This list stack ranks the 62 episodes of both in an apples to apples comparison.

Also, I’ve never liked the clickbait-y drama of counting down top lists backwards, so I’ll take it from the top. (Besides, as memory serves there aren’t many bad episodes of Quantum Leap–though in my opinion two of them are from Season 1. There’s your encouragement to scroll to the bottom…)

Quantum Leap Episode Rankings
_{^{36 Episodes: First 18 of Original 1989 Series + First Season of 2022 Revival
26 additions: Season 7 (Revival S2) + OG S2 eps 11-22 + OG S3 Premiere}}

M.I.A. (Season 2, Episode 22)
A classic all around, from Al’s attempt to hijack the leap to the heartbreaking “Georgia On My Mind” dance. Al a little more goofy/jokey than normal before realizing the red-letter-date they’ve landed on, but I like the way it’s done as a clue by personality juxtaposition. Only real quibble is the two crooks overact their parts.

Against Time (Season 7, Episode 13)
Such a great episode, continuing the long tradition of strong Quantum Leap season finales (M.I.A, Shock Theater, A Leap for Lisa, Mirror Image, Judgment Day). It has callbacks to the original, callbacks to older revival episodes, a lot of heart, and runs with the planned alternate ending the original would have used had it been renewed all those years ago. This is a franchise firing on all cylinders. My only minor gripe is the whole “I changed my name!” trope that kicks it off, but since the rest of this episode is so amazing I’ll let it slide. Final fun fact: The leap date is July 3, 1976 — same as in the script I wrote in college almost 30 years ago.

Another Mother (Season 2, Episode 13)
A long time favorite that didn’t disappoint on my rewatch. “That’s not my mommy, that’s a man.” is a quote I think of far too often. Animals seeing Al may have been added for practical reasons, but the children under 5 rule is brilliantly introduced here. Refreshing to not see the gender swap played for laughs as they often were. Possibly the most scenes without Sam or Al present of any episode to this point.

Honeymoon Express (Season 2, Episode 1)
A soft reboot of sorts that cements the boy scout Sam juxtaposed against the wise-cracking, womanizing Al everyone remembers the series for. Features several scenes of Al in “the future” of the mid-nineties at a hearing to secure funding to continue the project. The two plots go well together, leading to a neat time-travel inspired twist ending. Interesting how showing both timelines was a rarity for the original series (and having time travel tie directly into the story even rarer) but a core component of the revival.

Jimmy (Season 2, Episode 8)
Such a fan favorite that the namesake character was revisited in three additional episodes, this leap with a lesson allows the viewer to walk in the shoes of a man with Down Syndrome. One of the first times Sam takes on characteristics of the leapee. Great scene where Al seemingly starts telling yet another story about one of his conquests before we realize he’s actually talking about his younger sister.

S.O.S. (Season 6, Episode 14)
Strongest overall episode of the reboot, rivaling many of the tried and true classics with a few nice callbacks. Perfect blending of past and present and serialized plot within a standalone leap story, including a neat trick of finishing sentences between time periods. Battleship setting feels epic and film-like. Favorite line: “If I asked a dumb question, would that distract you?”

The Color of Truth (Season 1, Episode 7)
Arguably the first classic leap with a lesson, it holds up without being too preachy even if it’s not exactly subtle. Features Al’s first side-mission separated from Sam and the first instance of someone hearing him. Fun fact: This is often remembered as a Driving Miss Daisy tribute/copy, but it predated the movie by several months.

Let Them Play (Season 6, Episode 12)
Ben Song’s first foray into a topical leap, this one makes the decision to put him alongside the subject as he becomes a basketball coach with a trans player–who also happens to be his daughter. A powerful episode that also gives the season-long mystery arc a big step forward.

The Friendly Skies (Season 6, Episode 17)
The penultimate episode of the inaugural reboot season leaps Ben into the body of a 1970s flight attendant for an airborne whodunnit–a high concept leap story I’m surprised the original never attempted. Pitch perfect script featuring heart/humor/hope and a number of clever twists subverting expectations and avoiding cliched tropes.

Pool Hall Blues (Season 2, Episode 18)
When I think about Quantum Leap, Ziggy drawing lines on the pool table and the iconic shot of Al watching the final ball go into the pocket from this episode are always among the first images to pop into my head. Grady is one of my favorite leapee sidekicks, we get a mini leap with a lesson with the bank officer scene and a fun random Sam at the piano moment. Aside from questionable use of slow motion in a few scenes at the club this one is flawlessly written & directed.

Somebody Up There Likes Ben (Season 6, Episode 3)
Ben Song follows in Sam Beckett’s footsteps, with the third episode for both landing them in the life of a boxer who needs to win a fight. Aside from the nearly identical leap-in punch-out it’s more than a remake, allowing the new series to hit a good blend of past & present day while also including a PTSD angle to fit in the aforementioned lesson leap the OG was known for.

The Leap Home, Part 1 (Season 3, Episode 1)
This one is a classic even with the leap itself outside of Sam leaping into his younger self. The set pieces around trying to save his family work very well, especially when he plays “Imagine” for his sister. I’ve always been partial to Sam’s mad angry dash through the cornfields. The makeup when Bakula plays his own father is cool in a BTTF 2 sort of way. Good continuity from M.I.A.

Off The Cuff (Season 7, Episode 9)
Another classic Alex Berger script, who also wrote “The Friendly Skies” in season 6. Natural evolution of Ben & Hannah’s story. Never expected to get a polygamy “lesson leap” subplot, albeit briefly (“A Tale of Two Sweeties” aside). Nitpicks: Too soon for a bounty hunter retread; why not just have him be a cop? Ian tells Addison she’s urgently needed in the imaging chamber, ignoring/forgetting the revolving door of holograms over the previous episodes.

Leap. Die. Repeat. (Season 6, Episode 11)
A very clever way of playing with the typical formula as Ben repeats the same leap through different leapees trying to solve a mystery Groundhog Day style. The new show is especially good at whodunnits even when not explicitly going the detective drama route, while also in peak form when the HQ storyline complements the weekly standalone story.

Disco Inferno (Season 2, Episode 2)
It pleasantly surprised me how well this one stood up in my rewatch. I remembered it as “the disco stuntman” episode, but it has a nice heartfelt plot of trying to steer his brother towards a career in music while also introducing memories of Sam’s brother Tom who died in Vietnam. In some ways this episode created the classic template for a strong standard leap story.

What Price, Gloria? (Season 2, Episode 4)
Sam’s first gender-creative experience was filmed for season 1, held back to be the season 2 premiere, and eventually settled in as episode 4 of the sophomore season. A little dated, but groundbreaking for its time and a classic in the spirit of The Color of Truth, Jimmy, and Let Them Play. Could Buddy Wright from this episode be the grandfather of Dr. Ian Wright in the new series?

