Quantam Leap

eircom: Mark

Does it bother anybody else really upset that Dr Sam Beckett has been leaping through time.. "to put right what once went wrong" for 17 years now and nobody has tried to bring him back.

God I miss that show...

Mark

thefinalstage

Ecom: Mark wrote: »

Does it bother anybody else really upset that Dr Sam Beckett has been leaping through time.. "to put right what once went wrong" for 17 years now and nobody has tried to bring him back.

God I miss that show...

Mark

Yes, I miss it also.

Quantum Leap was a art form.

Podman

They are showing a series at the moment on the Sci-Fi Channel on Friday Mornings.. (link)

Tallon

Oh god I loved this show so much.

It was amazing

eircom: Mark

I have them all on DVD but I'm just saying it's time he came home regardless if he accepts that he controls the leaps or not...

Mark

super_furry

Did he ever get home?

I remember one episode where he got home but had to leap out again to save....his wife? It's a bit hazzy

Podman

They should have Retro Hour every day on Irish tv...

Quantum Leap, The A Team, etc.

thefinalstage

Ecom: Mark wrote: »

I have them all on DVD but I'm just saying it's time he came home regardless if he accepts that he controls the leaps or not...

Mark

Down with this sort of thing. We had enough of comments like that during 'Nam.

Irish Guitarist

I loved it until the last series. That series (especially the very last episode) totally messed it up. Even the music was crappy. When it was in its prime it was great though.

I think they should remake it but with Scott Bakula in Als role.

alandel2001

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I loved it until the last series. That series (especially the very last episode) totally messed it up. Even the music was crappy. When it was in its prime it was great though.

I think they should remake it but with Scott Bakula in Als role.

I remember loving Quantum Leap right until the end. I think I might have shed a tear or two when I saw the last episode as a child (I'm quite a sap when it comes to TV and movies). How could you not love the last episode?

Even the fact that the showrunners were lucky enough to know it was being cancelled/ending before the last ep of the series, and so had the opportunity to create a storyline that tied up some loose ends while leaving others enough ajar to torment fans into the future (and possibly do another series at some stage).

I think my favourite episode of QL was the one where Sam leaps into a pool player's body (I think his name was Magic). Think Larry Fishburne from the Matrix flicks was in that ep if I remember correctly. I loved the idea of Al using the laser beam to tell Sam where to aim.

I think this show could definitely have new life as a remake. You would have to change the paradigm slightly, give it a new angle. I really like the idea of Al and Sam and their relationship, and the whole Swiss cheese memory idea (although, wasn't that done to a much greater degree during the pilot and the first few eps?). What about a monkey sidekick for Sam, or making Al a woman, or better yet, a seven year old child?

All joking aside though, so many nostalgic properties have been resurrected, I think it is only a matter of time until QL reappears in some form or other.

talla10

super_furry wrote: »

Did he ever get home?

I remember one episode where he got home but had to leap out again to save....his wife? It's a bit hazzy

The last ever episode of quantam leap explained sorry for long spolier!

No in the last ever episode he 'leaped' into a bar called Al's bar as himself and so could see his own reflection. The bar was full of people with the same names as people or computers involved in the quantam leap project (like al and ziggy) the final scene sam confronts al the barman who explains that sam can go home any time he wants and that he has more control over his leaps than he realizes...Sam doesnt accept this...the quantam leap experiment is cancelled by the government and sam never returns home

alandel2001

talla10 wrote: »

The last ever episode of quantam leap explained sorry for long spolier!

No in the last ever episode he 'leaped' into a bar called Al's bar as himself and so could see his own reflection. The bar was full of people with the same names as people or computers involved in the quantam leap project (like al and ziggy) the final scene sam confronts al the barman who explains that sam can go home any time he wants and that he has more control over his leaps than he realizes...Sam doesnt accept this...the quantam leap experiment is cancelled by the government and sam never returns home

I thought that this happened:

Sam does leap into a bar, and sees some of the people he has helped in previous leaps. I believe in this ep he saves two of them from being killed in a mine accident. He has been talking to the barman throughout the episode, and then starts to realise that the guy knows more than he's letting on (I think they try to suggest that the barman is God). The barman tells him that he has control over where he jumps and tells him that he can stop jumping and go home, or can continue to help people, and that he has changed the world so much already and done so much good. Sam starts to cry, and then accepts that he has to continue jumping for the greater good. But, before he continues, he asks the barman - or maybe decides himself - to leap back to help Al. I think one of Al's wives got remarried when she thought he was KIA during a mission. This was the love of his life, and he still misses her. So Sam gets to leap back and tell the wife (as Al) that he is ok and to wait for her. The last shot is telling that the project was cancelled and that Sam never returned home.

