{"id":192,"date":"2008-10-08T13:40:04","date_gmt":"2008-10-08T21:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=192"},"modified":"2008-10-08T13:40:04","modified_gmt":"2008-10-08T21:40:04","slug":"the-quantum-leap-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/the-quantum-leap-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quantum Leap Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

I pointed out a few times in the commentary posts<\/a> that Quantum Leap<\/em> was a big influence of mine.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s even specifically referred to in the book more than once.\u00c2\u00a0 What I haven’t talked about in depth is how Quantum Leap<\/em> (and more specifically, Al the holographic observer) served as the genesis for the time travel mechanics I utilized in Timely Persuasion<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I’ve always felt that Al Calavicci had the sweetest time travel deal of any character.\u00c2\u00a0 He had all of the excitement and wonder, but as a hologram he didn’t have any of the danger.\u00c2\u00a0 No risk of injury, no risk of paradox, no risk of being stranded (though that did happen once<\/a>…).\u00c2\u00a0 Virtually everything that could go wrong was accounted for.<\/p>\n

Since I had given this a lot of thought over the years, and since it was never fully explored on the show, I decided this would be a good starting point for how my hero’s time travel “science” would work.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem lied in the fact that only allowing someone to observe but not interact made for a fairly boring story as a whole.\u00c2\u00a0 You could learn some valuable things just by watching, but there wouldn’t really be any way to “act” on what you learned in the past.\u00c2\u00a0 (Conversely, if you were able to “observe” the future you could act on what you learned upon returning to the present.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’ve never been a big fan of future travel in time travel tales.)\u00c2\u00a0 So I had a basis, but some modification was necessary.<\/p>\n

Al’s rules did have a couple of notable exceptions.\u00c2\u00a0 Animals and young children could see and hear him.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t want to outright copy this, though giving the narrator some sort of interaction was necessary to move the story forward.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I remembered one of the most common “rules” of time travel fiction:\u00c2\u00a0 Avoid contact with your past self at all costs.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes this rule is implied but never explored, sometimes it results in an end of the world paradox, and sometimes it serves as a red herring to deliver a twist ending.\u00c2\u00a0 But generally speaking, every author (and scientist) tends to call it out as something you shouldn’t do.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s when it hit me.<\/p>\n

What if the only<\/strong> person you could interact with while time traveling was yourself?<\/p>\n

It was a unique premise I hadn’t seen explored before.\u00c2\u00a0 It would nicely set up some tribute scenes in a Sam & Al interactive style.\u00c2\u00a0 It allowed the ability to change a timeline, but generally provided protection from paradox so long as you didn’t manage to get your other self killed.\u00c2\u00a0 Plus it fit logically with the “subconscious message from your future self” concept I had been kicking around and wasn’t quite ready to abandon.<\/p>\n

It was perfect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I pointed out a few times in the commentary posts that Quantum Leap was a big influence of mine.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s even specifically referred to in the book more than once.\u00c2\u00a0 What I haven’t talked about in depth is how Quantum Leap (and more specifically, Al the holographic observer) served as the genesis for the time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,4],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-time-travel","tag-quantum-leap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-36","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":814,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/ziggy-for-iphone\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":0},"title":"Ziggy for iPhone","author":"LBDG","date":"November 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I knew it was only a matter of time. Previously I've wished for an iPhone app that emulates the handlink from Quantum Leap. I even had Al using an iPhone-based Ziggy in my fanfic story for the Leap Back Convention, \"Just Like Starting Over.\" Ask and ye shall receive: Ziggy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc Debris"","block_context":{"text":"Misc Debris","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/misc-debris\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ziggy for iPhone & iPod Touch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/IMG_0360.PNG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":537,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/the-tweet-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":1},"title":"The Tweet Back","author":"LBDG","date":"March 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"To date, I haven't exactly been the model Twitter user.\u00c2\u00a0 I have it set to automatically send tweets whenever this blog or LB-DG.com are updated (via twitterfeed), but aside from that I've rarely touched it. But that's going to change this weekend. As my Twitter trial by fire, I'm going\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":659,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/ramblings-iii\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":2},"title":"Ramblings III","author":"LBDG","date":"June 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Whenever I (legally) drive through a yellow light it makes me think of Back to the Future and how difficult it would logistically be to time driving through a lightning strike with such precision. Read a cool short story called \"The Variant\" by John August.\u00c2\u00a0 Well worth the 99 cent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc Debris"","block_context":{"text":"Misc Debris","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/misc-debris\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":546,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/leap-back-convention-recap\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":3},"title":"Leap Back Convention Recap","author":"LBDG","date":"April 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last weekend I attended The Leap Back 20th Anniversary Quantum Leap Convention. \u00a0Having never been to any type of fan convention before I didn't really know what to expect. \u00a0Here are some thoughts: Highlights: \"A Leap To Di For\" A brand new fan-made episode of the show. \u00a0I admit I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Time Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Time Travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/time-travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1622,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/enumerating-the-top-time-travel-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":4},"title":"Enumerating the Top Time Travel Stories","author":"LBDG","date":"January 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Timely Persuasion was recently named third favorite time travel story on the Enumeration Podcast! 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Enumeration - Time Travel Stories","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/episode65_220x220.jpg.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2194,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-chapter-commentary-6-cornfields\/","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":5},"title":"LX Chapter Commentary #6: Cornfields","author":"LBDG","date":"June 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"When I hear the word \"cornfield\" I immediately think of Quantum Leap's third season premiere episode \"The Leap Home\" from 1990 (or 1969 if we go by the leap date). Sam Beckett leaps into himself as a 16 year old, and running through the cornfield on his family's farm features\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}