Judgment Day (Season 6, Episode 18)
The season 6 finale opens in potential shark jumping territory but thankfully stays in the water. When the featured leap kicks in it’s one heck of a rollicking fun ride. I’m usually a persnickety stickler when it comes to time travel logic needing to make sense, but this episode is so much fun I’m able to suspend my disbelief more than normal. (I also hope/think/suspect some of the seemingly incongruent bits are actually secret setup for season 7; time will tell…) UPDATE: The time travel logic is actually brilliant.

Secret History (Season 7, Episode 6)
A questionable leap premise becomes a standout showcase for the entire cast. Rock/paper/hologram is a great bit, and Tom might be the best hologram so far and does the most hologrammy things. Shifting the mission from finding the formula to destroying it was clever. I’d like the Ian storyline better if it was outright blackmail vs. “you need to hold up your end of the deal” which feels out of character. I can sort of see the delayed leap out being GFTW influenced, but it’s a stretch. “The accelerator thought you needed a friend.” Awww. HINDSIGHT UPDATE: After the season finale, the bit here where Ziggy finds a report Hannah died in a lab accident fire breaks the logic of the overarching Gideon/microchip plot.

Ben and Teller (Season 7, Episode 2)
Fantastic leap story headlined by hologram Ian, great reunion with the HQ cast, decent introduction to new main character Tom Westfall. Favorite bits were the act break with the vault code, Ian embedded in the desk, and the tearful Ben & Addison reunion flipping/negating the titular pun in a cool way. Nitpicks: another delayed leap-out for subplot reasons and no leap-in to next week. Only 3 episodes of the OG didn’t conclude with the next leap-in (including the finale, excluding the cool waiting room transition from Dr. Ruth to vampire). New show has 7 out of 20 so far including both eps this season. It’s the only show on tv that doesn’t need a traditional spoilery marketing trailer. Use it!

So Help Me God (Season 2, Episode 9)
Sam Beckett channels Perry Mason in a tight courtroom mystery. The clever direction each time Al pops in is noteworthy. I always seem to confuse this with the priest episode based on titular “God” here.

Star-Crossed (Season 1, Episode 3)
Season 1 had its episode sequence shuffled vs. the originally intended production order, shifting this one to the post-pilot debut vs. later in the run. The story feels like it could’ve/should’ve been the first season finale with Sam trying to alter his own future & Al getting briefly fired from the project–though I can see why it was selected as a strong showing to air right out of the gate.

Fellow Travelers (Season 6, Episode 9)
The premiere of the second half of season 6 (man, tv schedules are weird these days) features another whodunnit, this one with Ben as a bodyguard for a 70s musician. This episode aired before the Daisy Jones and the Six tv show but after the book version. In my humble opinion as a nerdy music fan “Travelin’ On” is the best Fleetwood Mac imitation song of 2023. Sort of the inverse resolution to “Glitter Rock.”

Good Night, Dear Heart (Season 2, Episode 17)
Whodunnits are a strength of the new show, but the OG could also pull them off with this Edgar Award winning script. The murder mystery is nicely set up and executed, but the Laura Palmer-esque flashes Sam has are sort of random and unexplained. Other nitpick: Why set this leap in November to solve a murder from July 4th? Because it snowed when filming the final scene?

O Ye of Little Faith (Season 6, Episode 7)
A Halloween episode airing on October 31st starts off as a creepy horror show before morphing into a 1930s Agatha Christie style mystery. One of the coolest mirror image interactions of either incarnation. The cliffhanger reveal is a little bit of a stretch better on paper than in execution, but still gets style points for the effort.

This Took Too Long! (Season 7, Episode 1)
And we’re back! Everyone except Ben, that is. A different sort of episode blazing new ground for either series finds the leaper alone with no guide on his journey appearing in the form of a hologram only he can see and hear. In some ways it’s similar to how I always imagined a Sam centered revival might’ve kicked off. Also has some nods to LOST with a plane crash and flashbacks. The final twist (reminiscent of my old OG fan fiction for the Leap Back convention) sets that stage for what looks to be an exciting Season 7.

Family Style (Season 6, Episode 13)
Deborah Pratt wrote or co-wrote more Quantum Leap episodes than anyone else (20), including 4 already ranked above 36 episodes into this experiment. (Note to my future self — remember to update this as this experiment extends.) She added director to her QL resume with this tale of a family Indian restaurant set in 2009.

The Americanization of Machiko (Season 2, Episode 3)
Another strong showing from the beginning of Season 2 that pleasantly surprised me on a rewatch. Holds up better than I remembered, tackles xenophobia head on. Ending feels a little like an unearned cheat, but all in all a solid showing.

Atlantis (Season 6, Episode 2)
An epic leap situation and a nice easter egg callback to the original series via Samantha Stratton. The workplace drama subplot back at the project felt a little clunky but moved the plot forward. Missed opportunity for something like “Ziggy’s having trouble locating Ben anywhere on Earth…” since he wasn’t on Earth. Mildly amusing that Sam’s only astronaut leap was into a chimp who never left the planet, so this is sort of setting right what once went wrong.

Ben Song for the Defense (Season 6, Episode 15)
“Lawyer” feels like too obvious of a leaped there, done that concept. Here it works well by adding a 1980s backdrop, another dose of the revival’s whodunnit wheelhouse, and for the first time switching things up by letting head of security Jenn take a turn in the imaging chamber as the hologram. One of my main nitpicky complaints of the new series was Ben lingering on leaps longer than Sam would after his mission is done. This ep puts right what once went wrong with a borderline premature leap-out that’s really right on time when you think about it.

Nomad(s) (Season 7, Episode 8)
Great failed leap fake-out, though the fact they filmed this episode on location in Egypt before the strike started made it unlikely Ben would truly be stranded. Nice juxtaposition on Hannah waiting 6 years for Ben after Addison didn’t wait 3, as well as Hannah’s “I’m glad you get to keep doing this” immediately followed by Tom revealing “We can get him home!” Lou Diamond Philips does a great guest turn. “They’re in love” act break cliffhanger was a little forced, as was not remembering other outside of the country leaps on vehicles (Space Shuttle, Battleship, Airplane)

One Night In Koreatown (Season 7, Episode 5)
A powerful episode with some great moments, but also feels like it tries a little too hard in a contrived “script is too perfect” cookie cutter sort of way. “Since when do you speak Korean?” was hilarious. Missed opportunity to have Magic yell “Ian, center me on Dwayne!”. Why is there a bar in Magic’s office if he’s a recovering alcoholic?

Leaping in Without a Net (Season 2, Episode 19)
A fun one with heart. Nice mini-message about little people. Psychic seeing other souls in his eyes neat. Favorite random bit is Al standing up in a car and Sam asking him to pretend to sit like a normal person. There’s a continuity issue where Sam had no fear of heights as a stuntman, but a big phobia as a trapeze artist. Don’t think Swiss-cheese explains that away. Grammarian nitpick: I wish the title dropped the “In.”

As The World Burns (Season 7, Episode 12)
A hard one to rank since it aired back to back with “Against Time” as a 2-episode season finale. This one isn’t bad, but it’s also not in the same league as the one after it nor the other Hannah episodes. Still enjoyed it. Jenn’s promotion and Addison’s handling of the ending threat were good HQ bits. 9131 1/4 days is exactly 25 years including leap years. Curious if it means this leap takes place on the exact same day and month as “Closure Encounters” of if the math is just quickly estimated.

