Tuesday TV Touchbase: Quantum Leap

 A couple of weeks ago, the new Quantum Leap ended it's first season with an epic season finale that tied together the plot lines of the show to date.

• Why did Dr. Ben Song leap into the quantum accelerator in the first place? 
• What was Ian's role in getting Ben to make the leap? 
• What was the mission of Ben's rival leaper, Martinez, AKA "Leaper X"? 

In the season finale, Ben leaps into the future, a first for either the new or classic series. Ben meets an elderly Ian who is the lone survivor of a destroyed Project Quantum Leap. Ian makes Ben commit to memory a code Ian's been working on for 20 years.  

Then Ben is pulled back into past, to the year 2018 where Dr. Ben Song leaps into the body of... Dr. Ben Song. 

Herbert "Magic" Williams has just assembled his new team to restart Project Quantum Leap and it's the night of Ben's first date with Addison who is also Ben's hologram companion. Caitlin Bassett has to do double duty as both her 2018 self and her hologram self at the same time.   

2018 is the focal point of Martinez' plan to stop Project Quantum Leap. He's working for a secret government cabal that has determined the project is more of a danger than a help. His primary goal was to kill Addison Augustine who was supposed to be the designated leaper for the revived project...until Ben made the jump instead. Martinez has leaped into Magic and expanded the scope of the mission: everyone involved with the project needs to die. 

The key to stopping Martinez lies in the code future Ian gave Ben and both 2018 and 2023 Ian are kind of stumped on what he's trying to say to himself.  I have raved about Mason Alexander Park as Ian in previous posts about Quantum Leap and I've just gonna gush over them again. The nuances in difference between the versions of Ian in 2018, 2023 and the future are subtle but significant enough to give a sense of Ian's growth as a character, as they evolve from an uncertain newbie to a more grounded and confident scientist to an older person who has had decades to ponder the mysteries of time and space.  

There is a climatic battle between Ben and Martinez as they leap backward into previous time periods where they had interacted before, 1954, 1989 and 1879.  

Martinez is defeated and it seems like Ben Song is coming home. Back in the present, the project team gathers as the accelerator lights up and something is coming out as Addison and the others watch breathlessly and...

We're out! 

A brief clip package shows us scenes from season 2 as Ben continues to leap from life to life. Well, we knew the show was renewed for a 2nd season so we knew he wouldn't be coming home now.  

So what is coming out of the accelerator? 

We'll have to wait until this fall. 

A few things about this revival of Quantum Leap. At first I was concerned that the present day elements with the project would take time away from Ben's dilemmas in the past but those sections of the show proved to be vital in giving the series a sense of forward momentum as opposed to just being random episodes. Modern audiences demand story telling devices like season long arcs and spending time with the project team in the present afforded the show a chance at that sort of storytelling.  

Without the present day scenes, I would have never discovered the sheer joy of Mason Alexander Park as Ian. 

I wasn't too happy at first with Addison as the hologram. She seemed a bit stodgy at first, at least compared to Al Calavicci who was Sam's hologram in the original series. But I started to warm up to Addison over the course of the season, particularly with her exasperation whenever Ben wouldn't do what Ziggy had calculated he should do.   

The show did well enough for NBC to give the series a fairly quick pick up for season 2 but I was worried the network was killing their golden goose. Ratings declined a bit over the season as the network scheduled some odd breaks in the series schedule.   

There was a shaky start to the series with some behinds the scenes drama with musical chairs on the production team but overall, the new Quantum Leap delivered a very solid first season and I look forward to what happens next in season 2. 

Next week, the Tuesday TV Touchbase looks at the  series finale of Star Trek Picard. 

And after that, I will have some thoughts on the return of the Marvelous Mrs, Maisel.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.