Quantum Mistakes

B

Brand242003

Guest
:b Hey does anyone know if there are any mistakes
in any of the quantum leap episodes. My friend is one of the best mistake finders in tv shows and movies, but the bad thing is she doesnt like quantum leap therefore she will not watch the show with me to help find the mistakes. So I am on my own. This is actually a hobby of mine if anyone was wondering. :p


Peace & Love :wavey
 
I was JUST coming on to post about this. I am watching "Genesis" part II right now, and I noticed something that isn't really a mistake, but an error in judgment. I'm sure Sam had no other choice, but...

In order to stop Peggy Stratton's contractions and stop labor toward the end of "Genesis," Sam concocts an IV solution of 5% ethanol alcohol mixed with dextrose (?) and water. It will also get her instantly drunk. Now, I was just thinking, in 1995/96, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is known, yet Sam never mentions this. I believe he basically put the fetus in danger by giving Peggy enough alcohol to get her drunk.

I'm hoping that the amount of alcohol wasn't enough to harm the fetus, but it's possible, right?

As for other errors, there are a few that you have to look out for. I can't remember any off the top of my head (besides, it's 2:40 AM :p ), but they exist. Did you check the episode synposes on this very site? They list some of them, as does www.tvtome.com/QuantumLeap
 
Not really a mistake :)

Hey there. No, a 5% solution would not be enough to cause fetal alcohol syndrome. I work in the medical field, and FAS is caused more when a woman drinks very heavily daily, especially in early pregnancy. Just the 5% solution would not be enough to cause FAS. Yes, it would get her drunk, but not enough to harm the baby. That 5% is the equivalent of a wine cooler or maybe one beer, and I've even read some that a few drinks during pregnancy wouldn't hurt anything. I've had two babies myself and had I think two drinks the entire time I was pregnant. Good question though :)
 
Re: Not really a mistake :)

Okay, that's good to hear. I was hoping Sam was smarter than that. :)
 
Not really a mistake :)

That's funny you guys were talking about that because I introduced Quantum Leap to my girlfriend a few months ago and figured what better episode to start on than "Genesis." She asked the exact same question about the alcohol but I didn't have an answer for her, but now I do! Thanks. Only thing is I'm surprised the equivalent of a beer or wine cooler could get Peg instantly drunk or even give more than a buzz?
 
Re: Not really a mistake :)

I wonder if that is because the alcohol is injected directly into the bloodstream and that the body doesn't get to try to absorb any of it first...
 
Yep

Yes, that's the reason it would have gotten her instantly drunk rather than just a buzz - it being directly injected into the veins. :)
 
Star-Crossed

In Star-Crossed Sam and Al both misuse the phrase star-crossed in one of their exchanges and end up saying the opposite of what they actually mean. Sam calls he and Donna "star-crossed souls." He's telling Al why he and Donna should be together, but his words literally claim they can't be together, that they're love is doomed by fate. Al replies with "that came uncrossed", obviously referring to the first time around when Sam got stood up. It's a caution. At least that's how it's meant. Taken literally, his words would claim Sam and Donna had managed to thwart fate and had ended up together, which at this point of course had not occured. Wouldn't this count as a mistake?
 
"The Leap Back"

I'm not sure if this qualifies or can be explained, but here's something I noticed concerning "The Leap Back." Despite the many apparent inconsistencies and logistics questions with this episode that have more or less been explained in another thread for this episode, there is also one more fact that can be considered a "mistake." After the simo-leap, Al switches places with Sam, and Sam ends up in the Imaging Chamber. He and Al figure out that the Project will keep the Imaging Chamber door sealed for however many years.

It should be obvious to the members of the Project that somebody is still in the IC, whether it's Al or Sam, therefore there should have been no need to write a letter in 1945 telling Gooshie to open the IC door. I think it should have been a no-brainer to know someone is still inside the IC and to have Ziggy open the door using common sense. And why couldn't Gooshie hear Sam when he was calling for him in the IC? He can always hear Al, therefore even if the Project didn't realize somebody was still in the IC, they should have heard Sam's voice inside.