Paging Doctor Song (Season 6, Episode 10)
Great blend of the new-series mythology and an ER-style leap where 3 separate storylines converge in interesting ways. The leap-in to deliver a baby feels like a little bit of a cheat to add drama to the tag at the end of the previous episode, and Ben still lingers a little longer than he should after completing his missions. Other downside is it’s the only revival episode to not include Mason Alexander Park as Ian, as their scene was allegedly in the script but cut for time since there’s a lot of leap story going on here.

The Family Treasure (Season 7, Episode 10)
Goonies vibes in a fun romp with good callbacks to the rest of the season. Another outlandish leap that still has enough charm and heart to work as a whole. Love how the title seems to be a non-binary play on “the family jewels,” tying into the theme and a key scene. Well done, Ben Song.

Closure Encounters (Season 7, Episode 3)
Nice X-Files tribute with OG vibes and a kiss with history. Recap seamlessly worked into the final negotiation. Having “the plan” be to have the hologram spy/observe was a good twist underutilized on both shows. I wish we didn’t know Hannah would be recurring going in so it was more of a surprise later. Nits: Ben gets called out for acting out of character when he isn’t. Why leap in 300 miles away from actual mission aside from wanting to have that awkward car ride?

Animal Frat (Season 2, Episode 12)
Fun one with a solid script and good balance between the goofy fraternity and the more serious Vietnam related story. Al oddly doesn’t show up until the morning after Sam arrives. (He also sits in a chair and accidentally bumps into Sam.) Nerdy nitpick: The time travel causation seems a little off with this being one of those leaps where Sam seems to cause the history Ziggy said he was there to prevent.

Salvation or Bust (Season 6, Episode 5)
Full disclosure: I was a little nervous about deviating from the “within his own lifetime” rule but this one put my mind at ease. Same heart as a recent history leap and a story with good character & characters. Shock ending was cool; might have been better with a simu-leap between lines of dialogue. (“I know who you are…” <leap> “…stop following me.”)

The Outsider (Season 7, Episode 11)
Feels like a classic series leap. Neat how figuring out the leap date is becoming a puzzle, here making you do the math when Ben shows a day planner and says “this meeting was a couple of days ago.” Loved the fake commercial and the “Does he speak?” bits. A little predictable overall. Missed opportunity to tie Tom’s wife’s cancer into the weedkiller resolution. Second “they aren’t really dead!” twist in four episodes.

Catch a Falling Star (Season 2, Episode 10)
The leap itself and Sam’s mission feel like an afterthought, but the whole episode is so much fun with a theater production of Don Quixote (in Syracuse!) letting Scott Bakula sing. Subplot with the piano teacher is sort of a “Star-Crossed” redo. The ending with Sam & Al is a memorable, grin-inducing classic.

Stand By Ben (Season 6, Episode 8)
The new version is starting to find itself with a solid topical leap into a 1996 youth bootcamp. First time Ben overlaps with the original project. The teenagers referring to his “imaginary girlfriend” works well as a talking to a hologram coverup, and I especially like the subtle suggestion the group listened to an entire No Doubt album since shuffling required pre-meditation in the 90s.

Double Identity (Season 1, Episode 6)
Written to follow the pilot, Donald Bellisario asked to have it pushed back so as not to confuse viewers with a double leap so soon (and interestingly, for one of only two times ever). The “let’s try to retrieve Sam without really trying to figure out the purpose of the leap” plot makes a lot more sense under that scenario. This one is mostly a riff on The Godfather, but it’s so much fun I can let the movie inspiration slide. Also includes multiple instances of the classic “Al saves the day just in time” trope as well as the “you actually have one more thing to set right” twist ending.

Freedom (Season 2, Episode 16)
The grandfather is one of my favorite characters in the series and would have been a nice Mirror Image cameo. Jailbreak feels a little out of character for Sam but is necessary for the plot. The scalping threat is very out of character, but if taken as foreshadowing for how the leapee’s mind melds with Sam’s I can buy it. Random aside: I dig the guitar based musical cues throughout this one.

Genesis (Season 1, Episodes 1&2)
Middle of the pack, but if your pilot is the best episode ever you’ve got a problem. Exposition heavy as these things often are, it’s a great episode of television but not a great episode of Quantum Leap if that makes sense. Drags a little at times; probably better suited as an hour or ninety minutes vs. a full two including commercials.

A Kind of Magic (Season 7, Episode 7)
Good but not great. Sort of what I feared would happen when the “in his own lifetime” rule was removed. Not very period accurate, plus filming on the exact same Universal Backlot set as “Salvation or Bust” took me out of the story a little. I did like the sequence of three different holograms and the hat tip to “A Single Drop of Rain” at the end. The recurring “little bit funny” joke continues to amuse, and “Ziggy says there’s a 93% chance” fakeout was a clever trope inversion. “Will you be my hologram?” should be a Valentine.

What a Disaster! (Season 6, Episode 6)
Much like the original series had episode ordering altered post-production, this leap was filmed as the new pilot but later retooled to run later. Compared to the script, the present day scenes were scrapped and redone but ~70% of the leap was kept with premiere exposition cut and some clever edits for continuity. 1989 setting a nice nod to the OG. Personally I think this would have been a better inaugural leap, but I’m not a TV executive. Bonus points for the meta title referencing both the earthquake & online rumors this version of the pilot was scrapped because it was a disaster. (Spoiler alert — it wasn’t.)

The Lonely Hearts Club (Season 7, Episode 4)
Starts off as a silly little romcom, which is the kind of slapsticky episode I never liked in the original. Second half and especially the final act has a string of great scenes that saves it — book club, 2 Addison + Ben confrontations, “What if the accelerator isn’t broken?” question. The delayed leap out was avoidable if Neil didn’t enter his daughter’s house until after Ben & Addison’s conversation. Nit: Shouldn’t Addison & Ben immediately remember the 7 additional films in the new history?

Blind Faith (Season 2, Episode 5)
In this instance, a great script gets bogged down by some cheesy choices in cinematography and direction. (Example: The strangler’s first victim.) Minor qualm with not going deep enough on the topic of being blind–though when they did it was great. On the plus side, The Beatles kiss with history is seamlessly integrated into the plot. Sam goofing off with Al and nearly blowing the leap because of it was well done. Once revealed, the killer isn’t as obvious as it seems.

Her Charm (Season 2, Episode 15)
An episode with a different vibe for the original series. Nice twist with the leapee I won’t spoil here, an inverse of the twist in July 13, 1985. Sam uncharacteristically reveals who he is multiple times, and also oddly recalls reading about the original history which always feels a little like a cheat the few times it happens. There’s some comically bad music during the woods chase. Since leap out timing is a pet peeve I have with the new series I’ll admit this one also feels delayed, but GFTW needing the professor to arrive to ensure Dana was safe after Sam left checks my plausibility box.

