{"id":546,"date":"2009-04-04T18:19:11","date_gmt":"2009-04-05T02:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=546"},"modified":"2022-09-19T19:16:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T00:16:26","slug":"leap-back-convention-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/leap-back-convention-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Leap Back Convention Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend I attended The Leap Back<\/a> 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:<\/p>\n

Highlights:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“A Leap To Di For”<\/a><\/span>
\nA brand new fan-made episode of the show. \u00a0I admit I was a little skeptical about this going in, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. \u00a0The story did a good job of following the blueprint of a Season 5 “historical” leap while serving as a potential reboot or revival. \u00a0There’s a great scene featuring a blue screen of death that toys with QL mythology quite nicely. \u00a0And the guy who played Sam really nailed it right down to speech patterns and mannerisms. \u00a0I give it a strong B+ overall.<\/p>\n

Time Child<\/em><\/span>
\nA work in progress Quantum Leap novel by executive producer and head writer Deborah Pratt. \u00a0She read 3 or 4 chapters that told the backstory of how Sammy Jo Fuller (Sam’s daughter from the 3 part “Trilogy” episode in the final season) realizes her lineage and strives to restart Project Quantum Leap and bring her father home. \u00a0Can’t wait for this to come out as a canonical story right from a primary source.<\/p>\n

“Somewhere In The Night<\/a>“<\/span>
\nThe first thing Scott Bakula did upon his arrival was perform this song live on stage with Velton Ray Bunch. \u00a0Bakula wrote it for the episode “Piano Man” in the third season. \u00a0It was probably the last thing I expected from this convention and thus a pretty cool surprise. \u00a0And I’m still kicking myself for not making this a Local Boy tune in TP…<\/p>\n

Fan Fiction Contest<\/span>
\nI wrote a story for this while taking a break from my new novel Duty Calls<\/em>. \u00a0Came at a perfect time as I wasn’t really feeling the jury story so this gave me a new focus with a deadline. \u00a0My submission was shortlisted as a top-10 finalist, but I didn’t win. (Seems I came in at #5 if this list<\/a> ranks them in order, but I’m not sure.) \u00a0Re-reading it a few months later I’m still proud of it which says something, thought I did notice a couple of annoying verb tense errors leftover from a last minute rewrite \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

All of the finalists will be published in an e-zine in a few weeks that I’ll link to when it becomes available.<\/p>\n

Video Tribute to Dean Stockwell<\/span>
\nSadly, Al had to back out of the convention about a week beforehand for personal reasons. \u00a0He did phone in during one of the panels which was nice, but the half hour compilation of his best scenes they put together might have been my favorite part of the whole weekend. \u00a0Which is a nice segue into…<\/p>\n

Disappointments:<\/strong><\/p>\n

No episode screenings & minimal clips<\/span>
\nWhen the preliminary schedule came out only 3 episode showings were listed. \u00a0I was a little surprised since I was expecting a bit of a marathon, but these were 3 good choices (“The Pilot,” “The Leap Back,” and “Mirror Image”) and it made sense to go with the first, the last, and the convention’s namesake. \u00a0Throw in some clips with commentary by the wealth of guest stars in attendance (over 50 of them) and it would be a great QL fix.<\/p>\n

But for some reason all of these episode screenings ended up being scrapped, presumably for time when panels or auctions ran long. \u00a0Aside from the aforementioned “A Leap To Di For” we didn’t see a single episode all weekend.<\/p>\n

Clips were also few and far between. \u00a0There was a nice tribute to the late Dennis Wolfberg (aka Gooshie) that compiled all of his scenes. \u00a0Before each of the 6 guest star panels clips were shown from each actor’s appearance, but these clips were short and on some of the later panels they were not shown at all. \u00a0A few times I had to Google actor names on my phone and share the results with people around me when we couldn’t figure out who someone was.<\/p>\n

