Quantum Leap Discussion/Appreciation

[Flyboy]

Wow! Fascinating stuff! A lot more in depth than ipreviously had thought! Aw man, I wish I could watch it again, now that Im older Id prolly appreciate it more.

[SaberBlade]

wasn't it revealed that it was Sam leaping himself around and not some almighty power?

i am pretty sure it was revealed that Sam could have went home anytime, it was just up to him to go there.

[Darren]

At the risk of being pummelled with fruit, I loved the Quantum Leap finale. It was gut-wrenching, but a very touching and appropriate way to end the series.

[kiwigater]

At the risk of being pummelled with fruit, I loved the Quantum Leap finale. It was gut-wrenching, but a very touching and appropriate way to end the series.

*pummels Darren with fruit*
really? While I agree reuniting Al and Beth was heart wrenching and highly appropriate, when they put up the bit about Sam never making it home I felt like they'd punched me in the stomach and then given me a good swift kick in the kidney while they were at it The way they ended the series has tainted how I view any series I've become addicted to since. For me, Stargate has only recently surpassed QL as my all time fav show, and a lot of that has to do with how betrayed I felt coming out of the QL finale. I can see how intellectually you could make the argument that Sam leaping off into oblivion was an appropriate choice, but I guess emotionally it trashed me (see, look, 10 years later and I'm still fuming!).

I guess it depends on how TPTB want to use the finale of any series. Do they want to end it appropriately, intellectually or emotionally, are they tying into a planned movie or mini-series, are they rewarding their viewers for loyally following the show for x years, or is the whole thing a giant "screw you" to everyone involved (ie. the network) with the viewers caught in the crossfire?
Me? bitter? naaaahhh
I can respect your opinion, even if in this case I wildly disagree with it food fight!

[Flyboy]

When people say "leaping off into oblivion" what do you mean? As in, doomed to leap forever, or what?

[kiwigater]

When people say "leaping off into oblivion" what do you mean? As in, doomed to leap forever, or what?

basically. At least that's how I interpreted it. That God, or whatever, had other things for him to put right, and that he would keep leaping to do that, but that the leaps would get harder. And seeing as they very clearly say Sam never makes it home, well, I assume that leaves him leaping forever.

[roswellgray]

earlier poster, yes I think it was revealed by the bartender guy that Sam could control his leaping. But how and why was left for Sam to determine. As for the leaps becoming more difficult - I believe the barman meant that Sam would need to start making life or death decisions - in the same way the crippled russian did for the trapped coalminers.

In a way, I think the writers were hinting that Sam was on his way to a kind of ascension. The barman being a bit like Oma Desala and Sam Beckett like Daniel Jackson.

[roswellgray]

Just watched the episode where Sam leaps into a situation where a woman thinks her dead husband is haunting her when actually her brother is trying to make her crazy so he can take her fortune. The housekeeper was a 'ghost' who died during the 1840's - her body floats up from the bottom of the lake after an earthquake. This 'ghost' doesn't seem to be a leaper like the old man in the series finale who supposedly died in a mine collapse during the 1930's. So it seems not all leapers are ghosts.

[Amun]

I would love to see QL: A Bold Leap Forward come into being but it's been a while now and I have recently heard check Internet Movie Database that it was a hoax and that nothing is actually happening.

I hope this is wrong, and since Enterprise is being axed we could see Scott Bakula making a more recurring role in the series.

[shockwave]

in a startek.com chat a few weeks ago bakula said he isn't making a new quantum leap series, and hasn't or isn't making any quantum leap movie

[Amun]

Does anyone know when Season 2 and 3 are coming out on DVD in the UK?

[kiwigater]

hey, this is the very first thread I've created in nearly a year on the forum!
Pity it has to be cos I'm absolutely HORRIFIED at the changes Universal has made to the Quantum Leap series DVD's.
I just got given the first season as a (belated) BD present, and was really happy I really enjoyed watching them, and was sitting here thinking about buying the rest, when I find out that they REPLACED THE MUSIC IN MIA!