Ben, Interrupted (Season 6, Episode 16)
A big mythology episode for the revival with a heck of a storyline, but a clunky script kept taking me out of the story as I shook my head at the way little moments were handled. (Janis back at Beth’s house for no good reason/Beth in the episode for 2 seconds; Addison asks Ian if Martinez can see her one scene after he clearly did; Ben’s far fetched escape; the shocking twist of a cliffhanger that’s all tell followed by a gratuitous tag that’s a bit of a cheat in hindsight.) Additional minor quibble: the frequency with which Ben’s name ends up in an episode title was becoming a pet peeve by this point.

Maybe Baby (Season 2, Episode 20)
Kind of a hokey episode that wraps up a little too neatly, but still entertaining. Weird Al has so little info on the actual mission, though I suppose the alias and the lying explains it. Downtown Julie Brown an awesome guest star both at the time and in retrospect. Guess Al forgot the dinosaur handlink trick in favor of sock puppets.

A Decent Proposal (Season 6, Episode 4)
My least favorite leap of the first batch of new adventures, mainly because it feels a little cartoony for Quantum Leap in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. Props for not making a big deal of the first gender creative experience, plus Magic’s “nudge” speech about being leaped into by Sam is an early classic moment that saves the episode from landing at the bottom of my season 6 list.

July 13, 1985 (Season 6, Episode 1)
The second take on a pilot episode that became the new series debut. Much like “Genesis” it’s exposition heavy by necessity, though has the opposite issue of being too short to fit it all in. The heist storyline is an odd choice for a premiere, bordering on cartoony like “A Decent Proposal” was. The undercover cop twist was a clever thing the original never did, though Sam did so once mainly to provide a fake-out leap-in of “he’s a hooker!” But nitpicks aside, IT’S THE FIRST NEW EPISODE OF QUANTUM LEAP IN NEARLY 30 YEARS! with plenty of fun callbacks to the original — and as you’ll see below better than half of the original Season 1 in my humble opinion.

All-Americans (Season 2, Episode 14)
In the first round of this apples to apples ranking exercise I declared “Camikaze Kid” the dividing line between good and bad episodes. This one challenged that premise but ultimately supported it. A by the numbers script with a few clunky moments but otherwise not bad. Out of character for Sam to tell the bookie “I think you’re why I’m here” (though that’s totally a Ben Song move). Seems the only reason Chewy had the conversation about throwing the game was because Sam had to do laps for talking to Al after the Jane Fonda workout. What happened in the original history?

Camikaze Kid (Season 1, Episode 8)
If you asked me for an example of an average / typical episode of Quantum Leap this pretty much fits the bill. Good but not quite great, yet hits all the beats of a self-contained plot where Sam & Al save the day, overcome a few obstacles and have a random kiss with history along the way. I’m really curious where this falls on the line of demarcation if/when I continue to expand this ranking list, but as of this initial writing I consider it the Mendoza Line of Quantum Leap.

Thou Shalt Not (Season 2, Episode 7)
Not sure what to say here except some you like and some you don’t is the beauty of Quantum Leap‘s versatility. Here I felt the scenario and theme were better than the episode. Al’s reveal of the leap purpose comes unusually late. The red herring about Sam’s host having an affair is good and the last 10 minutes save it from a lower ranking.

The Right Hand of God (Season 1, Episode 4)
A fun early episode that lacks the right amount of punch (pun intended). Some good bits tying in the streaker and the twist gambling resolution, but the show is understandably still finding its legs. The subplot about Al’s loud neighbor keeping him up at night is pretty lame, as is the somewhat forced Rocky montage. I gave them a pass for the Godfather episode, but can’t quite do it here.

Good Morning, Peoria (Season 2, Episode 6)
I always remembered this DJ episode as being a favorite, but didn’t really like it on the rewatch. Fun, but not very good. Best part is when proximity to the radio tower makes Al think he’s leaping.

A Portrait for Troian (Season 2, Episode 11)
I love the bit where Al makes ghostly noises since the electronic equipment inexplicably allows people to hear him, plus the first use of the later recycled “center me on Sam!” gag where Al reappears two feet from where he was standing. Also cool to have a Bellisario cameo as the leapee and Deborah Pratt acting. Otherwise, this episode is a train wreck. Trying to retcon Carolyn Seymour’s ghost into the Evil Leaper storyline as head canon is inadvertently intriguing.

Sea Bride (Season 2, Episode 21)
Way too slapsticky for my taste. Did Sam’s presence have any impact besides not getting his leapee killed? Who brings an umbrella on a cruise, let alone throws it away in the ship’s compactor? Weird cross between Seymour & Double Identity and a rare miss from a Deborah Pratt script. Also might have the most scenes without Sam or Al present of any episode. On the plus side, there’s a nice bit of M.I.A setup which the show doesn’t do between eps all that often.

Play it Again, Seymour (Season 1, Episode 9)
Honestly I’ve never really liked this episode. The Bogie references are overdone, the Woody Allen kiss with history unnecessary, and the overall hardboiled plot tries too hard to be something the show isn’t. Twist that Sam remembers reading the future novel this scenario is based on is an interesting idea that doesn’t quite work for me. Sometimes I’m surprised the show got renewed after this first season finale–but I’m immensely thankful it did.

How the Tess Was Won (Season 1, Episode 5)
Another one I chalk up to a show figuring itself out, this is basically Sam playing cowboy without a real goal in mind, culminating with the twist he’s really there to help Buddy Holly write “Peggy Sue” even though Buddy Holly didn’t actually write “Peggy Sue” himself. Al leaves Sam to ride Widowmaker alone, putting his life at risk? Al accuses Sam of having an affair with Tina? Sam’s there to marry Tess — but he failed, oh well. (And he never had a shot–strongly implied to be because he’s either hispanic, ugly, or both? WTF?) He’s also there for several days, but never looked in a mirror until the end? Leapee reflection has glasses Sam isn’t actually wearing? Ziggy knows when people cheat at cards, but gets who was cheating wrong? Just too many out of character oddities requiring suspension of disbelief. (I can see a version of events where GFTW put him there to give Tess the confidence to marry someone, but even that still feels off-brand.)

Figured I’d throw down some play by play reactions to the trailer (along with a few predictions) to get them on the record.

