Interesting Observations/Facts/Questions about Quantum Leap

I was thinking a little bit more about my "Sam needs to do a secondary task after the main mission before leaping" theory, and even in Season 2 it seems like there is always some last minute wrong that needs putting right...

Honeymoon Express - making sure Diane McBride passes her bar exam.

Disco Inferno - making it so the little brother can follow his musical career.

The Americanization of Machiko - Saving Machiko's life/limbs.

What Price Gloria - Getting revenge on Buddy.

Blind Faith - Making it possible for Michelle to have a life.

Good Morning Peoria - Playing Chubby Checker's song and getting the station to Number 1.

Thou Shalt Not - Getting Karan to feel accepted and loved by her father.

Jimmy - Saving Corey from drowning.

So Help Me God - Getting Delilah to learn to read.

Catch a Falling Star - Making it so that "Ray" has a chance to perform.

A Portrait For Troian - Discovering and identifying Ms Stoltz's body so she can move on.

Animal Frat - Stopping Wild Thing from breaking his neck.


What other "secondary missions" can you think of?
 
Actually I don't agree with all that you've named.
The Americanization of Machiko, Jimmy, and Catch a Falling Star are situations in which either completing his initial task caused the extra deed or something Sam changed caused an extra deed.

Let's take The Americanization of Machiko, a situation which may fit neither category. Originally when Eleanor McKenzie had rejected her she'd returned to Japan but there isn't enough information revealed to indicate how long that took nor whether or not the run in with Rusty was a part of that. Remember Charlie did things differently or there would be no necessity for Sam to be there. In fact I have a feeling he might not have had the courage to try very hard to defend Machiko which is probably the significant difference Eleanor noticed in Sam's portrayal of him. Speaking of which that's another occurrence that falls under your discussion of how many pre-Another Mother times someone has picked up Sam on their radar.
Anyway perhaps Charlie's way Naomi never felt threatened enough to embarrass Machkio at the picnic which led to her running out of that storm cellar and into Rusty's clutches.

In Jimmy saving Cory's life ended up being the event which accomplished the initial task of getting Jimmy accepted by everyone. Sure he'd already won over Mr. Samuels but there was still someone more important he hadn't, Connie. Thus the initial task hadn't been completed. The fact that Cory didn't drown was only a bonus victory, not a bonus task. In fact my memory is fuzzy but there is a chance that Cory's life hadn't ever been in danger in the original timeline.

The same can be said of Catch a Falling Star, Sam didn't actually do anything which encouraged John to sit the rest of the performance out after saving his life. In fact it's my bestie's theory that in his heavily drunkenness he'd gotten a glimpse of Sam and freaked. He did get this spooked expression the first time he'd looked over at Sam following the incident. Before he'd gotten a look at Sam he'd been prepared to continue the performance. Happy accident is what I'd classify that as along with the writers wanting to showcase Scott's singing and theater roots.
Scott, Ernie Sabella (Manny) and I believe John Cullum (John O'Malley) were all in real productions of Man of LaMancha.

Now with Honeymoon Express I'm a little on the fence because ensuring that Diane passed her bar was the first suggestion Ziggy gave. Though knowing Ziggy she could have simply favored that task knowing it would save the project's and thus her a**.

As for an additional I'm a little confused by Play it Again Seymour. Al reveals at the end that Sam's initial task had been to launch Seymour as a writer but accomplished a more important task first: he caught the killer, saved Nick Allen's life and got him a happily ever after with Allison. What I don't understand is how saving the life of the person he'd leaped into wasn't the primary task (and no Last Dance... doesn't count here, Jesus Ortega was guilty of cold blooded murder, Nick was an innocent man) or perhaps this is another case of two birds one stone. Perhaps Nick's book didn't get published with him alive and thus Seymour claimed his role in mystery novel fame.

Here's something interesting going through my mind suddenly, actors that have been used in more than one episode. There are quite a few.

Patrick Masset:
Season 2's Americanization of Machiko - Rusty
Season 4's A Single Drop of Rain - Ralph

Teddy Wilson:
Season 2's Pool Hall Blues - Grady
Season 3's Rebel Without a Clue - Ernie

Michael D. Roberts:
Season 1's The Color of Truth - Willis Tyler (Jesse's son)
Season 5's Leap Between the States - Isaac King

Charles Rocket:
Season 3's A little Miracle - Michael Blake aka Mickey Blakowski
Season 4's Leap for Lisa - Colonel Dirk Ryker

Paul Linke:
Season 1's Play it Again Seymour - Lionel
Season 3's The Boogym*n - Sheriff Ben Masters

Any others?
 
Deborah Pratt is both Troian and the voice of Ziggy.

