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Quantum Leap [Season 1, Episode 1]
Genesis - September 13, 1956 (1)
Shown 26 Mar 89
Reviewed 11th May 2006 [Thursday]
This starts in a Futuristic-looking 1999. Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) picks up a gorgeous 30-something named Tina. Ain't that a kick in the butt?
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) wakes up in the 1950s. He has amnesia, but remembers that the face in the mirror is not his!
Sam is a USAF rocket-plane test-pilot working for Bruce McGill (MacGuyver). The only problem is, he cannot remember how to fly!
Luckily, Al pops up to deliver some exposition.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) must achieve the pilot's goal in order to leap home. Luckily, Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) is a qualified jet pilot.
Naturally, things are not that easy. Otherwise there would be no TV show.
Sam and Al work out what is going on. Some supernatural force has taken over the Quantum Leap project, forcing Sam to leap into other peoples' bodies seemingly at random. He must put right what once went wrong, revisiting the highlights of the Baby Boomer era armed only with a revisionist Liberal agenda. The result is a cross between Time Tunnel and Touched By An Angel .
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a US College Professor, specialising in English Lit.
Sam's memory is so swiss-cheesed that he cannot remember things like the Watergate Scandal. Neither can the audience - people born after 1970, or non-US citizens! However, he can remember that one of the college students is his future non-wife, Teri Hatcher !
Sam must heal broken hearts and so on, so Teri does not jilt him at the Altar. This is set fifteen years before she met him ... and fifteen years after she made this ep, she stars in Desperate Housewives. Wow ... and she still jilted him?
Sam has SIX Doctorates, including Medicine, Quantum Physics and Ancient Languages. What a nerd!
Al's work back at HQ is under investigation, but we learn a couple of things. Firstly, Ziggy the computer is apparently male. Secondly, Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) is MUCH better at giving secret messages to invisible people that Sam is!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a boxer who is under pressure to take a dive.
Sam is owned by a nunnery. The main nun is very pretty - a real waste. She wants the money to build a chapel, the end result being that people will be brainwashed into letting religion destroy their everyday lives.
Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ), as comic relief, spends most of the time asleep. He is cheating on Tina with Deirdre, another woman he barely knows.
Sam must train himself up to win the California championship. He has not remembered that he has multiple blackbelts!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a vet on a Texas ranch run by Belisario favourite Lance deGault ( Buck Rogers in the 25th Century ). The plot this week sees Sam woo deGault's tomboy cowgirl daughter ( Kari Lizer ).
Marshall Teague ( Babylon 5 ) is a cowboy who also wants Tess.
Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) is having problems with Tina - she eloped to Las Vegas with Gushy.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is an elderly African-American man who chauffeurs an elderly white woman. Like in Driving Miss Daisy.
The ep excellently illustrates the problems and unfairness created by segregation. Every time Sam is treated unfairly, he is shown his reflection.
The mission is to save the white woman from an RTA. With Sam being hassled, can Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) influence her?
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a spotty teenage boy.
His sister is going to marry the school bully, then join the Peace Corps. Sam must defeat the bully (and his sidekick, Jason Priestly - Tru Calling ). This involves listening in on the bully and his dad ( Total Recall (1991) ) in the bathroom. He also bumps into a young boy who may be Michael Jackson!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a PI who looks like Humphry Bogart. He is also a suspect in the murder of his business partner.
Everyone is a suspect. Claudia Christian is a femme fatale - Sam's lover and his partner's widow. Willie Garson ( Stargate SG-1 ) is a newspaper seller. Maybe he is Lee Harvey Oswald (like in !Quantum Leap [Season 5, Episode 1] ), and HE is the killer!
The ending is at an airport - reminiscent of Casablanca.
The final leap is into a woman!
Quantum Leap [Season 2, Episode 1]
Honeymoon Express - April 27, 1960
Shown 20 Sep 89
Reviewed 24th May 2006 [Wednesday]
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a NYPD cop on his honeymoon, aboard the train to Niagra Falls.
His bride's ex-husband is a French arms dealer. He and a sidekick are aboard the train, eager to murder Sam and kidnap the woman!
Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) wants Sam to prevent the Gary Powers U2 flight. If they do not, US Congress will pull all funding to the Quantum Leap project.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a stuntman working on the set of Earthquake.
Sam does his bit for interracial relationships by dating a gorgeous African-American woman. Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) is in his element, in the disco era!
The stuntman's little brother has issues. He does not want to disappoint his dad, so he copies his brother.
Sam remembers his own troubled relationship with his brother. And his brother's death in Nam ...
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a US Navy sailor, on leave in smalltown USA. Odd how Bellisario loves the US Navy characters and small-town settings ...
Machiko is the sailor's new wife. He married a Japanese bride, and now has to help her integrate into his home town. To do this he teaches her about womens' lib and equal rights. Yep, that PC stuff will go down well in McCarthyite Hicksville!
