Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (Page 12 of 12)

QUANTUM LEAP 2.0 is a creative success. As someone who is not a fan of the original show, QL2.0 demonstrated the potent power of the show's peculiar blend of empathy, science fiction, social justice and its wit, charm, and humour. QUANTUM LEAP brought a 1989 concept into 2022 and onward with inventiveness, drive and vision: a diverse cast, a love story across time, gorgeous visual realizations of different periods and settings, superb performances, and scripts filled with daring and charm.

If Season 2 is indeed the end, QUANTUM LEAP 2.0 ends on a moment of triumph, relief, reunion and adventure. I would love to see more, but I do not think brevity is a reason to think poorly of a show that offered a strong note of closure. I would love to see a grand finale with more final notes on Ian, Jen, Magic and Janis and also Sam Beckett, but Season 2 leaves me very satisfied with both its conclusion and the way that last shot hints at so many wonderful adventures for Addison and Ben.

I'd certainly agree that no studio considers it a financial success for a show to only run two seasons. However, that's two seasons with a strong conclusion. If QUANTUM LEAP 2.0 is cancelled on Addison and Ben's joyful reunion and running off into a new adventure, then QUANTUM LEAP 2.0 joins a number of other short-lived shows that had an adequate and reasonably passable conclusion: FAKING IT, FREAKS AND GEEKS, TRINKETS, AWAKE, BRISCO COUNTY JR., MANTIS, LIFE UNEXPECTED, PUNKY BREWSTER REBORN and SAVED BY THE BELL REBORN.

It is a far more forgiving fate than being shot and blown up, being sent to a rape camp and being transformed into the jukebox machine from the movie BIG and being exploded, getting merged with another person and 'lost', and being sent into an unstable vortex, fate unknown, and ending on a cliffhanger.

If this is the end, I feel that the final scene is quite beautiful and perfect in its way. Addison and Ben are reunited. Then we see Addison's little smile as an explosion in the distance goes off, signaling threat and danger. Addison smiles because she isn't afraid, but instead delighted to be with Ben and to be adventuring with him now. They run off into this latest leap.

They have found their way back to each other. They are together. And they are going to be just fine.

If we compare QL2.0's "Against Time" to "The Exodus" and "Genesis" and "The Unstuck Man" and "Requiem" and "The Seer", I feel we should be grateful.

I have a request for QuinnSlidr.

The first time I ever heard of QUANTUM LEAP was through Temporal Flux back on the old Sci-Fi Bboard. I suppose it makes sense as QL was TF's show before SLIDERS.

Temporal Flux posted about how the "Mirror Image" finale of QUANTUM LEAP had seen a mixed reception among fans. However, there was some news: the QUANTUM LEAP novels published after the show's cancellation (published at a rate of 2 - 4 a year) were coming to an end, but their 17th and final original installment would come in February 2000 with a novel called "Mirror's Edge":

The novel hit the shops shortly after SLIDERS had aired its series non-finale. Some Slideheads who were also Leapers thought "Mirror's Edge" might take the sting off with a post-"Mirror Image" story.

In the many, many, many years since then, I have always remembered this posting about a media tie-in novel that I never read regarding a TV show that I never watched.

The reason I've always remembered it: "Mirror's Edge" was the first time I had ever seen an unresolved live action story being addressed in another format. That fascinated me, and I later discovered STAR TREK novels that resurrected Captain Kirk, DOCTOR WHO novels that resumed the TV show storyline during the DW hiatus from 1987 to 2005, and wrote my own tie-in stories for SLIDERS. "Mirror's Edge" remains a beacon of media tie-ins in my personal, anecdotal experience.

However, I later did learn: some QL fans expressed frustration with "Mirror's Edge" for what they called false advertising. Despite being billed as a "conclusion", that turned out to just be referring to how this 17th book was to be the last. "Mirror's Edge", like every QUANTUM LEAP novel before it, takes place before the series finale of QL1.0. It is not a sequel to "Mirror Image".

However. While "Mirror's Edge" is set before "Mirror Image"; it is set at the very edge of "Mirror Image"; it is in fact a prequel seeking to offer context to the series finale that is either new or retconned. It tries to make "Mirror Image" more of a finale, retroactively, by telling a story set before it that attempts to better explain it.

Some fans were furious with the publisher and the authors. Primary author Carol Davis spoke with fans on fan forums and explained: due to diminished sales, the publisher had elected to end the QL book series and commissioned a final story. However, the licensing agreement with Universal had a stipulation: the publishers were not allowed to produce any novels set after the QL series finale. The studio didn't want a novel to potentially step on any territory to be left open for a potential TV movie or series revival.