Carolyn Seymour is both Zoe and Ms Stoltz.

One of the boys in A Tale of Two Sweeties was also in Play Ball. He and his on-screen half-brother also appeared in Mirror Image.

Larry Stanton (the lawyer in Trilogy) was also the sheriff in Goodnight Dear Heart.

Katie Beckett was also the middle child in Another Mother.

There are many more I can't think of at hand...
 
Ah right, I knew about all of those except Larry Stanton. I've only seen Goodnight Dear Heart the one time.
And returning to the instances in which Sam had an extra victory, in Temptation Eyes he caught two killers instead of just the one needed to save Tamlyn (and four other woman after her) since they'd assumed the wrong man due to a similar M.O.
 
Something I noticed while watching "Another Mother" - Theresa is the ONLY person who has ever witnessed what Sam looks like while he leaps, as she was trying to get her mother's attention when Sam leapt in...

Also, an interesting piece of trivia is that "Another Mother" is a case of "real-life writing the script", as it would have been too difficult for small children like Troian Bellisario to pretend that Dean Stockwell wasn't there, so they wrote small children being able to see Sam and Al into the story :)
 
Lightning McQueenie said:
Something I noticed while watching "Another Mother" - Theresa is the ONLY person who has ever witnessed what Sam looks like while he leaps, as she was trying to get her mother's attention when Sam leapt in...

Not quite, Al should have been able to see Sam leap out of LHO. He was standing there the entire time and Sam had remained within the moment he'd just travelled between Leapees.
Which is why his claim in Mirror Image that he didn't know is questionable.

Lightning McQueenie said:
Also, an interesting piece of trivia is that "Another Mother" is a case of "real-life writing the script", as it would have been too difficult for small children like Troian Bellisario to pretend that Dean Stockwell wasn't there, so they wrote small children being able to see Sam and Al into the story

Or they used including a child into the leap for the purpose of introducing that rule. Which turned out to be fitting as fiction also uses the same exact rule for ghosts in addition to the animals and mentally absent.
 
Not quite, Al should have been able to see Sam leap out of LHO. He was standing there the entire time and Sam had remained within the moment he'd just travelled between Leapees.
Which is why his claim in Mirror Image that he didn't know is questionable.

Well as we have discussed earlier, I don't think Al was actually watching Sam at the moment that he leapt from LHO to the secret service agent. It's also very lucky they were able to keep the lock.

Also, it was pointed out to me that Al the Bartender should know what Sam looks like when he leaps, but I don't think Al the Bartender is a real person, just a manifestation of Sam's, so I don't think it counts :)


Or they used including a child into the leap for the purpose of introducing that rule. Which turned out to be fitting as fiction also uses the same exact rule for ghosts in addition to the animals and mentally absent.

I'm not saying that the reasoning behind having small children be able to see Sam and Al doesn't make perfect sense. But Deborah Pratt has stated that she wrote this episode specifically so that Troian could have a role in the show - something Dean Stockwell scolded Deborah for btw. So the child role came before figuring out who could see Sam and Al...
 
Lightning McQueenie said:
Well as we have discussed earlier, I don't think Al was actually watching Sam at the moment that he leapt from LHO to the secret service agent. It's also very lucky they were able to keep the lock.

Agreed personally I question the validity of that leap but it is canon and you might be right that Al was not looking when Sam leaped out of Oswald.

Lightning McQueenie said:
Also, it was pointed out to me that Al the Bartender should know what Sam looks like when he leaps, but I don't think Al the Bartender is a real person, just a manifestation of Sam's, so I don't think it counts

True, you I believe are the one who pointed out to me the brilliant notion that the entire events of Mirror Image could have been a manifestation of Sam's subconscious. That he was actually in between leaps in whatever void he's in during that time. This would explain how he leaped into the bar as himself, somehow fully clothes NOT in the fermi suit and equipped with his ID. All details which make no sense.

There is also the possibility that Al the Bartender is God as Sam thought but for obvious reasons ALB couldn't admit it. I've actually explained in full before somewhere.

Lightning McQueenie said:
But Deborah Pratt has stated that she wrote this episode specifically so that Troian could have a role in the show - something Dean Stockwell scolded Deborah for btw.

Wow, no kidding? This is new to me and considering Al was pretty much the central focus of Troian's role quite shocking. Why did he scold Pratt?
 
Wow, no kidding? This is new to me and considering Al was pretty much the central focus of Troian's role quite shocking. Why did he scold Pratt?

