S01.E02: Atlantis

[Helena Dax]

As it stands, I don't think this show is going to last. It lacks the humanity of the original show and it has zero personality: everything is generic. I like the callbacks, but it isn't enough to make it work, so hopefully it'll improve over the next weeks.

[Clanstarling]

This one was better than the first, but still not up to snuff.

I also dislike having the fiance the AI.

This series seems to happen more in the lab than with the leaper - which is a shame. We knew nothing about the astronaut except his date with death.

I want to like this, I really do. But so far, it's meh. There isn't much heart, and few laughs, which were key factors in the original.

[Commando Cody]

On 9/27/2022 at 11:49 AM, Good Queen Jane said:

Didn't Janice say that Ben came to her, not the other way around? Ben is the genius scientist behind the revitalized project. He wasn't supposed to be the Leaper. But in doing his calculations, he discovered something catastrophic happened/will happen at the focal point if he doesn't intervene. Maybe Sam does something that will stop the original project from even happening, which means Beth never waits for Al and Ben never meets Addison.  

I'm okay with Ben never meeting Addison. She's a mopey drag and she brings everything down. There are people in my life I wish I had never met. I would take that opportunity to never meet them - if it was a real thing. 

I'm okay with the new leaper and Magic. I would change out the entire rest of the cast for more interesting people. The cast is generic and boring. Not likeable, bland, badly written characters. 

Bringing Sam home would change the ending of the original series, so I don't like the idea of it. Which brings up the question, is Sam still leaping? Wouldn't there be people in the waiting room all the time? If the project was shut down, where do those people go?  Since Sam never returned home, does he get a respite once in a while where he doesn't have to fix the past all of the time? Does he get a break or a vacation?

Who would Sam return home to now? Donna the forgotten wife, the writers shouldn't have given him, has probably moved on by now. One would hope. Al is gone. Maybe his brother and sister are around, but it might be a bit of shock if he suddenly turned up again after 40 years. 

I'm not really interested in the intrigue of the new show. I liked the stories of the original. It all centered around Sam and his story. We got the behind the scenes story via Al telling Sam what was going on back at the project. All these extraneous characters seem unnecessary. Ben needs a hologram who has a sense of humor. Not a depressed woman. 

[Trini]

Pros: I like Ben and the actor playing him. It's cool to see others at 'HQ' helping him, etc.

Cons: All the supporting characters are pretty generic; and I'm 'meh' on Addison, which is not great, since she's the secondary lead. I'm not really interested the mystery with Janice or whoever.

I'm willing to stick with this and hope it improves; it's okay so far.

[Skooma]

On 9/29/2022 at 10:28 PM, Commando Cody said:

Ben needs a hologram who has a sense of humor. Not a depressed woman. 

Wanted to highlight this because this is the worst mistake they made in the new version by far and will probably cause it's cancellation since it drags this show down so very badly.  Please please please have aliens abduct this woman and take her away from us forever.

Also please restore the original theme music.  I know titles music isn't much of a thing these days but The Big Bang Theory bucked that trend and it made a big difference. 

The anti theme music production types don't understand the psychological effect these short themes have on bonding people to shows.  They are shooting themselves in the foot because of that honestly.

There was a recent (month or so back) Don Lemon (CNN anchor) hour on his show on just that as he is a big proponent on returning themes to shows and had interviews with some of the people that wrote them especially Cheers.  I mean would Cheers have stayed with us so long without one of the greatest opening themes ever?  And given all the filler fluff lead by sad sack hologram woman in this new Quantum Leap they could certainly spare a half minute or less for the original upbeat theme coming back.  I'm sure the original composer would be happy to get some more money for same.

Also the original Quantum Leap continues to be run mini-marathon every Monday on Sy Fy Channel and is definitely tied in with promoting this new show since the commercial contains promos and "watch this" stuff for both.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Skooma

[DoctorAtomic]

There was also more show back then so including a theme made sense. There's only 42 minutes of show now as it is, and cutting that down for a theme seems difficult to me. What would have been cut in this episode to make room?

It's not the show's fault it only has the 42 minutes. 

[Clanstarling]

I feel like someone said "hey, you know what would be really interesting for the reboot? Make the drama all about what's happening in the lab, and have the leap be the b story." For me, the original was all about the leap and the person Sam lept into. The lab was just occasional updates from Al.

Hopefully they'll find their way, and I'll watch for a bit. But so far it isn't must see tv, just hopeful, cross your fingers, tv.

[possibilities]

I've started watching some of the originals, and the other thing that's different is this one has none of the humor of the original. It's also really thinly plotted. I don't understand how they are managing to fail so badly. Remember Timeless? That one managed to have drama back home in the lab as well as in the time jumps, it had intra-team relationships, and it had a lot of dramatic tension. And it wasn't boring and flat. It's not like it can't be done if that's what you want to do. 

[Skooma]

5 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

There was also more show back then so including a theme made sense. There's only 42 minutes of show now as it is, and cutting that down for a theme seems difficult to me. What would have been cut in this episode to make room?

It's not the show's fault it only has the 42 minutes. 

