Looking for something to debate this morning? How about this list of one fan’s ten best episodes of “Quantum Leap?”
Here’s their intro:
Doctor Who may be a long running time travel series, but science fiction fans in the US have a special spot in their heart for Quantum Leap. While it only lasted five short seasons; the adventures of Dr. Sam Beckett have endured the years and the show has become a beloved classic. If there could be one show I would bring back for more seasons, it wouldn’t be any of the Star Treks, it wouldn’t be Firefly; it’d be Quantum Leap. Below are just ten of the best Leaps that Dr. Beckett made in the five years when he was travelling through time fixing what once went wrong.
It’s an interesting list.
A couple of thoughts on it. The list is far too heavily weighted toward the fifth season of the show. While the fifth season was good and I agree the series finale should be up there in the top hours the show produced, the list also excludes the two-parter that defines everything great about “Quantum Leap.” For those of you wondering, it’s the two-part start to season three of “The Leap Home.”
So, tell us which are your favorite Leaps by Sam?
Leaving out the pilot, and the Leap Home is a serious error that calls the whole list into question. And leaving in Lee Harvey Oswald, Norma Jean, and really any of those capitilizing on celebrities is bad IMHO. Really the LHO episodes had only one redeeming point, Sam saving Jackie Kennedy at the end, everything else was just dumb, he could have changed things and chose not to. A better one regarding history being unable to be changed, yet still benefit the team, was the one revolving around the U-2 shoot down, Sam didn’t change the major event, but still made the small change needed to save his program.
That list looks terrible. The episodes surrounding famous people as the main points of the story, such as Lee Oswald, and Elvis, were gimmicks to get ratings. Prior to that season the writers had a “rule” that they would never have Sam leap into actual famous people, but had to resort to it in the last season due to ratings loss.
The last episode was just terrible, and should be one of the worst on the list. It ruined the entire series, stating that God is the reason for Sam’s travels, and suggesting that he is but one of many leapers. This is ridiculous because, like Lost, this spiritual ending hurts the sci-fi aspect that made people watch to begin with, and having other leapers makes what Sam’s doing less extraordinary and less special. Before this episode, Sam was alone in this, allowing for a tremendous amount of sympathy for him, being the only person going back and forth in time, living other people’s lives instead of his own.
The ones where Sam leaps into an animal are also very gimmicky, I don’t need to say any more on that subject.
Basically, 6 out of the 10 episodes there belong on the opposite list, as worst episodes. And the other 4 aren’t the best.
The best episodes would include obviously The Leap Home, for obvious reasons, as well as the one where Sam was in the psych ward and started acting like people who’s lives he inhabited previously (Although Al’s rap was really, really, really stupid), and the Trilogy episode in, I believe, season 5 where he jumped into a woman’s father, then her husband, then her lawyer was just very very touching.
@Errol –
While there was an undertone of spiritualism in the finale, it wasn’t directly stated that it was specifically God making it all happen. There was the implication of something outside of space/time but the viewer was left to draw their own conclusion. This is similar in concept to the B’Jorin Profits in DS9.
Also, the existence of other leapers was established when Sam met the evil leaper.
Like Joe said, it was never stated that God was directing Sam, though the Evil Leaper Saga made it sound very much like the Devil was guiding her/them. I always liked a friend of mines assertion that it was Sam who was making himself leap all about, even in the finale they said he could go home at any time he wanted to. Depending on how you look at it, each of those other leapers could have been Sam at different points in time, in different bodies he had inhabitted. I like to think, and the finale is open ended enough to allow it, that Sam eventually transcended his physical form and was the one guiding the majority of the leapers. The evil leapers being the exception as they were part of a company that had acquired the QL tech and were trying to manipulate things to their benefit whereever possible.
Oh and yes the trilogy where Sam “Fathers” a daughter with the girl he been the father, faince and lawyer to was definitely one of the best story arcs.