When good TV goes bad: how Quantum Leap made one leap too far
The time-travel show used its man-in-another-man’s-body tool to show that compassion trumps prejudic..
The time-travel show used its man-in-another-man’s-body tool to show that compassion trumps prejudice. Then Dr Sam turned up as Lee Harvey Oswald
Keep your salacious, scowling, morally compromised antiheroes. Doctor Sam Beckett – Quantum Leap’s time-hopping samaritan – was dependably the opposite, a sort of uncle hero. As played by the square-jawed Scott Bakula, Sam may have looked rugged but he was also relatable, a goofy but indefatigable do-gooder with six different doctorates, some sick kickboxing moves and a core decency so unshakeable it could apparently survive the existential trauma of frequent temporal displacement.
For five memorable seasons between 1989 and 1993, Sam didn’t just parrot the old maxim about walking a mile in another man’s shoes (or combat boots or high heels); he lived it. After a haywire physics experiment in 1999 sends him ping-ponging within the span of his own lifetime, Sam finds himself zapped abruptly into strangers like a one-sided Freaky Friday. With the help of horndog hologram Al (Dean Stockwell), Sam must intuit how to alter each current sliver of history for the better, clearing the cosmic runway for his next mercy mission.
