Television: 'Quantum Leap: M.I.A.' (Episode 2x22) (1990)

This was always a series that was about it's secondary character, the irredeemably scurrilous Al, or Admiral Albert Calavicci in full, as played by Dean Stockwell. Yes, it's supposed to be the story of Scott Bakula's Sam Beckett, but we know the truth. Every time Dean Stockwell stepped up to the plate, the show became that much more fleshed out and nuanced, and this is arguably the best example of that.

'M.I.A.' is the definitely the episode of QL that you know will tear you up before the end. It's the one that explains just why Al is as irrepressible as he seems to be throughout the series, and it also exemplifies just how decent Sam is at his core. He couldn't do a wrong thing even if he wanted to (see also, episode 2x10, 'Catch A Falling Star'). If you didn't love these two guys before, especially Al, then you would after. It's a very rough watch, as will become clear, but it explains so much while setting up character growth in the future.

Donald P Bellisario, creator and showrunner, deployed military characters in all his series, as he was a Marine himself and famously wanted to have positive portrayals of the military and veterans in his series, and presumably liked to use his own experiences to make his characters and shows stronger. This is one of the classiest examples, as Al - the exemplar wisecracker - attempts to trick Sam into changing the past so his wife doesn't take him for dead during his long time missing as an MIA in Vietnam, trapped in a tiny cage in an eternal torture, and so that he won't spend the rest of his life heartbroken. Sadly, it can't be done, as Sam's real mission is elsewhere, and we get one of the most heartrending leaps out in the whole series. Never again will 'Georgia On Your Mind' go by without a moment's thought.

This is why 'Quantum Leap' is excellent: Dean Stockwell is in almost every other appearance a journeyman actor and a solid guy, but in'Quantum Leap' he meets every expectation and doubles it. He is the ideal casting, the only casting, and goes from comical, to touching, to dramatic in seamless fashion. He is the ultimate human counterpart to Scott Bakula's too perfect Sam, and I still wish the series had had a better finale, to bid him adieu in better fashion. Stockwell's humanity added the special ingredient.

'M.I.A.' is one of the best of 'Quantum Leap', and definitely up there on my list of things that will make me cry. That's a sign of purity and excellence indeed.

O.