Author Response
The following contains spoilers if you haven't read the story yet.
The statements about canon, the “elephant in the room,” and the basis behind Tom’s immediate change needs to be addressed.
First, from the show itself. In the Leap Home 1, Sam leapt into his younger self. Since they made such a big deal about him leaping as himself in Mirror Image, and they didn't say anything of the like in Leap Home 1 (e.g. that there was no-one in the waiting room,) it’s an easy assumption that the young 16 year old Sam WAS in the waiting room. Indeed, it would have been an interesting thing to see what was happening on that side of the leap...but nothing was done about it at the time the show was filmed.
The way the authors saw it...in Mirror Image, Sam WAS leaping as himself. That is...the man who stepped into the Accelerator caught up with himself. There simply was NO ONE to replace. It was even mentioned that this was the only time it had happened. Thus, from that alone, it can be extrapolated back that in the Leap Home 1, Sam displaced a younger version of himself.
Now, as to the TVS itself. Go back to story #807 “I Will Love You Forever” part 1 and you have the younger Sam in the waiting room as a leapee and the older Sam as the Leaper. This was the story (#808 “I Will Love You Forever” part 2) where Stephen was conceived. So, even in TVS canon, the fact that a younger version of the leaper would be displaced from their time and appear in the waiting room is well documented.
Thus...the rules of the leap in this story (except for the touching other leapers which was explained) were the same for Tom and Sam. That is...when Tom leapt as himself (the part in Al’s Place), there was no one in the waiting room. But when Tom displaced his younger selves (first in Vietnam and then the two months prior), his younger selves in the waiting room could be interacted with at the project, just like in TVS Episode #807. This was explained in the part of Slidezone where the leapees in the room were described.
When Tom had first leapt, no one had been in the waiting room, which had indicated that Tom had leapt as himself. While not unheard of (Dr. Beckett had done that a time or two) it was unusual.
Then, a Gooshie had appeared in Tom’s Aura. It was wonderful seeing him again, even if they couldn’t really talk to him about things. Gooshie had left in less than five minutes. Then a young man leapt into the aura, asking where the books were. Again it was a short leap. They hadn’t even learned his name when he leapt back out.
Finally, a leaper arrived, fitting Tom’s aura but much younger. The fear on his face had been evident and he was sure that he had died, saying that he “never should have trusted that chu-hoi.” He wanted to know if he was in heaven or some other place. This leap lasted a quite a bit longer then the other leaps. They were just starting to get a lock on Tom’s whereabouts, somewhere in Vietnam in April of 1970, when that leapee had left only to be replaced moments later by another leapee.
This situation was a bit stranger. The aura was just about identical to the Tom himself. Indeed, Verbena was sure that somehow, the older Beckett had leapt back to the Waiting Room rather than the Accelerator. Ziggy had assured that both ingress and egress locks to the room where fully engaged and explained to all of her human colleagues that the Thomas Beckett that they saw in the Waiting Room was indeed a leapee and not the leaper. Ziggy explained that she had located the leaping Thomas Beckett two months in the past. He was currently inhabiting himself on the day Albert Calavicci had been forced to leave the project. Sammie Jo had immediately gone into the Imaging Chamber to play her role as Tom’s Observer.
Thus, canon and the rules of leaping were taken VERY seriously in this story and were described as such in it. There was no elephant to address.
Next…as to Tom’s change and the type of person he is;
We're very sorry that some of you dislike Tom so much. The focus of this story was to get Tom to a place where he can begin to become in the storyline a better player. In some senses, this is like a Christmas Carol. That is, like Scrooge, Tom gets to see parts of his life that cause him to realize that things must change and the biggest change must be in him. I would hope, like Scrooge, you would give him a chance to allow GFTW to have intervened in his life and to allow HIS spirit to show Tom the way and to allow his soul to be put on another path, a path more in keeping with the upbringing that Tom and Sam shared. It is that part of the story, the changes that come to a soul that is the heart of WHY this mini-arc was created. Like in the song Amazing Grace, Tom is seeing...
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...that saved a wretch like me."
Also like Scrooge, the change in Tom is immediate. Scrooge changed an entire lifetime of behavior after one night of seeing the three ghosts. Indeed the story says after his change that his behavior changed so much that it was said Scrooge knew how to keep Christmas better than anyone. Pretty significant change.
Thus, Tom changes his behavior towards Al immediately (and completely) because of the same type of revelations and it can be assumed because of GFTW...remember Al the Bartender told him to
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"Open your eyes, Tom…and your heart.”
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If this immediate and complete change is logical in a classic piece of literature such as “A Christmas Carol,” why would it be so surprising in a TVS story? Also, from the show QL itself, the reader is pointed to Al’s entire change of view in “Running for Honor.” Generally, such beliefs are deep seated and having Al go from basically ‘homophobic’ to ‘accepting’ within the period of a leap was incredibly fast. Again, if such a change is acceptable within the writing of QL, then it should be considered acceptable for the TVS.
This brings up one last piece. From my understanding, each episode in TVS is supposed to be a prose version of a TV episode. That is, as if we were watching the show. Now…in television series (and other forms of visual media), things do move much faster than they would in Real Life or even in a novel. Thus, requesting that one ‘spend a lot of time building to a situation’ (including more time in the leaps themselves...that would have made the stories SOOO much longer and it was the idea that was important...that is, what Tom learned from the leap parts in Slidezone Part I itself rather than how much time he spent in each of those parts) is not typically done in TV except by occasionally ‘time elapse’ techniques (i.e. the moon in "Temptation Eyes.") That is, an hour TV show is done in an hour.
For many of the stories of this mini-arc, the length of the story was significantly longer than normal for a “one hour slot” and were handled in more of a typical prose style. However, wishing to keep the feel of a TV episode, things sometimes moved a little quicker than would have done for a ‘novel or novella.’ It is distressing, therefore, to have the criticism throughout this mini-arc focused on something that would pull the TV episode feel out of the storyline since TVS is supposed to have that feel.
In any case, hopefully, we now have Al and Tom poised where they can provide more story potentials into the future. Since Al and Tom are both Sam’s “brothers,” having them work together (although potentially disagreeing on WHAT should be done) should make for some interesting stories as TVS moves forward into the next seasons. Having them hate each other because of a personality conflict just seemed out of character for the authors. That was the intention of the story and hopefully, we have created that new space.
