Nowhere Man: Episode Reviews

Starring Bruce Greenwood as Thomas Veil
Created by Lawrence Hertzog


Episodes 1-12: The Alyson Arc

The Chapter before the First

A brief overview of Nowhere Man

Absolute Zero

Original Air Date: August 28, 1995
Written By: Lawrence Hertzog
Directed By: Lawrence Hertzog
Guest talent: Megan Gallagher, Mary Gregory, Jay Arlen Jones, Bernie McInerney, Murray Rubinstein , Michael Tucker

Thomas Veil, photojournalist, comes back from a quick smoke to find his wife is married to someone else and his dog doesn’t recognize him. Oh, and a secret organization wants the negatives of a photo he took of an illegal jungle execution.

Costars Megan Gallagher of Millenium.

Turnabout

Original Air Date: September 4, 1995
Written By: Lawrence Hertzog
Directed By: Lawrence Hertzog
Guest talent: Tobias Anderson , Mimi Craven, George Del Hoyo , Phil Reeves

Tom steals Dr. Bellamy’s identity and gets picked up by Western Operations, who don’t know Bellamy by sight. The Director wants “Dr. Bellamy” to break an Erasure subject named Ellen Combs. In exchange, he will turn over Tom’s file.

Costars Wes Craven’s wife, Mimi.

The Incredible Derek

Original Air Date: September 11, 1995
Written By: Joel Surnow
Directed By: James Darren
Guest talent: Tim de Zarn, Zachary McLemore, Mike Starr, Dylan Taylor

Tom traces the humvee in Hidden Agenda to a small town in Georgia. There, he finds an unlikely ally in the form of a 10-year-old boy traveling in a psychic tent show.

Joel Surnow created 24.

Something About Her

Original Air Date: September 18, 1995
Written By: Lawrence Hertzog
Directed By: James Whitmore Jr.
Guest talent: Carrie-Anne Moss, Raphael Sbarge, Kent Williams

Tom is subjected to the Moen hallucinatory induction technique and made to believe he’s in love with Trinity… I mean Karin.

Costars Carrie Anne Moss of the Matrix.

Paradise on Your Doorstep

Original Air Date: September 25, 1995
Written By: Lawrence Hertzog
Directed By: Thomas J. Wright
Guest talent: Stephen Meadows, Marty Ryan, Saxon Trainor

Baited and abducted, Tom wakes in a charming village full of interesting architecture, brass band music, and other Erased people who want his negatives as much as the Organization.

Hertzog’s tribute to The Prisoner .

Spider Webb

Original Air Date: October 9, 1995
Written By: Joel Surnow
Directed By: Thomas J. Wright
Guest talent: Kate Hodge, Richard Kind, Michael McGuire, Nicholas Pryor

While researching Dave Powers, Tom accidentally sees his own story being reenacted in a pirate TV broadcast. Max Webb, the writer, also seems able to predict Tom’s reactions with maddening accuracy.

Costars Kate Hodge of She-wolf of London, Richard Kind of Stargate TMP.

Webb cast
A Rough Whimper Of Insanity

Original Air Date: October 23, 1995
Written By: Joel Surnow
Directed By: Guy Magar
Guest talent: Karen Moncrief , Sean Whalen

Tom meets a reclusive hacker while delivering pizza who becomes intrigued with the fact that there’s no trace of Tom’s existence on the Internet.

Costars Sean Whalen, who’s been in, well, just about everything from The People under the Stairs to Men in Black.

Virtual Insanity
The Alpha Spike

Original Air Date: October 30, 1995
Written By: Erica Byrne
Directed By: Steven Robman
Guest talent: Jennifer Banko, Bryan Cranston, James McDonnell, Jackson Price, Michael Tucker

Following Dr. Bellamy’s research, Tom begins work as groundskeeper in a school full of eerily well-behaved teenagers… then there’s a murder.

Costars Bryan Cranston, who played the Ranger captain of a Whitestar on B5, but is better known as Hal from Malcom in the Middle.

You Really Got A Hold on Me

Original Air Date: November 6, 1995
Written By: Jake and Michael Weinberger
Directed By: Michael Levine
Guest talent: Shannon Day, Lesli Kay Sterling, Dean Stockwell

A stranger approaches Tom with details about his life and case that can’t be ignored. Gus, an Erasure victim who’s been on the run for 25 years, wants to save Tom from making his mistake.

