#579801
"The Leap Between The States"
Original Air Date: March 30, 1993
Written By: Richard C. Okie
Directed by: David Hemmings
Leap Date: September 20, 1862
This time: Sam leaps onto a Civil War battlefield during the Battle of Shepherdstown. As he marvels at the sights around him, he comes across a wounded soldier and is addressed as Captain Beckett. Overwhelmed, Sam cries out to Al, only to get shot. He evades further conflict by ducking into a nearby riverbed.
Sam is taken by a family of runaway slaves to a barn. Al arrives with little to go on beyond Sam being somewhere in Virginia. Sam’s marching orders show the name of John Becket, his great-grandfather. They are interrupted by rifle wielding Olivia Covington. She wants to know who Sam was talking to and asks Isaac, the man who brought him there, to investigate. She takes Sam into custody.
As Olivia cleans his wound, she blames him for the war, which has resulted in her land being ransacked and her husband killed. After she leaves, Al confirms that Sam is his own great-grandfather. Also, Oliva is his great-grandmother. Sam does not believe he is there to Back to the Future the two of them, but Al has little more to go on.
A fire breaks out in the barn and Sam helps put it out. The smoke attracts the attention of Lieutenant Montgomery, the man who shot Sam. Thankfully, Sam is able to bluff his way out of trouble, introducing himself as Aubrey Covington, cousin to Olivia, part of a Mississippi unit out on leave. Montgomery leaves after making eyes with Olivia. Sam thanks her but she is still incredulous, making him do work around the house, and fix up the house, to make up for it.
The next morning, Sam wakes up to a crying baby. Following the sound, he finds a family of escaped slaves hiding in the barn. They are in the underground railroad and Isaac is a conductor. Olivia knows none of this. As Sam tries to fix a pump, he realizes that she is looking the other way. Knowing the penalties for sympathizers, he has Al look into troop movements and weather in an attempt to make the route a little easier.
That night, Sam gives information to Isaac but is soon alarmed by Montgomery. Heaving earned a mutual trust, Sam ‘turns in’ Isaac and the escaped family. Montgomery is ready to hang them but Sam stalls for the sunrise. Olivia and Sam need a plan but do not have ammunition. Olivia bluffed with the rifle earlier. Sam breaks out another kind of ammunition, hooch.
As Montgomery is under the feminine wiles of Olivia and the fermented wiles of liquor, Sam dispatches the two sentries then Montgomery himself. Olivia leaves the land for good and newly freed Isaac needs a name. He considered Covington and Becket but settled on King. Al confirms he will be the great-grandfather to Martin Luther King, Jr. Sam leaps …
… into a young man being forced into a haircut. They and a mirror confirm he is Elvis Pressley.
Fact check: Mustard poultice is used to clean Sam’s wound. That is an Old Skool remedy, but mainly used for colds and coughs. Sam tells of a Battle of Fredericksburg that will distract the troops but that was in December, not September.
Stop talking to yourself: There is no voiceover, but Sam usually is careful about what he lets slip about the future but here, he tells Isaac about what the future will hold both in the immediate future with the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the war to the civil rights movement. It is a fantastic moment. “It's gonna be a long, hard fight for schooling, and other equality. But believe me. There will come a time when everyone will have the same rights. Everyone will be free.” “That ain't nothin' but a dream.”
Only Sam can see and hear: Al comes through in a clutch proving a cover for Sam. It is impressive given how quickly they had to load Ziggy’s memory banks.
Mirror images that were not his own: After getting confirmation, Sam sees the handsome John Beckett, the namesake of his father, in the mirror.
Brush with history: Sam exposits the changes coming to women (wearing pantaloons, drinking hard liquor) for Olivia. It does not go as well as it does with Isaac. She draws the line at voting.
It’s a science project: In order to determine that Sam leapt into his ancestor, Al is tasked with drawing blood from the person in the Waiting Room, which pokes holes in the leaps-just-exchange-bodies theory.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: Going beyond Sam’s lifetime puts Ziggy into a tizzy.
