Pilot Synopsis
The past and future collide when Nazi scientists Wolfgang and his fraternal twin, Klaus von Steiger, test their wonder weapon for the first time. In a twisted perversion of Tesla’s technology, they will use the directed energy to shoot down Allied bombers before they can reach the Fatherland. Wolfgang is a committed follower of Hitler and a proud member of the SS; Klaus has no love for the Third Reich, but does love Victoria, the Jewish scientist forced to work in his lab. Klaus knows if they want to survive the war, they had better just keep following orders. What he doesn’t know is that Victoria is a saboteur and a deadly member of the French Resistance, sent to destroy the weapon and kill all those who could rebuild it. When Wolfgang throws the switch, Victoria’s plan begins a chain reaction of unintended consequences. In a brilliant explosion of light and energy, the weapon is destroyed, tearing a rift in the fabric of time and space.
Inside the control room, Wolfgang stands in front of the control console. In, the center of the equipment is a new invention of the day. A small black and white RCA picture tube, it glows brightly as it starts receiving television signals of a newscast from the future. The slick graphics detail the exact time, date and place of the opening on the other side of the rift over 70 years into the future. Wolfgang doesn’t know how it happened or what caused it, but he is sure of one thing. With his machine destroyed, Klaus and he would soon be in front of a firing squad, but Wolfgang would turn this disaster into triumph. All he needs is the film from the test plane’s gun camera, and Klaus will have that soon. Wolfgang will have the proof that he is a master of time itself
Wolfgang’s triumph, however, will be short-lived, as a mortar round fired by the French Resistance makes a direct hit on the control room. Wolfgang disappears into a ball of flame and debris, presumed dead in the explosion. But Klaus survives, having in his possession the only proof of what truly happened, a secret Klaus keeps until he is captured by the Allies at the end of the war. Under the highest security, he finds himself in a room with President Truman, Winston Churchill, and General Eisenhower showing the footage from the future shot by the gun camera. Faced with irrefutable evidence of what lies ahead, they create Operation Guardian. Its existence becomes the greatest secret of the Cold War. The mission is clear: stop anyone from going through the rift, and if that fails, be prepared to follow the enemy into the past.
n the future, the other side of the rift opens. Waiting there is Wolfgang, who is very much alive and at his side are the Neo-Nazis of the 21st century. For over 70 years, they have been in the shadows, and now they strike, disappearing through the rift to save the Third Reich.
For as long as the rift remains open, the past, present and the future remain uncertain. Faced with an impossible decision, the newly elected President Gabriel Balasz orders the Guardian Task Force into the past. He follows the young men and women of the 21st century knowing they will all be trapped over 70 years in the past, with no hope of ever returning to the present they know.
The world and history are forever reset, as the Alpha Timeline begins. Hitler is at the height of his power and America is at her weakest. This is where our four remaining main characters join the story. Professor Olivia Stanton and Lieutenant David Cohen had volunteered to go back in time. For Olivia, it was to shape the brave new world that would come after the war. For Cohen, a Jewish kid from Texas, killing Nazis sounded like the adventure of a lifetime. Major John Price and Commander Steven Jefferson are a different matter entirely. For Price, it was simple; he was running away from another shattered marriage on the way to divorce court. He just wanted to melt into the mission, where it really didn’t matter. For Jefferson, it was tragic. He and his attack submarine were not a part of the plan. He and his crew are unprepared for the world that is outside their pressure hull.
Unfortunately for our heroes, Wolfgang has had a head start, and he takes full advantage. Striking behind both British and Russian lines, Churchill and Stalin were sitting ducks, just waiting to be picked off. He could have ended the war that night in one fell swoop, but the Americans had followed him into the past. Now the Führer was in grave danger and may not survive the night. The fate of the new world would be set in the next 72 hours. The Americans of the 1940s would have been no match for the new Germany, but the Americans from the 21st century were battle tested, and they were now raining destruction across the Third Reich. War, however, was not a sprint. It was a lethal marathon, and Wolfgang had a nuclear card up his sleeve. If the Führer orders it, London will be vaporized and erased, from both the map and from history. Wolfgang may have the card to play, but his finger is not the one on the trigger. The man who truly holds the fate of London in his hands is another terrifying import from the 21st century, a faithful Lion of ISIS, and he has his own plan.