S01.E10: Paging Dr. Song

[secnarf]

Quote

Ben leaps into Alexandra Tomkinson, a medical resident in a Seattle hospital. As victims from a train crash pour into the ER, Addison reveals Ben's complicated mission. He must go up against hospital bosses to save lives and Alexandra's career.

Original air date: Jan 9 2023

[AnimeMania]

Tiffany Smith as Dr. Sandra
Francois Chau as Louis
Stef Nico as Orderly

[Chit Chat]

That was a rather depressing episode.  I really only cared about Janis' storyline.  That's getting interesting. 

[DoctorAtomic]

In the beginning of the episode, when Ben first wen to task the nurse about the patients he dropped a 'hey, giirrl'. Addison got in a whack at the handheld too. 

I wasn't surprised that Janis would want to talk to Ben as soon as she could. I knew she wasn't going to be forthcoming, but she also wasn't as snotty as I thought she was going to come off. I didn't think she knew about the future leaper either, but at the end it seemed liked it. 

If Ben and Janis supposedly planned these leaps, picking an ER doctor was a huge gamble. 

For the leap, I did like the big pharma angle. I would have liked they got more into the sponsorship and all that. They probably could have just done the episode on that. I also liked that Ben and the friend confronted the doctor alone, without Addison's help. I thought Ben risking the leapee's career on copping to faking the chart was rash, even though he had future history knowledge. He had to have known the friend wasn't going to back him. She was correct in saying she can't act on a hunch (even though he was proven right). 

Was there a reason why Addison knew so much about the medical equipment or was she just reading from Ziggy? 

I also like the idea that Ben actually left to seemingly hide what he learned. I don't think Addison is the 'problem', whatever that is, but that Ben knew not to tell anyone. Although it seems a little early for the people who sent the other leaper yet. They were thinking not for another 10 years. I suppose they could be building their own accelerator now, and it doesn't mean Ben won't see him again. That doesn't explain why he wanted Ben to stay away from him.  

They got the right color for the nuclear reactor! That never happens!

[Irlandesa]

46 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I thought Ben risking the leapee's career on copping to faking the chart was rash, even though he had future history knowledge.

I agree. 

And they didn't really seem to acknowledge much that she was black and career consequences for her could be worse.  They did say the one doctor was sexist but then it was just all brushed aside. 

If there's one thing I miss from the original, it's that I don't think these leaps are making Ben learn about a new perspective the way the original did through the experience.  The mystery is more about why he's leaping instead of Addison.

I appreciated they set this episode in 1994, pre-HIPAA, so Ben could share medical information with the guy's daughter.

[possibilities]

I liked that they wanted to save the life of a woman with muscular dystrophy, and they framed it as saving her means she now has an opportunity to live a good life. Most tv and movies, and in fact often people in real life, will say disabled people don't deserve a transplant and don't have a quality of life. It's incredibly insulting, but there are even people and movies/tv that portray us as better off dead. So seeing this show take the absolute opposite approach, and in fact make Ben's mission to save her life, was really good to see and a huge change of pace. Thanks, show!

[Trini]

Ugh -- I wasn't really expecting any big revelations from Janice, but I'm still annoyed that the show plans to keep its secrets as long as possible. I'm not hopeful that whatever they're trying to build up to is going to be that great/significant (to me).

The biggest new piece of info we got was that apparently Ben learned something and then went to Janice, not the opposite like most have been thinking.

As for the leap story -- it was fine. The main things I questioned was whether they would really transplant the heart of a much older person to a much younger person; and then Ben and the other doctor just barging into the sterile operating room. That scene didn't really work for me.

Hey, Robert Picardo in the next leap!

[rwlevin]

So much bad medicine! Where do I begin? Okay, so I did look it up and it's very super rare but women can in fact get Duchenne's. What type of residents are these doctors? ED? Internal med? Surgery?  And why is a general surgeon performing a heart transplant and dealing with anesthesia? That's also not how you order medication. Also, asystole is not shockable rhythm. 

[possibilities]

When Sam leapt into a woman, they made a big deal about it. I like that Ben doesn't go out of his way to exaggerate mannerisms and act like he's in drag. 

[iMonrey]

I'm really struggling to keep up with this show. I'm sort of on the fence about quitting. I was really, really bored with this one. I didn't care about the leap story at all. They are not doing a good job making me care either. Not only do I not care about Addison, but I'm starting to realize I don't care much about Ben either. I just don't think Raymond Lee has the charisma of Scott Bakula. Both leads are rather boring. I sort of felt like fast-forwarding through all the hospital scenes because it feels like it doesn't really matter what the leap story is. You can just skip them and move onto the next. 