Let’s up the rating: Sam is ten thousand percent sure Olivia has the hots for him. Al is not.
One more time: “Never thought I would be putting these on a white man.”
Isaac discovering irony while shackling Sam
The Rainbow Treknection: Kate McNeil played Olivia here and would later play Commander Collins from Starfleet Security again against Scott Bakula in Affliction.
Trivial Matters: Though it takes a bit of tomfoolery, this is the earliest leap date in the series. By amazing coincidence, it is six episodes after the episode taking place closest to today.
After telling the future, Isaac considers Sam a Voodoo Man.
Sam and Montgomery have a ‘measuring’ contest over who has greater authority. Ranks and jurisdiction come into play.
Montgomery recognizes Sam as having a weapon from a sentry. It has not worked since Bull Run, over a year prior to this episode. I know the supply lines were rough but that is a long time to go without a weapon.
Put right what once went wrong: “Look at me! Look at this uniform.” “You look good in dark blue, Sam.” I am not sure who in the writer’s room thought it would be a good idea to marry Quantum Leap with Back to the Future and have it take place in the Civil War, but it allowed them to do something that the series does not get to do as a whole.
The series does have a fairly decent track record of selling the time period. Whether it is the civil rights south or the still booming automotive industry, Quantum Leap has never shied away from getting the setting right and this is no exception. The costuming does a lot of the work but also things that will come to pass. Olivia is ahead of her time as is Isaac, but they fit perfectly into the world that is 1862. Specifically, Olivia blames the Union Army for the war, and she suffered a lot for it. We see that a lot of her farm is in need of repair. Plus, she lost her husband.
A fantastic supporting cast is assembled. Geoffrey Lower is undressing Olivia with his eyes as Montgomery. He is a lieutenant in the war but has that sleazy snake oil salesman vibe. He is using the auspices of his authority to get what he wants. There is not a lot of time to develop his character, but he fills the Biff Tannen role fairly well and the pissing contest is great.
Kate McNeil plays Olivia as someone Sam and John would fall for. Sam and Al argue over her intentions, but she has eyes for Sam. She is rough at the start but has a connection. There is more to her demand that Sam stay on the land than she lets on. You can tell their bond when Montgomery is on the scene, and they exchange glances. They say a lot without one word being exchanged. There is also a scene at the water well where she maintains her pride but is very cordial to Sam. Her Lorraine is well cast, and she makes beautiful music with Bakula.
Isaac does not have an obvious Back to the Future counterpart, but Michael D. Roberts is amazing. He has a quiet poise but says a lot even when completely silent. The scene where Sam talks about the future again breaks the rules of the series but is a great moment. His quip about shackling Sam is a fun moment early on and when the trio of Sam, Isaac and Olivia are putting out the fire, it is three people working their asses off.
The writing by Richard Okie could use a few tweaks. The boss fight in the end is far too brief. Also, while Sam and Olivia do get together, a lot of the ending happens offscreen. We go from knocking out Montgomery (who can still bring Olivia and Sam up on charges) to them abandoning the farm. We can fill in the blanks, but it seems as though they ran out of time and made the (correct) decision to not cut out revealing who Isaac is. It all feels rushed and while there is not a lot to take out, there is some to put in. Note that the early scenes are great at giving us enough to figure out what is going on. Sam is guffawed to find out that Olivia has a rifle but not ammunition.
The budget was stretched this with this. The only battle we see is in the first act and while it is spectacular, you can tell a bit too much of the budget went into it. David Hemmings did a great sequence, but it got a little too expensive for the books.
At this point, they creative team did not know that this was the third last hour that would air. Knowing where they wanted to go for season six this let them play a little more into the past. It is sad that they did not get to go into that sandbox, but it would have been something.
