I'm going to preface this by saying I am not a huge fan of science fiction. I liked the original Star Trek and I loved Quantum Leap. I liked them for the human element, and its tie ins with life major themes and questions (I"m a historian by training, a teacher by profession).
To me the core element that drew me to Quantum Leap was it's premise...that Sam is jumping into the past and altering something for the betterment of that person's life. I never liked the Evil Leaper series because it deviated from this golden premise. It made it into more of a game, and much more science fictiony than I was interested in. I guess it took something that almost had some realism in it, where on only had to suspend their disbelief so far to something that required a person to suspend their disbelief indefinately. It's been said many times on this site that QL was never able to truly grab the science fiction audience. I am sure that is true, but by not limiting themselves to science fiction they grabbed another audience made up of people like me that were not sold on science fiction.
I just feel like the writer's shouldn't have deviated from their golden structure and in the mini-series where they do (Evil Leaper Bits, Trilogy, and to this I'll add the Elvis and Marilyn episodes since the famous personas detracted from the story rather than adding to it) just kind of made the whole series fall flat and fall apart.
I'll add to it the original Mirror Image ending that is posted on this site and had Sam leaping in his body into the future, and Al running around after him. Personally if that is the direction the story was going to take I'm not sad that it ended. Again it deviates from the golden structure of the series, and the core relationship of Al and Sam.
It's not to say that I can't appreciate these episodes as good writing. So I have to say they're good writing but bad fiction. The kind that leaves you scratching your head and asking "why did they do that?"
But on the other hand I know a lot of people consider those three stories their favorites.
And like I said, I never was a fan of science fiction. :hat
So how do you feel about the evil leaper series?
To me the core element that drew me to Quantum Leap was it's premise...that Sam is jumping into the past and altering something for the betterment of that person's life. I never liked the Evil Leaper series because it deviated from this golden premise. It made it into more of a game, and much more science fictiony than I was interested in. I guess it took something that almost had some realism in it, where on only had to suspend their disbelief so far to something that required a person to suspend their disbelief indefinately. It's been said many times on this site that QL was never able to truly grab the science fiction audience. I am sure that is true, but by not limiting themselves to science fiction they grabbed another audience made up of people like me that were not sold on science fiction.
I just feel like the writer's shouldn't have deviated from their golden structure and in the mini-series where they do (Evil Leaper Bits, Trilogy, and to this I'll add the Elvis and Marilyn episodes since the famous personas detracted from the story rather than adding to it) just kind of made the whole series fall flat and fall apart.
I'll add to it the original Mirror Image ending that is posted on this site and had Sam leaping in his body into the future, and Al running around after him. Personally if that is the direction the story was going to take I'm not sad that it ended. Again it deviates from the golden structure of the series, and the core relationship of Al and Sam.
It's not to say that I can't appreciate these episodes as good writing. So I have to say they're good writing but bad fiction. The kind that leaves you scratching your head and asking "why did they do that?"
But on the other hand I know a lot of people consider those three stories their favorites.
And like I said, I never was a fan of science fiction. :hat
So how do you feel about the evil leaper series?