The Quantum Leap Book - Louis Chunovic / Boxtree œ12.99

                      Reviewed by Sue

Since I first mentioned Quantum Leap in SynTax, I've discovered
just how many of you are keen on the program. It was Graham Cluley
who mentioned The Quantum Leap Book to us in an earlier issue of
SynTax, and I immediately put in an order at our local Words Worth
bookshop. A few days later came the phone call - it was in. Great!

The book is a large format paperback of 160 pages and is the
official publication of the TV series. Graham had told me that
there were a few errors in it and I found some immediately - some
were very obvious such as an incorrect storyline. If there are
further errors in the book in the form of incorrect original
transmission dates or minor inaccuracies, I wouldn't notice. But,
even so, the book is an excellent read.

The book starts with an interview with QL's creator, Donald
Bellisario. He explains how he got the idea for the series,
selling the program to the network, casting the major characters
and other facts about the show.  This is followed by biographies
of the two main characters, Sam Beckett and Al Calavicci, and the
theory behind the show ... the basic structure of each story
including the main features such as the arena it is set in, the
'ticking clock' which runs in each episode, the 'kiss with
history' (one of my favourites was the young Donald Trump being
given the idea for Trump Tower by Sam in a recent episode) and so
forth.

Then follows a list of all the episodes, giving the title and date
of the Leap, listing in each case the Leap itself (when does Sam
leap into and where), the heart story (the emotional core of the
storyline) and the kiss with history (if any). The seasons covered
are winter/spring 1989, 1989-91 and 1990-91. All the Leaps are
then listed in chronological order from June 22nd 1952 (A Leap for
Lisa) to June 15th 1999 (A Leap Back), together with photos from
many of the episodes and brief storylines of each.


The remainder of the book contains several interviews - one with
Production Designer, Cameron Birnie (what do you do when you can't
get hold of an X-2 rocket plane?), one with Costume Designer
Jean-Paul Dorleac, and one each with Scott Bakula and Dean
Stockwell, and finally, a description of a day with the crew and
cast of Quantum Leap and official biographies of Dean, Scott,
Donald Bellisario and Deborah Pratt, writer and co-executive
producer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It may not have taken me long to
read (just one evening) but I have no doubt I will re-read it
several times in the future.  There were many facts in it that I
didn't know and found interesting - the number of awards won by
the program, crew or cast, in one form or another - that Deborah
Pratt is Mrs Bellisario - the long hours worked on the programme,
they have only had 2 days in the last 3 1/2 years when they
haven't worked a 12-14 hour day - the length of time taken and
cost incurred in making an average episode - little jokes made by
the crew such as some of the hieroglyphics in the episode entitled
'The Curse of Ptah-Hotep'; I wish that I still had that episode on
tape so I could look for a pharaoh smoking a cigarette, Rolling
Stones' tongues and Bart Simpson!

If you're a fan of the series too (I've only missed one episode
during its run when I set the darn video recorder up wrongly and
got some nonsensical Channel 4 play!), I'm sure you'll enjoy this
book as much as I did. It will certainly give you a lot of respect
for the crew and actors who make the programme look so easy and
effortless but who put so much time into creating it. The fact
that they get so much fun out of making it must have a lot to do
with it.
                                                 Sue







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