The Final Episode #13: Quantum Leap (1989 - 1993)

 It's time to talk about one of the best television shows ever made. Also the best Sci Fi show ever made. I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. Al, Sam, Ziggy and the gang clearly beat out Star Trek, any Star Wars show, Sliders, Seaquest, ANY AND ALL BOW DOWN TO THE LEAP. I'm sure many will argue about that statement but it just means this is my favorite. I mean I haven't seen heaps of Sci Fi TV, I've only seen like 3 episodes of Star Trek... Okay fine maybe I'm not up to making that statement so I'll just make THIS statement. Quantum Leap is the best show about time travel ever made. See even this listicle site agrees with me and that means Portnoyd can suck my ass and piss up a rope!

So with the usual retort against portnoyd out of the way, it's time to discuss what Quantum Leap was. This was a show where Sam Beckett creates a Time Travel device that lets him "Leap" into other peoples bodies throughout his lifetime (starting August 8th, 1953). Sam would correct what once went wrong in said person of the weeks life. It was mostly an anthology  show that starred two main characters in every episode. Al would pop up with a computer (apparently a girl computer, I must have forgotten that weird tidbit) and they would find out who they were there to help this week. Dean Stockwell and Scott Bakula made a GREAT team and are about 70% of why this show is so cool and good. the other 30% is the GREATEST THEME SONG EVER by Mike Post. That's one thing I refuse to back down on. 

Quantum Leap was created by Donald P. Bellisario for NBC in 1989. The first episode appeared on Television screens on March 25, 1989 as I guess some kind of midseason replacement. I wanted to check out what show it replaced but I don't really have the know how to find old newspapers to find out what television show it replaced. The show ran for 5 more seasons (and apparently was due to be canceled before fans went wild and saved it for two more seasons.) Season 5 was apparently not very well loved but I enjoyed it honestly. I thought the real life people and evil leapers were a nice chance of pace for the show. I never caught the show when it originally came on (that I know of) but I would watch reruns around the early 2000s and I loved it. I ended up seeing all 97 episodes and I can't wait to rewatch them all to give you a full review of the show (Think of these Final Episodes as a side dish to a bigger meal!) 

The 97th and Final Episode premiered on May 3rd, 1993. A pretty controversial series finale to a lot of people. Weird how The Wonder Years also ended in 1993 (on May 12th even) and THATS controversial too. People still end up talking about these endings nearly 30 years later (wow that makes me feel like an ancient crone who might turn to dust at any second). The Final Episode was entitled Mirror Image and boy howdy a lot of stuff goes down in this episode. Sam Becket (apparently only one T according to this episode but that just looks wrong to me!) ends up leaping into the EXACT day of his birth. In fact the second he was born was the second he ended up leaping. Pretty wild way to start this episode huh? Al is stuck in the Quantum Leap room and they can't find Sam so he's all on his own. 

Sam starts talking to the guy who owns the bar and as we find out this is the guy who started it all really. I mean sorta? He ends up letting Sam knowing that it's HIM who can stop the leaping at ANY moment. Pretty darn wild huh? That's a good way to start up a sixth season that well never happened. According to Donald Bellisario himself he wrote this as a way to keep on going with the show but let people know some stuff that happens. Sam meets a guy Russian guy named Steve. Actually he's named the Russian version of Steve and I don't even know how to spell that to look it up on google or anything. They find out that the mine in this coal mining town had trapped several miners. I'll be ruining the big surprise about Russian Steve is that he was also a leaper! Wild huh? I wonder if they would have done more with that in season six. I could see Sam and someone leaping into the same area and having to do the same thing and its kind of a weird race or something. Very interesting ideas that could be done with that you know? I think at least. 

This episode does sadly end on a bittersweet note as Sam finally realizes he can control the leaps and leaps to save Al's marriage but never goes home. That's the whole reason this ending is controversial and my opinion is I kinda like it that way. Sam always was a ridculously good fella for the most part and I can EASILY see him going on to keep on helping people but I can easily see why people were pissed. It was the shows whole thing up until this episode that he was leaping to help people but also get home to his wife (and I think they end up having a child somehow, I might be forgetting things). 

Quantum Leap like everything else NBC owns is well going to end up probably getting a reboot on their Peacock service. I hope they do a bit of a sequel thing honestly. Bring in Scott Bakula (I always misspell his name first before going back to fix it.) and Dean Stockwell as guest stars and let his child come looking for him or something. I don't know if it was a daughter or son or what. If its was a daughter have the Al character be a dude. If his child was a boy have the Al character be short for like Alicia or something. I think if they really worked hard on it they could have something stellar, however it's a reboot of something from the past so at best it will be "Yeah that was actually kinda decent" and at worse you will angrily yell on the internet about it.