Channel takes quantum leap to the future

Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett and Dean Stockwell as Al Calavicci, Quantum Leap Season 1.

Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett and Dean Stockwell as Al Calavicci, Quantum Leap Season 1.

Published Jul 2, 2012

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There’s no denying it. The DeLorean is one bad momma jamma. Even the Tardis is cool to use as transport to another space and time. But Sam Beckett didn’t use any of these.

As the title of the show suggests, he leapt into different dimensions taking on the image of whomever he’d leapt into. Why am I reminding you of this?

Well, TopTV’s Fox Retro is bringing Quantum Leap back for your viewing pleasure. The first season airs today.

For those who are too young to remember Sam, allow me to fill you in. Played by Scott Bakula, Sam Beckett is a scientist in a bit of a pickle. He is the victim of a time travel experiment gone wrong. When the audience meets him, he has travelled to the future. To 1995. Don’t laugh. Remember when 1995 was in the future? Or when we neared 2000 and it was called “the year 2000” – a time when people were panicking about the world ending and taking all their baked beans to an underground bunker? Ah, good times. Now, about that Mayan calender…

I digress. So in Quantum Leap, Sam keeps leaping into people’s bodies and is always faced with righting a wrong and thwarting impending doom in a specified time frame. Failing that, there’d be a possibility of him staying in that body for ever. This would mean he can’t be his true self ever again.

Because Sam has amnesia, he can’t remember all the details of his life and because he leaps into other people’s lives unannounced (and unbeknownst to him), no one can see it’s really him behind the moustache or dress. No one but his pal, Al.

This week, Sam becomes Tom Startton, a man whose wife Sam must stop from going into premature labour.

Things get more complicated later in the season. Trust it.

• Quantum Leap, Fox Retro, today, 4.50pm.

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