Television: 'Quantum Leap: Catch A Falling Star' (Episode 2x10) (1989)

Sometimes 'Quantum Leap' falls too heavy, and sometimes too light, but its sweet spot is a fascinating one in that it falls somewhere in 'other' or 'not easily classified'. When it works, it just blows everything else out of the water. 'Catch A Falling Star' is one of my favourite episodes, and one of the earliest that I saw repeatedly. It's a departure from the heavy seriousness and solemnity of the preceding shows, without selling the show out to pantomime, and it's also a wonderful mini-adaptation of the stage musical 'Man of La Mancha' into the bargain.

The curious thing about the series, is that it only really lives when the problems to be solved are comparatively small and trivial. Yes, it's good to talk about social issues, but 'Quincy, ME' does that better, and without throwing leaden weights of drama into the experience. This time, in contrast, Sam leaps into an understudy, who must stop the headlining actor of an off Broadway (way off Broadway) production from falling down some steps and crippling himself, but really it's about dealing with the crush he had for his piano teacher when he was a kid. You see, she's the new understudy for 'Dulcinea'...

It's a great little episode, and indulgent with the stagecraft. We may not have really needed to see and hear so many excerpts from the production, but it really makes this one distinct. You get the feeling that the whole thing popped out of the production schedule as the one they all wanted to make. Also, in a rare moment of infatuation, I can be entranced all over again in empathy with our time travelling hero by his unrequited love. Donald P Bellisario, for all of his sometime sexism, absolutely knew how to cast his shows to the best effect, and this time we got Michele Pawk, the divine Dulcinea. Nowhere else is she to really be found easily on screen, but just for one episode you get to watch entranced and enraptured. Sometimes it's okay to do that, if the story is substantial enough, and its not obvious cheesecake. She was special in this episode... Sam's journey into maturity by finally rejecting his own scheme to not save the day, and therefore stay with her forever, is one of the great ones.

This is also one of the episodes where Dean Stockwell is used minimally but perfectly, as one of his greatest moments approaches in a later episode... Never again will that climb up the steps on the stage, at the end of this show, be forgotten, as he and Bakula chat to one another after his musical performance, and it finally climaxes in the grand blue flash of Leaping. Maybe it's just because I watched it early, but this is one of the great ones. Go, 'Quantum Leap', go! You're finally on a roll!

Coming soon: 'Future Boy'. Yes!

O.