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

First off I absolutely loved Magic as the hologram and being able to interact with Ben. Having Ernie Hudson in the middle of the action with the 'leap' storyline and being able to have him and Raymond Lee interact (all we've had is like the flashbacks pretty much) is great.

Also... It's very refreshing to be able to focus on the leap and not have Ben/Addison romantic storyline having to be part of the spoken (or unspoken) interactions between the two of them. Plus Ernie Hudson is just a better actor IMO.

I would have no problems if Addison was written out and the whole Tom thing isn't him playing a 'long game/scheme' because I'm not the biggest fan of her in the show and think the tone/delivery of the actress can be very lackluster.
Pretty much. I like Addison, but she is definitely the weakest link in the show for me.
 
I wasn't initially impressed with Caitlin Bassett, but I've come to think she's very good with playing intense dramatic moments. She also has a real-life military background that no doubt helps her play Addison authentically.

But yeah, more screen time for Ernie Hudson is always a good thing.
 
One thing I'm still trying to sort out is the 3 year gap. Yes, it gives hope that one day Ziggy may detect Sam. But, it's not that Ben leaped into the future. For him no time passed between the last leap. So, could Ben have been somewhere during that time and have no memory of it or is this the way leaping can work? No time passes for the leaper but years can pass at QL HQ?
 
One thing I'm still trying to sort out is the 3 year gap. Yes, it gives hope that one day Ziggy may detect Sam. But, it's not that Ben leaped into the future. For him no time passed between the last leap. So, could Ben have been somewhere during that time and have no memory of it or is this the way leaping can work? No time passes for the leaper but years can pass at QL HQ?

Well, since it's time travel, there's no logical reason why they need to be in sync. It's not San Dimas Time. I think it's been established all along that days or weeks can pass at the project before they detect Ben's next leap, but for Ben it's always instantaneous.

Although I guess it is partially synchronized in the sense that Ziggy always tracks where Ben appears "next" from his own subjective POV even if it's at an earlier point in objective history. Let's call that Gallifrey Time, since in Doctor Who, two Time Lords who meet repeatedly almost always experience their meetings in the same order as each other and the audience, no matter where they are in the timeline.
 
Well, since it's time travel, there's no logical reason why they need to be in sync. It's not San Dimas Time. I think it's been established all along that days or weeks can pass at the project before they detect Ben's next leap, but for Ben it's always instantaneous.

Although I guess it is partially synchronized in the sense that Ziggy always tracks where Ben appears "next" from his own subjective POV even if it's at an earlier point in objective history. Let's call that Gallifrey Time, since in Doctor Who, two Time Lords who meet repeatedly almost always experience their meetings in the same order as each other and the audience, no matter where they are in the timeline.
Along these lines, it seems that once they sync up, time moves at the same speed for all of them, because they behave like an hour passing in Ben's timeline is an hour in the QL HQ timeline.
 
Along these lines, it seems that once they sync up, time moves at the same speed for all of them, because they behave like an hour passing in Ben's timeline is an hour in the QL HQ timeline.

In the original, that was probably because Sam was neurally linked to Ziggy. Here, I guess that when they locate Ben, it makes a connection that places them in relative sync. But once he leaps, the connection is broken and they have to track him down again, which takes a variable amount of time.
 
Noticed that Bellisario is no longer a credited producer for S2. Did he have involvement in S1 after all? I always assumed he took a backseat and he simply had a “legacy credit”, letting the new writers go wild with their own approach.
 
Totall
Well, since it's time travel, there's no logical reason why they need to be in sync. It's not San Dimas Time. I think it's been established all along that days or weeks can pass at the project before they detect Ben's next leap, but for Ben it's always instantaneous.

