Quantum Leap questions

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Fun fact: Soon after he joined the cast of Enterprise, Scott Bakula suggested that Archer's middle name is Beckett...

(yeah, I am fairly sure Star Trek is fictional within the QL universe, but then again, so is Magnum P.I., and IIRC they were going to do a QL episode where Sam leaps in as Magnum... )

 

[Servo]

In regard to what happened when people leaped back into their own body, and whether they knew what Sam did; I figured they suffered from a similar kind of "swiss-cheesed brain" effect that Sam did. I reckon they probably had vague memories/feelings of Sams actions, which they would have "remembered" from their own point of view. They'd have no real reason to question it, and likely just put their perceived memory lapse down to it being a rough week or something, and crack on with their life.

That's how I always thought about it, anyway.

 

[Marc]

Fun fact: Soon after he joined the cast of Enterprise, Scott Bakula suggested that Archer's middle name is Beckett...

(yeah, I am fairly sure Star Trek is fictional within the QL universe, but then again, so is Magnum P.I., and IIRC they were going to do a QL episode where Sam leaps in as Magnum... )

They had a JAG episode where one the character is a hotel where he encounters people there for a QL convention (cameo by Donald P. Bellisario).

 

[Tosk]

"THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!!!". "WHAT?! YOU JUST CONTRADICTED SOMETHING YOU SAID TWO EPISODES AGO!!!"

Stay calm, Annie Wilkes.

 

[Avro Arrow]

In the same way that "Klingons and Cylons" does.

Hey, don't tease crossovers that'll never happen...

They had a JAG episode where one the character is a hotel

Now there's a tough role!

(Sorry, I know it's just a missing 'in', but I couldn't resist!)

 

[Ryan8bit]

There's a difference between "evolving" and not being consistent with the very premise of how things work in your world. It's not "evolving" to go from Al not seeing Sam for who is but who he's supposed to be to Al always seeing Sam's actual body.

Was that even a premise of the show though? I don't think the show was ever that inconsistent with its premise to deserve such criticism. The closest big inconsistency with the premise was the time he leaped into the Civil War, but they at least tried to rationalize that one.

Being inconsistent with details to someone's professional field isn't really that important, at least on TV.

 

[inflatabledalek]

The big question is, what on Earth were they thinking they they redid the theme tune?

 

[MacLeod]

Thankfully they restored the original version for the finalé.

 

[SiddFinch1]

Despite its flaws I enjoyed it
It was one of those shows that was kind of sci fi but just barely

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Is it all five seasons that had the original music (not the theme, but the period songs used in the background) butchered for the home release? Because, as much as I love the show, I wouldn't buy them if that was the case.

And on a vaguely unrelated matter: The iTunes Store has the first season of QL, but it also includes two episodes from season 2 (What Price Gloria? and A Portrait For Troian). I wonder why they did that. Were those two episodes made for season 1 originally, but held back?

 

[Bacl]

Sam seldom needed to change anyone's behavior. He usually needed to help them make a better choice than the one they originally made (or accomplish something they failed to accomplish).

When a person leaps back, they likely vaguely remember most of what Sam did as though they had decided it.

Also, Al often asked the people in the waiting room what they thought Sam should do. They usually didn't know what the best choice was, hence Sam needing to figure it out for them.

I think the episode where people were leaping into Sam (he was in an crazy house and had received a shock of electricity) one of the people whom Sam had been in and performed life-saving CPR with said of his experience (something to the effect of), "And suddenly I knew what to do..." as though what Sam did lingered in their mind as an inspiration.

People are also forgetting the deeply religious aspect of Quantum Leap. Even back in Season 1, Sam insisted it was God who was leaping him from life to life. How else could he be ending up so perfectly where things went wrong? The Devil gets involved, making an Evil Leaper who travels through history setting wrong what once went right (I think they imply that often bad choices and actions in people's lives are the result of the Evil Leaper), and in the finale Sam meets God (or some being he thinks is God, and who pretty much admits to being God), so there's also a bit of faith to QL as well.

