For the past week I’ve been watching re-runs of the first two seasons of “Quantum Leap” on Hulu, and it’s really rekindled my love for this show. Even after just re-watching the first few episodes, it really has all the ingredients needed for 80′s/90′s television gold. A synthesizer scored theme song, amnesia, Scott Bakula, and of course…a myriad of plot holes.
Some would say, my wife in particular, that I’m just over thinking something that was never meant to stand up to such scrutiny. But I say they weren’t thinking hard enough about a very deep and complex issue. Time Travel.
You ready for this Ziggy? Because it’s time to tear apart something I love.
For those of you unfamiliar with the phenomenon that was “Quantum Leap”, let me first get you up to speed. Scott Bakula starred as the white hair streaked, Sam Beckett. A man born in Indiana (just like me!) and a scientist smarter than four Einsteins. His whole life he’d had a string theory about being able to travel back in time, but only within the time travelers own life time. Which one day in 1989, he set out to prove. Starting the project…Quantum Leap. Yep, just like the title of the show! Flash forward 6 years, the pressure from his backers to show results became too much for our intrepid hero. And he decides to just go for it, Seth Brundle style. Unsurprisingly things “go a little caca” and Sam travels back to 1954 where he wakes up as a test pilot. The twist? That’s not where he was trying to go, and the experiment wiped his memory! Leaving him with “swiss cheese for a brain” as Al Calavicci, a holographic horny companion from the future, puts it.
So why did he end up in 1954? Well that’s now the name of the game. And it’s soon revealed with the help of Al and a biological computer Sam built in the future named Ziggy, that he’s being guided by a higher power through time to, as the tag line put it, “Set right what once went wrong”. Well at least that’s a fact that Ziggy is 99.9% certain of.
So what’s the first thing that had me scratching my head besides the ridiculous/awesome/ridiculous again premise? Well it was one of the first things Al told Sam. When asked where he was and why he looked different in the mirror, Al told him that he was in the body of someone in the past…who also leaped into Sam’s body back in the future. Sam, oddly enough, seemed totally fine with this. Moving along to the next plot point almost immediately and the writers never touched on this again. Me on the other hand? well I just couldn’t get over the question of “While Sam is doing all the heavy lifting, setting right the things that went all caca in the past, what the hell was this person doing in FUTURE Sam’s body?”
The only glimpse we get to what actually happens to that person is an episode that centers around…”The Waiting Room”. Which is basically a big blue space with a mirrored surface desk. Why did the project Quantum Leap interior decorators choose mirror furnature in the first place? Well I assumed it was put there to just maximize the freak out of the person seeing that they’re now in Bakula’s body. Kinda like when Egon decided in “Ghostbusters II” to take away the puppy, just to see what would happen.
This waiting room concept however then raises all sorts of safety concerns for Sam’s body too. All it would take would be one nut job of a leapee trying to escape the lab, or try to commit suicide by opening up a couple veins, for the powers at be to crack down on sudo-Sam’s play time. The more likely realistic scenario would then end up being that the leapees wake up strapped to some gurny and wrapped in bubble wrap inside some padded cell. These people aren’t going to remember anything anyways once they get sent back to the past, so who cares if they have a good time right? Come to think of it…that would be an awesome plot for a spin off show! I would LOVE to see that show, wouldn’t you? “Quantum Prison Break”. Ya, I like it.
Another story device that QL loved to use was what I like to call, “Oh look, I have boobs!”
Sam would often leap into a woman’s body. Probably just for the excuse to full-fill the secret clause in Bakula’s contract that required him to wear leggings every now and then. Now I have no proof of this, but come on…it’s not very hard to connect those dots now is it? Remember that episode “The Wrong Stuff,” where Sam was put in the body of one of the first chimps to be launched into space? Just so happening to require Bakula to wear nothing but a diaper and choker collar? I rest my case. (One of my favorite episodes of the series by the way).
Anyways, the formula would go something like this….”Oh I just lept quantumly. Who am I now? (Look in mirror) Wha wha whaaaa? A girl?!”…and then that would be it. For the next hour you’d get more than your fill of Sam showing some leg and batting his eye lashes. His mission would turn out to be to fix woman’s rights, or prevent some abusive marriage. Good deeds all around. But weren’t the writers just to scared to do the episode that we knew was in the back of their minds all along? I imagine the scene would go a little something like this:
Sam
Come on Al, what’s going on here?! What do I have to do to leap home?