Unfortunately, his mother is a hateful old woman. His High School sweetheart is a horny nympho who wants to take up where they left off. And the town bully is a self-pitying asshole who blames all Japanese people for starting World War Two in order to ruin his sporting career!
This episode starts where the last Season left off. Presumably this episode was the first one filmed, and they were shown out of order so that the best episode would be used to launch the Season. That makes sense because QL is worse than ever this time, with its PC brainwashing reinforced with a load of man-hating Feminazi propaganda.
Today Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a beautiful woman whose handsome male boss wants to give her physical pleasure.
The second part of the plot is to do with Sam's flatmate, who is sleeping with the sex-crazed boss and thinks he will marry her.
You do not need a lover to make you feel special, Sam assures her.
Nice one, Sam Beckett. We know you are a pathetic wanker who can never have a proper relationship, relies on Mrs Palm and her five lovely daughters for pleasure, and will die sad and alone. But why condemn someone else to such a terrible fate?
QL, leave us heterosexuals to enjoy our intercourse in peace!!!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a concert pianist. Who is blind! He is playing in Carnegie Hall, NYC.
Luckily one of Sam's MANY skills is piano-playing. He played Carnegie Hall when he was aged 19. But he is not blind, so he has trouble faking it. This illustrates the show's concept that Sam does not leap into the person's body, but rather people merely see him as if he were the other person.
The pianist has a young woman as a hanger-on. Unfortunately her mother wants her to choose a career over marriage - the typical dilema of this show!
The Beatles are in town. As is a serial-killer, stalking young women in Central Park. Yes, there is an action-packed crime-solving aspect to the ep as well. Luckily the seeing-eye dog is a vicious alsatian!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a radio-station DJ in a small town where the locals want to ban rock and roll music!
The DJ has a relationship of sorts with the female owner. Can Sam bring these thirty-something singletons together?
Chubby Checker has a cameo as himself. Let's Do The Twist!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a Rabbi.
He has to stop his sister-in-law from having a one-night stand. The real problem is that the entire family is wallowing in self-pity because the eldest son died an entire year previously!
A friendly Shrink (Russ Tamblyn - Twin Peaks ) is demonised for seducing lonely, sexually frustrated housewives. The ending is nonsensical - why would his bestseller book be cancelled due to libel suits? Could he not just change the names to Patient X?
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a retarded - I mean, special, kid named Jimmy.
While working at the docks he is hassled by Michael Madsen. This role is even referenced in Reservoir Dogs!
The other great thing about this Dean Stockwell's Trudie speech. An excellent delivery, the best thing he does in the entire show!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a lawyer in Louisiana. His client is a young African-American woman, accused of murdering her white lover.
Predictably, Sam has to prove her innocence. And when the killer's identity is revealed, it is quite a shocking scene.
The ep has high production values, and a wonderfully authentic feel.
This is the Don-Wan Kihotay episode, set behind the scenes of a stage production of the Musical Man of La Mancha . Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is understudy to the innkeeper from Northern Exposure. Unfortunately, they are rivals for the affections of Sam's old piano teacher.
Sam is a totally selfish moron in this ep. His childhood crush takes him over entirely, and he totally ignores the fact that he has a mission to perform.
There is a happy ending, though - the bald fat guy gets a beautiful woman! Also, there are several songs from the Musical, and the end credits show the entire cast and crew seated in a theatre!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a scientist investigating the paranormal. His gear is surprisingly high-tech, and allows Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) to be heard by other people!
Troian (named after Bellisario's daughter) is the unlikely name of a beautiful woman. She lives in a creepy mansion, and thinks her husband's ghost is calling to her.
Though Sam refuses to believe in ghosts, ther may be something to them. In the final ep, an explantion for the dead returning was given ... Plus, Carolyn Seymour is the creepy housekeeper - and she later appears as Zoe in Season 5 !
The ending shows Sam leap into the Season One dragster race!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is leader of a College Fraternity in 1967, his mission to prevent Anti-War demonstrators from blowing up the Chemistry department!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a housewife and single mother with a handful of kids.
The youngest ( Troian Bellisario ) is a girl who can see Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ). Apparently under-5s are pure and see only the truth.
The eldest is a teen boy, the big brother from Blossom. He is due to go missing. Perhaps he runs away from school. After all, he is fifteen years old and still a virgin. Like pretty much EVERY teenage boy in Sam's lifetime!
Luckily, Sam has a handful of blackbelts. Also, the hottest babe at the High School is slutty for the virgin-boy.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a high-school boy, and top player of American Football.
Sam and his buddy are both kids of Mexican illegal immigrants. However, if they play really well they will get college scholarships.