Check this out if you haven’t already, then meet me down below…

• The backward stuff here and on some of the teasers is a little lame, though I doubt any of it will come into play on the actual show.
• I love “Oh shit!” as the modern take on “Oh boy!”
• The new accelerator interior looks awesome, and I’m intrigued by the choice to show a lot more of the present day project than the original series did.
• A lot of the promotion has focused on clips of real historic events which were (mostly) a no-no in the Sam Beckett days until the final season. I’m starting to suspect they’ll come into play more in this one.
• The first leap-in disorientation and arrival of the hologram is pitch perfect, and the hologram glitching when people walk through Addison is a nice modern touch.
• My wife watched the trailer and said “He’s from 2022 but can’t drive stick?” I reminded her I’m from 2022 and can’t drive stick. It’s a stretch to say a hologram can teach someone who doesn’t know for the first time on the fly, but I’m betting he does know but swiss-cheese forgot and this scene is intended to show how lost skills can come back to him. (I don’t have a good excuse as to why I can’t drive stick.)
• “You’re the getaway man. Get us away, man!” is a funny line and very true to the spirit of the original series.
• Hologram Addison riding in a car with Ben is also a good throwback since Al often did that even though it never 100% made sense with the hologram thing.
• The original briefly had a “we’re not allowed to share last names so we don’t mess with time” thing they don’t seem to care much about here.
• “We’re in a relationship that you don’t remember and I can’t tell you about” is a nice take on the swiss cheesed leaper / observer relationship.
• The actress in the rockstar mirror shot looks really familiar to me but I can’t place her.
• It’s fun that a lot of the leaps they show here are similar to ones Sam had previously (rockstar, soldier, boxer, robber, astronaut (albeit Sam was a space chimp…)
• “Changing history for the better…” YES YES YES!
• That catwalk in the imaging chamber seems like it would limit movement of the holographic observer.
• Great casting on the new Gooshie. Also wondering if Ziggy will use they/them pronouns in a nod to the he/she switch mid-series last time around.
• Really excited for Ernie Hudson as former leapee Magic heading the project, taking on half of Al’s old role.
• “Find out why he leaped” is an interesting line, as is the big focus in the synopsis of the mysterious circumstances around Ben’s decision to step into the accelerator. My wild theory: Sam Beckett is ready for retirement but needs to find a replacement. So he leaps into Ben, steps into the Quantum Leap accelerator, and vanishes. We’ll learn this in the season finale or a later episode at the Al’s Place bar where Sam is now the bartender.
• “If you fail, there’s a 100% chance this ship will crash.”
• “It’s time to remake history” is a pretty perfect tagline for this.
• It was speculated that Sam would die if his host did, but God/Fate/Time/Whatever always seemed to leap him out the few times it came close to happening.
• One other random prediction: There’s an episode set during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake — originally intended to be the pilot but re-edited to air sixth after the network felt a better setup was needed. I think attempting to retrieve Ben causes the quake, much like trying to retrieve Sam caused the great northeast blackout of 1965 in the episode “Double Identity” back in 1989. Coincidentally, that episode of the original series was intended to air second but also got moved to episode 6 when Don Bellisario thought an episode with a double leap (seemingly to prevent Sam’s death) airing so early would confuse the heck out of people.

1. LILILIL — Benji Hughes
I can’t think of another album in the last decade — if not ever — that leaves me with such a big grin every time I listen to it. LILILIL is concept album Benji wrote for his daughter. The story is a time travel rock opera set in outer space and narrated by Jeff Bridges. Various characters leave “space messages” that are basically introductions to “space jams” by Benji. Plus the whole thing starts off with a repeated chant of “I am from the future…I am from the future…I am from the future.” You had me at hello…

2. OXOXOXOX / Songs in the Key of Animals / XXOXOXX – Benji Hughes
Yes, I really am saying my 4 favorite albums of 2014 are by the same artist. And it was pretty much a no brainer. Since they are only available for purchase as a set I’ll go Nielsen-style and group them together under a single number. (This also gets me off the hook from needing to rank them individually.) Can you say infallible band?

3. Supernova – Ray LaMontagne
Ray’s best record since his debut. Taking chances with vocal arrangements and cool stuttery noises that paid off big. Any other year this would have been number one with a bullet.

4. The Voyager – Jenny Lewis
Breezy, poppy, snarky, confident and fun.

5. V for Vaselines – The Vaselines
Kurt Cobain’s fandom and Nirvana’s 3 famous covers sent me seeking out the Vaselines 20 years ago. Some songs I have always loved (“The Day I Was a Horse,” “Teenage Superstars” and “Dying For It”), but mostly I respected them and found the other songs more interesting than good. The same was mostly true about their 2010 comeback record — but V for Vaselines is easily the best album in their catalog. I hope they do another one.

Lost in the ’90s by Frank Anthony Polito: A teenaged rocker stage-dives during a ’90s themed dance and wakes up in 1994.

Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman: An essay collection featuring unrelated sections on time travel and Kurt Cobain.

Timely Persuasion by JL Civi: A rock and roll time travel tale about a music critic trying to save his sister.

Discounting Klosterman (who I love, but isn’t directly relevant here), I was pleasantly surprised to find Lost in the ’90s. I’d never heard of it before, but immediately purchased it—and really dug it too! Not only had someone else decided to revolve a time travel story around a cultural red-letter-date, but they did so with a lot of other interesting overlaps to the way I handled things in Timely Persuasion. Song titles as chapter titles, lyrical allusions, musician fathers, and even bowling (!!!) pop up in both books.

I reached out to the author and he agreed to do a joint interview around our mutual inspirations. So without further adieu, here’s Frank & JL’s timely & persuasive take on being lost in the ’90s…

FAP:  Hey, there! My name is Frank Anthony Polito. I’m a Detroit-based writer and Lost in the ’90s is my first YA novel—though you don’t have to be a Young Adult to enjoy the story. In fact, you may appreciate it even more if you actually grew up in the 1990s.

JLC:  Thanks for taking the time to do this. I’m not a young adult anymore, but I did grow up in the ’90s and can say you are spot on that it does help you appreciate the book.

People on this blog likely already know me, but in case you’re coming in for the first time via this post my name is JL Civi. Timely Persuasion is a rock and roll time travel novel I released in 2008—though the bulk of it was written back in 2003. You don’t need to be an obsessive music fan like me to get into the story, but as Frank said about his book it may give you some added appreciation.

Let’s start off with the most timely question with the 20th anniversary upon us:  Why Kurt Cobain in a time travel tale? You nicely weave this throughout on a few different levels and have the bulk of the story set during those fateful days in early April 1994; my narrator tries to save Kurt as soon as he realizes what he can do…

FAP: Well, I hope this doesn’t come as a shock, but… When I began writing Lost in the ’90s I didn’t intentionally set out to include Kurt Cobain in my story. I’m a very realistic writer in that I write fiction that is fact-based. Based on my previous publishing experience, I figured (best case scenario) LIT90s would hit bookstores sometime in 2012. That said, I counted back 18 years in order to calculate my protagonist’s birth year, which took me to 1994. When I researched what was going on in the world that spring, I was reminded of the death of Kurt Cobain on 4/5/94 and voila!

JLC:  That’s interesting. I had many similar “count back X years and research” moments while plotting Timely Persuasion, but Kurt Cobain was there from the start. My standard answer to the “If you had a time machine…” question has been “find out how Kurt Cobain died” for as long as I can remember, so I knew I had to explore that in Timely Persuasion. I was 17 when Kurt died, and it hit me pretty hard at the time. The Tom Grant murder theory started to gain press at about the same time I discovered the Internet. I became super obsessed with it right away. I’m not really a conspiracy theorist in general, but I’ve always been fascinated with unanswered questions. The hardest part in the writing process was figuring out a way to leave the suicide/murder question unanswered while still using it to explain the rules of time travel and give deeper insight into the narrator’s character.

