You make some good points.
No, this was an attempt to recreate the old Quantum Leap project but it’s not the exact same technology. For example, Ben isn’t restricted to his own lifetime the way Sam was. I think that’s their explanation for why things don’t exactly work the same way they did before.
Did I miss where they said why he leaped? I thought it was still a mystery.
I didn’t say that it was confirmed but it is a maybe int the series whereas we always knew Sam was a good guy.
It seems like a fanwank, respectfully. They have updated the technology, sure, but how does that change the underlying fundamentals? They could have put in a 5 second line about how the new technology changed things: “Unlike Sam, you now are restricted to the bodily capabilities of the person you leapt into.”
It’s still the same equipment, right, just been mothballed before Magic got the project going again. Ziggy is still the same, only with upgraded code, plus a rogue code introduced by Janice.
You said he leaped for “evil reasons”. That’s a pretty strong statement when you have no idea why he leaped. Things can definitely look bad when you make unfounded assumptions.
“Always knowing Sam was a good guy” is one reason why the old show was more predictable and less interesting. (I’m not saying the new show is better but there are aspects of it that are better.)
They didn’t update the technology (well, not all the code). Ben created new code from scratch. Did you miss how they were talking about trying to figure out how Ben wrote the code for this new version?
One of the compelling things about the new show is that it has a lot more mystery in it. The people in the project don’t fully understand how the original project was done, because nobody who was directly involved is still around. They don’t know why Ben leaped, even Ben doesn’t. They don’t understand the code Ben wrote or why he wrote it. When Ben leaped back to the Old West it took everyone by surprise. I like all of that uncertainty, it adds another dimension to the show.
If you’ve already drawn your own conclusions and assumed the worst, then sure you might have a more negative opinion of the show. But that’s not a valid criticism of the show.
I did not. That is one of the possible suppositions. The viewers do not know yet.
That is a fair opinion. I disagree with it. I can’t root for Ben yet thinking that maybe he is trying to do bad things.
Wait. No documentation was kept? They know about Sam. It was just mothballed? Also “writing new code” doesn’t change the fundamentals about how something works. If I get a firmware update on my laptop it doesn’t make it run off of diesel fuel. This is fanwanking.
In the last episode Ben opened up to Addison over the guilt he felt after his mother died following an argument with him. She later told Jenn that that made her love him even more, since he had hardly opened up to her in the past. So, Addison has faith that Ben’s motives for leaping must be justified.
Sorry, I misread what you said, I didn’t see that you had said there was a “consideration” about him leaping for evil reasons. My bad.
That’s fair. But I don’t think he did. Everything about him suggests that he wouldn’t have done it without there being a really good reason. His instinct in every situation is to help people, just like Beckett. Even when he is hard on himself, such as when his mom died, that’s his guilt from his strong conscience. He’s also a pacifist (though clearly that means he’s willing to fight someone but will never kill anyone).
I think the “maybe he did it for bad reasons” idea to be a badly-done fake out. It would be harder to make it more obvious that Ben is a good guy. If anything, I’d criticize the show for making it too clear.
That’s the only way to change how software behaves.
This is nonsense. Do you know why the project had the limitations it had? Do you know for certain that it was a hardware limitation? It was never explained, that’s just how things worked. It was sci fi “magic” and it still is.
I don’t think that word means what you think it means. How is it “fanwanking” when that’s what the writers created? Do you think I’m making this up? They explained this on the show.
You might want to rewatch the last few episodes. I think you missed something.
Maybe this will help:
Quantum Leap episode 5 breaks this rule, however, sending Ben back to the year 1879. This was actually set up in previous episodes, with the Quantum Leap project team realizing he was building up a sort of temporal momentum to break the normal barriers imposed by the Quantum Leap form of time travel. It was compared to a slingshot effect, where a ship builds up momentum by using the gravity of a star or planet. The analogy is an intriguing one, in that it implies Ben’s initial leaps were deliberately chosen in relation to some major event in world history, one that would boost his travels through spacetime.
Ben figured out how to use the way he leaped to break the old limitation on when you can leap. It’s his code that did it. I’m not sure what other changes he might have made. Other discrepancies that aren’t explained on the show might be “fanwanked” away, but not this one.
I’m sure that the most evil people in history loved their mothers and would have been traumatized by such an event. Because he misses his mother and argued with her and didn’t get to take it back before she died doesn’t mean that he didn’t try to do something nefarious with his leap.
But like with the evil leaper, the writers could have dismissed my concerns with one throw away point. “Dr. Beckett encountered evil leapers and we never determined the source.” And, as said upthread, something like, “Ben, whatever code update you put in the system means that you are physically limited by the body you inhabit. Although Dr. Beckett could walk in place of a man who had his legs amputated, you have to make do with the fact that this guy never went to the gym.”
The fact that there was no acknowledgment of these things leads me to fear that the writers don’t even care about consistency.
Or they haven’t revealed it yet.
I’m not going to say there’s no way that they screwed up and it’s all part of a plan. But the way this show has gone, I’m open to the possibility that it’ll be addressed.
They know about Sam because the guy in charge is somehow aware that Sam lept into him in Vietnam. When he rose high enough in rank, he specifically sought out what was left of the project.
Spoilers for last night’s episode:
We now know that Janis Calavicci not only has some of Al’s old equipment, she has her own means of contacting Ben. Is Martinez working for her?
I haven’t seen it yet but when they introduced the “evil leaper” in the first series was when It lost me just like anything else that brings an "evil " entity where there wasn’t one before see also: sliders
This one’s motives remain to be seen. For now, he’s just creepy rather than outright trying to prevent Ben from changing history.
That episode was easily the strongest of the series so far and gives me renewed hope.
Didn’t they establish fairly definitively in the last episode that Martinez: 1) had no possibly of having leapt yet, 2) that it was definitely him, so therefore 3) he must be leaping from a future origination?
Of course, he hasn’t particularly aged, so this future point must be relatively soon. I mean it isn’t 20 or even 10 years.
IIRC, the (original) evil leaper wasn’t exactly evil. She was part of an evil organization, but she thought she had some noble purpose. And when Sam got through to her, she wound up being able to leap home.
Didn’t he off-handedly mention having a younger brother, or something?
We don’t know exactly what equipment Janis has. She clearly has the resources to power a basement full of electronics.
“I know what you’re doing, but if you value your life, you need to stop following me”
I think that was deliberately ambiguous. It looks like a threat, but it could also be an attempt to warn him of danger. I suspect it will turn out to be the second.