Beyond the lifetime of Dr. Sam Beckett, the 'Quantum Leap' technology would be refined and improved until a leaper could pinpoint exactly his target choice to be the "leapee" and be able to leap back quite a bit further than his or her own lifetime.
But the U.S. government probably took control of the experiment away from Dr. Beckett's team to keep it from falling into enemy hands. However, like the secrets of atomic technology and the cloaking device, it would eventually get out. 'Quantum Leap' technology would be obtained not only by other governments, but by rogue terrorist cells and by individuals wealthy enough to start up their own facilities.
One of those wealthy individuals could have been this man from the future, whom we'll call "The Time Traveler":
"Outlaw's Inheritance" - episode 38
"Boomerang" - episode 39
"Panic" - episode 47
"The Jailbird" - episode 73
"The Promoter" - episode 87
"The Wyoming Story" - episodes 96 & 97
"The Stand-In" - episode 114
And while his leapee victims were in linear order along the Toobworld timeline as seen by those around him, his trips back in Time to North Fork could have bounced him back and forth chronologically from his perspective.. His first leapee victim could have been the last role played by Dabbs Greer on 'The Rifleman', not the first.
Here's the order in which I think this Time Traveler leapt into those lives from North Fork:
"Outlaw's Inheritance"
"The Jailbird"
"The Promoter"
"Panic"
"The Stand-In"
"Boomerang"
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| Researching North Fork, New Mexico.... |
Eventually the trips must have been insufficient for his kicks and he decided to get more involved in the life of North Fork - to the detriment of others. (It could be the continuing trips back and forth by leaping gave him a "swiss-cheese brain" and caused paranoid dementia.) For example, as Farley Steel upon his release from prison, the Time Traveler looks to have claimed "primo noche" with Missus Steel, if you know what I mean, nudge nudge wink wink.
He would have leapt farther back in time, to when the McCains were housing and caring for a young couple who had yellow fever. Taking over the life of a former Civil War vet by the name of Brett, he tried to stir up the town against McCain for putting them all at risk. By doing this, he hoped the others would burn down the McCain ranch-house. But Lucas was able to persuade them to fight their fears and go back home.
This time the Time Traveler came back into the life of a Yuma prison guard named Taylor and he came up with a plan to get revenge on McCain. He engineered the escape of a prisoner in transport, making the criminal think it was his idea. And then he suggested the perfect substitute to take back to the Yuma prison in his place:
And so Lucas was kidnapped by these two corrupt prison guards and was being transported back to Yuma when there was a falling out between the two. As Taylor, the Time Traveler tried to make a subtle suggestion to his partner that they would be better off letting McCain escape. To his way of thinking, the Time Traveler probably hoped to shoot McCain dead as he tried to get away.
But his partner misinterpreted Taylor's suggestion and saw it for weakness. So he shot Taylor dead before he could tell the Yuma officials what exactly happened. The Time Traveler was able to leap out and send the real Taylor back to take the bullet meant for him.
Maybe it was Jack Logan, or Captain Jack Harkness or Captain Jon Hart or agents Lucsly and Dulmur. But some time agent would have been sent back to eliminate the threat posed by the North Fork visitor from the Future.
The time agent may have even leapt into the life of Potter, the other prison guard*, but was then unsuccessful in killing the Time Traveler as Taylor. So as a back-up plan, he arrived in the saloon just before the Time Traveler leapt into the life of boozed-up farmer Sam Elder and surreptitiously poisoned his last drink.
As Sam Elder, the Time Traveler probably decided to play out the life of the drunkard while he waited for the chance to attack Lucas McCain once more. So, along with his "son", he confronted John Hamilton the banker over getting an extension on his credit. By this time, the poison was taking effect. After being refused by Hamilton, "Sam Elder" staggered out into the streets where he died, too far gone to activate the leap home.
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| "Where am I?" |
To make right what once went wrong, the time agents would have had to find some new life for the real Sam Elder once he was released from the waiting room in the Time Traveler's 'Quantum Leap' apparatus. Since Sam Elder was considered dead in the 1880's, he couldn't go back there. Instead they probably took him to another spot in the Future, perhaps to the 30th Century. There he began a new life, perhaps got a new wife, and then raised a son named Paul who would grow up to become a communications officer for 'Space Patrol'. And thanks to tele-genetics, Paul would look just like his dad, Sam Elder.......
Hey, it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble......
BCnU!
* Another quantum leaper rather than a 'Timecop' would be a good splainin for all of the Richard Devon roles on 'The Rifleman', among them Potter the prison guard.
Very cool, as always.
ReplyDeleteAre any other Dabbs Greer characters likely to be earlier versions of his leaper? I don't think he could be Rev. Alden on Little House (which was roughly contempary to The Rifleman, in the 1870s and 1880s), but according to his wiki article, he appeared three times on the classic syndicated Adventures of Superman---all of which are highly likely to be visits by his leaper! However, this requires Toobworld to have a Superman, and I don't know if it does.
In the 1952 episode, Superman on Earth, he was the first person ever to be saved by Superman. Hmm, sounds like a legitimate role to leap into, since originally he was a tourist of sorts.
In the 1954 episode, Five Minutes to Doom, he was a man framed for capital murder. That could have been an early, random leap.
Finally in the 1958 episode, The Superman Silver Mine, he was an eccentric millionaire. Sounds like another leap, perhaps another early and random leap. Sam frequently sounded like he was nuts, between his reactions to his sudden appearances and his apparently one-side conversations with Al.
Greer had two roles as prison guard on death row, but because the second one is the older version of Tom Hanks' character in The Green Mile, I think this one is an obvious pass.
However, he did have three priestly roles beyond Little House, which might have amused the leaper. He married Rob and Laura Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke show, married Mike and Carol Brady on the Brady Bunch, and a recurring role on Picket Fences. Skipping the Picket Fences part because I don't know the show, he might have married the Petries and the Bradys partly because the men were somewhat famous in their field--Rob Petrie as the head writer of a comedy variety show filmed in New York, Mike Brady a successful Los Angeles architect--but also because Rob Petrie's boss and the star of the show he wrote for...was a man named Alan Brady, a probable distant cousin or uncle to Mike. (We got to meet Mike's grandfather once, Hank Brady, in a 4th season episode.) Both Hank and Alan could be described as sticks-in-the-mud. Greer had four appearances on the Dick Van Dyke Show and it is barely possible they were all the leaper---a Mr. Berger who was on a grand jury with Rob, Chaplain Berger, an episode where Rob was out of work with a new house and no furniture and a pregnant wife, and the episode that related whene Rob was a radio DJ on a marathon and suddenly had to get to his job interview with Alan Brady in another city---to the reporter played by Greer's character. All key points in his life and it looks like the leaper took an interest in Rob, then Alan's cousin or nephew Mike.
Then there was an episode of LA Law, where his character liked to get high off toad-licking. That might partially splain his interest in Lucas, if he was busy getting high just before he first encountered Lucas on his own timeline.
Gordon Long