Although I guess it is partially synchronized in the sense that Ziggy always tracks where Ben appears "next" from his own subjective POV even if it's at an earlier point in objective history. Let's call that Gallifrey Time, since in Doctor Who, two Time Lords who meet repeatedly almost always experience their meetings in the same order as each other and the audience, no matter where they are in the timeline.
Totally agree that there’s a lapse between leaps in HQ for them to track Ben. I guess thinking back to the original it wasn’t so egregious that they stopped looking, until the finale. In Mirror Image I remember they were haring a hard time finding Sam because they weren’t looking on his exact birth date (which was when they needed to look). I guess I’m curious if the 3 year gap is a plot device for the Ben/Addison/Tom thread or is it a plot device for something else. Could be completely over thinking it too :D
 
I just assumed the 3-year jump just allows them to do a soft reset with the present day storyline.

Out of curiosity; am I the only one hoping Magic stays on as Ben's hologram? Not that I dislike Addison as a character, it's just nice to have a mentor figure holding the handset again. That whole relationship drama is easily my least favourite part of the show.
 
Out of curiosity; am I the only one hoping Magic stays on as Ben's hologram?
Magic certainly rocked as the hologram. Though personally I would prefer that rather than a single character as the hologram, they rotate through the others taking turns as the hologram. I think having Ian tag along as hologram for an episode could be fun.
 
Magic certainly rocked as the hologram. Though personally I would prefer that rather than a single character as the hologram, they rotate through the others taking turns as the hologram. I think having Ian tag along as hologram for an episode could be fun.

I'm kind of hoping that's how the season plays out. Although we already had Jenn as the hologram in season one, and Ian this season (notwithstanding their use of the Imaging Chamber in "Let Them Play"). Hoping that if/when that Janis shows up again, she can take a turn as the hologram.

I find the phrase "The Hologram" sounds... weird. I think I'd prefer it if they went back to the original show's terminology and used the term "The Observer".
 
Magic certainly rocked as the hologram. Though personally I would prefer that rather than a single character as the hologram, they rotate through the others taking turns as the hologram. I think having Ian tag along as hologram for an episode could be fun.
I did have that same thought, and I'm certainly not opposed to it. Indeed they did kind of do that last season for a couple episodes, so this might be where they're going and I'm all for it, if only to give Raymond Lee the chance to have more scenes with his fellow regulars aside from just Caitlin Bassett all the time.

From a pure logistics POV, you'd think it would have been necessary from the get-go to have a rotating hologram team working in shifts, not just for the longer leaps, but since they never know how long it'll take to get a lock on Ben. I always assumed that once they have a lock, the time difference becomes synchronous, meaning they always need a staff working, and they obviously can't have everyone working all the time. That assumption could be wrong of course, and it's also possible they just stop Ziggy from scanning outside of work hours.
 
Last edited:
Finally saw "One Night in Koreatown." Powerful episode, both the riot story and the insights into Magic. About time they gave Ernie Hudson a chance to really shine. And I'm happy that he's stepped into the hologram role for now, because that's what I initially expected his role to be when his casting was first announced, and I finally get to see it.

It was also cool to give Raymond Lee the chance to do a dramatic scene in Korean, to let Ben embrace his heritage in a leap instead of having to pretend to be a different ethnicity. Though it was an amusing twist when it turned out that the kid he'd leaped into wasn't supposed to know Korean.
 
No Magic this week since he had to deal with paranormal activity that's causing New Yorkers to freeze to death in July.
 
"Secret History" was, in my opinion, the best ep of the new season. A mix of Bond, Oppenheimer, and a dash of Indiana Jones. The "musical holograms" is working a lot better than I thought it would and the ongoing story of the physics student has my attention. A possible romantic interest for Ben and, perhaps, a "Sammy Jo Fuller" character analog for the series.
 
I probably won't get to see "Secret History" until next week, since NBC.com is locking new episodes for a week for some reason even though it didn't do that with most of season 1, or with other current shows. But I'm confused by the episode description I read: "At Princeton University in 1955, Ben must find a formula hidden by Albert Einstein that holds the key to nuclear energy before the Nazis get it."

First off, why are Nazis an issue in 1955? Second, the Einstein formula that holds the key to nuclear energy is E=mc^2, and that was published in 1905. And the US government declassified nuclear power technology in 1954. So either that description is seriously in error, or the show's anachronisms and research failures have gotten worse than ever.

Also, I see on the Wiki that Ben leaps into "Professor Henry McCoy." He's Beast?
 
Back
Top