Quantum Leap: Prodigal Destiny

ThNik

Project QL Intern
Aug 8, 2005
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I wrote this script for a trailer I plan on making. Let me know what you think of it.


Prodigal Destiny Trailer

Opening: The date is listed at the bottom of the screen as December 17, 2004. Donna is tucking a little girl into bed.

GIRL: Mommy, what was Daddy like?

DONNA: Well, he was very smart, like you, and always got the highest grades like you.

GIRL: Was he nice?

DONNA: He was the nicest man you could ever meet.

GIRL: Was he strong?

DONNA: Why all the questions about your father out of the blue?

GIRL: Well, we were talking about daddies in school and Jimmy Blake was talking about how his daddy?s a fireman and saves people from burning buildings, and Sally said her daddy?s a policeman who catches bad guys, and I was wondering what Daddy did.

At this, Donna smiles, and her eyes grow thoughtful. She kisses her daughter on the forehead.)

DONNA: Your daddy did a job that was better than all of those other daddies combined.

GIRL: What was it?

DONNA: I?ll tell you one day when you are old enough, don?t worry. Now go to sleep, sweetheart.

She reaches over and turns a lamp by the bed out. The camera pans in close, to a picture on the nightstand. The picture is of Sam Beckett, her father, who she has never seen. The picture glows blue and light envelops the screen. Text shows at the bottom of the screen twelve years later. The girl has grown into a trouble maker, constantly at odds with the authorities.

DONNA: Alicia, why can?t you go a week without getting into some kind of trouble?

ALICIA: Don?t be so dramatic, Mom, it?s not that often.

DONNA: Don?t give me that attitude. If your father were here to see you act like this?

ALICIA: Newsflash, Mom1 My father is a deadbeat who ran out on us before I was even born!

DONNA: That isn?t true, Alicia!

ALICIA: Then what is the truth, Mom? You don?t really expect me to believe that my Dad is rally some superhero like you told me when I was a little girl, do you?

Donna grows silent for a minute. She takes a deep breath.

DONNA: No. I don?t expect you to believe anything anymore. It is time I showed you something I should have shown you years ago.

The scene changes to a run down facility in the New Mexico Desert. The faded plaque in front of the facility reads Project Quantum Leap. The voice over begins as the facility and it?s various equipment areas is shown on camera.

V.O.: In 1995, a brilliant scientist led an elite group of the nation?s top scientists into the desert near Stallion?s Gate, New Mexico. He received a top government grant to develop his theory of time travel, known as Quantum Leap. Pressured to deliver results, he prematurely stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator and vanished.

The scene shifts to an elderly Gooshie explaining the situation to Alicia.

ALICIA: You expect me to believe that my father invented a time machine then disappeared?

GOOSHIE: Yes, that is the gist of it.

ALICIA: Then where is the proof? Why don?t the history books all show these appearances of him, if eh ahs leaped around as much as you say?

At this, an old man in a naval uniform steps forward. This is Al, no longer the virulent man he once was.

AL: He isn?t there because the books changed every time he leaped.

ALICIA: Why can?t you bring him home?

AL: Don?t you think we?ve tried. We?ve spent every minute of the past twenty-one years trying to do just that. And now, we will never succeed.

DONNA: Don?t tell me?

AL: Those government nozzles finally pulled the plug.

The scene shifts to a locker room. Al is handing an old Fermi suit to Alicia.

AL: He would have wanted you to have this. It is the only thing of his we have left.

The scene shifts to the accelerator chamber, dark from a lack of power. Alicia is walking in, her face pondering and wondering what experiment had taken place. She is wearing the Fermi suit, grayed from years of disuse.

V.O.: Just when all hope seemed lost, Time or Fate, or whatever controls our lives intervened.


The scene shifts to outside where a massive bolt of lightning hits the complex. Back inside, the accelerator begins to charge and glows with a blue light all around Alicia.

AL: no, Ziggy, shut off the Accelerator! For God?s sakes, Alicia is still in there!

ZIGGY: I am sorry, Admiral, there is no way for me to shut it off at this point.

The camera pans back close to Alicia, whose face is wide with fear. He voice is barely a whisper.

ALICIA: Oh boy!

The scene shifts to a sunlit bed. Alicia opens her eyes in confusion, looking around. A male hand reaches over her and holds her.

MAN: Morning, Baby

Alicia screams and rolls off the bed. She runs into the bathroom, scared for her life, and locks the door behind her. She is crying hard, not able to remember what happened. She leans over the sink to grab a towel to wipe her tears off, when she catches a look into the mirror and sees the face of a 25 year old Asian girl. Her eyes roll back into her head and she faints. The scene shifts back to PQL.

GOOSHIE: It?s no use, admiral. Your brainwaves are just too unique to link with Alicia. We have to find someone else.

DONNA: What about me?

