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

I just realized that there's no "waiting room".

Ben isn't switching places with people, and retroactively neither did Sam ever either.
 
Guy Gardener said:
and retroactively neither did Sam ever either.
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The show hasn't said one way or the other on that note. New project, new rules.
The new showrunners would be quite foolish to pretend the new rules apply backwards, having someone in Sam's place was seen and integral several times.
 
Tosk said:
The show hasn't said one way or the other on that note. New project, new rules.
The new showrunners would be quite foolish to pretend the new rules apply backwards, having someone in Sam's place was seen and integral several times.
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Magic this episode said that God asked him if he could borrow his body, and he said "Sure buddy" and then he blacked out for a couple days.

I do recall that Al said the visitors in the waiting room most probably do remember nothing after they get back because their brains have been Swiss cheesed.

I just looked up the leap home, hours after you did, and there was a black guy in the platoon called Magic.

There's also a Patrick Warburton and an Andrea Thompson in that episode who are probably very gettable.
 
Each Leapee could have different experiences post-Leap. Some might just experience a blip, some feel nudged and remember nothing, some might have vague memories...I'd argue that Magic dreaming about Sam's face almost certainly relies on him having seen that face looking back at him from the reflective table in the waiting room. Unless they're going to play with a more metaphysical reason down the line.

Guy Gardener said:
and there was a black guy in the platoon called Magic.
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Yes. And they even used footage from the episode featuring the original actor who played Magic.

Guy Gardener said:
I just looked up the leap home, hours after you did
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No need here, I'm a pathetic QL junkie. :ouch:
 
1987SpaceGuy said:
Maybe it was off in Canada, but I got to watch a new episode this morning, so it must have aired in the US last night.
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looks like city tv was just crappy with their updates to the EPG.

It was showing up in the to record list around when I went to set a manual recording at 8:30.
 
Nice to finally hear Magic's backstory. The most intriguing part is the bit about the "nudge" -- apparently it's the Leapee's choice whether or not to accept the invitation. That's a good thing to establish, since there are some disquieting consent issues involved in taking over someone's body if they don't have a say in it. I'm not sure it entirely makes sense, though, since surely some of the people Sam leapt into would've been unwilling to be replaced, most notably Lee Harvey Oswald.

This episode introduced me to a new term, through Ian: "gender creative." Apparently that's the broader term for being gender-nonconforming or fluid, or just experimenting with possibilities. Ben didn't exactly choose to experiment (although I assume he knew it would eventually happen when he first decided to leap), but it's interesting how easily he adjusted to adopting a new gender identity, with only a few moments of teasing from Addison before he just rolled with it. I don't remember exactly how Sam reacted to his first leap into a woman, but I suspect he probably had a harder time coming to terms with it. I do remember Al having a very hard time looking past the gorgeous female form Sam inhabited.

And the new show is definitely going with the idea that Ben is physically in the Leapee's body, since Addison teased him about what parts he was missing.

I'm not comfortable with the idea that the purpose of the leap was to arrest the drug mastermind. Quantum leaping is not supposed to be about playing Timecop; it's about helping people evade tragedies and failures and achieve better outcomes in their lives. I choose to believe that Ziggy made another of her many wrong guesses about the purpose of the leap, and that Ben's real mission all along was to help the bounty hunters work through their relationship issues.
 
Aragorn said:
Is it just me or does every exterior look like the Universal lot?
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Oh, very much. It feels very closed in to me, especially with the way scenes are shot. It's more like "let's give you a taste of what year you're in, but not too much where you can see it only exists on this block."
 
Christopher said:
I'm not sure it entirely makes sense, though, since surely some of the people Sam leapt into would've been unwilling to be replaced, most notably Lee Harvey Oswald.
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There's no way this makes sense with most of Sam's leaps. No way would any of those people ever have given consent. Indeed, how could they? There's no way they could even have possibly understood what was going on. "Excuse me, I'm a time traveler, mind if I take over your life?" It would be utterly beyond their understanding.

