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

Though notice how despite all the space: the door was never more than a step and a half away from wherever Al happened to be.
In Genesis, Al actually walks quite a distance to the (then hinged) door. After that he just got them to adjust the chamber so that he was always closer to it. :)
 
Addison sits on the same thing Al sat on whenever HE was in a chair of a car that Sam drove. Funny thing is, the Imaging Chamber in the new show is shown to have a small, elevated platform that Addison is standing on - there's nowhere for her to sit, let alone walk around, and she does just that in the premiere episode. The IC in the original show is seen to be a large nondescript blue space but at least had the square footage for Al to walk around if he needed to, including to the door (which is the one effect I really miss in the new show).

The new QL reminds me a lot of other "lone cowboy" shows post Quantum Leap, that had a two-story formulaic bent to them. "The Pretender" from the mid 90s is one of them, featuring the titular Pretender travelling around the US and dropping in with exactly the right skill set and identity for the plot at hand. This also had drama with the people left behind at "The Center" he escaped from, trying to track him down, and rarely interacting with him. This extends back through other similar shows like The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team, and probably as far back as The Questor Tapes and Kung Fu. Then there're are similar formula shows that DO involve time travel, like Time Trax and Journeyman, though these two had less to do with a second parallel plot running concurrent to the main hero's. In this sense the new QL is aping a tried-and-true formula, but not the same one as classic QL.

This week, we see that they are keeping things relatively tight in tracking what's going on: they establish that Ben was on his ninth leap, and continue the story with Janis. They clearly do have a plan for the season, and I hope that they have a loose arc that will extend through the second and they apparently got their renewal before finishing filming on the first. The way the show is made, is that the past storyline becomes a framework to base the main arc on without too much consequence in most episodes - it can be a generic drama of any kind, while the 2022 story moves forward from week to week. Time (sic) will tell if this provides an adequate playground for the writers to come up with sufficient, wide-spectrum storytelling to keep more people happy, but it seems to be a decent direction now that they're finding a balance between the two stories.

Mark

Actually if you look close you will see Al never was sitting down even when inside a car. He was always standing but almost in a hovering way that kept pace with the vehicle. That would be how he would sometimes make himself stand outside of the vehicle and talk to Sam through the car or truck window.

I did notice him accidentally kick a few rocks and pebbles while walking though in a few episodes. Plus it's mystery as to how the hand link leaped with him to 1945, when he and Sam traded places or how Sam's clothes from 1953 .I think it was, came with him to the future or what happened to Al's clothes he was wearing before he leaped. One thing we can suspect is those bad nurses in the mental hospital must have been freaked out when they gave Sam Beaterman shock therapy and all of sudden he is their getting shocked while being all nude out of thin air.
 
I need to check that out when I see that episode again. You know I think in that episode I think I saw him use a step also. Seems like at least one episode he goes up a step. Though that also might be one of the episodes were I see him kick some rocks.

I know for sure one of the others is when he leaps into the Piano Man whose girlfriend comes back and has bad luck. I think it might have happened twice. Once is when they are escaping the murder attempt at the bar and they peel out and you see Al kick some pebbles. Another is when they are standing next to highway after running out of gas I think it is.

Also I think I am just gone super double full nerd now in that I can recall specific instances of Al kicking pebbles or rocks by mistake. Something even the shows continuity manager missed. Also while this all happened at least 30 years ago.:)
 
Yeah, I know that they made efforts to have Al appear as though he's standing in places even when he could/should be seated. There have been exceptions though - I'm positive that at least once he was in the back seat of a car while Sam was driving. In-universe, Al would be "standing" as usual, but in practice of course Dean Stockwell would be seated in the practical padded seats. I think it was "Goodbye, Norma Jean" where we actually see him in the back seat of an open-top car, from the outside, while Sam was driving Marylin? I'm too lazy to dig out my DVDs to check. :P

Mark
 
Actually if you look close you will see Al never was sitting down even when inside a car. He was always standing but almost in a hovering way that kept pace with the vehicle. That would be how he would sometimes make himself stand outside of the vehicle and talk to Sam through the car or truck window.

I did notice him accidentally kick a few rocks and pebbles while walking though in a few episodes. Plus it's mystery as to how the hand link leaped with him to 1945, when he and Sam traded places or how Sam's clothes from 1953 .I think it was, came with him to the future or what happened to Al's clothes he was wearing before he leaped. One thing we can suspect is those bad nurses in the mental hospital must have been freaked out when they gave Sam Beaterman shock therapy and all of sudden he is their getting shocked while being all nude out of thin air.
Beiderman might have been wearing Al’s grey suit, which reappears on Al at the end of the leap. Which would also have left a very weird mystery unless the lightning strike incinerated Beiderman or set the whole room on fire? It’s also possible that thanks to the vagaries of time travel the scrubs Sam was wearing might have leaped back onto Beiderman once Sam changed out of them.
 
