1215 Crimson Reflections

What is your opinion of this story?

  • 5 ? This is an excellent episode! One of my personal favorites!

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • 4 ? This episode was great! I will definitely tell others about it.

    Votes: 3 50.0%
  • 3 ? This episode was good. It was worth reading.

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • 2 ? This episode was like the neutral zone ? I am indifferent.

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • 1 ? Bellisario would be rolling in his grave if he had one.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    6
D

Dman176

Guest
Crimson Reflections
November 1, 2006

Stallion's Gate and Albuquerque, New Mexico

Al can't seem to work out a problem?something linked to one of Sam's leaps?that keeps invading his private life. To rid himself of the predicament, he must search out the source of the problem and confront it face to face.

Written by: M. J. Cogburn


Thanks,
TVS Team
 
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Our rating system this season consists of six raters and three back-up raters! We took the average of six raters and came up with an average for that episode. Based on ratings of 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, the average of this episode was: 9.17

Please be aware that some reviews may contain spoilers! Some of the comments given were:

Seeker said:
Like the best of creepy stories, the sensation that something?or someone was behind me just kept growing as this deliciously exquisite story progressed. A nightmare that had kept waking Al up ended as a waking nightmare for him when he discovered the truth behind its invasion of his dreams.

There was just the right balance of tension and uncertainty and confusion in the dialogue between Marissa and Al. Poor Marissa, I get the feeling that no amount of therapy will ever help her to put her visit to ?The Red Room? totally behind her. One of my favorite moments was when Al exited Marissa?s room then looked at her through the one-way mirrored glass; Marissa looked into her dressing mirror towards the door, arching her brows in a questioning manner. That subtle little reaction gave Al the creeps. It gave me the :hair creeping willies!

To discover that Marissa?s mother was none other than Danessa from Al?s days at MIT was a delightful twist. It was also especially nice to meet the newest addition to the PQL family in the form of Dom?s and Aurora?s sweet new little daughter.

Crimson Reflections started off subtly then in steadily building increments, started giving me the creepy feeling as I was drawn along that someone was behind me, just waiting for me to turn around to find?. *shivers*.

Delightful, MJ! Absolutely delightful. One of your best, my dear. Bravo!

RATING: 10

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Morris J. Finkle said:
Ever since I started reading the Virtual Seasons, I became a big fan of MJ's work. You can just tell she knows Quantum Leap and all of its characters inside and out. So, I always like seeing the occasional glimpse into the lives of everyone at PQL.

It was great seeing Al take the spotlight in this "leapless" episode; nice change of pace from the standard QL fare. What was even more interesting was how this all tied in with the evil leaper project (which was assumed to be destroyed in the Project Liberty debacle). I get the impression this might be connected with that mystery guy who apparently infiltrated the Project during the "Eternal Shadows" quadrilogy from last season. I had always thought that incident with Marilyn Hicks seemed a bit "hinky," as Al would put it. As superb as "And Then Darkness Falls" was, I could never comprehend how a teenage girl could be so malicious as to assist someone such as Marilyn in killing herself. Now we know there was much more to the incident than we were initially led to believe.

Wonderful story as always, MJ! :)

RATING: 9.0

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Sporty said:
Great having a story with Al as a center. When Al is hurting that usually makes a great story. I love Al suffering. Great job!

RATING: 8.0

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Allie Cat said:
First of all, let me say that I am quite impressed. I know how hard Al is to write for you, MJ, and I think you've done a wonderful job with the whole story. It kept me wondering throughout the story where it was all leading. I've always enjoyed a good mystery and this certainly was one. And it doesn't hurt in the least that I'm a die-hard Al-coholic.
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Marissa's description of the "Red Room" gave me the creeps. One thing is for certain: after reading this story, it was hard to focus on anything else, so ingrained it had become in my mind. And here's a weird thing for you: while I was reading that particular scene (I was forced to read the story in two parts due to a busy schedule), I had a rather scary incident happen - by the way, ice and cars don't mix. Makes me wonder... could this story become the next B**gieman? It's probably just a wild coincidence. But that's how creeped out I was by the scene with Marissa. It seriously reminded me of "The B**gieman". And the description of Al finally seeing the truth about Marissa's actions through the archives of that leap... well, it makes me think about who could be wearing that aura. Hmmm....

I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing Aurora again. We really don't get her in the stories often enough, in my opinion. And my heart goes out to Dom when Aurora went into labor. He's gonna have fingernail marks in his hands for a few days!

So, while you may have seen this story as a pain in the butt to write, I find this to be one of your best stories yet. Great job, MJ!
cheers.gif


RATING: 10

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Vince Beckett said:
Things are getting interesting here. I already knew about an evil leaper leaping into Marissa from reading Quantum Retribution, but now Al knows about it. I can tell something big is going to go down this season.

RATING: 9.5

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Gooshie said:
I thought that an episode with the word "crimson" would alude to the Evil Leapers, however it came much later in the story than I thought and had almost given up on seeing that part of the plot coming forth. This episode was well executed and it was interesting having the tie-in from an story from earlier this season. Although a little bit of Sam would have been nice, I enjoyed reading about the actions of the PQL staff, not to mention the birth of the Lofton baby.

A story well done, MJ. Now I suppose we shall have to wait and see if Lothos really thinks that Sam is dead.

RATING: 8.5

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Now, it's your opportunity to rate this particular story. Let the author(s) know how you rate this story. If you'd like to give feedback, please go ahead and leave a reply!

Thanks!
The Virtual Seasons Team
 
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Good job MJ. I enjoyed it. It is good to see a story with a different focus occasionally. Revisiting a leap that ended with less than desireable results and how the people involved are effected was a good idea. Nice twist with Danessa.

P.S. I liked the dream sequence
 
MJ, this was an Al-coholic's dream episode. :) I loved Verbena's line about everyone pulling together when one of their own was hurting. Great stuff with Danessa and Marissa, oh my! What counseling that girl is gonna need! But can anything break through what she's been through?

This was a great change of pace type episode. They're gonna need to build a daycare at PQL soon! ;)

Great work!
 
Very Good MJ

MJ...as I've said to you off of this forum, the story was very good. I really enjoyed the story line and am looking forward to other developments (even though evil leapers are not my favorite characters to read.)
 
As I would expect with MJ, this was a powerful and dramatic story, even though it was 'leapless'.

I can empathize, I find Al hard to write too, but you did a sensational job, hon.

Of course I loved seeing Dom and Aurora again! I can't help having a soft spot for my creations, and it is interesting to see what other people make of them. I would have liked to hear Aurora resort to a few choice words of Puerto Rican during labor, but never mind.

The only other niggle is a minor technical one - MJ is great at proof reading and editing other people's submissions, but I know from experience it is impossible to proof read your own stuff - you read what you expect to see.
It distracted me from the pace of the story a couple of times to see Danessa's name where it should have been Marissa's. An easy mistake to make when caught up with getting your ideas on paper, but someone should have picked it up before publication.

Having said that, this was still a great read, well done MJ.
I'm sure this means that the evil leapers will be rearing their ugly heads again soon, beware Sam!
 
Not too sure what to say, I only picked up on this series a few episodes ago. Asearcher had to tell me which VS episode it connected with. Because I really felt in the dark about the story while reading it. It wasn't a bad story in fact I thought it was interesting that it wasn't in the norm., it was a totally Al story. It just isn't good for some one who didn't read the earlier story that goes with it.