FAP: Again, I hope this isn’t a shocker, but… Back in the day, I was not much of a Nirvana and/or Kurt Cobain fan. I didn’t find the music (or Cobain) attractive or interesting. In fact, I kind of sort of hated it (him). I was more into the music scene that had come out of Manchester (The Sundays, The Charlatans UK, etc.) Now that I’m older (and wiser), in doing research to write LIT90s I was happily surprised to discover that I honestly didn’t get Cobain back in 1994. I didn’t realize how ironic his lyrics were or what a supporter of gay rights he was, and how often he was misunderstood by his peers—something to which I could totally relate. Now I really wish I could go back in time to the early ’90s because I would totally change my tune.

JLC:  Like many ’90s teens Nirvana was my gateway into music I could call my own, but I really dug the British music scene too. The Manchester bands you mention were great (don’t forget the Happy Mondays!), along with new britpop revolution led by Blur & Oasis. Plus my favorite band to this day is still Carter USM—and not so coincidentally they have the most lyrical references in TP.

Sometimes I wonder if the love of the Beatles instilled in me by my parents paved the way for that. Which leads into another interesting overlap our books have: protagonists who meet their parents back in time. In both cases they are surprised to learn that their father is a musician and decide to teach him some tunes…

FAP: When my father was in high school he played guitar in a band—which is actually how he met my mother. As a kid, I was always fascinated whenever he would drag out his Fender and plug in the old amp and crank out some Black Sabbath. I can’t say that I based the parental characters in LIT90s on my own parents, but I knew that I wanted my protagonist and his father to have a musical bond. I was also a big time-travel geek growing up (Back to the Future, Voyagers!, Somewhere in Time), and I always enjoyed whenever someone from the future would teach someone from the past something and they would try to take credit for it.

JLC:  I was also (and still am) a big time travel geek. I knew I wanted to write a time travel novel, but I had a few options on what the main plot would be. A so-so musician going back in time and finding fame by stealing music was one of my initial ideas. Sort of a parable about the digital music industry. But I didn’t think I had enough for a full novel and scrapped it. Then somehow this story sent the narrator into the 1960s to meet his Dad (which wasn’t in the original outline), so I revived that older idea and ran with it.

FAP:  My idea for LIT90s came from an obscure “After School Special” called My Mother was Never A Kid, based on an obscure book by Francine Pascal (Sweet Valley High) called Hangin’ Out with Cici. In the story, a teenaged girl travels back in time from the 1970s to the 1940s where she meets (and befriends) her mother, who she doesn’t get along with in present day. And of course the aforementioned Back to the Future.

JLC:  At the time I was excited and surprised nobody had done a time travel story that stole music from the future. And even though I included a number of Back to the Future references, it wasn’t until years later I realized that the Marty McFly “Johnny B. Goode” bit counted. Duh! 

FAP: Yes! This is exactly what I’m talking about… That moment when Marty is playing “Johnny B. Goode” with his band and that other guy is on the phone with his cousin, Chuck Berry, and he’s like “Listen to this!”

JLC:  Classic moment. And tying it back to Kurt Cobain, there’s an episode of The Simpsons where they parody it by having “Marvin Cobain” call his cousin Kurt after hearing Homer’s band play grunge at a Lollapalooza type festival!

Sticking with music, we both also seem to weave little known real songs into the plot. I’m guessing “Basement Ghost” is by someone you know based on a few Googles, but I might be wrong.

FAP: You are correct. “Basement Ghost” was written by a friend of mine, Gabriel Grady. I have my MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon, and I knew that I would eventually adapt the novel for the screen. Because music is such a part of the story, I wanted to make sure there would be an original song for the soundtrack. I knew that Gabe—being a Class of ’94 grad and a musician himself—was totally the guy to write my movie’s theme song. Now, if I could only sell that screenplay…

JLC:  I could totally see LIT90s as a movie. Or maybe even an “After School Special” if they ever revive that concept…

It was especially impressive that you managed to make “Basement Ghost” a downloadable single to go with the book. I wanted to do something like that but wasn’t ever able to find a musician to work with. It was always my secret hope that putting “Won One” in Timely Persuasion would nudge my college roommate into re-recording it for me (I lost my old cassette copy years ago). But it’s been over 10 years and the song still only exists in my memory and in my book. And I still dig it way more than he does. (Chris Evjy, if you’re reading this that was a not so subtle hint :))

FAP:  Again, the credit for this goes to Gabe Grady. It also helps that Gabe was in a band at the time I published LIT90s, and he was looking for promotional opportunities for himself and his work as well. I’m a firm believer in the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours…” theory of life, and in helping others along the way, if possible. The great thing about “Basement Ghost,” I will say, is that I told Gabe the basic gist of my story (how boy meets girl) and he ran with it. The lyrics and subsequent music are all to his credit.

JLC:  Another item we share along the lines of great music-themed minds is using song titles as chapter titles. Yours are all great ’90s tunes that often aptly summarize the action.  What gave you that idea and how hard was it to pick the songs?

FAP:  In my first two novels (Band Fags! and Drama Queers!) I did this same thing—only with ’80s tunes. While LIT90s isn’t part of the trilogy, I wanted to continue using this technique, especially since music plays such a part in the story. In terms of choosing which songs to include, I have to say “Thank God for the Internet and Wikipedia!”

JLC:  Originally Timely Persuasion didn’t have chapter titles. Then one night I woke up at 2am with this idea that every chapter was a song title that contained a number.  It would start with “One” by U2. Just a single word so nobody realizes what’s going on yet. Then “Two of Us” by the Beatles. Then “Gimme Three Steps” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. And that’s when I jumped out of bed and made a huge list of candidate songs—first from my iTunes library, then falling back on the Internet like you did.

FAP:  That is an awesome idea! (I wondered where you came up with “Tram #7 to Heaven” by one of my faves, Jens Lekman.)

JLC:  Jens is one of my favorites too. “Tram #7…” plus “Wounded Kite at :17” by Pavement were the two titles that made me so giddy I just had to find a way to make this work. And later figuring out I could slot “Won One” in as #11 sealed the deal.  Hardest one was for 26—it’s the only song I don’t like in the list. “Across 26 Winters” is a cool title and fits the chapter, but with apologies to Phoenix Mourning it’s not really my style.

Of your titles I especially liked “Fade Into You” & “Divine Thing.” And of course “Here’s Where The Story Ends” was the perfect closer—and it happens to be by another British group.

FAP: I’m particularly fond of “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star myself. I really think the song sets the tone for this particular chapter. “Action” is such a big component when it comes to film and, if memory serves, this chapter is almost all inner monologue for the female character as she rides along in the car with the two other guys in the story. I look forward to seeing how the scene would play out on the big screen—like an old-fashioned MTV music video.