Dean Stockwell was a child actor, and as such didn't really have a chance to enjoy being a child because he was always in the public eye. He didn't want to see Troian go through the same thing. Deborah also states that after the episode aired, she and Don got countless offers for Troian to act in other things, but because of what Dean had said to Deborah and how much she respected him, they didn't take any of them on. She also states that in hindsight, Dean Stockwell was 100% correct and is glad that Troian wasn't a child actor :)

Deborah talks about this in her interview on the Quantum Leap Podcast and she also talked about it at the Leap Back convention :)
 
Dean Stockwell was a child actor, and as such didn't really have a chance to enjoy being a child because he was always in the public eye. He didn't want to see Troian go through the same thing. Deborah also states that after the episode aired, she and Don got countless offers for Troian to act in other things, but because of what Dean had said to Deborah and how much she respected him, they didn't take any of them on. She also states that in hindsight, Dean Stockwell was 100% correct and is glad that Troian wasn't a child actor :)

Deborah talks about this in her interview on the Quantum Leap Podcast and she also talked about it at the Leap Back convention :)

Wow, how intelligent of Dean. The point was pretty spot on and I applaud him for opening Pratt's eyes to that.
It seems to me like she was a pretty compulsive and self-serving person. There were other aspects of this show such as Abigail that seemed to be primarily to satisfy her own desires. So I am very glad Dean had spoken up.

And nonetheless Troian still ended up acting, one current project I know of is the ABCFamily show Pretty Little Liars though I don't watch it.

BTW Go look at her IMDB picture it's impossible to tell that she was once little Teresa Bruckner.
 
Wow, how intelligent of Dean. The point was pretty spot on and I applaud him for opening Pratt's eyes to that.
It seems to me like she was a pretty compulsive and self-serving person. There were other aspects of this show such as Abigail that seemed to be primarily to satisfy her own desires. So I am very glad Dean had spoken up.

And nonetheless Troian still ended up acting, one current project I know of is the ABCFamily show Pretty Little Liars though I don't watch it.

BTW Go look at her IMDB picture it's impossible to tell that she was once little Teresa Bruckner.

I wouldn't call her self-serving, apparently when she was little, Troian was very interested in knowing what mummy and daddy did, and so it really was intended to educate Troian about how TV is made.
 
I wouldn't call her self-serving, apparently when she was little, Troian was very interested in knowing what mummy and daddy did, and so it really was intended to educate Troian about how TV is made.

Alright well that makes sense but apparently and Dean obviously felt this way, she hadn't thought through completely how far she took "take your kid to work day" so to speak.
There are some other aspects in the writing that Pratt pushed however.
Then when she goes for the execution of her ideas she kind of over does it in my opinion. I'd go into examples but I'd be repeating myself, I've expressed the opinions that apply here already in their proper threads.
Her ideas are appreciated though, Little Teresa is the only reason Another Mother is really worth watching.
 
Another Mother wasn't my favorite episode, but it was funny when Sam would Leap into females. That and Troian's role made that episode interesting.

I do understand the concept of how being a child actor can be detrimental to a kid, but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with someone in the profession letting their children find out what it's about, as long as they aren't pushed into anything. It makes sense for a mom to share what she does for a living with her kid, and it's not unusual for actors to have family visit them on the set where they're working. It doesn't necessarily mean they're self-centered, although it is easy to become self-centered in the entertainment world. Troian did choose to go into acting when she was older as was pointed out, and it is probably better she waited until she was older.

I think Deborah was a very good writer. There were other good QL writers though.
 
That's one thing I have not argued, MichelleD that there is some positive development in a parent showing a child what he/she does for a living. Perhaps I don't have the fullest understanding because while I'd frequently play around my mother's office after school in my youth, though a much older youth than Troian was when she played Little Teresa, her actual job was very boring. Still is. XD

What I was pointing out is that Pratt had intended the 'bring your kid to work day' as a little more than just a tour, obviously she gave her a role as well and the fact that she turned down the bombardment of offers which followed based on what Dean had got on her about says that had he not spoken up she would not have considered that particular con of getting a child into the acting business.

And alright perhaps that's just something Dean only knew from experience, that an actor who hadn't been doing it since childhood wouldn't realize.

I honestly don't mean to put Pratt down, obviously she had a lot of imagination since she and Don gave us this amazing series. The fact that I don't agree with some of her ideas doesn't change that.
 
I understood what you meant. It probably wasn't the wisest choice for her (or is the wisest choice for any parent in the entertainment industry) to use their influence or whatever to "hand" their kid a role. If they want to act, they should work for it when they're old enough to understand what it's about.

No parent is going to be perfect, and the entertainment industry doesn't exactly have an environment that encourages good choices.
 
