1124 I Left a Little Piece of Myself on the Farm, Part III

[Dman176]

I Left a Little Piece of Myself on the Farm, Part III ?
Hospitalization
June 7, 1960

The Mulhill farm near Carlisle, South Carolina


When history starts changing and odds on Sam's success begin to fluctuate, he starts questioning the point of his leaping into the lives of the three brothers. (Part three of three)


Written by: Mike Bloxam & Erin Bauer
(with Damon C. Sugameli)


Thanks,
TVS Team

 

[Dman176]

Our rating system this season consists of five 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: 7.5


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

Valery S. Gemini said:
A great conclusion, which opens many opportunities for future stories, even if I still can't fully grasp Connors' motivations... but this confusion in itself is IMHO much more interesting than the whole "Evil leapers" thread: we knew from the start the EL were bad guys whose only aim was to destroy Sam's work. The Connors character is much more complex and ambiguous: I hope he'll come back and create a lot of other conflicts!

I couldn't help but feeling sorry for Sam being unable to save Paddy, and his ensuing feelings of guilt. It seems that even our favourite time traveller can't put right EVERY wrong... I was a bit disappointed by the lack of support from Al on the matter, or, rather, the much too conventional, predictable and bland things he says to his friend: no wonder Sam leaps out while still being sure he'd be Marty for ever.

Another excellent trilogy!

RATING: 8

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Sporty said:
I think we have not seen the end of this. I have a feeling it will be continued, it seemed to end so open ended. Great job, you three. I like the character Connors, what a scumbag! Bravo!

RATING: 9

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Morris J. Finkle said:
Now that the whole story is finished, I feel more comfortable adding a few more comments. As I said for Part I, this story on a whole was a bit different, but that's often a good thing, in my opinion. I did find the ending a bit surprising; let's face it, we always expect Sam to "put right what once went wrong" and then move on; but this time, it seemed like Sam really didn't change all that much. At first, I also found it kind of out-of-character for Sam to suddenly try and help keep Tom Mulhill from getting caught, but admittedly, the situation with Paddy showed us a more "human" side of Tom that he seemed to lack in the first two parts.

Then there's Connors: this guy is becoming more of a mystery each time he shows up. I knew that couldn't be the end of Connors' involvement in this leap when he leaped out of Boone. I'm definitely getting the impression that Connors is sort of reluctant about what he's doing. Hopefully, this will be explored more the next time he shows up. (I'm assuming there ARE plans to bring him back again at some point.) Between the "rogue leaper" appearances and the continuing developments with General Hawkins and that new time-travel project of his, the timeline is starting to get pretty crowded. (Although the latter seems to be leading up to SOMEthing, if future episodes on the schedule are any indication...)

Well done, Mike and Erin! Look forward to seeing what else the two of you might have up your sleeves for next season.

RATING: 9

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Seeker said:
The writing and characterization in this episode remained true and strong, moving the storyline along smoothly. However, when I got to the conclusion, the story felt not quite complete, which left me with an unsettled feeling and wondering...what's missing?

RATING: 7

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Allie Cat said:
I found the writing itself very good but the story was way too depressing for my tastes. Plus the characters were a little shallow, in my opinion.

Edit: Allie Cat decided to add more to their rating synopsis:
The plotline itself was interesting but I found Tom Mulhill's motive for killing his brother weak. I found the characterizations of the Mulhill family offensive, giving a bad name to farmers in general.... I see Tom as being more like two different people than one. I don?t see how his brothers could be so na?ve to believe his lies, especially when he is so mean to them.

Paddy's accident was a little unbelievable to me. Having been raised by a former farmer, I know that they take great care with their crop and would never get any ol' pesticide; they'd make sure that they got exactly what they needed and that it was treated properly.

In addition, Connors seemed more like he was written in for the sake of giving Sam trouble instead of being an important part of the story.

I also can't see how Tom could have disposed of Hank's body without either of his brothers noticing it. And how did he cut up the body so fast? No matter what Tom did, there would always be evidence that there had been a murder on the farm. And last,

Small towns have a dispatch officer. The call Sam made would have been known by at least 2 people. A good sheriff would never tell a possible suspect (and the whole Mulhill family would be suspects until the call from Sam was either verified or found to be a false call) about that call ((this was before Connors leaped into the story)). And lastly, if I were a police deputy, there is no way in the world that I would believe that a person, who supposedly was well known to the community, jumped into a furnace to commit suicide.

