S01.E06: What a Disaster!

[secnarf]

Quote

Ben and Addison find themselves in San Francisco during the historic 1989 earthquake; as the city continues to crumble with aftershocks, Ben must try to mend a family in chaos. Jenn and Ian search for clues to an unsettling mystery.

Original air date: Oct 24 2022

[Skooma]

Whoops.  Opened this thinking it was a thread to comment on how bad this show is but see it is the title of the next episode. 

[AnimeMania]

7 hours ago, Skooma said:

Whoops.  Opened this thinking it was a thread to comment on how bad this show is but see it is the title of the next episode. 

Not a problem, this episode was originally the "pilot" episode before "the brass" forced them to create a new pilot episode. They chopped the episode up and added new scenes so it would work at it's present location.

[Skooma]

On 10/23/2022 at 8:58 AM, AnimeMania said:

Not a problem, this episode was originally the "pilot" episode before "the brass" forced them to create a new pilot episode. They chopped the episode up and added new scenes so it would work at it's present location.

Yeah I remember you or someone else mentioning Episode 6 was the original pilot.  The show is bad enough already so I can hardly wait for a "chopped up and insert drop scenes" episode tonight, haha.

[AnimeMania]

Everett Andres as Jason
Dave Jacox as Mr. Wheeler
Walter Perez as Martinez
Jewel Staite as Naomi

[Badlands]

So what was with them being shocked he didn't leap 3 seconds after he saved Jason? He never leaps immediately. At the very least, he has to have a conversation with an invisible person in the middle of a crowded place with seemingly nobody noticing.

[Sarah 103]

On 10/23/2022 at 1:22 AM, Skooma said:

Whoops.  Opened this thinking it was a thread to comment on how bad this show is but see it is the title of the next episode. 

I think the thread Old vs. New: Comparing the Two Series might be a good place for that. 

1 minute ago, Badlands said:

So what was with them being shocked he didn't leap 3 seconds after he saved Jason? He never leaps immediately. At the very least, he has to have a conversation with an invisible person in the middle of a crowded place with seemingly nobody noticing.

That was something the original series did a better job of. Sam (the leaper in the original series) would pretend to be on the phone, or step outside, into a hallway, or the bathroom. 

The fact that current team never even considered for a nano-second that the other leaper in Salvation may have been Sam made me lose so much respect/goodwill for this series.

Ian continues to get some of the best lines. I want to see Ian as the hologram more and more with each episode. 

I'm annoyed that the series didn't think that having Janice out there working with Ben for some reason yet to be revealed wasn't enough of a story and felt the need to add another myserious plot twist that is based in present day. 

[KaveDweller]

9 minutes ago, Sarah 103 said:

The fact that current team never even considered for a nano-second that the other leaper in Salvation may have been Sam made me lose so much respect/goodwill for this series.

Yes, that seemed dumb of them. I mean, they KNOW there was another person leaping before, who got lost in time, and they don't even think of him? Certainly it is unlikely that Sam would be so hostile or know who Ben was, but at least mention him. Also, do they know that Sam ran into the evil leaper once? Surely that is in the project records from the original project quantum leap?

I do like the idea that the other leaper leapt from the future and that they were able to track him down, but he doesn't know anything yet. And I like that they addressed if they just set things in motion by tracking him down.

They spent a lot of time in the present this episode, so it was hard to get into the leap itself. But I didn't thing it was noticeably worse than the actual pilot. But having watched some episodes of the original recently, the scene of Ben realizing his mom was alive and tried to call her paled in comparison to when Sam tried to call his dad in the original. 

Not sure how Ben, who in 1989 would have been pretty young and not a San Francisco resident, and has amnesia, would have instantly remembered an earthquake was going to hit right that second. But whatever.

[Sarah 103]

2 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

Not sure how Ben, who in 1989 would have been pretty young and not a San Francisco resident, and has amnesia, would have instantly remembered an earthquake was going to hit right that second. But whatever.

Do we know whether or not Ben is a baseball fan, because that would explain it. He knew about it from being a baseball fan and knowing the game that wasn't played. My take on the amnesia is that Ben does not remember his own life, but he does have a memory of facts, general knowledge, and trivia. He might not remember the name of his 10th grade science teacher, but he could draw the entire periodic table from memory. 

