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

Depending on how different the pilot is, it could be treated as another alternate timeline that will be fixed.

 

I like Scream 5’s ‘requel’

 

The show actually did depict something in Project QL changing:

Tina.

When Al picked her up in his car in the pilot episode, she was intelligent, charming and sexy. Then when we see her again a few seasons later (the episode where Al leaps), she's a total ditz.

 

The original show was just meant to be a fun way to pass the time so obviously they never really elaborated on the moral implications of what they did, but if I remember correctly Sam could only leap when he made things "go right" that in the original timeline had gone wrong. So the implication is that in the Quantum Leap universe there is a universal concept of "good" and "evil" independent of human morality (I mean, in human culture what is "good" or "evil" depends on the particular epoch and geographic location. And even in the same society two people can have two very different concepts of what is right or wrong).

It would be an interesting topic to address in the new series.

 

Well, that's rather dismissive of a show that frequently told stories that confronted fraught and controversial social issues such as racism, sexism, rape, Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination, etc. For its day, it was quite intelligent. Indeed, it was one of the shows (along with Star Trek: The Next Generation and Alien Nation) that ushered in a new era of smart, sophisticated science fiction TV in the late '80s and into the '90s, raising the bar considerably from the general schlockiness of the '70s and '80s (with only rare, isolated islands of quality like the Twilight Zone revival, Starman, and Max Headroom).

It's true that QL was a fantasy show whose scientific premise was absolute nonsense, but just because science was not a priority does not mean the show was insubstantial in other respects. It was actually pretty powerful and meaningful for its day, using genre storytelling for social commentary the same way Trek and Alien Nation did. (Although it did badly bungle its attempt to tackle homosexuality, requiring the Quantum Leap tie-in comic to do a story by author/gay activist Andy Mangels that brought back the rather vilified lesbian character from the episode and portrayed her in a more nuanced light.)

"To put right what once went wrong" isn't necessarily about good vs. evil. That's doing right or wrong. Going right or wrong is more about successful vs. unsuccessful outcomes, happy vs. unhappy endings. Sam's missions were more about helping to fix individuals' lives, to help them succeed when they failed before. Sometimes that was about correcting an injustice or saving a life, but it could be as simple as helping them pass an important test, or get their act together so they could succeed at achieving their dream or fixing a broken relationship. Sam was doing good, but in the tangible, everyday sense of helping make people's lives better, not some cosmic battle against reified evil.

The whole thing that the producers embraced to differentiate QL from other time travel shows was that it wasn't about big cosmic matters of good and evil or important historical events like Pearl Harbor or the Moon landing or whatever (the Kennedy episode being a rare exception). It was more the kind of show that was common in classic TV before the modern age of serialization: an ongoing series that works like an anthology, with a format that's basically just an excuse to put a continuing lead character or characters into completely different roles and situations every week, so that you get the narrative flexibility of an anthology combined with the convenience and audience appeal of a regular cast. The time travel and leaping into bodies were just an excuse to do historical dramas focusing on various people from all walks of life, while having a single lead actor to play all those various people.


Come to think of it, that's a cause for concern about the sequel series. Most everything these days has to have some big mystery or conspiracy arc revolving around the main characters, and any case-of-the-week plots are just there to reflect or advance whatever's going on in the big arc. And that's the opposite of the spirit of the original show, where the situations of the week and the people Sam became were the important part, with Project Quantum Leap itself and the effort to get Sam home just being a background element, no different from Richard Kimble's hunt for the One-Armed Man. I wonder if the show will be willing and able to recapture that original focus on historical dramas about the everyday lives of diverse people, rather than making the whole thing about the Project and the mystery and the guy doing the leaping. The fact that there's a whole ensemble cast of Project members suggests it may be largely the latter.

 

I think it was that much exposure to Al that changed her and she adapted becoming a ditz.

Actually didn't he just pick her up off the side of the road? I don't think she even was part of the project originally was she?

 

IIRC, Tina's own car had broken down and she was waiting for a tow truck.

 

OH ok.... I thought she was some random Al picked up because he likes women a bit too much

 

As I recall, in the McConnell novels, Tina's ditzy personality was an act she put on to mask her true brilliance, though I don't recall her rationale for it.

 

Oddly real life women do this a lot too for whatever reason..

 

The show actually depicted a lot of things changing. We actually see reality change when Al is before the Quantum Leap review board. We also hear Al tell us that Sam's

Spoiler

daughter

works on the project after he changes history.

 

Well, the handlink was dead in the past. I guess it could activate once project QL starts up, assuming the batteries last that long. But I don't think it was a "Malcom leaves his communicator behind" situation. The handlink just looks like a hunk of plastic.

 

I didn't think the Malcolm thing was that bad

 

It's been a while since I saw the episode but wasn't the handlink completely dead, no lights or anything? That would indicate that it was being fed power and data directly by the Imaging Chamber (or some transmitter inside the facility) and was never designed to work at all once outside (perhaps for security)

 

Maybe this is just from the novels (which were a slightly variant version), but my recollection is that the handlink was part of Ziggy, and Ziggy incorporated neural tissue from Sam and Al, which linked them together and was the reason that Ziggy could find Sam in the timeline and let him and Al communicate. So Sam and Al were the only people who could use the handlink.

Still, even if they couldn't activate it, if someone had taken the handlink apart and studied its materials and circuitry, they might have been able to advance computer science or electronics with what they learned. But if it just seemed to be an inert plastic toy, it might've gone undiscovered.

Except, wait a minute, when in the past was it left behind again? And was that before the use of plastics became widespread?

 

The episode was in 1945, when injection moulded plastics was an established technology.
Good observation about the tech inside the handlink (if indeed the scientists of the time would have recognised a microprocessor for what it was) but I think most likely it would have discarded as a children's toy.

 

Hm. I did some checking, and it seems that while early stuff like Bakelite had been in consumer products for decades, the newer plastics were used mostly for wartime purposes until late 1945, a few months after the war, when a new wave of plastic consumer products was introduced. So it's cutting it a bit close, but I guess it could've gone unnoticed.

 

In the same way that the velcro on Sam's wallet was explained away as " a new kind of zipper" I can easily imagine the handlink being viewed as "some kind of new glass" if not that new-fangled plastic specifically

 

Laypeople at the time would've known the difference between plastic and glass. They'd been using Bakelite and Catalin in consumer products and jewelry for decades at that point, as well as Neoprene synthetic rubber.

My point is that different kinds of plastic have different appearance, texture, flexibility, etc. So it would've been possible for an observant person to recognize that the handlink was a novel type of plastic, which could've led to them investigating it more closely or taking it to someone who could, whereupon they could have discovered the advanced circuitry within. So ultimately it comes down to luck -- whether or not the handlink is noticed by someone capable of recognizing it as worthy of examination.

 

Yeah, the "new type of coloured glass" notion wouldn't pass more than a visual inspection but it would probably have been enough for the character which glimpsed it in the beginning of the episode, if he had thought about it afterwards. I've also always had a fondness for the "new type of zipper" explanation. People will rationalise a lot of weirdness if they can anchor it in a known fact!

Since plastic was both known AND new-fangled I think that explanation would have papered over cracks for many except the most enquiring minds...assuming anyone else saw it that is. Did Sam had the time and presence of mind to bury or destroy it before he leaped out at the end of the episode?