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

Yes, Sam physically exchanged places with everyone he leaped into. He didn't leap into other people's bodies.

Sam was surrounded by an 'aura' that caused people to see him as the person he leaped into.

 

Like a perception filter that you'd see in Dr Who

 

Except in the QL books. I remember reading a few of those and found it weird they had him literally leaping into people's bodies.

 

I think, more than anything else plot or premise related, this show will need its core to be a Leaper and an Observer played by two actors with unbelievable amounts of BFF chemistry, who bicker like siblings.

Get that and putting right what once went wrong and you’re almost home already.

 

There are books?
I'm intrigued

 

Though they...weren't all that consistent with how it worked.

I remember really liking one that occurs just before the final episode.

 

Just in the first season - after that things were pretty much settled - same leaps in the some-one, they leap to the waiting room but are surround by his aura so the leapee appears to look like Sam to anyone but Al.

One of the books (Prelude) must have been written while S1 was either in production or during because there's an author's note on the issue of whether Sam's body or minds leaps and basically it wasn't really defined at the point so they went with his mind leaping.

 

For me the weird and confusing part of it all of this (I mean aside from it being hand-wavy magical nonsense) is that the "aura" affects the perceptions of both Sam and the person deposited in the waiting room (hence the mirror shenanigans.) Indeed that gimmick alone is probably where most of the confusion on this point stems from.

 

Did they ever make mention of what the point of project Quantum Leap was for, I mean had it all worked without a hitch? What was the point of Sam doing all this had it worked perfectly as intended?

Also I keep thinking its like time machines, once the first one is invented and used everyone else then gets them because once the genie is out of the bottle the fact a time machine exists means others will too, so that's how I explained the presence of the evil leapers.

 

I think the military expected Sam to use it to help fix problems for America which is why it was almost closed. Sam was just someone who wanted to do it because of the science. I do wonder why he felt rushed to to do it the pilot episode.

As for the new show I bet good money the new leaper or leapers will leap into one of the older episodes somehow. Or they will bump into various people Sam helped along the way. We could see Jimmie again or I would love to see a episode were Sam's daughter is able to help his Sister get out of that terrible abusive marriage she got into.

 

According to one of the saga sell voiceovers, Sam was "pressured to prove his theories or lose funding," which is why he rushed to use himself as a test subject in the pilot.

 

Aura = Soul.

Even when he was a Monkey.

 

The Aura thing just seemed like sme kind of retcon for wanting to do something "creative" (was it when Sam walked in the body of a disabled man when this first happened?).

Definitely in the first episode, it seemed like he was in someone else's body, so when he looked in the mirror, that is who he saw.

 

I don't see any indication that the military was ever involved in the actual running of the project. It's not like they made Sam work for them or anything like that.

After one of Sam's early leaps, he did get military funding for the project (via Donna's father) but that was it. They didn't tell him what to do.

 

I always thought Al was only on the project because he was in the Military (IE he was there to make sure their interests were represented.)

 

My only hope for the new series is that it follows the semi-anthology format of the original, where we get self-contained stories. I don't mind if the backbone of the show was something like "to find Dr. Sam Beckett and bring him home" or whatever. But I don't want to be solely focused on that as a grand arc.

The whole "hoping each leap will be his leap home" was the emotional story engine, not the show's arc as we know it today.

 

I agree. I want stand alone stories. I wouldn't mind b-plots though set in the present from time to time though. You know you could have some drama from Ziggy figuring out the reason why the leaper has leaped into someone including talking to the real person in the waiting room more often and doing research.

 

I doubt that will happen, outside of cop/mystery shows, TV just doesn't do standalone episodes anymore. Even if we get leaps of the week, they're probably still going to be part of some kind of wider arc.

 

I would imagine a format similar to Marvel's What If. Each episode is essentially standalone, with the finale drawing from plot elements of all the season's episodes.

 

Sam returns. Finds out someone else has jumped and becomes the new "Al" to guide them home.