Quantum Leap (s02e01)

Honeymoon Express

by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt

Release: 20 September 1989
Format: TV Episode
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Sam pops into newly married Tom McBride (a New York policeman), who is headed to Niagara Falls with his new bride (a budding lawyer and the daughter of a senator). The two of them engage in the usual honeymoon activities—fighting off ex-boyfriend thugs, rolling underneath moving trains, studying for the bar exam—while unbeknownst to Sam, Al is at a Senate committee meeting in Washington, D.C., fighting for the life of Project Quantum Leap. Oh, yes, and it’s now official: Sam and Al believe that God has taken control of the project, although Al refuses to be pinned down as to which god she is.

— Michael Main

This committee has decided that your 2.4 billion dollar funding request for Project Quantum Leap . . .

DEBUT

Quantum Leap (s02e01), “Honeymoon Express” (NBC-TV, USA, 20 September 1989).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1950 to 1959: the tree in 1957
Circa AD 1960 to 1969: 27 April 1060

Time Travel Methods

Time Tethers: with an uncooperative retrieval mechanism

Themes

Identity Illusion
Incorporeal Traveler: Al
Touched by a Time Traveler: Saves Ginger. And also touched Tom and Diane.

Real-World Tags

Groupings

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From La Guardia airport, later in April 1953 ⋙ to a bathtub in Detroit, 16 October 1961. Note: At the end of “Play It Again, Seymour” [s01e09], Sam briefly jumps into Samantha Stormer—the first female leapee—who is taking a bath. But Sam doesn’t stay in her body and work through her problems until partway through Season 2 in “What Price Gloria?” [s02e04]. For details, please see the notes for that later episode.
From a bathtub in Detroit, 16 October 1961 ⋙ to up a tree in an unspecified location, 1957. Note: into a firefighter, just long enough to affect a rescue.
From up a tree in an unspecified place, 1957 ⋙ to a train just leaving New York City, 27 April 1960. Note: After two small detours, Sam leaps into Diane McBride’s new husband.
From a honeymoon suite in Niagara Falls, New York, 27 or 28 April 1960 ⋙ to a disco in Burbank, California, 1 April 1976. Note: into stuntman Chad Stone.
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.