Quantum Leap is the continuation of the original but this time Ben Song takes the leap into the unknown with his fiance Addison at his aid!
When I heard the news that Quantum Leap would come back to the small screen, I was sure to keep track of any news revolving around the show. And I was happy to see that the show would come back after so many years of hoping and Scott Bakula, who played the lead character so many years ago, giving little hints throughout the decade.
And after so many years I finally got to watch the show. But is it any good?
What is Quantum Leap
Before we begin the analysis of the first episode, let’s briefly go over what this show was/is about.
Quantum Leap is a TV show about a failed experiment that allowed people to leap in someone else’s body and temporarily taking over their consciousness. After the good deed is done, the lead character Ben Song, will leap to another body which appears to happen at random. Every time Ben leaps, he hopes to leap back into his own body to live a full life with his fiancee Addison.
Quantum Leap: reboot or continuation?
The big question about Quantum Leap was whether it would be a continuation or just a reboot. The answer is that the show is a continuation of the show that featured Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett. With new actors, a new backstory that ties into the old. But with a few twists and turns.
For instance, there is no more Al. But there is a new hologram and this one is a little feistier than Al. In fact, the new hologram is so close to Ben that you may as well call them married. Almost anyway. Because the new hologram is none other than his fiancee Addison, and she is pulling all her strings to get her lover back. The kind of love that has gone from the happiest day of your life to the worst kind of distant love you can imagine.
In the new Quantum Leap, Sam Beckett never made it home and the project has been terminated. Until someone, Janis Calavicci, rewrites the code for the quantum leap machine and Ben is the one who takes a leap. He ends up in the year 1985. The setting looks beautiful and the music adds to that 1985 experience.
When Ben regains consciousness after his first leap he finds himself in Philadelphia in a getaway car and finds out in no time that he’s the driver. And Ben doesn’t even know how to drive.
Upon arriving at the destination and shaking off the police after a successful heist, Ben meets the rest of the gang. Apparently, the heist was a trial run for an even bigger heist.
The bigger heist was a silent one that involved a lot of C-4 explosives and a team that gets away with it without anyone ever finding out what had happened.
But it wasn’t until Ben leaped into the body Nick Rounder when he prevented the death of many people while the police quickly tracked down the gang that pulled off one of the greatest heists of all time.
The Quantum Leap is just as blue as the original
The first episode manages to capture the very essence that made the original Quantum Leap so much fun. The main character, Dr. Ben Song, is a very empathic character.
In the first episode, we see that one of the gang members named Ryan has issues with a sick wife and a daughter. Addison tells that Ziggy, the supercomputer, has dug up information about what happened after the heist.
Ryan gets fatally shot that night, his wife dies of illness, and their daughter is left orphaned.
Addison appears after Ben has been captured and unmasked as an undercover agent named Matt. After Ben frees himself Addison urges to call the police in order to stop the heist. But Ben protests, because it would mean that Ryan would go to jail and his wife and daughter are even worse off.
Ben then infiltrates the party where a precious jewel is about to get stolen. And he takes down key parts of the gang’s plan and manages to convince Ryan to join his side and stop the gang from blowing up the entire party.
Ryan points out where the C-4 is and Ben tries to defuse the bomb but fails. Addison can’t help him either because she doesn’t know much about disarming bombs.
Then Ben spots a manhole cover and with only 19 seconds to go, Ben drops the bomb in the sewer saving all the people in the party. They only had a few scratches and minor bruises but everyone survived and Ryan gets all the credit because Ben leaps right after that into a space shuttle that he desperately tries to stop from launching. The episode ends with an Oh shi…..before moving to end credits.
Ties to the original show
The original Quantum Leap show aired from 1989 until 1993. The show was refreshing. It featured the same elements as the current show, although I have to add that there has only been one episode of the continuation.
The elements I am talking about are the empathy of both lead characters. They would go above and beyond to save a person or help in such a substantial way that they will have a good life long after the lead character has leaped to their next adventure. The empathic part is what makes the characters such heroes.
The AI, Ziggy. It was an incredibly powerful supercomputer in the original. And the original was still used at the start of the episode.
But after Ben rewrote the code, Ziggy was given an overhaul and became a quantum computer. The strongest computer known to man.
And this Ziggy can almost keep track of where the leaper will jump to next. Something the original never could.
The best part of Ziggy is that her voice is that of Deborah Pratt, who was the narrator of the original show. She is also the wife of Donald Bellisario, who created the show. That’s an amazing tie-in.
Another tie-in to the old show is the fact that Al Calavicci, the original hologram, has a daughter who is trying to become a part of the new Quantum Leap team. But the Department of Defense, deemed her emotional ties to Al a liability so she was rejected.
She is still trying to force her way in and we will have to see how that unfolds. Dean Stockwell, who played Al in the original, has expressed interest to be part in some sort of capacity but sadly passed away last year.
A key difference between the new and old Quantum Leap is that we now get to see more people behind the project.
The original mostly featured Al and Sam. And Al mostly featured as a soundboard for Sam.
The new show has a complete cast with people running the Quantum Leap project. So we get to see the backstories of the new characters as well.
The best tie-in is a character named Herbert “Magic” Williams. He is played by Ernie Hudson and it was one of the bodies Sam leaped into back in the original in a double episode called “The Leap Home”.
Sam leaps into the body of Magic Williams who is a close friend of the family. Ernie Hudson of course is known for his role in Ghostbusters.
That same Magic Williams is now the head of the Quantum Leap project. He has relations in Washington DC that he needs to answer to. So there might be even more backstory.
In an interview, the creators of the show said they were very happy with Ernie Hudson on the show and hope to flesh out the character.
“We don’t want to give too much away, but one of my favorite scenes in the whole show so far is between Mason and Ernie where we find out Magic’s kind of backstory,” Gero said. “I think it’s really powerful and beautiful and, again, it’s just a fresh perspective on the old show in a way that I think only our show can do. Just having Ernie on the show, period, is such a thrill for all of us, and to see him doing such phenomenal work is really breathtaking and so exciting.”
Will we ever see Sam Beckett on the new show
The short answer is going to be no. I am sorry but that’s how Scott Bakula said it on Instagram. He indicated that, with a heavy heart, has passed on the Quantum Leap project saying the following:
I have no connection with the new show, either in front of the camera or behind it.
In January, the pilot was sold and a script was sent to me because the character of Sam Beckett was in it, which makes sense, right? As so many of you have been asking me the last several months, “How could you do QL without Sam?”(or Al, for that matter) Well, I guess we’re about to find out.
Although I hope he changes his mind in the future, the show seems to be off to a good start storytelling wise.
I have read some of the reviews and they were mostly negative but after reading up a little more on the reviews; most of these people are clinging to the original and forgetting that this Quantum Leap is a new show that picks off where the original has ended. They would do well to give this show a chance without comparing it to the original. Just have some fun!
