Quantum Leap/Genesis

Genesis
Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2
Airdate	March 26, 1989
Written by	Donald P. Bellisario
Directed by	David Hemmings
— N/A	1x03 → Star-Crossed
Quantum Leap — Season One

Genesis (also known as Pilot or simply Quantum Leap) is the first and second episodes of the first season of Quantum Leap.

Starring: Scott Bakula (Sam Beckett)

and Dean Stockwell (The Observer)

Guest Starring: Jennifer Runyon (Peggy Stratton), John Allen Nelson (Captain "Bird Dog" Birdell), W.K. Stratton (Dr. Berger), Newell Alexander (John Beckett), Lee DeBroux (Coach), Larry Poindexter (Captain Tony LaMotta)

and Bruce McGill (Weird Ernie)

Co-Starring: Barbara Horan (Tina), David Trent (Captain Doug Walker), James F. Dean (Dr. Blaustein), Lela Ivey (Lucy), Dennis Wolfberg (Gooshie), Lydia Cornell (Sally), Christine Poor (Jeanie), Doug Cox (Sportscaster), Christian Van Dorn (Mikey Stratton)

Featuring: Hank Robinson (Umpire), Patrick Cranshaw (Old Man), Brent Chalem (Bat Boy), Adam Affonso (Young Sam), Mike Greenwood (Matt), Dave Duensing (Clyde), David Dawson (Barnes), Kevin Johnson (Pepper), Ken Martin (Tim Fox), Layne Beamer (Tom Stratton)

Plot Overview

Sam finds himself in the year 1956, except that everyone calls him Tom Stratton, not Sam. He doesn't know how he got there or why, and he can't remember his own last name. A guy named Al seems to know what's going on, but no one else beside Sam can see or hear Al, and Al can walk through walls and disappear. So Sam's beginning to wonder if he's going crazy.

As if all that weren't enough, Sam/Tom Stratton has to fly his plane and break Mach-2 within the next few days. The problem is, Sam's never flown before in his entire life.

Sam learns more about why he's there: he's part of a time-travel experiment that, as Al puts it, "went a little 'ca-ca.'" Originally, Tom Stratton died in the Mach-2 flight. So if Sam changes history so that Tom doesn't die, then in theory, Sam should "leap" out of Tom and back to his own time period and his own body.

With Al's help, Sam does successfully break Mach-2 without dying. However, instead of leaping back home, Sam leaps into a baseball player in the 1960s.

As for Al himself, he's from Sam's own time period, communicating to Sam through holographic projection (hence the walking through walls). He can't tell Sam anything he doesn't remember due to strict government regulation, but after much cajoling from Sam, he does reveal two important things: Sam's last name is Beckett, and Sam himself created Project Quantum Leap, so he is his own best chance for figuring out how to get back home.

Notes

Leap Dates

• 1956
• 1968

Location

• Edwards Air Force Base, Blockfield, California

Music

• Doris Day - "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera Sera)"
• Elvis Presley - "Hound Dog"
• Morris Stoloff - "Moonglow/Theme from Picnic"
• Pat Boone - "Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)"
• Roy Orbison - "Ooby Dooby"
• "Yellow Rose Of Texas"

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Somewhere in the New Mexico desert, a top secret project called Quantum Leap is underway. It's explained that it utilised the theory that if a string from one's birth to their death is balled up, they touch each other, allowing to travel within one's lifetime. Sam steps into the accelerator and proves it to be a success. The process allows him to leap into other people's lives. They see him as this person, including himself when he looks in the mirror. The person he leaps into is back in Quantum Leap are said to suffer Sam's memory loss issues.

• However, Quantum Leap has difficulty in retrieving Sam. While there are ideas about how to get Sam back, the hybrid computer Ziggy theorises that some higher force has hijacked the project to correct a mistake and that if Sam prevents Tom Stratton, the man he leapt into, from dying as he originally did, he will leap back. This initially proves false, but after stopping Stratton's wife from going into premature labour, he leaps. However, he finds himself in another time and person. It's believed that righting wrongs could be the success to leaping him back home, but with no way to know the direction he'll leap.