Costars Dean Stockwell of Quantum Leap and Dune TMP.

Father

Original Air Date: November 13, 1995
Written By: Art Monterastelli
Directed By: Guy Magar
Guest talent: Donna Bullock, Dean Jones

Tom returns to his childhood town and runs into a man who could be his estranged father, except the man has no proof and he keeps sneaking out to meet lurking men in suits in the middle of the night.

Written by Art Monterastelli, executive producer of Total Recall 2070 and coexec of Timecop.

Can this face be trusted?
An Enemy Within

Original Air Date: November 20, 1995
Written By: Peter Dunne
Directed By: Ian Toynton
Guest talent: Maria Bello, Raye Birk, James Lashly

Tom is shot, by coincidence, not by the Organization, and has a chance to live out a happy life in the country.

Costars Raye Birk, who appeared in the Prisoneresque episode of Babylon 5Intersections in Real Time“.

Tom's chance at happiness
It’s Not Such A Wonderful Life

Original Air Date: November 27, 1995
Written By: Lawrence Hertzog
Directed By: Tim Hunter
Guest talent: W. Earl Brown, Willie C. Carpenter, Megan Gallagher, Mary Gregory, Carol Huston

Tom is taken in by the justice department, who need the negatives to bring a case against members of the Organization. He is reunited with Alyson in time for Christmas, however….

Costars W. Earl Brown, from Scream.

Alyson returns for Christmas

Episode Reviews

Episodes 13-19: The Palmtop Arc

Contact

Original Air Date: January 15, 1996
Written By: Lawrence Hertzog
Directed By: Reza Badiyi
Guest talent: Joseph Lambie, Robin Sachs

Tom is contacted by a disgruntled employee of the Organization and is told he will be given information on a palmtop computer in exchange for one thing– he must kill the man who arranged his Erasure.

Robin Sachs is best known as Ethan Rayne on Buffy, as several B5 characters: (Na’Tok, Na’Kal, Hedronn, Coplann), and as General Sarris on Galaxy Quest.

Contact
Heart Of Darkness

Original Air Date: January 22, 1996
Written By: David Ehrman
Directed By: Stephen Thomas Stafford
Guest talent: Scott Coffey, Patrick Kilpatrick , James Tolkan

Tom infiltrates the American Guard, the military branch of the Organization, by taking the place of a new recruit. He spends the episode being referred to as Number 6.

Patrick Kilpatrick has appeared in B5, X-files, Dark Angel, Voyager, DS9 and Minority Report.

Heart of Darkness
Forever Jung

Original Air Date: February 5, 1996
Written By: Joel Surnow
Directed By: Greg Beeman
Guest talent: Edith Fields, Paul Marin, Zoe McLellan, Leon Russom, Freda Foh Shen, Melanie Smith

What is the connection between a nursing home, a Biogenetics lab, and a ring of pretty assassins? Furthermore, what do they have to do with Alyson?

Melanie Smith played recurring character Tora Ziyal on DS9.

Shine A Light on You

Original Air Date: February 12, 1996
Written By: Art Monterastelli
Directed By: Stephen Thomas Stafford
Guest talent: Dorie Barton, Roy Brocksmith, George Gerdes , Tom McCleister

A name on the palmtop computer belongs to a man whom the locals insist was abducted by aliens. When Tom’s contact also disappears, he is determined to discover the truth.

Roy Brocksmith played Brother Alwin on B5 and Dr. Edgemar on Total Recall TMP.

Alien abduction
Stay Tuned

Original Air Date: February 19, 1996
Written By: Lawrence Hertzog
Directed By: Mel Damski
Guest talent: Cliff DeYoung, Bob Morrisey, Billy O’Sullivan , Karen Witter

Everyone who watches the Hometown Network in Darby, NY, becomes instantly hypnotized into wanting to help with a local political campaign, including Tom.

Costars Cliff DeYoung of The Craft.

Hometown hypnosis
Hidden Agenda

Original Air Date: February 26, 1996
Written By: David Ehrman
Directed By: Michael Levine
Guest talent: Robin Sachs, Dwight Schultz

An Organization insider arranges a meeting with Tom on neutral ground. Unbeknownst to Tom, Alexander Hale is a Cyborg who is broadcasting the conversation through his new eyes.

