Quantum Leap 2022

[Fero McPigletron]

Anybody following the Quantum Leap? I saw the first ep and it was ok. Some effects were iffy (the car ride background) and some parts could have been better acted.

Oh it's a continuation of the original show. Mentioned the original cast. I hope new viewers can understand what's going on.

Dunno how long the first season is but I hope they resolve the mystery by then.

Also dedicated to Dean Stockwell at the end.

Spoiler comments

Spoiler

Gosh dang it, why the hex does the new Leaper Ben have to be engaged?! Like, the best part of the original series is Scott Bakula getting to sleep around all over time, haha. Well, ok, for me anyway. But they put in a romance angle so boo to that! Man, I hope they see some timelines that requires Ben to fool around, which they'll probably do, for drama and comedy purposes.

I don't remember all of the OG stuff but don't the person that Sam Beckett replace get put in a holding cell or something? It doesn't happen here.

They mentioned Samuel Becket never went home. What does that mean? They discontinued the project? Al died already so who was Sam's hologram? Or they shut down the project so Sam kept jumping blind with no Al and Ziggy?

I don't like seeing the real world 2022 stuff so far. I remember the old show practically always in the past timelines and they didn't show their present day. With the mystery and the drama, I guess we'll see more of it, boo.

 

[Dekafox]

Well regarding the old show,

Spoiler: Old Quantum Leap spoilers

In the very last episode Sam jumps into his own body, but at this bar place, and there's another leaper there who does his thing and leaves. At that time Sam is given a choice: he can go home, or he can keep leaping and helping people forever, and he either outright chooses or is implied to choose(it's been years, can't remember which) the latter. The final titlecard before the credits is that he never returned home. I believe Al couldn't reach him at all during that episode, so Sam would have been the only one that knew. It sounds like that may have been the last contact they had with him too.

As far as the holding cell thing, yeah, there was a waiting cell for the person who jumped into Sam's body instead. Maybe they wanted to take it slower for new viewers.

They got away with Al explaining everything by having Sam's memory get swiss cheesed at the start - did they do that for Ben too? And does he have a leaping catchphrase yet?

 

[Shadewing]

Seen the first episode, kinda like it. Had to look up to see that this isn't the same actor as Ben in Umbrella Academy, as they do look kinda similar.

And yeah, Ben has amensia like Sam, and it seems like his catchphrase might be 'Oh sh-" least they started to have him say that before being cut off; but its a similar moment to Sam's 'Oh boy's

Currently my... issue? Like it doesn't bug me yet, but with them splitting the focus between past and present, I feel like it takes away some from the original's premise. Part of the original's charm, imo, was how each episode tried to capture each era and was mostly focused only on that; with occasional exceptions.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Ah, I didn't know Sam had memory loss when he first leaped. I thought it was a new thing for Ben, the new Leaper.

Man, I forgot about about Sam's end of show catch phrase! I hate Ben's, c'mon!

Hope they lessen the 2022 present time stuff but they introduced so many supporting characters (aside from the new Holo person there's the tech guy, the security lady, Winston Zeddmore?).

Holy cow, the Horror from Umbrella Academy is also named Ben! I forgot that! I hope hope hope that they bring back the other Sparrows if they do a fourth season.

 

[Shadewing]

Ernie Hudson is actually playing a character from the original series, but was a different actor there.

 

[LiamA]

Ben is kind of growing on me. The 2022 stuff just stops the episode in my opinion.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Saw the second ep. I wasn't into Ben until midway when he snitched. That was a great character moment.

And the leap was terrifying! It was only a minute or two but, wow, it triggered every anxiety part in those space movies.

Still waaaaay too much present day stuff but whatever.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Saw third ep. The boxing stuff is pretty good, if minimal. Background present day mystery is getting interesting but still too much drama.

I realize Ben is just really good at empathy and can talk people down or whatever. (Probably a bad example but it's like that thing I noticed in the first seasons of Simpsons, where Homer can say a few words and just relate and believe him.). Would be ballsy if his sensitive nature is a front and it's what he used to get his fiancee to trust him... Nah, too evil.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Saw fourth ep. It's the girl body leap ep. I'm just totally surprised to see Justin Hartley aka could have been Aquaman tv show but was Smallville Green Arrow instead. What's he doing here, hahaha

Odd thing is the lore says... the host personality gets a nudge in the head then he just blacks out. Wakes up later after the Quantum Leaper has left. No white room, storage area for them? Unless they were mindwiped before being inserted back into their own body?

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

Reactions so far (mild unmarked spoilers. Nothing huge):

