Quantum Leap 2022

[Cybersnark]

I loved the "Leaper X" betting pool.

And how Ben remembered Magic purely because of how badly Jenn butchered one of his inspiring stories.

 

[Kalidor]

Insane asylum episodes always give me anxiety because the idea of being locked up in a place like that has always been kind of an underlying fear I've had.

This episode was interesting but the leap to help a person was definitely the b plot here compared to the main story of Leaper X and the overall arc. Which makes sense since there are only 2 more episodes left (though I have to say how happy I am to see 18 episodes in a season compared to the 6-8 we've been getting on shows lately).

There are still things fundamentally wrong with the "rules" of how the universe works though. It's crazy the creators can have the knowledge and understanding of things like the Evil Leaper but seem to still not quite grasp how stuff worked in the previous show. This was evident last episode with Jenn in the imaging chamber. It doesn't necessarily bother me that they can watch the leap on monitors like it's TV, but in regards to how the holograms interact with the leaper, there were SPECIFIC reasons why only Sam could see and hear Al and vice versa. It had to do with how they were connected on an almost quantum entangled level because they had neurons from each other's brains implanted into their own.

This was also something that was COVERED by the original Evil Leaper story in that #1, the leapers couldn't identify each other outright because they saw them as the person they were leapt into and most definitely they couldn't see each other's holograms.

And there's still some issues with how Ben leaps into the hosts. Again, we see that he's not actually physically leaping into that time (so where did his body go?) nor are the hosts being sent to a future waiting room. he's somehow just mentally leaping into their own physical bodies. So they're very inconsistent or at least not being clear about how and why it works this way compared to the previous methods in which they leaped.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

I feel like the episode could have looked darker, to make it scarier. It was too bright.

I like the idea of how the Evil Leaper X operates his leaps. Soooo the X in Leaper X is X = unknown factor.

I've never seen the original Evil Leaper episode but this feels like that Tru Calling season 2 premise where two of them operate on flip sides (Tru resets the day to save a person who shouldn't have died. Jason Priestly believes that once a person dies, he should remain dead ala Final Destination and so he tries to undo what Tru does)

Holy cow, that ENDING!

 

[Kalidor]

It was pretty cool because the leap effect was red. Also, that's another thing the old show did better. These reboot leap effects look and sound awful compared to the iconic original look and sound.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

Insane asylum episodes always give me anxiety because the idea of being locked up in a place like that has always been kind of an underlying fear I've had.

This episode was interesting but the leap to help a person was definitely the b plot here compared to the main story of Leaper X and the overall arc. Which makes sense since there are only 2 more episodes left (though I have to say how happy I am to see 18 episodes in a season compared to the 6-8 we've been getting on shows lately).

There are still things fundamentally wrong with the "rules" of how the universe works though. It's crazy the creators can have the knowledge and understanding of things like the Evil Leaper but seem to still not quite grasp how stuff worked in the previous show. This was evident last episode with Jenn in the imaging chamber. It doesn't necessarily bother me that they can watch the leap on monitors like it's TV, but in regards to how the holograms interact with the leaper, there were SPECIFIC reasons why only Sam could see and hear Al and vice versa. It had to do with how they were connected on an almost quantum entangled level because they had neurons from each other's brains implanted into their own.

This was also something that was COVERED by the original Evil Leaper story in that #1, the leapers couldn't identify each other outright because they saw them as the person they were leapt into and most definitely they couldn't see each other's holograms.

And there's still some issues with how Ben leaps into the hosts. Again, we see that he's not actually physically leaping into that time (so where did his body go?) nor are the hosts being sent to a future waiting room. he's somehow just mentally leaping into their own physical bodies. So they're very inconsistent or at least not being clear about how and why it works this way compared to the previous methods in which they leaped.

I'm happy to accept that this version of QL tech may be based on Sam's, but nonetheless operates somewhat differently from Sam's, but I still have trouble with the fact that the hologram is often seen deliberately sitting on the scenery in Ben's time period. It's one thing to cheat on occasion (Al had to all the time, just to avoid having to do constant green screening), but that's pretty blatant.

But most of the changes seem less "they don't remember what it was like on the old show" and more "deliberate changes" (whether for real-world practical reasons or plot reasons).

(I also don't like the fact that we never see a proper leap-in with the full blue lightning. The leap-outs tend to be okay, but I don't want to see a spinning focus on Ben's eyes when he leaps into someone new. I want to see blue lightning!)

 

[Kalidor]

I think over time the leapout has gotten a little better with subtle changes. I admit, I usually notice stuff like the hologram messing with the "real world" but I totally missed her ever doing that. I need to start paying better attention.

 

[Kalidor]

Ooh! Something I DID notice though was when Martinez leaped in we did in fact see the leap effect.


Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but did we not see a cliffhanger of Martinez in the reflection of Addison implying that he leaped into her and it was never followed up on or am I dreaming?

 

[Kalidor]

Hologram.... sitting... in... chair.... again....


But man, that ending. Last episode next week.

