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''Quantum Leap'' is an American science fiction television series that originally aired on NBC for five seasons, from March 1989 through May 1993. Created by Donald P. Bellisario, it starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who leaps through spacetime during an experiment in time travel, by temporarily taking the place of other people in order to correct historical mistakes. Dean Stockwell co-stars as Admiral Al Calavicci, Sam's womanizing, cigar-smoking companion and best friend, who appears to him as a hologram. The series features a mix of humor, drama, romance, social commentary, and science fiction, and was named one of ''TV Guides "Top Cult Shows Ever." ==Premise== The first episode introduces Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula), a scientist working on an experiment called "Project Quantum Leap" in a concealed laboratory in the southwestern desert of the United States, near the end of the 20th century. Beckett, with his team, theorize that time travel is possible within the traveler's own lifespan. With no successful results thus far, Admiral Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), Sam's long-time friend and senior officer on the program, is told by the government that they are looking to shut down the project's funding. Sam refuses to allow this, and before he can be stopped, enters the Quantum Leap Accelerator and leaps through spacetime. When Sam recovers from his "leap", he finds his memories to be incomplete, particularly about himself and the project; Al would later refer to this as his "Swiss-cheesed memory"; while Sam appears to others (with the exception of animals, young children, and "abnormal" people) and himself in a mirror as another person (which in the first episode, when he finds himself in the past as a supersonic-jet test-pilot, Sam initially attributes to his partial amnesia). Al eventually finds Sam in the past and makes contact with him, appearing as a hologram〔 tuned to Sam's brainwaves, so only Sam (as well as animals, young children, and "abnormal" people) can see and hear him. Throughout the series, Al reveals the current situation to Sam, explaining how he can correct something that is wrong in order for him to leap again, with the help of the project's artificial intelligence "parallel hybrid computer with an ego", named Ziggy (voiced by Deborah Pratt), who can access significant historical data through government networks. Guided by Al with Ziggy's knowledge, as well as Al's own experiences and Sam's high intelligence, Sam continually changes history for the better. As he does so, he finds himself leaping again, ending up assuming the identity of another person at a different point in spacetime. Later in the first episode, Al tells Sam that while they had tried to bring him back home during this leap, they were unable to do so, leaving Sam leaping (seemingly randomly) until the project's team can figure out how to do it. In contrast to other science fiction premises, which often stress protecting the timeline at all costs, the concept of time paradoxes is seldom mentioned in ''Quantum Leap'' with Sam shown to be deliberately changing the course of time in order to "set right what once went wrong"〔Chunovic, Louis, ''The Complete Quantum Leap Book'', Citadel Press (1995)〕 Even so, there do appear to be some rules and limitations as to what Sam may change in the past. In the first season episode "Star Crossed", a set of "time travel rules" is mentioned, specifically that Project Quantum Leap could not be used for financial gain nor could the project be a means to influence the personal destiny of Sam or other project members. The Season 3 episode "The Leap Home" - which portrays Sam as leaping into himself at a young age - demonstrates that when Sam attempts to change his own destiny by telling his family about the future, the effort backfires causing only emotional distress in his family with the future remaining unchanged. Part II of the episode indicates that time has a means to "balance itself", specifically that when Sam saves the life of his brother who was meant to die in Vietnam, a combat journalist is killed instead. In the episode "A Leap for Lisa", Sam does drastically change the future leading to the death of Al - yet Project Quantum Leap continues, with a new guide, "Edward St. John V" (played by Roddy McDowall) taking Al's place. Subsequent episodes generally follow the course of such leaps; after initially struggling with the displacement (often concluding with saying "Oh, boy!" once he becomes aware of the situation), Sam learns from Al what originally transpired in the timeframe of the person he leaped into, as well as what change for the better is most likely going to allow him to leap again by Ziggy's predictions (which are sometimes proven to be incorrect). Al helps Sam not only with historical knowledge, but also by monitoring events that Sam cannot see himself. The series depicted Sam as only leaping into English speaking persons (except for once when Sam leaps into a chimpanzee), and in only rare exceptions does he ever leap outside of