Quantum Leap
- Thread starter JD
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I always wanted to see a massive crossover event for QL (this was back before I really understood how networks and production companies worked and that this was nigh impossible) - a month-long period during which Sam (and Al) would leap into various characters on random shows all over the dial, and set right some wrong, and then leap out again. 
Indeed. The episode where he sings "Imagine" for his sister and she starts crying because she suddenly believes him about being from the future is haunting.
There were plans to have Sam leap into Magnum P.I. but that fell through.
I really wanted Enterprise to end with Archer creating the Federation, and then leaping into another person. It would have been far better than what we got.
I'll admit I'm drawing a blank on what that one could be.
As am I, the only time I remember seeing Sam in the mirror was
Killin' Time and Mirror Image.
The nature of the "unknown force" guiding Sam is more ambiguous than Chemahkuu's descriptions would have you believe--Quantum Leap fans sometimes refer to it as GFT ("God or Fate or Time," in Sam and Al's words)--and it's barely part of the premise of the show beyond Sam and Al's occasional musings about what GFT has in mind, the three Evil Leaper episodes (which aren't specific, despite some religious overtones), and Sam's encounter with Al the Bartender in the finale.
I hated the finale when it first aired because I wanted more definitive answers, but I've grown to really like its ambiguity.
Quantum Leap is available on Shomi here in Canada and airs on Dejaview, so I still watch the occasional episode from time to time. I'd still put it amongst my favourite series (and definitely think it has the most impressive "saga sell" on television, just for how compellingly it boils down such a complicated premise), but I recognise its dated elements and how it never fully took advantage of the story possibilities it could pursue. (With all the languages Sam speaks, it's weird that he never even visits other Anglophone countries, for one thing.) It certainly helps your level of engagement with the show if you're interested in the social upheavals happening in the United States specifically between 1955 and 1985 or so.
I hated the finale when it first aired because I wanted more definitive answers, but I've grown to really like its ambiguity.
Quantum Leap is available on Shomi here in Canada and airs on Dejaview, so I still watch the occasional episode from time to time. I'd still put it amongst my favourite series (and definitely think it has the most impressive "saga sell" on television, just for how compellingly it boils down such a complicated premise), but I recognise its dated elements and how it never fully took advantage of the story possibilities it could pursue. (With all the languages Sam speaks, it's weird that he never even visits other Anglophone countries, for one thing.) It certainly helps your level of engagement with the show if you're interested in the social upheavals happening in the United States specifically between 1955 and 1985 or so.
The scene was brief and easy to miss. A quick glance at a reflection, a quicker comment then onto something else. The whole thing was a few seconds. The only reason I caught it was because of his non-reaction to seeing himself for the first time in years. This is all of course if I'm remembering things right.
But he did visit at least one other Anglophone countries, the UK for example in "Blood Moon"
He also Leapt into (at least) Vietnam, Bermuda, Japan, Moscow, and Egypt.
...and it was so unusual that they lampshaded it by having Al comment on how he wasn't in the US.
Plus, he was a vampire.
I think it's fair to say that "Blood Moon" is an atypical episode.Having Sam Leap into an American soldier in Vietnam, an American defector in Moscow, or an American archaeologist in Egypt doesn't do a lot to make the series come across as less Americentric (especially when you're a non-American viewer in an English-speaking country never featured on the show).
The earlier list of episodes "outside the US" in this thread also included three examples where Sam is at sea (with other Americans), which is something of a stretch if you're trying to sell this particular argument.
Another atypical episode is Killin' Time, when a mass murder escaped from the Waiting Room...
Especially since Magnum, P.I. is fictional within the QL universe (in the "Sam is an 80's housewife" episode, a character is watching it).
@MacLeod, in the Lee Harvey Oswald episode, I'm fairly sure that Lee looks in the mirror (when Al is grilling him) and sees Sam.
...and it was so unusual that they lampshaded it by having Al comment on how he wasn't in the US.
Plus, he was a vampire.
Having Sam Leap into an American soldier in Vietnam, an American defector in Moscow, or an American archaeologist in Egypt doesn't do a lot to make the series come across as less Americentric (especially when you're a non-American viewer in an English-speaking country never featured on the show).
The earlier list of episodes "outside the US" in this thread also included three examples where Sam is at sea (with other Americans), which is something of a stretch if you're trying to sell this particular argument.
Would it have been nice to have more episodes set outside the USA, sure but as a Brit it didn't bother me. But then again the UK got at least one episode two if you count the RMS Queen Mary as British territory.
It works out at about 8% of QL episodes featured leaps outside of the USA, what figure would have been appropriate 15%, 20%, etc...?
But if you want a wild theory as to why we never saw many leaps outside of the USA (or affecting Americans) go back to the God, Fate or Time. We saw an Evil Leaper, perhaps there where other Leapers outside of the USA fixing wrongs in their own countries or affecting their own people.
That's what the finale implied, another Leaper goes on with his journey during the story.
Yeah, the US centric nature of the show didn't bother me either. I mean it's an American show, so it's only natural. It's the same reason that despite having all of time and space to choose from, Doctor Who mostly bums around 20th/21st century Britain and has *mostly* British companions. Because it's a British show.
Of course there are practical reasons behind this face. Setting a show all over the world creates a whole nest of problems if you're trying to keep things at least half-way credible. Even if you ignore the language barrier SG-1 style, it's a going to get very tricky finding local SAG guest actors with convincing accents for all the episodes set in non-English speaking countries. Easier just to set most things at home. Also makes location shooting less of a hassle.
I've always thought Quantum Leap is a perfect fandom for cross-overs.
I do like the show, but does anyone else find some things inconsistent. Don't they say that he is actually physically traveling through time? And the reason others see who he's leaped into and he sees a reflection that's not his own is because he has their aura. So even though he might physically be in the past in place of these people, all their clothes and shoes are supposed to fit him.
Even though there are episodes which support the official theory. I think his spirit being switched out with the person he's leaped into makes more sense. Like that one where he's the lawyer who almost has a heart attack during a trial. (It was part 3 of a 3 part arc where he was 3 different people in the life of Abigail Fuller).
I don't think someone's aura has heart conditions, a physical body does. However, it is said in the same episode that he, Sam Beckett, is the biological father of Abigail's daughter Sammi Jo. Instead of Abigail's former fiance Will Kinman, who Sam had previously leaped into.
Another episode to support the official theory. When he leaps into a blind pianist, he can still see.
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Don't forget the episode when he leaped into the veteran with no legs and he was able to stand up and it appeared to others that he was floating in the air.
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