If they can send someone back as a hologram which can see and hear the past, what's the point of leaping in the first place ?
Why Leap At All ?
- Thread starter Spottedfeather
- Start date
It seems as though maybe the original idea of the project was that a person would Leap back in time and serve as an anchor for the hologram to hone in on for observation purposes. I don't think Al was ever shown being able to observe a past time except when Sam was there in that time.
Those plot holes and all the changes to the rules and deciding to "go bigger" are the things made me quit the new show.
They aren't rule changes or plot holes. It's literally like Star Trek: The Next Generation: QL22 takes place 30 years later, and there has been a HECKUVA lot of new advancements in science and technology since then. Everything's just updated, not changed.
To me “updates” like Ziggy not talking and the entire fact that now it’s Ben “mind merging” with the Leapees when canonically it was Sam’s body certainly feel like unfamiliarity or deliberate changes to canon.
But I watched an old documentary last night where one of the experts claimed Sam stepped into the time machine every time he Leaped, so distance from the source material makes a difference. Given the showmakers have said they did not watch the OG and deeply research it, it comes off much as some OG fanfiction in the 90’s when all we had to go off of was our own memory or the Usenet groups and whatever VHS we may have gotten on our own. (Or the books before the OG show made it factually and abundantly clear that it was a body Leap.)
So those are the sorts of things that feel like rule changes and we’re gonna do what we want. I think I’m not alone in having wanted a true sequel.
But I’m about to be fifty, so maybe it’s just my inner Sophia Petrillo asserting herself. Or Dorothy for that matter.
But I watched an old documentary last night where one of the experts claimed Sam stepped into the time machine every time he Leaped, so distance from the source material makes a difference. Given the showmakers have said they did not watch the OG and deeply research it, it comes off much as some OG fanfiction in the 90’s when all we had to go off of was our own memory or the Usenet groups and whatever VHS we may have gotten on our own. (Or the books before the OG show made it factually and abundantly clear that it was a body Leap.)
So those are the sorts of things that feel like rule changes and we’re gonna do what we want. I think I’m not alone in having wanted a true sequel.
But I’m about to be fifty, so maybe it’s just my inner Sophia Petrillo asserting herself. Or Dorothy for that matter.
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Unfortunately if you want to get a TV show or movie greenlighted these days, you pretty much have to continue/reboot/adapt an existing book, TV show, movie, or other existing property with a built-in audience. The bean counters don't trust new ideas. So you end up with reboots where the creators wanted to make something new but couldn't, so they went out of their way NOT to watch the source material and made massive sweeping changes, and then the audience is splintered into "just enjoy it, it's more QL" and "this isn't QL" and defenders on both sides.
I wish we could get back to a place where if you want to have a new idea, you can get the money and resources to go make that new idea. And if you want to adapt something, you have to prove you CARE about that property and its existing audience. Instead they waited until Don Bellisario is long since retired and looking at legacy and ran out of reasons to say No.
In Season 6 of Quantum Leap, Sam would have been able to leap as himself and leap home ANY TIME HE WANTED with all his memories, and yet he would still choose to leap into people's lives as he's now committed to "the mission" and working for The Bartender. If you don't believe me, go listen to Sam and the Bartender's final speech about 10 times. So QL would have changed some of the rules no matter what. The QL formula was starting to get a tad stale and needed to grow for the show to continue, and I don't mean whacky leaps like Bigfoot and celebrity leaps.
But so far, the changes they've made in the new QL don't seem to be done to open up storytelling opportunities, but just to be "different" from the original show for the sake of being different. Nobody is saving you can't change things and I am rooting for the new show, but changes in the mechanics of an established show have to be done for some other reason than feeling creatively straitjacketed. Every change should have a reason and shouldn't open giant plot holes. Maybe they'll explore this in Season 2.
I wish we could get back to a place where if you want to have a new idea, you can get the money and resources to go make that new idea. And if you want to adapt something, you have to prove you CARE about that property and its existing audience. Instead they waited until Don Bellisario is long since retired and looking at legacy and ran out of reasons to say No.
In Season 6 of Quantum Leap, Sam would have been able to leap as himself and leap home ANY TIME HE WANTED with all his memories, and yet he would still choose to leap into people's lives as he's now committed to "the mission" and working for The Bartender. If you don't believe me, go listen to Sam and the Bartender's final speech about 10 times. So QL would have changed some of the rules no matter what. The QL formula was starting to get a tad stale and needed to grow for the show to continue, and I don't mean whacky leaps like Bigfoot and celebrity leaps.
But so far, the changes they've made in the new QL don't seem to be done to open up storytelling opportunities, but just to be "different" from the original show for the sake of being different. Nobody is saving you can't change things and I am rooting for the new show, but changes in the mechanics of an established show have to be done for some other reason than feeling creatively straitjacketed. Every change should have a reason and shouldn't open giant plot holes. Maybe they'll explore this in Season 2.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it at least wasn't a magnum, p.i. thing where we're going to just re-do the great series (that honestly holds up well! Not all old shows do.) and just change it around, like making Higgins a woman. :disbelief My kid just watches the Tom Selleck version, thankyouverymuch. If it's not broke, don't fix it.
