S01.E14: S.O.S.

[secnarf]

Quote

When Ben leaps onto a naval battleship during war games in 1989, he must not only navigate a dangerous rescue mission but also contend with his commanding officer, XO Alexander Augustine, otherwise known as Addison's father.

Original air date: Mar 6 2023

[AnimeMania]

Brandon Routh as XO Alexander Augustine

Walter Perez as Richard Martinez

Alex Carter as Captain William Drake
Emerson Brooks as Master Chief Mike Nash
Kelvin Han Yee as Liu Wei
Rocky Myers as Tactical Action Officer
Rich Paul as Navigation Officer Murray
Chris Carney as Surface Warfare Officer
Sean Samuels as Lieutenant Walker
Justin Dean as Chief Engineer Lopez
David Ginlet as Officer on the Deck
Max Pescherine as Turret Specialist

[PurpleTentacle]

TV and movie writers don't seem to understand one simple thing: Refusing an illegal order is not mutiny. It is required. Firing on a ship you are not at war with and that hasn't fired upon you is most certainly an illegal order.

[libgirl2]

4 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

TV and movie writers don't seem to understand one simple thing: Refusing an illegal order is not mutiny. It is required. Firing on a ship you are not at war with and that hasn't fired upon you is most certainly an illegal order.

But it doesn't go along with the drama. 

Overall not a bad episode because I'm not big into war stuff. I remember Brandon Routh from OLTL and Superman. Age suits him. 

[Nerfect Drifty]

Was this an actually good episode?  Action.  Suspense.  Real consequences (dozens dead, possible war).  Less Ian.  Less Jen.  Less general boring present-day characters.

I guarantee that the last episode to air will end with a permanently unresolved cliffhanger.

7 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

TV and movie writers don't seem to understand one simple thing: Refusing an illegal order is not mutiny. It is required. Firing on a ship you are not at war with and that hasn't fired upon you is most certainly an illegal order.

I was wondering about that.  I get that command structure and obeying orders is important in the military.  But it seemed really odd that one stubborn or possibly insane commanding officer could have the potential to do something so reckless and nobody else would have no ability to stop it.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Nerfect Drifty

[Nerfect Drifty]

I need to watch again though. I'm wondering when Martinez actually leaped in.  Was he there before Ben got there?  Or did Ben convincing the Captain to follow the distress call change history and bring Martinez in?  There was that pause where Ben had trouble getting the guy on the radio.  Was that the point that Martinez leaped in?

[Aliconehead]

44 minutes ago, Nerfect Drifty said:

I need to watch again though. I'm wondering when Martinez actually leaped in.  Was he there before Ben got there?  Or did Ben convincing the Captain to follow the distress call change history and bring Martinez in?  There was that pause where Ben had trouble getting the guy on the radio.  Was that the point that Martinez leaped in?

I believe he was there during the first call to communications.  The voices were the same. Perhaps Martinez can control his leaps. Maybe he leapt out and then back in when things changed.  

[Nerfect Drifty]

34 minutes ago, Aliconehead said:

I believe he was there during the first call to communications.  The voices were the same. Perhaps Martinez can control his leaps. Maybe he leapt out and then back in when things changed.  

Martinez and Ian, during their respective leaps, were both from the future where it was implied that they had control over the leaps.  At least it was in Ian's case, since there seemed to be a specific targeted objective with the specific time and date. Seems like a better target could have been chosen than some random bartender with no connection to the project or the U.S. government though.

It sounded like Martinez was not evil, but was rather a competitor.  I do like this time travel trope of "my past is your future".  You can never really determine cause and effect when you're dealing with people who don't experience time in a linear fashion.

[KaveDweller]

8 hours ago, Nerfect Drifty said:

I was wondering about that.  I get that command structure and obeying orders is important in the military.  But it seemed really odd that one stubborn or possibly insane commanding officer could have the potential to do something so reckless and nobody else would have no ability to stop it.

Especially considering that the commanding officer was clearly not stable. It wasn't like a gray area, he was trying to start a war after it was proven the Chinese sub hadn't shot at them.

