Evil Leapers?

Did you like the Evil Leapers in the series?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 47.1%
  • No

    Votes: 9 52.9%

  • Total voters
    17

Sam's Crow

Project QL Intern
Jun 12, 2008
488
0
0
Liverpool, England
What do people think of the Evil Leapers? Where they a good idea? To be honest, I liked them but at the same time I think they were kind of cheesey. That's just my opinion.
 
Im unsure there myself I liked the drama the show had and that Frank hitting Jimmy made me angry I can see why he did it but it was very disturbing to watch I think I can take a quote from ziggy I am about 86.6% against the leapers.
 
Hey isz :) I think something about that evil leaper thing bothered me Im unsure why. I wish Al hadn't been a hologram in that first one and kicked Franks butt for hitting Jimmy like that. I felt for Jimmy he didnt do a thing and got set up by evil Alia.
 
I wonder what the creaters of Quantum Leap were thinking when they decided to add Evil Leapers. I mean, there were some episodes of QL which I thought could be improved but the "EL trilogy" was ridiculous. Again that's just my opion.
 
I wondered about that to Crow LOL IMO I think they shouldnt have added Evil Leapers maybe they wanted something like Charmed did with witches and warlocks I dont know lol
 
I don't have a specific source, but people have said it was pressure from the network to make the show more "exciting" by having an adversary for Sam. I don't like the evil leapers; they are where QL becomes a comic book. They strain my ability to believe in the show.
 
Wow!

How interesting to see people don't like the evil leapers.

Although I do think the show should have stayed as it was - and that is a good hearted show.

What I mean by that is Sam always tries to help people. He is good hearted.

Which is one of the reasons why the show is so good!

But at the same time I do think the evil leapers did add something to the show. Not necesserilly excitement.

In my personal opinion, QL - to me - is the type of show where you could do anything with it.

And thats my point here, that an added dimension was added in the show that could make it more interesting maybe?

Evil leapers may not be to everybodies taste.

But to see an extra dimension in the show that actually is to people's taste is an interesting idea I say!

:)
 
i think that they added these evil leapers characters to the show to make it more interesting and i am sure that they there were gonna make more of those characters in the season 6:nut but the show failed to have a new season so we ve never learned where they came from and what really happened to joey if that was her name i think .In my personal opinion i liked the whole concept with these characters becouse it made ql a little bit darker than it was.
 
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I think that's why they messed about with season 5 so much. They were probably going to spread the whole "Evil Lepers" and what not onto season 6 as well.
 
I do agree with that it did show a darker side maybe they was giving a message that there is evil out there kind of like when Al explained to sam that there is a devil.
 
I think the Evil Leaper theme was planned from the beginning of the series, but it really wasn't needed. Humans are evil enough without a cheering section.

The first one, with Trillian, was ominous and foretelling. (Not sure if you consider that an evil leaper; I do since she came back in the last season with the label.)

The one with Al was really scary. Still, The Devil Himself? Really? Going after Sam himself? A little far-fetched. They should have saved him for last - although the impersonation was a cool plot twist.

The three-part episodes with the tag-team evil leaping was just added for excitement. Perhaps with better writing and plotlines, it would have been interesting.

I think that, anytime a show turns ugly, that's it for my watching it and it usually doesn't get renewed. That's what happened to QL, SeaQuest, The 4400, and The Dead Zone from my perspective.

The network execs think "Oh, we'll just add major conflict and fighting to change to a new demographic profile." The changeover rarely works, although Star Trek managed to pull it off a few times. I still walked away, but the show survived longer than usual.
 
I liked the concept of Evil Leapers, but not always the execution. It made me think about "putting right what once went wrong" in a different way. What if GTFW wasn't just giving random people a second chance to make the right decision? What if GTFW was sometimes specifically fixing what Evil Leapers (or the Devil) deliberately messed up. It would certainly answer the question of why GTFW would change His mind about an outcome that's already happened, and why so many of the Leaps centered on violence and death.

I just wish it hadn't been such a mirror concept: hologram observers and Lothos.
 
I'm the same, I did like the evil leapers but the way it came out...no.

