Quantum Leap: The Complete First Season

A popular sci-fi series during its 1989-93 network run, Quantum Leap won legions of new fans in later years when it entered syndication. Borrowing its basic premise from the mid-‘60s show The Time Tunnel, this series added a narrative gimmick that made the plots more pointed and personal. Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) heads Project Quantum Leap, a time-travel experiment that goes awry when Beckett--testing it out himself--isn't merely transported through time, but winds up temporarily inhabiting the bodies of real people. Initially he is whisked back to 1955 and finds himself in the body of a test pilot, but later first-season episodes are more ambitious: in “The Color of Truth” Beckett lands in the body of an African-American man at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement, while “Double Identity,” a fan favorite, finds him inside a Mafia hitman who may be forced to whack his own “godfather.” Other installments have Beckett inhabiting an English professor, a boxer, and even an acne-ridden teenager. His sole “companion” is Rear Admiral Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), who appears to Beckett in the form of a hologram (projected back through time) that only the scientist can see and hear, offering much-needed advice to help Beckett extricate himself from some awful dilemma. The premise proved irresistible, and many sci-fi fans claimed that Quantum Leap was the best show of its genre: that assertion would be difficult to refute based on the eight first season episodes (including the two-hour pilot) collected in this deluxe boxed set, which also includes a new featurette, optional commentary intros by Bakula, and Easter egg bonus footage. Recommended. (E. Hulse)