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

[The Wormhole]

I'm not going to call this week's my favorite, but then I'm not really into horror in general anyway. Yes, I know, the whole point of this show is that they can be a different genre each week, and that's fine, and indeed, that means there will eventually be episodes set in genres I don't particularly care for, and well, this week was one such episode.

Even taking into account my apathy for the horror genre, it was still a somewhat predictable and by the numbers episode. We're at first supposed to believe this may in fact be a legitimate demonic possession, and things escalate in the first half of the episode so that even the most logical minded of the bunch begin to suspect as much. But then pieces gradually fall in place revealing this is in fact something rational and not at all supernatural.

I will admit, at one point, I did expect the "possession" to in fact be another Leaper, though that didn't really pan out. Yes, we get a vague sense that something "other" going on with the possessed girl apparently able to actually see Ben's true form. And we find out the reason Addison was cut off from Ben this week was because of interference from Al's daughter.

 

[E-DUB]

Well, I did see that coming.

 

[Christopher]

Not a great one. An interesting idea to cut Ben off from Addison and force him to go it alone, but the episode had its clumsy aspects. The "Millions lose jobs in Great Depression" headline was incredibly clumsy for a daily newspaper in the middle of the Great Depression, obviously written for the benefit of modern TV viewers. And why the hell did Ian need to find a photo on Reddit to find out what happened in history? That's Ziggy's job, to collate all the historical data to discover what happened and predict what the Leaper probably needs to change.

I figured out before too long that something was making Ben and the "possessed" girl hallucinate, but I thought it would turn out to be some kind of gas leak in the room. And I didn't piece it together until just now, but I guess the first vision Ben had, before he'd eaten or drunk anything, was actually Janis Calavicci trying to contact him, since it was the same effect as in the final scene where she appeared to warn him about something. Anyway, having the whole thing turn out to have a rational explanation is an interesting contrast to the original show's Halloween episode where Sam was pretty explicitly battling Satan himself.

We finally see a depiction of what happens in the present when Ben changes the past, and they disappointingly went the most simplistic, illogical route possible -- the information vanishes and the people in the present still remember that it was there even though their own timeline has changed so that it never happened. How do they remember? The original series never really explained how it worked, but in the Ashley McConnell novels, Al was the only one who remembered the previous history when Sam changed it, because he and Sam were both neurally linked to Ziggy. Everyone else in the project only remembered the altered history, so Al experienced the world subtly changing around him all the time, but he was the only one who noticed.

Also, this show tends to be far too straightforward in determining what Ben's mission is. In the original show, the true purpose of a leap was often something Sam and Al needed to figure out as they went, sometimes not really understanding what the point had been until the moment Sam leapt out.

This is the episode that's spent the least time with the present-day cast, with Magic not even appearing and Jenn only getting one scene. I think it's also the first time a character in the show has explicitly used they/them pronouns for Ian, when Jenn was talking about their dream board, whatever that is.

Does anyone else watch this the morning after on the NBC website? Their video player has an annoying glitch for me -- every week, in the first minute or two of the episode, it jumps forward about 15 seconds and I have to hit the rewind-10-seconds button twice to see what I missed. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced that.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

In many ways this mimics the classic "bottle" episodes of network TV. Minimal location work here, just a couple sets beyond the HQ and Benison's apartment (albeit probably built for the episode), and basically all the action shot in studio. Without Ernie Hudson as well, this really feels like a relative budget saver of an episode.

That said, despite parallels to the original QL episode featuring the Devil, it was interesting to see the 2022 story still furthered. And I guess they made the "main" handlink an oyster shell to contrast with the "classic" Ziggy handlink being used by Janis? After all, the "evil" holograms of the original had differing props too, especially Thames.

Mark

 

[Christopher]

Benison's apartment (albeit probably built for the episode)

Wasn't that a redress of the girl's bedroom? Some of her furnishings were there and you could see the message in blood on the wall. I think they basically swapped out the walls for backlit glass.

Without Ernie Hudson as well, this really feels like a relative budget saver of an episode.

Do you think they only contracted him for a certain number of episodes per season to save money? It'd be a shame if he appeared less often than the rest.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

It would indeed. But at least he has a bit of an out, being called to Washington at least some of the time to explain why it's consistently tough and expensive to keep the lights on around the project HQ. IMO they didn't do enough of that in the original show (they did one episode about it and promptly forgot about how expensive the project must be to track one man without a government-enabled purpose) and it would be a good reason to keep Magic on the move here.

