blue_enigma said:
Yeah, when I first saw the title of the thread I thought it was going to be about supernatural leaps.
As did I.
blue_enigma said:
I know this scene was supposed to be funny. But here's the thing. There were enough leaps where Sam merged with a male leapee and felt sexual attraction and/or romantic love for the male leapee's female love interest. But that never happened when Sam leaped into a woman, where he picked up the leapee's feelings for her male love interest. Of course the real life explanation is that it was the late 1980s/early 1990s, a time when they couldn't show two men kissing on TV without getting backlash and they had to make it very very clear that Sam was absolutely no-room-for-doubt straight. Playing a scene like this for laughs was the only way they were willing to do it. Even in Running for Honor Sam as Tommy is just shown as not being at all sexually interested in Tommy's girlfriend (and through dialogue we get that Tommy hasn't been showing interest either), not as being attracted to men. It bothers me somewhat even though I understand why they needed to do this scene that way. This was the leapee's husband who we're meant to assume she still loves and with whom she wants to salvage her relationship. In that context that scene is kind of offensive.
Hmmm, that's not something that had crossed my mind but a valid take.
Though with Abigail as the exception I don't believe it was mind merging that accounted for his falling for the females in his leaps. Especially not the ones which happened before the concept was introduced such as
Honeymoon Express.
As for
Running for Honor, we find out from the ending moment that they were actually making a point of keeping it unclear whether or not Tommy was homosexual.
While it was revealed that Tommy never touched the young lady the fact that she's the Admiral's daughter allows other explanations. I assume it has the same ethic as not sleeping with your boss or possibly even your boss's son/daughter even though he was in the Admiral's favor before he was accused of being homosexual. So Tommy could have just had morals like Sam's or one doesn't have to be homosexual to show disinterest in someone of the opposite sex.
(btw Al's booing when Sam kissed her cheek is one of those moments that cracked me up hard XD)
One could argue that are several hints of possible mind merging here actually, the hands on the hips and the crossing of the legs that Al accused of being homosexual male gestures could have been Tommy though we've seen Sam do those things before. He also seems to disapprove of Sam choosing to make tea instead of coffee but we know Sam to prefer tea from two episodes;
Catch a Falling Star and
Temptation Eyes. So personally I don't think it's mind merging but to each their own...
Returning to
Liberation, it's understandable that Sam would be uncomfortable with that kiss. It's a very intament and personal action that is against his sexual preference but you're not wrong, for the objective of that portion of the leap it was unethical as not only were these two people married but he needed to keep it that way regardless of the fact that it was Sam's actions which jeopardized their marriage in the first place. That actually speaks even more for the necessity of that kiss.
As you pointed out though the explanation is the black and white one of it being inappropriate for television in that time period. So it's not entirely the fault of the show but of society for being so closed minded. It still today hasn't improved much.
Interestingly Scott went on to play a couple of homosexual roles outside of
Quantum Leap. See my last post in Lightning McQueenie's 'Interesting Observations' thread.
Speaking of which I still need to continue watching
Looking, I haven't even gotten to his role yet.
blue_enigma said:
Agreed. The kidnappers are so one-dimensional and just random in their behavior - they were completely indiscriminate about who they kidnapped (boys, girls, teenagers, kids - it didn't matter, they just had to kidnap someone)
Exactly. I'm an expert on sexual predators at least in the fictional world as I watch a lot of crime shows such as SVU, Without a Trace, and Criminal Minds. They always have a type but these guys went from scouting two by appearances ten-twelve year olds of both genders to a fifteen year old boy and then made a move on a middle aged mother (Sam). They were all over the place but yeah it can be forgiven because Teresa is the reason to watch in my opinion.