Another+Mother_183.jpg


Couldn't resist posting this screencap :p

At the Leap Back, Deborah talked about her children growing up across the road from where the Olsen twins lived, Troian was quite good friends with them. And seeing what the Olsen twins would have to go through really made her thankful that she did listen to Dean and didn't put Troian through the same thing :)
 
Ah the Olsen Twins. I was a Full House addict before I discovered Quantum Leap. Which is ironic for two reasons:
1.) The Olsen twins starred in it (though as one role)
2.) Quantum Leap lost the ratings race to Full House when it's time slot was changed for the fifth season. Hence the ratings ploys with the celebrity leaps and the evil leapers.

The Olsen twins grew up on that show and from what I heard they were signing autographs before they could walk or talk. At least I believe I heard that. Interestingly they'd been selected for the role from dozens of sets of twins for being the only set whom didn't cry at the auditions. Strange since they just under a year old when the show begun, I should know they too were born in 1986 along with myself and Troian. The show first aired in 1987.
I was told that as a toddler I was frequently mistaken for an Olsen twin.

Now you've made me want to make Another Mother my next episode in my screen capture collection. Thanks because I actually haven't been able to decide on my next episode.
 
Ah the Olsen Twins. I was a Full House addict before I discovered Quantum Leap. Which is ironic for two reasons:
1.) The Olsen twins starred in it (though as one role)
2.) Quantum Leap lost the ratings race to Full House when it's time slot was changed for the fifth season. Hence the ratings ploys with the celebrity leaps and the evil leapers.

The Olsen twins grew up on that show and from what I heard they were signing autographs before they could walk or talk. At least I believe I heard that. Interestingly they'd been selected for the role from dozens of sets of twins for being the only set whom didn't cry at the auditions. Strange since they just under a year old when the show begun, I should know they too were born in 1986 along with myself and Troian. The show first aired in 1987.
I was told that as a toddler I was frequently mistaken for an Olsen twin.

Now you've made me want to make Another Mother my next episode in my screen capture collection. Thanks because I actually haven't been able to decide on my next episode.

I was born in 1986 too :D it must just be the year the universe decided that it needed a massive burst of awesome, so it got you, me and Troian :D
 
I was born in 1986 too :D it must just be the year the universe decided that it needed a massive burst of awesome, so it got you, me and Troian :D

I like this theory. :)
BTW Weren't a couple of other of the Bellisario kids in the show?
Wasn't the boy who played both the bat boy in Play Ball and Martin Jr. in Tale of two Sweeties their son as well as the little Michael Jackson Sam taught the moonwalk to in Camakazi Kid?

Speaking of Tale of Two Sweeties, here's a tidbit; the boy who played Josh Elroy also played a role in an episode of it's rival show Full House . It was a much more dramatic role in which he reveals to one of the Olsen Twins' TV sisters that his father abuses him but makes her swear not to tell. So she struggles with keeping the promise. It would have made a very good leap.
 
I thought some of you might be interested to read what I've been saying on the Podcast - especially since a lot of it I come up with from participating in our discussions here.

So to start, here is my first segment, which was read out in the "What Price Gloria" episode...

Can I just say, I think "What Price Gloria" must have been the episode that everyone working on the show was dying to make. It just seemed like so much fun (apart for poor Scott Bakula having to take part in that "masochist binding ritual" ), the humour in the episode was a joy to watch - Al being smitten by "Sam", Sam trying his hardest to get used to his new clothing (such as the "shoes from Hell"), the constant dirty looks Sam and Gloria got from the other secretary for showing their affection (mistaken as being romantic), the men perving on Sam's very unfeminine walk, Sam replying to constant male advances with aggression, and of course, freaking out and beating up Buddy
But most of all, the special effects really jumped in quality in this episode. It's the first time we see the Imaging Chamber door (not counting the invisible door from the pilot), Al was passing through more objects, and the mirror shots were brilliant. They must have really wanted to emphasise the absurdity of Sam having a woman's aura by having the aura be seen as much as possible. I think this episode has the most mirror shots of any episode throughout the series, and they did such a good job in this case that I really believed it WAS Sam's reflection. The "putting on lipstick" mirror shot is my favourite, but honourable mention goes to when Sam is getting dressed for work and Gloria helps him. An interesting bit of trivia is that Jean Sagal, who played Gloria, has an identical twin sister, so in this scene the mirror is actually a window with Scott Bakula and Jean Sagal on one side, and LaReine Chabut and Liz Sagal on the other acting as their reflections. Can you imagine how long they must have rehearsed the choreography to pull these mirror shots off as well as they did? It just goes to show how committed everyone who worked on the show was to make the show as good as it was
Something also jumped out at me on my most recent viewing of "What Price Gloria" - this leap caused Al a great deal of distress due to "falling in love" with Sam, yet after Sam has saved Gloria, and Al debriefs Sam on what happens to Gloria and Samantha in the future, Al is much more relaxed and comfortable around Sam. He claims that this is because Dr Beeks made him accept that love is a part of friendship (which it is), but do you think he is telling the complete truth? I don't think that his anxiety would have subsided that much with one simple lightbulb moment. Rather, I think that by this stage, those working at the Project have tweaked the neural link so that Al could see through the aura to see Sam as himself. We have to remember that Al's not allowed to tell Sam anything unnecessary about the goings-on of the Project, so he wouldn't bring it up...
Also on the subject of all things mental, we know that Gloria and Samantha will eventually become car designers where they currently work, and that Samantha will end up running the whole division (which I think was Buddy's job), but I think that it's Sam's act of revenge (which Ziggy thought up by the way, more proof that Ziggy is female ) which started a chain reaction to tip Buddy's mental health over the edge. After all, after Samantha leaps back, nobody would believe Buddy when he claims that she's a man, and if he pushes hard enough, it could be enough to drive him insane, or at the very least, make everyone else think he is insane and thus have him forced out of the company. Karma's a ***** isn't it?

