The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Quantum Leap vs. Journeyman
Richy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Battle of the time travellers!
vs.
Fight!
I watched Quantum Leap when I was younger – so in all fairness, there may be a bit of nostalgia playing in its favour. Journeyman of course is a new series this year, to which I was introduced by someone right here in D&D. There are obvious parallels between the shows:
My verdict is: Quantum Leap.
First of all, the chemistry between Scott Bakula (Sam) and Dean Stockwell (Al) was unique, and is not at all reproduced between Dan and Livia.
Sam Beckett is a much more likable character than Dan Vasser in my opinion, and one I have a much easier time relating to and caring about. Sam’s missions on Quantum Leap involved him doing a number of different tasks, from artistic to military to scientific, while it seems that every other time Dan uses his fists to solve a problem.
A problem with Journeyman is exactly that it doesn’t make me care about the characters. I realised that in the episode where Dan lost his son. It should have been sad and dramatic, but I just didn’t care. I cared about Sam’s wife, I felt sorry for her when Sam left her and forgot about her again at the end of the second episode we saw her, and that took only two episodes a few years apart. After 13 episodes in a row I still didn’t care what happens to Dan’s family.
Finally: Evil Leaper FTW! Seriously, Dan meets two other time travellers, and learns of the existence of many more, without the shock and impact of that one other time traveller Sam met.
vs.
Fight!
I watched Quantum Leap when I was younger – so in all fairness, there may be a bit of nostalgia playing in its favour. Journeyman of course is a new series this year, to which I was introduced by someone right here in D&D. There are obvious parallels between the shows:
- Both Sam Beckett and Dan Vasser travel into the past, apparently on missions to “make right what once went wrong” in someone’s life. They must discover who they are supposed to help and how in the past, as they go along.
- Neither of them has any control over their trips or whom they help, and it is unknown who does control it, if anyone.
- Both have a companion in their travels: Sam has Al Calavicci, his best friend and a retired military admiral projected holographically from the Quantum Leap Project HQ, and Dan has Olivia Beale, fellow time-traveler and his ex-fiancée.
- Both have computer help: Dan has an apparently super-sophisticated version of Google and his brother’s police connections, and Sam has Ziggy, an apparently sentient super-computer he created and that is linked into every database on Earth.
- Dan returns to his own time between each trip, while Sam only does once in the entire series.
- Thanks to the previous point, in Journeyman Dan (and we) can see the impact of his time-traveling right away, while in Quantum Leap the impact of Sam’s actions are only learned indirectly through Al’s accounts.
- There is a strong focus on Dan’s family life, while Sam’s wife is only seen in two episodes. In the second one, it is explained that Sam is never told because many of his missions involve seducing someone on behalf of the person he is replacing, and that he would never be able to do that if he knew he had a wife, being a fateful husband and all.
- Dan jumps into the past as himself, while Sam replaces someone else in the past. That person from the past jumps into the future in Sam’s place, although they are rarely seen or mentioned in the show.
My verdict is: Quantum Leap.
First of all, the chemistry between Scott Bakula (Sam) and Dean Stockwell (Al) was unique, and is not at all reproduced between Dan and Livia.
Sam Beckett is a much more likable character than Dan Vasser in my opinion, and one I have a much easier time relating to and caring about. Sam’s missions on Quantum Leap involved him doing a number of different tasks, from artistic to military to scientific, while it seems that every other time Dan uses his fists to solve a problem.
A problem with Journeyman is exactly that it doesn’t make me care about the characters. I realised that in the episode where Dan lost his son. It should have been sad and dramatic, but I just didn’t care. I cared about Sam’s wife, I felt sorry for her when Sam left her and forgot about her again at the end of the second episode we saw her, and that took only two episodes a few years apart. After 13 episodes in a row I still didn’t care what happens to Dan’s family.
Finally: Evil Leaper FTW! Seriously, Dan meets two other time travellers, and learns of the existence of many more, without the shock and impact of that one other time traveller Sam met.
Richy on
0
Posts
It's kinda like why Hercules was always much more fun to watch than Xena.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Anyway, um, Al alone makes QL the winner.
They are/were both fantastic shows and I'm sad that the Writer's Strike probably means that we'll never get more Journeyman.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
and less 80s cheese
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
I would love it if there was a way to bring Journeyman back, but I just don't see it happening. Which is a damned shame, because I think people didn't give the show an honest chance (though to be fair, the show didn't let them at times).
"Sam has Ziggy, an apparently sentient super-computer he created" < what did Sam do before he started leaping?
The D&D freak in me liked it even more when she was not bad looking.
He was a scientist and invented stuff like Ziggy and time travel. Though I'm pretty sure he did so as part of a team.
Why have I not seen this episode.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
God Scott Bakula in diapers...that was fucking classic.
And then he leaped into Dr. Ruth.
I wonder how Sam as a chimp looked to them when he was fighting people because there's a bit of a height difference.
I didn't like it.
Loved that show
Oh boy
Having been a huge fan of QL growing up I gotta give it to Sam and Al!
The hotties in Journeyman did make an impression though *eyebrow waggle*
-Dan doesn't have someone like Al who knows exactly what he has to do at all times and has access to everything everywhere. Dan has to figure out what the hell he's there for and recieves little to no help from Livia.
