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- This article is about the TV show. For the quantum physics effect, see quantum leap.
Quantum Leap was a science fiction television program which ran from 1989 to 1993 on NBC. It followed the adventures of Dr. Samuel Beckett (played by Scott Bakula), a brilliant theoretical scientist who finds himself abruptly and uncontrollably jumping in time, temporarily switching places with diverse people at various times within his own lifetime, the second half of the 20th century.
Sam's unintended travels begin when his time travel experiment gets mysteriously co-opted by an unidentified higher power, which uses him (for unknown reasons) to avert tragedies in ordinary people's lives. Sam also suffers from an uneven amnesia, called swiss-cheesing or (as a technical term in the show's universe) magnafluxing, which prevents him from remembering most of the details of his own life. His only link to his own time is a holographic projection named "Al" (played by Dean Stockwell), who is usually visible only to Sam. The catch-phrase used at the beginning of every episode was typically: "Oh boy..." The show's ninety-seven episodes aired on NBC between March 1989 and May 1993.
The term holographic projection is taken from the program, although it is not the same as real holography. The show's "hologram" is a three dimensional projection; Al enters an Imaging Chamber in which the image of Al and anything he is touching, e.g., a person or cigar, are visible to Sam and Sam can hear Al speak, and correspondingly events in the past are visible and audible to Al.
The series very rarely addressed real historical events, though it often used its "ordinary people" plots to address particular social, political, and spiritual issues. Many episodes depicted Sam dealing with issues characteristic of particular periods, such as civil rights, racism, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. The series strongly favored messages of tolerance and understanding others, aided in large part by the story format, which had the protagonist literally walking in another man's (or woman's) shoes.
Only a few times did Sam "leap" into a known historical figure, the first being Lee Harvey Oswald and the last being Elvis Presley. All these leaps were in the fifth (final) season and were widely believed to be efforts to boost the show's ratings and looked down upon by some fans. However, throughout the series it was common for Sam to leap into a character or situation based fairly obviously on a real person or event. Also common were so-called "brushes (or kisses) with history" where Sam would briefly encounter someone famous or a well-known event in a manner usually irrelevant to the story. [1] (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/1669/kiss.html)
The series (created by Donald Bellisario) was somewhat unusual in that it had a science fiction premise, but little science or fantasy oriented storytelling, instead focusing on the personal journeys of Sam Beckett and those he encounters. Even in its final episode, the show refused to resolve many of its own technical and holistic questions, choosing instead to leave things open-ended and focus tightly on what is arguably the series' overarching message: that a single person can change the world one life at a time.
The final episode was in fact intended to be an end-of-season cliffhanger, but after the series was not renewed by the network, it was re-edited to function as the final episode. This may account for some of its ambiguous nature.
Bakula later went on to star in another science fiction television show as Captain Jonathan Archer in Enterprise.
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