It's time to revise my review for this episode though what I scanned of my original wasn't too bad.
As I said the first time Sam getting a third person perspective of himself, his own devotion to time travel was a fascinating concept. Moe was an excellent character who in a way represented an alternative result to Sam's pursuit of PQL. Who knows perhaps if not for a combination of the time period and Sam's IQ he might have been considered for admission to a mental facility as well (*chills*
Shock Theater flashes :|). The connection on an even more personal level than this was brilliant, the fact that this was Sam's idol, the inspiration for PQL. We're shown this with the 'gyrometer' that Captain Galaxy uses in the very beginning while they were shooting an episode of
Time Patrol. The prop design is identical to the gummi bear handlink. So in a way this episode took us to the first seed which grew PQL.
Something occurred to me watching this episode today.
When Moe flees the hearing and tries to take off in his machine we actually see a small amount of leap light embrace him somewhat like the retrieval attempt in
The Leap Back. Sam and Al were both staring as this happened, did they not see it?
The way he responded to the Irene character was also well done. There are a few instances including here where we see Sam respond to someone not attending a funeral (Moe didn't attend his wife's) seemingly personally, suggesting that Sam himself had not returned to Indiana from for his own father's funeral in '72. Either because he was too involved at MIT or because he felt it would be too difficult for him. Perhaps a little of both. Somehow I thought there had been a specific mention of it in this episode but I was wrong there. Still there was a lot of strength in those moments in Scott's performance.
Mr. Scrub-o just never gets old, I'll never forget how hard I cracked up the first time, maybe even the first couple of times I watched it.
By far my favorite part of the episode was, drum roll please....
"Today's letter is from little Sam Beckett of Elk Ridge Indiana."
Granted in a typical situation this would not have made sense. Sam was four years old in 1957 and a four year old should barely be learning to read stuff like Dr. Suess let alone write. This is Sam Beckett however, child prodigy. We even know from
Honeymoon Express that he was reading at the age of two. So it works here and creates an interesting Chicken and the Egg paradox. Adult leaping Sam gave Moe the theory that he then gave to that four year old child. Hmm, who was first?
I was reading the review of Private Dancer. In there it mentions that Scott was on painkillers during the dance segments because he hurt his ankle in Runaway. So when we see Scott limping around in Future Boy it probably is because his ankle really does hurt.
Bonnie
Oh, I wondered about that! They seemed pretty consistent with the limp and I wondered if they needed to write that in for some reason.
This is correct.
Scott injured his foot during the shooting of
Runaway, the way I heard it he'd tripped over a cable or something and twisted it.
So there were excuses for him to limp written into both this episode and
Piano Man(He's shot in the knee outside the lounge right after the leapee's car blows up).
Private Dancer required pain killers instead because it was a dancing role.
