Dictionary: Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap: Understanding the Universe

Here is the series prologue, it will help if you have never seen the series. It explains much of what is going on. In the series, the prologue is narrated by Deborah Pratt. The version here is the version from the series soundtrack, it is not the version actually used in the series run. (Thanks to Gerardo Calderon for this one)

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett lead an elite group of scientists to develop a top secret project known Quantum Leap. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator...and vanished. He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately contact with his own time was maintained through brainwave transition with Al, the project observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Dr. Beckett could see and hear. Trapped in the past, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap...will be the leap home.

Quantum Leap: Dictionary

BECKETT, KATHERINE: Known as Katey, she was the youngest of the Beckett family. She was born in 1957.

In 1974, Katey married Chuck at age 17 probably "to get away from the farm." Chuck was an abusive alcoholic. By the end of 1974 she had divorced Chuck and married Naval Lieutenant Jim Bonnick. Thelma Beckett moved in with them in Hawaii after John Beckett's death.

BECKETT, JOHN SAMUEL: Father of Samuel Beckett, Thomas Beckett and Katherine Beckett. He was the owner of a dairy farm in Elk Ridge, Indiana where he formed his family with Thelma Louise. John died in 1972 (or 1974) from a heart attack. Before that he lost his dairy farm because of numerous debts. However, it is possible that when Sam saved Tom in Vietnam (see BECKETT, THOMAS), Tom could have helped saved the farm. When John died, Sam wasn't there and he always regretted his absence.

BECKETT, DR. SAMUEL: Sam was born in August 8, 1953 to John Samuel Beckett and Thelma Louise Beckett. He has an older brother, Thomas Beckett and a little sister Katherine (Katey). He grew up on the family dairy farm in Elk Ridge, Indiana. As a kid, Sam had two cats, Donder and Blitzen. Sam was a child prodigy, he could read at two, did calculus in his head at age five, and could beat a computer at chess at age ten.

Young Sam's hero was his brother Tom, who was a very good all around athlete. The only sport Sam played was basketball and he was very good at it, he even was offered a sports scholarship at Indiana State. He was also very good at baseball, but he never played it. After getting dozens of admissions into universities, Sam entered MIT at the tender age of 16. He graduated in two years.

Sam also is also very talented in music, he can sing, he can dance and he plays the piano. His first piano teacher, Mrs Greenberg told him she couldn't teach him anything else. Sam then went on to be taught by Nicole at age 15. He had a crush on Nicole. Nicole left to study and Sam played at Carnegie Hall when he was 19.

Sam was dubbed by Time Magazine to be "the next Einstein" and won a Nobel Prize (probably in Physics. It isn't made clear whether he won the prize before he leaped initially or during his leaps.) He holds at least six doctorates. They may be some or all of these: (bold means conjecture): medicine, quantum physics, ancient languages, music, archeology, computer sciences, neurology and astronomy/astrophysics. Sam is also a student of martial arts. His studies include: sabatt, mu tai, karate, tae kwon do, judo and jujitsu. Sam also suffers from acrophobia and claustrophobia.

Dr. Beckett also knows a great deal of languages. We don't know the exact number for sure, but they include: Spanish, German, French and Japanese.

Sam is 6'0" and weighs 175 pounds.

BECKETT, THELMA LOUISE: Mother of Thomas, Samuel and Katherine Beckett. Wife of John Samuel Beckett. After the death of John, she moved to Hawaii with her daughter Katherine. In the changed history where Tom survives, we don't know if this happened.

BECKETT, THOMAS: Called Tom by his family, Thomas was born circa 1946. He was a very good athlete in school, he made All-State in basketball in 1964 and also excelled in track and football. After graduation he joined the Navy and eventually became a Navy SEAL

. On April the 8th, 1970, Lt. Tom Beckett was killed in Vietnam. This changed when Sam leaped back and saved him. In this new history, Tom probably went back home and saved the family dairy farm.

CALAVICCI, REAR ADMIRAL ALBERT: Al was born June 15, 1934, the son of an Italian immigrant from Abruzzi and a mother with some Russian ancestry. He had a younger sister, Trudy. His mother abandoned them and his father tried to keep the family together, but when the oil business took him to the Middle East. Al was placed in an orphanage and Trudy in an institution. When back in the States, Al's dad used to sneak Al out of the orphanage for risotto and Chianti. Al speaks fluent Italian.

When Al was 11, his father returned to the U.S. with the hopes of getting his family back.. But then he got cancer. He told Al that he would be okay if Al prayed for him. Al prayed for his dad until he died. Al's relationship with God wasn't good since then. Al went back to the orphanage..

Al, at age 10, was picked up by the legendary pool player Charlie "Black Magic" Walters. He had run away and tried to steal his wallet. They traveled together until Magic was arrested for playing in a whites-only pool hall. Al went back to the orphanage once again.

Trying to get out of the orphanage, Al did a number of things. He was known as "Al the Pick" when he was the regional Golden Gloves champ (he was 16). He tried to join the circus and even tried acting. He had a pet cockroach named Kevin

When he was old enough, al joined the Navy. He studied at Annapolis and Pensacola. He played baseball at Annapolis. He graduated in 1956 and was stationed at the North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego. He became involved with a nurse, Lt. Lisa Sherman and was already known for his affairs. He was known as "Bingo" for a sexual adventure involving triplets, Bingo, Bango, Bongo.

