Quantum Leap
Tonight, I watched a Quantum Leap rerun that started making me think about the potential for a remake. I’ve heard rumblings of remake attempts in the past that are detailed enough to make me think they at least had one in development at one time, but obviously it’s never come to fruition. It’s one of my favorite shows of all time, but there were always a few elements to “leaping” that went unaddressed. (And yes, being that I loved the show, I fully understand that this was a show with a science-fiction premise that had very little to do with science-fiction. Probably for the best, since the attempts they made to explain things scientifically — most notably in the earlier episodes, and dropped pretty quickly before the end of the second season, then resurrected it when the “Evil Leaper” showed up and tried to ruin the show — were pretty retarded.)
For some reason, this particular episode made me start questioning the rules of Quantum Leap more than anything else. It strikes me as strange because it was really a fun throwaway episode with Sam as a beauty queen; it didn’t build on the show’s long-running mythology or have any significant impact. It wasn’t exactly filler; even an inessential episode of Quantum Leap uses the prism of the past to tackle contemporary issues. No, it was just something about Sam’s particular goals in the episode. He had two objectives that, atypically, would not have resulted in anyone’s death or cause some kind of cataclysmic event to occur. The first objective: save a fellow contestant from a sleazy photographer who takes nude pictures of her and ruins her life. The second objective: place at least third in the pageant so the woman Sam’s leaped into can get a scholarship and become the country’s first female cardiologist.
It started me thinking about some of the things the show never addressed: what happens if Sam fails in his mission? Does he start over, or does he just keep going in that life? Does whatever is leaping him through time leap him into another person, or another time, to solve the same problem in a different way? The show touched on this idea (very briefly) in “The Leap Home,” the two-parter where Sam first leaps into himself as a high schooler to make sure his school basketball team won a pivotal game, then leaps into a soldier in his brother’s Vietnam platoon. In the first part, Sam becomes obsessed with saving his family: his brother would die in a few months in ‘Nam, his sister would marry an abusive alcoholic, and his dad would die of a heart-attack. Nobody listens to him, but he has a chance to save at least one of them in Vietnam (and he does). Still, even though he got lucky, saving his brother wasn’t a primary objective (instead, he was there to save an obnoxious photographer played by Andrea Thompsons, one of my least favorite actors, whose Pulitzer-winning photos would contribute to public dissent against the war).
This particular episode could have tackled the same stories in a number of different ways. Say Sam had a harder time getting the photos back. According to Ziggy*, the nude photos of the contestant didn’t appear publicly (on an erotic calendar “seen in your better muffler shops”) for a month. That gives him ample time to solve the problem in a variety of different ways — going after the photographer, as he does in the episode, or if it’s too late he could dive into the seamy underbelly of Deep South porn peddlers circa 1958. Like Hardcore, only better because he’d be in drag all the time while lecherous men hit on him.
Or let’s say he solved the photo problem but, as a result, blew the pageant. He was already struggling because he’s a man, not a beauty queen, and he has no clue how to do any of that pageant crap. It was hard enough to believe that, with minimal rehearsal time, he’d get up to #4 before blowing everyone away with his impromptu Jerry Lee Lewis impression. So, at the end of the hour, he’s failed one of his missions.
It could go one of three ways: they could have a “Bobby in the shower” ending where Sam leaps right back into the same point in time, making the next episode Groundhog Day-esque variations on the previous leap; they could have him leap into a different person involved in the pageant and, again, show us a different take on the same plot; or, the least repetitive option, they could have Sam “stuck” in 1958, forced to find alternate methods of getting college money.
They could delve into other questions like the consequences of Sam “dying,” and whether or not he can age. Notice that these are all still very ingrained in both the show’s formula, either extending the show’s usual standalone-episode format for occasional multi-episode arcs or answering questions that don’t need elaborate, science-fiction answers.
The only potential downside to a new Quantum Leap series: obvious generalizations aside, the past three decades just aren’t quite the same as tackling the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. One of the struggles facing Journeyman, a recent rehash that I actually enjoyed (it had superficial similarities but enough differences to make it worthwhile; too bad nobody but me watched it), was a way to make the ’80s and ’90s and distinctive as earlier decades. They never quite accomplished it, although they didn’t have the “travel within his lifetime” conceit, so he traveled to earlier time periods. The “within his own lifetime” bit is essential to the idea, even though they bent that rule once in awhile; otherwise, you could go crazy with leaping antics and the time-travel would overshadow the character drama. The only way to fix it is to set the series earlier than 2008…or make the leaper really, really old.
Even so, given the chance, I’d remake Quantum Leap. You know, assuming nobody is interested in that awesome Young Patriots series.
*For non-Quantum Leap fans, that’s the gargantuan computer built for the QL Project that Al accesses via a goofy, tricorder-like PDA precursor.
Posted by Stan on April 11, 2008 10:31 PM | Permalink | Career-Based Rambling | Digg It
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