Davis and the publisher were caught between the need to produce a concluding novel and the studio declaring that Davis' typewriter wasn't to produce a single page set after "Mirror Image". Davis came up with a solution. Her solution -- a prequel to "Mirror Image" -- is either tactical brilliance that would make a lawyer weep with joy or a weak gesture that is grossly inadequate.

I've always wondered what a QL fan unhappy with "Mirror Image" would think of "Mirror's Edge". would think of it if they read the book. "Mirror's Edge" is out of print, but here is a PDF and an ePub from Archive.org:

PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zTRVtW … sp=sharing
EPUB: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t32dIK … sp=sharing

Will you read it and tell me what you think of it?

I would have asked Tom of Rewatch Podcast, but Tom actually likes the finale story that is "Mirror Image". "I like it, it made me feel good with the series ending where it did," he told me. "I know a lot of people don't like it, but I do. I will die on that hill!" I didn't think him the right person to read "Mirror's Edge" and tell me if it resolves his dis-satisfactions with "Mirror Image" because he wasn't dis-satisfied.

I'm about to do a rewatch of the 2021 original-cast iCARLY revival which unfortunately got cancelled after its third season and on a bit of a cliffhanger. However, I have seen most of it, and on the whole, I thought it was a fun, good-natured, pleasant show that poked fun at the loose continuity and cheery absurdities of the original.

In case you've forgotten or never watched it, the original iCARLY was a 2007 - 2012 show about two Seattle high school girls (Carly and Sam) and their friend Freddie who start a webcast of absurd sketch comedy while growing up together. It was a lively, low-budget Nickelodeon multicamera sitcom with mostly interior filming but a highly colourful and dynamic visual style.

in 2021, iCARLY came back to TV with a revival series and original actress Miranda Cosgrove (Carly) as series lead and associate showrunner, replacing original series creator Dan Schneider (who was ousted from the iCARLY franchise due to abusive behaviour). Aside from Sam's actress, Jennette McCurdy, declined to return, the original cast all signed on as regulars, and iCARLY made a bold return as a return as a single camera drama about troubled twentysomethings.

In the years since the original, Carly worked in new media and had disastrous boyfriend after boyfriend; Freddie is twice-divorced and has an adopted daughter. And as they cope with numerous failures in life, they turn back to something that always gave them comfort and joy: their start their webcast anew and the adventure begins again.

"You can't stop someone from making an okay web show," someone remarks, a delightful moment of the franchise criticizing itself. In some ways, the new iCARLY was better than the original, having had nearly a decade in which TV had advanced in the areas of diversity, social justice and inclusion for minorities, LGBTQ+ communities, and the environment, and the new iCARLY had a warmly welcoming, compassionate presence in contrast to the original series which was often lewd or uncaring. The wacky hijinks had a softer tone, while the show was as harsh as ever in exploring its characters' flaws and failings.

In some ways, the revived iCARLY was only as good as the original, which is to say that a lot of the stories involved struggling to navigate a crush or worrying about their social status or organizing a birthday party -- stories that were fine for 13 - 18 year old characters but a bit embarrassing when the characters were now grown-ass adults. However, I will concede that the show often highlighted the comically low stakes of its stories and the juvenile conflicts at hand.

The iCARLY revival ended on a cliffhanger, and I never actually got around to watching the Season 3 finale and will soon. However, given that iCARLY was by its nature a very low-conflict, low-crisis show... I feel like any cliffhanger on this show is probably not a big deal.

And given that iCARLY has been off the air before and come back, I feel like it's not a cancellation as much as another long commercial break, and we'll probably see Carly and Freddy again someday.

That said, the cancellation of iCARLY, SAVED BY THE BELL, PUNKY BREWSTER and QUANTUM LEAP makes me wonder about the viability of revivals and what is and isn't working.

RussianCabbie pondered how QUANTUM LEAP 2.0 would be remembered, if it'd be considered a success or failure, if cancelled after two seasons (which it was).

I thought it was, creatively, a very successful show. But I confess: I will never watch it again.

It's not because it wasn't good -- it was very good and sometimes great -- but it didn't have a climactic, conclusive finale. It was a set of strong episodes that ended in another strong episode that offered a nice note of grace. But that note wasn't an ending as much as a new beginning.

