Awful Time Travel TV: The Evil Leaper

[originally written for overtimecomedy.com on 9/21/07]

Part 4 of 5

The basic premise of Quantum Leap was simple, Sam Beckett is the smartest man alive, so he builds a time machine to go back and fix things with his superior intellect. Then came the time travel gimmick to end all time travel gimmicks. They undermined the entire concept of the show by introducing the Evil Leaper. Really?

It’s somehow not enough that Sam’s charged with fixing every bad thing to happen ever. Now he has to face-off against some chick who’s equally as smart, but built a time machine just to fuck with people. Sam is no longer the smartest guy in the world, he’s just another dude with a time machine. Quantum Leap was a fully formed, 3-dimensional world, but the Evil Leaper was just flatly evil. She might as well have been a pirate or a witch or a pirate-witch for all the depth they gave her. Thank you, Quantum Leap writers, for ruining the best time travel show of all time. (Dr. Who fans, keep your disdain to yourselves)