7 hours ago, Nerfect Drifty said:

It sounded like Martinez was not evil, but was rather a competitor.  I do like this time travel trope of "my past is your future".  You can never really determine cause and effect when you're dealing with people who don't experience time in a linear fashion.

I think he is a competitor since we know/suspect he leaps from project Quantum Leap at some point in the future. But he can't tell them because it would risk the future or something.

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't understand how Addison was born in 1987 because that was less than 15 years ago. 

I thought the editing was kind of clever to show how the team was working on the problem while Ben was on the ship. I figured Addison's father wasn't the cause of the accident and show him in a different light that what Addison saw, but I thought they handled it well. I liked Addison 'translating' while Ben was receiving orders too.

The decision to actually follow the legitimate distress call made everything a lot worse. This was like when Ben saved the astronaut he leaped into only to have the entire shuttle crew die on reentry.

I agree with Magic; I don't think the leaps are random either. However, I think Ben programmed them with Janis and of course doesn't remember. They showed the map already. I suppose targeting specific people kind of goes against the OG show, so maybe not that level of detail. 

18 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

TV and movie writers don't seem to understand one simple thing: Refusing an illegal order is not mutiny. It is required. Firing on a ship you are not at war with and that hasn't fired upon you is most certainly an illegal order.

14 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

But it doesn't go along with the drama. 

11 hours ago, Nerfect Drifty said:

But it seemed really odd that one stubborn or possibly insane commanding officer could have the potential to do something so reckless and nobody else would have no ability to stop it.

I think that's the basic answer. It's tv drama. I don't think it's any more egregious than most times this plot is used. I'll give the show a little slack. The Master Chief et al were looking to the XO to make the decision, and he was clearly having difficulty given their history. That's why Ben was there to convince him. That's always been the gist of the show. I did like that it was Ben having a 'hunch'. They gathered actual intelligence. 

This version of Martinez looked way older than at the beginning of the season. 

I have to say, while I'm enjoying the show, I'm not really being pulled in by this plot. I think it's enough that Ian knows he has to leap to save Addison to tell Ben. Or the reverse of that. I'd speculate maybe Ben screws up or never came back, so they sent this guy in. I'm not so sure he knew Ben was there though. Maybe he figured it out from his own hologram since the original timeline obviously changed. 

 

[possibilities]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't understand how Addison was born in 1987 because that was less than 15 years ago. 

 

1987 was 36 years ago.

[Chyromaniac]

The present day story continues to be the least important part of the show for me- that being said, I did appreciate Magic’s comments about the universe arcing towards good, and QL being an instrument of that movement.  That at least gets at what I feel the show has always been about- one person, with the benefit of hindsight, being able to affect history to make things a little better.  Like Ian points out, the things they do aren’t likely going to wipe someone out of existence - but a ship full of sailors get to go home now.  And, maybe when Addison thinks back on her relationship with her dad, some of those memories might feel a little better now.

[DoctorAtomic]

In terms of QL, saving 138 people is kind of big. It's a borderline international incident during the Cold War too. I'd think the both nations would want to hush this up since the Han was following the Montana and the Tampa was way too close to Chinese waters. 

Ian again with the steal - "Easy, McFly". I think again a smart narrative decision on the show's part in saying, "well, we don't know" in terms of the implications of time travel. 

I do hope there's some call back. This is 138 people that hadn't existed beyond 1987. 

[Nerfect Drifty]

15 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I think he is a competitor since we know/suspect he leaps from project Quantum Leap at some point in the future. But he can't tell them because it would risk the future or something.

Project Quantum Leap is, of course, a military project.  That's why a Navy admiral with a long and decorated career is running it.  In 2023, the technology is still imperfect, but in whatever time Martinez and Ian leaped from, it has been refined, and Admiral Williams (AKA Magic) has lost control of the project.  Likely that was not an amicable change.

