Nowhere Man (TV series)

Nowhere Man
Promotional poster
Genre	Drama Science fiction
Created by	Lawrence Hertzog
Starring	Bruce Greenwood
Theme music composer	Mark Snow
Composer(s)	Mark Snow
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	25 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Lawrence Hertzog Joel Surnow
Editor(s)	Andrew Cohen Peter Basinski Jimmy Giritlian Josh Muscatine
Running time	44 minutes
Production company(s)	Touchstone Television
Broadcast
Original channel	UPN
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Stereo
Original run	August 28, 1995 – May 20, 1996

Nowhere Man is an American television series that aired from 1995 to 1996 starring Bruce Greenwood. Created by Lawrence Hertzog, the series aired Monday nights on UPN. Despite critical acclaim, including TV Guide's label of "The season's coolest hit,"^[1] the show was cancelled after only one season.

Overview

Nowhere Man is the tale of a photojournalist named Thomas Veil. After leaving to use the restroom while out to dinner with his wife, Tom returns to find that his life has been "erased." His wife does not recognize him and is living with another man. His ATM cards no longer work. His best friend turns up dead. His mother was previously recovering from a stroke, so she is incapable of confirming his existence. In the course of a single evening, every trace of Tom's identity has been erased.

Tom comes to believe his erasure is related to a photograph he took a year earlier called "Hidden Agenda". The photo depicts four men being hanged in South America by what appear to be US soldiers. The only shreds of evidence Tom has of his past are the negatives to that photograph. A mysterious "Organization" (as it is referred to throughout the series, since its name is unknown) covertly pursues Tom in search of the negatives. The series revolves around Veil's attempts to get his life back by trying to find out more about the Organization, while also trying to keep the negative safe.

Eventually it is revealed that Tom had been captured by the Organization prior to the events of the series' first episode, and that all his memories of his life, including his marriage and even his name, had been implanted as part of a brainwashing experiment known as Project Marathon. He learns that he is actually a covert government operative codenamed "Gemini", and is part of a secret task force called "Heritage House" which was formed to investigate the Organization and Project Marathon. He also learns that his copy of the "Hidden Agenda" photograph, as well as his memories of having taken it, have been altered, and that the original negative shows that the four men being lynched are actually U.S. senators being murdered by the Organization.

In the final episode, Tom questions the "number two man at the FBI" at gunpoint, who ends up taking his own life with a cyanide capsule rather than risk being tortured further or revealing more information. The finale ends with Tom watching a videotape that had been in the FBI man's possession, a film that finally explains everything.

Production

Series creator Larry Hertzog has acknowledged the influence of The Prisoner and The Fugitive in the show's themes. Resemblances can also be seen to The Manchurian Candidate, North by Northwest, Three Days Of The Condor, The X-Files and the 1967 television series Coronet Blue.

Recurring cast

• Megan Gallagher as Alyson Veil (4 episodes)
• Murray Rubinstein as Larry (3 episodes)