Now, for the most part I doubt I'll notice where they've replaced specific songs with more generic music (see here for a list in season 2) but I can't BELIEVE they replaced "Gerogia in my Mind" at the end of MIA

For you own personal edification, here is a link to a site that lets you download a 5 min clip comparing the original version and "new" version. Scroll down the page a bit to find it. I still find that scene immensely powerful, even watching the teensy squnity vision version STILL had me tearing up, what is WITH the replacement music? It's almost bouncy!

I know these DVD's came out a while ago, and probably no one else gives a fig, but I think it's a travesty, and I just HAD to vent about it

[sgeureka]

I read an interesting article about music replacement on DVDs at www.wired.com.

Excerpt:
For many TV shows, costs to license the original music for DVD are prohibitively high, so rights owners replace the music with cheaper tunes, much to the irritation of avid fans. And some shows, like WKRP, which is full of music, will probably never make it to DVD because of high licensing costs.

I am glad that I have never experienced something like that with any of my DVDs but I can understand the procedure of the studios (and I prefer a replaced song than a TV show never to be released on DVD).

[LoneStar1836]

Okay that is about the stupidest thing I have ever heard of (ok not literally but....) so I’m pissed as well, and I don’t even own the DVDs, but I loved the show. The show is about travel through time so the music helps to set the time-period. Duh. WTH would you change that for. As far as doing away with “Georgia On My Mind” in an episode where the song is specifically mentioned and important to the scene, totally ruins that whole scene which I can clearly visualize and hear the music because that’s an episode that’s stuck with me even though it’s been a while since I’ve seen it.

I can understand the cost to license the original music so I guess if it’s a choice between the music or the show on DVD, then losing the music is a small price to pay, but imo it detracts from the show especially by not having it since QL was time-period sensitive. You’d think they could have at least paid for that one song.

[kiwigater]

I read an interesting article about music replacement on DVDs at www.wired.com.

Excerpt:
For many TV shows, costs to license the original music for DVD are prohibitively high, so rights owners replace the music with cheaper tunes, much to the irritation of avid fans. And some shows, like WKRP, which is full of music, will probably never make it to DVD because of high licensing costs.

I am glad that I have never experienced something like that with any of my DVDs but I can understand the procedure of the studios (and I prefer a replaced song than a TV show never to be released on DVD).

Yes, you're very lucky! And apparantly so am I, this is the first time I've encountered this problem.
I completely agree - for a hefty majority of the songs used in the show I'm not sure I'd notice. And yes, I (think ) I'd rather have this than no show at all...... BUT that one particular song is completely entwined in my submersion in this specific episode (and I don't think I'm the only one). Gerogia on my Mind will forever bring to my mind Beth's loss, Al's pain, Sam's tormented conflict..... that scene is brilliant, and not including that song rips the guts out of it (for me at least). (God, I'm getting all teary just hearing the music in my head!)

I'm a realist (mostly ), I understand that for financial reasons they couldn't get all of the songs (altho did you LOOK at that list!?! Did they even try?!), but why desecrate the "best" episode of the series? Would you make the argument that making an exception for one episdoe sets a precedent? I honestly can't see how that is true - this episode is special.

I'm trying to think of a good SG parallel..... How would you feel if the Stargate PTB decided that because it was too expensive to pay RDA's DVD licencing fees that they would have to remove the loop scenes from Window of Opportunity? Are those scenes strictly necessary to the furtherance of the plot??..... IMO, no. But they help turn an "average" episode into a fan (and one of my personal) favourites Or how about cutting out some of the scenes between Jack and Daniel in Meridian? (an episode with almost as much emotional punch as MIA, IMHO).

uh oh, I'm ranting again aren't I... I'm not ranting AT you sgeureka I appreciate your comments, and I understand your point, apparantly I'm just being irrationally stubborn and emotional about this

Anyway I’m sorry but that just happens to be how I feel about it. What do you think?

