Volume No. 1
Issue No. 11
May 1993
Quantum Leap ™ & © 1992 Universal City Studios, Inc
Published by the INNOVATIVE CORPORATION
Bruce Scalet
Mike Deodato, Sr.
Vickie Williams
Scott Rockwell
George Broderick, Jr.
Excerpt from this issue
Next issue leap-in page
July, 1958
Fort Claridge, Kentucky
What application does the drug LSD have for the United States military? This is the question Sam may find the answer to as he leaps into the life of a doctor working on a top-secret military project with his real-life uncle. Can Sam expose the dangerous project to save the lives of innocent test subjects?
Summary by mshirley27
"For The Good of the Nation" by Bruce Scalet finds Sam as part of a covert military operation testing the affects of LSD at Fort Claridge, Kentucky in 1958.
It also gives him an opportunity to see his uncle, Roger, years before he knew him as a junkie.
airdave's Quantum Leap #11 - For The Good of The Nation review
When we Become Blinded By Fear
Sam leaps into Dr. Sam Epstein, stationed at Fort Claridge, Kentucky in June, 1958. Dr. Epstein and Dr. Roger DeLuca, Sam Beckett's uncle are part of a covert military operation: testing the affects of LSD as part of interrogation. The military is concerned that the Soviet Union of the '50's is using the drug as an interrogation technique. The medical team is administering the drug through punch at a cocktail mixer and through other covert means, and then observing the affects on unsuspecting victims.
One subject is a troop named James R. Thornwell. A special law is enacted that provides a huge settlement to compensate Thornwell.
Bruce Scalet's script is tragic. Mike Deodato, Sr.'s rendering is beautiful, but heart-breaking at the same time. Epstein and DeLuca do not end up unaffected by this. Neither do the victims.
This is a profound story that cuts to the core of the Red Scare in the United States in the '50's. As ever, Sam is full of righteous indignation, forgetting the atmosphere of the time. He is changed just as much as the people involved in the project.
Unfortunately, few of us really learn from history or the past, so oft times we are doomed to relive it.