Actor Scott Bakula, who starred in the sci-fi TV series Quantum Leap, says that a reboot of the cult favorite would be so relevant right now. Focusing on the concept of time travel within one’s own lifetime, Quantum Leap only ran for five seasons, from 1989 to 1993, but it still managed to make a significant impact on its audience in that short time.
The series follows Dr. Sam Beckett (Bakula), a physicist who decides to test his time travel theory on himself and ends up getting stuck in the past, briefly inhabiting the bodies of people who are in need of help. With each successive person Beckett helps, his hope is always to return home, but instead, he consistently finds himself jumping to yet another person, in yet another time period. Throughout these journeys he’s accompanied by a hologram of his wise-cracking (but often helpful) friend, Admiral Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell). The series was highly imaginative and put a new spin on the age-old time travel concept. Still popular with pockets of devotees today, it has yet to be rebooted for a new era and audience, despite no shortage of demand.
As it happens, one of those people who is interested in seeing a Quantum Leap reboot is Bakula. The actor acknowledged the program’s potential for a reboot recently while chatting with TV Line. Asked about what would be most important for him to see in a reboot of Quantum Leap, Bakula’s response carried with it an obvious respect for the series as well as a sense of excitement for the possibilities that a reboot could offer:
“Oh, my goodness. What would be most important…? That show is very special to me, obviously, so I would wish whoever did it luck. I mean, the idea of walking in another man or woman’s shoes is so relevant and so important right now. We’ve become so divided in our world that the ability to cross that line of politics and just deal with the humanity and the individual person who’s sharing a moment on the planet with you is really relevant.
“There was also a quaintness about the show, because it had this period feel because Sam traveled anywhere within his own lifetime. That made it feel a little old fashioned, but I would hope that they get the truth of it and the sentiments of it right, and not try and make it slick. Sam was this naïve kid who just happened to be a brilliant scientist who stumbled on something and all of a sudden was thrown into all of these different lives and worlds and people and situations that he never could’ve imagined growing up in. I would just hope that they would try and keep that, but you know, I don’t know what they’ll do.”
Given the wide variety of programs that are regularly rebooted (and the number of them that some would say were never worth rebooting in the first place), it is indeed strange that something as timeless as Quantum Leap has never been given a second chance. Quantum Leap‘s cancellation in 1993 felt abrupt, as did the finale that simply stated with a screenshot “Sam Beckett never returned home.” In many ways, today’s world is far more advanced than it was in 1993, arguably making the concepts of time travel and technology more believable. And of course, there are more complex problems to sort out in today’s tense political and social climate. A Quantum Leap reboot could do a lot of good with its “walk a mile in another’s shoes” concept, as Bakula notes, but it would need to also deftly handle issues of race, class, and gender.
If Quantum Leap is eventually rebooted, it likely won’t come as too much of a surprise. The IP is owned by NBCUniversal, however, meaning that the odds of it being handled by a streaming service with a history of quality reboots and re-imaginings is unlikely. This isn’t to say that NBCUniversal couldn’t do a good job, only that it would be nice to see a service like Netflix or HBO take the popular concept to new levels.
