In Review: Quantum Leap (S1 – EP3) Somebody Up There Likes Ben

Synopsis: Ben Leaps into the body of a boxer in 1977 Las Vegas and discovers that he has to fight in a title match and save the boxer’s older brother from suicide.

The Story

Ben leaps into the body of Boxer Danny Hill on the eve of a title shot with the world champion. As the episode unfolds we find out that in the original timeline. Danny lost the fight due to him being distracted. Initially, we are led to believe that the distraction was due to the fact that Danny was dating the champion’s girlfriend. But it soon becomes clear that its a much bigger issue than that when we learn that Danny’s brother Daryl is a veteran of the Vietnam war and is suffering from a serious case of PTSD. So Ben has to both win the fight and somehow get his big brother to deal with his PTSD. Added to that is the fact that Addison is suffering from exhaustion.

Back in the present. Ian reveals that Ben’s new code for the Quantum Leap excellorator had been designed to make it so he can slingshot to a particular point in time space, which has caused Ben to leap to a time that is outside of his own timeline. Magic continues his investigation and learns that Janis Calavicci has gotten hold of some things that her late Father Al Calavicci had kept from the original Quantum Leap project. These things included Al’s hand link device, which allowed him to communicate with the computer Ziggy. Seemingly Janis is looking to try and start leaping herself to possibly try and find Sam Beckett. 

The Acting

We get solid performances from all the main cast in this week’s episode as things begin to click into place. I quite like the relationship that is developing between Addison (Caitlin Bassett) and Ian (Mason Alexander Park) as it gives us something that we never saw in the original series. A friend for the Hologram aid the leaper to lean on. Ernie Hudson continues to prove to be a pretty flexible leader, which kind of plays against type given that Magic is from a military background.

We also get a solid performance from Raymond Lee as Ben who gets to show off some of his emotional range as an actor. I particularly enjoyed the scene between him and Bayardo De Murguia when Ben was trying to get Danny’s brother to get some help with his PTSD.

Overall

This episode felt like an improvement over the last two when it comes to the story and narrative. At last the series is starting to do a little of what the original series did best when it comes to dealing with some rather complex societal issues.

I enjoyed the discussion on PTSD but would have liked to have seen a bit of a deeper dive into it. As there are very different kinds of PTSD in that it does not manifest the same way in every case.

I’m quite enjoying the scenes where we see what is going on behind the scenes on the Leap. As in seeing what is going on from Addison’s point of view. But I’d like to see a little of what happens in the Quantum Leap waiting room. I.E. the place where the people go to whenever the Leaper is working on their behalf. We got to see a little of this in the OG series when Sam lept into Doctor Ruth. But it would be cool to see some more stuff from that perspective.

Overall. This is a slight improvement over the last couple of weeks.