten-year old girl who disappeared in 1946, comes back with precog abilities.

Shawn comes back with abilities that he didn’t have in terms of he’s able to physically affect people with his touch, both for good and ill.

One of our characters Lily (Laura Allen) comes back and she’s pregnant--it’s pretty cool if you can figure it out! She hadn’t been with her husband for a while before she left, she didn’t sleep with anybody since being back, and now she’s pregnant--what does that mean?

Richard (Mahershalalhazbaz Ali) is this black pilot from 1951, one of the few black Air Force pilots, he fought in Korea, who comes back and does not seem to have any powers except that the white woman he was involved with back in ‘51 turns out to now be the grandmother of Lily and now suddenly they’re thrown together and what does that mean?

TW: So as the mini-series progresses, are these the main focus and would they remain so if THE 4400 produces more episodes?

IB: They all have clear storylines, we’re following what happens to them. They definitely interact with Tom and Diana. We have a lot of good people coming up [in the six hours]: Billy Campbell, David Eichenberg, Kathleen Wilhoite, Michael Moriarty. We have some really interesting people. Not in every episode, even in the four additional episodes, does it mean we’re going to meet a new member of the 4400 who has new powers. It’s not that simple, it’s not that much of a construct. It’s a little looser than that. We’re looking at the different aspects of the effect that this would have on society and how this would play out.

TW: What is the hook going forward, for each episode, then?

IB: The bag is shaken pretty thoroughly by the end of hour six; were the show to come back a lot of things would be up in the air and open for new paths, new directions, which I think is good. Would Tom and Diana be involved? Absolutely, but things will have both heated up and in some sense quieted down. The initial shock of ‘oh my god this event has happened what does it all mean?’ will--as with everything in our mind and society, even though it’s still big, just as 9/11, people’s lives went on--will give way to getting involved with whatever new media flashpoint is suddenly a thing of the day. Not that the 4400 are accepted more necessarily, but at least their stories won’t quite have to play with that initial impact. If reviews are any indication, people are gonna be surprised for good or ill, but where everyone is assuming things are going is not necessarily the way they’re going to go.

***

We asked Behr about the legacy of DEEP SPACE NINE, his consultations on ENTERPRISE and INSURRECTION, and his thoughts about the future of the ever-changing STAR TREK franchise:

“Everyone speaks for Gene Roddenberry, who’s gone, and I would not be so quick to speak about what Gene would want or not want,” he says, but you’ll have to wait for part two of our interview with Ira Steven Behr for that and more, coming next week.