The “Quantum Leap” Sequel We Might Have Had

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Screenshot from the video “Unsolved Mysteries Of Quantum Leap With Donald P. Bellisario”

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I know I said I was done with the current incarnation of Quantum Leap and for very good reasons. If I want to watch the franchise, I’ll stick to the original, classic Quantum Leap starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.

However, I was visiting Ars Technica for an entirely different reason and came across a video called Unsolved Mysteries: Unsolved Mysteries of Quantum Leap with Donald P. Bellisario. If you didn’t know, Bellisario has created a number of terrific TV shows including the aforementioned Quantum Leap (and even is involved in it’s current expression).

The current show debuted on NBC on September 19, 2022, but this video was released on May 25, 2021, almost sixteen months before the Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, and Ernie Hudson led program. What Bellisario said in the video makes it seem as if he had no knowledge that another show, a sort of sequel, would be created. Maybe he said all these things before he was approached, or maybe the Ars Technica video was made well before it was released.

The video was edited to make it appear as if the super-computer Ziggy were interviewing Bellisario, and contains some interesting if not astonishing insights. I’ll relate some of the questions and answers but you can watch the entire interview (see below) for complete details.

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Review of Original Quantum Leap S5E5 “Killin’ Time”

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Scene from the original Quantum Leap episode “Killin’ Time” featuring Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett.

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Based on what I said in my review of the original Quantum Leap show Blind Faith, I decided to continue to sample other episodes.

I just finished watching S5E5 Killin’ Time. The title is appropriate because Sam (Scott Bakula) leaps into an escaped murderer named Leon Stiles (Cameron Dye) in 1958 Oklahoma. Stiles has taken Carol Pruitt (Connie Ray) and her young daughter Becky (Beverley Mitchell) hostage in their home. The house is surrounded by law enforcement officers.

They are led by Sheriff John Hoyt (Jim Haynie) who is determined to kill Stiles in revenge for Stiles murdering the Sheriff’s daughter.

This is far from a “normal” leap.

In the project’s waiting room Stiles has leapt into, he has attacked a Marine guard, knocked him unconscious and taken his sidearm (this was in a deleted scene which originally made the audience wonder where the gun came from). He threatens to kill Al (Dean Stockwell) unless Al lets him out. Besides letting an armed killer from forty years in the past out of a confined area, the other problem is if Stiles leaves the waiting room, Sam can’t leap.

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Review of Original Quantum Leap S2E5: “Blind Faith”

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Scene from original Quantum Leap episode “Blind Faith” featuring Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett.

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I was inspired by part one of this Youtube review of original Quantum Leap’s pilot Genesis hosted by Price of Reason  to revisit the show.

As some of you know, I have been working my way through the “update” or “remake” or “continuation” or whatever you want to call it of Quantum Leap starring Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, and Ernie (Ghostbusters) Hudson. However, I have only rarely reviewed anything from the Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell original from the 1990s.

I’m here to change that.

For your consideration, my review of the original QL S2E5 episode Blind Faith.

Sam Beckett (Bakula) leaps into a blind concert pianist Andrew Ross. It’s February 6, 1964 and Ross has just finished a performance at Carnegie Hall. His “unpaid assistant” and love interest Michelle Stevens (Cynthia Bain) is just off stage watching him with adoration.

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