[possibilities]

I had friends in the Bay Area during the 1989 quake. I don't remember it being as bad as they portrayed it as being. I could be wrong, I guess. But I think it's risky to choose such recent events if they are going to be portrayed wildly disproportionate to people's memories.

[Skooma]

34 minutes ago, Badlands said:

So what was with them being shocked he didn't leap 3 seconds after he saved Jason? He never leaps immediately. At the very least, he has to have a conversation with an invisible person in the middle of a crowded place with seemingly nobody noticing.

Yeah they are terrible in this version about Ben talking to the hologram.  He never lowers his voice or goes elsewhere it seems.  He just stands there and talks rather loudly to said boring hologram while 9 times out of 10 all the people around him ignore what he is doing.  The few times he is noticed doing that are the exception, not the rule.

Also the convos tend to be long winded and Sam was always trying to hurry in the middle of a crisis.  Not take time out to "open up" about stuff when there is a kid to save.

The whole bit about the hologram's communicator not working and getting the old one to replace it temporarily was an obvious cover for the fact that the pilot used this so-called "old" version.

Also this has got to be the worst thought out plan to get info from "Leaper X".  A Navy admiral and a strange woman suddenly knock on his door for apparently no reason at all.  No wonder Marine guy thought there was a special mission he was needed on.  Why else would an Admiral show up at his home unannounced?  But no they have nothing for him.  Just apparently want to chit chat away about nothing in particular other than any civilian moonlighting offers lately?  Elon Musk show up for a visit recently?  No?  Okay, welp we will be on our way.  Really lame.

No wonder Ian figured out that Magic and the woman security person probably planted the "seed" that will cause the Marine to become the future leaper.

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, Sarah 103 said:

The fact that current team never even considered for a nano-second that the other leaper in Salvation may have been Sam made me lose so much respect/goodwill for this series.

I know!  But maybe it's because they took it for granted that the person they were seeing was what the leaper actually looked like since they managed to get a screen grab from the---imaging chamber did they say?

I'm not sure why this wasn't considered "shiny" enough for a pilot unless they reworked a lot of it. 

[Skooma]

2 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I know!  But maybe it's because they took it for granted that the person they were seeing was what the leaper actually looked like since they managed to get a screen grab from the---imaging chamber did they say?

I'm not sure why this wasn't considered "shiny" enough for a pilot unless they reworked a lot of it. 

Well it seems that there wasn't all the mystery over the fact Ben couldn't remember he was engaged to the hologram woman so maybe they wanted to add 5 episodes of "who is she angst" before he remembers because the show runners thought we would be enthralled by that story line.  Not!

Also did they use the whole let's go to "Leaper X's" mom's home as filler to cover up all the stuff they must have cut from the pilot when they turned this into Episode 6 instead?  Because otherwise the other leaper would have had to have been both introduced, figured out his identity and been scoped out by the admiral all in the original pilot which I don't see happening in 42 minutes what with all the exposition that a pilot needs to explain basic set-up stuff as well.

Anyway again the admiral and security woman's visit was just lame wherever they planned it.  And the mystery leaper turning out to be just some clean cut marine guy was kind of a let down too.

[libgirl2]

6 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

Ian continues to get some of the best lines. I want to see Ian as the hologram more and more with each episode. 

Yes, they do. Loved the whole Leaper X. 

[Rose Quartz]

They did a better job reworking this than I expected.  I'm not sure I would have realized that this was the original pilot if it hadn't been mentioned here.  The one thing that gave it away for me was how the situation with Ben and his mother so closely paralleled Sam and his father in the original pilot, right down to Al/Addison breaking down and giving Sam/Ben the phone number so they could call their still-living parent.

Overall the episode was OK.  I really didn't care about the family in the past.  I think there just wasn't enough time to get to know and care about their characters.  The present day storyline is getting rather convoluted with both Janis and Leaper X potentially interfering with the project.  I agree with Ian that having Magic and the security lady (whose name I can never remember) coming in hot to confront the Marine was a sure way to have him become Leaper X in the future. 

The romance between Ben and Addison just isn't working for me.  When she was going on about how he was opening up more and she was falling more in love with him it was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes.  The show would be much more entertaining for me if they'd de-emphasize the romance and shift Addison back to the project more so someone else (Ian!) could be the hologram at least part of the time.

