BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If people could go back in time and change the course of events, the premise of UPN's new Seven Days, would Aaron Spelling have erased troublesome Shannen Doherty from TV history?
Would UPN executives have reworked the first hour of Seven Days, which seems to run almost that long?
Here are previews of two new dramas on tonight that won't leave you Charmed:
Seven Days
(8 p.m., Channel 25): Jonathan LaPaglia (New York Undercover, Deconstructing Harry) stars as Frank Parker, a CIA mental patient with a photographic memory, who becomes the guinea pig for the U.S. government's top-secret time machine in the two-hour premiere.
Despite his abrasive personality, he's drafted for the experimental mission to undo the work of Chechnya terrorists who bomb the White House and kill the U.S. president and vice president, the Chechen president, and, coincidentally, Parker's son.
The White House attack occurs early in the show, and what seems like eternity passes before Parker leaves the mental ward and reaches the Nevada military installation. (At least you'll have some clue what's happening after reading this review; many confused viewers will surf to another show.)
It's almost an hour before he meets the show's supporting cast -- scientists Isaac Mentor (Norman Lloyd from St. Elsewhere) and Olga Vukavitch (Justina Vail from Jerry Maguire); chief military adviser Donovan (Don Franklin from Young Riders, seaQuest DSV); and shrill, cartoonish Nate Ramsey (Nick Searcy from Fried Green Tomatoes; The Fugitive; American Gothic) who objects to the selection of Parker.
The big pay-off comes in the final half-hour, when Parker successfully travels back in time (surprised?) to avert the White House assault in the fall season's bloodiest shootout.
Mr. LaPaglia has a nice edge as the tightly wound Parker, though creator Christopher Crowe (The Mean Season) doesn't give the other cast members much to work with. If Mr. Searcy could travel back in time, he would rewrite his dreadful dialogue.
Seven Days also leaves viewers with too many unresolved questions, such as how an entire nation grieving for their deceased leaders gets instant amnesia from Parker's mission.
As Parker says seeing the orb-shaped time machine: "Is there any chance this thing could actually work?"
No way. TimeCop, ABC's drama last fall with a similar premise, was canceled by Christmas. Seven Days won't last seven months. Maybe not seven weeks.
Charmed
(9 p.m., Channels 64, WGN): Shannen Doherty from Beverly Hills 90210 returns to prime-time as a witch -- yes, with a "W" -- in a new drama from Aaron Spelling. He made Ms. Doherty a 90120 star in 1990. In this pilot, Pru Halliwell (Ms. Doherty) and sisters Phoebe (Alyssa Milano from Who's The Boss?, Melrose Place) and Piper (Holly Marie Combs from Picket Fences) discover they are "the Charmed Ones," or good witches.
Of course, they don't believe the news -- until Pru starts moving objects with her mind (after being demoted at the museum), Phoebe foresees the future (an auto accident), and Piper freezes time (when running behind preparing an important meal).
Life in grandmother's old San Francisco Victorian home is filled with their petty jealousies and acrimony until the big mean warlock attacks. Then they band together and chant the mysterious inscription left by their mother: "The power of three will set you free."
And it works. Of course.
WB viewers -- particularly Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans -- will be surprised that this witches' brew lacks Buffy's humor and hipness. Without that, this weekly pursuit of witches will make deadly dull TV.
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write him at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, 45202.
