Quantum Leap. One of the few live action shows that played a large part in my childhood. My mom never has watched much TV, but there were two shows that she watched with any regularity: Married...With Children and Quantum Leap. I’m not sure exactly why she liked the latter so much, as she’s never really been a big fan of sci-fi (actually, that’s an understatement. She typically refers to Ray Bradbury’s work as “that crap” and never will get HHG).
Obviously, there must be something to this show if she was so addicted in spite of her prejudice. I guess it’s the intriguing plot. Dr. Sam Beckett, a quantum physicist in the present designs a machine, as well as a supercomputer, that is able to send him to any time within the course of his lifetime. Which sounds like a pretty nifty gadget, right?
Wrong. Not only does the good doctor have no control over the WHERE or WHEN of his destination, he also has no sure-fire way of getting home when he does. Just to complicate matters FURTHER, he can’t take his body with him and instead, leaps into a native of that time and place, and that poor, unsuspecting soul is transported into the future where he (or she – Scott Bakula gets to do quite a bit of cross-dressing) is dumped in a holding tank and probed for information.
Dr. Beckett soon realizes that his destination is always a “mistake” in history – someone has an accident and dies prematurely; someone else decides to put their child up for adoption and later regrets it – and that he must right these wrongs before he can “leap” to his next task.
His only companion in his exploits is Admiral Al Calavici (Dean Stockwell), a rather frisky coworker of his who appears in the past, though ha can only be seen by Sam, animals, and young children). I know I didn’t do a particularly outstanding job of explaining any of this stuff, but you really should watch the show yourself if you care to understand it. It’s a great show with a good plot, an excellent writing team, very talented actors, and a good amount of humour.
Sam and Al played Tartarus with the space-time continuum for five seasons from ‘89 to ‘93. Their adventures are replayed on Sci-Fi weekends at 8:00 AM EST.
Quantum Leap was created by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Anita W. Addison and Debbie Allen, and written by Donald P. Belisario and Toni Graphia.
Leap back to a few minutes ago before you made the mistake of coming to this page
July 22, 2002
