Real
Name: Sam Beckett
Sam Beckett
Real
Name: Sam Beckett
Identity/Class: Human mutate (?)
Occupation: Scientist, righter of wrongs
Affiliations: Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci (friend and ally)
Enemies: (former) Alia (the "evil" leaper); (current) Zoe
Known Relatives: Donna Eleese (wife); Captain John Beckett (ancestor); Sammy Jo Fuller (daughter)
Aliases: innumerable people he has replaced.
Base of Operations: Mobile between the years 1953 and 1999.
First Appearance: Quantum Leap #1 "Genesis - September 13, 1956" (NBC, 26 March 1989)
Powers/Abilities: Sam is able to "leap" through time from one point to another anywhere in the world and anytime between that of his birth (1953) and when he first stepped into the quantum accelerator (1999). To begin with it appeared that only Sam's mind was time travelling, swapping bodies with people in the past, but as he continued to leap, it appears that gradually he began to move physically through time too. For five years whenever he leapt he would swap places with someone in the new time, with people at both ends of the jump still seeing the original person (i.e. wherever he landed, he looked like the person he had replaced, and the person, in the present, would take on Sam's appearance). However based on the last recorded leap he made, he is now shifting through time without swapping places with people, so that he has vanished from the present era.
Most of the time Sam has no conscious control over where his leaps will take him, although a few instances have occurred which suggest he might be choosing his destinations on a subconscious level. Up until the point where his body vanished completely from the present, he could maintain contact with his own time through a mental link with his best friend and project overseer, Al (a.k.a. Rear Admiral Calavicci), made possible through matching implants each has in their craniums.
Sam is also a genius, with multiple doctorates, ranging from medicine to quantum physics. He is also a skilled martial artist. However leaping through time "swiss cheeses" the memory, meaning that how much he recalls at any given point is highly variable.
History: Scientist Sam Beckett came up with a theory regarding time travel which would allow someone to travel within the confines of their own lifetime. Seeking to prove his theories before funding was cut, he used the Quantum Accelerator he had designed on himself, and vanished back through time to the past. Now he finds himself under the direction of a mysterious force, temporarily switching places with people in the past, righting things which went wrong, and hoping each time that the next leap would be the leap home.
Comments: Created by Donald P. Bellisario, and played by Scott Bakula. Al was played by Dean Stockwell. The show ran five seasons.
Innovation published a Quantum Leap comic which lasted 13 issues and one special.
CLARIFICATIONS: None.
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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