They could cut out the humorless, sad sack woman who is the hologram.  Put Ian in the role of the hologram since they are the only other interesting person in the series.  That would put Ben and Ian together and add some humor and cut out the boring lab stuff.  Plenty of time for the main theme then.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Skooma

[Thomas Crown]

On 9/26/2022 at 11:06 PM, Thalia said:

It was great to see Susan Diol.  I remember tearing up at the end of her first episode, MIA.   I also think that the fact that Beth lied to Magic means that Janis has some kind of reason for what she's doing, apart from villainy.   Although I guess there has to be a noble reason for Ben to have gotten involved and to bypass the rest of the team before making the leap. 

IA. It was a nice surprise to see Beth played by the original actress.  Georgia on My Mind should have been playing on the radio while she worked on the car. 

[Sarah 103]

20 hours ago, Skooma said:

They could cut out the humorless, sad sack woman who is the hologram.  Put Ian in the role of the hologram since they are the only other interesting person in the series.  That would put Ben and Ian together and add some humor and cut out the boring lab stuff.  Plenty of time for the main theme then.

A huge Yes to all of this. Theme songs probably aren't coming back, which is a shame because I love them. I was just thinking last night that Ian should be the hologram. The character interacting with Ben would bring some much needed humor to the series. I'm guessing the scenes in the lab (which I am not a fan of) are way of cashing in on the NCIS/CSI trend of procedurals that have dominated the ratings for the past 20 years or so. 

[TV Anonymous]

I may be spoiled by For All Mankind. The space scenes are shit and so is the space science. The damage of space shuttle Columbia thermal  protection system tiles caused by debris strike was the cause of her destruction IRL. During the time in orbit, before reentry, one solution to be considered was for Columbia to dock to the ISS and wait for rescue. That idea could not be done since Columbia and the ISS were at different altitude and orbit inclination. Point is, spacecrafts in orbit cannot just catch up with each other if their trajectories are not designed to meet. I am also disappointed to hear banging sound when Song bangs the hatch of the Mir. There is no sound in space, of course.

For the show itself, I think I agree with other posters that I do not care much with the present-day drama. Maybe a bit as a background - considering the original had very little - but not 50/50. 

[Darian]

I watched every episode of the original series and even mentally rewrote my own finale in which Sam leaped into a physics (?) professor (and his "oh,boy" was happy) and ended up teaching the bright student who would years later end up figuring out how to bring Sam (who them it was just someone leaping, not someone they'd had contact with). My memory is bad enough that this is pretty new to me, and I like it. I actually think the actor playing Addison is doing a good job of having to pretend she's just working with the team. I can feel her pain.  I get wanting more of the leaps but I like this "why did he leap?" wrinkle and seeing more of the team. I like the rest of the characters and the actors playing them and if this show give us a good Janis (because TV and movie Janices and Janises tend to be awful), I will like it even more. 
 

[Darian]

On 10/5/2022 at 2:28 PM, TV Anonymous said:

I may be spoiled by For All Mankind. The space scenes are shit and so is the space science. The damage of space shuttle Columbia thermal  protection system tiles caused by debris strike was the cause of her destruction IRL. During the time in orbit, before reentry, one solution to be considered was for Columbia to dock to the ISS and wait for rescue. That idea could not be done since Columbia and the ISS were at different altitude and orbit inclination. Point is, spacecrafts in orbit cannot just catch up with each other if their trajectories are not designed to meet. I am also disappointed to hear banging sound when Song bangs the hatch of the Mir. There is no sound in space, of course.

Heh, I did a fellowship with NASA on Cape Canaveral, my boss was an astronaut who'd been up on the shuttle twice, talked to me about so much of it and I got really hooked on space while I worked there (and learned a lot, have a whole bookshelf just about space exploration and geeked out though I hadn't had much interest in space previously) and I had to just go with it. I did get a little stuck on whether they'd say "back to Kennedy," when I don't think that's what they would say. But people know Kennedy Space Center better, rather than Cape Canaveral (I worked there, going past soldiers with very big guns), so I let it go. But yep, there was a lot that probably had people who know this stuff pulling out their hair or laughing. 

I admit, I listened to Space Oddity like five times after watching, though. 

[Thomas Crown]

On 10/13/2022 at 1:02 PM, Darian said:

I watched every episode of the original series and even mentally rewrote my own finale in which Sam leaped into a physics (?) professor (and his "oh,boy" was happy) and ended up teaching the bright student who would years later end up figuring out how to bring Sam (who them it was just someone leaping, not someone they'd had contact with). 
 

This is actually a wonderful story idea.   

[chediavolo]

On 9/27/2022 at 12:00 PM, Good Queen Jane said:

Do you mean Beth? She would be in her 70s and I thought she looked age appropriate.

On 9/27/2022 at 12:00 PM, Good Queen Jane said:

Do you mean Beth? She would be in her 70s and I thought she looked age appropriate.

She looks better than age appropriate. My first thought was that she is too young to be Al’s wife but she must be younger than him & she looks like she’s in her 60’s. The daughter on the other hand should be much older. 
‘This show lacks the originals humor & chemistry. I’m going to try a couple more but it will never be as good as the original. 

[KittyQ]

On 10/13/2022 at 10:02 AM, Darian said:

I like the rest of the characters and the actors playing them and if this show give us a good Janis (because TV and movie Janices and Janises tend to be awful), I will like it even more. 

I second this. For personal reasons, I always sigh to myself when a character is named Janice / Janis / Janise, because for some reason those characters are always annoying or bad. The name isn't as old-fashioned and clunky sounding as something like Bertha (apologies to any Berthas out there), so it is a strange thing.