JLC:  Along with the musical nods taking the reader back into the era, I really liked the way you sprinkled references to other time travel stories throughout Lost in the 90s—and not just Back to the Future. Time travel seems to pop up all over the place. I’d never heard of Hangin’ Out With Cici before, but I do remember that time travel episode of Family Matters and liked the Somewhere in Time reference too.

FAP: Thanks. Like I said, I was a big time travel story geek growing up. And no surprise that you’d never heard of Cici—which most would call a “girl” book. I’m actually surprised that you know Somewhere in Time which is set in Michigan where I grew up, and I’ve somehow managed to reference in almost every story I’ve ever written.

JLC:  I told you I was a time travel geek too! In TP my narrator sees a movie trailer for Peggy Sue Got Married on his second trip back in time (before he realizes that’s what’s actually happening). I picked it as a hybrid music & time travel reference—though it was totally one of those “need a movie from 1986” research happy accidents along the lines of how you picked Kurt Cobain for LIT90s. BTTF & Quantum Leap are where my love of time travel came from, so I felt it only fair (and polite) to tip my cap to the greats.

FAP: Kudos to you, sir! I appreciate your appreciation of the greats who came before us I’ve seen Peggy Sue, but only once (years ago!) and I don’t really remember the plot. I also didn’t watch Quantum Leap for whatever reason. But, as I’ve mentioned, there was a time travel show back in the early ’80s that I loved as a kid called Voyagers!, starring Jon-Erik Hexum, whose career was tragically cut short after he accidentally shot himself in 1984. If you haven’t seen it, you should totally check it out.

JLC:  Yes, I like Voyagers! too. And the Omni is one of the coolest time machines, right up there with the DeLorean and the Tardis.

Anyways, this was pretty fun. Anything else to add in closing?

FAP: Thanks for finding me and making this happen. It’s been almost 2 years since LIT90s was released, which in book terms makes it old news. My goal was to do a big publicity push to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death… But having worked in the New York City publishing industry as a book publicist, I know what a pain—and how futile—it can all be. Here’s hoping we both will find some new readers.

JLC:  Indeed. We write books so people can read them, right?

Anyone interested in learning more about either Lost in the ’90s or Timely Persuasion can check out both of our books below for a trip down memory lane via April 8th, 1994:

[table id=1 /]

It was an honor to be named here amongst several other great time travel tales. The three hosts came up with quite a set of stories altogether. Their complete lists are covered below – but check out the full episode for some cool discussion about each set of three:

Paul (novels):

1. Replay
2. Branch Point
3. Timely Persuasion

Honorable Mentions:

Time And Again, Time On My Hands, A Christmas Carol, The Man Who Folded Himself, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Island in the Sea of Time, The Trinity Paradox

Ben:

1. Back to the Future Trilogy
2. Groundhog Day
3. The Langoliers

Honorable Mentions:

“A Sound of Thunder”, The Time Machine, Slaughterhouse-Five, Time Bandits, Star Trek (4, 7, 8, & 11), 12 Monkeys, Donnie Darko, The Terminator, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Primer, Star Trek The Next Generation: “All Good Things”, TMNT – Turtles in Time, Time Changer

Alex:

1. Back to the Future
2. The End of Eternity
3. Chrono Trigger

Honorable Mentions:

The Lords of the Sands of Time, X-Men: Days of Future Past

Lots of excellent picks!

The only surprising omission in my mind would be Quantum Leap, though to be fair they did give have a passing “put right what once went wrong” reference during the podcast.

For me, the holy trinity of time travel will always be Replay, Back to the Future, and Quantum Leap in a three way tie for first. Breaking it out by category, my personal favorites would be:

Books:

1. Replay
2. Expiration Date
3. Up the Line

Movies:

1. Back to the Future
2. Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes)
3. Primer

Television:

1. Quantum Leap
2. “The Constant” (Episode of Lost)
3. Journeyman

Honorable Mentions: (excluding works already referenced)

Books: 11/22/63, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Too Many Time Machines, Man in the Empty Suit

Movies: Deja Vu, Happy Accidents, Shuffle, Always Will, Source Code, Safety Not Guaranteed, About Time

Television: Tru Calling, Voyagers!, Misfits (Season 1 Episode 4), “Back There” (Twilight Zone Episode)

Video Games: Back to the Future: The Game, Chronotron, The Silent Age, Day of the Tentacle, Mushroom Age, Braid

In honor of that great red-letter date, here are a few BTTF tidbits found in Timely Persuasion.

Chapter 3:

After a year of constantly playing the Back to the Future soundtrack, my uncle took me to see Huey Lewis and the News.

Chapter 9:

I didn’t even need or want a DeLorean. Just a time bicycle would have made me a happy camper.

Chapter 17:

That was it. He confirmed that the future mother of his children actually existed, gave Nelson’s Mom the Heisman, renamed the album Quits, played one final show, and abruptly left the music business behind to seek out his density—I mean destiny—with my real mother.

Chapter 17: 

Still groggy, aching, and starving, I woke up on the couch with a figure hovering above me.

“Mom? Mom is that you?”

Acknowledgments:

Jeff Winston, Pamela Phillips, Henry DeTamble, Jud Elliott, Billy Pilgrim, Sam Deed, James Cole, John Titor, Dan Vasser, Livia Beale, Tru Davies, Daniel Eakins, Sam Beckett, Al Calavicci, Marty McFly, Emmett Brown, Bill S. Preston, Ted “Theodore” Logan, Hiro Nakamura, Eckels, Aaron, Abe, Will, Sherman, Mr. Peabody, and anyone else who has walked in their shoes.

It’s been so long there are probably a few more I can’t remember or readily find. Check them out for yourself via Amazon, Apple, and/or online.

“Purple parallelogram I got in Amsterdam, made me dream a dream I didn’t understand.” — The Lemonheads

Checked out time-travel play A Parallelogram this weekend and really dug it. Warning: Spoilers Below…

The play focuses on Bee, a thirty-something woman who recently met her time traveler future self that — ala Quantum Leap and/or Timely Persuasion — only she can see or hear. The first act intersperses an argument with Bee’s boyfriend Jay between musings by the two Bees on the future and why it can’t be changed, sprinkling in some fun replaying of the Bee & Jay scenes via a time travel inducing remote control. Older Bee eventually lets it slip that Jay is going to leave Bee because he thinks she’s crazy.

That leads us into the second act, where Jay visits Bee in the hospital. Older Bee is also here. To Jay she’s the doctor, but to young Bee she’s still older Bee and converses as such in a brilliantly clever bit of three-way dialogue. The big reveal here is that Bee may have a brain tumor, which calls into question whether or not the future Bee is real or a hallucination. This becomes the central idea for the rest of the play.

Some random thoughts, observations and ponderings:

(Again — heavy on the spoilers, so stop here if you don’t want anything else given away.)

