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When shows like “Quantum Leap” and “Northern Exposure”
were being produced no one realized that secondary rights
for songs and music would be a big problem for DVD because,
well, there were no DVDs then. “Quantum Leap” has been victimized
by this problem and Universal has seemingly been unwilling
or unable to secure the rights to important music for many
of the best episodes here. The logical thing to do would
be to re-record the music with a sound alike band or musician.
Instead, Universal opted to take the cheap and cheesy way
out many times by substituting generic music which undermined
the emotional power of many of the best episodes of “Quantum
Leap”. That wasn’t always the case as the first season of
the show demonstrated where Universal was able to license
ALL the music for the episodes produced. Unfortunately we
in the United States are stuck with thee music replacements
while in Europe they get the complete uncut episodes. ***
Why am I going into all of this? Because having the
unedited editions of “Quantum Leap” is important to fans
of the show. They want it the way it was broadcast. Unfortunately
we get another season where music “May be Replaced” according
to the small disclosure on the box. Guys, if you’re going
to put out this show put it out right the first time. I’ll
forgo any extras if we can have all the original music for
the series. So when you release season five (which is forthcoming)
please, please release it intact as you did the first season.
Seasons four and five were among the best in the series.
I’d like them to be as I remembered them otherwise why buy
this set when you can burn them yourself? ***
We get a number of terrific episodes during the fourth
season of the show. In "The Leap Back" Sam and Al switch
places when lightning hits just as Sam is about to make
his leap. The "leap" that introduces the episode is like
many of these not the original one seen in the network showing
but from an earlier unrelated episode. "Raped" is a memorable
episode where Sam is thrown into the body of a woman who
has been raped. No one wants to believe "her" because the
person accused is the son of a prominent member of the community.
In "Temptation Eyes" a serial murderer is at work and Sam
becomes a TV reporter that must prevent the psychic helping
the police from becoming the next victim. "It's a Wonderful
Leap" has Sam as a New York cab driver trying to earn his
medallion. He runs over a lady who claims to be an angel
there to help Sam achieve his mission which makes it tough
for Al because the two don't get along. "A Leap for Lisa"
is a terrific episode in which Sam leaps into Al as a navy
pilot facing rape and murder charges. Sam changes history
by asking a key witness not to testify on his behalf and
it becomes clear that Al may be put on trial.
Image & Sound:
As with the previous seasons the picture is occasionally
rough looking with dirt, speckles and other analog elements
evident in the picture. Also the image quality is occasionally
soft with some minor compression artifacts. The grain in
the image is due more to the film stock and exposure of
the film but, on occasion, there will be grain issues related
to digital compression. On the whole the show looks extremely
good when considering the age of the series. Colors are
solid for the most part. The stereo sound is quite good
although little is made of the potential for directional
effects in some episodes. On the whole Universal has done
a good job with “Quantum Leap”.
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