Original Air Date: March 30, 1993
Written By: Richard C. Okie
Directed by: David Hemmings
Leap Date: September 20, 1862
This time: Sam leaps onto a Civil War battlefield during the Battle of Shepherdstown. As he marvels at the sights around him, he comes across a wounded soldier and is addressed as Captain Beckett. Overwhelmed, Sam cries out to Al, only to get shot. He evades further conflict by ducking into a nearby riverbed.
Sam is taken by a family of runaway slaves to a barn. Al arrives with little to go on beyond Sam being somewhere in Virginia. Sam’s marching orders show the name of John Becket, his great-grandfather. They are interrupted by rifle wielding Olivia Covington. She wants to know who Sam was talking to and asks Isaac, the man who brought him there, to investigate. She takes Sam into custody.
As Olivia cleans his wound, she blames him for the war, which has resulted in her land being ransacked and her husband killed. After she leaves, Al confirms that Sam is his own great-grandfather. Also, Oliva is his great-grandmother. Sam does not believe he is there to Back to the Future the two of them, but Al has little more to go on.
A fire breaks out in the barn and Sam helps put it out. The smoke attracts the attention of Lieutenant Montgomery, the man who shot Sam. Thankfully, Sam is able to bluff his way out of trouble, introducing himself as Aubrey Covington, cousin to Olivia, part of a Mississippi unit out on leave. Montgomery leaves after making eyes with Olivia. Sam thanks her but she is still incredulous, making him do work around the house, and fix up the house, to make up for it.
The next morning, Sam wakes up to a crying baby. Following the sound, he finds a family of escaped slaves hiding in the barn. They are in the underground railroad and Isaac is a conductor. Olivia knows none of this. As Sam tries to fix a pump, he realizes that she is looking the other way. Knowing the penalties for sympathizers, he has Al look into troop movements and weather in an attempt to make the route a little easier.
That night, Sam gives information to Isaac but is soon alarmed by Montgomery. Heaving earned a mutual trust, Sam ‘turns in’ Isaac and the escaped family. Montgomery is ready to hang them but Sam stalls for the sunrise. Olivia and Sam need a plan but do not have ammunition. Olivia bluffed with the rifle earlier. Sam breaks out another kind of ammunition, hooch.
As Montgomery is under the feminine wiles of Olivia and the fermented wiles of liquor, Sam dispatches the two sentries then Montgomery himself. Olivia leaves the land for good and newly freed Isaac needs a name. He considered Covington and Becket but settled on King. Al confirms he will be the great-grandfather to Martin Luther King, Jr. Sam leaps …
… into a young man being forced into a haircut. They and a mirror confirm he is Elvis Pressley.
Fact check: Mustard poultice is used to clean Sam’s wound. That is an Old Skool remedy, but mainly used for colds and coughs. Sam tells of a Battle of Fredericksburg that will distract the troops but that was in December, not September.
Stop talking to yourself: There is no voiceover, but Sam usually is careful about what he lets slip about the future but here, he tells Isaac about what the future will hold both in the immediate future with the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the war to the civil rights movement. It is a fantastic moment. “It's gonna be a long, hard fight for schooling, and other equality. But believe me. There will come a time when everyone will have the same rights. Everyone will be free.” “That ain't nothin' but a dream.”
Only Sam can see and hear: Al comes through in a clutch proving a cover for Sam. It is impressive given how quickly they had to load Ziggy’s memory banks.
Mirror images that were not his own: After getting confirmation, Sam sees the handsome John Beckett, the namesake of his father, in the mirror.
Brush with history: Sam exposits the changes coming to women (wearing pantaloons, drinking hard liquor) for Olivia. It does not go as well as it does with Isaac. She draws the line at voting.
It’s a science project: In order to determine that Sam leapt into his ancestor, Al is tasked with drawing blood from the person in the Waiting Room, which pokes holes in the leaps-just-exchange-bodies theory.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: Going beyond Sam’s lifetime puts Ziggy into a tizzy.