RATING: 5

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Tom Jarret said:
Erin and Mike, I think did a wonderful job with this story. I like many of the aspects of the story very much which I have written about in my two previous reviews. I have no problem with a grayer story as apposed to black and white. Our real world as we all know is full of gray. I loved the conflict that Sam had to go through. My biggest complaint was of the character Conner. I understand principally why he was used in the story but I don't know if understand him as a character or his motivations. I would have liked to have seen much more of him then so I could understand why he was doing what he was doing. Not everything has to be spelled out, a little mystery with a character is a good thing, but I would have liked to have had a sense of this character and his actions. In the end, I came away from this story feeling that it was a bit empty. I understand what you were trying to achieve, I just don't think it got completely realized.

RATING: 7

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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

 

[Dman176]

Re: Sam's failure

(Originally posted by felicity709 at: 3/28/05 6:40 pm)

Hi everyone! Mike and I are very glad you have enjoyed the story. We'd like to thank Ruth and Damon for their contributions too.

The feeling of it being "unfinished" was deliberate...the very fact that Sam actually failed on one of his leaps was meant to add to his character and hopefully influence some future stories (by both us and, we hope, other writers!). Despite his future leaps, he will always have to live with the guilt that he couldn't stop Paddy's death, which would be hard for anyone who against the odds, usually succeeds in whatever task he has ahead of him.

Thanks again for reading and for all the comments and insights about the story ! We appreciate and look forward to writing for the next season!

Erin

 

[Dman176]

Re: Sam's failure

(Originally posted by felicity709 at: 3/28/05 6:44 pm)

I forgot to mention too that Connors fit very well into our plot. As many of you know, this story came out of a RPG that we did on Future's Past. The original person who leaped into Kara Williams and killed Paddy was named Raven Coden, who in the Role play is a new Evil Leaper. But since in the VS the Evil Leapers are no more (at least that's what I've been told, I haven't read all the stories!) we wanted to bring a character in that would make sense with what we wanted to accomplish and Connors fit the bill perfectly!

Erin

 

[Dman176]

Re: Sam's failure

(Originally posted by leaper1 at: 3/29/05 1:12 pm)

I agree that it was Sam's failure to save Paddy that was the real strength of this story. Time after time he has triumphed against the odds, so that Sam himself and also Al, as well as the readers/viewers, have come to think of failure as impossible. In a way, that takes the edge off the drama for us, and the tension for Sam. He'll win through because he always does, so why bust a gut trying? The idea that not only can he fail, but that he has failed, and beyond that, the failure resulted in a death, and the death of an innocent, is a powerful salutary lesson for all to learn. Unpalatable though it may be, it has to be faced.
A brave move by the writers - well done.

Helen

Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.
(Leo Buscaglia)

Leap and the net will appear. (Anon)

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
(Charles Dickens)

 

[Dman176]

(Originally posted by Dman176 at: 3/29/05 5:32 pm)

Well, Erin (and Mike), I'm glad I could accomodate with Connors. It had been my hope all along that other writers could pick up on his character and include him in at least a few stories before I started wrapping his storyline up, so I can honestly say I'm not disappointed with how it's been turning out so far. And yes, Lothos and the evil leapers are indeed gone... at least, as far as anyone knows; however, when dealing with time-travel, you never know when they might suddenly show up again (like they did in my season premiere). And, of course, there's also that whole Quantum Retribution timeline that takes place approximately 15 years from now. Is it completely separate from TVS or is it somehow connected? Hmm... makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Getting back to Maxwell Connors though... I might as well take this moment to clarify where I came in as far as writing goes. Basically, I added a few lines and paragraphs here and there to establish that Connors is starting to feel guilty about the choices he's making. When Mike sent me the draft of the story, the one thing that didn't "feel right" to me was that Connors had no remorse in killing Paddy... especially after Sam talked him out of killing the "younger" Sam in Greg's story. So I added that he hesitated when he administered the shot to Paddy, the reference to Greg's story when Connors got shot, and also that "mini-speech" he gave to Sam after he attacked him. I wanted him to begin struggling with the decisions he's making and show him slowly evolving into someone who is conflicted about what he's doing "for the greater good." There is a reason for this which will hopefully become a lot clearer next season. I promise that the next time Connors shows up, it won't be a surprise. Mike is helping me out with all of that, and Erin might even want to get involved too. Ironically, a lot of the readers and raters still look at Connors as a "scumbag," or a villain. (Although, Valery seems to have a good impression of where I'm going with Connors' character.) I'm hoping that with Mike's help, I can start showing the more "human" side of Connors as well the next time he appears. He is, after all, neither good nor evil! It won't be quite what anyone expects.