• While Sam's leap from 1956 to 1968 was instantaneous from his perspective, it was actually a week.

• Al says that he cannot tell Sam anything Sam doesn't already know because it's restricted.

Characters

• As a result of the leaping process Sam has very little memory of who he is, likened to that of Swiss cheese. He initially only remembers his first name. He later recalls growing up on a farm in Elk Ridge, Indiana until he was 18. He has a sister named Kate who married naval officer Lieutenant Jim Bonick. His mother lives with them in Hawaii, but his dad died in 1974. With a good deal of reluctance, Al reveals Sam's last name to be Beckett. He then uses this information to call his father and make some peace with his situation.

• A man named Albert introduces himself to Sam. He is also part of the project and due to subatomic agitation of carbon quarks tuned to the mesons of optic and optic neurons, he appears as a hologram that only Sam can see, although it's later established that animals can see Al and Sam for who he really is. Al is in an imaging chamber back in Quantum Leap.

• Sam recalls some medical knowledge and Al tells him he holds six doctorates. With his expertise being quantum physics, Project Quantum Leap was his brainchild.

• Al is shown to be a womaniser, picking up a woman early on and later alluding to a sexual conquest with another woman. Al is also an ex-astronaut who has the piloting skills to help Sam fly the X-2.

Referbacks

• Being the first episode, there's nothing to refer back to. However, there are two references that pay off in later episodes. Before Sam knows what's going on, he mistakes Al for "the boogieman." A Halloween episode in the third season is called "The Boogieman". Also, there's a captain in this episode whom the pilots affectionately nickname "Weird Ernie." While the reason for the nickname is never given, Bruce McGill (who plays Weird Ernie) returns in the series finale, "Mirror Image", playing the enigmatic Al the bartender.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• The premiere episode was originally known simply as a 2-hour TV-movie called "Quantum Leap". When the episode was rerun before the start of Season 2, NBC edited the episode down to 90 minutes and given the title "Genesis". When the reruns came to the USA Network in 1992 and the Sci-Fi Channel in 1993, the name "Genesis" was retained for the two installments. The VHS and DVD releases feature the original unedited opening, and are referred to simply as "The Pilot Episode".

• David Hemmings directed this episode. He would only direct one more installment: the penultimate filmed episode of the series, "The Leap Between the States".

• The sound effects on Al's car were also used for K.I.T.T. on the Knight Rider.

• Dubbing for Barbara Horan was done by Deborah Pratt.

• Tom Stratton was originally Hank Stratton.

• The script does not include the present day scene with Al and Sam stepping into the accelerator, instead beginning with Sam already in the process of his first leap. It also ends with a tag for what would be "Double Identity", albeit with different character names.

Allusions and References

• Sam recalls that his sister was married to Navy lieutenant Jim Bonnick. Jim Bonnick is a character from Magnum, P.I. which was also created by Donald P. Bellisario.

• Sam catches The Howdy Doody Show on TV.

Kiss with History

• Often Sam will have "crosses with history," where he interacts with famous people and/or events in the past. In the second leap in this episode, for instance, Sam hits a ball pitched by a young Tom Seaver.

Goofs

• When Peg is looking into the mirror, her movements in the foreground and those of the reflection don't match.

• When Sam looks in the back of the plane and sees Al, his clothes and hair are flapping around by the wind, despite being a hologram.

Quotes

• Al: You know what I would love to do? I would love to... fix that flat for you, but I can't. (alluding to his tux) I mean...

Tina: It's your only tux and you're late for your wedding.

Al: How could I be late? We've just met.

(coyote howls in the distance)

Al: I'm a lot friendlier than he is.

Tina: That's what I'm afraid of.

• Sam: What the hell can you tell me?

Al: Well, basically, what you already know. That you're part of a time travel experiment that went a little caca.

• Al: Come on. I hate to miss the game.

Sam: You already know how it's going to end.

Al: I knew how it was gonna end when I took Brenda into the filing room. I still took her.