The new Quantum Leap

[CaptCleghorn]

That's how I tend to see it, too. I thought there was some kind of personality overlap, like how Sam tended to very quickly develop attachments to the leapee's friends and family.

We see points of this with Ben and his spacewalk where he had some basic ability from his host. Sam showed the personality overlap in Oswald and when he and Al changed places. I am not sure if I like the use of an overlap to ease the story development, but Sam's incredible list of knowledge and abilities seemed almost superhuman. He was an MD, knew martial arts, etc. At this point, the need to bring the leaper through a wide variety of leapees and settings is a necessary part of the show.

[Toreador]

As a big fan of the original, I was fine with the ending - I didn't need to see Sam get home. He was still out there fixing lives and I was okay with that.

I loved Magic retelling the story of when Sam Leaped into his life. It's an interesting tweak though, where Magic says he "opened the door" or something ... was that just to show that the people Sam Leaped into gave consent? That's a can of worms ... what if someone didn't give consent? Will they retcon that some people did refuse and Sam just went elsewhere? I listened to see if they'd indicate whether they were retconning or confirming the previous show's Leaping mechanics, but Magic makes no mention of the Waiting Room and doesn't say that Sam was in his body, so ... that's still murky. It seems they just retconned the old show and are moving on...?

It seems the story line now is that the Leaper (Sam or Ben) takes over the body of the person in the past but this doesn't jibe with some of the original episodes of QL. There were times when Sam was defintely is his own body and not the 'Leapee's' body.

Like the time when Sam leaped into the life of a 'Nam vet was had his lower legs blown off. Sam was able to stand up straight and a mirror image showed him to be 'floating' in the air and later he dove into a swimming pool to save a quadraplegic who was trying to drown himself.

Then there was the episode where he leaped into the life of a blind pianist except he could see perfectly fine. Couldn't do that if he leaped into the pianist's body instead of just switching places with him.

There was also that 3 part story where Sam leaped into the same small town during different time periods and ended up fathering a daughter and passed on some of his intelligence to her where she ended up working on the Quantum Leap project trying to bring Sam back.

And it leaves a plot hole that if Ben is just taking over someone's body during a leap then what happened to his body? If his mind is traveling through time shouldn't his body be in the present in some kind of coma?

[CaptCleghorn]

It seems the story line now is that the Leaper (Sam or Ben) takes over the body of the person in the past but this doesn't jibe with some of the original episodes of QL. There were times when Sam was defintely is his own body and not the 'Leapee's' body.

Like the time when Sam leaped into the life of a 'Nam vet was had his lower legs blown off. Sam was able to stand up straight and a mirror image showed him to be 'floating' in the air and later he dove into a swimming pool to save a quadraplegic who was trying to drown himself.

Then there was the episode where he leaped into the life of a blind pianist except he could see perfectly fine. Couldn't do that if he leaped into the pianist's body instead of just switching places with him.

There was also that 3 part story where Sam leaped into the same small town during different time periods and ended up fathering a daughter and passed on some of his intelligence to her where she ended up working on the Quantum Leap project trying to bring Sam back.

And it leaves a plot hole that if Ben is just taking over someone's body during a leap then what happened to his body? If his mind is traveling through time shouldn't his body be in the present in some kind of coma?

That's a huge plot hole. There's no mention of a waiting room at all which kind of annoys me. Personally I believe having a former leapee in charge of the project should mean that there would be a considerable amount of attention paid to those people and animals (yes, I remember the monkey episode) leapt into. Ben went into the accelerator alone with no one at the project. If there was a waiting room, that would mean a person would be there trapped and alone. That doesn't seem like an action decent people would do. The body leap is either a very sloppy mistake or part of the project's changes.

As to the episode, it's another sign the series is more about getting Ben and Sam home than it is the leaps themselves. Did we care more about the Congressperson's actions, or how Ben would save the town of Salvation? One is the A plot, the other is the B plot. At this point, I'm almost accepting the leaps as being the B plot of an episode. The final dialogue exchange was another dump of overall arc arching and you need to see the episode because I really shouldn't spoil it. It's not OGQL. It's a 21st century style season focused show that disguises itself as a procedural.

[j9ac9k]

And it leaves a plot hole that if Ben is just taking over someone's body during a leap then what happened to his body? If his mind is traveling through time shouldn't his body be in the present in some kind of coma?

If they ever bother explaining it, I would guess that Ben fuses with the Leapee on a "quantum" level. (quantum really is a convenient sci-fi term)

[Toreador]

Another nail against the 'body possession' angle. Like Monday's episode Sam Beckett also leaped into the life of an aging gunfighter. In that episode Sam and Al were discussing on whether Sam's younger body and quicker reflexes would help him in a gun draw against another older gun slinger. More proof that Sam leaped into a person's life with his body instead of just possessing it.

This is the second episode where Ben leaped into a similar situation that Sam did in the last series. I wonder whether it's because they did this as an homage to the original series or the last series covered so much ground that the new series was bound to step on the toes of the previous series or it's part of some big plan of Ziggy's or someone else to try somehow and track Sam down. Maybe it's some last ditch attempt to cross paths with one of Sam's leaps to try and contact him.

I wonder how long Al was able to keep the QL project open once Sam was lost in time. After the series finale with Sam jumping around in his own identity there would be no one in the waiting room to give Al and the team information on where in time to look for Sam. Al (and Gooshie) was just lucky to find Sam on his birthday in the finale (probably from the one time Sam and Al switched places and they're neurons got mixed and they sort of shared/exchanged some personal information).

Do you suppose there is some sort of night/skeleton crew on the project to keep tabs on Ben when he's sleeping in the past or Addison takes some time away from the project to sleep or recharge a bit before going back to the holo chamber?

