He awoke to find himself trapped in the past... (Quantum Leap)

Member Name: jazz_mavericks

Product:	Quantum Leap
Date:	07/10/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A lot of charm, and you can jump into the show with any episode

Disadvantages: Can often be a little too cheesey

"Theorising that it was possible to time travel within one's own lifetime, Dr Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished!" And with this, the time travelling adventures of Dr Sam Beckett begin!

Sam (Scott Bakulla) is lost in time, unable to get back to his own time, leaping around from life to life, trying to correct mistakes in the life of the person that he has become, to ensure that they have a better future. The person he leaps into, swaps places with him in the future, but the people around Sam can only see him as the person he has become.

As an added problem to Sam on his leaps, the experiment has left him with a 'Swiss cheese' memory - in other words, there are lots of gaps in what he can remember. To help with this problem, though, Sam is joined on his leaps by his best friend from the future, Admiral Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), who appears to Sam in the past as a hologram, that only Sam can see and hear (later we find out that animals, very young children and the mentally insane can also see him).

Al, being still in the future, has a handheld link to the supercomputer running the experiment, called Ziggy. It is this computer that hypothesises what it is that needs to be changed so that Sam can complete his mission, and leap out of the person he is in. With each leap, the hope is that he will leap back to his own time.

It is never really explained why it is that Sam is being leapt around in time, but it is alluded to that it might be God that is using Sam to change mistakes that he has made, to make the world a better place.

In each episode, there is usually what the makers came to call, a 'kiss with history'. These are little, almost in jokes, where Sam does something that will affect the course of history, like causing the Watergate break in to be discovered, or inspiring the lyrics to Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly. As later seasons came along, the kisses with history would become more prolific, with an example being Sam leaping into the body of Lee Harvey Oswald.

The show was a very heartfelt programme, fuelled by some fantastic performances, and some deeply moving storylines. At the same time, there was a great deal of humour and action, and nearly every episode dealt with some kind of morally correct decision needing to be made.

Scott Bakulla is a very talented performer, and many episodes would feature him singing, playing the piano, or displaying his martial arts prowess. On many occasions it was necessary for him to push his acting, as he had to portray anyone, from women to chips, to disabled people to children.

Quantum Leap was one of my favourite shows as a kid, and whenever I see it repeated these days I make sure to catch up and relive the great memories I have of this very special programme.

Summary: A fantastic sci-fi show that jumped the divide into the mainstream