Also, the Project especially should have known to open the door because Tom Jarrett was in the Waiting Room meaning someone still had to be in the IC. Granted, maybe the Project would have no way of knowing that the handlink went to 1945 and just assumed that Al would use it to come out whenever he was ready to, but even still I would think they would wonder what happened and make sure Al or Sam was safe?
 
Re: "The Leap Back"

The reason for that was nobody knew the backdoor code except for Sam... hence why Al had to write the letter and send it to the lawyer, who then sent it to Gooshie.

Ziggy detected a catastraphic failure of the radium accelerator ring from the lightning strike and thus sealed off the Imaging Chamber, which could only be opened by using the handlink or the backdoor code.

... Mike. ^_^
 
Re: "The Leap Back"

If you are the obsearver, hologram, then they can hear everything you say, they can't hear Sam. Is that what you were looking for?
 
Re: "The Leap Back"

I dunno, Brian. I always speculated that Ziggy could communicate with Al, as she's got part of his cells as her interlink with Observer and Leapee... would make sense that the world's first thinking computer is a thinker due to Sam and Al's cell makeup... so communication would be VERY easy between Al and Ziggy.

By the way, you can relink the emoticons you're getting yours from to my site... I know that guy that's running the Binarhyme site... he might have some server issues.

Matt
 
Re: "The Leap Back"

On the of first episodes Al is trying to tell Sam about Donna's father, when he leaped into the old professor, he was wearing Egyptian symbols on him, looked like a scarf, and Al was trying to tell Sam where Donnas father was, and they could hear what he was saying, and they "dragged" him away, Al was talking to them telling them he wasn't doing anything wrong, etc. I don't think I saw the hand link. I don't see why they wouldn't be able to hear Al, since whatever he says his body is still there...or maybe there brains are connected so it's telepathic...just a thought...any ideas?
 
Re: "The Leap Back"

When Al is in the Imaging Chamber, only he can see and hear Sam as well as all Sam's surroundings. Only Al's brainwaves are connected to Sam's through Ziggy. Therefore any other people (in this case the government committee) only see Al standing in an empty room. This is why they had Ziggy scanning Al's side of the conversation to make sure he wasn't leaking information. Where I think a mistake may come in here is in "Shock Theater" where Al has Dr. Beeks in the IC with him, she seems to be able to see and hear Sam. We also don't see the government committe when they grab Al and carry him out (touching Al is supposed to bring in the image).

In "Raped," Al brings Katie into the IC as well and while it's debatable whether she can see any of the surroundings or not, it's pretty clear she can hear the lawyer's questions because Al doesn't repeat everything to her so that she can answer. Now maybe because of the tweaking the Project did in order for Sam to be able to hear Katie, they might have made other adjustments, but this doesn't apply for the case in "Shock Theater."
 
Re: "The Leap Back"

The government committee could hear Al which is precisely why he had to wear the scarf with symbols. He had to hide the way he was leaking the information. If they couldn't hear him, Al would simply just blurt it all out. And Al does not have the handlink either but I think maybe the government committe being in the room had to do with it. In the first season, Al doesn't use the handlink all that often anyway (because it wasn't fully designed yet).
 
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Sam, Al, Ziggy

In "Raped", I think that was more of a metaphorical way to get things going... I believe Sam was still repeating the information that Katie was saying, but they wanted to cut out some of the "lag" in an, in my opinion, artistic way.

In general, I think that Ziggy can hear and see everything that Al does, but Al himself is the only one that can see Sam and the rest of the hologram. It's a neurological hologram, meaning that it isn't physically being projected: it's all in their minds. Sam and Al are linked to each other through Ziggy, but Ziggy is just a conduit for that link and can't experience the hologram herself (I don't think: in "The Leap Back" she said, "Doctor Beckett, watch out! ... too late," or something like that when Clifford clobbered Sam).

