Kevin Burkhoff

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Kevin Burkhoff
Name	Kevin Burkhoff
Born	March 11, 1961 Waltham, MA
Age	46
Occupation	Neurochemist / "Father of the 4400 Technology"
Introduced	Wake-Up Call
Abducted
Ability	Regeneration
Last seen	Recurring
Status	Alive
Marital Status	Divorced
Relatives	Andrea DuBois (ex-wife), Glen Burkhoff (father, deceased), Susan Burkhoff (mother), James Burkhoff (brother), Ronald Burkhoff (brother)
Portrayed by	Jeffrey Combs
Kevin Burkhoff is a member of The 4400
Kevin Burkhoff is a member of NTAC

Kevin Burkhoff was born in 1961, to parents Glen and Susan, in Waltham, Montana. He recieved formal education by studying at New York City College in 1979, Cornell University in 1983 and at the New England University in 1987; achieving a BS in Neuroscience, a Tenured Commendation for dissernation on serotonin receptors in 1992, and becoming a PhD in Chemical Analysis and Professor of Neurochemistry.

Kevin became obsessed with learning the secrets behind the human brain and advancing human potential, and immersed himself in the study of neuroscience, and although became cut off socially from the world and wary of strangers, he became a world-renowned scientist in the field and had a vast reputation for being an eccentric genius.

When Kevin was 30 and studying his greatest project; that of learning about dormant neural pathways that could lead to extra-human abilities such as telekinesis and precognition, Kevin began suffering a series of delusions that eventually led to him having a mental breakdown. Kevin was institutionalized two years later with paranoid schitzophrenia and committed to Abendson Psychiatric Hospital, where even though he was mute and un-communicative, he was drawn to a 4400 and a fellow schitzophrenic; Tess Doerner, becoming protective of his lonely fellow patient and wildly attacking anyone who came into contact with her while he was not around.

Tess was compelled to use her ability of mind control to make other patients, hospital staff and eventually a team of NTAC agents led by Jed Garrity to build a device from design schematics placed in her subconscious. Kevin himself was among the first to help build it, and was present when, thanks to Tom Baldwin, the device was finished and activated. The pulse it gave off, instead of supposedly contacting the future, cured Kevin of his illness and "awakened" him from his mute-like state. Kevin was discharged later that day, though not before saying a silent goodbye to Tess, whom he still cared about.

Upon returning to normal life, Kevin worked at Western Washington University, dedicating his genius into discovering the secret behind gaining extra-human abilities by studying the 4400, gaining a wider reputation than ever before, as the government knew his research would eventually lead to the creation of the 4400 themselves, making him "The Father of the 4400 Technology". Kevin turned down the offers of working in government institutions and think tanks for this purpose, preferring to work alone, and was cynical of the 4400 Center and the "scam" they were pulling. Shawn Farrell, instead of being offended, realised what Kevin was saying was true, and after reforming the Center's ways, offered Kevin the chance to study him, potentially leading to a cure to all disease due to his ability. Kevin couldn't pass the chance up, and accepted and began working at the Center, furthering his research and becoming a valuable tool for the Center.

During the promicin-inhibitor scandal, Kevin was not only essential in solving the crisis (by creating a cure and exposing Dennis Ryland and his Operation: Firewall comrades), but discovered his long-sought secret; the 4400 produce a fifth neurotransmitter in their brains, named promicin, as opposed to normal humans who only have four for the purpose of regulating their bodies. Promicin allows people to tap into the unused sections of the brain, and potentially gained any ability. When the crisis was resolved, Kevin went back to work at the Center, and proceeded to begin injecting himself with doses of promicin for the purpose of training his body to produce promicin on its own, allowing him to gain an ability. By doing this, Kevin fulfilled his destiny as creator of a way to gain 4400-abilities.

Kevin quickly moved his research to his apartment, fearful of his research being discovered by hostile government elements, and quickly became a hermit. Needing assistance, he asked Diana Skouris, whom he had befriended during the inhibitor crisis, to monitor his progress and help his research however she can. Diana reluctantly agreed, keeping her activites secret to NTAC, though eventually began to have doubts when his body began to fail. Kevin managed to convince her to keep working, as he (accurately) predicted that someone would develop a promicin serum capable of giving people abilities, and wondered who would develop it and who would control it. Kevin also proved his research was working by stabbing himself through the hand and quickly regenerating his damaged tissue.