Spanish is one of Sam's half-dozen languages.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is an FBI Agent, working in Witness Protection. This is a Taming of the Shrew type story, with him looking after an annoying woman.
This ep is unusual, insofar as it has scenes from the villains' perspective. The bad guy this time is a smuggler who helped illegl immigrants enjoy the safety of life in the USA. For an example, check out the smiling Mexicans in the previous ep!
Sam meets his old Professor, who helped him work out string theory. Pity this is never exploited in later eps!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a Native American. Unfortunately, the sheriff is a racist SOB.
Sam must get Grandpa back to the Reservation, where he can die in peace. However, Sam's medical ethics promote a worthless life over a good death.
The sheriff gives chase. The fugitives head into the mountains, on horseback. A nice evocative metaphor for the events leading up to the demise of Native American power in the USA.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a small-town mortician who doubles as the local coroner. He has to ascertain the cause of death of a young woman. He decides she was murdered, and the sheriff does not agree - so Sam decides to solve the case himself.
Sam has a medical degree of his own, though he is a bit squeemish. He also becomes completely obsessed with the dead girl.
Ths suspects include the girl's boyfriend (Robert Duncan McNeill - Star Trek: Voyager ) and her roommate ( Marcia Cross ).
The real shock is that the damsel in distress was not worth Sam saving, or he would have leaped in there with a chance to save her. Also, the killer did not do other evil deeds, so the case had no point!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) becomes an aging African-American pool-player. Unfortunately Sam cannot play pool, so naturally Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) can. In fact, Al was taught by the very person who Sam has leaped into!
The player's grandaughter ( Shari Headley ) look a loan from a loan shark. Since she cannot get a loan from the bank (Evil white racists!) she offers to sleep with a pool hustler instead. Sam naturally wants to stop everyone from having orgasms, so he plays pool ...
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a Carny - a trapeze artist, to be exact. He must catch his sister, while performing without a net ...
QL guest-stars Julie Brown as a stripper. This is not as sexist as it sounds; Ms Brown also wrote the episode!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) has to help Ms Stripper take a baby from its father and carry it across the State line to its mother. But the woman is a compulsive liar, and Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) has trouble finding out what Sam should do ...
QL has a familiar plot; a beautiful aristocrat must marry a nouveau riche type so her family can recover its finances. However this is interrupted by a shipboard romance with her true love.
Yes, this looks oddly like another source for Titanic. It is not great, but then with retrospect the series never was.
Quantum Leap [Season 3, Episode 1]
The Leap Home - November 25, 1969
Shown 28 Sep 90
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) jumps into his teenage self. He is an All-American boy from the Midwest. A redneck, in other words. Which makes the politically-correct crap he starts spouting all the more unbelievable.
Bakula plays his character's father. Covered in old-age makeup, he is recognisable. And distracting.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) leaps into one of the SEALs in his brother's unit, the day before his brother is due to get killed. His mission is to rescue some POWs, and hopefully protect his brother.
The SEAL Sam jumps into is an African-American. Not the first time Sam has done that. But it is the first time he leaped outside the borders of the USA!
Andrea Thompson is a sexy big-haired reporter who wants an exclusive story. Tia Carrere is a VC defector who volunteers to guide the SEALs to the POWs.
This is one of the best eps, not just because of the glorification of violence. Hey, Producer Bellisario was in the USN for several decades. What makes this ep so great is the ending. The ending is shocking, tear-jerking and absolutely wonderful.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) plays a pugilistic priest who wins the respect of poor kids by teaching them to beat the crap out of each other - to the Marquis of Queensbury Rules, of course. One of the boxers has S. Stallone on his locker, and talks funny ...
Sam's partner is a tough priest who is targeted by the local thug. The thug, just a teenager, knows the priest will testify against him in court. They are both too macho to leave town, so one will end up dead.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) becomes a fashion photographer. He has to deal with a lot of pussy - a lion, in fact!
He must also avoid the attentions of the femme-fatale who runs a modelling agency.
A model is in trouble, addicted to amphetamines. The girl is tall, with a deep voice ... and probably big hands as well. Sam must use his self-control to prevent himself (and anyone else) from having a good time.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) becomes a horror novelist, preparing for a hallowe'en party. Unfortunately, people start to die mysteriously. Are the deaths accidental, murder ... or satanic?
There are breaks in continuity. Unlike shows such as X-Files , these changes are deliberate clues. Also, there are a lot of references to novels by Stephen King . These are explained at the end. Sort of.
The climax is ... confusing. We are never really told what happened. This does sort of set up the Evil Leaper storyline, but it is never clearly explained.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) becomes a teen Beauty Queen down in Dixie-land. At a pageant where he can walk around, behind the scenes, where all the other teen babes are naked.