 

[Delta Magnus]

Finally caught up with this weeks episode. Love the series. Can't wait for next week season finale. From what I've heard they've already started filming season 2.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Ooh! Something I DID notice though was when Martinez leaped in we did in fact see the leap effect.


Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but did we not see a cliffhanger of Martinez in the reflection of Addison implying that he leaped into her and it was never followed up on or am I dreaming?

Uh, what?

Also I forget when a Holo sat in a chair.

Saw the plane ep and it was tense! Great ep! I liked the mystery and I ended up liking the kid. Would have been cooler if they switched roles tho for the climax.

While it was foolhardy, that cart guy took a chance. Same with lady with the bottle. No mention on them being heroic?

 

[Kalidor]

Well Ian was "sitting" in the copilot seat

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Ah. Well, forgive them. They did say it's their first time? Hehe

Ok so the plot is future Ian sent Ben to save the future. So Ziggy prooooobably isn't bad. But what's the point of the secrecy? Unless... It's Future Ben who's evil! He's been the Evil Leaper all this time! Gaaaaasp!

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

Uh, what?

Also I forget when a Holo sat in a chair.

I can't recall a "chair," per se. I complained about sitting on the scenery (which should be holographic to the person in the "present").

For what it's worth, two times stand out to me.

1. In the space shuttle episode, during Ben's time in the open cargo bay, Addison sits on top of the shuttle.
2. In the episode with the transgender girl, both Addison and Ian sit in the stands to watch the basketball game.

 

[Kalidor]

I can't recall a "chair," per se. I complained about sitting on the scenery (which should be holographic to the person in the "present").

For what it's worth, two times stand out to me.

1. In the space shuttle episode, during Ben's time in the open cargo bay, Addison sits on top of the shuttle.
2. In the episode with the transgender girl, both Addison and Ian sit in the stands to watch the basketball game.

I don't know if I already said this but I know in the original series Al would adjust the image to make him appear to rise up and walk on water or something.

So if she was sitting on the shuttle she was probably just sitting on the floor.

I don't know how the stands might have been addressed

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I don't know if I already said this but I know in the original series Al would adjust the image to make him appear to rise up and walk on water or something.

So if she was sitting on the shuttle she was probably just sitting on the floor.

I don't know how the stands might have been addressed

She was clearly SITTING on the edge of the shuttle bay (someone sitting on the floor looks rather different). It wasn't just an "adjustment," of the kind that, yes, Al used to do all the time to account for the realities of filming without using the green screen for every little thing.

I mean, sure, if we NEED to find an in-world explanation, we can posit that she brought a chair in, and coordinated the image orientation JUST perfectly, but let's face it, that was never stated in-context, and was laziness on the part of the director. (I honestly think the director just assumed "she's a hologram, so we don't need to give her a space suit" and failed to consider that it also meant she couldn't sit on the surroundings)

 

[Kalidor]

The finale has had by far the most egregious hologram chair sitting in the entire season!!

 

[Cybersnark]

I've just been assuming the imaging chamber has a bunch of boxes and chairs and stuff around for "props" if needed. Note that no one has any problem just walking around to keep pace with Ben, so it's clearly a pretty big room.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I've just been assuming the imaging chamber has a bunch of boxes and chairs and stuff around for "props" if needed. Note that no one has any problem just walking around to keep pace with Ben, so it's clearly a pretty big room.

Perhaps not only that, but mechanisms to quietly move those props around so that they happen to coincide with places for the hologram to sit without their having to worry about it. And at least one Trek source suggests that the holodeck has a series of floor-based force fields that can move around people around like a treadmill, creating the illusion of a larger space, so we could perhaps see a lower-tech version of that....

As I suggested in another post, these things can absolutely be explained.

But we shouldn't have to. Having to do so yanks us out of the story. That's typically considered bad writing (or, my own explanation, bad directing).

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Saw the finale.

Hmm. It was pretty exciting but, hmm, maybe the build up of saving Addison would be cooler if we saw how she died in the other timeline, maybe? Cuz everything wrapping up seems mundane now. Got built up too much in my head.

Also the whole reason of the leaping was... That? But it's time travel! There is no reason for that!

Stuff I'm fuzzy would be the quantum entanglement.

And Ben vs Leaper X started out as great but then got disappointing.

The game reference is off. Feels wrong cuz there's a lot of ways to describe the code.

 

[Kalidor]

I wasn't particularly impressed with the conclusion. Especially after we had that awesome future cliffhanger.

It felt rushed and a bit unsure of what it was trying to be.

The knowledge of "the mole" really didn't pay anything off and it really didn't make any sense that the entire span of Ben's breadcrumb leaps concluded on "5 years ago"

Overall I enjoyed the season and I've grown very attached to the cast. My hope is they paid attention to some of the things they messed up lore wise and either fix it or explain it.

As an aside, even though they said from the start Scott Bakula was not going to be in any part of the production, I was still hoping there would have been a scene where Ben felt he was in a state where he felt all hope was lost and Sam showed up out of the shadows just to tell him there's always hope and nudge him on the right path. Just to let us know he's still out there.