[akr]

8 hours ago, possibilities said:

I had friends in the Bay Area during the 1989 quake. I don't remember it being as bad as they portrayed it as being. I could be wrong, I guess. But I think it's risky to choose such recent events if they are going to be portrayed wildly disproportionate to people's memories.

You're right - the portrayal felt ridiculous! I lived in Oakland, and we had no idea there was any serious damage anywhere until an hour or so later when we heard about the bridge and the freeway. I was at a pizza place tp watch the game and, although some of us did, after some hesitation, duck under the table until it subsided, nobody ran for the exits (does anyone ever?), and in fact our beers didn't even fall over (people may have held onto them, and they must have been in mugs although I don't recall) and our pizza came out maybe 10 minutes later. (We lost the TV signal, though, of course (the stations were knocked off the air), and joked that the East Coast would think California had fallen into the ocean). Coverage over the next few days was frustrating, in that TV showed the same two blocks in the Marina district over and over, giving the impression that the damage was everywhere, but it was in fact pretty localized.  Unless you lived in the Marina or were unlucky enough to have been on that particular stretch of freeway, the main impact was not being able to use the bridge until it was fixed. (more serious damage closer to the epicenter, around Santa Cruz, of course, and the damage to the freeway was shocking - as was how long it took to rescue people. There's only so long you can survive being stuck like that, and I remember coverage about particular people, as we all hoped they could be rescued in time, with several at risk of going into kidney failure as time wore on due to their crush injuries.)

In particular, no apartment buildings in Oakland collapsed, so that story line was just bizarre. I checked and it's not that I forgot - it didn't happen. I'm sure some were damaged but the only ones I even remember being condemned up in SF & Oakland were the ones in the Marina district. (There were also a great many damaged or destroyed closer to the epicenter, in Santa Cruz etc.) Our building was a little worse than some but still just had some superficial plaster cracks (multiple stories long though!), and we lost some plates that had been in the sink (fourth floor of an older apartment building near Lake Merritt, built c. 1920.) It was a little hard to believe that what had done so little damage for most of us was so serious in the places that were damaged, but if you weren't on landfill, and were 70+ miles from the epicenter in Oakland or SF, you were probably just fine.

[iMonrey]

I honestly had no idea this was originally the pilot.

The good: I'm starting to be more intrigued by the present day storyline and the Leaper X subplot. I also got a kick out of the temporary hand link using the OG sound effects. And Ben trying to call his mom reminded me of The Leap Home when Sam tried to warn his brother about Vietnam but leaped before he could. I still get goosebumps thinking about that scene. Which, interestingly enough, was followed up by the Vietnam episode that introduced the character of Magic.

The bad: they didn't even bother to show Ben looking in the mirror this episode, and we barely even got a glimpse of who he was supposed to be with a quick flash of a photo. It also shouldn't have taken a long-winded demonstration/presentation for them to figure out Leaper X looked like himself in the imaging chamber just like Ben does. The whole idea that they've changed the premise to Ben literally leaping into someone's body seems counter-intuitive to that, too. I guess Ben is never going to leap into a monkey!

[libgirl2]

47 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I honestly had no idea this was originally the pilot.

The good: I'm starting to be more intrigued by the present day storyline and the Leaper X subplot. I also got a kick out of the temporary hand link using the OG sound effects. And Ben trying to call his mom reminded me of The Leap Home when Sam tried to warn his brother about Vietnam but leaped before he could. I still get goosebumps thinking about that scene. Which, interestingly enough, was followed up by the Vietnam episode that introduced the character of Magic.

The bad: they didn't even bother to show Ben looking in the mirror this episode, and we barely even got a glimpse of who he was supposed to be with a quick flash of a photo. It also shouldn't have taken a long-winded demonstration/presentation for them to figure out Leaper X looked like himself in the imaging chamber just like Ben does. The whole idea that they've changed the premise to Ben literally leaping into someone's body seems counter-intuitive to that, too. I guess Ben is never going to leap into a monkey!

I didn't realize it was either. Like you, I found myself more into the present day storyline than before. Maybe it is the mystery of Leaper X, maybe I just like Ian and/or the rest of the team has grown on me. 