Worse still, I'm really irritated and frustrated with "present day." Even now that they've caught Janis it's scene after scene where she's not saying much of anything, and when she does she's just sort of talking in riddles. The character that knows what's going on but isn't telling is the most annoying character in any story. "I know something you don't know. I'm not going to tell you." That just pisses me off. Are they trying to piss me off?

It doesn't feel like they are building to anything here. They're just sort of spinning their wheels.

[Starchild]

18 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I'm really struggling to keep up with this show. I'm sort of on the fence about quitting. I was really, really bored with this one. I didn't care about the leap story at all. They are not doing a good job making me care either. Not only do I not care about Addison, but I'm starting to realize I don't care much about Ben either. I just don't think Raymond Lee has the charisma of Scott Bakula. Both leads are rather boring. I sort of felt like fast-forwarding through all the hospital scenes because it feels like it doesn't really matter what the leap story is. You can just skip them and move onto the next. 

I think you're onto something here. The original had no scenes in HQ. If there was anything important going on there and Sam had to know, Al would fill him in. That meant the stories had 100% focus and that meant they mattered.

With this incarnation and the HQ drama, it feels like the stories are distractions from the main plot. So we don't care about the people in the leap, or what Ben's doing, so we kind of don't care about Ben. Even though I do like him.

I would be happier if they removed the HQ scenes from the show, made Ian the hologram, and kept the focus 100% with the leaps. Let the audience find out what's going on back at HQ at the same time as Ben does, if you want to continue that part of the story.

[rwlevin]

This episode also had no Ian. If I have to deal with present time scenes, at least give me some Ian.

[secnarf]

21 hours ago, Trini said:

Hey, Robert Picardo in the next leap!

I feel like he has been in so many different things I have watched in the past couple of weeks! He keeps cropping up.

15 hours ago, rwlevin said:

So much bad medicine! Where do I begin? Okay, so I did look it up and it's very super rare but women can in fact get Duchenne's. What type of residents are these doctors? ED? Internal med? Surgery?  And why is a general surgeon performing a heart transplant and dealing with anesthesia? That's also not how you order medication. Also, asystole is not shockable rhythm. 

I really struggle watching anything medical on TV. So many things wrong.

[Starchild]

By the way, has Ben ate or slept since he leapt? Maybe in that cabin with those escaping teens?

Again, my memory of the original is hazy, but I got a sense the pace was slower, he had down time. Am I misremembering?

[bybrandy]

I realize this show needs to be for everybody not just those of us who watched back in the day and I realize Bakula has expressly not signed on here but if the overall mystery doesn’t somehow tie back to Sam I will be seriously cheesed off. 

[possibilities]

8 hours ago, Starchild said:

By the way, has Ben ate or slept since he leapt? Maybe in that cabin with those escaping teens?

Again, my memory of the original is hazy, but I got a sense the pace was slower, he had down time. Am I misremembering?

I do think the old show was slower paced. I think everything back then was slower paced. I've been watching old shows recently (not just QL) and ALL of them have a totally different, much slower pacing.

The current episode had all these musical backgrounds, trying to amp up the tension. And the atmosphere in every episode is DIRE, CRISIS, HURRY. I recall that Sam often took his time, goofed around, sometimes had no idea what the mission was and generally the whole thing breathed more.  I think the current show is kind of the same every week. Even when they change settings and eras, it has the same feel every time. That's a problem in the writing and direction, and I would like to see them change it. Part of a charm of any time travel story is that you get to visit different types of situations, and it should feel much more different from week to week.

[DoctorAtomic]

12 hours ago, secnarf said:

I feel like he has been in so many different things I have watched in the past couple of weeks! He keeps cropping up.

I really struggle watching anything medical on TV. So many things wrong.

I'm sure they'll get everything wrong with the nuclear reactor next week, but I'm looking forward to it. They got the color right though! That's enough of a win for me. 

 

[KaveDweller]

21 hours ago, Starchild said:

By the way, has Ben ate or slept since he leapt? Maybe in that cabin with those escaping teens?

Again, my memory of the original is hazy, but I got a sense the pace was slower, he had down time. Am I misremembering?

Maybe the leap into the old west? I think that one spanned a few days. 

[AnimeMania]

Next New Episode?: January 30, 2023      

I think this is right, but I will continue to monitor the situation.

[Linderhill]

On 1/11/2023 at 1:45 AM, Trini said:

The main things I questioned was whether they would really transplant the heart of a much older person to a much younger person

I've seen it happen.  My former sister-in-law had a heart transplant at 26 (cardiomyopathy) from a 50 plus donor.  I think if there is no other option, they go with what they can get.  At least back in the 90's when this happened it did.  She wouldn't have survived the day. 

I was surprised at the lack of specialists and minimal crew there during the surgery tho'