Al
Well, Sam. I don’t know how to say this. But it looks like you just lept into the body of a young girl named Debby.
Sam
What do you mean Al? Why would you have a hard time telling me something like that?
Al
Well, Ziggy is saying that there’s a 99% chance that…your THE Debby. From you know…that movie…about Dallas.
Sam
What mov…ah no. No Al, you can’t be serious! Are you telling me what I think you’re telling me?
AL
I’m afraid so Sam. Debby is about to become very famous. And you’re going to have to bang a lot of dudes.
Annnndddd scene. The door swings both ways Sam. If you get to mack on the ladies when your a guy, so it’s only fair that you get plowed by a couple dudes when your a chick. Now how’s THAT for some fan fiction people!
I also want to know…
Why is everyone so cavalier about Sam hopping around time anyways?
In the pilot episode of the show, Al flat out said that the “President has been informed of our little situation”. Little situation. LITTLE SITUATION?! This lab accident is more than just a little boo-boo. It’s a god damn Def Con 1, all hands on deck, end of the UNIVERSE problem! How do they not understand the gravity of a man changing the time-line of history as he sees fit? Ok, yes he’s trying to change it for the better. But better is really subjective now isn’t it? Marty was trying to make the future better for himself and his family too by buying a sports almanac from the future. And what did that seemingly benign plan get him? A 1985 universe where Biff was awesome and his Pops was dead. Shot in the back.
The point is nobody is perfect, and human error is a certainty. All it would take would be for Sam to have one bad day and say one wrong thing…and BAM! End of the world as we know it. Pull the plug now Mr. President. I know it’s 1995 and that would mean that Bill Clinton was in office but…oh, wait a second. Ya actually that makes sense now. The fictional version of him must have been too busy doing other things. Zing!
Ok, now the obvious question. The BIG question really. The one that we’ve been building up to. If Sam is leaping uncontrollably thanks to an experiment that went wrong, why doesn’t he just call himself up as a kid and say “Hey Sam! Don’t Quantum Leap until you got all the kinks worked out!” Or better yet, why not rip off another story about time travel and write a letter to himself schedule to be delivered to the lab right before he’s about to push the button?
True Dr. Beckett did have a pretty strict rule over altering the past for personal benefit before ever stepping into the experiment chamber. But this is a rule that he broke countless times already! Saving his brother in Vietnam. Getting his future almost wife to be over her fear of commitment. Etc. etc. So really…what was holding him back? I say he got hooked on leaping like it was a drug. Strung out Dr. Beckett, leaping to get his next fix.
If it worked for Doc Brown, then it would work for you too Sam!
But the biggest problem I have came in the epilogue of the season 5 series finale. Sam…NEVER…made it home. For the rest of his life he jumped from one person to the next. Until one day…he just died. Definitely a downer for the series to end on. Plus it doesn’t leave much room for that “Quantum Leap” movie franchise I’m sure NBC/Universal would have loved to have. (The letter writing campaign will begin right after I post this, btw) But that aside, I just wnat to know one thing…How?
How did Dr. Beckett meet his maker?
There’s much debate among QL fans on whether or not it was his body that was leaping or just his soul. The series creator himself flip flops on the issue in interviews. So I’m leaning towards that it all depended on the story line of that particular episode. Thus leaving it up to us to make our own conclusions. That being the case, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it’s more likely his consciousness was the thing leaping, so we’ll just go with that. But that’s less convenient than it seems. Because the last time I checked, souls can’t age.
I don’t think any Doctor has ever uttered the words, “I’m sorry…but we lost him. His soul was just…too old.” Nope, you die because you body breaks down. So…what then? Did he/his host die in some sort of accident? Did Sam finally leap one too many times and not look both ways before he crossed the street? That’s the only thing I can think of that makes any sense. But then that opens up the question of what about the person who was hanging out on the other end of the connection in old man Sam’s body? Did they die too once the quantum connection was cut because of some kind of “Matrix” rule? Could this be the ultimate price for quantum leaping…a human sacrifice? The questions just keep piling up!
Either way, it’s a horrifying ending to what was a pretty light hearted sci-fi series. But I still wouldn’t change any of it for the world. Because I really did and do love this show. It’s got that perfect amount of campy fuzzy logic that every sci-fi series needs (looking at you Dr. Who) and that made picking apart the science of it way more than it ever deserved so much fun.
So enough typing, I’m finally going to post this post and get started with the “Bring Bakula Back in 2011! Quatum Leap: The Trilogy” letter writing campaign. Care to join me?