One last thing I'll mention, which I thought that Erin might have brought up, or perhaps Mike will post it when he responds: they do plan on continuing the story of the Mulhills and the townspeople of Union County at some point... but I won't say exactly where and when that might be, just in case they still wanted to keep it a surprise.

Damon

"Holographic observers! What a brilliant idea!" ? Professor Arturo, "In Dino Veritas"

 

[Dman176]

(Originally posted by QLDamsel at: 3/29/05 10:12 pm)

To protect the identity of the rater... I was asked to send this out.

It wasn?t until after reading Erin and Helen?s comments about this week?s story that I realized that I wasn?t as clear as I could have been about that ?unfinished? point.

Erin, you explained that the "something left out" feeling was done on purpose, and your explanation is perfectly logical and it was handled very well, indeed.

Helen, you also made good points in your affirmation about Sam failing this time around. I've got no problem with that at all. It's good that Al and Sam get the occasional reminder that for all the good Sam does and has done, he is still only human and is subject to failing just like the rest of us. I agree with both of you for the greatest part.

This week?s episode is a very good and well-written story. I stand by what I said about the writing and characterization and the flow of the storyline. All of the writers and contributors did a marvelous job.

However, when I wrote in my review that I felt something was missing, I didn't mean the open-ended ending. I like that. I've read many other open-ended episodes before and enjoyed the tantalizing prospect they left me with at the end of each of those stories.

No, what I meant was that the last one-quarter to one-third of the story felt rushed and almost glossed over. I feel certain that if I had printed the story out to read, that when I got to the end of it I would have counted the pages, sure that somehow something had "hiccupped", and that I was literally missing a page or two. It?s that "hiccup" in this week's episode which left me decidedly unsatisfied as a reader and rater, and thus my rating.

In total sincerity, my only reason for this post is to clarify what I meant by my ?unfinished? comment. You are all, each and every one of you wonderful writers, and I look forward to enjoying more of your collaborative (and individual) work in the future.

Seeker.

 

[Dman176]

(Originally posted by Dman176 at: 3/30/05 10:33 pm)

It looks like it's my fault that this part of the story got a lower rating. I apologize if Connors' motivations haven't been made very clear. Mike and Erin probably should have left my character out. I'm honored that they wanted to help me with continuing Connors' storyline, but it appears the inclusion of my character has done more harm than good. I guess my writing in my first story last year really wasn't as good as people have claimed it was. So, I feel I need to explain exactly what I had planned out for him:

Since he was about 8 years old, Connors has been haunted by nightmares of a terrible cataclysm that will destroy the universe as we know it. In these nightmares, a mysterious hooded figure continuously taunts him, and Connors knows that this vision is a prophecy of things to come if he doesn't prevent it. Over the years, his intellect grew to levels beyond anything people have seen before (at least not until Sam Beckett came along) and Connors believes that he is destined for great things in the future. Ultimately, something traumatic occurs to Connors during his youth that makes him lose all faith in a higher power. He devotes the rest of his life to proving his theories strictly through science and nothing more. Basically, Connors is supposed to be exactly like Sam Beckett, except without the belief in God, Time, Fate or Whatever.

