Tom Beckett

samnal

samnal

Banned
Feb 5, 2007
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Cleveland, Ohio
I think that there is TONS of room to write about Tom. What happened to everyone when he came home instead of dying in Nam? Did he have any issues as some veterans do? Agent Orange (my brother was in Vietnam and has this), post-traumatic stress, ect. What if he came back as a totally changed, angry person or stayed in the Navy for life and (as I have either written or read in fan fic) became part of PQL or an old friend of Al's from the Navy? I would assume by this time he has achieved high rank and would be an equal or just below Al. How interesting could that relationship be? Would Tom be jealous of Al's & Sam's relationship inasmuch Sam has AL as his Observer, not Tom?

Poses a lot of interesting queries, doesn't it?
Terri Librande
 
Ooh! Now that's an interesting idea. Many different writers have different interpretations of what happened with Thomas Beckett. In my story, I went off one of the novels that suggested he was likely a senator for Indiana now. I gave him two sons, even.

The story I've written, however, dictates a lot of what Tom decides to do regarding the events that take place in my timeline (Al being shot, and Sam being a moron) . . . I believe I've written Tom to be a level headed and honorable man, who respects that Admiral and has a close relationship with Sam after he comes home. When Sam is being hard-headed and guilt-stricken, however, Tom is the one who ends up visiting Al in the hospital.

My idea is that he's not entirely jealous of Al and Sam's friendship, but he didn't understand why Sam hadn't contacted his family in so long and was briefly upset that Al was making excuses. After Sam comes home in my story, and after Tom was given top security clearance for the lower levels of Project Quantum Leap, things were explained and some semblance of understanding occurred.

Then Al got shot and everything sort of went downhill.

But I love Tom. He's a very wonderful character write, especially when he has the opportunity to be the Older Brother for Sam. Very touching and tender in those moments.

. . . but this is just my interpretation.
 
I would love to read your story. Wonderful ideas--see, we can do anything with him as a character because the truth is no one knows what happened to him later. Was he a saint or was he one of the wrecked men that came back from Nam and lives in some studio apartment in Idaho?
I could go on and on about Tom. And Katie. And even Thelma.
Terri
 
I'm working on a story that will have Tom in it. I haven't really gotten far with it yet so I haven't had much character development for him yet.

Thelma and Katie are frequent characters in my pre-leap stories. I just love the fact that they only appeared in one episode so, even though they are canon characters, you can still take artistic licence with them.
 
Well in Mirror's Edge, he is a congressmen, I can see that entirely possible. and his daughter ended up following in his footsteps, and plays basketball. So that's also an interesting idea seeing as Sam was once so set on following in his footsteps.

I wonder though as it's never said, how exactly much older than Sam is he?
 
It is possible to extrapolate the age difference. One can assume from "The Leap Home" that Tom has graduated that year. That assumption comes from the fact that he hasn't been deployed to Vietnam yet. Annapolis is a 4 year program which would make Tom 22 at the point of "The Leap Home". It is established that Sam is 16 at the time so it's not too much of a leap to deduce that Tom is 6 years older than Sam is.
 
I always thought Tom was about 6 yrs older than Sam. It makes sense--I've written him as a Vietnam vet with problems, and I've written him as head of security at the project. What has everyone else seen with Tom's future?
Terri L
 
I haven't really thought about it much, but I'm wondering whether having had a "clarvoyant" little brother for a short period of time would influence who he becomes, and how he thinks about life. After all Sam did predict the day he almost :) died and I'm sure several other predictions came true eventually.

I'm also wondering if Sam's family knows anything about Quantum Leap, or know anybody involved. Wouldn't something like that be top secret?
 
I thought I read somewhere else that Tom Beckett became Senator Beckett. If this is true it has also been stated that Tom tried to shut down his brother's project. So much for brotherly love??
 
Any thing that would place Tom as a senator (or any other position) who could/would try to shut down the project wasn't in the aired episodes. I think it might have been in one of the novels. Since it's not in any of the aired episodes, that would put it outside of the canon of the series.

There's really nothing mentioned about Tom after "The Leap Home" until "Promised Land" when the older couple mentions that he's come home from Vietnam. I guess, since there is no canon explanation for what happened to Tom, you can pretty much assume whatever you'd like.

I'm also wondering if Sam's family knows anything about Quantum Leap, or know anybody involved. Wouldn't something like that be top secret?
Click to expand...

It was mentioned a couple of times in the series that Project Quantum Leap was a top secret government project. Therefor, no one would know about it or work on it unless there was a need to and clearance. Familial relationship wouldn't be enough.

When I've dealt with this topic in the fan fic I've written, Sam's family only knows that he's working on a government project with a top secret rating but the don't know anything about it.
 
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