When a message problem to a missile silo causes a nuclear holocaust, Frank goes back in time to prevent the disaster.

Hello Crimson Tide above ground. The plot of the episode is almost exactly the same as that movie, even thinking to cast a black actor to fill the Denzel Washington position. You see, with no way of confirming a shutdown command, one of the officers is keen to send up a nuke. Now on the one hand I can understand that things might have escalated to this kind of crisis level. But on the other, if your message receiving system doesn't work, why would you just guess what it said and do something stupid? It seems amazingly rash when you'd come out of your silo to a wasteland with only the excuse 'whoops' to give the president.

This aside, the premise does have a high level of tension as Parker tries to stop nuclear disaster happening all over again. His comic mis-sent e-mail enables him to lose his credibility and separates him from his Washington superiors, leaving him out in the cold when he needs back-up. It's a simple twist to keep things interesting and a wonder it hasn't been used before.

My major problem is that Donovan actually gets in the backstep sphere to go and fix things, with Frank being out of reach at the time, but the equipment fails. What have the writers got against the poor guy? There is no reason why he can't do even the one solitary backstep except that LaPaglia is the star of the show. I'm sure he wouldn't mind a week off. That aside, as homages go this one works well enough. It's pretty predictable, but most episodes of this show are, and there's enough good acting and tension to see this one through okay.

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