Episodes

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
101	"Absolute Zero"	Tobe Hooper	Lawrence Hertzog	August 28, 1995
Thomas Veil – quite literally – loses his identity one night over dinner and begins to mentally unravel when he discovers his wife is part of whatever is happening. Placed in a sanitarium, he slowly realizes that he is actually the victim of some massive conspiracy connected to a photograph he took entitled "Hidden Agenda".
102	"Turnabout"	Tobe Hooper	Lawrence Hertzog	September 4, 1995
Veil is picked up by operatives, who think that he is Dr. Bellamy. He is taken to a Midwest sanitarium for the organization and ordered to crack Ellen Combs, a young woman who has just been erased. Thinking that he will be able to secure his own files, Tom plays along. Ellen's story is similar to his and he escapes from the sanitarium with Ellen but the episode has an unexpected ending.
103	"The Incredible Derek"	James Darren	Joel Surnow	September 11, 1995
Tracing the jeep in the photograph to Tipton, Georgia, Thomas Veil meets a blind 10-year-old prophet who sees into both Tom's past and future. With his help Tom manages to avoid being captured by the army troops that seem to be looking for him, but not before they destroy the army base that has some mysterious connection to the picture in Tom's negative as well as the small town where they have been staying.
104	"Something About Her"	James Whitmore, Jr.	Lawrence Hertzog	September 18, 1995
The conspiracy kidnaps Tom and through drugs and programming convinces him that he is in love with an attractive photographer named Karin – actually an actress hired by the conspirators. As their relationship progresses, flashbacks confuse him and Tom angrily turns on the girl, forcing the doctors to step up their program.
105	"Paradise on Your Doorstep"	Thomas J. Wright	Lawrence Hertzog	September 25, 1995
While working in a photo shop Tom comes across a picture of his wife Alyson dining with a female customer. When the woman picks up the photographs he follows her, only to be kidnapped and transported to a strangely isolated "village" – a perfect town specially designed for the "disenfranchised" – those persons who had lost their identities because of "them".
106	"The Spider Webb"	Thomas J. Wright	Joel Surnow	October 9, 1995
Tom is tracing Dave "Eddie" Powers, his friend from the asylum who knew too much and was lobotomized for his efforts to help Tom. He ends up in Eddie's run-down hotel room where the television mysteriously begins broadcasting The Lenny Little Show, a serial that is – amazingly enough – re-enacting scenes from Tom's personal erasure. He traces the program to the Max Webb Studios and confronts the sneering writer. Veil begins to realize that Max Webb not only knows what he has done but foresees what he will do next.
107	"A Rough Whimper of Insanity"	Guy Magar	Joel Surnow	October 23, 1995
Working as a pizza deliveryman, Tom happens on a computer hacker that has cut himself off from the world and lives in darkness with his machines. Sickly and severely socially handicapped, Scott Hansen begins to warm to Tom's gentleness and becomes deeply intrigued when he realizes the extent of his erasure – so profound that even Scott's skills cannot retrieve Veil's files.
108	"The Alpha Spike"	Steven Robman	Erica Byrne	October 30, 1995
Tom travels to New England to work in the military school where Dr. Bellamy taught and to investigate Bellamy's methods of subliminal persuasion on teenagers. While there he becomes involved in a murder committed by an evil and manipulative cadet. The famous calling card from this episode is the chilling reiteration of "Unity, Commitment, Strength!"
109	"You Really Got a Hold on Me"	Michael Levine	Jake Weinberger & Michael Weinberger	November 6, 1995
Tom is befriended by a man whose own life was taken away by the organization more than 20 years before. Gus Shepard, played by Dean Stockwell, has come to realize that the conspiracy's focus has shifted from him to Tom and that even his life as a runaway no longer has meaning.
110	"Father" "Validation"	Guy Magar	Art Monterastelli	November 13, 1995
Tom returns to the Missouri town where he grew up and meets the father who deserted him and his mother 20 years before. Although he wants to believe the man now calling himself Jonathan Crane is his father, Veil is suspicious of the recent plastic surgery and demands proof, which Jonathan cannot seem to supply.
111	"An Enemy Within"	Ian Toynton	Peter Dunne	November 20, 1995
Tom finds himself in a rural area of Pennsylvania where he is waiting for a phone call from a detective who thinks he can name the cigar-smoking soldier in Tom's photo. Unwittingly camping out on private land, he's shot by a guard and left for dead. He is discovered the next day by Emily, a young woman who manages to drag him to her home and nurses him back to health.
112	"It's Not Such a Wonderful Life" "The Christmas Episode"	Tim Hunter	Lawrence Hertzog	November 27, 1995
During Christmas, Thomas Veil reads in a newspaper that the federal government is looking for him in connection with the photograph "Hidden Agenda". And then – quite suddenly – he is found! He is told his ordeal is over and that all he has to do is testify, and – to prove his story – hand over the negatives.
113	"Contact" "Deep Throat"	Reza Badiyi	Lawrence Hertzog	January 15, 1996
