Quantum Leap Season 2 Interview: Showrunners On Using Three-Year Time Jump To Heighten Emotional Stakes

Season 2 of Quantum Leap is currently airing Wednesdays on NBC, with new episodes available to stream the following day on Peacock. When viewers last saw Ben Song in the season 1 finale, he was leaping home to reunite with his fiancée, Addison. However, what had only been seconds for Ben was three years for the rest of Team Quantum Leap. The project shut down following his presumed death, and Addison began a relationship with Tom Westfall. With the show’s central romance up in the air and Ben trapped in an endless cycle of leaps, there are plenty of storylines for the season to explore.

Based on Donald P. Bellisario’s 1989 series, Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris serve as the showrunners and executive producers of Quantum Leap. Gero is known for projects such as Blindspot and Dark Matter, while Georgaris has worked on titles such as The Meg and The Baker and the Beauty. Raymond Lee leads the cast as Ben with Eliza Caitlin Bassett, Ernie Hudson, Mason Alexander Park, and Nanrisa Lee also starring.

Screen Rant interviewed Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris about how the time jump increases the show’s emotional stakes and creates a more compelling storyline for Ben and Addison.

Martin Gero & Dean Georgaris Talk Quantum Leap Season 2

Screen Rant: When you were figuring out the length of the time jump, what made you decide on three years?

Martin Gero: It really came about because we were trying to figure out how to make this show less about time travel math and less about constantly having to explain to the audience what’s going on, and how Leaper X could be possible. It became so that our incredible present-day task was almost always just doing exposition.

They’re phenomenal actors, and we wanted to figure out how to create a world where the stories are still vital and urgent, but are more in the character emotional space than the plot, mythology, and exposition space. For us, the three-year time jump allowed for Ben to suddenly not really be in sync with the team anymore, and that dissidents caused all the conflict we need. We don’t really need a big bad this season. It’s more about the team trying to get back to what they were doing. That’s where the idea came from.

This ties a bit into what you were saying. I’m sure you had multiple reasons for breaking up Ben and Addison, but I am curious if one of them was to give other characters a chance to be Ben’s hologram and shine more light on his other relationships.

Dean Georgaris: It wasn’t the primary reason, but it was definitely the secondary benefit. The primary reason, essentially, was that the story of “Oh, honey, I love you. I’m waiting for you to come home,” felt like, at a certain point, we could end up in a bit of a Gilligan’s Island thing where we’re asking both Ben as a character and Addison as a character to essentially play the same feelings every week with potentially incremental adjustments. In a way, that protects both characters from really having to deal with the impact of Ben’s original choice, which is that this might not work out. We at least need to be able to feel like it might not work out.

The whole goal of the time jump was really so that our present day characters, as Martin said, could have experienced profound loss, in this case. It gives them secrets that we can tell over time, but it gives them a real sense of emotional stakes. Season 1 was sort of scramble, scramble, scramble, solve the mystery, get him home. In this case, now, it’s every week knowing that this is emotionally powerful stuff that we’re dealing with.

If all of a sudden, you’re out of sync with the person you love, in real life, you break up, and you don’t talk to them for potentially a long period of time, and you stalk them on social media. In our case, he needs to keep working with Addison. At a certain point, it’s only natural that we need to put a pause on that. As human beings, both people frankly need to pause, and that creates the opportunity for other characters to come in and fill that role. It’s a win-win under sadly dramatic circumstances, but for the show, it’s a win-win.

The fight between Ben and Addison in Episode 4 was difficult to watch because neither of them really did anything wrong. Their relationship is a casualty of insane circumstances they can’t control. Given what a big moment this was, did you have any conversations with the director or the actors beforehand about what needed to come across?

Martin Gero: They’re so in tune with it, I think they were more aware of it than we even were. When we were creating the episode, we knew it was going to be really powerful, but for them, when they were making that episode, they kept calling me being like, “This is our best episode yet.” We were like, “It is?” Those two really like each other. They’re incredibly supportive scene partners, and there was a sense of, like, Ray was not going to see Caitlyn much anymore. They literally wouldn’t be filming together for a little while. It’s an expertly written episode, and their performances are just so good.

There’s a level of trust they have as performers together, and I think it’s just so balanced. To have Ben kind of unload on her—everything he’s saying is true to him, and it seems reasonable. But then when she comes back at him, you’re like, “Oh, that’s a good point, too!” It felt very calibrated, and neither of them overplayed. They both were being so gentle with each other as characters, I think. It’s such a joy to work at this level with immensely talented people. To be in a situation where we feel really good about the material, and then it comes back better than we expected is such a rare joy.

Dean Georgaris: There’s not been a single time any of us have read a scene that, frankly, any of our cast was going to be in and thought, “Hopefully, they can pull this off.” Every single time, for every single character, we know we are going to get something better than we expect. As Martin said, that’s a luxury that does not happen very often. I think it pushes all of us as writers.

Given the circumstances, I did not expect to like Tom as much as I do. When you were coming up with this character who is, essentially, keeping the show’s main couple apart, what were some things that you talked about?