Also, does anybody find it weird that, for a military project, everyone is referring to the guy in charge by a nickname?  Magic's real name is Herbert.  He got the nickname back in Vietnam because he had a remarkable streak of luck saving the lives of whatever squad he was with.  Magic worked closely with Sam's brother Tom back in his youth; it would be cool to have Tom show up.  I also really want to see some of the weird flickering clothing they had in the original show, such as Tina's earrings.  It'd love to see Ian wearing those things, and someone else make a comment on the weird retro fashion choice.

[Trini]

I think this was probably one of the best episodes yet. I think it helped that there wasn't a lot going on outside of the leap story.

And while Addison is still pretty 'meh' to me, this plot with her father helped me warm to her a bit.

The stuff with the rival leaper is still more confusing than intriguing to me; but we're probably not going to get good answers until the finale - *sigh*

 

On 3/7/2023 at 6:34 AM, libgirl2 said:

I remember Brandon Routh from OLTL and Superman. Age suits him. 

Aging like wine, he is!

[DoctorAtomic]

I'm not sure we can rule out Magic isn't in charge at this point. We don't know what necessitated this initial Martinez leap either, and he certainly has disdain for Ben. However, Ben may be the bad guy at some point in the future. Right, now I think he's leaping based on their code, but maybe he refuses to do something in a future leap and ends up going off on his own.

Magic could make the decision to send Martinez to 'undo' something Ben did. While they would presumably have the data of Ben's leaps, Magic being there has his own experience to draw on. 

I'm concerned the show isn't going to be long term either, but it would be interesting if Ben ended up being the antagonist. 

[Starchild]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

And while Addison is still pretty 'meh' to me, this plot with her father helped me warm to her a bit.

Her acting choices are still annoying me. There's only one person on TV who should literally be breathless with every line of their dialogue.

Jack Bauer.

And you, Addison, are no Jack Bauer.

[PurpleTentacle]

On 3/8/2023 at 3:33 AM, DoctorAtomic said:

I think that's the basic answer. It's tv drama. I don't think it's any more egregious than most times this plot is used.

But they could struggle with not following orders by their captain without outright saying "If we don't follow these orders it's mutiny! *dun dun dun*"

In the field nothing is ever cut and dry and you could milk a lot of drama out of this being an illegal order that should be refused, but the captain having a lot of authority and backing of some of the crew. Just don't make it out like the people refusing the illegal order are actually doing something illegal, is all I'm asking here.

[Nerfect Drifty]

On 3/7/2023 at 8:33 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't understand how Addison was born in 1987 because that was less than 15 years ago.

This version of Martinez looked way older than at the beginning of the season.

 

Your math confuses me.  Are you thinking that this version takes place in the same year as the original (1999)?  It's not; it is in 2022/2023.

Martinez in this episode is older.  He says to Ben "you met a younger version of me".

[DoctorAtomic]

Those two statements are independent. I made the top one first as a joke. It's like when people say that the debut of MTV is now closer to Pearl Harbor than to right now. Which it is. Addison can't be born in 1987 because I'd be over 10 years older than her, and 1987 was clearly like last week, not almost 40 years ago. It's a glib commentary on how one views the passage of time seemingly accelerating as one ages, whereas in your pre-teens to teens, your formative decade slowly elapsed and doesn't seem so long ago. 

The final statement is within the context of the show. When I recall when we first saw Martinez in Salvation, and they showed that flashback, to when we see him now, in this episode, he looked a lot older to me here because he had gray hair, and he didn't look like he had gray hair in the prior appearance. When Magic visits Martinez in the 'present', he looks younger than in Salvation, leading Magic to conclude that he had to have leaped 'at least a decade' from now. I was conjecturing as to how far in the future Martinez actually is in this episode. Seemingly, it would still be in everyone's life span now, so it begs the question as to who is in QL HQ overseeing Martinez. If that is the case and he didn't just leap on his own. 

 

[Granny58]

Wow, I really liked this episode and I'm surprised.  Loved Brandon Routh in it and he still looks divine.  And the story was tight.  Well done, finally!

[edhopper]

How much of the budget was spent on that episode?  No wonder next week is a courtroom drama.