Repost: Create Your Own TV Show: Latency
Original post date: 20 September 2010
So scifiland continues to churn out awesome challenges. I had so much fun creating a concept for my own sci-fi television show, Latency.
The Streamlapse Project was originally devised as a sort of time machine, but the physics allowed only transfer of the consciousness into a past life. Drs Finn Halvorsen and Lillian Wolfe received funding from the federal government and spearheaded the secret project in their Boston lab. Through guided electrical pulses, the mind can be sent to a point in the psychic history of the subject. The consciousness of the subject is capable of possessing the body of the host in their past life and directing its action for as long as they choose to stay in possession. It is thought that whatever actions the team takes while in possession of a past body are already part of historical fact, and therefore not altering the future in any way. Besides being the scientific precursor to time-travel and having huge ramifications in the realm spiritual, Helena uses the information to fill in historical holes and to study cultures long gone or corrupt. At this point, the travel, as it were, is random, but Halvorsen and Wolfe are working to refine the trajectory.
Doctor Thorfinn (Finn) Magnus Halvorsen (Alexander Skarsgård)
Physicist by trade, historian by hobby, he helped develop the streamlapse technology after the tragic death of his fiancée, Valdis. Finn is extremely tall and gentle, but can use his height to intimidate quite effectively when warranted. He served conscript time in the Swedish Marines - he carries himself with smooth grace and retains his combat training, which has come in handy on lapses before. He is a quiet soul capable of great passion. He’s bookish and intellectual, and sails and stargazes in his free time. Finn is also a talented baritone; though he doesn’t sing much, he favors the opera and hard rock/metal genres when he does. He wears glasses, but has been known to wear contacts when it’s more convenient; he’s partial to sweaters, vests, and Oxford shirts with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was initially and unconsciously drawn to Helena because of her resemblance to Valdis, but he’s begun to fall for her in her own right. He admires her calm under pressure and appreciation for Mendelssohn. He’s not Ross’s biggest fan, but agrees that he’s good at his job. He has a maternal-filial relationship with Lillian, she being the only person he’s let close for years; whenever he does ask for advice, he’ll usually seek her out. He has a dry sense of humor, occasionally joking about the uselessness of the touch-feely portions of Ross’s job. On the rare occasion Finn laughs at a joke, it’s an event and pleasantly startling to all those present.
Helena Giselle Stark (Sarah Lancaster)
Anthropologist invited to leave her dead-end research projects at a prestigious university and come document and analyze the information garnered through the streamlapse program. She’s reserved and sweet, and loves board games. She often finds herself the one breaking long silences with one-liners and simple conversation in the group of serious math types with which she finds herself working. Although most of the more technical conversations go over her head, she greatly enjoys the company of her new family and is intensely afraid of doing anything to harm their dynamic. Her parents live in Oregon (too far for her to travel frequently), and she is an only child - they are all she has in Boston and on the East Coast. She lives alone in a loft with her cat, Ellie, an affectionate gray Maine Coon she loves fiercely and who sometimes comes to work with her. At first the others were not too excited, but they grew to appreciate a warm, mellow presence in the labs. Ross charms her pants off, but she has developed a quiet attraction to Finn, though she’d never act on her feelings for fear of marring their relationship. It’s particularly difficult when he’s shirtless. Her relationship was tense with Lillian for a while until she proved that her research was worthwhile and of great importance to the project.
Doctor Ross Gregory Paxton (Jordan Belfi)
Ross is the medical doctor of the group, with a specialty in psychiatry. He’s there to monitor the travelers and to help them through anything they may have seen. History is bloody, after all, and rarely fair. He tries to get Finn to open up to him about his past, but Finn is completely uninterested. Ross is a bit of a jokester, and never fails to make Helena laugh. He’s a big hockey fan, and roots for the Vikings. Finn does not find this funny, despite Ross’s insistence that it’s hilarious. Especially that time he gifted the Swede with a horned helmet. His father died when he was nineteen, leaving him, his mother, and his little sister Evelyn. He’s close to his family and visits them often in Pennsylvania. Ellie does not particularly care for him, except when he slips her bacon; he does this mostly to make Helena like him more. He’s attracted to her, but is not a relationship kind of guy. Pretty much anything that involves a ball and a stick, Ross is there. His worst side comes out when he and Finn play croquet - they are both very good, but competitive. He is a skilled tennis player, and he and Helena play together regularly. Ross is trying to learn to play the guitar, with little success, and it’s a sore spot that Finn is decently talented at a few instruments including guitar. Despite this, Ross tries to be friends with Finn and is met with a lot of resistance - they eventually become fairly close and occasionally do guy things together. Ross woodworks and geocaches in his spare time, and also keeps a bonsai tree on his kitchen table.