Right, I was wondering about that -- how can she stay? They should lose the lock once Ben leaps. Well, maybe there's a bit of lag before that happens. It certainly takes a hell of a lot longer to leap out after the goal is achieved than it did in the old series. Whatever force is controlling the leaps is very accommodating of Ben and Addison's denouement conversations.
That would be the director of the episode ;)


I did smile at Al's daughter commenting about her father's "bad fashion taste" which I interpreted as a dig at the original Quantum Leap's attempt at futurism, futuristic clothing in this case in the 1990s.

No, it was just a reference to Al's own loud, garish fashion sense, which was a recurring feature of his character, independent of the show's infrequent attempts at fashion futurism.
.
Since we barely saw the fashion outside Project Quantum Leap, i would say you are wrong. Imean, in fact, the woman Al picked up on the way at the beginning of the first episode definitely had questionable fashion as well..
Although I noted that they avoided mentioning his other defining character trait, his lechery and womanizing.
You seemed to have missed the last episode, where Sam, restores Al's relationship with Beth so that Al winds up being a happily married man. I assume that's who Janis (and everyone else there) knows, and not the womanizer.

So, is there a traitor in Project QL? Seemed to be the implication. Who might it be? My guess is someone we've never seen before.

I'm wondering if Ben needs to save Addison from... Herself? The only other candidate IMO is Magic somehow, as Jenn wasn't in catboots with Janis in the other story this week, and Ian seems to have been fighting Janis this whole time. There's also Martinez, who will likely be part of this dastardly plot. Ian seems convinced that Ben is trying to slingshot himself to some future time, and we currently think Martinez is from the future as well, so that dovetails.

Mark

I assume that was auto correct who didn't understand cahoots and "fixed" it. ;)

I am wondering if the issue is that Addison somehow dies... where that future is her going into the chamber to somehow get Ben, and/or that was the original timeline. Addison was supposed to be the one going into the accelerator and Ben being the guide. But that wound up killing her, so he decided to go into the past to prevent that somehow, and the slingshot effect is what was needed to get to that point.

Hopefully they mapped out something that makes sense. From our perspective, we won't know, but hopefully they plotted out the seuqence of events , and a roper resolution.

We shall see



---

Also, I am wondering if the lack of Sam plot is partially due to Scott Bakula pontentially getting a series during the same filming period, so that kept that off the table. Perhaps in second season, if Scott doesnt get another opportuntiy, that we might actually get a Sam guest appearance.

What could Janis provide as a team mmeber in the future??
 
This was a very enjoyable episode for me. I'm glad to see Quantum Leap back to airing episodes, and this one was engaging: the plot had me guessing who the killer was, the face to face between Jenn and Janis was short but interesting, they did a good job of capturing that 70s vibe, and the music was good, too!
 
Catboots is a reference to Star Trek Prodigy.
Maybe the catboots are for a MAJOR emeowgencie.

I hadn't thought about the Congresswoman, but there's somebody there who can't be trusted. After all, Alia and Zoey had to get their tech from somewhere (unless you want to argue independent origin).
 
Agreed. Also Sam and Al called themselves “God’s Cleanup Crew” in one episode. Most religions would see it as total blasphemy that the central premise of the show is God made mistakes in the past. Which requires time travelers to fix.

It’s best left a mystery. I have noticed over the years the show is a bit of Rorschach Test based on individual viewers beliefs. Very devout Christians see it as a religious show. Donald Bellisario calls himself very socially liberal. Though more conservative when it came to the military. Given that he served in the Marine Corps. All of which is evident in his writing on the show.

The series was rerun on a religious cable TV channel here in Canada, Vision TV, briefly back in the 2000's, so make of that what you will.
 
I thought Beth was not at Project Quantum leap in the original timeline.

She was the one that got away.

Although that's the same story as his daughter, who is no where to be seen in the newboot.
 
When the show started, Al was a single man and the DOD liaison to PQL. He was married to Beth before going to Vietnam where he became a POW. After so many years, Beth had him declared dead and remarried. In the last episode, Sam went to Beth and told her Al was still alive and would be coming home. He did, they had four daughters and Al (still) went onto his position at PQL.
 
When the show started, Al was a single man and the DOD liaison to PQL. He was married to Beth before going to Vietnam where he became a POW. After so many years, Beth had him declared dead and remarried. In the last episode, Sam went to Beth and told her Al was still alive and would be coming home. He did, they had four daughters and Al (still) went onto his position at PQL.

Yes, I know all that. I was a viewer in its original run. I'm just saying it's implausibly Pollyannaish to assume that someone who's such a committed womanizer became that way only because of his failed marriage. The factors that shaped that facet of his psychology are probably rooted more deeply in his upbringing and cultural influences, so he'd probably still be a womanizer even in the timeline where Beth waited for him.

I mean, Gene Roddenberry had a deep, loving marriage to Majel Barrett that lasted for decades, but he still cheated on her constantly, because that was his nature (and indeed she'd been his mistress during his first marriage). It's naive to think that a happy marriage is a sure-fire "cure" for womanizing. Granted, Quantum Leap was a fantasy and that's the kind of happy ending that would fit its view of the world, but I still find it unlikely.
 