This. Be open to NEW IDEAS and most especially, if continuing or adapting something new, prove you CARE. I think of Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman movies as a good example of this. Yes, WW84 had some issues the first one lacked, but again, it's obvious she CARED about the source material both comics and Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series of my childhood. Plus sophomore outings suffer sometimes.
So much I wish we could have seen, I wish they'd have been able to do. I wish more QL had happened far sooner when everyone involved wanted to and was able to. Honestly, once Dean's stroke retired him (and it was obvious in his NCIS:New Orleans appearance that age was beginning to get the better of him even prior. Time comes for us all.) it was even more heartbreaking that they never managed to get a continuation, or a TV movie, or what have you. But if wishes were horses....
This is how I feel also. Change for the sake of change is annoying. To go to the earlier example cited, ST:TNG was a continuation of ST:TOS, the changes made sense in what had been established prior. It will certainly be interesting to see what awaits in season 2.
And, yes, I'm very attuned to the changes from the OG QL as we have been introducing my hubby to it (introduced DD while he was deployed. Once we watched the pilot of the new one, I told her "okay, if you liked that wait til you see this!") so we've been making our way slowly through the series again. We're currently in season 3 with him. I've said before, Scott and Dean were catching lightning in a bottle and I didn't expect that to be duplicated in the new one, so where it disappoints me isn't due to that alone. It's the changes that don't make sense that do that.
Wait...I thought the writers claimed to be fans? How can they not research a show that they're working on a new version from?
As for my problems with the new series I wrote a detailed post for reddit and it was downvoted to hell which is always nice as I was just giving constructive criticism. I want the show to succeed and get better:
The current show runners are fans of the original series. I know Drew lindo said the other day he was. Personally I don't mind the changes. Yes there's a couple of things that don't make a lot of sense but it's still a fun show and I just take it on its own merits. I try not to compare it to the other too much. I love the original series! But I love this show too, just in a different way.
I agree that some of the writing is unnecessarily complicated and trying to create mystery and intrigue that is not needed. But having watched season 2 up to episode 7, the show seems to be getting better. Will it stand the test of time like the original Quantum Leap? Who knows.
I thought your critiques are reasonable, for what it’s worth. I’m not familiar enough with reddit for the downvote process, but one thing I’ve always loved about THIS special place is the respectful discourse among fans.Wait...I thought the writers claimed to be fans? How can they not research a show that they're working on a new version from?
As for my problems with the new series I wrote a detailed post for reddit and it was downvoted to hell which is always nice as I was just giving constructive criticism. I want the show to succeed and get better:
Also, I don’t question the showrunners’ fan status, just their depth level of research for connection purposes. I do love all the connecting threads to the original, just wish they had the tapestry a tad more woven with it. But that’s me. I still wish they’d kept Janis around, but glad to see Beth is at least!
Oh Sam from Fate's Wheel thinks I'm evil incarnate!
The biggest frustration that I mention in that post is the lack of explanation as to what happened to everyone from the original and where everything is in the reboot. For a spin-off sequel series it seems to not want to answer any questions about the original series but have its mystery box and heavy interaction exposition between characters s it ends up being QL mixed with TV series 24 which is not really what we should be getting.
Believe it or not as mentioned in that post it wasn't until the end of Episode 17 of Season 1 that I realised Project QL was now in LA! I was criticised in the reddit comments for not repeatedly watching the episodes to make myself aware of this. I have learning difficulties but I'm not too bad at keeping track on things during first viewing but why would I watch an episode more than once when they fail to explain these details in dialogue to begin with? If the show isn't grabbing me because it's confusing as a reboot why would I rewatch episodes?
New Quantum Leap had its own identity crisis in its first season.
Is it a police procedural?
Is it a mystery/conspiracy show?
Does the history/time story even matter?
The show also leaned heavily into the current zeitgeist of every main TV character being deeply flawed, broken, and in need of constant reassurance. Sam and Al cared deeply about each other and bared their souls on a regular basis. So the new show being a weekly group therapy session stands out as an unusual course correction. This thankfully gets more subtle in season 2 as the writers learn we don't need to be hit over the head.
I wish they'd figured out sooner that Ben and Addison fawning over each other every week doesn't make for great television after a while. But they did finally figure out that something needed to change, and drastic as the method was, the result is a far more interesting show.
After being very reluctant to watch more, I'm glad I did as Season 2 has been significantly better.
Is it a police procedural?
Is it a mystery/conspiracy show?
Does the history/time story even matter?
The show also leaned heavily into the current zeitgeist of every main TV character being deeply flawed, broken, and in need of constant reassurance. Sam and Al cared deeply about each other and bared their souls on a regular basis. So the new show being a weekly group therapy session stands out as an unusual course correction. This thankfully gets more subtle in season 2 as the writers learn we don't need to be hit over the head.
I wish they'd figured out sooner that Ben and Addison fawning over each other every week doesn't make for great television after a while. But they did finally figure out that something needed to change, and drastic as the method was, the result is a far more interesting show.
After being very reluctant to watch more, I'm glad I did as Season 2 has been significantly better.
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