AL: No, remember Sam tried that with you and found that familial brain waves are too similar to work.

GOOSHIE: We need to find someone who is both unique from Alicia, and the same as her on some sort of deeper level.

DONNA: Where are we going to find such a person?

ZIGGY: I have run a search and determined that one of her classmates will work.

The scene shifts to show a clean cut boy putting away his saxophone. He is the sort of boy most kids try to introduce to their parents when they are hiding their real dates, He then gets caught from behind in a wedgie by a kid who shoots past him on a skateboard. This is Steven Richards, the most popular kid in school. The scene shifts to this skater?s apartment where he hears a knock at the door and two government agents enter.

FBI: Steven Richards?

STEVEN: Yes?

FBI: We?re going to need you to come with us.

STEVEN: I swear, the website said they were legal!

The scene pulls back to Alicia, who is eating dinner with her ?boyfriend?. She looks uncomfortable, but faced with no better explanation, she has come to accept that this is her life. At that moment, she sees a white door open in the middle of the room and Steven step out.

BOYFRIEND: Ayaka, are you all right?

ALICIA: Please tell me you can see the kid in the hoodie.

The boyfriend looks at her, then pulls her drink away from her. The scene shifts to an alley. Steven is explaining the situation to Alicia.

STEVEN: According to the dude in the funky white jumpsuit, your memory has been punched up like Swiss cheese as a result of the Acceleration activating, or something like that.

:ALICIA: I knew this couldn?t really be my life. How do I get back?

STEVEN: According to Ziggy, your best shot is what your Dad did. You have to correct some sort of mistake to jump out.

ALICIA: Sow what do I have to do?

As she says this, a scene shifts to a chaotic college building. The halls are on fire, and graffiti on the wall reads Animal Freedom Now! A fire rages up around two young girls, barley 20, and they scream. The scene shifts to a pickup driving down the road.

BOYFRIEND: I can?t believe I?m hearing this from you, Ayaka! Don?t you want those scientists to stop torturing those poor animals?

ALICIA: It?s Not that Ricky, its just that students might get hurt!

RICKY: That won?t happen!

ALICIA: How do you know?

The scene shifts to a meeting where students dressed in skull masks are preparing Molotov?s and other pyrotechnic weapons.

ALICIA: Ricky, please don?t do this!

RICKY: Ayaka, you?re either with us or you?re against us! Which is it?

The scene shifts to the burning building, where Alicia is pushing through the flames. Steven is running through the walls, leading her forward.

STEVEN: Hurry, Alicia, they don?t have much time left!

The scene shifts back to PQL, where Gooshie is preparing the console. Al, Steven, and Debra are gather around anxiously waiting.

GOOSHIE: Better cross your fingers.

They all look at each other.

AL: Ziggy, activate the Retrieval Program!

ZIGGY: Yes, Admiral.

The Accelerator chamber glows blue and begins to charge with electricity. The camera zooms into the charge and into the blue fog, where charges of electricity shoot around dates and images from history.

V.O.: In 2018, God, Fate, Time, or whatever, will intervene to put right what once went wrong one more time?

The electricity shoots around to form outlines of the words Quantum Leap: Prodigal Destiny. The Quantum Leap Theme song then begins to play as credits are shown and release date appears.
 
I think it's pretty good. The only thing that kinda confused me is I don't totally understand why Donna would not work. They're not family, just married...maybe I'm missing something here.

Sarah
 
Regarding the story

It is an interesting concept. I have to agree, though, with the last poster. If a person is married they do not share the same genes and therefore the argument as presented is not valid.

Second, although this may be more due to The Virtual Seasons universe than the QL universe at large (many stories based on the actual TV show instead of the group created continuing reality), it has been my understanding that actual "family" are very good to use as observers. That the closeness in brainwaves is good for this purpose. That's why Sammy Jo, or Tom, or even Al's daughter's (due to the Ziggy link) have all been used as observers in one story or another.

And, although sad, since the gentleman who portrayed Gooshie on the show (I'm spacing on his real name...someone will fill it in I'm sure) is now dead, if this were ever to really be done, then someone else would have to play the role of Gooshie. That, I believe, is at least part of the reason that TVS (after the actor died) choose to have a new chief programmer.

Oh...I thought of a few more things. First, if the program has been shut down, then Ziggy would not be working. Ziggy must be connected to electricity or she will not operate. Additionally, it would be more likely that if the program was shut down, either another project would utilize the area (probably one somewhat related to using Ziggy for another purpose) and the area reconfiguered (and possibly removing things vital to PQL) or the area would be abandoned and anything deemed of value (e.g. Ziggy) would be moved to another site. Finally, while lightning has an enormous amount of power, the time for the accelerator to be brought on line is not compatible with the single moment power that lightning provides. Therefore, the scenario of why she leaps is a bit far-fetched.
 