Let's all re-watch these episodes and come to some kind of consensus. :nut

... Mike. ^_^
 
Re: Sam, Al, Ziggy

Then have a movie, and a new series with some of the same actors....that would be great!!
 
Re: Sam, Al, Ziggy

You're right, Mike, about the metaphoric way of getting to the point where Katie is being asked the questions. But I was referring more to the fact if she actually heard everything that was going on. I don't think any excessive rephrasing was cut when she responded. I think they only backed away from Sam's dialogue after the questions kept going because we all got the idea by that point and it would have just been annoying. So I guess the explanation I have for this case is that when Al had the hologram tweaked so that Sam could hear Katie, that in turn also allowed Katie to hear the hologram.

As for Ziggy "seeing" Clifford about to whack Al, this is not the only time she "sees" what's going on in a leap. One time that comes to mind is when she sends a message to the handlink in "A Tale Of Two Sweeties" saying for Sam to get the hell away from the window. So my answer to that is basically that Ziggy doesn't technically see the hologram but since she is connecting the neural link, I think she is able to sense what is going on and/or is at least always able to monitor Al's actions and project what is occurring in the hologram.
 
I was watching "The Leap Home" and caught another small mistake. There's a brief scene that's cut from syndication where Sam is talking to Al just before he leaves for basketball practice. While he's standing near the mirror, you can catch Scott's reflection before they show the shot of his younger self.
 
As for why the commity didn't appear when they grabbed Al and pulled him out of the Imaging Chamber, I see two possibilities.

1. They tweaked everything over the course of the five years to change things.
For example, In Genisis, when Al left the Imaging Chamber, he walked to a door, slid it opened, side to side, and walked out. He didn't need the handlink to open the door. I could be wrong, but I don't think that the ICD they used for the bulk of the series showed up until "Blind Faith"
Also, when Sam leaped into Samantha Stormer in "What Price Gloria", Al saw Sam as Samantha, which gave him a complex. However, in the episode "Nowhere to Run", Al tells Sam flat out that he sees him for him and everyone else sees the leapee. There were little tweaks and changes to things at the project. So maybe, they tweaked it so that Ziggy could monitor what is happening to both Sam and Al, instead of just Al. Then they would have tweaked the settings again in "Blind Faith so that Sam could see the music sheets that Al has to hold for him in order for him to play piano in Carnagy Hall.

2. But as far as the commity not appearing to Sam they dragged Al out of the IC, they were grabbing his arms, which were covered by the cloth of Al's cloths. Maybe, he has to touch the person or thing with his skin. After all, Sam could always see Al's cigars and the handlink
 
Very true, and you can see Katie in "Raped" because she is holding Al's hand. I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure Verbeena would be holding his hand too.

Personally, I liked the original Imaging Chamber door...the one in Genesis. It cracked me up so hard when I saw that for the first time. I never really saw the first season, so it came as a shock.

One mistake I've found (more of a confusing discrepancy really) is over the course of 2 episodes, The Camikaze Kid and Play It Again, Seymore. In TCK, Sam leaps in with a cigarette in his mouth, then he spits it out coughing as if he hates cigarettes or never smoked before. Then, in PiAS, he intentionally buys a pack of cigs and lights up on several occasions. So, is Sam a smoker or not, is what I'm trying to figure out.

Samantha Beckett
 
Smoking

Samantha_Beckett said:
Very true, and you can see Katie in "Raped" because she is holding Al's hand. I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure Verbeena would be holding his hand too.

Personally, I liked the original Imaging Chamber door...the one in Genesis. It cracked me up so hard when I saw that for the first time. I never really saw the first season, so it came as a shock.

One mistake I've found (more of a confusing discrepancy really) is over the course of 2 episodes, The Camikaze Kid and Play It Again, Seymore. In TCK, Sam leaps in with a cigarette in his mouth, then he spits it out coughing as if he hates cigarettes or never smoked before. Then, in PiAS, he intentionally buys a pack of cigs and lights up on several occasions. So, is Sam a smoker or not, is what I'm trying to figure out.