Since auras came up in my discussion about the Quantum Leap episode “What Price Gloria”, the more I’ve been thinking about them in the context of the Quantum Leap universe, the more interesting I found them, so I thought the topic of auras would be worth analysing and discussing. A word of warning, you can take the blue pill and stop reading here, or you can take the red pill and embrace the truth
Let’s remember that when Sam leaps, his body completely replaces the body of the leapee, which ends up in the Waiting Room at Project Quantum Leap. What remains is a manifestation of the leapee’s physical aura. This surrounds Sam, and gives the illusion to (nearly) everyone around him of being the leapee. This explains why Sam’s mirror image is that of the leapee. But there is so much more to it than just appearance.
The aura also completely changes Sam’s voice, so that anything he says would be heard as having been said in the leapee’s voice. This would be completely essential in order for everyone to believe that he is the leapee and so that he can complete his mission. Even when Sam is singing, everyone around him would only be hearing the leapee’s singing voice. So this makes me wonder, since Sam is such a good singer, if he had leapt into somebody completely tone deaf, if he was to sing, would the aura sound in tune? Or would it continue to come across as the leapee not being able to carry a tune with a bucket? Similarly, if Sam wasn’t such a good singer but had leapt into one, would the aura come with “auto tune” to not ruin the disguise? What if Sam leapt into somebody who stuttered, or somebody who spoke with a strong foreign accent? Would these things carry through the aura during Sam’s speech? What if he leapt into somebody who didn’t speak English at all? Would the aura be able to translate Sam’s speech into the leapee’s native tongue?
Since the aura affects two of the senses of those around Sam, is it reasonable to suggest that the other senses would be affected as well? Would Sam smell like himself, or would he smell like the leapee? That I think would depend on what was affecting the leapee’s odour in the first place. Personally, I think that if a person’s odour is caused by the person’s body (for example, bad breath could be caused by poor oral hygiene or halitosis, foot odour by sweaty feet), it is reasonable to think that when the body is removed as Sam leaps in, the smell should disappear as well, but if the smell is caused by some outside source (such as a perfume) then it would probably still linger around the aura. What would a person who touches Sam’s hands be feeling? Let’s use Samantha Stormer’s aura as an example. Would they feel the incredibly smooth, soft touch of Samantha’s hand, or would they feel Sam’s more coarse hand caused by his physical labour (he grew up at a dairy farm after all)?
It’s incredibly interesting to note that while Sam’s body is generally very different from that of the leapee, he still manages to fit into the leapee’s clothes perfectly. Let’s take Samantha as an example, Sam has a much wider frame and so the clothes should be bursting at the seams, and he doesn’t have any breasts so really they should not be able to be held up. And yet he still manages to get into them and move freely in them. This makes me think that maybe the entire world around Sam is itself a projection of the aura that surrounds Sam, and so once the clothes are close enough to Sam to “break through” the aura, they change to tailor to Sam’s bodily needs. This could prove comical if a person who is able to break through the aura and see Sam as Sam were to watch Sam getting dressed or undressed – if you have seen the film “Shallow Hal”, the scene where Gwyneth Paltrow removes her panties illustrates this idea perfectly. This idea of the aura being a projection is very mathematical, a bit like how “the Matrix” changes the point of view of everyone who is inside it. If we consider that in mathematics, a function works like a computer program, where a number goes in, the function does something to it, and then the number comes out (possibly changed), then every “point” that is taken up by Sam goes through the “aura function” and gives out a corresponding point that everybody else sees. This explains why if Sam does something to himself, there is a corresponding change on the aura even when there shouldn’t be. A perfect example is when Sam curls his hair, and Samantha’s much longer hair (which really Sam shouldn’t be able to touch) also ends up curled. This might also suggest that if Sam (as Samantha) were to get a haircut, then the hairdresser would see, feel and be touching Samantha’s hair, and a “corresponding amount” of hair would really be being cut off Sam’s head.
It’s also interesting to note that whatever Sam does to himself during a leap shouldn’t affect the leapee at all, and so when Sam leaps out and the host leaps back, these afflictions should really disappear from the aura. This could prove problematic, let’s use Samantha as an example again, since it was really Sam’s hair that was curled, when he leapt out and Samantha with her uncurled hair leapt back, really her hair should change to be straight again right before the eyes of anyone who was watching. But it could also prove to be very beneficial. Sam committed a crime by assaulting Buddy, and if he wanted to (and I believe he is arrogant enough to) he could try to have Samantha arrested once he came to. But since Sam is the one who assaulted him, any evidence of the assault (such as bloodied knuckles or a broken hand) should have disappeared when Sam leapt out, and so if Samantha was interviewed and examined by police, she wouldn’t have any trace of it and would therefore be found innocent.
There is so much more I could talk about with auras (and don’t get me started on the auras of genitals, especially if it’s the aura of the opposite sex), but it will mix with concepts from later on in the series, so I will stop here. I hope you found this as interesting as I did and would like to join in on some discussions with me on the Facebook page, that is if your brains haven’t yet exploded and if you don’t regret taking the red pill...
 