Let’s up the rating: Sam is ten thousand percent sure Olivia has the hots for him. Al is not.
One more time: “Never thought I would be putting these on a white man.”
Isaac discovering irony while shackling Sam
The Rainbow Treknection: Kate McNeil played Olivia here and would later play Commander Collins from Starfleet Security again against Scott Bakula in Affliction.
Trivial Matters: Though it takes a bit of tomfoolery, this is the earliest leap date in the series. By amazing coincidence, it is six episodes after the episode taking place closest to today.
After telling the future, Isaac considers Sam a Voodoo Man.
Sam and Montgomery have a ‘measuring’ contest over who has greater authority. Ranks and jurisdiction come into play.
Montgomery recognizes Sam as having a weapon from a sentry. It has not worked since Bull Run, over a year prior to this episode. I know the supply lines were rough but that is a long time to go without a weapon.
Put right what once went wrong: “Look at me! Look at this uniform.” “You look good in dark blue, Sam.” I am not sure who in the writer’s room thought it would be a good idea to marry Quantum Leap with Back to the Future and have it take place in the Civil War, but it allowed them to do something that the series does not get to do as a whole.
The series does have a fairly decent track record of selling the time period. Whether it is the civil rights south or the still booming automotive industry, Quantum Leap has never shied away from getting the setting right and this is no exception. The costuming does a lot of the work but also things that will come to pass. Olivia is ahead of her time as is Isaac, but they fit perfectly into the world that is 1862. Specifically, Olivia blames the Union Army for the war, and she suffered a lot for it. We see that a lot of her farm is in need of repair. Plus, she lost her husband.
A fantastic supporting cast is assembled. Geoffrey Lower is undressing Olivia with his eyes as Montgomery. He is a lieutenant in the war but has that sleazy snake oil salesman vibe. He is using the auspices of his authority to get what he wants. There is not a lot of time to develop his character, but he fills the Biff Tannen role fairly well and the pissing contest is great.
Kate McNeil plays Olivia as someone Sam and John would fall for. Sam and Al argue over her intentions, but she has eyes for Sam. She is rough at the start but has a connection. There is more to her demand that Sam stay on the land than she lets on. You can tell their bond when Montgomery is on the scene, and they exchange glances. They say a lot without one word being exchanged. There is also a scene at the water well where she maintains her pride but is very cordial to Sam. Her Lorraine is well cast, and she makes beautiful music with Bakula.
Isaac does not have an obvious Back to the Future counterpart, but Michael D. Roberts is amazing. He has a quiet poise but says a lot even when completely silent. The scene where Sam talks about the future again breaks the rules of the series but is a great moment. His quip about shackling Sam is a fun moment early on and when the trio of Sam, Isaac and Olivia are putting out the fire, it is three people working their asses off.
The writing by Richard Okie could use a few tweaks. The boss fight in the end is far too brief. Also, while Sam and Olivia do get together, a lot of the ending happens offscreen. We go from knocking out Montgomery (who can still bring Olivia and Sam up on charges) to them abandoning the farm. We can fill in the blanks, but it seems as though they ran out of time and made the (correct) decision to not cut out revealing who Isaac is. It all feels rushed and while there is not a lot to take out, there is some to put in. Note that the early scenes are great at giving us enough to figure out what is going on. Sam is guffawed to find out that Olivia has a rifle but not ammunition.
The budget was stretched this with this. The only battle we see is in the first act and while it is spectacular, you can tell a bit too much of the budget went into it. David Hemmings did a great sequence, but it got a little too expensive for the books.
At this point, they creative team did not know that this was the third last hour that would air. Knowing where they wanted to go for season six this let them play a little more into the past. It is sad that they did not get to go into that sandbox, but it would have been something.
New places for old(er) keywords: Continuing Mission
Cardassians and Federation posturing it out: Showdown: Four Lights
Cardassians and Federation posturing it out: Showdown: Four Lights