At least six. Egypt, Vietnam, England, Bermuda Triangle, Soviet Union, and the Mediterranean.
Is it time for "Quantum Leap" to make a comeback?
- Thread starter Jayson1
- Start date
Japan as well when he was Lee Harvey Oswald.
Jason
^And most of those times he was leaping into Americans abroad, or at the very least English speakers.
Again, just to be clear, I know full well the very practical real world reason for that. I'm just wondering if it was ever addressed on the show in the way the "in his own lifetime" clause was. (Not to my recollection, but my knowledge is hardly encyclopedic.)
You can't even say his potential life span since he could have been hit by a bus the very next day or (genius that he is) became an immortal cyborg that survived until the heat death of the universe. All of which even assumed he ever made it back (he did not.)
Again, just to be clear, I know full well the very practical real world reason for that. I'm just wondering if it was ever addressed on the show in the way the "in his own lifetime" clause was. (Not to my recollection, but my knowledge is hardly encyclopedic.)
That would imply determinism, which is contrary the to very premise of the show: that events can and indeed *should* be altered. Sam's "lifetime" from an objective linear perspective effectively ended the moment he first leaped (and then briefly blipped back into existence a few year later when he switched places with Al and then back again.)
You can't even say his potential life span since he could have been hit by a bus the very next day or (genius that he is) became an immortal cyborg that survived until the heat death of the universe. All of which even assumed he ever made it back (he did not.)
Very shortly after the finale's original broadcast, while I was pondering what "Sam Beckett never returned" meant, I latched onto the idea that he never returned... Because he never left. By saving Al's marriage in the finale, Sam would never have found him as a broken, alcoholic man decades later, and never recruited him into Starbright. That project (whatever it was) would have failed if those two weren't together on it, so Quantum Leap would never have existed, and Sam would have ended up as a broken, alcoholic man who would never leap in the first place - undoing everything he'd done as a time traveler and all the good he'd accomplished. But hey, Al would be happy.
Ultimately I'd dismissed this as way to dark and depressing a fate for the intrepid duo and resigned myself to the more popular fate of Sam simply being out there until he died, with or without Al, confronting increasingly tough leaps (as Bartender Al suggested), until he simply ceased to exist one way or the other. One friend even figured that Sam ultimately ascended to become a more literal "angel" in the pseudo-Christian context of the show and stopped being "Sam" at some point. He ran into (over) a literal angel at one point, so really, not too far out there.
Damned title cards.
Mark
Ultimately I'd dismissed this as way to dark and depressing a fate for the intrepid duo and resigned myself to the more popular fate of Sam simply being out there until he died, with or without Al, confronting increasingly tough leaps (as Bartender Al suggested), until he simply ceased to exist one way or the other. One friend even figured that Sam ultimately ascended to become a more literal "angel" in the pseudo-Christian context of the show and stopped being "Sam" at some point. He ran into (over) a literal angel at one point, so really, not too far out there.
Damned title cards.
Mark
Something to think about but what if after the series final we now have 2 Sam Beckett's? One is the guy we watched all those years on the show. The second one is from this new altered present day were Al and Beth stayed married and had a family. This Sam never traveled back in time and maybe their isn't even a project Quantum Leap, anymore. He is also still married to his wife.
This would explain why our 90's looked different from their 90's in terms of tech and some of the clothes and cars we saw. It would also explain why Sam it seems will be leaping as himself. That's because he is no longer connected by the project or the tech he first used to start leaping.
If you ever did a remake you could basically have someone else actually invent a means of time travel not even knowing that it has already been done and erased from the timeline. This first leaper could meet our Sam and be shocked to learn they he/she was not the first time traveler.
In fact I kind of like the idea that Sam is basically dying and is around 100 years old and his final leap is to basically help this new leaper get started, maybe without the curse of being traped in the past but still be able to go back in the past to help people. Sam dies at the end in some kind of mystical way like Sheridan did on Babyon 5.
Jason
Ah, but in the original timeline he never married Donna - she left him at the alter. That was altered after he met her in the past and helped her get over her daddy issues. Presumably his memory filled in the blanks in "The Leap Home" and he suddenly remembered years of marital bliss, allowing him to pick up where he didn't leave off.
Mark
Mark
One thing we know from the few historical based episodes, is that Sam's "corrections" to the timeline or fixing what once went wrong, stayed in place even when he fixed Al's life. Elvis still became a star. Jaqueline Kennedy survived Houston. Trump became a billionaire in real estate. Those sorts of things.
It should also be remembered that there were other time travelers using systems similar to his. There was that woman who was essentially from an evil mirror universe type future were she was trying to cause a wrong to change the timeline, (she didn't want to do so, her prompting was from her "Al" handler, either by pain or incentive to make it home) though I don't remember the reasoning behind these missions. In addition to the others Sam witnessed in the finale when he was basically himself on the day of his birth, but seeming outside of time and space (as wherever he was seemed off).
It should also be remembered that there were other time travelers using systems similar to his. There was that woman who was essentially from an evil mirror universe type future were she was trying to cause a wrong to change the timeline, (she didn't want to do so, her prompting was from her "Al" handler, either by pain or incentive to make it home) though I don't remember the reasoning behind these missions. In addition to the others Sam witnessed in the finale when he was basically himself on the day of his birth, but seeming outside of time and space (as wherever he was seemed off).
