Quantum Leap
was a show that could always serve as a common-ground point of bonding
for my girlfriend at the time and I. It was the facile entertainment
value of the series that was its initial draw, but I suppose if I had
to examine it deeper, there was something oddly comforting about its
correlative juxtaposition with a long distance, phone-driven
relationship.

Running from 1989 to ’93, Quantum Leap
centered around the time-traveling adventures of Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott
Bakula) and his striking chin and handsome coif. Having put his six
doctorates to good use in postulating that time travel within one’s own
lifetime was possible, and having built a contraption to test those
theories, the story goes, Beckett was forced to prematurely step into
said time machine or face losing important funding. He then awoke to
find himself trapped in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and
ping-ponging randomly from one period to another. His only contact with
the “present” comes in the form of a holographic apparition of project
observer Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), and in turn his oft-befuddled
interactions with a handheld computer named Ziggy (voiced by Deborah
Pratt).

Trapped in the past, Beckett would in each episode leap from one
life to another, putting right simple things that once went wrong and
hoping that each next leap would be his leap home. Apart from the
inherently beautiful structure this fantastical “mission-based”
storyline provided (and the manner the end of each show could thus
tease the following week’s episode), Quantum Leap also did a
great job mixing poignancy with frivolity. As the series wore on, there
were some fascinatingly mind-bending episodes (including Beckett’s jump
back into his own body as a teen), but Bakula always struck just the
right blend of mind-racing, adroit charm and occasional pathos to make
things interesting.

Highlights from this set include “It’s a Wonderful Leap,” in which
Beckett leaps into a cabbie who accidentally hits a woman who claims to
be his guardian angel; “Raped,” in which Beckett leaps into a date-rape
victim; “Hurricane,” which tests Beckett’s powers of persuasion as a
small town sheriff in the path of an incoming storm; and the Bermuda
Triangle-focused “Ghost Ship.” The season finale, meanwhile, finds
Beckett leaping into the body of a younger Al, as a Navy pilot, and on
trial for the murder of the wife of his commanding officer.

Housed in a regular Amray case, Quantum Leap is presented in
1.33 fullscreen, with an English Dolby digital 2.0 audio track and
optional subtitles in English and Spanish. The transfer is only so-so,
with stock footage noticeably different and scratches and grain
persistent throughout. The first season of the show on DVD included a
20-minute retrospective documentary with all-new interviews and
episodic introductions by Bakula. Unfortunately, none of the principals
return here for anything of that nature, and the only true supplemental
extra is the inclusion of the catch-all, half-hour special The Great ’80s TV Flashback, which collects interviews with The Hollywood Reporter’s
Ray Richmond, producer Stephen J. Cannell, reporter Alex Ben Block and
many others. As a bonus, though, there is a fifth season episode,
“Liberation,” in which Beckett leaps into the body of a housewife
during the struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment. B+ (Show) C (Disc)