Will Sam Beckett Return Home? NBC Orders Quantum Leap Reboot Pilot
- Thread starter Ryan Thomas Riddle
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They reshot a lot of it to fit it into the current point in the story arc. All the present-day stuff is newly shot, as are a couple of scenes of Ben and Addison in the past discussing the arc stuff with the second leaper. In the pilot footage, the only visible difference is that Addison uses a different handlink, which they set up by having her usual handlink break down so that she has to switch to an earlier model.
The old and new stuff are mostly integrated fairly well, though there are a couple of tells. Ben acts a bit more confused when he leaps in than he probably would on his sixth leap. And there's one bit where guest star Jewel Staite is brought back for reshoot footage (on the backlot, naturally), and her hair is visibly shorter than in the rest of the episode.
I guess I can see why NBC thought the story wasn't big enough for a pilot, since it was just about Ben helping a divorcing couple and their angry kid with the earthquake as a backdrop and source of peril. Still, it was a decent example of a typical leap, and it resonated with Ben personally, reminding him of his guilt about arguing with his mother just before she died. It seems his memory started to come back sooner in the pilot. I wonder if the "why did he leap?" mystery angle was always going to be there.
So anyway, now we know that we saw the second Leaper's real face (and the scene with Jenn explaining that with visual aids was a lot longer than it needed to be, suggesting the episode ran short due to the re-edits and needed padding), and that he's alive in the present day but hasn't become a Leaper yet. We also know that Ben's trajectory through time is an attempt to leap into the future, which hasn't been done before.
The old/new handlink makes sounds just like the old/old handlink! AND it resembles the old/old/old handlink! I like it better already - the new/new one makes me think Addison is carrying around a deviled egg for additional protein. My biggest beef with the new/new handlink is that it doesn't give any impression of actually displaying anything for her to read, unless it's on an interface that only she can see and hear... She was able to project holographic arcs just as well anyway. I wonder why they made the call to make it so different after the pilot.
I didn't read the pilot script but did it introduce the elements of Ben's mom? I guess I could see why they'd want to save it for later - possibly a bit too melodramatic for the "action-oriented" drama we've been treated to so far. Interestingly though, the flashback editing they used is pretty similar to edits they made in the original series too - nice callback if deliberate.
And did they film the next leap in Vancouver? I'm guessing no, but Elyse Levesque being Canadian may suggest they did... I know Elyse has been working out of Hollywood too (on The Orville and Magnum PI recently) but who knows. Regardless I'm happy for a double dose of Stargate alums in Quantum Leap!
Mark
I didn't read the pilot script but did it introduce the elements of Ben's mom? I guess I could see why they'd want to save it for later - possibly a bit too melodramatic for the "action-oriented" drama we've been treated to so far. Interestingly though, the flashback editing they used is pretty similar to edits they made in the original series too - nice callback if deliberate.
And did they film the next leap in Vancouver? I'm guessing no, but Elyse Levesque being Canadian may suggest they did... I know Elyse has been working out of Hollywood too (on The Orville and Magnum PI recently) but who knows. Regardless I'm happy for a double dose of Stargate alums in Quantum Leap!
Mark
I definitely prefer the pilot handlink, which looks more like a functional display device. With the regular one, all I can figure is that it's projecting holographic images that don't display to Ben unless she allows them to; otherwise she's just staring at nothing.
I was wondering if it was added, but I think it must've been there from the start, since it informed Ben's interaction with the Leapee's son and wife. The scene where he first started to remember his mother seemed to be a reshoot scene, since they were also talking about arc stuff, but the rest seemed to be integral with the pilot story.
I was wondering if it was added, but I think it must've been there from the start, since it informed Ben's interaction with the Leapee's son and wife. The scene where he first started to remember his mother seemed to be a reshoot scene, since they were also talking about arc stuff, but the rest seemed to be integral with the pilot story.
What was presumably Ben's "Where am I? Who am I?" in the opening bar scene still played quite nicely to me as "Where am I now? Who am I now? Where's Addison? Who was that cowpoke?? Is he chasing me by arriving before me??" That's plenty to confuse and distract even a guy with 197 IQ!
I don't mind the cutting edge, read-out free, tuna can handlink, but phasing the "Disaster" handlink and its fun familiar sounds back in would suit me just fine. They can go full Lego handlink anytime to suit me just fine! And while they're at it, classic score? Classic leap effect? Distinctive classic glowing doorway for the hologram? Probably too costly?
According to the QL podcast, they trimmed the scripted notion that the sight of an '89 Nintendo sparked Ben's memory of playing one while his mom cooked. Ben wanting to call his mom was a very effective scene for me- it was Sam's first instinct to try to call his dad almost the moment he got his last name back, and it's a pretty relatable impulse.
Great episode!
I don't mind the cutting edge, read-out free, tuna can handlink, but phasing the "Disaster" handlink and its fun familiar sounds back in would suit me just fine. They can go full Lego handlink anytime to suit me just fine! And while they're at it, classic score? Classic leap effect? Distinctive classic glowing doorway for the hologram? Probably too costly?