Re: the apartment, in the dream sequence the walls were definitely more modern and in the reverse shot you could see their retro fireplace thingy. I don't know if that apartment is a standing set (they've used it in several episodes so far, so I think it is) but it was definitely not a redress of the old house bedroom.

Mark

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

We finally see a depiction of what happens in the present when Ben changes the past, and they disappointingly went the most simplistic, illogical route possible -- the information vanishes and the people in the present still remember that it was there even though their own timeline has changed so that it never happened. How do they remember? The original series never really explained how it worked, but in the Ashley McConnell novels, Al was the only one who remembered the previous history when Sam changed it, because he and Sam were both neurally linked to Ziggy. Everyone else in the project only remembered the altered history, so Al experienced the world subtly changing around him all the time, but he was the only one who noticed.

The 2002 Time Tunnel remake did the same thing. Everyone who was down in the time machine complex (when the "time storm" went off) remembered the original history, but nobody aboveground did. This is an important part of the plot:

Spoiler

Toni Newman remembers having several brothers and sisters, but they were all wiped out by the storm - and she's the only one who remembers them.

Also Doug Phillips is a happy family man throughout the story, but one of his colleagues tells him that before the time storm, he was a lonely single guy with no family.

And therefore the time complex personnel also remember a world where green lights mean go, red means stop, New Jersey exists, and there isn't a baseball team called the Boston Yankees.

 

[Marc]

IMO they didn't do enough of that in the original show (they did one episode about it and promptly forgot about how expensive the project must be to track one man without a government-enabled purpose) and it would be a good reason to keep Magic on the move here.

The saga sell for the last half of S2 also touched on it with reference to Sam being pressured to prove his theory or lose the funding leading to his premature entry into the accelerator.

 

[Christopher]

The saga sell for the last half of S2 also touched on it with reference to Sam being pressured to prove his theory or lose the funding leading to his premature entry into the accelerator.

Yeah, but Mark_Nguyen was talking about how expensive it must've been to continue the project for years beyond that, and how the show didn't address it.

Although I guess the ending of the second-season premiere implied that, now that they had an ally heading up the Congressional committee that set their budget, she'd continue to make sure they were funded as long as they needed to be. As long as she stayed in office, anyway.

 

[FreezeC77]

We finally see a depiction of what happens in the present when Ben changes the past, and they disappointingly went the most simplistic, illogical route possible -- the information vanishes and the people in the present still remember that it was there even though their own timeline has changed so that it never happened. How do they remember? The original series never really explained how it worked, but in the Ashley McConnell novels, Al was the only one who remembered the previous history when Sam changed it, because he and Sam were both neurally linked to Ziggy. Everyone else in the project only remembered the altered history, so Al experienced the world subtly changing around him all the time, but he was the only one who noticed.

I guess maybe the easiest options would be to say the facility itself is some type of temporal faraday cage so those inside of it are immune to the changes implemented by it on a physical level or the quantum leap accelerator emits some type of bubble that extends out to offer some type of protection.

I completely forget how the original episode where they needed to get continued funding went... but how exactly did Al prove to them that Sam *WAS* in the past and making changes when the only one who actually remembered the altered history was Al? Anything stored in Ziggy could have just been fanfic.

 

[Christopher]

I guess maybe the easiest options would be to say the facility itself is some type of temporal faraday cage so those inside of it are immune to the changes implemented by it on a physical level or the quantum leap accelerator emits some type of bubble that extends out to offer some type of protection.

Maybe, but it's the writers' responsibility to say so in the episodes. If they don't address the issue and just treat it as simplistically as they did, that implies that they haven't thought the premise through well enough to consider the question. And that bodes ill for how the issue may be handled in future episodes.

I completely forget how the original episode where they needed to get continued funding went... but how exactly did Al prove to them that Sam *WAS* in the past and making changes when the only one who actually remembered the altered history was Al? Anything stored in Ziggy could have just been fanfic.

The woman Sam helped in the past ended up being the senator heading the funding committee, replacing the more hostile senator from the original history. Sam had told her his real identity (because she wanted to have her honeymoon night with the guy he'd jumped into and he couldn't take advantage of her), so she remembered that Sam Beckett had helped her in the past, and therefore knew that Al was telling the truth about Sam having successfully traveled in time.