• The time travel bits during act one were a lot of fun and handled very well in a live setting.  Loved it every time Jay would walk into the bathroom and re-enter through the bedroom door replaying his previous scene.
• At one point Bee reveals a tattoo of a blue jay on her arm for Jay, and future Bee simultaneously reveals the same tattoo to the audience.  Since Bee later ends up dating J.J., it would have been cool if future Bee had two blue jays tattooed on her arm. (It’s possible she did and I missed it, but that’s what I would have done.)
• Older Bee’s monologue to the audience about the bird virus epidemic comes shortly after J.J.’s theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs and will one day regain their slot at the top of the food chain. Under the hallucination scenario, the timing works out that young Bee is making up the epidemic as older Bee is addressing the audience. This could be further supported by the way she tells the story, especially the “you’ll think I’m making this part up…” in the middle.
• Related: At one point when older Bee is giving her monologue she talks with her hands a lot — and in the background young Bee is on the bed having a muted conversation mirroring the hand motions exactly. Brilliantly done.
• Under the time travel scenario, you could argue that the presence of older Bee caused the chain of events that plays out in acts two and three in either classic “whatever happened, happened” style or the equally common “your solution was actually the cause…”
• The bit with the missing TV remote control that young Bee later mistakes for the time travel remote was a nice touch that feeds both sides of the debate.

Though I always get giddy over time travel, I’m equally a fan of a well done mindf**k so this play delighted me from both angles.

Tying it back to my opening song lyric quote, “Purple Parallelogram” was a song allegedly co-written by Evan Dando of the Lemonheads and Noel Gallagher of Oasis. It was slated to appear on the Lemonheads Car Button Cloth album, but was dropped at the last minute due to a request by Noel Gallagher.

Did it really happen, or did Evan Dando hallucinate the whole thing? Hmmm…

Lesser known BTTF dates include:

• January 1, 1885 (Doc’s trip to the Old West)
• September 2, 1885 (Marty’s trip to the Old West)
• November 12, 1955 (Enchantment Under The Sea / Lighting vs the Clock Tower / Biff gives himself the Sports Almanac)
• October 26, 1985 (The day it all started)
• October 21, 2015 (Marty & Jennifer’s trip to the future)
• October 26, 2015 (Doc’s first trip to the future, assuming “30 is a nice round number”)

In Timely Persuasion many of the actual time travel dates are vague — but there are some key red letter dates based on the narrator’s memories or bits of musical trivia:

• October 12, 1969 (WKNR DJ Russ Gibb starts the “Paul is Dead” rumor)
• September 18, 1970 (Jimi Hendrix found dead)
• April 7, 1994 (Eve of discovery of Kurt Cobain’s body; Tom Grant & Dylan Carlson search house)
• April 12, 2000 (Napster/Metallica copyright suit)
• September 10, 2001 (Trying to save sister)

As long as we’re on the subject, let’s extend the red letter dates to include some of my other favorite time travel tales:

• September 13, 1956 (Sam Beckett’s first Quantum Leap)
• September 9, 1958 (Destination of the time portal in 11/22/63)
• February 22, 1972 (Mickey Wade’s pills bring him here in Expiration Date)
• September 23, 1977 (Clare first meets Henry in The Time Traveler’s Wife)
• October 2, 1988 (Jet Engine & Frank the Rabbit travel back to this date in Donnie Darko)
• October 18, 1988 (Jeff Winston dies and starts replaying in Replay)
• October 26, 1991 (Henry first meets Clare in The Time Traveler’s Wife)
• December 12, 1996 (James Cole witnesses the death of his future self at the airport in 12 Monkeys)
• November 5, 1999 (Jacob travels back to visit Peter at the cafe in Trickshot)
• March 16, 2005 (Uncle Jim visits Danny Deakins in The Man Who Folded Himself)
• October 23, 2030 (The date of the future visions seen in the novel Flashforward)

Funny pre-amble:  As I was buying tickets, the previous show was letting out. I’ve gone out of my way for months to not watch trailers, not read interviews, and otherwise not be spoiled at all before seeing the film. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by a mob who just saw it and are discussing what happened. I promptly put my fingers in my ears and started humming.

(Warning — To make sure I don’t do the same to you, stop reading now if you haven’t seen the movie…)

Overall I mostly dug Looper, but it didn’t quite live up to the hype in my head. To be fair, with Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rian Johnson, and consultation by Shane Carruth (of Primer fame) my expectation was “greatest time travel movie ever” which was probably setting the bar a touch high.

Likes:

• The diner scene with future and past selves meeting is an instant classic. Some of the explanations of how memories work echoed Timely Persuasion to a degree, and how Bruce Willis decides to NOT talk about time travel is awesome.
• JGL totally sells that he’s a younger Bruce Willis.
• Jeff Daniels is awesome as Abe.  Love his “I’m from the future. You should go to China” line.
• The flashback/forward 30 year montage was very well done.
• Without giving too much away, the whole general conundrum of the loop was one of the more thought provoking takes I’ve seen — especially how it starts to play with whether the older self is actually older & wiser or not (again mirroring TP a bit).
• What is probably the iPhone 21 (assuming every other year for a # jump) looks awesome!

(Nitpicky) Dislikes:

• Even though it was a good piece of subtle foreshadowing done well – and pretty crucial to the endgame – I didn’t really like the TK bits. Probably due to the fact that I tend to love time travel, but not really like other sci-fi all that much.
• I wanted a little more out of the Abe/Kid Blue/Rainmaker story. Maybe some sort of overlap or reveal (for awhile I thought Kid Blue was Abe — though I’m not sure if I still think that, or if it would be good or bad if he was). Didn’t need to be overt or overly explainy, but struck me as a missing piece.
• When Bruce Willis is holding his watch and talking about his wife at the diner, I thought the fact that they didn’t actually show the photo meant it was already gone.  Would have been cool to take that further, indicating he still remembered her though the signs of her existence were fading — ala BTTF…
• I also wished we got just a little bit more from the ending. Maybe a very brief scene in 2074 that hints at whether or not the mission was successful. Not a Hollywood ending, but some sort of open-ended twist about how the Rainmaker turns out.

I suspect some of these dislikes will change over time — and the alleged 45 minutes of deleted scenes on the DVD may help.

Probably need to revise my list at some point, but after one viewing I’d put Looper behind BTTF, Timecrimes, 12 Monkeys, and Primer. Probably ranks right around the under-rated Deja Vu in my book — maybe a few clicks ahead.

• Been digging the new Back To The Future Game from Telltale.  It’s essentially BTTF IV, starting off 6 months after the trilogy ends in 1986 and has Marty bouncing back and forth between 1931 and the present interacting with a teenage Doc.  Right now I’m midway through episode 4 out of 5.  It’s probably worthy of a full post once the whole thing is done.
• Discovered yet another Ziggy iPhone app.  This one’s called Ziggy’s Time Traveler Emergency Reference and is basically a QL skinned offline Wikipedia viewer.  Pretty much right along the lines of the real Ziggy, though it won’t tell you when history changes via an edit to the wiki…
• The Beastie Boys short film Fight For Your Right Revisited features an unexpectedly awesome time travel twist, complete with BTTF DeLorean cameo.
• Been so busy I realize I wrote but forgot to post my annual year-end music best of list.  Wait, a minute, I got all the time I want! I got a time machine!  I could just go back early and post it…