It's already been renewed for a second, and the ratings have been pretty steady. Few shows ever make it to double-digit seasons, but it's too early to make any assumptions about how long this one might run.


As for this week's episode, it wasn't bad, but again we get the cliche of episodic-serial hybrids where the Case of the Week always just coincidentally happens to resonate perfectly with the lead characters' personal issues that week. Also, for a show set in the 1970s, it's a bit incongruous how casual all the characters were with the idea of an interracial romance between the white singer and her black bodyguard. Not that it wasn't known to happen, but it was still seen as a controversial subject, and two people considering such a relationship would've at least had reason to discuss the issue, as would their friends.

Even thugh the Supreme Court Loving decision was just a few years prior, that decision only made the legality of interracial marriage throughout the entire United States. Prior to that, it was like the US in regards to gay marraige a few years back.... where some states had embraced with within their society, while others did not (and in those states where it was banned, such emotional relationships happened regalrdless.)

And in Chicago, i grew up in its Northwest Suburbs. WHile Hoffman Estates, according to the census, was 99% white, the students were approximately 15-20% not white, and several of us were of mixed parentage.

Also, Carly's a part of the entertainment industry, with a mixed band, so other factors where race really wouldn't have been a big issue. Certainly not in the context of a 1 hour episode that didn;t center on race.


the bigger incongruities would be these:

Walking along Lake Shore Drive at Night. There is really only a small segment where that could happen... downtown at Grant Park. I think even in the 70's, it would be busy at night. Not exactly a good place to walk and think alone at night. We didn't have the river front then, and the beaches for the most part weren't near Lake SHore Drive (certainly not where you could walk the Drive)

the other is -- was Deep Dish Pizza that well know bakc then? Carly saying "I'm a deep dish gal"... I don't know if that was a big pride point back then.

Most people in the city would have been eating the thin crust style, "cut in squares"

Growing up in the suburbs, i didn't get my first encounter with it until we visited Lou Malnati's on a field trip.

I still feel that story already had a resolution. Sam chose to keep leaping on purpose, under his own control. His quest for home ended, not because he got home, but because he chose a different goal. A resolution doesn't have to mean an ending -- it can be a new beginning.

Still, that doesn't mean the show won't bring Sam into it at some point. We still don't know what the danger to Addison is, or why Ben went to Janis instead of his team. There are still layers to the mystery to peel back, so it could still be building toward something connected to Sam Beckett.

I think the main reason there is no Sam Beckett connection is because Scott Bakula was potentially going to have a show happening at the same time as Quantum Leap, so he was committed to that.

If his schedule is free next season (and/or thereafter), we might get some substantial episodes with Sam...it'd be kinda cool to see him mentor Ben, so that they could discuss things, especially if Addison is absent for some reason.

Yes, I know all that. I was a viewer in its original run. I'm just saying it's implausibly Pollyannaish to assume that someone who's such a committed womanizer became that way only because of his failed marriage. The factors that shaped that facet of his psychology are probably rooted more deeply in his upbringing and cultural influences, so he'd probably still be a womanizer even in the timeline where Beth waited for him.

I mean, Gene Roddenberry had a deep, loving marriage to Majel Barrett that lasted for decades, but he still cheated on her constantly, because that was his nature (and indeed she'd been his mistress during his first marriage). It's naive to think that a happy marriage is a sure-fire "cure" for womanizing. Granted, Quantum Leap was a fantasy and that's the kind of happy ending that would fit its view of the world, but I still find it unlikely.
Are you sure you watched the show?? Because every episode is about "making right what once went wrong". Every episode is a Pollyannish solution. We never get an ending where "Yes, you helped him avoid the shoot-out, but he got killed by a drunk driver 6 weeks later"

While true, there could be much more to Al's womanizing (from childhood even), and a saved marraige wouldn't fix Al's problem.... based on the context of the show, Beth was his first and main love. After the mental torture of being a prisoner, with zero way to communicate, Beth was Al's main source of hope. When she remarried, that killed it for him, and made him extremely disillusioned. also, coupled with the fact that it was the 60's and free love and all that... Also, he remained a part of the milatary, and that isn't known as a woman-affirming culture

And exactly how big of a womanizer was he? Other than the opening scene of the show... how often did Al fool around?
 
And exactly how big of a womanizer was he? Other than the opening scene of the show... how often did Al fool around?

He definately had a eye for the ladies but through of the original's run he was on-again/off-again with Tina who was Ziggy's programmer (which I guess would be Ian's predecessor -are they considered Ziggy's programmer?)
 
Seems in retrospect that a lot of Al's physical affections revolved around Tina and other dalliances were brief and may not have lasted more than a few episodes in-universe.
 
The series was rerun on a religious cable TV channel here in Canada, Vision TV, briefly back in the 2000's, so make of that what you will.

That's interesting because watching the behind the scenes stuff on Groundhog Day they mentioned that there too for that movie that it got lots of positive responses from religious people of all faiths
 
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