Quote:
What if Sam leapt into somebody who stuttered

He did, remember? Will Kinman.
It has been a very long time since I watched the episode, but if I remember correctly Sam stammered for part of the episode, but then after they'd made love the second time he 'became himself' and the stammer was gone.
Someone will no doubt correct me on the details - as I say, it has been years since I watched the episode and my memory always was somewhat Swiss cheesed.
 
Quote:
What if Sam leapt into somebody who stuttered

He did, remember? Will Kinman.
It has been a very long time since I watched the episode, but if I remember correctly Sam stammered for part of the episode, but then after they'd made love the second time he 'became himself' and the stammer was gone.
Someone will no doubt correct me on the details - as I say, it has been years since I watched the episode and my memory always was somewhat Swiss cheesed.

Yep. And you're right about the details.
 
Quote:
What if Sam leapt into somebody who stuttered

He did, remember? Will Kinman.
It has been a very long time since I watched the episode, but if I remember correctly Sam stammered for part of the episode, but then after they'd made love the second time he 'became himself' and the stammer was gone.
Someone will no doubt correct me on the details - as I say, it has been years since I watched the episode and my memory always was somewhat Swiss cheesed.

Correction not needed, you nailed it.
Will controlled most of his emotions as well as his speech for half the episode until he did it with Abigail.
 
That's not really what I meant though. We'll use Will as an example. Once Sam's mind stopped merging with Will's, Sam stopped stuttering. But would Will's aura still make it sound like he is stuttering to everyone else?
 
Here is my "Blind Faith" segment...

Greetings to all our Leaping Listeners… Or is it Listening Leapers? While watching “Blind Faith” something stuck out at me, and in my mind it branched off into a number of theories, which I felt deserved discussion in this segment. We are told by Al that Michelle was the fourth victim of the strangler and that Sam is there to prevent her murder. Why is it that Sam leapt to save Michelle and only Michelle, when if he had leapt to a slightly earlier point in time, he could have attempted to stop the strangler before he killed anyone? I’m sure if Sam had known that the sexy French lady was to be a victim, for example, he’d have done something to try to save her (he certainly liked perving on her while he was disguised as being blind – a scene I loved by the way because it showed that Sam is human and has human urges, a fact which is diminished as time goes on…) I am sure there are numerous behind-the-scenes reasons for Michelle being the only one saved, such as the writers wanting to make the story more personal by focusing on Michelle and her long-suffering mother, while Sam has to pretend to be blind (which, by the way, is more proof that it is Sam’s body leaping around, and not just his mind or consciousness, since if he was stuck in Andrew’s body, he’d be using Andrew’s useless eyes and so would not be able to see…), and to give Scott Bakula a chance to show off more of his musical skills, but because we all get so engrossed in the Quantum Leap Universe, I wanted to come up with some in-universe answers…