Samantha Beckett

I wondered about this myself. Sam also smokes a pipe in Star Crossed (and he lights up in the loony bin too, when he reverts to Samantha Stormer).
My take on it is that Sam himself is definitely a non-smoker, as evidenced by him destroying his father's cigarettes in the Leap Home. He lost his father to cancer, he does NOT approve of smoking.
However at times, the 'bleed-through' or synergising, from the leapee, is strong, like with Will Kinman's stutter, and in these cases,the nicotine cravings get the better of him.

That's how I see it anyway.
 
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I've also posted about the smoking issue once before. However, in early cases like "Star-Crossed," I don't think it was a case of mind-merging, as that concept technically didn't exist on the show yet. Although, I do think it always existed, but didn't completely take effect until Sam's shock treatment in "Shock Theater," in my opinion. So what I think the case is here is that in the early episodes, Sam didn't remember enough about himself to know how against smoking he was. (Although, he did find out that he was a doctor and that his dad died...)
 
That's probably how that is. It just really caught me off guard because as I was watching Camikaze Kid, when he coughed and spit out the cigarette I thought and maybe even said outloud, "okay, Sam apparently doesn't smoke" then about 45 minutes later in Play it Again, Seymore he lights up. Then I'm like, "okay, maybe not". Its probably because of the "mind melding" between Sam and the Leapee.

Samantha Beckett
 
Samantha_Beckett said:
That's probably how that is. It just really caught me off guard because as I was watching Camikaze Kid, when he coughed and spit out the cigarette I thought and maybe even said outloud, "okay, Sam apparently doesn't smoke" then about 45 minutes later in Play it Again, Seymore he lights up. Then I'm like, "okay, maybe not". Its probably because of the "mind melding" between Sam and the Leapee.

Samantha Beckett

Perhaps in "Star-Crossed" and "Play It Again, Seymour," Sam was simply playing the part of the leapee. Maybe he was trying to act more like a college professor, hence smoking out of a pipe rather than a cigarette. (Kind of like an actor preparing for a role.) In "Camikazi Kid," Sam arrived with the cigarette catching him off-guard, so he spit it out. Then in "Play It Again, Seymour," he was trying to act like Bogart since he was enthusiastic about the whole murder-mystery leap. It was definitely mind-merging in "Shock Theater," however. Sam wasn't Sam smoking a cigarette── he was Samantha ("Don't tell Gloria!").
 
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QL Nut said:
Perhaps in "Star-Crossed" and "Play It Again, Seymour," Sam was simply playing the part of the leapee. Maybe he was trying to act more like a college professor, hence smoking out of a pipe rather than a cigarette. (Kind of like an actor preparing for a role.) In "Camikazi Kid," Sam arrived with the cigarette catching him off-guard, so he spit it out. Then in "Play It Again, Seymour," he was trying to act like Bogart since he was enthusiastic about the whole murder-mystery leap. It was definitely mind-merging in "Shock Theater," however. Sam wasn't Sam smoking a cigarette?? he was Samantha ("Don't tell Gloria!").

I'd agree with you about the taking on the part aspect if he only smoked in front of other people, but in Star Crossed he lights up the pipe when he is alone. I don't think he would do that just to 'get in character', if he were rationalising it with all his "Sam" feelings about being anti-smoking. So either he is so Swiss-Cheesed he forgets he hates smoking, or it is a merging from the Leapee.

Most likely of all of course, is that Don was trying to get Scott into character, and hadn't thought through all these minor details!

Post Creative Rationalazation is kinda fun though, isn't it?
 
I may be wrong, But I think that the first time that the Clunk-Zoom Imaging Chamber door was used, and shown was in the episode Blind Faith.

And when Al was leaving Sam, he told him that he would give a command performance. He opened the door, they turned the camera toward Sam for half a second, then focused back on Al, who closes the door and disappears.

Now, I may be wrong, but to me, it looked like he didn't step tyhrough the door at all. He just opened it and closed it, without stepping through and disappeared anyways.