• Love that it's a continuation.
• Love that Al's family (who didn't exist... at least not still connected to Al in Beth's case... until Sam's actions in the final episode of the original show) are involved.
• I'm enjoying seeing the folks at Project Quantum Leap, although it's hard not to feel like the present of 2022 is less advanced than Sam's original 1995-1999 timeframe (roughly five years in the future of the time of broadcast. I don't feel like the last season was set in 2000 for some reason, though).
• The show seems to be cheaping out on some of the important effects. We hardly get to *see* Ben's leaps the way we used to with Sam. Usually, we see the leap out, but the leap in ignores more of the lightning effect in favor of close up zooms on Ben's face. Likewise, while the old show tried to limit the number of times Al was seen to walk through things, this show seems even worse about that, to the point of having the hologram sitting on top of the space shuttle! If she's a hologram, what's she sitting on?
• I don't think the fact that Ernie Hudson is a pre-existing character has been so much as mentioned within the narrative itself. I wonder what's up with that?
• Where's Abigail Fuller?
• Apparently Ben's leaps are different than Sam's. Sam "switched bodies," having the leapee in the Waiting Room while Sam was in the leapee's place. The fact that it was Sam's body was emphasized a couple of times, notably when he stood up and walked despite having leaped into a person with no legs below the knees (the mirror image was even seen floating in mid-air). Ben, by contrast, seems to be inhabiting the body of the leapee (this was spelled out in the boxing episode), and there's no one in the waiting room. Ben's body seems to have vanished entirely, while the leapee's personality has not been addressed (it is gone for the duration? Is there a personality merge, with Ben in primary control?).
• It has been observed that both the show and its publicity state that Ziggy controls the leaping process (publicity even suggests that this was the case in the old show) whereas the old show only suggested that Ziggy could make educated guesses about the purpose of a given leap. The leaps themselves were outside of Ziggy's control, with vague references to God controlling the leaps (this was expounded upon, but not exactly confirmed, in the final episode, but the idea was posited even in the beginning).
• They've already changed one of the fundamental "rules" of time travel from the original show, as Ben has been said to have leaped before his own birth. This is clearly intentional, but the mechanics of how this is possible don't even have as much explanation as Sam's "ancestor swap" in The Leap Between the States. They handwave it (giving us more of a "why would he attempt such a thing" rather than "how did he manage to do it"), and we move on.

I'm enjoying watching how this pans out, but don't hold a lot of hope for a resolution, as a second season seems doubtful at present.

 

[Shadewing]

I think some of those points are addressed, or at least slightly hand-waved, at the moment by the new algorithm that Ben uploaded. We don't have solid stated fact, but any thing that is different in the leaping process from Sam's could be a result to whatever got changed by that algorithm. So maybe that is why Ben seems to possess rather then replace, maybe that is why he can leap before he was born (this one feels the closest to being addressed based on previous episodes).

 

[Dekafox]

I haven't watched this, but just based on your posts, maybe one explains the other? The reason Sam could only go within his lifetime(with that one exception?) was because his actual body was involved, and because Ben is just sending his consciousness(and what happened to his original body? Does that mean he's a perma-leaper now since there's no body to go back to?) he's less constrained on when he goes to.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I think some of those points are addressed, or at least slightly hand-waved, at the moment by the new algorithm that Ben uploaded. We don't have solid stated fact, but any thing that is different in the leaping process from Sam's could be a result to whatever got changed by that algorithm. So maybe that is why Ben seems to possess rather then replace, maybe that is why he can leap before he was born (this one feels the closest to being addressed based on previous episodes).

If I didn't make clear in my write-up that most of the differences are intentional, then I apologize.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I haven't watched this, but just based on your posts, maybe one explains the other? The reason Sam could only go within his lifetime(with that one exception?) was because his actual body was involved, and because Ben is just sending his consciousness(and what happened to his original body? Does that mean he's a perma-leaper now since there's no body to go back to?) he's less constrained on when he goes to.

I feel like it's pretty clear that Ben's body does not remain in the present. If it were so, I can't imagine a scenario where the Project team wasn't talking about it.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Saw the cowboy ep.

I don't want to get into the morality of killing, not killing but Ben's superability really is giving good speeches and talks to people.

Sad that nobody cared the sheriff at the start, haha.

Kinda liked the evil-ness of Ernie Hudson's solution (ugh, I hate it when they say Magic).

The last few minutes were a good hook. But, um, if Ben is jumping into someone's body instead of replacing, it's really just us as an audience seeing the body of Ben but everybody, even the wife, sees him as the host body? Or is his wife (and us, the audience) seeing his soul? Or another hologram over the body?

 

[Shadewing]

Kinda liked the evil-ness of Ernie Hudson's solution (ugh, I hate it when they say Magic).

Why? That's his name.

Herbert "Magic" Williams

Herbert "Magic" Williams is a Sailor who served with the SEAL Teams in the Vietnam War. During this time, he was one of the Leapees that Dr. Samuel Beckett leapt into during his leaps into the past. Decades later, Williams serves as the new head of Project Quantum Leap after Dr. Ben Song...

quantumleap.fandom.com

 

[Fero McPigletron]

I'm immature. When I hear them say Magic, I follow it up with Johnson and I laugh.

 

[Kalidor]

I'm posting this here to mark it for replies. I'm a huge Quantum Leap fan and I really liked how the show is going so far.

Some of the inconstancies have already been pointed out in this thread - namely the fact that it's not Ben's body leaping but his mind leaping into a person. I admit, I'm not happy with that and I want to have faith it's not something they got "wrong" since they've addressed so many other things. But it does feel wrong. The first few episodes I was wondering why they weren't interviewing the hosts in the waiting room like they would normally do in the old series. We didn't always see it but we know for a fact it happened since they had a psychologist on staff (Dr. Beeks) for that very reason.

So I hope they address this oversight.

I'm really curious to see who that other leaper was in the old west time. Return of an evil leaper? Or was it Sam himself that Ben is chasing?

New episode tonight. I'll be back

 

[Shadewing]

Like I mentioned previously, until that state otherwise; I'm chalking up any differences to the new algorithm. Makes more sense then them just ignoring or overlooking it, but that is always a possibility.

 

[Kalidor]

Adding to this - I too was a bit let down by how mundane the project tech looks. I know it's kind of the "You can't use TOS decor now that tech has caught up with the vision" vibe, but they really should have doubled down on the giant Lego interfaces and blue lasers and shit.