In my mind, there appears to be two factors which affect the missions which Sam attempts. The first is what God/Time/Fate/Whatever (GTFW) wants changed, and the second is what Sam is actually capable of doing. From each of these, numerous other minor things come into play as well.
Starting off with GTFW, we need to consider whether there is some sort of “Grand Design”, and whether each person has some destiny that needs to be carried out, or whether all of history is just a mass combination of each person’s choices. It might seem odd to talk about destiny and things being predetermined, on a show that is all about changing history for the better. But when we say that Sam “puts right what once went wrong”, it is worth wondering if there had originally been something that was planned (considered right) by some outside force (GTFW) and that there is some outside force messing things up (for example, the Devil)? And if that is the case, then Sam would be more like the space-time-continuum’s clean-up crew. If there is not any Grand Design then that would mean that Sam is more like a teacher, or a guide, helping people to make better decisions and preventing or punishing those who are determined to do the wrong thing…

I’ll come back to the idea of a Grand Design later, but if there is something that is supposed to be carried out, which for some reason didn’t, that would mean that GFTW had plans for Michelle, and that her destiny hadn’t been carried out yet – maybe she was destined to do something major herself, or influence another person to do so. This is not to say that the other three lives were any less important, just that perhaps their destinies had already come to pass. I personally believe that since Michelle was studying to be a nurse, and this is something she seemed passionate about and was one of the few things that her mother approved of, that she did end up becoming a great nurse and ended up helping to save a lot of lives. Getting back onto the topic at hand, which is “why couldn’t Sam save everyone?” we have to remember that saving Michelle’s physical life wasn’t the only thing Sam was there to do. He also had to make sure that Michelle could live her life as she chose. If Sam had leapt into the area some time earlier and HAD managed to stop the strangler earlier, then he would not have been in any position to carry out this secondary mission, which would be vital should Michelle have some destiny that needs to be carried out.

The ripple effect is prevalent in Quantum Leap, and to use a quote from the show, “the lives Sam touched, touched others, and those, others…” so Michelle probably did end up touching the lives of many that she encountered, and while we’re on the subject of ripples, let’s consider all the other people that were affected by Sam’s intervening as well. First, there’s Michelle’s mother. All she really had in her life was Michelle, which is probably why she was so smothering to begin with. It is said that death is always hardest on those who are left behind, and in the original history, she would have had to deal with her only daughter’s murder. She would probably have ended up with severe depression, could have turned to alcohol or drugs to try to numb the pain, or even ended up as a vigilante, her life now consumed with bringing the strangler to justice. What sort of a life is that to live? Then in the brief period after Michelle is saved but before Sam talked to her about how she was treating Michelle, she probably had just gone back to smothering Michelle, maybe even more-so considering the near-death experience. Nothing will change until Sam does something to change it after all. But finally, now that Andrew and Michelle are together, she is liberated of her responsibility of taking care of Michelle. I would hope that she would use her new spare time to enjoy her life, and do some good, because ultimately she is a good person. Speaking of Andrew and Michelle, if (as Sam had predicted), they did end up married, then they probably had children, and with such good people as their parents, how could they not end up doing good things too?

To finish on the discussion of the ripple effect, there is always the possibility of a negative ripple. In time-travel works, it’s often referred to as the “Killing Hitler” risk. The idea is that if you could go back in time and kill Hitler before he could rise to power, then theoretically you would save over six million people. But who’s to say that one of those people is not worse than Hitler, and would end up doing even worse things? The same thing could happen here, it’s possible (however unlikely) that one of the strangler’s first three victims was a complete psychopath and if allowed to live, could perform monstrous acts even worse than those of the strangler. I personally do not subscribe to this theory in the Quantum Leap universe, because it would invalidate the basic message of trying to change history FOR THE BETTER, but it is still not impossible. A conversation between Stewie and Brian from Family Guy comes to mind – they have travelled back in time ten years and Stewie warns Brian not to change anything because it could have consequences neither of them could imagine, and when Brian asks where he learnt that, Stewie replies “Quantum Leap”, which baffles Brian considering the fact that Sam changed history all the time…