Unfortunately, someone else has nude teens on his mind. The photographer does private sessions in his room. Eeeeevilly exploiting hot babes, consentually photoing their bumps and fur. That truly IS eeevil!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a divorcee dad, a professional stage-magician with a daughter as sidekick. Unfortunately, the ex-wife is going to get custody.
The daughter prefers to live with daddy, so a reasonable conclusion should be reached. However, for some reason the story turns on its head. The ending is totally unrealistic, and sends a terrible message to anyone involved in a divorce or breakup.
This episode is a reminder that before The Incredible Hulk , Bill Bixby was best known for his role in a TV show about a Magician.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a member of a biker gang. The leader is Dietrich Bader (Beverly Hillbillies), who dresses like Marlon Brando in The Wild One.
Bader's girlfriend is a blonde chick who ran away from home. She was inspired by Jack Kerouac's book On the Road, and conveniently Kerouac lives nearby so Sam can go visit him.
Yes, this is a predictable hatchet-job on American counter-culture. Typical of this show.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is the manservant of a NYC property billionaire. The boss wants to knock down a slum, and put nice buildings there instead. Bastard!
Sam and Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) play the old Xmas Carol trick on him, hoping to make him fall in lust with a babelicious leader of the Sally Army. The poor woman does not have the brains to seduce herself a rich husband.
The victim's brain chemistry is close to Sam's, so he can see Al. He is not related to Sam, and cannot see Sam's real identity. It is pure plot contrivance, after all. As is the supernatural Star of Bethlehem that appears at the end.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a teenage boy, on a road trip with his family.
The mother will go missing. She is frustrated with her macho hubby, who supports equal opportunities for ethnic minorities but not for bored housewives!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a pregnant teenage girl.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a young actor who plays Futureboy in a SciFi TV show. He is pretty clueless, even though he apparently watched the show himself as a kid.
His co-star, Richard Herd ( V ) is on the brink of a mental breakdown. He wants to build a time machine!
We find out where Sam got the original idea for time travel.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a male stripper who dresses as Zorro.
He helps a deaf girl avoid a career in prostitution. Instead he steers her towards dancing - and she dances sexy as hell in her new scarlet hooker dress. Yes, she gives sexual pleasure to far more people than Sam would approve of.
Debbie Allen directed the ep, and co-stars as a blonde woman who does favours for strange men. This is the first ep where we see Sam talking to Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) from someone else's perspective. He looks ridiculous, waving his arms in the air as he talks to an invisible man!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ), last seen as an expert dancer, is now a pianist/singer. His musical talent was first explored at least a season ago. However, the Season one nerd has become unrecognisable. Sam is a real renaissance man, a master of dozens of skills. Multiple doctorates, Carnegie Hall-level pianist/singer, and four blackbelts ...
He is lucky, because this time he is targeted for assassination by the mob. He and the leapee's ex GF, a jinxed blonde woman, drive about the US midwest being chased by a hitman.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) runs a fancy bordello in Naw'leans. He protects the horny career-sluts (including Lauren Tom ) from rough sailors and abusive Exs.
Eugene Tackleberry (Police Academy) is the friendly local sheriff.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a glam rock star, a British citizen on tour in the USA. He deprives sexually frustrated groupies of much sought-after pleasure. Bastard.
Sam is going to get murdered within 24 hours. The suspects are ...
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a bounty hunter, taking a dangerous prisoner to a small town in Midwest USA.
Jane Sibbett is spectacular as the prisoner. Feisty, gorgeous ... a pity her career never took off. She had supporting roles in sitcoms like Herman's Head, Friends ...
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a young African-American kid on Death Row. He is due to be executed in the electric chair in 48 hours time.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a wrestler. He and his partner pretend to be Russians - this is the Cold War, after all.
Unfortunately, the wrestling is all fake and fixed!
The major villain is a plotting, scheming woman. About time we had some female equality. And the end even justifies equal violence against equal women. A great victory for equality!
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is in a family who build bomb shelters, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
As always, the Duck and cover tactic is mocked, despite the fact that it saved lives at Hiroshima.
Sam (Scott Bakula - Star Trek: Enterprise ) is a parent in an asylum. He is given electro-shock treatment, which has the opposite effect to the intended one!
Sam relives the personalities of the people he leapt into. We even get flashbacks, though this is not a clip show. Bakula is wonderful as he takes on the different roles.
Al (Dean Stockwell - Battlestar Galactica ) must save Sam's sanity - and perform his mission too! Sam was supposed to teach a retarded boy to read. The boy can see Al, so Al teaches him with a song. No, not the A, B, C, D rhyme. Instead, Al does a 1991-style hip-hop rap!!!
Sam must have more ECT to be cured. This is the last ep of the season - so to people who know this, Sam's fate is uncertain. There is an element of jeopardy. And the result of the ECT-confused leap? It is original ...