[bunnyface]

Unless the "pilot" thing is the excuse, I didn't understand how they were so stunned that someone else has their technology and can leap.  I mean, they know Janice is out there doing God knows what, so how big a leap (haha) is it that someone else has the technology and is doing things.  Hell, it's not even THEIR technology, they got it from the 90s and Sam.  Guess what?  Other people have wheels too.

[rwlevin]

I thought the current team had all the files on the original Project Quantum Leap. Did they not know about the Evil Leaper? We still don’t know where or when Alia and Zoey and Hinton Battle came from and once Alia and Zoey were killed, that plot was completely forgotten about. But what I’m saying is multiple leapers isn’t unheard of and the current team should know that.

[secnarf]

10 hours ago, iMonrey said:

The bad: they didn't even bother to show Ben looking in the mirror this episode, and we barely even got a glimpse of who he was supposed to be with a quick flash of a photo. It also shouldn't have taken a long-winded demonstration/presentation for them to figure out Leaper X looked like himself in the imaging chamber just like Ben does. The whole idea that they've changed the premise to Ben literally leaping into someone's body seems counter-intuitive to that, too. I guess Ben is never going to leap into a monkey!

I wonder if that long-winded explanation was a relic of this episode being the former pilot - and that was meant to explain to the viewers why Ben still looks like Ben to us but not to other people. But yes, I was annoyed with it too - mostly because I don't really care and just accept it as part of the rules in this universe.

[DoctorAtomic]

I like my Abrasive Leaper over 'Leaper X.' I totally forgot they were seeing the actual leaper and not the person. On the OG, Sam first saw the person so I thought that's who they saw. To be fair, for one, here, Addison saw the guy, and they had the picture of him, so it's clear it wasn't Sam. I don't see why it would have been brought up since they know what Sam looks like. For the other, they were actually kind of clever. They saw Leaper X himself because he was using the same technology as 'Ben from 2022.' 

When they were going through the scenarios, I don't see why the leaping from the future was so dismissed. I said the same last week. It seems they were trying to throw us off. The use of power for even a private company would have sapped the grid somewhere that would have raised a flag, and foreign government wasn't realistic either. I like the 'future threat' better anyway. There's more drama to mine. I'm not sure I like Ben trying to get to a *future* point because I just want him to go to the bar, but I still hope it involves Sam. Also it could still be the bar. 

I don't mean to be overly much, but you can commute from Oakland to San Francisco. Millions do. They at least made the handwave about the better school, better house, so ok. 

I liked the classic QL ending again. The son went on to design better buildings.

1 hour ago, rwlevin said:

I thought the current team had all the files on the original Project Quantum Leap. Did they not know about the Evil Leaper?

I will happily applaud the show if this is actually ignored. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by DoctorAtomic

[Sarah 103]

21 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I like the 'future threat' better anyway. There's more drama to mine. I'm not sure I like Ben trying to get to a *future* point because I just want him to go to the bar, but I still hope it involves Sam. Also it could still be the bar. 

My biggest problem is that I do not want more drama in the present. I want to see Ben in the past trying to adjust to life in a different era and how to complete his mission with the tools/technology available to him in that place and time. 

[KaveDweller]

5 hours ago, bunnyface said:

Unless the "pilot" thing is the excuse, I didn't understand how they were so stunned that someone else has their technology and can leap.  I mean, they know Janice is out there doing God knows what, so how big a leap (haha) is it that someone else has the technology and is doing things.  Hell, it's not even THEIR technology, they got it from the 90s and Sam.  Guess what?  Other people have wheels too.

Do we know if the present scenes where they discussed Leaper X were in the original pilot, or if that was new scenes they mixed in? I assumed that the original pilot had the present scenes of the crew trying to figure out why Ben leaped and who he was working with. 

Unless the original pilot didn't have Janice?

[PurpleTentacle]

What happened to Jewel Staite? I only recognised her by her voice.

-

The people in that car would have been perfectly fine. The metal frame acts like a Faraday cage and electricity gets conducted to the ground through the wires. Ben should be smart enough to know that.

[peachmangosteen]

I loved this episode. The show gets better and better every ep for me.

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, PurpleTentacle said:

What happened to Jewel Staite? I only recognised her by her voice.

-

The people in that car would have been perfectly fine. The metal frame acts like a Faraday cage and electricity gets conducted to the ground through the wires. Ben should be smart enough to know that.

