"Quantum Leap" hit its stride during the third season. The show
had dramatic episodes just as powerful as season three but this was
the most consistent season for this classic TV series. During the
third season Sam leaps into a KISS type rock star (complete with
dramatic make up and with Scott Bakula doing his own singing!); into
himself at 16 where he must change an event in his own past; Sam
also leaps into a Navy Seal in Vietnam serving under his older
brother where Sam faces a unique dilemma. Is Sam there to save the
life of his older brother (who is fated to die the next day), insure
the success of the mission or for some other mysterious reason? The
series at its best managed to convey the best elements of drama: Sam
never knows why he's there and what he has to correct which leads to
many emotionally powerful and genuine feeling moments during the
third season. What brought the best episodes home were the
performances by the series two mainstay performers the marvelous
Scott Bakula ("Enterprise") and acerbic Dean Stockwell as Al who
appears only as a hologram and must guide Sam with information from
the future.
If Sam Beckett had been able to truly leap back through time during
his life time he would have been able to foresee the licensing
agreement issues that prevent his TV series from having the original
music in it and prevented it from being replaced. Some of the
original music survives but it depends on how instrumental it was to
the episode. By the way, Bakula's nice performance of "Imagine" is
intact for "The Leap Home Part I".
Aside from an occasionally grainy or soft episode, "Quantum Leap"
looks exceptional here. While there are still analog flaws in the
form of occasional dirt and irregularities in the prints used, the
colors are bright, image quality sharp and vivid (with the exception
of those episodes using stock footage). The 2.0 stereo soundtrack
also sounds quite crisp and vivid. Dialogue is, for the most part,
very clear and the music comes across with nice presence.
I was hoping that Sam would figure out how to hide some extras from
the past for Universal to find when transferring this to DVD. We get
an episode guide on disc three that lists which episodes are on
which discs (which might be an extra if it served any useful purpose
such as having trivia about each episode). We get an onscreen
synopsis for each episode before playing the episode and a synopsis
on the back of each slimline DVD holder. The big difference here is
the redesigned packaging. Gone are the accordion holders which
threatened to scratch the dual layered, dual sided discs for each
season. Instead, we get individual slimline holders for each disc
along with a synopsis on the back of the holder giving a brief
description of each episode (much like the DVD version included as
well). Missing, however, are some of the promo photos that adorned
the accordion style holders. I miss them. It's a pity that Universal
chose not to adorn the inside of the paper sleeves in each slim line
holder with photos for the inside. It does appear that these are the
uncut original episodes as they aired on NBC.
This is an area where Universal continues to lag behind just about
every studio. Would it have hurt Universal to provide commentary by
Scott Bakula (particularly since he recently filmed a cameo for the
new "Quantum Leap" TV show), Dean Stockwell (he appears in the new
show as a regular) or even creator Bellisario? "The Leap Home" parts
1 and 2 would have been a perfect set for commentary tracks.
"Quantum Leap" continues to look nice in its DVD transfer but it
seems that Universal is rushing out "product" which really does a
disservice to the fans. This particularly set was designed to
coincide with the release of "Enterprise" on DVD and the last two
episodes of "Enterprise" airing on UPN. Synergy can be everything
but it can also add up to nothing particularly when "product" is
rushed out to meet a predestined release date or tie in. Universal,
please do it right for the last two sets of the series. This fine
series and its fans deserve better.
Sam leaps into himself as a
high school teenager and Al tells him he is there to win a
basketball game that was a turning point in many people's
lives, but Sam wants to take the opportunity to prevent his
sister from marrying an abusive alcoholic, his father from
dying from a heart attack, and his brother from getting
killed in Vietnam.
Sam leaps into Herbert
"Magic" Williams, a soldier in his brother's platoon in
Vietnam, where he is given the chance to keep his
brother from dying, but at a terrible price.
Episode Note: Maggie, a news reporter, is able to see Al
right before she dies.
Sam leaps into
Father Francis "Frank" Pistano, a priest who must help
prevent a fellow man of the cloth from losing his faith and
self-control.
Brushes with history: Sam recounts to
a young boxer a scene from the film
Rocky —the young boxer's locker door is tagged
with S. Stallone— a reference to
Sylvester Stallone.
Sam leaps into horror
novelist Joshua Rae who is surrounded by death and mystery.
Al and Ziggy don't seem to be able to predict what will
happen and Sam is running out of suspects. Is this part of
someone's book... or someone's nightmare?
Brushes with history Inspires
Stephen King along the way
Sam leaps into Darlene Monty,
a
beauty pageant contestant who must protect a naive
fellow contestant from ruining her life by posing for nude
photographs, and in the process must ensure that his host
places at least third in the pageant so that she can win a
scholarship and become a doctor.