Al married Beth, a Navy nurse. She was the only woman he truly loved. Then in 1967, in his second tour, his A-4 plane was shot over the Highlands in Vietnam. He was a POW for five years and was declared a MIA. Beth had him declared dead, losing hope of his return in '69 and married Dirk Simon, a lawyer. However, Sam saved his marriage when, in a leap (the final one of the series) je convinced Beth that he would come back. In the new history, Al and Beth are still married and have four daughters. they will celebrate their 39th anniversary in June, 2000.

After Vietnam, Al entered NASA's Astronaut Corps and went to the Moon in one of the last missions of the Apollo program. (Note: in the QL universe the Apollo missions appear to have different dates since the last Moon mission took place December 7-19, 1972 when Al was still a POW.)

Al attended MIT at some point. It is possible that he has a degree in electrical engineering, but it is possibly not a Ph.D. since he is never referred to as Dr. Calavicci. He then went on to head the Star Bright Project (presumably a project involving a deep space probe.) It was there that he met Samuel Beckett.

In Project Quantum Leap, Al is the Observer. With Ziggy, he is the one that gives Sam all the information he needs.

CALAVICCI, TRUDY: Albert Calavicci's younger sister, born around 1937 mentally retarded. This may have caused Al's mother to running off with an encyclopedia salesman. Her brother came for her when he was of age, but he the discovered that learned she had died of pneumonia at age 16.

EVIL LEAPERS, THE: Another leaper and an observer encountered by Sam and Al during one of Sam's leaps. They are a female team named Alia and Zoey with a control computer named Lothos. They appear to be the reverse Sam and Al team, for their mission is apparently to create mayhem instead of helping people. It is not known where they came from, but some speculate that they are controlled by the Devil himself.

GOOSHIE (GUSHIE): Ziggy's main programmer. "Short guy with bad breath."

HANDLINK: Remote used by Admiral Albert Calavicci to communicate with Ziggy while in the Imaging Chamber.

IMAGING CHAMBER: Part of the Project Quantum Leap. It is the place where an holographic image of Admiral Albert Calavicci is created and transmitted to Dr. Samuel Beckett's brain. Sam's surroundings are projected into Al's brain for him to interact. They appear as holograms to him. The Imaging Chamber is a very large room, painted blue. It seems similar to the Waiting Room.

LEAP: Jump from a time period to another within the leaper's own lifetime (See STRING THEORY OF TIME TRAVEL) In practice it has been possible to leap beyond the leaper's lifetime if the leapee and the leaper share the same basic genetic structure. Sam Beckett did so when leaping into an ancestor during the Civil War.

LEAPEE: Person into which the leaper leaps into. The leapee's mass is exchanged for the leaper's mass. The leaper does retain a physical aura of the leapee, that is the leaper seems to other people to be the leapee. When the leapee leaps back into his own time, it appears that they do not retain much memory of the future and they share the leaper's memories.

LEAPER: Person who leaps, or travels back into time by the use of Dr. Samuel Beckett's String Theory of Time Travel. The actual physical body of the leaper takes the place of the leapee and viceversa.

LONIGRO, SEBASTIAN: Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during the 70's. He was a friend of graduate student Samuel Beckett and used to spend weekends with him in his cabin in Berkshires. It was during one of those weekends, by the summer of '73, that both men developed the String Theory of Time Travel.

OBSERVER: Part of Project Quantum Leap. The observer the person in the project's present that is actually in contact with the leaper. He enters the Imaging Chamber, where is neurons are connected to the leapers neurons. To the leaper, the observer appears as a hologram. To the observer, the leaper and his surroundings also appear as a hologram. In the leapers time period, only the leaper can see the observer since his image is designed only for the leapers brain waves. There are exceptions to this rule, small children, animals and demented people can see and hear the observer since they exist in a natural brain alpha state. The observer can only travel in time using a leaper as anchor.

PHYSICAL AURA: Appearance given by a person to other. When a person leaps into another person they exchange their physical auras while their bodies travel in time.

Here's the theory: when the leaper leaps his whole body leaps but it is mapped into a different reference frame. If you look through a warped piece of glass, things seem to be a different size and shape. The same thing happens with a warped region of space. When the leaper leaps, his body is altered by but all physical properties But the only person in the leaper's reference frame is him/herself, so when he looks at himself he sees his/her own body. When he looks in a mirror, light photons have passed between the two different frames, and so he sees the leapee's aura.

PROJECT QUANTUM LEAP: Top secret project funded by the Pentagon. Directed by Dr. Samuel Beckett. The project was sabotaged causing Dr. Beckett to be trapped in the past. The only way for Dr. Beckett to leap into another period is by righting something that had gone wrong.

QUANTUM LEAP ACCELERATOR: Machine designed by Dr. Samuel Beckett. The machine that actually creates the leap through time.

STRING THEORY OF TIME TRAVEL: Theory created by Dr. Samuel Beckett and professor Sebastian LoNigro. Simply put, any given person's life is a string. Each end of the string represent his/her life and his/her death. When you put together the two ends, the lifetime becomes a loop. If you can find a way to make that string into a ball, theoretically all points of your life could be in touch with one another. If you can travel from point to point you can travel through time, but only within that string, or lifetime.

WAITING ROOM: Part of Project Quantum Leap. When the leapee is displaced by the leaper, he/she ends up in the Waiting Room. It is a sterile blue room where the leapee waits for the leaper to leap again and go back to his/her own era. In the Waiting Room the leapee is examined bu Project medics.

ZIGGY: Supercomputer designed by Dr. Samuel Beckett. It has a personality and an ego. It is also connected to every database on the planet, making it the vital research tool for Sam's leaps. It is not defined whether Ziggy is a he or a she for it is referred to as both.