QL2.0 is a story with a beginning, a middle, and a pause, as opposed to a beginning, a middle, and an end. Given how many cancelled shows just cut off (SLIDERS), a pause is admirable and a high achievement. It was the best the creators could do in the situation they were in with the resources they had to hand.

It just wouldn't be worthwhile for me to go on that journey again because the journey didn't go somewhere wholly satisfying. But I'm glad and grateful for the time I had with QUANTUM LEAP 2.0.

I mean, Scott Bakula is a Name Actor. He's not Tom Cruise, but he has a following and he brings importance to a project. If Bakula had been in the revival, it would have been an additional point of marketing, a new avenue of publicity, and more attention that could have led to higher ratings.

Did Scott Bakula kill QL2.0 by starving it of his participation?

That said, iCARLY 2.0 and WILL AND GRACE REBORN only made it three seasons, THE X-FILES REBORN and SAVED BY THE BELL REBORN made it two seasons, and PUNKY BREWSTER REBORN only got one.

**

I guess, the thing that makes QL2.0 kind of disappointing for ending where it did: it retroactively presented Dr. Sam Beckett's disappearance in a really bleak and tragic way. Sam was lost and never returned home. Project Quantum Leap was ultimately a failure. Sam was a failure. Al was a failure.

I don't think that's where they would have left Sam and Al's stories, with or without Bakula's involvement, if they'd had more time. Certainly, the Season 2 finale of Addison and Ben joyfully reunited was meant to be a reversal: Ben is still lost, but he and Addison are together. They would have found something kinder for Sam and Al too, if they had not been cancelled.

As Dr. Ben would say, time steals from us all.

And I will say this: the slow demise and cancellation of SLIDERS really damaged my ability to connect with people. It destroyed me in so many ways. It made me bitter. It made me angry. It made it hard for me to trust again. It became too easy for me to lose hope and faith in human beings and TV shows.

QUANTUM LEAP 2.0 was cancelled, but the unplanned finale it provided made me feel glad and grateful for the time I had with it, and made me feel like cancellation was something I could move through without feeling defeated by it. For that, I thank Martin Gero and his team.

Why doesn't he listen to you? Are you not good friends and lifelong companions anymore?

I guess, taking this more seriously, one factor would be whether or not Jerry O'Connell needs the money and if doing more panels and signing autographs for fans is how he wants to spend his time.

Actors like Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster (Jody and Donna on SUPERNATURAL) earn a lot of income from convention appearances and maintaining a fan-directed persona. Fans love them. Wil Wheaton made a living from convention appearances for a time, many former DOCTOR WHO and STAR TREK actors do the same.

DOCTOR WHO actor Sylvester McCoy remarked that when he was cast as the Seventh Doctor, he didn't realize that this moderately well-paying and brief job would also come with a pension -- by pension, he means the convention appearances (and audioplays).

In Wil Wheaton's biography, he describes how, as a young teenager, he attended a STAR TREK cruise and saw some of THE ORIGINAL SERIES cast greeting fans in the morning, all clearly hungover or drunk, and Wil details how, as a boy, he thought those actors were such pathetic losers: they were wasted in the morning, they were trading on work that was decades in the past to earn money now, and Wil decided to quit STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION before he ended up like them.

Wil then writes that as an adult, he is ashamed of his thoughts and choices: he says that he now feels it is not a big deal to enjoy alcohol on what is really a paid vacation; that those actors were probably very happy to keep revisiting their time aboard the USS Enterprise and earning a decent living; that he should have been more grateful for his TREK opportunities and stuck with the show to build up some savings for the post-TREK future.

Also, he too as an adult was trying to earn a living off conventions, having steered into the very fate he sought to avoid -- and worse, he wasn't earning any income from conventions as not many wanted his autograph (at least not until his writing career took off).

I don't think Jerry is as caustic as Wil, but the main thing to take away from Wil's thoughts is this: conventions are a way for actors to earn money between acting roles or after an acting career has ceased to produce any new acting credits.

Jerry O'Connell isn't a big star who is above conventions, but because he worked so much as a lead on so many shows, he has a level of income from residuals and new & well-paid roles that mean convention-income isn't as central for him as it is for others. As a result, he may prefer to devote the time he might have for conventions to his family and especially his children.

Jerry enjoys science fiction, but I imagine he's mostly there to be with his wife after she's done her panels and signed her photos.

My image of Jerry from the 1990s and from Melissa Joan Hart's autobiography is that Jerry was a philanderer, so it's really weird for me to say this now, but Jerry O'Connell is head over heels in love with Rebecca Romijn. But also: he's at the cons for leisure, not for work.