[CaptCleghorn]

Do you suppose there is some sort of night/skeleton crew on the project to keep tabs on Ben when he's sleeping in the past or Addison takes some time away from the project to sleep or recharge a bit before going back to the holo chamber?

I think they do. I know there were circumstances where Al would show up being interrupted from something he was doing. And for a project this costly, I sincerely doubt the gov't would have it running only 9-5. It might be nice to see the Addison, Magic, Ian, and Jenn being called back to work at the start of a leap though.

I finally got to see the latest episode with the '89 SF quake (Football pre-emption). This show is too damn busy. There's the project plot, the leap itself plot, and now there's a plot with Ben's past. Unlike a lot of serial type shows, QL can't really leave out or severely lessen any of its concurrent plots. This is a 21st century show with umbrella story arcs making it much more than a procedural. But this week was crammed.

[Dalak]

I'm not a fan of them writing out the Leaper in the Waiting Room, as that could lead to a nice plot with Ben's body running around out there inhabited by random people as he was alone when he leaped. I understand why they did it what with the show being much more busy with all the characters in the present, but it is a glaring issue as it was a huge part of the original show they are a direct continuation of. I guess it can be waved away as part of the changed Ben made at the end, but it's not even brought up. Nor is the organization of 'enemy' leapers now that they have another leaper running around out there, which is yet another way to tie the shows together which might still be exploited later on. I doubt it will be due to no mention of the past here, but they still have the option unlike with Ben's Body Gone Rogue.

[j9ac9k]

I'm not a fan of them writing out the Leaper in the Waiting Room, as that could lead to a nice plot with Ben's body running around out there inhabited by random people as he was alone when he leaped...

It wouldn't be Ben's body though - it'd be that person's body but people would just see them as Ben. Nobody is supposed to inhabit anyone's body.

I get why the show did away with it as it's obviously a confusing concept.

[Dalak]

It wouldn't be Ben's body though - it'd be that person's body but people would just see them as Ben. Nobody is supposed to inhabit anyone's body.

I get why the show did away with it as it's obviously a confusing concept.

I was going by the new show's "Leap into the Body" rules in making up some potential plot, I wasn't demanding they have the exact same mechanics for it. I just like the reciprocity of having the leaper in the 'present' which could give them far more detailed info about individual's lives and motivations than any amount of news clippings and such, and gave an example of how it could be used in the story. I even said I understand why they did it as that's another character that would be front and center with the focus on the present who they don't need to deal with now, and all the confusion on display as you said. While I haven't seen this week's episode yet I wouldn't have watched this far if I didn't like it

[CaptCleghorn]

I could get by with the waiting room being written out of the series, but the use of Magic, who actually spent time (that he doesn't remember) in the waiting room, bugs me in an overdetailed fanboy way. I think I've mentioned it, but if there was a waiting room, Ben taking his initial jump would have placed a leapee into the room with no one on duty. That seems a little outside the range of good guy behavior. OGQL had relatively little use of the room as part of the plot and most of those were in later seasons. Even Addison could mention the room which would go a long way to fixing some of the lack of detail regarding OGQL procedures that the show has been suffering from.

[LordMikel]

Sadly I feel the writers have bitten off more then than can chew. We now have 3 separate plotlines. Unknown leaper. What was Ben's plan and where is he leaping to? Now all of a sudden we can't trust someone, but we don't know who.It is like the writers are throwing everything at us and the kitchen sink. Personally I thought the Halloween episode was going to be about the leaper inhabiting the girl's body.

[j9ac9k]

I've said before all they need to do is mention how they were able to refine the Leaping process so that there was no need for a Waiting Room, but I guess that would only make sense for fans of the original series. Any new fans would be confused and possibly create as much confusion as there was over OGQL. Unless they write a story that specifically focused on it - so that they could really explain it all and make it very clear, I think the writers would rather just not even go there. "He leaps into people's bodies" seems clear cut as a sci-fi premise that most people can just accept without needing details.

[CaptCleghorn]

Sadly I feel the writers have bitten off more then than can chew. We now have 3 separate plotlines. Unknown leaper. What was Ben's plan and where is he leaping to? Now all of a sudden we can't trust someone, but we don't know who.It is like the writers are throwing everything at us and the kitchen sink. Personally I thought the Halloween episode was going to be about the leaper inhabiting the girl's body.

I'm hoping these threads all fit together somehow. The unknown leaper being part of Ben's original plan makes different plots fit together. What has Janis Calavicci doing and why? That could very well be a definite part of Ben's plan, but who knows? Magic and his platoon were saved on one of sam's leaps. However, Janis wouldn't have existed had Sam not talked to her mother in the OGQL finale. What's the closest real world situation to something like that?

I'm not sure if the writers have done too much or if the show is forced to include pieces of every subplot in every episode. These episodes would work much better as longer tales.

Give me Bruce McGill, give me Jimmy, and make damn sure if Bakula shows up for the finale, he doesn't f*ck it up.

[CaptCleghorn]

I think the heavier Ben/Leap resolution focus helped a lot with the problem of episodes being too packed with material. As for the leap itself, there are many similarities to the OGQL Boogieman episode. Sam's dream with Ben's being drugged and Sam/Al touching along with Ben/Addison touching. Not to mention the 666 happening on address numbers falling in both episodes. Is this a friendly homage, or is this part of the leap progressions that Ben is going through which has had similarities to some of Sam's leaps as well.

And the "fall finale" promo following up the appearance of spoilers:

Janis

end of spoilers leads me to believe there is going to be something trying to keep us interested over the holidays.

This version of QL is definitely being written on a seasonal scope and not an episodic basis. I do want to binge this series.

[Captain Craig]

I do want to binge this series.

This is what I'm waiting for at some point, probably over the holidays. Binge what is available while I wait for Yellowstone to finish dropping.