The other major factor that comes into play when it comes to what Sam is able to change, is Sam’s own abilities and limitations. It is lucky that he is in peak physical health, with full vision and hearing, has training in martial arts, and is incredibly intelligent. That puts him in a better position to get through adversity than a lot of the people he has replaced. But he still has some limitations. The first is the situation itself which leads up to the event to be changed. The first three victims were murdered while walking alone in the park. With nobody else around, there was nobody for Sam to leap into to protect these women, and also if he had leapt into the victims themselves, then HE risks being the one who is murdered. Theoretically he could just stay home, but with the strangler determined to kill, that just means some other innocent person would become his target.
The other major limitation is the information that is available in his own time that Ziggy is able to access. It’s very likely that in the original history, the strangler was never caught (if he was, then surely Al would have told Sam who it was…) and so how would Sam know who to look out for and to try to stop before they went on their rampage? So it makes perfect sense that Sam would leap into Andrew Ross. As the closest person to Michelle at the time, maybe Andrew had originally tried to walk Michelle home, but without his eyesight, couldn’t do anything to stop the strangler when he attacked? Even though Sam was blind when he saved Michelle, he had two extra sets of eyes to see for him (Al’s and Chaupin’s) and so this really was the only possible way to stop the strangler. Now this brings up another good point, once Sam did catch the strangler, it would show up in the records, so why couldn’t Sam then leap back and try to stop the strangler earlier? Why, for the same reasons listed above – the Killing Hitler risk, the fact that there was nobody to leap into, and his secondary mission of saving Michelle’s emotional life. It really does appear that there is method to the madness of this Grand Design (if it exists).

This brings me to the final part of my segment, and I’d like to discuss how I see the Grand Design. There are four physical dimensions (length, breadth, depth and time), but since in the Quantum Leap Universe, time is able to be manipulated, I think there must be some fifth dimension, which the controller of the Grand Design must be in (and whoever is messing it up). If you have trouble picturing this, I’d advise you to watch “Men In Black 3”, there is what they call a “fifth dimensional being” who can see all possible events in all possible times over any area. Sam’s theory on time travel is what he calls his “string theory”, that each life can be thought of like a string, with one end being birth, and the other, death, and that by joining the ends and then balling up the string, the days of one’s life cross over each other, enabling days to be skipped over. I think that the Grand Design might also be a string, with everything that happens, in ALL timelines, already printed on it. The time-travel aspect could simply be the same as Sam’s theory, with the string being joined and balled up, or rather, smaller loops being created. When Sam travels in time, the string moves back over itself, and once Sam changes history, a loop in the string appears. Everyone in the string only experiences going over the leap caused by the string crossing over itself, and the history that is erased or changed ends up in the resulting loop that gets skipped over.

So that is how I view the Grand Design, everybody has a destiny to fulfil, it’s just that sometimes GTFW needs help cleaning up the mess that something else is creating, which is where Sam comes in. The “destiny string” is balled over, and the part of history that needs fixing is just skipped over. Sam can’t help everyone, but those he does help end up touching others in ways we can’t even imagine.
Thank you to Sarah for sharing her thoughts with me when I asked for input on the Facebook page, she too believed that Michelle was destined for greatness. If you have any thoughts about something I’ve talked about or will talk about, please let me know, I’d love to hear from you. Also if you have any suggestions for something to discuss, I’d love to hear that too. ‘Til next time, may you all take a “Leap of Faith” and fulfil your roles in the Grand Design  ~Hayden
 
Bestie just told me about this 1956 film she's watching called 'The Bad Seed' a plot which the Trilogy Episodes of QL mimic and Abigail is even a look alike to the character in the film.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1001572-bad_seed/

Does anyone know if this film was in fact Deborah Pratt's inspiration for the Trilogy episodes or just an astounding coincidence?

I think the movie was very likely Pratt's inspiration, at least partly. She certainly seemed to be aiming for that same vibe in the first Trilogy episode. She changed the coveted item from a penmanship medal to a locket.

It's been a while since I've seen the 1956 version of the film but I remember it getting pretty campy, and the ending was changed from the book to make it more palatable to audiences of the time.
 
I realised something about "The Leap Back".

Al was born in 1934. He had sex with Suzanne in 1945. If he had gotten her pregnant, that would mean he'd have a child that's only 11 years younger than he is :p
 
blue enigma said:
It's been a while since I've seen the 1956 version of the film but I remember it getting pretty campy, and the ending was changed from the book to make it more palatable to audiences of the time.

So it was a book as well? Interesting.
I'm interested in seeing this film now just out of curiosity.

I realised something about "The Leap Back".

Al was born in 1934. He had sex with Suzanne in 1945. If he had gotten her pregnant, that would mean he'd have a child that's only 11 years younger than he is :p

Actually that's exactly what happened with Sam in Trilogy part 2. Sam conceived with Abigail in 1965 making him 12 years older than his daughter Sammy-Jo. He was 12 years old in 1965, probably the world's youngest father. You dirty dog Sam! Haha.
 
I realised something about "The Leap Back".

Al was born in 1934. He had sex with Suzanne in 1945. If he had gotten her pregnant, that would mean he'd have a child that's only 11 years younger than he is :p

Which isn't much less than the age difference between Sam and Sammy Jo Fuller, although Sam was a teenager when Sammy Jo was born - just. :p