According to the QL podcast, they trimmed the scripted notion that the sight of an '89 Nintendo sparked Ben's memory of playing one while his mom cooked. Ben wanting to call his mom was a very effective scene for me- it was Sam's first instinct to try to call his dad almost the moment he got his last name back, and it's a pretty relatable impulse.
Great episode!
Maybe, but I don't think someone with six leaps under his belt would ask "What year is this?" after the news report just mentioned the year, IIRC.
It would probably be cheaper than the animation they use when Holo-Addison touches something and fritzes out. I mean, it's just a rectangle of light, a very simple effect. If they could do it weekly in 1989, they could easily do it now.
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This was a pretty good episode, and Jewel Staite yay! 
It looks like they're not going for "evil leaper" so much as another leaper having another motive and it ties into Ben's leaping... somehow. I can give that a chance. Also, the scenes with Ben wanting to reconnect with his mother resonated with me. So yeah, this was a pretty good episode, and it's one of the reasons why I think it has so much potential. I like the cast, I like the idea, it's just finding the right balance between characterization, story, and the nostalgia factor.
Side note: Mason Alexander Park is a cutie pie. That is all.
It looks like they're not going for "evil leaper" so much as another leaper having another motive and it ties into Ben's leaping... somehow. I can give that a chance. Also, the scenes with Ben wanting to reconnect with his mother resonated with me. So yeah, this was a pretty good episode, and it's one of the reasons why I think it has so much potential. I like the cast, I like the idea, it's just finding the right balance between characterization, story, and the nostalgia factor.
Side note: Mason Alexander Park is a cutie pie. That is all.
For everyone who loves talking about the handlink - and I've been doing so on and off for over thirty years:
This essayist does not mention that in 'Another Mother' Al holds up the handlink and Sam reads an address off of the device. Neither character states the address aloud, nobody in the tv audience can see it, but Sam runs off with this information. If it is a holographic display, it is one that can be made legible to both Al and Sam.
And NCIS, just last week.
QL novel author Carol Davis points out on twitter that Ben and Sam both leaped at age 42, when their actors were both 35.
It's a streaming generation, isn't it. Though, for a legacy sequel, you'd think you'd see a bit more take up on broadcast. Though, sci fi fans are normally quite into gadgets so maybe more of them/us proportionally stream.
And.. I called the leap to the future!
Which would make a little more sense if Ben's leaps all went progressively further back in time, given that it was described as a slingshot, but what do I know about 4 dimensional quantum mechanics?
And.. I called the leap to the future!
Which would make a little more sense if Ben's leaps all went progressively further back in time, given that it was described as a slingshot, but what do I know about 4 dimensional quantum mechanics?
At this rate(ings), I hope they shoot the final episode with a couple alternate endings. One that may bring Ben home with a personal victory,and perhaps some conclusion for Sam, even if we don't see him or bring him back too. They were filming when I was at Universal Studios two weeks ago, and on the tram tour I got to peek into an open studio door and see... the wooden backsides of the 2022 control room set. :P
Mark
Mark
I wondered if maybe the idea was to jump further and further back and then loop around and build up forward momentum, like a slingshot maneuver, but the dates so far have been 1985, 1998, 1977, 1981, 1879, and 1989. I don't see a pattern.
Unless... okay, starting in 2022, that's back 37 years, forward 13 years, back 21 years, forward 4 years, back 102 years, forward 110 years. Okay, even that doesn't quite work as a pattern. It's alternating forward and back, but I was thinking in terms of maybe building up a longer leap each time, like pumping your legs on a swing. But the second back/front cycle is smaller than the first.
So yeah, I guess we have to go with the handwave that there's a higher-dimensional pattern more complex than simple calendar dates.
(I just realized that the intended pilot episode was set in 1989, the same year the original show premiered.)
I think the slingshot thing is just a rough analogy for what Ben's doing, not necessarily as literal as that.
But time doesn't exist in isolation. Space and time are facets of the same thing, and gravity is a property of how they relate to one another under the influence of mass and energy. They're all inseparable. So maybe the orbital configuration of the Sun and planets at a given time could have a gravitational effect on Ben's trajectory through spacetime.
Then again, the show is called Quantum Leap, and they seem to be trying to justify the "quantum" part in their technobabble more than the original did. So maybe it has more to do with quantum temporal theory, and the energy being built up has more to do with quantum wave equations and such than anything gravitational.
The orbital thing also brings into question maybe the way we're looking at time as an incremental line isn't actually how it's being used in the show's calculations/math.
At different times Venus may be closer to the Earth than Mars... at other times Mars may be closer to the Earth than Venus.
We may look and say well 1981 to 1879 should be a 'big monetum/jump'... but maybe at that moment the 'access point/junction' between 1981 and 1879 wasn't much different than having gone from 1977 to 1981.
So astrology becomes kind of scientifically legit?