Quantum Leap Guide Project

[Ben Kirkham]

For years I’ve wanted a thorough retrospective armchair guide to Quantum Leap- and it looks like it could happen. Support the Kickstarter project, watch the video. Personally, from the video, I’m impressed and I really think this will be an excellent purchase.

http://tinyurl.com/h4n2bqw

[si]

Yeah, looks very good. Been chatting about QL the last couple of days, funnily enough. Time for a rewatch, I think.

[Ridley]

Quantum Leap really should be revived or rebooted.

Something something Netflix something

[si]

Rebooted? No ta. Childhood ruined etc etc.

Revived? Well…

[Blisschick]

I haven’t checked lately, but it was on Netflix here in the US for awhile. I’ve never rewatched any of it simply for the fact that they didn’t include the pilot episode, and a couple ofl key episodes of the first season. If you had never seen it before, it wouldn’t make any sense. I was kind of torqued about that, being really enthused about seeing episodes I hadn’t watched since it first aired.

…I peeked in, and it appears that they’re all there now. Good, now I have something to watch. I’m in a serious Show Hole right now.

[Ben Paddon]

Yeah, they had it flagged with the “NEW EPISODES” banner, which deeply confused me.

[Ridley]

I heard the US version/DVD has music edits..?

[Ben Kirkham]

Yep, the seasons 2-4 R1 DVDs are edited, and the season 4 R2 DVD is too. Music is such an important thing to QL, it helps to set the scene and the mood. The biggest casualty is ‘M.I.A’ in season 2, where the music is part of the story. And the pivotal ‘Georgia on My Mind’ by Ray Charles is omitted and neuters the scene of any emotion.

[Ben Kirkham]

Update: the book WILL be published. Seen previews of various segments. It’s truly a labour of love, with the kind of attention to detail that any QL loving G&T crew will absolutely love, I have no doubt about that.

Pre-orders being taken until 31st August for a December release!

[Corbin Sausage]

Had no idea this even existed (or, er, is about to… or something), so thanks for the news!

QL is a weird one. By the end it had broken many of it’s own rules and was losing it’s way a bit (not unlike Red Dwarf, in some respects), but what a rock-solid core concept. I still remember the pre-internet, mindblowing, never-saw-it-coming headfuckery of The Evil Leaper saga, all the better for having virtually no backstory. You just don’t get surprises like that in TV sci-fi anymore.

Would love to see the show return but as others have said, they’d probably reboot the bastard.

[Ben Kirkham]

Yeah there’s no way it would ever return as it was. Dean Stockwell is 81 and apparently in very poor health at the moment. It would probably get a reboot if it were to come back. But I’d rather it come back with a new cast related to the original series rather than a complete reboot.

It did break its own rules in its final season, and most of the time that was a mistake. But I quite like some of the bizarre stuff they tried in season 5. Better to end experimenting with new things than trying to repeat old successes.

[Ridley]

Bakula in the Al role as a data ghost or summat when the new guy/gal (who definitely isn’t Beckett’s daughter) cracks time travel.

[Ben Kirkham]

I like it! Interesting idea. A recent tribute sketch worth looking at

<i>Quantum Leap</i> Returns… To Stop a Trump Presidency on <i>The Late Show</i>

[si]

I linked to the sketch further up the thread. It is amusing.

[Jonathan Capps]

Dean Stockwell is 81

I do not like this fact.

[Blisschick]

The last time I saw Dean Stockwell in anything was NCIS: New Orleans (with Scott Bakula) in 2014, and apart from the fact that he was 79 then, he didn’t look too healthy. I was kind of shocked at how sickly he looked. :(

[Ben Paddon]

He looked his age in Galactica, but still gave a Hell of a performance.

[Mr-Stabby]

Unfortunately there is a Facebook post somewhere (i’m sorry i can’t find it) from a member of Dean Stockwell’s family that states that Dean is nearing the end of his life, which is really sad.

I think a rebooted Quantum Leap would be great as a UK made series. The US one was very US centric, and a rebooted UK version set in the UK past would actually be something new and therefore have a lot of new stories to tell. The core concept is great as people have said. But the relationship between the two main actors is what carries the show, so they’d have to get that spot on.

The one thing that should have made Quantum Leap successful was the fact that it was not really a sci-fi series. It had a sci-fi backbone, but the sci-fi was just a clever way of getting to tell just normal character stories. Something the best kind of sci-fi does I think. It’s why early Russell T Davies Doctor Who was so popular I think. Whereas current Doctor Who, while a very good series, is a bit too sci-fi heavy for a mainstream audience.

[Pete Tranter’s Sister]

Doctor Who was starting to feel like a VHS manual recital during the Matt Smith era and as much as I love Peter Capaldi, I can’t bring myself to watch it.

[Ben Paddon]

Your loss. Series 9 was the best series of the show in years, and contains at least one moment that’ll be considered seminal for eons. Capaldi’s had a moment on the scale of “Do I have the right?” The sort of thing people won’t forget easily.

[Pete Tranter’s Sister]

To be fair, I’m hoping they cancel it.

[Ben Paddon]

Or you could just not watch it, which has functionally the same result from your perspective. It’s not going to be cancelled any time soon, it’s a big earner for BBC Worldwide and there are quite a lot of people worldwide who rather enjoy it.

So, yeah. Don’t watch it, I guess. Which you’ve already been doing. Carry on.

[Corbin Sausage]

“Unfortunately there is a Facebook post somewhere (i’m sorry i can’t find it) from a member of Dean Stockwell’s family that states that Dean is nearing the end of his life, which is really sad.”

He looked pretty aged last couple of appearances (not a criticism, that’s hardly his fault) but this is still depressing news.

I also see that he’s actually a year older than many/most people thought – born in 1935 and not 1936.

[Pete Tranter’s Sister]

I’d rather see the money budgeted for Doctor Who put into something akin to a British Star Trek, rather than the misadventures of a hipster twat in a police box who appeals to the morbidly shite, faux-geeky and uninformed in life.

Or, or… abolish the licence fee, but we’ve had that discussion, haven’t we.

[Karnie]

Holy crap, the guy on the Kickstarter cites my company’s Back to the Future Chronology as one of his inspirations for the project! Neat!

[Ben Kirkham]

“I’d rather see the money budgeted for Doctor Who put into something akin to a British Star Trek, rather than the misadventures of a hipster twat in a police box who appeals to the morbidly shite, faux-geeky and uninformed in life.
Or, or… abolish the licence fee, but we’ve had that discussion, haven’t we.”

Ludicrous.

[Ben Paddon]

I’d rather see the money budgeted for Doctor Who put into something akin to a British Star Trek

So, effectively, what you want to do is put a longstanding and original piece of British television in the bin, and replace it with a knock-off of something American.

I hope John doesn’t mind me stepping on his toes when I say… you absolute fucking idiot.

[Jonathan Capps]

That’s not even good trolling. performingmonkey must be turning in his grave.

[Pete Tranter’s Sister]

I like what I like. I’ve always had a suspicion of shows that become hugged to death by enthusiastic viewers and lose their way while performing more-convoluted acts of fan-service.

I am quite aware that Star Trek has done that many times, alongside Red Dwarf but Doug thankfully realised Dwayne and Ace are best served as memories.

I am an absolute fucking idiot, but I do it because I love you.

Oh, and bollocks to Mark Gatiss, the big, fanfiction.net loving gobshite.

[genericnerdyusername]

That’ll be all, shambles.

[Ridley]

Stay back, Pete Tranter’s Sister etc.

[Ben Paddon]

Stay back, Pete Tranter’s Sister etc.

I nominate this post for Hall of Fame status.

[Author]

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