I thought it would of been cool if they were shaping time to what who was leaping them around (lothos) wanted.

That's what I would of hoped for. It would of made alot more sense.
 
It made me think about putting rwrong right in a different way to.

Like:

What is the story behind the evil leapers?

You don't get an idea of what their story is, but only the fact that they do the opposite of Sam.

Interesting concept, but a bit more background info on them would have been interesting to in a way I guess.

And had QL were on TV for longer maybe this would've happened, I don't know!

:)
 
I would like to preface this by saying that I haven't gotten to the Evil Leapers yet. Therefore, I'm speaking very objectivly.

The Evil Leapers were most likely intended to play the role of the generic villian. After about four seasons, Sam was solving problems, but there was no constant threat. There was never really a reoccuring evil. The same basic plot outline was used over and over, and this got repititious after a while. Therefore, the Evil Leapers were most likely used as a plot device to appeal to a diverse crowd.

Quantum Leap already appelas to a diverse crowd. The show connects science fiction, comedy, family drama, among many more themes, making QL so unique. Many family sitcoms throw in a "special episode". These episodes usually have the central theme of the episode be about something serious, instead of funny (think Full House, but not every episode). However, while the show could be very funny, serious themes were used all the time.

Therefore, the writers knew that they had to break the monotony somehow. Therefore, they devised the antithesis of a "special episode": a "dark episode". This "dark episode" would give the audience a different outlook, and would certainly make it "more" of a science fiction show. At the very least, if the show had continued its run and the Evil Leapers were found to not be liked by the general populace, then they would have accomplished the task of highlighting Sam's achievments and personality traits.

What the producers and writers forgot, however, was that the recurring viewers, the fans like us that watch(ed) each episode faithfully, enjoyed the "montonous" venue. To change the scope of the show from a light-hearted dramady (drama + comedy), to a "darker" show, with a more dramatic focus towards the struggle against a hero and a villian, would certainly have made fans wary of the coming episodes, if not alienating them completely.

A better example would be if one started to inject science fiction into "Days of Our Lives" (a soap opera). Most viewers would not really enjoy that, since they didn't want to watch Sci Fi in the first place. If QL was going to flucuate between what it is, and a dark show, that should have been done early on, or at least the audience should have been exposed to it in small doses. By the fifth season, the demographs for a show has indeed been set, the die already cast.

I don't remember who said that the basis on which the Evil Leapers was set was good, but the execution of such wasn't, but I would have to agree very much so with that statement. Not that I yet have a personal opinion about them, but because they should not have been plopped down all at once.

In conclusion, the Evil Leapers were a "project" that just wasn't utilized properly. They were perhaps, as one said, much to "2-deminisional". However, despite one's opinion to the show, it could be said that they did provide one possibility for why Sam leaps around time.
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Sorry for the length, I think that I went a little overboard. However, I think this gives me the right to tell new people that I'm the forum's nerd :lol I could probably use this as a thesis paper...
 
Very well said :)

Being monotous is one of the things that I like about QL.

And thats what makes it different to other tv shows.

Honestly, what ever makes a show work should not be played around with.

In QL's case, monotony.

I guess if you could add anything to the show, rather than evil leapers, why not tinker with the fact that Sam could return home?

Would that have made the show more "appealling"?

And I think the show was appealling enough as it is.

:)
 
I personally thought the Evil leapers concept was a nice touch to the show. However, if, as it was suggested, they wanted to change the show, it could have been implemented a LOT better.

I quite enjoyed Deliver Us From Evil, and Return of the Evil Leaper was OK. However, if I had been writing the show, I would have taken a much more different approach to Revenge of the Evil Leaper.

First, I would have made it that Sam leapt with Alia and became trapped in Lothos' web of evil. Zoe would make it very clear that Sam was to put things wrong rather than right - we could even see what torture Lothos was capable of should Sam refuse (as we all know he would...)

This would mean that instead of Zoe leaping, Al would have to leap to try to find and rescue Sam, with Gooshie as the hologram. Lothos would be doing everything he could to cloak Sam and Alia, while Ziggy would be doing everything to uncover them.

