Between “O Ye Of Little Faith,” “Leap, Die, Repeat” and the first season finale, Margarita Matthews has written some of my all-time favorite Quantum Leap episodes. And that’s no easy feat, believe me. So I couldn’t help but fangirl a little when she sat down with me to discuss this week’s episode, “A Kind of Magic.”
Quantum Leap’s Balancing Act
Quantum Leap has to do something of a balancing act each week. Every Leap has high stakes, but the show can’t lose itself in the drama. It can always be depended upon to leave viewers with a feel-good ending, so it has to balance dramatic tension with humor. This week’s episode, “A Kind of Magic,” managed that dichotomy in tone with ease. I asked Margarita how she handles that kind of balancing act, as a writer. Unsurprisingly, her answer comes down to Ben (Raymond Lee).
“It’s definitely a challenge. I think for me, the honest truth is that I go with my gut when I’m writing. If it feels like this– if something feels funny to me in the moment, I just go with it. Usually, it works out okay, because I never lose sight of the fact that it also matters and the stakes are very real. … I feel like, at the end of the day, my agreement with sort of like the viewers is that we’re on the same page that like we care about Ben.”
Of course, tone isn’t the only thing the writers of Quantum Leap have to balance. The show takes place in the real world – or a marginally different one, impacted by the positive changes Ben’s made in the past. This week’s episode takes place in a town close-to-but-not-quite Salem and is inspired by events that happened in that notorious time and place. So how do the writers manage to balance real world historical fact with fantasy fiction?
With a lot of research, as it turns out. And with the help of real-world experts, when the situation calls for it (as it did in the first season’s “Leap, Die, Repeat“). Naturally, there will be some deviations from known history. However, Margarita acknowledged the importance of respecting the original history, particularly when it’s as well-documented as the Salem Witch Trials have been. And respecting the fans who are well-versed in that history, not wanting to pull them out of the world of the show with too many historical inaccuracies. Or at least giving a nod in-universe when such deviations are made, such as this episode’s acknowledgment that no witches in Salem were burned at the stake.
By Fans, For Fans
What came across more than anything in my interview with Margarita was that she loves Quantum Leap as much as the fans do. The writer’s room is very aware that they are picking up a torch that was left to them by their predecessor series. And, as much as possible, they try to leave nods to the fans of that show, to pay tribute to what has come before.
As Margarita put it, “In the Exorcist episode [1×07 “O Ye of Little Faith”], I put the house number, the 666, which was a direct pull from “The Boogieman” episode [3×05] in the original show. There was a moment where we were running out of time and it was like, “Maybe we don’t need this beat.” It’s like, ‘We have to do it for the fans.’ … I think, for me, that’s my favorite part to be able to do that. I think it’s sort of like real wish fulfillment for me as a reader, watcher, turned writer. It’s like you get to take these favorite moments from your favorite shows or your favorite books or whatever and say, ‘Hey, I was there for that and now I get to play in that universe.’ That’s a lot of fun.”
Love and Sacrifice
It isn’t all fun and games. Not this season, when grief and how we process it and carry on through it are such huge themes. We discussed those themes a little, particularly in terms of how the writers try to acknowledge the ongoing absence of the original Quantum Leap‘s Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula). He was the first Leaper, and he never made it home. There’s a decent chance Ben will have the same fate.
Which ties in to the suggestion of sacrifice, which Tom (Peter Gadiot) raised earlier this season. As Margarita explains, “Yes, this show is all about leaping to save lives and change things for the better. It’s all about love. … Those things can come at a cost, and that there is a certain level of sacrifice. Ben leaps in and he gets to do all these incredible things for humanity, but look at what he had to give up and look at what Addison (Caitlin Bassett) had to give up and look at what every single character has had to give up. That was something that we really wanted to explore in this season is what if the quantum accelerator runs on sacrifice a little bit and what does that mean and how do we as writers and as an audience get through that together?”
Shippers Gonna Ship
Naturally, I couldn’t leave the interview without touching on the subject of ships. Shipping often makes the world of fandom go ’round, after all. Shippers may want the same things that the writers do, but we often want it at a different pace. Like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory‘s Veruca Salt, we want it NOW! While writers are more focused on the long game. So how do they balance those two demands?
Fans like me, whose shipper hearts may be feeling a little bruised right now, can rest assured that the writers are listening. As Margarita put it, “It’s this constant checking in of like, ‘What do we do with that? How quickly can we do something about that? Wait, can they be a little patient and see how this plays out?’ That sort of a thing.”
Can we be patient and see how this plays out? The answer is probably not, no. But I suppose we’ll have to try.
She continued, “… It’s like a roller coaster. When you’re on that ride, sometimes you’re going to be like, ‘I don’t like this part,’ or maybe sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh, that was really scary, but now it’s fun.’ Our hope is that at the end of the day, you get off the roller coaster and you’re like, ‘That was a good ride.'”
We can only hope.