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Thanks for the feeback. I'm sorry it took me a lil while to reply, but I've been having massive computer problems. First, regarding the use of family as observers, I meant to explain that it is not about genetics, but about similarity of brainwaves. Myy reasoning was, presumabbly, that if the brainwaves are too similar, then the extra brainwave would be drowned out. That is, if al and Sam were too close to each other, Sam's brainwave would overpower Al's, and hed would nto eb abl;e to see or hear him. The compatibility of husband and wife would, provided there were soem years fo marriage pkus initial chemistry, thier brainwaves would be too alike to differentiate. It's like your thoughts in your head. At any given time, you have dozens of random thoughts going through your ehad. But you can't focsu on most of them because a single thought, or a few thoguhts, tend to overpower the others. The observer-leaper relationship relies heavily on the power of thought. For all practicality, Al is a fictional thought in Sam's imagination. If the brainwave were too similar, Sam's own thoughts would voerpower Al's signal, and he wouldn't be able to communicate very well with Al at all.
Second, For my story idea, the project is nto actually shut down at the time it shows. I guess my words were a little misleading, but I meant to say that the government has cnaclled funding and ordered the project shut down on the day Alicia and Donna are there. Ziggy and the project are still fully operational, but on this dya, they are supposed to shut down.
Third, this is a trialer script, as in, a fast paced commerical style showing. The actual show would go at a slower pace. The time to pwoer up the accelerator would take a lot logner than this shows. But this is supposed to be a trailer, and the time it takes jsut for the accelerator to power up would take longer than the entire trialer. The bolt of lightning alos is ntot he sole source of power to the accelerator. The accelerator is rteally in a state of "Standby", powered up so it could be activated ratehr qucikly, but nto pwoered for obviosu reasons. The bolt of lightning hits the chamber directly, causign two things: First, enough pwoer is snet to wake up the chamber, and second, a security protocol is engaged. In the same way that the imaging chamber was sealed when the bolt of lightning cuased Sam and Al to switch places, the bolt of lightning hitting the acelerator directly caused the door to the chamber to seal, keeping everyone otuside the chamber safe from the possible disaster inside the chamber. Whiel thewy woudl have mroe than enough tiem to get Alicia out, they wouldn't have the means.
Thanks for the feedback guiys, I really appreciate it. And I do acknowledge that it is a little far-fetched, but if you take means to avoid that, you lose a lot of the fun facotr of science fiction.
 
Regarding Brainwaves

I'll try to get to the other areas later when I have time but regarding being married.

I've been married for 27 years. I can tell you...just cause you're married a LONG time doesn't mean your branwaves ever get close to the same. And before you say "they're soulmates"....that isn't valid either.

One of the thing I had most about the "candle" thing people do with weddings is they take the two individual candles, light the big on in the center, and then blow out the individual ones. To me, that is not right. We do not extinguish our individuality by entering marriage. Rather, the marriage becomes a third entity in ones life...one both must cherish and feed with positive focus for it to live and thrive between the two people who have entered the union.
 
asearcher said:
I'll try to get to the other areas later when I have time but regarding being married.

I've been married for 27 years. I can tell you...just cause you're married a LONG time doesn't mean your branwaves ever get close to the same. And before you say "they're soulmates"....that isn't valid either.

One of the thing I had most about the "candle" thing people do with weddings is they take the two individual candles, light the big on in the center, and then blow out the individual ones. To me, that is not right. We do not extinguish our individuality by entering marriage. Rather, the marriage becomes a third entity in ones life...one both must cherish and feed with positive focus for it to live and thrive between the two people who have entered the union.

my menaqing, in the similar growing of husaband/wife brainwaves, iks in the fact that both begin to think on almost the smae pattern. No, opinions may be vastly different, but in some way, a husband and a wife will begin to think similarly in some way. Don't try to read too deeply into it. It is simply as noticeable, as finishign each toehr's sentences. A husband and a wife will, at soempoint, be able to tell to soem degree, what the other is thinking. It doesn't mean they will evr totally agreee or anything. But they will gow similar.
 
Strongly Disagree

After 27 years (28 in October) of marriage (and still best friends throughout)...brainwaves DON'T get similar. Hubby doesn't finish my sentences, I don't finish his. It simply would not happen. We are 2 separate individuals and always will be. And from seeing other marriaged couples who have been married as long (and sometimes longer) then us...doesn't happen with them either. I believe this is a flawed belief.

Plus...simply from a physiological standpoint...brainwaves don't change like that! It would be like saying your nervous system changed. Doesn't happen.
 
And I do acknowledge that it is a little far-fetched, but if you take means to avoid that, you lose a lot of the fun facotr of science fiction.
Ah, but part of the fun of science fiction is that it lies just within the realm of reason and possibility. If you have to completely suspend your disbelief then it's crossed out of science fiction and into the realm of fantasy.