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

Re: Leap Loops in the show, the original QL had a couple episodes where Sam ended up back at the beginning of his leap by the end of it: "The Boogeyman" in season 3, and "Deliver Us From Evil" in the final year. Curiously, in both cases he was fighting against some version of evil that fed into the bigger picture of the show's universe, be they evil leapers or the Dev-Al himself.

I don't think that has any particular implication here though, but there seems to be a missed opportunity as the original show mentions twice that one theoretical way to get Sam back involved being at ground zero during a nuclear explosion. Here, the explosion seems almost incidental to whatever the God/Fate/Time/Ziggy machine was doing to get Ben back to the beginning of the Leap Loop, other than being the end of it.

Mark

 

But it would only have worked if he were in a refrigerator...


Anyway, this wasn't a nuclear explosion. It was a hydrogen gas explosion (think Hindenburg) that happened to occur in a facility containing a nuclear reactor.

Although I have to question why there even were hydrogen pipes in the facility, since it was a fission reactor.

 

It powered the gas stove in the crew habitat area. This was the 1960s, and hydrogen was the best way to properly pan fry that steak.

 

So.. Is it weird that amid all the drama and world building and 2012 songs, I was wondering most if glasses can leap along with their wearer?

Mark

 

Well, if they're progressive lenses...

 

Back in ‘How The Tess Was Won’, Doc’s reflection has glasses and Sam isn’t wearing any. The best theory I ever heard for this is that ‘the illusion of their physical aura’ is causing people around the leaper to see and hear and feel what they expect to see and hear and feel from the person who was displaced in the leap. Doc is expected by all the people he knows to be wearing glasses, so Sam doesn’t need to.
Would this apply to all clothing? GWTF knows! It’s no longer even as clear as that how leaps are working these days. Dottie apparently didn’t see Ian’s bespectacled aura reflection while spending a week uptime in The Waiting Room.

Ever tried to draw someone you only ever saw in a dream?

I’m here forever for this series. Six seasons and a movie!

 

Must have been one heluva calamity somewhen to motivate Ian to Leap and thus motivate Ben himself into Leaping in order to save Addison. Or does Ben fail in the original timeline so that Ian has to do damage control???

Stay tuned for the answers!

 

I was watching this episode on my dinky bedroom set so I wasn't even sure that the bard-tender's sketch was Ian. So, thanks.

 

Quantum Leap, why you make me cry so much this week?!

This episode was written by Shakina Nayfack (who also stars as Dotti in the episode), a transgender woman. This couldn't have been more timely, or more needed right now as trans folks face multiple bad faith actors who want to erase us from existence any way they can. I am glad Shakina and the writers of the show made sure Gia's experience had a good resolution: great parents, a supportive team, friends who understood and were allies all the way to the top. It truly doesn't often work out this way, so it's nice to have a lovely story with a good ending.

Oh, and story wise, I really want to know more about how Ian is involved in all of this.

 

Is Ian still out there leaping even though the timeline has been changed? Do 'leapers' become insulated from timeline changes and no longer actually have a timeline to return to? Or can they possibly leap back into the body (if it exists) of their changed timeline doppelganger and remain there?

I liked the bit about showing a memory change in Ian from a timeline change Ben made. Would like to see more of those changes reflected in the 'present' from Ben's actions in the past.

 

Will we discover that everyone at the Project is going to have a turn Leaping in order to save Addison:

MAGIC: Ian didn't make it. Jen? It's up to you.
MAGIC: Jen didn't make it. Janis? How would you like to follow in your father's footsteps?
MAGIC: Janis didn't make it. Well, time to make myself disappear. I am Magic, after all...
SAMMY JO: Magic didn't make it. Addison? You trained for this.
ZIGGY: Ben and Addison have eight children. They celebrated their thirtieth anniversary last August. Dr. Sam Becket never returned their garden gnome.

It is spooky when you think about it! Poor Addison is sharing memories to alternate versions of the people she works with! The originals are gone, so to speak. I'd be grief-stricken if it were me! I'd be freaking right the flux out!

 

I actually thought for a moment that it was going to be a leaper Ben that told Ben to leap.

 

https://tvline.com/2023/02/07/quantum-leap-waiting-room-season-1-spoilers-nbc/

 

The waiting room was not a Day One thing in classic QL, and I can see if they don’t want it to be a narrative crutch for the current one, even if it gives more for the Project crew to do. That said, some of the fan fave classic episodes involved the Project reacting or contributing to what was happening to Sam, and I’d bet they can come up with that sort of way to interact with the Leapee if they had to.

Speaking of, how is having Ian or anyone else in the Imaging Chamber “against the rules”? It’s not been established in dialog; I suppose that they want to keep from confusing a Leaper with multiple people saying stuff to them in a crisis, or if their memory is Swiss cheesed to reduce the confusion. Ian didn’t interact with Ben at all, and he didn’t seem to notice they were there, so guess they skirted a rule without outright breaking it?

Mark

 

It's possible Ben didn't see Ian, as only Addison is attuned to his leaps in the chamber. I'm going off of old QL episodes, though, so I don't know, it could be totally different in this series. I hope we find out.

 

think the only time someone else went into imaging chamber with the observer was the leapee so she could held Sam give testimony against her rapist.

She also had to be in physical contact with Al so Sam could see here.

If we apply the new series approach the she’d have no memory of being in the waiting room or the imaging chamber - it would all be part of the “blackout”

Though given they can now video feed from the imaging chamber someone else wouldn’t need to go in with Addison.

maybe the rule is due to extra power being needed to project them back in time.

Though I did wonder if Ben would see Ian up there.

 

I have a feeling Ben would have seen Ian if he had looked. But mostly because I think they might be setting up to have the other characters start assisting Ben on the leaps.

 

In Classic QL, there have been several instances of others being in the imaging chamber with, or in place of Al. They’re usually pretty consistent though that they can’t just talk to Sam if they wanted to. An early ep saw a bunch of military or government types in with Al, but they couldn’t see or hear Sam (or vice versa) and Al had to mime what he wanted to say.

 

Lee Harvey Oswald also had to wait inside the imaging chamber and be interrogated by Al.

 

They've already made it pretty clear that the new PQL has different 'rules' to the old one, so just add this to the list.

Wasn't that in the Waiting Room?