Jewel Staite is in "Family Law" if you want a good look at her.

The people in the car were making so much noise that they would have attracted many people to try to rescue them, who would not be immune to the the downed transformer's effects.

Why do the Quantum Leap team only see the "Leaper's" face unmasked, wouldn't they see the entire body with them wearing that tight spandex suit looking like a space alien amongst all the normally dressed people.

[StaceyNotStacie]

12 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I like my Abrasive Leaper over 'Leaper X.' I totally forgot they were seeing the actual leaper and not the person. On the OG, Sam first saw the person so I thought that's who they saw. To be fair, for one, here, Addison saw the guy, and they had the picture of him, so it's clear it wasn't Sam. I don't see why it would have been brought up since they know what Sam looks like. For the other, they were actually kind of clever. They saw Leaper X himself because he was using the same technology as 'Ben from 2022.' 

When they were going through the scenarios, I don't see why the leaping from the future was so dismissed. I said the same last week. It seems they were trying to throw us off. The use of power for even a private company would have sapped the grid somewhere that would have raised a flag, and foreign government wasn't realistic either. I like the 'future threat' better anyway. There's more drama to mine. I'm not sure I like Ben trying to get to a *future* point because I just want him to go to the bar, but I still hope it involves Sam. Also it could still be the bar. 

I don't mean to be overly much, but you can commute from Oakland to San Francisco. Millions do. They at least made the handwave about the better school, better house, so ok. 

I liked the classic QL ending again. The son went on to design better buildings.

I will happily applaud the show if this is actually ignored. 

The other leaper had a legit reason to want to leap. Didn’t he have family members that died in the past. Maybe he wanted to try to save them. For all we know, the visit he received in the present tipped him off of the Quantum Leap program and started the whole thing with the second leaper. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

My take on the amnesia is that Ben does not remember his own life, but he does have a memory of facts, general knowledge, and trivia. He might not remember the name of his 10th grade science teacher, but he could draw the entire periodic table from memory.

The amnesia thing needs to be dropped like it was in the original show. Sam only really had amnesia during the pilot episode. The "swiss cheese memory" thing was just a plot device so he could conveniently forget stuff he should have known when the episode called for it. When we finally found out he actually had a wife back home it came out of nowhere and I always hated that.

Quote

I liked the classic QL ending again. The son went on to design better buildings.

RE: the endings, I want to see where Ben leaps to right as it happens like in the original show. They keep showing him leaping then they cut to the present day characters before finally cutting back to wherever Ben went. It kills the momentum and the effect of getting to see this through Ben's eyes. 

[DoctorAtomic]

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I loved this episode. The show gets better and better every ep for me.

They needed the more 'present time' in order to figure out who the leaper was, and I'm glad they didn't drag it out. Otherwise, for the 'usual' episodes, I think since the boxer, it's been good with the right balance of the past and present. It would be interesting if there was some kind of storm or something that locked Addison in the chamber so the entire episode was just in the past with them. I mean, it's only been 6 episodes, and with the tsunami of nostalgia they've had to surf, largely unfair imo, I'm looking forward to Tuesdays. It's not a show "I'll get to". It's one I make time for. And we have really steady discussion throughout the week. 

I know they can't have Ben say 'oh boy' because they're probably saving that for the season finale where we get a glimpse of Sam and we all lose it. (Total speculation). I would like Ben to have some gesture or saying though. 

[Clanstarling]

On 10/24/2022 at 8:56 PM, Sarah 103 said:

I'm annoyed that the series didn't think that having Janice out there working with Ben for some reason yet to be revealed wasn't enough of a story and felt the need to add another myserious plot twist that is based in present day. 

That, and the fact that there is something weird going on and they didn't even mention Janice.

On 10/24/2022 at 9:15 PM, KaveDweller said:

Not sure how Ben, who in 1989 would have been pretty young and not a San Francisco resident, and has amnesia, would have instantly remembered an earthquake was going to hit right that second. But whatever.

The baseball game was one of the 1989 World Series games - and the earthquake happened just after the game started. So I could see how he would remember exactly when it was going to happen. We lived in the South Bay (closer to the epicenter), but were on vacation in the mid-west and were watching the series. It's the first thing I remember about that earthquake. Even though I wasn't particularly interested in the series myself, and Nana was just pissed that the coverage interfered with Jeopardy.