Martin Gero: We wanted that response. It was about building it where the audience wouldn’t immediately reject Tom. I used to work on this show, Stargate SG-1 , and we had to replace the lead of that show at a certain point. The team came up with a really good idea, which was just that everyone has to love him. There can be no strife, and so the audience won’t have a choice. I think that’s kind of what we did. When you see Tom interact with the people that we love, the fact that they love him, and they love him for Addison, it becomes very hard to be like, “I don’t trust this guy,” because we trust our characters.

I think a lot of people were waiting for some sort of turn, or for him to become some sort of bad guy. That’s not in the books. I’m not doing a misdirect. He’s just a really nice guy. It’s such a more interesting conversation to have after Episode 6 in a lot of ways. I don’t want to give it away, but he’s given the space as a character for us to learn about him in a more profound way. I think it’s a greater episode for that.

Is it possible we could see Ben and Tom share some scenes?

Martin Gero: You’re going to really enjoy Episode 6, I think. That’s all I’m going to say.

There’s been a lot of emphasis on how hard these past few years have been on Addison. Might we see some flashbacks of her during that time or is the show going to focus forwards?

Dean Georgaris: We made a conscious decision to not go the flashback route after the season premiere. That was about reestablishing the show for people, but also establishing that Ben’s memory had come back. We’d sort of owed the swiss cheese memory from season 1, and we wanted to get rid of that because there’s nothing more poignant than, “I suddenly remember everything. Yay!” One little twist—everything’s changed. You don’t remember the three years. The drama really is about how the past they had is impacting the present right now. Every minute that would have been a flashback, I think, is more interesting to make it a present-day scene, if you will.

Rachel recently dropped some hard truths on Ian. Can you tease anything about how that might affect his storyline going forward?

Martin Gero: That story is central to the whole season. It’s going to play out in a really interesting way. It’s tough to talk about. We’re so lucky to have Alice on the show and are thrilled that she’s got a bigger presence this year. You’ll be seeing more of Alice and their relationship, and all of that mystery is going to be explained this season.

What about Jenn and Magic? You mentioned last season that you wanted to focus more on those characters. Is that still the plan?

Martin Gero: Absolutely. Again, what we’re able to do with this time jump and abandoning the kind of greater outside force for the majority of the season is that it does give us the space to have these internal conflicts and learn about these other characters in a bigger way.

We’re only a handful of episodes in, and you’ve already introduced so many amazing new guest stars and series regulars. Which character were you each most excited about introducing this season?

Martin Gero: For me, it’s definitely Eliza’s character. It’s the Hannah character. That’s going to be easier to talk about after Episode 6 as well. It was a really difficult part to cast for reasons that will become clearer as the series progresses. We’re just thrilled that we got someone of that caliber. We’re just so lucky to have Eliza on the show. She’s such a welcome addition in such a unique role. It’s so fun. Those scenes are just so fun. I just can’t wait for people to see them.

Dean Georgaris: I agree. The truth is, we needed to bring in both Tom and Hannah, in a way. You can’t just do the one without the other because they’re both sort of orbiting around the same thematic storyline, which you’ll see as the season develops. The most exciting thing to me is being able to take the Quantum Leap universe, and to try, if not to expand it, at least to raise new questions and get people thinking along an emotional axis, as opposed to just a plot axis, as Martin said earlier.

It’s not just about solving an equation of time and bringing someone home. It’s starting to ask these bigger questions. What would it feel like? What does it mean? Is Sam Beckett still out there? And should I feel sad about that? Or should I feel good about it? Eliza and Tom, although it may not be evident at the moment, allow us to actually expand the universe that way.

It looks like there are a lot of fun leaps in the pipeline. Raymond [Lee] even mentioned that you went to Egypt to film one. Do you have a favorite leap this season that has either already aired or is upcoming?

Martin Gero: I think Egypt is pretty incredible—just the story. It’s a really great mid-season finale without Egypt, but then going to shoot it in Egypt in Cairo at Giza at the foot of the Sphinx—it has a scope that you rarely see on network television. I’m just really proud of us, honestly, for pulling it off. I’m proud of the crew. I’m proud of everybody. I’m proud of our Egyptian crew. It just gives you hope. It’s so wonderful to be able to go out in the world and do these things with different people and still bring an incredible product together. It’s a really beautiful episode that Dean wrote and that’s always a good time. It checks all the boxes of a great mid-season finale, I think.

About Quantum Leap

It’s been nearly 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now, a new team, led by physicist Ben Song (Raymond Lee), has been assembled to restart the project in the hope of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.

Everything changes, however, when Ben makes an unauthorized leap into the past, leaving the team behind to solve the mystery of why he did it. As Ben leaps from life to life, putting right what once went wrong, it becomes clear that he and the team are on a thrilling journey. However, Addison, Magic, Ian, and Jenn know that if they are going to solve the mystery of Ben’s leaps and bring him home, they must act fast or lose him forever.

Check out our season 2 interview with Raymond Lee, as well as our previous Quantum Leap interviews:

• Martin Gero
• Chris Grismer
• Raymond Lee
• Deborah Pratt
• Ernie Hudson