Quantum Leap Returns! How It’s Changed… And Where The Stars Would Go Back In Time

By Delaina Dixon | September 19, 2022 | Entertainment

Quantum Leap is back! The beloved series that premiered in 1989 and lasted five seasons has a new cast and problems, but it’s still all about traveling back in time to fix things that originally went wrong. As Dr. Beckett would say, “Oh, boy!”

Raymond Lee plays Dr. Ben Song, another brilliant physicist who is working on the recently resurrected time travel project after decades of abandonment. And yes, the actor understands he has major boots to fill. “There will never be another Dr. Sam Beckett,” Lee confesses. “But what we’ve created is a brand new show with brand new characters, and we’re really excited to bring this show to you.”

Are the original show and the new version interlinked?

In some aspects. Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame plays Herbert “Magic” Williams, a character Dr. Sam Beckett inhabited back in season 3 when he leaped into the Vietnam war. In tonight’s first episode, Ben steps into the accelator and vanishes, and we learn that there’s a mysterious tie to the project through a relative of Al, who was played by the late Dean Stockwell. But the show has been designed for newcomers to be able to connect to this new generation of time travel.

Any homages to Dr. Beckett?

We’re expecting the show to drop a ton of easter eggs, but for Lee, there’s an even more cerebral tie. “What connects Ben Song and Sam Beckett are the main tenets of their belief in doing good and what it means to be empathetic. And I think through that, as they pass through bodies, they’ll have a joint experience of agreeing on the fact that they’re both doing right what once,” he shares.

Where would they travel?

Hudson and Song share what time period they would travel back to if given the chance.

For Hudson it’s “the ’60s, just in terms of I think I could have had more fun,” he shared. “It was a period that a lot of things were going on. I’d love to kind of revisit some of that… I’d love a different perspective of it.”

Lee is staying a little closer to home. “I would go back to the early 2000s. I know that’s not too far back, but, man, it was a fun time,” he declares.” Sugar Ray was on the radio. Blink 182, like, (audio unintelligible). I wore board shorts every day.”

Shorts every single day? We get it, Raymond!

Quantum Leap, a new chapter, premieres Monday, Sept 19 at 10 p.m. on NBC.

photo credit: NBC Media