-Sam always seemed relatively blase about the whole thing. I mean sure there's that "Ohboy" at every new leap but he seems to deal with everything that happens very well considering. Dan has more of a "Holy shit I'm in the fucking PAST!" angle to him and when he went off mission to try and his boss' sister or when he screwed up and left his digital camera in the 80s it really set the show apart from what QL was all about. Or when he was at the key party and Nixon's "I am not a crook" speech was on tv, the reaction from Dan was priceless.
-Also I can only remember one episode of Quantum Leap where the effect of Sam's time-travel was really made clear (the one where he leaps into Al) and I liked seeing the impact of what Dan was doing rather than hearing or theorizing about it.
-Moon Bloodgood is far hotter than Dean Stockwell ever was.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
Oh yeah, and it totally sucked, so it would be a pretty easy win for the other two.
Yeah, when I heard of Journeyman and caught an episode over holiday break at my parents' house, I thought "So, they remade Sliders and Quantum Leap. Thank god!"
Seriously, why do they have to compete? It's been nearly 20 years since Quantum Leap was on the air. As far as I'm concerned, Journeyman can take up the mantle. Too bad it's cancelled.
Sam was a physicist that invented the leaping technology, and Ziggy was created as part of this. Sam tested the leap on himself, but unfortunately, he couldn't get back after that.
Kinda like the episode where he leaped into a Vietnam vet that had lost his legs. An orderly was being an abusive dick, so Sam stands up to give him back his own shit, and the orderly sees him just floating there.
One thing I should point out is that Quantum Leap does have a bit of an advantage, in that it was given a chance to develop its story over multiple seasons. I mean, if you take the story content of the first season of Quantum Leap, aside from some great comedic situations I'd argue that its really not all that spectacular. It really wasn't until they started to really develop the storyline and you learned more about Sam's life in the future that it really started to get interesting. Don't get me wrong, I liked Quantum Leap as I also watched it when I was younger. I think that QL's really poignant storylines were spread out over a much greater period of time though. It certainly had its share of episodes that might be counted as "filler".
Another difference worth noting is that Dan in Journeyman can actually bring items across different times both forwards and backwards. This creates some interesting complications that I thought the show handled well. Specifically the cellphone left in the past, and the stolen money taken from the past into the future, both of which created some serious problems for Dan.
Admittedly, the times when the story focused on Dan's family life could get tedious sometimes. I really felt this started to improve though, once the people in his life started to understand just how much of a burden he suddenly had to bear.
EDIT: Heck, now that I think about it, technically to make it a fair comparison you'd have to compare the first half a season of Quantum Leap to the half a season of Journeyman that we've had. Also, did anyone else notice that the guy who shot Dan was played by Raphael Sbarge, the guy who voices Carth Onassi in Knights of the Old Republic and Kaiden Alenko in Mass Effect?
The thing about Quantum Leap is that most of the time it wasn't really about time travel. Especially during the first two seasons. The creators didn't want to make a big deal out of the different time periods, such as Sam interfering in major historical events, or making references to the fashions and technology of the time. There were exceptions, like when Al might mention how much he loved how short the skirts were in this time or that, and of course the Evil Leaper stuff was harder sci-fi.
Generally speaking though the show was about a man who travels around helping people, and the time travel was just a good way to keep all storyline possibilities open.
Well yeah because otherwise you have Highway to Heaven and screw that show.
Oddly enough, I actually felt that immersing the character in the time period was one of the things that Quantum Leap did really well, and admittedly one of the drawbacks for Jouneyman. Due to Sam's ready to wear appearance as soon as he leaps, he was able to go into some very different timelines and blend in very readily. Journeyman by comparison seems like its been limited to a period of roughly 20 years - due in part I suspect to budget limitations perhaps, and situational limitations. I imagine Dan Vasser would really really stand out like a sore thumb in the 1950's for example.
(Isn't it funny that both Quantum Leap and Journeyman dealt with Watergate in their first season? Sam inadvertently caused the break-in to be discovered, and Dan watched the "I am not a crook" speech live.)
But yeah, Quantum Leap does have the advantage of 80 or so more episodes. I think part of the impact of the Evil Leaper comes from this. I mean, it's not until season 5, after four years of solitary leaping, that Sam encounters another leaper. So it builds up to quite a shock. On the other hand, with Journeyman we know that there are other time-travellers around right from the start, so it's no surprise when Dan learns about them from the scientist or encounters another one.
Just wait a few years and it'll all be on 2 Blu-Ray discs.
This would require me having a Blu-Ray player at some point.
I'm sure you'll have one by 2011.
If not I'll buy you a PS3.
That is one of my favorite episodes.
Although it does raise questions of how exactly that works.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
There was another episode early on where Sam lept into a guy on his honeymoon with the daughter of a famous politician (of the time). In the future, Al and the company are facing the government shutting their project down unless they can provide proof of time travel working, so Al tries to get Sam to tell his "wife" to tell her father to change the location of bomb test or something (I think.) But this fails.
Meanwhile, Sam was a bit iffy on the "consummating the marriage" part, so as a distraction he helps the woman study for her bar exam; turns out Sam doing this showed the girl that she was a quite a bit less educated in Law than she thought she was and she immediately begins studying much harder. In the future, the male Judge presiding over the case is about to cancel the quantum leap project when all of a sudden he gets replaced with the politicians daughter, who got her bar and became a very successful lawyer, eventually becoming a judge and getting appointed to that particular position in determining the state of the quantum leap project. Being a lot nicer than the male judge, she acknowledges the lack of evidence, but decides to give the project more time.