Sam leaps into an
African-American named Ray Harper, a medical student dating
a white woman on the day of the
Watts Riots. He must prevent his host's girlfriend from
being killed, while persuading her that they need to stay in
Watts.
Sam leaps into a traveling
amateur magician named Harry Spontini (a person similar to
Harry Houdini), he must perform some real magic to prevent
losing custody of his young daughter to his ex-wife
(mirroring
Kramer vs. Kramer), as well as save the girl from
performing a dangerous trick that will go badly wrong.
Sam leaps into Shane "Funny
Bone" Thomas, a member of a biker gang where he meets a
truck stop restaurant owner who lost his son to the war and
an idealistic young woman who is going to die unless she
gives up her reckless dream of living the hard life of
Jack Kerouac.
Diedrich Bader and
Josie Bissett guest star.
Sam leaps into Reginald
Pearson, a personal valet to a
Scrooge-like industrialist who is bent on demolishing a
Salvation Army mission, forcing Sam and Al to literally
'Scrooge' him by showing him his past, present and future (a
task made easier by the fact that his
brain waves are so similar to Sam's that he can see Al)
in an attempt to change his mind.
Charles Rocket guest stars.
Sam leaps into Butchie
Rickett, a 13-year-old boy who is on a family roadtrip from
which the mother will soon disappear, while also dealing
with the bullying of his host's older sister.
Sam leaps into Billie Jean
Crockett, a pregnant teenager who needs to keep her baby and
obtain the support of her father, a fact made all the more
confusing by the fact that Sam still seems to be
pregnant even though he lacks the 'equipment' to carry a
child...
Sam leaps into Kenny Sharp, (a.k.a
Future Boy) an actor on a children's sci-fi show and must
work quickly to keep his eccentric co-star from being killed
or committed to a mental institution because of his "wild"
theories about traveling in time. In the process, Sam
learns, much to his surprise, that the actor has
independently come up with Sam's own 'string theory' of
Quantum Leaping.
Episode Note: In the end of the episode, Kenny's (Sam's)
co-host reads a fan letter on the last episode of the
children's series he stars in. The letter is from Sam
himself, but as a child. This event shows how Sam acquired
"the string theory."
Sam is Rod McCarty, (a.k.a.
"Rod the Bod") a
Chippendales dancer who must help a deaf woman find
success as a professional dancer, before she goes down a
road of
prostitution and dies of
AIDS. Real-life choreographer
Debbie Allen guest stars as the head of a dance studio.
Sam leaps into Joey DeNardo,
(a.k.a Chuck Danner) a lounge singer in the
witness protection program who must keep himself and his
accident-prone girlfriend from being killed for the murder
he witnessed three years ago.
Scott Bakula wrote and performed the song "Somewhere in the
Night."
Sam leaps into Gilbert
LaBonte, the owner of a
New Orleans
brothel to prevent one of his girls from disappearing
after a confrontation with her abusive husband.
David Graf and
Dan Butler guest star.
Sam is Geoffrey "Tonic" Mole,
the lead singer of a
KISS-inspired rock band who in the original history was
murdered by an unknown stalker; Sam must find out whether it
was the manager, a band member, a random fan, or his host's
estranged son who did it, and stop them before the deed can
take place. 1960s' singer
Peter Noone appears as the band's manager.
Sam leaps into Gordon
O'Reilly, a
bounty hunter handcuffed to a compulsively lying woman
who is suspecting of embezzling a large sum of money, and
must decide whether his mission is to help the woman escape
or bring her to justice.
Sam leaps into Jesus Ortega,
a man about to be executed by the
electric chair, until he is suddenly given a temporary
48-hour reprieve to (apparently) try to prove his innocence.
Sam leaps into Terry Sammis (aka
"Nikolai"), a professional wrestler who must prevent his
brother from dying of a heart attack in the championship
match.
WWE Hall of Fame inductee
Terry Funk guest stars.
Sam leaps into Eddie Elroy, a
college student helping his brother sell nuclear bomb
shelters during the
Cuban Missile Crisis, and must prevent their neighbor
from being shot during a false air raid.
Sam leaps into Sam Beiderman,
a depressed mental patient who receives
shock therapy as soon as Sam leaps in. This causes Sam's
ego to become displaced, resulting in him assuming the
identities of people he has leaped into before. It's up to
Al to complete Sam's mission by helping a mentally
challenged young man learn how to read, which he is able to
do when he discovers that he and Sam can be seen by mentally
insane people; he must also find a way to restore Sam's ego
so he can leap, or else risk losing contact with Sam
forever.