When his experimentation finished and he gained full-control of his ability, becoming the first ever Extra Crispie, he was left horrifically disfigured and partially disabled. Haspelcorp, a corporation producing its own supply of promicin for government usage only, somehow found out about Kevin and sent a team of agents to assasinate him for the purpose of keeping his work from the public. Though he was captured and shot and killed by 5 bullets to the chest, Kevin regenerated and escaped. After teaming up with Tess, who was lucid thanks to a new medicine, Kevin went into hiding, and eventually began giving promicin to Diana with Tess's assistance, to settle a debt for all her loyalty and devotion to his work and that she deserved to gain an ability. NTAC stopped him in time, but Kevin and Tess were able to escape, but not before ending his friendship with Diana, as they had a heated argument over promicin being given to the public (in which Diana insisted the world wasn't ready for it, but Kevin angrily told her "the world is never ready for anything, it has to be forced upon them!")

Kevin and Tess settled down at a quiet gas station 2 miles away from Newfield, where they lived a happy life and, while Tess used her ability on tourists, Kevin worked as a mechanic, after having used his ability to return his body to normal. With help from Lewis Mesirow, the recently-resurrected Jordan Collier was able to locate Kevin and Tess, and convinced them to join the reformed Nova Group as he insisted he needed Kevin's intellect and Tess's ability. After successfully stealing Haspelcorp's promicin store and distributing it to the world, Kevin went underground with Jordan and Tess and began hiding out at an old cabin.

Four months later, Kevin remained in the cabin, desperately trying to keep Tess sane despite the sub-standard living conditions and in-adequate medical care, and eventually began begging Jordan to help, but the risk of arrest was too great. Kevin's fears about Tess were realised when she was driven to leave the cabin in the middle of the night and, after fruitlessly searching for Tess in the cabin, talked to Jordan. Jordan, however, was more concerned with stopping Graham Holt dominating Seattle with his ability. Kevin decided it was time to part ways and, while Jordan went to Seattle to stop Graham, Kevin began searching for Tess.

Kevin was seen months later, having tracked down Tess at a local Seattle diner, trying to convince her to stop mind-controlling its patrons, but the insane-Tess was beyond reason, so Kevin enlisted Shawn's assistance once again in ending the crisis, and Shawn used his ability heal Tess of her schizophrenia.

Kevin and Tess were then safely transported to the 4400 Center to hide from the government, deciding not to return to Collier, as Tess was frightened of him while Kevin could no longer stand his "messiah complex". It is here that Burkhoff secrelty worked on the Promicin Compatability Test, which was poised to reveal who could survive the promicin shot and who couldn't.

Collier, fearing it would destroy any chance of heaven on earth, had a team of Promicin Positives kidnap Kevin and bring him to Promise City. Kevin was treated as an honored, yet forced, guest of Collier and the Promicin Movement, as he was regarded as a genius for his work to create usable promicin, and Burkhoff considered staying in the city willingly upon seeing all of the goodness the movement was doing, but later changed his mind when they refused to let him eat sunflower seeds (which "drove him crazy"). Kevin was later rescued by a team of Promicin Positives led by Tess and loyal to Shawn, and went back to work at the Center.

[edit] External Links

Kevin Burkhoff - Official Profile

Characters
Major
Tom Baldwin | Diana Skouris | Jordan Collier | Shawn Farrell | Maia Skouris | Kyle Baldwin | Meghan Doyle | Nina Jarvis | Alana Mareva | Marco Pacella | Dennis Ryland | Isabelle Tyler | Lily Tyler | Richard Tyler | Kevin Burkhoff | Tess Doerner
Recurring
Danny Farrell | Susan Farrell | Jed Garrity | Nikki Hudson | Brian Moore | Devon Moore | Heidi Moore | Wendy Paulson | Matthew Ross | April Skouris | Heather Tobey

Characters
Promicin Positives
Anastasia | Kyle Baldwin | Kevin Burkhoff | Meghan Doyle | Danny Farrell | Jed Garrity | Dalton Gibbs | Graham Holt | Troy Kennedy | Marco Pacella | Audrey Parker | Brandon Powell | Shannon Reese | April Skouris | Kathy Weir | Paul Weir | Billy | Evee | P.J. | Riva | Sophia