the United States. Sam is also never shown failing to put right the wrong in a leap mission. In earlier episodes the series implied that Sam could not leap out of a time unless he succeeded, yet in the episode "Catch a Falling Star", Al clearly tells Sam that success does not determine whether or not he leaps. Over the course of the series, the nature of the leaping process becomes clearer, in that the person who Sam leaps into is brought to the future at Project Quantum Leap's "Waiting Room", where the replaced person appears to everyone as Sam (in one episode, one such person who is a killer, escapes the Waiting Room, preventing Sam from leaping again until the criminal is returned without incident). In the past that he leaps into, Sam keeps his own body, while also keeping the appearance of the original person he leaped into, and thus being able to do things that the other person may normally not be able to do (in one case, while leaping into a legless Vietnam veteran, Sam is able to walk around, though appearing to observers to be floating). Conversely, Sam's mind can also be influenced by the person he leaps into; a few times, Sam leaps into a mentally challenged person, and exhibits such signs himself; while in another case, he assumes the identity of a pregnant woman, and (despite Al's protests that it shouldn't be possible because he has a man's body) Sam feels the pains of late pregnancy until he leaps out of her; in another episode, when Sam leaps into the life of Lee Harvey Oswald, he is overwhelmed with Oswald's intent to assassinate President Kennedy, and is compelled to attempt the act himself (Oswald leaps back into his own life the moment before this act occurs); while another time, Sam acquires the replaced person's repressed traumatic memory of witnessing his mother's autopsy as a child. Because of the time travel aspect, many episodes allude to famous people or incidents indirectly, such as Sam suggesting to young Donald Trump that New York real estate would be valuable in the future, suggesting the lyrics of "Peggy Sue" to a teenaged Buddy Holly, showing young Michael Jackson his signature moonwalk dance for the first time, giving Dr. Henry Heimlich the idea for his namesake maneuver by saving him from choking,〔 and setting in place actions that lead to the discovery of the Watergate scandal. Two notable episodes place Sam directly at the center of significant historical events; in "Goodbye Norma Jean", Sam appears as Marilyn Monroe's bodyguard, who once saves her life and convinces Marilyn to remain alive for her starring role in The Misfits; while in "Lee Harvey Oswald" episode, Sam struggles with retaining his identity and control after leaping into Oswald, and while being unable to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Sam is still able to save the life of JFK's wife, Jackie Kennedy (who was also killed in the original fictional-timeline). Other episodes explore the past of the main characters, like Sam saving his brother from being killed in the Vietnam War, and saving Al's marriage to Beth. The reasons for the specific destinations of each of Sam's leaps remain unknown to the Project Quantum Leap's team, who often attribute them to God or fate, but generally to "put right what once went wrong" (as per the narration of the opening theme). Most times, Sam leaps within the time of his own lifespan, with a few leaps ranging from times before he was born, to other leaps into times just a few years before the start of his leaps in 1995.〔The closest Sam ever leaps to his own time is September 16, 1987, visited in the Season 5 episode "Revenge of the Evil Leaper" which is set eight years before Sam started leaping. The episode was aired in February 1993, which in the "real world" is only two years before Sam's home time as depicted in the series.〕 In a trilogy of fifth season episodes, Sam meets "the evil leaper", who is another time-traveler named Alia (Renée Coleman) who is forced to leap through time into different people in order to counter Sam's own efforts, by trying to turn good things bad; Sam later convinces Alia of the goodness of humankind, and thus enables her to set herself free. In the final episode, "Mirror Image", Sam leaps through spacetime as himself (without replacing another person), arriving at the exact time of his birth, where he meets a mysterious barkeep (Bruce McGill, who also appeared in the first episode in a different role), who assures him that Sam himself controls the very nature and destinations of his leaps by his own choice ("to make the world a better place"), and that Sam is always able to return home at any time he truly wants to. In the final episode's epilogue, Sam is shown to leap back again to visit Al's wife Beth as himself again, assuring her that her husband (who was a prisoner of war at the time) will return home to her; this results in Al and Beth remaining happily married in the future,〔 while Sam, instead of ever returning home, continues leaping. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Quantum Leap」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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