On 10/24/2022 at 9:25 PM, possibilities said:

I had friends in the Bay Area during the 1989 quake. I don't remember it being as bad as they portrayed it as being. I could be wrong, I guess. But I think it's risky to choose such recent events if they are going to be portrayed wildly disproportionate to people's memories.

We had lots of friends who had damage, but we had a miraculously stable house. When we got home from the vacation we were really nervous about what we'd find - but we only lost one plant, some cabinets were open, but nothing fell out of them. And weirdest of all, the stacked bath toys in the bathtub didn't even move.

On 10/24/2022 at 10:25 PM, Irlandesa said:

I know!  But maybe it's because they took it for granted that the person they were seeing was what the leaper actually looked like since they managed to get a screen grab from the---imaging chamber did they say?

I'm not sure why this wasn't considered "shiny" enough for a pilot unless they reworked a lot of it. 

Fair point.

On 10/25/2022 at 6:59 AM, akr said:

You're right - the portrayal felt ridiculous! I lived in Oakland, and we had no idea there was any serious damage anywhere until an hour or so later when we heard about the bridge and the freeway. I was at a pizza place tp watch the game and, although some of us did, after some hesitation, duck under the table until it subsided, nobody ran for the exits (does anyone ever?), and in fact our beers didn't even fall over (people may have held onto them, and they must have been in mugs although I don't recall) and our pizza came out maybe 10 minutes later. (We lost the TV signal, though, of course (the stations were knocked off the air), and joked that the East Coast would think California had fallen into the ocean). Coverage over the next few days was frustrating, in that TV showed the same two blocks in the Marina district over and over, giving the impression that the damage was everywhere, but it was in fact pretty localized.  Unless you lived in the Marina or were unlucky enough to have been on that particular stretch of freeway, the main impact was not being able to use the bridge until it was fixed. (more serious damage closer to the epicenter, around Santa Cruz, of course, and the damage to the freeway was shocking - as was how long it took to rescue people. There's only so long you can survive being stuck like that, and I remember coverage about particular people, as we all hoped they could be rescued in time, with several at risk of going into kidney failure as time wore on due to their crush injuries.)

In particular, no apartment buildings in Oakland collapsed, so that story line was just bizarre. I checked and it's not that I forgot - it didn't happen. I'm sure some were damaged but the only ones I even remember being condemned up in SF & Oakland were the ones in the Marina district. (There were also a great many damaged or destroyed closer to the epicenter, in Santa Cruz etc.) Our building was a little worse than some but still just had some superficial plaster cracks (multiple stories long though!), and we lost some plates that had been in the sink (fourth floor of an older apartment building near Lake Merritt, built c. 1920.) It was a little hard to believe that what had done so little damage for most of us was so serious in the places that were damaged, but if you weren't on landfill, and were 70+ miles from the epicenter in Oakland or SF, you were probably just fine.

The coverage also kept saying "we haven't heard anything from the South Bay" - which scared us, because we thought our house was destroyed and our friends in danger. (as it turned out, some of them were at the game, so so there were some interesting stories there.

4 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

What happened to Jewel Staite? I only recognised her by her voice.

I didn't even quite recognize her - I kept thinking she reminded me of Jewel (though for me, I thought the voice was off), but until I saw the credits, I was completely unconvinced it was her. Age happens, I guess.

[Sarah 103]

13 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Do we know if the present scenes where they discussed Leaper X were in the original pilot, or if that was new scenes they mixed in? I assumed that the original pilot had the present scenes of the crew trying to figure out why Ben leaped and who he was working with. 

Unless the original pilot didn't have Janice?

Leaper X follows from "Salvation" so it was probably not part of this episode when it was the pilot. My best guess is that 90% of the leap was part of the original pilot and that the majority of what they changed or had to reshoot were the present day scenes at HQ. 

[PurpleTentacle]

6 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Jewel Staite is in "Family Law" if you want a good look at her.

I got a good look at her and still was confused with what I saw.

6 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

The people in the car were making so much noise that they would have attracted many people to try to rescue them, who would not be immune to the the downed transformer's effects.

Maybe, but that's not what Ben said.

Bystander: "Maybe we should wait for help."

Ben: "We need to get them out now! That transformer is coming down and if it hits the car it's going to send a current through the metal frame and they are all going to die."