Sometime in the mid-80s, he and Sam meet at a scientific conference where Sam is the keynote speaker, and they hit it off at first... until Sam begins sharing his theories on time-travel and the String Theory. Connors thinks this is a waste of brainpower and starts to oppose Sam's views every chance he gets. Add in the fact that Connors becomes afflicted with cancer in the late 90s, and his dreams become an obsession. After becoming trapped in time, the nightmares begin coming back, and Connors assumes that Sam must be the hooded figure that's been haunting him. Based on what he knew about Sam during the Star Bright years, it all makes sense to him. So now, Connors' motivations are to stop Sam from changing history, since he believes that changing history is what will cause the cataclysm he's been dreaming about his whole life. He sees Sam as "evil" and he thinks that it's his destiny to put a stop to Sam's journey (as well as all the "damage" he's caused, like "supposedly" creating the evil leapers). In effect, Connors is a time-traveler who opposes time-travel. Since Connors is not allowing either "God" or "the Devil" to guide his actions, he technically is neither good nor evil. But like any human, he has a conscience, and it is this conscience that is causing him to become more and more conflicted about the things he does each time he and Sam come into contact. He's trying to tell himself that "the ends justify the means," but it's still not making him feel better about what he's doing (such as trying to kill the younger Sam in Greg's story and killing Paddy in Mike's and Erin's).

Anyway, a majority of all of this was GOING to be explained in more detail in an episode of Brian Greene's companion series, The Starbright Project, and then in future VS stories next season, which had been my plan all along, but apparently, my ideas are way too big for people to comprehend the "method to my madness." I purposely wanted to stretch out the storyline as long as I could... especially considering the fact that I have a very hard time getting the ideas out of my head and onto "paper" for everyone to enjoy and understand. I had a huge overall plan for him and how his "quest" would affect Sam and Project Quantum Leap, but it's become clear to me in recent weeks that this whole idea of mine is probably going to go over everyone's heads and lose a lot of readers. I had been hoping that his gradual evolution as a character (from my stories to Greg's and now to Mike & Erin's) would show Connors becoming more of a tragic character who will eventually realize the error of his ways, only he'll realize too late; but as someone recently told me, a lot of people (especially QL fans) seem to dislike prolonged story arcs in which they don't know how long it will take before they'll end. So, I guess it would be best to either just kill off my character and do away with him, or to turn him over to someone else and let them decide what to do with him. Better to keep things simple than to try to open people's minds a bit more with complex ideas. I think I'm finished.

Sorry everyone...

P.S. I'll admit, when I first read this story, I wasn't really sure I liked it either, but after re-reading it a few times, through editing and adding to it, etc., it grew on me. I didn't know that many things were "inaccurate," but then again, many stories are very rarely accurate, even on the original TV series... but we all try our best. Perhaps people should sometimes try to read stories a second or even a third time. You often miss things the first time you watch or read something. This isn't a crack... just an observation. But what do I know? I've been suffering severe depression and anger in recent months toward a lot of things in the world, so I'm probably just uttering gibberish. Just ignore me...

 

[Dman176]

(Originally posted by Dman176 at: 4/4/05 4:58 pm)

Just to let everyone know... I was being a bit of a jerk all last week due to the way I've been feeling lately. Everyone really is entitled to their own opinion, and I shouldn't have "blown up" over some of the ratings, especially considering the fact that this technically was not even my own story. To all concerned (you know who you are), I apologize for my behavior in recent days. Please ignore my previous "rant."

To reassure people, I am not going to give up on my writing or my Connors storyline. HOWEVER... there will definitely come times when I will ask other people for their help, especially where this arc idea of mine is concerned. I am grateful that a few people have expressed interest in helping me with this, otherwise I probably would not have the time to develop this any further. I appreciate the "pep talk" that MJ, Greg, and Kat gave me the other night on Yahoo Messenger. I really needed some sense "kicked" into me! Thank you!

Damon

"Holographic observers! What a brilliant idea!" ? Professor Arturo, "In Dino Veritas"

 

[Dman176]

(Originally posted by MikeKraken at: 4/6/05 7:21 am)

I've been delayed in responding to this post for a few reasons... I've been busy lately, but also I've been trying to come up with the precise words to respond to the above comment.

I can't say that I'm not disappointed by the "5" ranking from one rater, a constrast to the rest. They say you can't please all of the people all of the time, but I felt that Erin and I wrote a better story than that. Having said that, I think I speak for Erin and most people when I say that I much prefer a review written with blunt honesty rather than any false praise.

I'll start off with saying to Damon what I already wrote him in an e-mail: the involvement of Connors is no regret for this story. Even though you created the Connors character, he essentially is free for anybody writing a QL:TVS episode to use, I assume. I approached Damon and asked him to view over Connors's lines to make sure they sounded true to the character and followed the story arc laid out for the rogue leaper. I know some of the raters said that they "don't like him", but I wasn't sure if that was a dislike for the idea of him or just simply a guy "you love to hate".