That's why the Swiss Cheesed memory is a ready-made excuse. The leapees will never remember what happened anyway, so once they leap back in...ignorance is bliss. :shrug:

Magic may be a special case, though...we'll just have to wait and see. Perhaps God/Time/Fate/Al the bartender/Captain Braxton was aware of the role Magic would one day play in the relaunching of Project QL, and thus gave him a special understanding of what was going on?

Guy Gardener said:
Questioning the person in the waiting room is fastest way to find Ben.

Is that happening?
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Well, you just admitted that with Ben, there is no waiting room, since (unlike Sam) Ben is leaping into other people's bodies.

That's why I mentioned "Nowhere to Run". It's proof positive that Sam kept his whole body the entire time (Sam leaps in as a veteran with no legs - yet he can still walk). That episode, by defnition, would not have been possible if Sam was leaping into other bodies like Ben is.

Now we may or may not get an explanation as to WHY the rules are different this time. Why does Ben leap into other bodies when Sam did not? I'd actually like to hear it...
 
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It's a paradox caused by discontinuity.

Sam is not asking people to bunch up and let him in, it's Bruce McGill or God.
 
We only know Magic felt like that. We don't know enough to assume anything about other Leaps.
It's worth noting that when Sam Leapt into Magic it was possibly the only time that Sam chose a time and place himself. (He's even shouting the same word on both sides of the Leap.) So maybe Magic felt something others didn't? Or maybe it was usual. No way to know for now.
 
The OG show also contradicts itself with whether Sam leaps into other bodies or his body is leaping. Earlier episodes Al only saw the leapee not Sam. Then, later he saw only Sam.

The OG handwaved a lot. I expect this new version to do the same.
 
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Tosk said:
We only know Magic felt like that. We don't know enough to assume anything about other Leaps.
It's worth noting that when Sam Leapt into Magic it was possibly the only time that Sam chose a time and place himself. (He's even shouting the same word on both sides of the Leap.) So maybe Magic felt something others didn't? Or maybe it was usual. No way to know for now.
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Interesting thought, but it stands to reason that the writers intended Magic's account to represent a typical experience, since his is the only post-Leap account we've been given.

And it makes sense that, in this day and age when the culture is more sensitive to the issue of consent, the writers would want to establish that the Leapee has a say in whether to accept the Leap, rather than having it forced on them. I think it fits with the spiritual underpinnings of the concept too -- the Leapees sense the touch of an unseen presence and choose to surrender to it because they have faith in its benevolence. Essentially the Leapee is making a leap of faith, which is fitting.
 
Kind of hard to picture a few of Sam's Leapees making that call.

And beyond that, while I get the idea that maybe the new writers want to establish some kind of consent angle, I personally don't think it's needed or even a very good approach. The Leapee might feel "a nudge" and accept it, but that's hardly the same as consciously agreeing to someone else piloting your life for an unknown period of time.
 
Tosk said:
And beyond that, while I get the idea that maybe the new writers want to establish some kind of consent angle, I personally don't think it's needed or even a very good approach. The Leapee might feel "a nudge" and accept it, but that's hardly the same as consciously agreeing to someone else piloting your life for an unknown period of time.
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That's why I called it a leap of faith. It doesn't make logical sense, no, but it's the first thing in the new show that resonates with the vague spiritual element of the original.

Although as they pointed out a couple of times in The Good Place, Kierkegaard's original idea is more accurately characterized as a "leap into faith," which is even more fitting for this show.

And yeah, it's an awkward patch on past continuity, but it's not as if QL's continuity was ever ironclad to begin with, especially where the mechanics and rules of leaping are concerned. I do feel it's a good thing to establish, since otherwise leaping is essentially an act of assault. It establishes, at the very least, that potential Leapees do have the opportunity to say no, and that counts for something.

Indeed, maybe it could even be used somehow in a future story. Maybe the person Ben needs to leap into rejects the invitation, so he has to leap into someone nearby and guide the target Leapee to the state of mind that lets them accept him. Or something. Now that the idea's been established, it creates new story possibilities, and that's rarely a bad thing.
 
This show is doing a decent job holding on to viewers, but each episode still has fewer viewers than the last. The only way this show gets renewed is if its doing really well on peacock and has a low budget.
 
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