So not only was the bystander the reasonable one. Ben also said the opposite of what would actually happen.

[PurpleTentacle]

3 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I didn't even quite recognize her - I kept thinking she reminded me of Jewel (though for me, I thought the voice was off), but until I saw the credits, I was completely unconvinced it was her. Age happens, I guess.

I had to IMDB her and see the Quantum Leap credits to be sure.

And in this case I'm pretty sure it's "plastic surgery happens, I guess". It's sad. I loved her distinctive look.

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I had to IMDB her and see the Quantum Leap credits to be sure.

And in this case I'm pretty sure it's "plastic surgery happens, I guess". It's sad. I loved her distinctive look.

Wow, I had no idea it was her but she looked slightly familiar. 

[rwlevin]

Oh good, so my understanding of a Faraday cage wasn't wrong. I remember learning the safest place to be during a lightning storm was in a car. Ben should have left those ladies alone. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

The baseball game was one of the 1989 World Series games - and the earthquake happened just after the game started. So I could see how he would remember exactly when it was going to happen.

Except he can't even remember if his own parents are alive. That's the problem with this amnesia thing. They want to have it both ways- he can't remember his own life but he can remember key events in history to clue him in on what's happening in the leap. They are using the amnesia as an excuse not to tell us why he decided to leap in the first place but he oh-so conveniently "remembers" things like the 1989 World Series? Uh, ok. 

[peachmangosteen]

I feel like that's how amnesia always works on every TV show.

[akr]

1 hour ago, rwlevin said:

Oh good, so my understanding of a Faraday cage wasn't wrong. I remember learning the safest place to be during a lightning storm was in a car. Ben should have left those ladies alone. 

Even though so many other things in the episode made little sense, I thought maybe he - a physicist! - had noticed that because of damage to the car, it was no longer safe, so I ignored it. Still, one of several examples of giving people bad advice about how to respond in an actual emergency, for plot service. 

[Whimsy]

I recognized Jewel immediately.  Before she even spoke.  I thought she looked basically the same.  I mean, she IS older, as are the rest of us. 

I hate that Addison is a "hologram" but her hair flows prettily in the wind. And I also hate how Ben talks loudly and obviously to... nothing as far as others can see. 

I missed the look in the mirror/glass/shiny surface to see who the person Ben leaped into was.  I wish they showed us more frequently who Ben is supposed to be. 

The whole time they were interviewing Leaper X I was getting frustrated because they kept asking him more and more questions and I was like- "he hasn't leaped yet!!"

Idk.  I'm not loving this show.  I like the actor who portrays Ben.  I think he's doing an ok job, but the writing is just not really doing it for me and there is no chemistry between him and Addison.  I wasn't really a big fan of the original, having only watched maybe a handful of episodes. I may have to bow out.  

[DoctorAtomic]

1 hour ago, Whimsy said:

The whole time they were interviewing Leaper X I was getting frustrated because they kept asking him more and more questions and I was like- "he hasn't leaped yet!!"

I did have a laugh because when he opened the door it was patently obvious. Magic wasn't buying the future leaper theory, so I took it as he wanted to push a little just for himself. 

Magic is high up enough that he can track what this guy is up to. 

[Commando Cody]

I had to rewind the first scene when the couple was sitting in the bar. A guy walked by and from the back he looked like a young Sam.  At least his hair did.

I was confused about the images. Al could see the person Sam leaped into. In one of the episodes where Sam was a woman, he drove Al crazy with how hot she was. So they updated things so everyone looks like they're supposed to to the holograms?

[Skooma]

13 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I know they can't have Ben say 'oh boy' because they're probably saving that for the season finale where we get a glimpse of Sam and we all lose it. (Total speculation). I would like Ben to have some gesture or saying though. 

Ben has been saying "Oh sh*t" all along but the volume goes to zero on the second word even though you can read his lips.

Used an asterisk above because I don't know policy here if I can use just another word for poop but one that has gone from G-rated in the past to a bleeped word these days for some reason.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Skooma

[Whimsy]

7 hours ago, Skooma said:

Ben has been saying "Oh sh*t" all along but the volume goes to zero on the second word even though you can read his lips.

Used an asterisk above because I don't know policy here if I can use just another word for poop but one that has gone from G-rated in the past to a bleeped word these days for some reason.