Doctor Lillian Kennedy Wolfe (Kate Mulgrew)
Lillian is a HBIC and has little time for people she doesn’t respect. With her, it’s trial by fire; if you come out alive, you’re worth her time. The only person she seems to genuinely like is Finn, but she does have a soft spot for Cora - she lost her daughter Ingrid to cancer and she was about Cora’s age when she died. She is a hardass boss, but does care for her team like family and she is fiercely protective of them. She’s not one to yell, but is rather cool and hard-of-hearing when it comes to those with whom she’s less than pleased. There are rumors that she used to work for an agency within the intelligence community, but a pointed look ends all lines of questioning about the topic. She is a brilliant theoretical physicist, and with Finn developed the streamlaspe technology out of their Boston lab. In her off hours, she is an accomplished blacksmith and enjoys beachcombing. Her favorite activity is reading a good book with a glass of wine. Her husband, Richard, is a mild-mannered French chef, but the only one who can give Lillian crap without consequences. We see her soften toward her adopted progeny later on, and she will occasionally invite them over for a home-cooked meal. She and Richard have a cabin in Vermont where they cross-country ski during the winter - Finn is invited every winter, but it’s a rite of passage for Ross and Helena to first be invited and second come out on the other side of the gauntlet.
Cora Celeste Barrett (Evan Rachel Wood)
Cora comes from an out-of-sight wealthy family and was homeschooled her entire life. He parents are both international business magnates and therefore were not around for much of her formative years. She was a quiet, reserved child at home, and her governesses and nannies simply believed that she liked solitude and meditation. These periods of calm were punctuated by bouts of sheer energy, and while in the company of her friends, the children of diplomats and politicians, she was quite outgoing. As it happens, during these episodes of silence she was channeling information to which no one should be consciously privy - at times, she could slip into the timelines of others and view what their past lives had been. This information deeply disturbed her - she didn’t know where it was coming from, but she knew unshakably of its truth. She became more and more listless and her caretakers noticed. In an uncharacteristic display of action in her life, her parents arranged for her to see a psychiatrist - one Dr. Ross Paxton. In her sessions, he recognized her talent for what it was and brought her in on the project. When she’s not trancing, she’s a vivacious, sweet girl who seriously enjoys birdwatching. She has a bird of her own, a gyrfalcon named Kazimieras. When they found out birds calmed her nerves, her parents built her her own conservatory and filled it with docile ground birds. She goes there when she is upset or needs to time to think - Ross and Lillian have taken to coaching her in trancing there, even though Ross is slightly terrified of birds, especially Kazimieras. Cora’s oracle-like abilities are important in guiding the people left behind when Helena and Finn lapse.
Valdis Annika Gyllenvoss (Tiffani Thiessen)
Deceased fiancée of Finn. She was intensely passionate about her career as a professional cellist, but was guilty of enjoying pop music at home. He came to her performance of Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No.1 in B-flat Major, and instantly fell in love. He waited forty-five minutes in the rain to catch her coming out the backstage door. She was going through the death-throes of a bad relationship when they met, but Finn patiently courted her, waiting a month just to kiss her. They agreed it was worth the wait, but promptly decided that in that moment they’d like each other a lot more without clothes. He proposed to her on a trip to Stockholm, arranging for a private tour of the steeple of Riddarholm Church. Late one night, he drew her out of bed to stargaze, one of their favorite activities together and they stayed out until the morning brought rain. On the ride home, a car slid on the slick roads and impacted the passenger side. Finn held Valdis as she died, and for years was completely broken and racked with guilt.
Spoilers: Sometimes, it's possible for one soul to inhabit two bodies at the same time. It's not a negative thing, nor does it hurt the soul or its bodies - it's simply a fluke. This is what doppelgängers are. It's no mistake that Helena looks like Valdis - they are one in the same soul, cloven temporarily this time around. Sometime in a later season, Helena will lapse into Valdis on the night she died. She'll avoid telling Finn for a long time while she sorts out her feelings, and when she does, he'll take the news hard. They'll be fine in the end, and the team will cogitate on the existence of soul-mates.