That's as much as I can remember. It was about seven years ago that I saw that ep for the last time.

talla10

alandel2001 wrote: »

That's as much as I can remember. It was about seven years ago that I saw that ep for the last time.

I seem to remember key parts of that ie barman knowing more & saving people from mine and i remember the conversion between sam and al but cant remember last 2 lines (trying to be vague wothout using spoliers again ) then again i last saw this about 12 years ago so its possible your memory is better than mine

alandel2001

talla10 wrote: »

I seem to remember key parts of that ie barman knowing more & saving people from mine and i remember the conversion between sam and al but cant remember last 2 lines (trying to be vague wothout using spoliers again ) then again i last saw this about 12 years ago so its possible your memory is better than mine

There was, if I remember rightly, a picture of a man and boy standing in front of an old timey airplane and I think a caption came up saying the project was cancelled and Sam never came home. Sound right?

noodler

I might try and pick up the series loved it as a kid.

One episode that really freaked me out as a kid:

Sam meets a Woman who is also leaping through time and has her very own version of an Al (some woman). However, it becomes clear she is actually working for the Devil (not sure if they were that explicit). Essentially she leaps through time wrecking people's lifes.

alandel2001

noodler wrote: »

I might try and pick up the series loved it as a kid.

One episode that really freaked me out as a kid:

Sam meets a Woman who is also leaping through time and has her very own version of an Al (some woman). However, it becomes clear she is actually working for the Devil (not sure if they were that explicit). Essentially she leaps through time wrecking people's lifes.

Those were some of my favourite episodes. Didn't

Sam leap back into the down syndroms kid's body again in one episode and the evil leaper was trying to undo the good work he had done in a previous episode. Then there was the one where they were in prison together. Great episodes.

Wasn't the portal red for her version of Al? Great touch.

nyarlothothep

Very funny show, very cheesy by todays standards, for example I saw the episode where Al meets his younger self and its really obvious that they dubbed him with the older actors voice. Also Sam is really stupid most of the time for the inventor of time travel, for example counting words that Oswalds wife uses on his fingers, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5...6..7.8...9 thats 9 words you know in English!" Or reciting the elements after fighting with his former drill sergeant but kinda like a retarded person. Theres even an episode where he leaps into a chimp. And the fact that ziggy has no viewscreen and looks like jumbled bits of lego. Even when they re-jigged the theme tune they cheesified it with the orchestral hits and the early 90s drum track. Great show, they don't make em like that anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JopIS7fBZwY

Allyall

Apparently they're going to make a movie out of it. Shouldn't really be that much of a surprise, seeing as they're making a movie out of every single TV show made before 2000. "Scott Bakula Announces Quantum Leap Movie"

According to Bakula:

The good news is that Don is working on the film script and has a big time Hollywood producer who wants to do it ... It's about time. But what I always thought would happen, happened ... [that he's now too old for the role]. But Dean and I will have a part in it somehow.

Don did say that as he was writing, he told me he was having trouble, 'getting you and Dean out of my head.' But I know he will do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU1hWBMlfOY

Also, here's something about the alternate ending, you can watch the alternate ending also, but it's pretty cr@ppy quality - LINK

nyarlothothep

So many questions at the end, I don't know whether thats a good thing or not but I find that the last episode neatly conveyed the philosophical underpinnings of the show. Quality Sci Fi at its best, the decision Sam had to take was excruciatingly tough. I always liked the dilemma and analytical thinking aspect of QL. You wouldn't see Archer or Janeway in ENT or Voy agonizing over decision processes. And the philosophical dimension was nicely expressed, If you watch I Robot you get 2 minutes of compressed philosophy in the narrative, whereas in this final episode it was woven into the script rather than tacked on. I would reference Butters statement from South Park in saying that the episode was imbued with a "beautiful sadness" ie bittersweet. Its a shame there aren't as many TV shows of this standard than back in 80s/90s.

Though a question arises, if Sam went back in time to rescue Als marriage, then its surmised that Al never became involved in the QLP and it never took off meaning Sam either didn't right all those wrongs throughout history or had no one to guide him in the first place. Assuming the bartender is god why would he bring Sam to this weird constructed reality to influence him, as his name Al implies, to go back in time to do that? Was Al, not the bartender Al but Als friend the centre of a nexus of events such that saving his marriage would result in a higher good? Or was the bartender really Satan, the prince of lies and an impersonator who assumed the form of the bartender in the very first episode?