You can say shit lol. You can even say stronger swear words, but I won't here for an example just in case you don't like that. 

[Chit Chat]

On 10/24/2022 at 11:25 PM, possibilities said:

I had friends in the Bay Area during the 1989 quake. I don't remember it being as bad as they portrayed it as being. I could be wrong, I guess. But I think it's risky to choose such recent events if they are going to be portrayed wildly disproportionate to people's memories.

1989 earthquake info.  Although the death toll (67) was considered relatively small, it caused $5 billion in damages.  It was a magnitude 6.9.  From what I remember seeing in the news at that time, I think the show got it right.  For that matter, any earthquake would be bad to me.  

FWIW, me and Mr. Chat are enjoying the show.  We don't compare it to the original series.  We're content with letting this stand (or sink) on its own.  So far, so good with us!!

[Trini]

I liked learning a bit more about Ben's backstory, and I liked how they connected it to the 1989 story. Raymond Lee is still excellent.

A leaper from the future is an intriguing idea, but... we still have the 'why did Ben leap' mystery, and the thing with Janice, so that seems like a lot of stuff happening in the present day story.

Maybe Martinez ends up working with Janice in the future?

[Guest]

On 10/26/2022 at 5:20 AM, PurpleTentacle said:

The people in that car would have been perfectly fine. The metal frame acts like a Faraday cage and electricity gets conducted to the ground through the wires. Ben should be smart enough to know that.

Ben was right. The car was damaged. In one shot you can see the doors open breaking the cage making it more dangerous.

More importantly, unlike lightning strikes, live power lines provide a continuous flow of electricity. The metal frame would be charged until the electricity was shut off. They probably would have been protected for a little while as long as they didn’t touch any metal in the car but I wouldn’t want to be in that situation. Plus the dangers from electrified wet ground, electricities ability to arc, or the car catching on fire. 

On 10/26/2022 at 6:24 AM, peachmangosteen said:

I loved this episode. The show gets better and better every ep for me.

I glad I’m not the only one that feels this way. It’s not perfect but I am enjoying the show. 

On 10/27/2022 at 3:24 PM, ChitChat said:

1989 earthquake info.  Although the death toll (67) was considered relatively small, it caused $5 billion in damages.  It was a magnitude 6.9.  From what I remember seeing in the news at that time, I think the show got it right.  For that matter, any earthquake would be bad to me.  

Except for them having a building in Oakland collapse, I also didn’t think they made it worse than it was. Particularly, since they were right by the Ferry Building which is a high liquefaction risk area. It was way too long though. In reality the shaking would have stopped before they even made it out of the building. 

I had a bigger issue with everyone acting like moving from Oakland to San Francisco was this big life changing thing or that taking a job in SF would require the entire family to move. Sorry writers, if Ben could walk there in a hour and a half while stopping to save people and unloading childhood trauma it doesn’t work for as a big, lifelong resentment building move. 

[Clanstarling]

9 hours ago, Dani said:

I had a bigger issue with everyone acting like moving from Oakland to San Francisco was this big life changing thing or that taking a job in SF would require the entire family to move. Sorry writers, if Ben could walk there in a hour and a half while stopping to save people and unloading childhood trauma it doesn’t work for as a big, lifelong resentment building move. 

I think they also said something about getting the son into better schools, which is fairly often a reason for a move in the Bay Area.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

I think they also said something about getting the son into better schools, which is fairly often a reason for a move in the Bay Area.

They did but I still think they whole thing was still absurd to believe that it would have led to the end of a marriage and lifelong estrangement between mother and son. They were trying to create a situation analogous to Ben’s childhood and it just didn’t work for me. 

[Sarah 103]

14 hours ago, Dani said:

I had a bigger issue with everyone acting like moving from Oakland to San Francisco was this big life changing thing or that taking a job in SF would require the entire family to move. Sorry writers, if Ben could walk there in a hour and a half while stopping to save people and unloading childhood trauma it doesn’t work for as a big, lifelong resentment building move. 

I think most of it was from the perspective of the son, who is a young teenager. He can't drive yet and I don't know if he would be taking public transit to visit his old friends. Plus there's the upheaval of going to a new school and making new friends, which isn't the worst thing in the world, but that's huge to someone that age who has never moved before.