[kiwigater]

ack! and now that I've got the friggin song totally stuck in my head, I can't buy it on iTunes! You woulda thought RAY CHARLES would be well known enough to have it available! It's even on the "Ray" movie soundtrack! *wanders away mumbling* it's a friggin conspiracy.....

[VirtualCLD]

Ah, ok, so this is what you were complaining about. Ignore my post in the sulky thread. I agree, I wish they had kept that song in. Now I don't know if I want the QL DVD collection.
As far as finding the song, it's not a Ray Charles original composition, so that may throw off your search a bit.

[ShimmeringStar]

Yes, you're very lucky! And apparantly so am I, this is the first time I've encountered this problem.
I completely agree - for a hefty majority of the songs used in the show I'm not sure I'd notice. And yes, I (think ) I'd rather have this than no show at all...... BUT that one particular song is completely entwined in my submersion in this specific episode (and I don't think I'm the only one). Gerogia on my Mind will forever bring to my mind Beth's loss, Al's pain, Sam's tormented conflict..... that scene is brilliant, and not including that song rips the guts out of it (for me at least). (God, I'm getting all teary just hearing the music in my head!)

I'm a realist (mostly ), I understand that for financial reasons they couldn't get all of the songs (altho did you LOOK at that list!?! Did they even try?!), but why desecrate the "best" episode of the series? Would you make the argument that making an exception for one episdoe sets a precedent? I honestly can't see how that is true - this episode is special.

I'm trying to think of a good SG parallel..... How would you feel if the Stargate PTB decided that because it was too expensive to pay RDA's DVD licencing fees that they would have to remove the loop scenes from Window of Opportunity? Are those scenes strictly necessary to the furtherance of the plot??..... IMO, no. But they help turn an "average" episode into a fan (and one of my personal) favourites Or how about cutting out some of the scenes between Jack and Daniel in Meridian? (an episode with almost as much emotional punch as MIA, IMHO).

uh oh, I'm ranting again aren't I... I'm not ranting AT you sgeureka I appreciate your comments, and I understand your point, apparantly I'm just being irrationally stubborn and emotional about this

Anyway I’m sorry but that just happens to be how I feel about it. What do you think?

It is terrible. It’s like taking away a masterpiece, a painting or sculpture, and hacking off pieces of it, and then throwing the remaining pieces on a table and saying Here it is… Picasso’s “ABC” or Rodin’s “The Thinker.” All because Syndicate A owns this part, Investment Group B owns that part, Wealthy Investor C owns the copyright, Friend D bought the artist all of his/her materials and has some claim, etc. etc. And we the fans of this artistic work are supposed to accept and *like* the editing that destroyed the artist's original vision.

As a teen when I realized how badly they chopped up movies for showing and syndication on TV I became disillusioned with the media really fast. If you don’t catch things first run in a theater (or on cable or pay per view) you’ll never see the writer or director’s original intent – the whole enchilada the way it was meant to be served…. And as for Stargate - it’s no different than what TPTB have done to the 90-minute Threads. It only got shown twice that one night here in the States and from here on out now they’ll only show the 60 minute edited version. What gets cut from these shows and movies does affect the story, affects the oooommph, the effect, affects how we react and what we take away from it, even if only in the minutest ways.

I loved Quantum Leap too. (Don’t even get me started about the ending to it though!) Guess it’ll be better for me to keep it a happy memory than to buy a DVD and find out that what is on DVD is not the same as what was shown. Not even better than the original. But *less* than.

No you’re not being irrational or stubborn or emotional about it Kiwi. (((KG)))

[impulsivelad]

That was the same problem with the Freak & Geeks DVD, luckily they managed to get all the music intact.

[vikingjedi]

I get that he didnt get home.. which is a bugger... but, Id like some details about it. Why didnt he get home? etc...

Sam met God at the end (in the form of a bartender). They were in an old bar and Sam asked God what was going to happen to him. God told Sam that his mission wasn't complete and he still had work to do. Starting with fixing Al's past so he would be with his wife who thought he died in the war. God told him the leaps would get harder but Sam accepted it as his destiny.

One of the best endings ever.