Will Sam Beckett Return Home? NBC Orders Quantum Leap Reboot Pilot

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Ryan Thomas Riddle, Jan 14, 2022.

  1. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Right, and the only reason Sam and Al were connected was because they both donated neural tissues to the creation of Ziggy, so they were linked through her. They did eventually find a way to link other people to Sam as holograms, and clearly the new team has found another way to do it, but it's not something you can do without an actual time traveler to link to, apparently.


    Again, it would depend on being coincidentally at the right time. Also, if the program is classified and time travel is not provably real, how would any such information stand up in court?

    Although I think there were a number of cases where Sam's mission was to clear an innocent person's name or ensure that the real criminal was caught.
     
  2. crookeddy

    crookeddy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2006
    Almost the same situation with house of the dragon, yet not a peep from the anti woke squad...
     
  3. Jayson1

    Jayson1 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2017
    It's got a trans character.
     
  4. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 10, 2005
    Location:
    Confederation of Earth
    Not sure how long Sam and Donna knew each other before he started leaping but they were engaged at some point. So it was probably a considerable length of time.

    In the original timeline, Donna left Sam at the altar and they didn’t get married. In the Star-Crossed episode, Sam fixed Donna’s relationship with her father (Col. Wojohowicz), so she no longer had trust issues.

    Which also assured continued funding for the project, due to the Colonel’s military connections.

    Thus, in the revised timeline, Sam and Donna did get married…but because of his Swiss Cheesed memory, he doesn’t remember it, and Donna has insisted that Al not tell him - because in the course of his leaps Sam has to have relationships with various women, and he couldn’t do that if he remembered that he’s married.

    As for Magic: I have no idea where they’re going with this, but it CANNOT be a coincidence that he is here. There’s no way the writers just pulled his name out of a hat. There MUST be a reason Magic is the project leader. We’ll just have to wait and see.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2022
    cooleddie74 likes this.
  5. 1987SpaceGuy

    1987SpaceGuy Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2019
  6. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Great! Not only do we finally, after decades, get some insight into the experience of a Leapee post-leap, but we get it delivered in an Ernie Hudson monologue. I can't wait.

    The article overstates a bit by calling Deborah Pratt a co-creator of the original show. Donald Bellisario was the sole credited creator; Pratt was a member of its writing/producing team. But she was with the show for its full run.
     
  7. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 31, 2015
    Location:
    The Other Realms
    Herd mentality. Mass rate bombing can kill a show too if it's an organized campaign, and the cast members seem to offend the sensibilities of some people.
     
  8. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Ironic that they're protesting a time-travel show because they're stuck in the past.

    And, as is so often the case, the protestors fail to realize that they're expressing the very bigotry that the original show condemned.
     
    Captain_Amasov and Caretaker like this.
  9. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2001
    Location:
    On the run.
    How though? Sam is actually in the past, Al is not. Sam can see and hear Al through his brainwaves, essentially Al is "all in his head". So how do children see Al, and how does Al see events that Sam is not there for?

    I'm not worried about of course, I just go with it.
     
  10. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2004
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    My thinking after my last couple exchanges, would be that he's being projected into the past in general, but at a certain wavelength that only Sam is supposed to be able to see, but that animals, kids, ect. can also pick up on.
     
    TheAlmanac and cooleddie74 like this.
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    It's like I said -- they have technology that scans the past. That's how they find Sam and communicate with him. It's not telepathy or magic, it's a scanning and communication technology that uses Sam as a targeting focus. Once they've locked onto Sam in a given place and time, they can scan the world around him. As I said, The Time Tunnel worked the same way, just without the 2-way communication (usually) and the immersive holographic interface.

    Sam is the only one who can see or hear Al because they're both linked to Ziggy, a hybrid semi-organic supercomputer created using brain tissue donated by Sam and Al. But it's still some kind of broadcast signal, an energy pattern being beamed to the past and tuned to Sam's brain. The conceit is that animals, small children, and some neurodivergent people have a special "sensitivity" that lets them intercept the signal as well.

    Really, though, the answer is that it works however the writers wanted it to work. QL was more fantasy than science fiction. There was no logic or credibility to the science, and they used gibberish terminology like talking about "neurons and mesons" as if they weren't completely different categories of things, as well as using "string theory" for an idea that had nothing even remotely to do with actual string theory. So it's best not to worry about the technical specifics too much.
     
  12. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2001
    Location:
    On the run.
    Except they don't really...Ziggy relies on records to theorize about what needs to be done (There are heaps of times when Ziggy can't find records on something or someone important.) If they had direct access to the actual past that surely wouldn't necessary.
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    You took my words out of context. I meant that they can scan the point in the past that Sam is currently in. As I already said multiple times, they have to lock onto Sam first, and then they can scan a wider volume around him.
     
    Skipper likes this.
  14. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2001
    Location:
    On the run.
    I get what you're saying, I'm arguing with the logic of how they could possibly do that...and why they so often aren't able to use that to solve the problem. They still rely on records and guesswork. Like so many other things on the show, it varied depending on what the story needs were.
     
  15. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    I saw the last episode dozens of times.

    Video Tape.

    There's a scene where Al is looking through the decades for Sam, and then Al says "Doh! We forgot to check the year he was born."

    "scanning time" might be a completely different technology, that helps them locate Sam.

    The new guy, Ben, is on Kevin can Fuck Himself.

    Is Kevin can Fuck himself crossing over with Quantum Leap?

    If Raymond's character "Sam" leaps out, in the last episode of Kevin can Fuck Himself, that would be absolutely amazing.
     
  16. Skipper

    Skipper Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2016
    "Logic"? It's just the Fugitive formula with a little bit of sci-fi dressing. Every week he'll help someone, why it's happening is secondary. It's like wondering about angels' aerodynamic after watching "Touched by an angel".
     
  17. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 31, 2015
    Location:
    The Other Realms
    But if they all looked like Roma Downey did they'd be very sleek and able to fly
     
    Skipper likes this.
  18. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    I don't see the contradiction. When they're locked onto Sam, they can only observe Sam's immediate present. They need the historical data to give them context about what happened before Sam's arrival, and to tell them what's going to happen in Sam's near future, so he and Al can figure out what Sam needs to change.

    And yes, they can theoretically look anywhere around Sam in his subjective present, but they need to know where to look. They need their research to figure out what's important, who they should follow, where they should focus their attention.

    Also, just seeing events doesn't automatically mean you understand them. They can see and hear the people around Sam, but they don't know who those people are without the historical research.
     
    Skipper likes this.
  19. Astra

    Astra Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2015
    Location:
    Dresden, Germany
    Anybody remember "Nowhere Man"? In the pilot this guy was in a restaurant with his wife and when he came back from the toilet she was gone and when he went home she said she didn't know him... big mystery and of course you wanted to know what had happened and why but the next episodes he also was going from place to place, not getting any wiser about the conspiracy... I was frustrated with it so much, I stopped watching a few episodes in. I guess I was not ready for the slow burn mystery. It felt like a waste of time watching him do things that had nothing to do with anything. Maybe I should go back to it?
     
    TheAlmanac and Qonundrum like this.
  20. Skipper

    Skipper Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2016
    This one? Wasn't it cancelled?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowhere_Man_(American_TV_series)