S01.E03: Somebody Up There Likes Ben

[KaveDweller]

On 10/8/2022 at 2:38 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

Oh, I get it now. Yes. I was saying Magic knew something happened to him in Vietnam, and then, decades later got wind of this Quantum Leap project, and used his clout to open it up and learned about Sam and Al. What he told the Pentagon to fund and re-open it, yes, is a different story. Could it partially involve finding Sam? Perhaps. But I agree that wouldn't be enough of a reason for the Pentagon to green light the reopening. 

Magic definitely said on the show the Pentagon doesn't know Ben leaped and he's keeping them in the dark. Which I think is the right call right now. 

I doubt the government would approve restarting the project just to find Sam. They apparently shut down the project years ago when Sam was lost, so why would they bother restarting it decades later with no new information about what happened to him?

Sam's original intent of leaping, was to change history for the better. Not small doses like he did, but to stop major events from happening. I'm sure the government funded it in part for that but also cause if are the only country that can time travel you can put yourself in some pretty powerful positions. I would imagine it was restarted because someone convinced them they figured out how to succeed where the original failed?

[DoctorAtomic]

8 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

I would imagine it was restarted because someone convinced them they figured out how to succeed where the original failed?

My take is Magic has enough clout to have gotten the project re opened, but this is as good a reason as any. Presumably, Ben would be the key member here that could have argued how they could succeed on this go around. I don't see why they couldn't include finding what happened to Sam as part of that, though not the mission priority. 

My own made up theory on time travel apropos of just reading sci fi is that preventing major events would be hard to do, like swimming against a really strong current. So if they're promising that, it's not going to happen. The small events are more probable. There's also something to be said for literally walking in someone else's shoes. Events like Sam's influence got the Governor's wife to invite him (leaping into a black guy) to sit with her at lunch and effectively kicking off the civil rights movement. Given all the data they have from Sam's leaps, Magic could probably make a good case for this kind of value. I preferred when the show stayed away from famous people. I like the premise that even 'regular' people can have a positive impact on history.

I'm having fun talking about it though, whatever direction the show goes. 

[KaveDweller]

7 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

My own made up theory on time travel apropos of just reading sci fi is that preventing major events would be hard to do, like swimming against a really strong current. So if they're promising that, it's not going to happen. The small events are more probable. There's also something to be said for literally walking in someone else's shoes. Events like Sam's influence got the Governor's wife to invite him (leaping into a black guy) to sit with her at lunch and effectively kicking off the civil rights movement. Given all the data they have from Sam's leaps, Magic could probably make a good case for this kind of value. I preferred when the show stayed away from famous people. I like the premise that even 'regular' people can have a positive impact on history.

I agree it would be hard to change big things, and you also don't know the ripple effect of them. 

But there was an episode of the original series where they were trying to change something big to keep their funding. The U2 bombing or something like that? They didn't, clearly.

[DoctorAtomic]

Was that the one on the train? They didn't prevent the 'big thing', but they ended up with a new senator on the panel that was the swing vote for the funding I think because Sam saved two people on the train that ended up getting married or something. Only Al saw the blue glow when the senator changed. 

Ah, ha. Nice work.

https://quantumleap.fandom.com/wiki/Honeymoon_Express

If they had a 2.4 billion budget back then I can't imagine now. 

[Sarah 103]

6 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Was that the one on the train? They didn't prevent the 'big thing', but they ended up with a new senator on the panel that was the swing vote for the funding I think because Sam saved two people on the train that ended up getting married or something. Only Al saw the blue glow when the senator changed. 

Ah, ha. Nice work.

https://quantumleap.fandom.com/wiki/Honeymoon_Express

If they had a 2.4 billion budget back then I can't imagine now. 

If memory serves correct, they didn't prevent but the big thing, but the woman on the train becomes a lawyer, then a senator, and she becomes the swing vote for the funding.