Quantum Leap (s01e01–02)

Genesis

by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by David Hemmings

Release: 26 March 1989
Format: TV Episode
Genres: Science Fiction, Sports
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Physicist and all-around good guy Sam Beckett rushes his time machine into production—funding is about to be cut!—and as a consequence, he leaps into the life of a USAF test pilot, where Sam and his holographic cohort Al have a moral mission. And after setting things right in that pilot’s life, Sam—“oh, boy”—takes a few moments to win the big baseball game in 1968.

— Inmate Jan

One end of this string represents your birth, the other end your death. You tie the ends together, and your life is a loop. Ball the loop, and the days of your life touch each other out of sequence, therefore leaping to one point in the string to another. . .

DEBUT

Quantum Leap (s01e01–02), “Genesis” (26 March 1989) [double-length broadcast].

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1950 to 1959: Captain Tom Stratton
Circa AD 1960 to 1969: Tim Fox
Circa AD 1970 to 1999: starting date as per Al: “Baring accidental death or a fatal disease, you’ll be back in forty years.”

Time Travel Methods

Time Tethers: with an uncooperative retrieval mechanism

Themes

Big Game (sports): changing the outcome of Fox’s big game
Causal Loops: Sam's future knowledge may have caused: white stripes on roads, Trivial Pursuit,, the word nerd,, mini-skirts, panty hose, video rentals, microwave popcorn, pet rocks, water beds, streaking, and the procedure to stop Peg’s labor.
Identity Illusion
Incorporeal Traveler: Al
Meeting or Viewing Ancestors or Descendants: Sam calls his father.
Touched by a Time Traveler: Save Captain Stratton’s life.

Real-World Tags

Baseball: The short leap at the end.
Howdy Doody: on TV

Groupings

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From the project lab, New Mexico desert, circa 1996 ⋙ to Edwards Air Force Base, Blockfield, California, 13 September 1956. Note: into Captain Tom Stratton, a USAF test pilot.
From Edwards Air Force Base, Blockfield, California, 14 September 1956 ⋙ to nowhere, because the attempt to retrieve Sam failed, 13 September 1956.
From Edwards Air Force Base, Blockfield, California, 18 September 1956 ⋙ to minor league ballpark of the Waco, Texas, Bombers, on the final day of the 1968 season. Note: into Tim Fox, a baseball player.
From an unknown time ⋙ to Lawrence University, Marion, Ohio, 15 June 1972. Note: into Dr. Gerald Brant, an English professor.
From the imaging chamber at the project lab, New Mexico desert, circa 1996 ⋙ to various locations and times in the episode at an unknown time. Multiple round trips. Note: Al’s hologram.

INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)

Debut—The feature-length pilot episode first aired on <samp>26 March 1989</samp>. During reruns, it was generally split into two one hour episodes, which we number as [s01e01] and [s01e02], although it also had at least one airing (13 September 1989) in a cut-down 90-minute format. Only the tail end of the second part takes Sam to his second host, a baseball player in 1968.