So it's a similar deal to Magic here, supporting the project because of a past encounter with Sam Beckett, except that she wasn't the Leapee herself.

 

[FreezeC77]

Maybe, but it's the writers' responsibility to say so in the episodes. If they don't address the issue and just treat it as simplistically as they did, that implies that they haven't thought the premise through well enough to consider the question. And that bodes ill for how the issue may be handled in future episodes.




The woman Sam helped in the past ended up being the senator heading the funding committee, replacing the more hostile senator from the original history. Sam had told her his real identity (because she wanted to have her honeymoon night with the guy he'd jumped into and he couldn't take advantage of her), so she remembered that Sam Beckett had helped her in the past, and therefore knew that Al was telling the truth about Sam having successfully traveled in time.

So it's a similar deal to Magic here, supporting the project because of a past encounter with Sam Beckett, except that she wasn't the Leapee herself.

Wow. I can't believe I didn't remember that, but that certainly would be a way to get around the only Al truly recalling the past thing.

If the facility itself was either because of the construction or a by-product of the accelerator 'immune' to changes, it would be nice to see an episode where one of the cast was away during the leap and when they returned you could see they didn't realize the changes that had happened, but others did.

 

[Marc]

I guess maybe the easiest options would be to say the facility itself is some type of temporal faraday cage so those inside of it are immune to the changes implemented by it on a physical level or the quantum leap accelerator emits some type of bubble that extends out to offer some type of protection.

I completely forget how the original episode where they needed to get continued funding went... but how exactly did Al prove to them that Sam *WAS* in the past and making changes when the only one who actually remembered the altered history was Al? Anything stored in Ziggy could have just been fanfic.

first episode of season 2 - Honeymoon Express. Al tried to get Sam to make a change that would have stopped the U2 flown by Gary Powers being shot down.

instead sees a congress critter change before his eyes to the one Sam had helped on the leap.

 

[Amaris]

I thought this one was pretty fun. I liked the atmosphere it put off, and seeing Ben really out of his element as a priest was a blast. It also seems that, to some degree, Ben can communicate with the alter-ego while he's inhabiting their body? At least I got that from when he was talking to his host's reflection in the mirror, because the reflection did things Ben wasn't doing, like he was communicating his approval or consent to something.

On another note, Ian is just adorable, and I need to get myself some cat ears for emeowgencies, too.

 

[Christopher]

I thought this one was pretty fun. I liked the atmosphere it put off, and seeing Ben really out of his element as a priest was a blast. It also seems that, to some degree, Ben can communicate with the alter-ego while he's inhabiting their body? At least I got that from when he was talking to his host's reflection in the mirror, because the reflection did things Ben wasn't doing, like he was communicating his approval or consent to something.

I took that as more metaphorical/stylistic than literal. They only cut to the reflection when Ben wasn't talking, and there were a couple of reactions that suggested there was a 2-way conversation going on, but it was ambiguous. And heck, for all we know, it could've just been Ben miming the other guy's reactions.

 

[Amaris]

I took that as more metaphorical/stylistic than literal. They only cut to the reflection when Ben wasn't talking, and there were a couple of reactions that suggested there was a 2-way conversation going on, but it was ambiguous. And heck, for all we know, it could've just been Ben miming the other guy's reactions.

True. Hopefully we'll see more of how it works in this particular version of the show.

 

[The Wormhole]

On the topic of Ian's cat ears, are we supposed to infer from that that the 2022 portion of the episode was also set on Halloween? If so, that's a damn coincidence, Ben Leaps to the same date in a different year as the present day's date.

 

[Amaris]

On the topic of Ian's cat ears, are we supposed to infer from that that the 2022 portion of the episode was also set on Halloween? If so, that's a damn coincidence, Ben Leaps to the same date in a different year as the present day's date.

I'm not sure if it was, Ian just said it was for "emeowgencies," so it could have just been a random Ian thing, which was very cute, by the way, and I've also ordered some cat ears.

 

[Christopher]

I figured Ian was just using the Halloween date of Ben's leap as an excuse for a bit of light cosplay.

 

[crookeddy]

The ratings might finally have stabilized. 2.33 million on Halloween (with a million movies to watch or things to do, so thats good) up from 2.22 the week before.