Perhaps my expectations were out of line, but there seemed to be a missed opportunity for more. \u00a0For example there were 4 or 5 guests from the episode “Lee Harvey Oswald” present. \u00a0Showing that classic ep either in its entirety or as a sequence of highlights interspersed with discussion would have been great!<\/p>\n

Even the Stockwell tribute time-traveled around the schedule until fans (especially the ones in my row) were practically begging for it in the closing minutes of the last day. \u00a0On one hand I can see how the majority of attendees probably own the DVDs and can watch the episodes whenever they want. \u00a0But there’s something to be said about the camaraderie of watching your favorite show amidst hundreds of like-minded fans in one place. \u00a0We got that in part during Al’s highlights, but it could have been so much more.<\/p>\n

Too Much Non-QL Content
\n<\/span>This was probably the part that annoyed me the most, primarily because it underscored the fact that we could have been watching episodes instead.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it felt like I was at a Scott Bakula convention rather than a pure Quantum Leap Convention. \u00a0Stories and anecdotes often meandered into Star Trek a bit too much for my liking. \u00a0(I love Quantum Leap, but I loathe Trek in almost all of its incarnations.) \u00a0Even the auction items were at least 40% related to other Bakula projects.<\/p>\n

More off-topic content included a presentation on how TV shows are made that revolved around Enterprise (to be fair the guy presenting worked on both shows), a magic show (amusing at times, but the relevency is still a little lost on me aside from a season 3 episode called “The Great Spontini”), and a lengthy video presentation on Deborah Pratt’s new Vision Quest<\/em> book trilogy (but I’ll give her a pass for her other contributions to the convention).<\/p>\n

Nothing was particularly wrong or bad about any of these side events in and of themselves, but because they seemed to take away from time that could have been spent showing episodes or clips they became disappointments. \u00a0I wish that the display room had a TV in it showing episodes the whole time as a compromise to my two objections.<\/p>\n

Closing Thoughts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

But these quibbles aside, for the most part I enjoyed myself and was glad to have taken the time to reminisce about what was once my favorite show. \u00a0It also lead me to have my own Quantum Leap screenings at home to re-watch some of the episodes the panelists starred in for the first time in years.<\/p>\n

What has really stuck with me over the last week was something an audience member said before presenting a question to Bakula & Bellisario. \u00a0Paraphrasing:<\/p>\n

“Quantum Leap was my favorite show when I was 13, and to this day when I find myself in a tough situation I always ask myself ‘What would Sam Beckett do?'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hadn’t ever really given it much thought before, but I wonder if subconsciously I’ve done the same thing. \u00a0I know Quantum Leap was directly responsible for fueling my time travel obsession and thus was a big factor in the path that brought me to Timely Persuasion<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0But was there more to it than that? \u00a0Did watching this show religiously at an impressionable age help make me who I am today? \u00a0In the words of Al the Bartender:<\/p>\n

“The lives you’ve touched, touched others. And those lives, others! You’ve done a lot of good Sam Beckett. And you can do a lot more.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe there is a little Sam Beckett in me.<\/p>\n

And maybe there’s a little Sam Beckett in all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 was a little skeptical about…<\/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":[4],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-time-travel","tag-quantum-leap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-8O","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":537,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/the-tweet-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":0},"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":546,"position":1},"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":814,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/ziggy-for-iphone\/","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":2},"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":2194,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-chapter-commentary-6-cornfields\/","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":3},"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":[]},{"id":689,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/technical-difficulties\/","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":4},"title":"Technical Difficulties","author":"LBDG","date":"July 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Seems my first try at posting the Quantum Leap fanfic story ran into a little bit of a technical snafu.\u00c2\u00a0 iWeb was converting the text to an image, and the image was so large that some browsers were choking on it.\u00c2\u00a0 I did some tweaking and now it should be\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":192,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/the-quantum-leap-connection\/","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":5},"title":"The Quantum Leap Connection","author":"LBDG","date":"October 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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\/546","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=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2838,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions\/2838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}