Al would finally find them, put right whatever wrong needed putting right and leap, with Sam and Alia holding on and leaping with him, rescuing them.

However, now Al is also stuck in time. So we now have a TEAM of leapers putting things right...

There'd be a struggle between Lothos and Ziggy for a bit, Lothos continually sending leapers to put things wrong in time... so not only does the team have to fix a mistake in time, they have to prevent/fix whatever wrongs Lothos is doing as well. Eventually there'd have to be a showdown, with the Evil Quantum Leap project being shut down once and for all. Alia would then go off on her own to fix whatever she'd done during her time as an evil leaper, while Sam and Al continue to put right other wrongs in time...

You like?
 
Lightning McQueenie said:
I personally thought the Evil leapers concept was a nice touch to the show. However, if, as it was suggested, they wanted to change the show, it could have been implemented a LOT better.

I quite enjoyed Deliver Us From Evil, and Return of the Evil Leaper was OK. However, if I had been writing the show, I would have taken a much more different approach to Revenge of the Evil Leaper.

First, I would have made it that Sam leapt with Alia and became trapped in Lothos' web of evil. Zoe would make it very clear that Sam was to put things wrong rather than right - we could even see what torture Lothos was capable of should Sam refuse (as we all know he would...)

This would mean that instead of Zoe leaping, Al would have to leap to try to find and rescue Sam, with Gooshie as the hologram. Lothos would be doing everything he could to cloak Sam and Alia, while Ziggy would be doing everything to uncover them.

Al would finally find them, put right whatever wrong needed putting right and leap, with Sam and Alia holding on and leaping with him, rescuing them.

However, now Al is also stuck in time. So we now have a TEAM of leapers putting things right...

There'd be a struggle between Lothos and Ziggy for a bit, Lothos continually sending leapers to put things wrong in time... so not only does the team have to fix a mistake in time, they have to prevent/fix whatever wrongs Lothos is doing as well. Eventually there'd have to be a showdown, with the Evil Quantum Leap project being shut down once and for all. Alia would then go off on her own to fix whatever she'd done during her time as an evil leaper, while Sam and Al continue to put right other wrongs in time...

You like?

WOW! Send that to Bellisario! With 2008 movie 'magic' (i.e. Industrial Light & Magic) that would be an excellent QL movie! :hurray:
 
I just saw the first episode in which Alia makes her appearance. Personally, I can say that I like the concept of the Evil Leaper, now that I have had a personal view of them. They seem to add conflict, and it helps deepen the plot.

My question, though, and one that scares me, is what "hellish" kind of waiting room do the people Alia leaps into have to endure? :x

Thanks to leaper1, I am not going to apologize for that pun. :hmm
 
I wonder too, do you think Zoe, Thames or someone else from the project tortures the leapee while they're in the holding chamber? Saying how their lives are going to be ruined when they get back, etc...
 
how I would have preferred it.

I think the Evil Leaper theme would have worked much better for me if it had been a self serving company or government or any other institution with a self serving interest. The motivation of doing evil for it's own sake, really didn't work for me at all. Honestly, why put in all the effort without getting anything out of it. More focus on selflessness versus selfishness on the other hand would have really hooked me.

Also as it was mentioned here, the writing and acting style of the evil hologram(s) was just so different that it didn't really match for me.
So yeah, with some adjustments I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. As it is I tend to skip the episodes.
 
I can say that after watching the Evil Leaper Trilogy, I do like the Evil Leapers. They made the show more interesting, and they also added the action element to the episode. It may have been a departure from the original premise of the series, but I think that it worked for them nonetheless.
 
ohboy said:
My question, though, and one that scares me, is what "hellish" kind of waiting room do the people Alia leaps into have to endure? :x

wow i never thought of that!! :eek

i personally liked the evil leapers trilogy, though of course certain things could have been changed a little, for example i'm not so sure that Sam would have "leapt" into bed with Alia and the way she scratched her face and it bled so much straight away was a little silly, but i loved the way that Sam made Alia see how bad she'd been and how she could change and be free.

I must say though that Zoe was quite annoying in my opinion....