I also think that the fact that this trilogy was lifted from an RPG might have influenced the evaluation of the two raters (who are apparently lurkers on the RPG), consciously or not. Erin and I tried to keep the general idea alive but tailored it to the QL:TVS universe. We were both happy with how it turned out, and I guess that's important firstly.

Seeker said:

However, when I got to the conclusion, the story felt not quite complete, which left me with an unsettled feeling and wondering...what's missing?

Well, like Erin mentioned, we were deliberately leaving the episode "open ended" since it was a heavy burden on Sam to have failed a mission. Like Helen said, I guess it was "a brave move": I know I am no alone in the school of thought that not every episode must have a happy ending or a silver lining. Once in a while, Sam and Al need to encounter something tragic (it has happened before on QL:TVS), something that can't be undone. I think Tom Jarrett said something along these lines with:

I have no problem with a more gray story as apposed to black and white. Our real world as we all know is full of gray. I loved the conflict that Sam had to go through.

Allie Cat said:

I found the characterizations of the Mulhill family offensive, giving a bad name to farmers in general.... I see Tom as being more like two different people than one. I don?t see how his brothers could be so na?ve to believe his lies, especially when he is so mean to them.

I'm not sure how this gives a bad name to farmers, exactly. Sam encounters low-lifes in his travels very often, and they come from all walks of life. Why not some strange family of farmers? Tom is obviously an unstable individual, and Paddy and Mick didn't seem like the brightest of people, did they?

Allie Cat said:

Paddy's accident was a little unbelievable to me. Having been raised by a former farmer, I know that they take great care with their crop and would never get any ol' pesticide; they'd make sure that they got exactly what they needed and that it was treated properly.

It was Tom who got the pesticide, and at the time, he was more worried about Sam than the crop. I can see where you're coming from having been raised by a farming background, but we're not saying that all farmers are like this. We were not trying to propel any "stereotypes" or anything like that. The whole reason there are stereotypes is because there are a certain number of people who fit the description. Again, Sam runs into all kinds of people, and we certainly saw a lot of stereotypes in the original series.

As for Paddy's accident, that had nothing to do with the kind of pesticide. It was a mishap with the machinery, although I don't believe we specified how he was injured in the story.

In addition, Connors seemed more like he was written in for the sake of giving Sam trouble instead of being an important part of the story.

I know that I already touched on this, but we wrote Connors in to be trouble. He is Sam's self-declared enemy: what else would he be doing? Max was there trying to set things back to the way they were, which went completely against Sam's mission... I'd say that is an important part of the story.

Small towns have a dispatch officer. The call Sam made would have been known by at least 2 people. A good sheriff would never tell a possible suspect about that call.

In 1960 in Carlisle, given any time of day, do you know that this is true? Isn't it possible that the sheriff was the only one in the office at the time? Not only that, but we made it clear that Billy and Tom were very good friends. Regardless of whether or not he is a "good sheriff", a man may go ahead and tell his closest friend.

And lastly, if I were a police deputy, there is no way in the world that I would believe that a person, who supposedly was well known to the community, jumped into a furnace to commit suicide.

We never established any kind of history between the deputies and Hank, nor what kind of person Hank was. Suicide could be a very resonable excuse for his death.

Overall, I think that Allie Cat gave very little liberty to the story, and thus why we received such a grade from him/her. We all have our opinions, and I am grateful for the honest review, don't get me wrong. I just wanted to post my responses to his/her comments.

Seeker said:

No, what I meant was that the last one-quarter to one-third of the story felt rushed and almost glossed over.

All right... I'm not sure, but I guess this wasn't just you who felt this way. When we read it, it seemed good to us. Was there too much dialogue, perhaps? Was it just too fast paced toward the end? You know, after working on something for so long, one tends to become accustomed to the writing and may not see "glossings over" such as Seeker experienced with the end of the story.

Anyway, I just wanted to make some comments on the comments about our story. Once again, I thank the raters for being honest with their evaluations and giving us feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome!

... Mike. ^_^

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
MikeKraken's Web Site
Star Trek for Leapers forum
Future's Past RPG

 

[Vince Beckett]

it was a great story. It shows that Sam can't always succeed and it leaves an open ending for Maxwell Conners to return