QUANTUM LEAP. (1989-1993) A SCIENCE FICTION TELEVISION SERIES CREATED BY DONALD P. BELLISARIO. THEME TUNE COMPOSED BY MIKE POST. NARRATED BY DEBORAH PRATT AS 'ZIGGY' THE COMPUTER.
STARRING SCOTT BAKULA AND DEAN STOCKWELL.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
'Oh Boy...!'
'That's a kick in the butt, ain't it?'
'Please God, I'd like to wake up now.'
'Bad enough I've gotta give Dick-and-Jane explanations to the press, now I've gotta give you one too!'
'A ball-game? I nearly died because you were at a ball-game?'
'It wasn't just any ball-game. It was a play-off...!'
'Obviously, when it comes to Quantum Physics, you're still a mental slug. Quantum Leap is YOUR project, Sam. You're the genius behind it...'
'A boy can't feel about his Dad the way you do without him knowing it.'
We've all woken up in a strange bed at one time or another, let's be honest. Hell, I once woke up in a strange country. Things were a little hairy there for a while but it all worked out once a few palms had been greased and the passports and, um, various items of feminine underwear returned to their rightful owners. Ahem.
Anyway, listen to this for a larf. Sam Beckett, an extremely attractive All-American male in his thirties, with a magnificent body and a distinct look of a young Harrison-Ford-in-INDIANA-JONES about him, has the exact experience we just mentioned, of waking up in a strange bed. Tsk tsk, naughty Sam. But if only that were all...!
Not only is there a strange women in bed beside him, but the bump on her front tells us that she's knocked up with only about three months left to go. Now that's hairy! Sam's got this look on his handsome face that says: 'Holy shit! What the f**k was I drinking last night?' but he's not hungover. He may not even have been drinking. There's something very, very strange going on here...
The plot thickens when Sam hauls his carcass warily out of bed only to discover three positively shocking things straightaway. One, the cute pregnant blonde chick he woke up next to seems to know him, even to have some kind of relationship with him. Two, when he looks in the mirror, he sees another bloke's face staring back at him. Like, wtf?
Worse than this, much much worse, he seems to already have a kid with Preggers. Aaaaaaargh...! He's a proper 'Fifties jobbie too, this kiddie, with freckles and a snub nose and a stripey T-shirt and a catcher's mitt permanently glued to one mucky paw. You know, the kind of kid who, when he sees a puppy you have for sale, would whine: 'Can I have him, Mister, can I? Aw, please, Mister, I'll treat him awful good, Mister, honest I will!' until you give him the damn puppy for free just to shut him the f**k up.
Poor Sam. He's convinced he's Sam, but Preggers and Catcher's Mitt seem to think he's someone else altogether. A guy called Tom Stratton, for one thing, and a husband and father for another. Man, that's rough...! Things get even weirder when Sam discovers that Howdy-Doody is on the television, and it ain't no re-run either...
Oh yeah, guess what? It's 1956 and Sam's job is- you're not gonna believe this- Airforce captain and fighter pilot... I'm not kidding. He's got a knocked-up 'Fifties wife (Peg) who's
probably seen her share of the inside of beauty parlours, a 'Fifties kid (Mikey) who likes to go fishing with his Paw and in a few days' time, Sam's/Tom's apparently going to try to break the existing world speed record by flying a thing called an X2 to something called Mach 3. Which, considering he's never flown a plane in his life, is bound to end badly...
Enter The Man In The Tux, aka The Boogeyman, as Sam first refers to him, although his real name is Al. Admiral Al Calavicci, to be precise. A neurological hologram visible only to our Sam, Al's got some information for Sam that will, quite literally blow Sam's mind. He tells the bewildered 'fighter-pilot' that what's happened to him is the result of 'a time-travel experiment that went a little ca-ca and they're experiencing, um, technical difficulties retrieving him...' As in, they're damned if they know how to get him back...
Oh well, that's all right then, lol. Is there anything that Sam can do to propel himself back into his own era? Well, yes, flying the X2 thingy to Mach 3 and changing the course of history slightly, but let's not worry about all that technical business now. Piece of cake, flying an X2 to Mach 3. Why, I could do that in my sleep with one hand tied behind my back. I did it twice this morning before breakfast, as a matter of fact. It's a cinch.
No, Sam's/Tom's main problem now is the fact that his little flying trip is going to send a terrified Peg crashing into premature labour, and breathing exercises ain't been invented yet. Flying is easy. Labour is hard. As someone who's done it twice, I know. Someone's itty-bitty-hand is gonna get crushed when those nasty contractions kick in...
No, Sam's/Tom's main problem now is the fact that his little flying trip is going to send a terrified Peg crashing into premature labour, and breathing exercises ain't been invented yet. Flying is easy. Labour is hard. As someone who's done it twice, I know. Someone's itty-bitty-hand is gonna get crushed when those nasty contractions kick in...
Okay, so you've guessed it, lol. QUANTUM LEAP is a cult science fiction time-travel television series that aired from 1989-1993. It was hugely popular and no wonder. Every week the delicious Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett inhabited a different body in a different period in time and had the opportunity to right small wrongs and even change history a little bit, which we'd all love to do if we got the chance. 1938? Just in time to stop Hitler so, grand!
Comedy, romance, sci-fi, history, drama and the odd bit of social commentary blended to form an unforgettable series that fans are still hoping to see a reprisal of. The writer, Donald P. Bellisario, confirmed in 2017 that: 'I just finished writing a Quantum Leap feature... I don't know what's going to happen with it, but I did write it.' You heard it here first, kiddos. Well, actually, that information's been available for a while now elsewhere so let's just say that you probably heard here it for the first time today, heh-heh-heh.
The wonderful news for fans of the cult series is that all five seasons of QUANTUM LEAP, comprising a whopping NINETY-SEVEN episodes, are available to buy now from FABULOUS FILMS.
They're on Blu-Ray, fully restored and in hi-definition, and this magnificent COMPLETE COLLECTORS' EDITION contains all the original music, which was previously missing in the DVD release. There's only one thing you can say to such terrific news. All together now...
http://www.fabulousfilms.com/
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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