The BEST episodes of Quantum Leap
Every episode of Quantum Leap ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Quantum Leap!
Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.
#1 - The Leap Home (2): Vietnam
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/1990
April 7, 1970: As a Navy SEAL in his own brother's squad, Sam must determine whether he is there to save Tom's life or ensure the success of the mission on which his brother was killed. Also Al from 1970 was a P.O.W.
#2 - Glitter Rock
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 4/10/1991
April 12, 1974: Sam is a glitter rock star in danger of being stabbed to death after a performance, unless Sam can determine who, from a growing list of people, the real killer is.
#3 - Ghost Ship
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/4/1992
August 13, 1956: Flying over the Bermuda Triangle, Sam, as the co-pilot, must prevent the flight from returning to Virginia, to get a seriously ill passenger to a doctor before she dies. Flying through the triangle is riskier than it seems, and Sam, deprived of Al's help when the hologram fades out, must get them through alive.
#4 - The Wrong Stuff
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/6/1991
January 24, 1961: The fates make a monkey out of Sam when he leaps into Bobo, an astro-chimp who must avoid succumbing to the experiments of an Air Force neurologist.
#5 - The Leap Home (1)
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/1990
November 25, 1969: As himself at the age of 16, Sam has the opportunity to both win the high school basketball championship and save his family from their sad fates.
#6 - Leaping of the Shrew
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/1992
September 27, 1956: It's Robinson Crusoe with a twist when Sam leaps into a Greek sailor stranded on a deserted island with a beautiful young rich woman who appears to be less than fond of both him and their stranded situation.
#7 - Hurricane
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/2/1991
August 17, 1969: Sam meets Camille, and possibly a killer, when he leaps into a deputy sheriff in a small Mississippi town, lying in the path of a deadly hurricane.
#8 - The Leap Back
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/1991
June 15, 1945: Struck by lightning, Sam and Al find their roles reversed, as Sam returns to the future, and to a long-lost love, while Al leaps back to 1945 to prevent the death of a returning World War II hero and his former girlfriend.
#9 - Private Dancer
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/20/1991
October 6, 1979: An aspiring dancer working as a waitress in a strip club is in danger of being led into a life of prostitution unless Sam, as "Rod the Bod," can convince her to audition for a spot in a professional dance group. But, since she's deaf, the choreographer doesn't believe she has the time to give the young lady the attention she'll need.
#10 - A Hunting We Will Go
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/18/1991
June 18, 1976: It's the leap from hell as Sam, a bounty hunter handcuffed to a wily embezzler who will stop at nothing to get away from him, has to deal with his captive, as well as his attraction towards her, despite her countless attacks on him.
#11 - Nowhere to Run
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/6/1992
August 10, 1968: As a Marine captain whose legs were amputated after a mishap in Vietnam, Sam finds himself in a veteran's hospital, where he must prevent the suicide of a fellow patient who would rather be dead than face life paralyzed from the neck down. Making matters worse, his wife seems incapable of accepting the fact that she and Sam's host can still lead a normal life, in spite of his condition.
#12 - Another Mother
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/10/1990
September 30, 1981: As a divorced mother of three, Sam's job of preventing his teenage son from running away, never to be seen again, is made more interesting by the fact that his youngest daughter can see both him and Al.
#13 - Good Morning, Peoria
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/8/1989
September 9, 1959: Rock 'n' roll is about to become big, but not in Peoria. That is, unless Sam, as DJ Howlin' Chick Howell, can manage to keep the radio station where he's employed from being shut down by overly conservative town elders.
#14 - Shock Theater
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/22/1991
October 3, 1954: Leaping into Sam Bederman, a mental patient who is suffering from acute depression, Sam receives an overloaded electroshock treatment, which causes his Swiss-cheesed memory to be replaced by personas from previous leaps. Al, finding himself visible to the mentally absent, must try to complete Sam's mission, and convince him to take another shock treatment, in order to leap Sam out before contact is lost forever.
#15 - A Little Miracle
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/21/1990
December 24, 1962: On Christmas Eve, Sam leap into Reginald Pierson, valet to a wealthy contractor, who is in danger of losing his soul in an attempt to demolish a Salvation Army mission, so he can build his "Blake's Plaza." Seeing a similarity to the Dickens's character, Sam and Al decide to "Scrooge" the greed out of the man.
#16 - Her Charm
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/7/1990
September 26, 1973: Protecting a female member of the witness protection program from a mafia hitman proves difficult for Sam, since the FBI appears to have an informant confounding his attempts to hide her.
#17 - Deliver Us from Evil
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/10/1992
March 19, 1966: Things are already on there way downhill when Sam leaps back into Jimmy LaMotta. Despite Sam's inaction, history continues to change for the worst. The cause is unknown until Sam discovers another time traveler on the scene, one who's determined to destroy Jimmy's family, as well as Sam.
#18 - Nuclear Family
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/15/1991
October 26, 1962: Sam finds himself the brother of a fallout shelter salesman during the Cuban Missile Crisis, where he must defuse a potentially explosive situation as panic sets in on the night of John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation.
#19 - Jimmy
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/22/1989
October 14, 1964: Since mainstreaming the mentally retarded is not yet a popular concept, Sam must help Jimmy LaMotta, the "slow" young man he's leaped into, get a job and gain his coworkers' acceptance, to prevent his brother from returning Jimmy to the institution.
#20 - M.I.A.
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/9/1990
April 1, 1969: When Sam leaps into the life of an undercover cop, Al explains that his mission is to convince a navy nurse that her MIA husband is still alive, and to prevent her from marrying a lawyer she meets on the day Sam leaps in. But a series of coincidences causes Sam to wonder about the true nature of his mission.
#21 - Play It Again, Seymour
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/17/1989
April 14, 1953: With looks that could double for Humphrey Bogart, Sam is Nick Allen, a private investigator looking for the murderer of his partner and, if he doesn't find the answer in time, himself. The case is solved with a number of Casablanca references as Sam launches a new pulp novelist along the way.
#22 - Blind Faith
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/1/1989
February 6, 1964: Although the concert pianist he leaps into is blind, a fact, which bothers his girlfriend's disapproving mother, Sam can still see. At least until an exploding flashbulb blinds him at the crucial moment: when he must rescue his girlfriend from a serial killer.
#23 - Catch a Falling Star
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/6/1989
May 21, 1979: Sam leaps into Ray Hutton, the understudy for the role of Cervantes just seconds before curtain time. His mission: prevent the drunken star from falling and seriously injuring himself during a benefit performance of "Man of La Mancha." Sam isn't helped by the presence of his former piano teacher, on whom he once had a crush, and who now appears to have caught the star's eye as well.
#24 - The Beast Within
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/16/1993
November 6, 1972: Sam leaps into Henry Adams, one of a trio of friends who fought in Vietnam and came home each with their own personal scars and the memory of a lost buddy. He has to save the life of a friend, Roy, as well as of a young boy, Daniel, who ventures into the woods of Washington looking for proof of Bigfoot.
#25 - Camikazi Kid
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/10/1989
June 6, 1961: As a high school nerd, Sam is required to prevent the marriage of his sister to an abusive drinker, with the wedding only three days away. By drag racing the prospective husband, beating him with a car that couldn't have won without nitrous oxide, Sam shows the groom's true tendencies.
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