A mysterious voice from within the organization contacts Veil and tells him that he will help him reach the man responsible for his erasure. To earn Tom's trust the voice allows him to watch the video record of his own erasure and to see the man who ordered it: Richard Grace. To ensure Tom's interest the voice also shows Tom proof that his wife Alyson was involved with Grace and sets out an elaborate scheme for Tom to assassinate the man.
114	"Heart of Darkness"	Stephen Thomas Stafford	David Ehrman	January 22, 1996
Veil uses a Palmtop computer provided by his contact within the organization to track down Commander Quinn, a secretive military man who runs a uniformed organization that carefully screens all applicants. Usurping an accepted applicant's place, Tom finds himself kidnapped and inducted into a brutally disciplined militia group that kills those who do not conform.
115	"Forever Jung" "Doubles"	Greg Beeman	Joel Surnow	February 5, 1996
Following up on information in the Palmtop, Tom journeys to a Minnesota town and finds work at a nursing home that may be performing unauthorized scientific experiments on its residents. The unexpected death of one of the residents prompts Veil to investigate and he uncovers a plot that is directly linked to the organization. This episode has created considerable controversy among fans as to whether Alyson is a real person, or a wholly false identity created only to execute Veil.
116	"Shine a Light on You"	Stephen Thomas Stafford	Art Monterastelli	February 12, 1996
Tom journeys to a remote Colorado town to look for a physicist named Dr. Merrit, whom he suspects is another victim of the conspiracy. Dr. Merrit's disappearance has been attributed to an alien abduction by the locals, who have become accustomed to seeing strange phenomena and unexplained lights.
117	"Stay Tuned"	Mel Damski	Lawrence Hertzog	February 19, 1996
The Palmtop leads Veil to Darby, NY – a seemingly perfect American town where everybody is just too good to be true. Suspecting some form of mind control Tom attempts to infiltrate the campaign headquarters of Jim Hubbard, a local politician who is launching a campaign to run for governor – and who might be part of the organization that erased Tom's identity.
118	"Hidden Agenda"	Mel Damski	Lawrence Hertzog	February 26, 1996
Alexander Hale, Tom's mysterious contact in the organization, finally reveals his true identity and arranges to meet with Tom to find out the truth about the photograph "Hidden Agenda". Unknown to Tom, Hale has been uncovered by the organization and they intend to use him as bait to bring Veil down once and for all.
119	"Doppelganger"	Ian Toynton	Schuyler Kent	March 18, 1996
Unsure that he can trust the information from the Palmtop computer, Veil decides to investigate one last name: Claire Hillard, a fellow journalist who was assigned to the same South American arena where the "Hidden Agenda" photograph was supposedly taken. Arriving in the small Ohio town where she lives, he discovers that another Thomas Veil lives there – a photographer with whom Claire occasionally works.
120	"Through a Lens Darkly" "Shutterbug"	Ian Toynton	Art Monterastelli	April 8, 1996
Tom is kidnapped and locked inside a remote deserted house. An operative within the organization uses powerful mind control techniques to induce haunting memories from Veil's past, making him recall his childhood and the violent death of his childhood sweetheart.
121	"Dark Side of the Moon" "The Mugging"	James Whitmore, Jr.	David Ehrman	April 15, 1996
Tom has a chance to uncover an important list of operatives, but as he phones his contact an operative from the organization attacks him and demands the negatives. Fleeing from one enemy Tom runs into another as an inner city gang confronts Veil and steals a bag containing the negatives of "Hidden Agenda".
122	"Calaway"	Reza Badiyi	Joel Surnow	April 29, 1996
Thomas Veil is suffering from severe insomnia and a doctor's alarming diagnosis prompts him to go back to the asylum where he was first placed after his erasure. There he encounters one of his fellow inmates, a man who has been re-programmed to think that he is one of the doctors.
123	"Zero Minus Ten" "Coma"	James Whitmore, Jr.	Jane Espenson	May 6, 1996
Waking up in a hospital with no memory of how he got there, Tom is immediately suspicious when he is told that he has been in a coma for three months following a car accident. A forced reunion with his wife Alyson only reinforces his belief that he is the victim of another ruse by the organization that is trying to get his negatives.
124	"Marathon"	Stephen Thomas Stafford	Art Monterastelli	May 13, 1996
Uncovering a section of "Hidden Agenda" previously obscured, Tom discovers the numbers for a radio frequency that ultimately leads him to a Washington DC research center called Heritage House. As Tom investigates the center, he narrowly escapes the assassination of the entire staff. With the help of a secretary he rescues, Veil discovers that Heritage House is a front for a clandestine FBI operation that happens to be investigating the organization that erased his identity.
125	"Gemini"	Stephen Thomas Stafford	Lawrence Hertzog & Art Monterastelli	May 20, 1996
Following up on secret information provided by the FBI, Tom finds two valuable clues: the original untouched photo of "Hidden Agenda" and a key to the safe house inhabited by the agent who gathered the data – an operative code named Gemini.

DVD release

Image Entertainment (under license from ABC) released Nowhere Man: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on December 27, 2005.^[2]

References

1. ^ Cover text, TV Guide, November 4, 1995
2. ^ Nowhere Man: The Complete Series Image Entertainment

External links

• Nowhere Man at the Internet Movie Database
• Nowhere Man at TV.com