It has been almost 30 years since Scott Bakula's Dr. Sam Beckett vanished into time, but Quantum Leap has remained a cult favorite. NBC has dipped back into the time- travel well with a new show.
The new quantum leap is a sequel to the previous one. The unreliable computer that powers the show's sci-fi tech is still named Ziggy, and both Sam and his companion, Al, are referenced by the new characters. A more elaborate production is what Quantum Leap '22 is at its beginning. The cast, which includes a lab team toiling in the present day, is larger and the production values are as slick as you would expect from a 21st-century prime-time NBC series.
The first episode of a new show, "July 13, 1985", spends a lot of time explaining to viewers what's happening. Sam was given voice-over narration to further explain how he was feeling as he tried to figure out who he was in the original series. He had Al, a hologram who only Sam could see and hear, but he didn't know how he was going to make it back.
Once it gets past its own set up, the new show is very similar. In 1995, theorizing that one could time- travel within their own life, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the quantum leap and vanished. The project was abandoned after many years of trying to bring him home. We meet Dr. Ben Song, his fiancée, and his co-worker at a top- secret military base. The benevolent boss is Magic, along with other eggheads. They are all friends and we first meet them at Ben and Addison's engagement party, a joyful evening until Ben is receiving text messages from someone who says they are running out of time.
Naturally, this seemingly idiotic decision freaks everyone out, including Ben himself, who pops up in July 1985 with a side effect of leaping, something that Addison, who is able to follow him through time as a hologram, helps him cope with, though. Did any theater programmers in 1985 decide to show a double-feature of The Goonies and St. Elmo's Fire? What would that audience look like, what would they look like? It involves a big explosion and the Hope Diamond, but like the time- travel tech that got Ben there in the first place, the crime is a MacGuffin. As in the original Quantum Leap, the real reason for July 13, 1985 is so that Ben can help a specific person who has been hurt by the timelines.
You irrevocably alter the present if this sounds like a violation of everything you know about time travel. The new series will keep in mind that fixing a wrong in the past can improve the future. We won't spoil Ben's first mission, but we will note that it's a pretty easy one for him: Nick is around Ben's age and seems to be a bit of a lone wolf. Sam often woke up in circumstances that required quick thinking beyond "oh boy, who am I?", including being a Black man in Los Angeles on the day of the Watts riots, a pregnant teenager, and a horror author.
It isn't yet known if Ben's journey will be quite so surprising or if it will pinball wildly between personas that offer the show a chance to partake in both social commentary and goofballery If Ben jumps into someone who already has a romantic partner, it is not clear how the show will handle it. Ben doesn't have any voice-overs so we don't get insight into his state of mind as he grapples with his strange new circumstances
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