Dwight Schultz played Lt. Reginald Barclay III on both TNG and Voyager. He also played Amis on B5 (“The Long Dark”).

Doppelganger

Original Air Date: March 18, 1996
Written By: Schuyler Kent
Directed By: Ian Toynton
Guest talent: Richard Penn, Jamie Rose

Tom follows the palmtop to a town which already has a photographer named Tom Veil who even has his own negatives of Hidden Agenda. When the other Tom commits murder, our Tom has to clear his name.

Ian Toynton is a regular director on 24, and also directed several episodes of Relic Hunter.

Mistaken Identity

Episode Reviews

Episodes 19-25: The Memory Arc

Through A Lens Darkly

Original Air Date: April 8, 1996
Written By: Art Monterastelli
Directed By: Ian Toynton
Guest talent: Sam Anderson, Monica Creel, Sydney Walsh, Jason Waters, Julia Whelan

Tom is subjected to Flash Regression, a type of hypnosis designed to make him relive the most painful moment of his life repeatedly until he gives up the negatives or goes insane.

Costars Sam Anderson, who played Holland Manners on Angel.

The Dark Side Of The Moon

Original Air Date: April 15, 1996
Written By: David Ehrman
Directed By: James Whitmore Jr.
Guest talent: Maurice Chasse, Trevor Goodard, Dan Martin, Juliet Tablak, Andrea Thompson

When his negatives are stolen, Tom finds himself battling an Organization thug and a murderous street gang while a mysterious DJ playing on every radio in town seems to follow his every move.

Features the voice of Andrea Thompson (B5‘s Telepath Talia Winters) as Corrina, the sultry DJ.

On the Dark Side
Calaway

Original Air Date: April 29, 1996
Written By: Joel Surnow
Directed By: Reza Badiyi
Guest talent: Robert Cicchini, Bruce Gray , Jay Arlen Jones

Tom’s increasingly disjointed memory and his inexplicable insomnia lead him back to Calaway, where J.C., now a doctor, informs him that his brain was rewired during his initial stay.

Reza Badiyi has a long career directing for TV, including DS9, Buffy and Get Smart.

Back at Calaway
Zero Minus Ten

Original Air Date: May 6, 1996
Written By: Jane Espenson
Directed By: James Whitmore Jr.
Guest talent: David Bodin, Megan Gallagher, Choppy Guillotte, Murray Rubinstein

Tom discovers he’s been in a coma and that everything that has happened to him was a dream. At least, that’s what Alyson tells him.

James Whitmore Jr. has directed many episodes of Buffy, The Pretender, and 24.

All a dream....
Marathon

Original Air Date: May 13, 1996
Written By: Art Monterastelli
Directed By: Stephen Thomas Stafford
Guest talent: Elsie Sniffen, Nicolas Surovy, Oz Tortora

Tom finds a radio code in the negative next to Hidden Agenda which leads him to the FBI, and to someone who has seen his name in a file belonging to a missing agent (presumed dead)code-named Gemini.

Nicholas Surovy has appeared on Angel, X-files, Seaquest and Voyager.

Marathon
Gemini

Original Air Date: May 20, 1996
Written By: Lawrence Hertzog, Art Monterastelli
Directed By: Stephen Thomas Stafford
Guest talent: Alexandra Boyd, Edward Edwards, Hal Linden, Francis X. McCarthy

Tom gets ahold of Gemini’s complete files on the Organization and the address to his safe house. He discovers something new about the negatives and decides to go for checkmate against the Director himself. Gemini secrets
Major Gemini Final Episode Spoiler!!!
Original Air Date: May 20, 1996

(No kidding, the last 5 minutes change everything; do not look if ya don’t wanna know!)

Tom confronts the Director about his involvement with Hidden Agenda.

Lawrence Hertzog created and produced Nowhere Man. He hadn’t been told if it would be renewed, so they gave it this twist ending which stands on its own or could have started another complete arc.

More Gemini Secrets

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Nowhere Man reviews are © 2004 by Pet Serano.
Not for reproduction without the author’s express permission.

Nowhere Man names, characters and everything else associated with
the series are the property of UPN and Touchstone Pictures.

You can get more information on Nowhere Man at Bruce Greenwood’s Official Site.

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