 

[Photoman15]

There was also a Leap For Lisa where Sam leaps in a young Albert Calavicci.

And the Lisa in question was played by Terry Farrell before she was Dax on Deep Space Nine.

AND whose character was the wife of a man named Commander Riker.

Terry did NOT play Riker's wife. Bingo (Al) was accused of murdering Riker's promiscuous wife on the beach. Terry played Al's girlfriend Lisa who died in a car accident in the original timeline.

 

[Ryan8bit]

People are also forgetting the deeply religious aspect of Quantum Leap.

I don't think it was that deep, especially since the god part was just a guess usually phrased as, "God, time, fate, or whatever." God was just shorthand for the force causing Sam to leap, but then in the finale we learn that Sam controls his leaps. So it's basically just an old fashioned appeal to ignorance.

 

[MacLeod]

Is it all five seasons that had the original music (not the theme, but the period songs used in the background) butchered for the home release? Because, as much as I love the show, I wouldn't buy them if that was the case.

And on a vaguely unrelated matter: The iTunes Store has the first season of QL, but it also includes two episodes from season 2 (What Price Gloria? and A Portrait For Troian). I wonder why they did that. Were those two episodes made for season 1 originally, but held back?

From memory, the R2 releases had the orignal music largely intact, it was only the R1 release that had the orginial music butchered as you put it. One of the times when the R2 release was better to have than the R1 release.

 

[Tosk]

Yep, the regions 2/4 versions are the way to go, although they too have a small handful of annoying replacements in season 4. eg: Temptation Eyes is missing "I Want to Know What Love Is".

 

[Sindatur]

Only read half of Page 1, and noticed a lot of uncertainty on wether The folks in the Waiting Room remember anything. Leaping is known to Swiss-cheeze the brain (Isn't it? no special reason why Sam doesn't remember his real llife, is there?) , so, it seems to me, normally, the whole experience would be swiss-cheezed away in the leap.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

People are also forgetting the deeply religious aspect of Quantum Leap.

I don't think it was that deep, especially since the god part was just a guess usually phrased as, "God, time, fate, or whatever." God was just shorthand for the force causing Sam to leap, but then in the finale we learn that Sam controls his leaps. So it's basically just an old fashioned appeal to ignorance.

Al the bartender could still have been God, though. Or, in a blatant display of small universe syndrome: Captain Braxton.

 

[Marc]

People are also forgetting the deeply religious aspect of Quantum Leap.

I don't think it was that deep, especially since the god part was just a guess usually phrased as, "God, time, fate, or whatever." God was just shorthand for the force causing Sam to leap, but then in the finale we learn that Sam controls his leaps. So it's basically just an old fashioned appeal to ignorance.

Al the bartender could still have been God, though. Or, in a blatant display of small universe syndrome: Captain Braxton.

Nah another incarnation of Weird Ernie.

 

[Tosk]

D-Day. Always D-Day.

 

[Hober Mallow]

And Sam's mind and body leap together. Sam doesn't leap into other people's bodies. This is pretty much confirmed on the show.

And yet their clothes always fit him somehow. It was a contradiction the show never explained.

IIRC, in "A Leap for Lisa," Al tells his younger self in the waiting room that Sam's "aura" surrounds him and his aura surrounds Sam. Whatever that's supposed to mean.

But actually I'm remembering an episode in which Sam leaped into a pregnant girl that may support the idea that Sam leaps into people's bodies regardless of what Al thinks. At the end of the episode, Sam insists he's going into labor, but Al assures Sam that it's not possible, that it's Sam's body and Sam can't give birth. Al suddenly stares wide-eyed at his computer and tells Sam that the baby has disappeared from the girl's womb in the future. Sam starts pushing and the doctor tells Sam/the girl that he sees a head. Sam leaps as he gives a final push.

When a person leaps back, they likely vaguely remember most of what Sam did as though they had decided it.

Maybe. I remember in the later episodes, Sam sometimes had trouble differentiating his own memory and personality from that of the person into whom he leaped.

EDIT: Oops, got ahead of myself and didn't realize this thread had more than one page. Sorry if these points were already covered.