HOLOGRAMMATICAL ERRORS:
Hologrammatical Error #1: When Al goes
into Bryant's closet, he sees all sorts of "kinky stuff." Since Al
is a hologram, he can't touch anything and he can't see in the dark, so
how can he tell what's in the closet? He only got a brief look while
the door was open, and when he goes into the closet, the door is closed
and it's dark inside? (NM, MPB, SA)
PCR: Perhaps Ziggy can make the image
of Sam's surroundings brighter to allow Al to see better, or perhaps Al
uses the handlink to cast a light, as he does later in "Last Dance Before
an Execution" and "Pool Hall Blues." (GJM, LW)
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE PROJECT:
PROJECT TRIVIA:
Project Trivia #1: Where is Al's handlink? We don't see it at all in this episode. (MPB)
Project Trivia #2: When Al gets dragged off, you can hear the Imaging Chamber door opening, but not see it open. (IMZ) Notice it's the same kind of hinged door that's visible in "Genesis," rather than the sliding door with the blue-white light from later episodes. (BK) Perhaps they were still finalizing the design of the doors, since the Project wasn't finished when Sam Leaped. (GJM)
Project Trivia #3: We don't see the Imaging Chamber door except when Weitzman and the Committee (or their representatives) drag Al away. Al simply appears and disappears; Sam just turns around and he's there (or not there). (MPB)
PROJECT NITS:
Project Nit #1: Are Weitzman and the Committee
in the Imaging Chamber with Al? If so, why don't they figure out
his "Charades" routine sooner? (NM)
PCR #1: Maybe they're just stupid.
Perhaps it's a group of security guards watching Al. TV tradition
always makes security people unbelievably dense. (SA, MPB)
PCR #2: Maybe they didn't see Al pointing
because they were talking amongst themselves. (GJM)
Project Nit #2: Why can't Ziggy monitor
Sam's side of the conversation, since it's through some kind of link that
Ziggy can connect to Al and Sam? Sometimes, in later episodes, it
does seem that Ziggy can see Sam's surroundings and hear what Sam says.
(For example, in "A Tale of Two Sweeties," Ziggy warns Sam to keep away
from the window, and in "The Leap Back," Ziggy "sees" Clifford slug Al.)
(NM, SA, MPB)
PCR: Maybe Ziggy and/or the handlink were
modified at a later date to allow the computer to see and hear Sam.
(Note also, Ziggy is still a "he" here.) (GJM)
Project Nit #3: When Al gets dragged off
in the Imaging Chamber, you can't see who's dragging him. But later,
you can see things and people touching Al in the chamber ("Blind Faith,"
"Shock Theater," "Raped," "Blood Moon," etc.) (SA)
PCR: Al's skin must be touching something
for Sam to see it. However, if that's the case, why can we see all
of Al's clothes, rather than just the ones directly in contact with his
skin? If skin-to-object contact were required, then we'd see Al appearing
in his skivvies (and perhaps bizarre little bits of his outerwear--collars,
cuffs, pants legs, etc.) every time he talked to Sam. (MPB)
PCR to PCR: Perhaps Ziggy is programmed
to show all of Al's clothes. (BK)
BACKSTORY NITS:
Sam Backstory Nit #1: Sam confesses that
he hates English Lit and doesn't seem to know (or at least to remember)
much of it--even such chestnuts as "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights"
(which Sam mispronounces as "Weathering Heights"). But in later episodes,
Sam displays quite a decent knowledge of English Lit. In "Unchained,"
he recognizes a not particularly familiar quotation from Emily Dickinson;
in "Sea Bride," he corrects Vinnie the Viper's misquotations (all right,
Gilbert & Sullivan isn't exactly English Lit, but he knows that it's
not Dostoyevski, anyway). In "The Leap Back," Sam advises Ziggy to
read Shakespeare, in "Good Morning, Peoria," he quotes Yeats, and in "Runaway,"
he recognizes lines from "Romeo and Juliet." (MPB)
PCR #1: Sam, having been a good little
boy in high school and college (and having been blessed with a photographic
memory), may not have liked all the English Lit he had to read, but at
least he remembered a lot of it. (MPB, APP)
PCR #2: Sam changed something in his past
that caused him to take more of an interest in literature (MH)--his marriage
to Donna Elesee, perchance? (MPB)
Sam Backstory Nit #2: Sam smokes Bryant's
pipe. But Sam is a serious non-smoker, probably because of his father's
death, which Sam attributed to his dad's smoking. (IMZ)
PCR: Perhaps part of Bryant remained behind,
in the form of his smoking habit. (GJM)
Donna Backstory Nit: Later in the series
("The Leap Back"), Donna will be played by a different actress--one who
has blue eyes rather than brown ones. (MPB)
PCR: Would you believe contact lenses?
(BK)
GENERAL NIT-PICKING:
General Nit #1: If Bryant is supposed to
be a boozed-out professor, why are all his students fawning over him as
if he were Tom Cruise? (SA, MPB)
PCR #1: They are suckered in by Bryant's
romantic prattle (GJM, APP)
PCR #2: They're working on their As in
English Lit. (BK)
General Nit #2: The timing of Gerald Bryant's
actions in the mirror doesn't match Sam's. How often does it take
two seconds for a person's reflection to make the move the person just
made? Or how often does a person's reflection move before the person
does? (IMZ, SA)
PCR: Maybe the professor had been
drinking earlier--but only his reflection, of course. (GJM)
General Nit #3: Sam's voice-over says that
he is the man, Donna's Sam, whom she will love in ten years. Then
later, Sam tells Donna in the car about his lost love: "You're her, twelve
years younger, but you're her." Also, Al tells Sam he will not meet
Donna for twelve years. So, which is it, ten or twelve years? (NM,
IMZ, SA)
PCR #1: Sam has done something to change
the chronology. (GJM, ACK)
PCR#2: When Sam says "ten years," he's
just approximating. When Al and Sam first talk about Donna, Al says
Sam won't meet her for another twelve years (i.e., in 1984), and later
Sam recalls that his first date with Donna was on her thirtieth birthday.
If Donna is eighteen in 1972 (as several comments in the script seem to
indicate), then she'll be thirty in 1984, which does indeed make twelve
years. (MPB)
General Nit #4: Sam has a very loud argument
with Al in the Rathskeller. Donna is just in the kitchen. Why
doesn't she hear Sam, especially since he's talking about her? (MPB)
PCR: Maybe Donna was outside, dumping
the trash or something. (BK)
General Nit #5: Colonel Wojohowitz is already
wearing his medal for service in Vietnam, even thought he hasn't shipped
out yet. (TK)
PCR: Maybe he's already served one tour
and has signed up for a second one. (PMC)
General Nit #6: Sam doesn't look at the road when he drives. Not a good idea (IMZ)
General Nit #7: When Sam and Donna go into
the Watergate Hotel through the unlocked door, wouldn't the Watergate investigation
have discovered Donna's and Bryant's (or Sam's) fingerprints? (NM)
PCR: Probably, but if Bryant or Donna
or Sam didn't have any criminal record, no one would be able to trace the
fingerprints because their prints wouldn't be on file anyway. (MPB)
Also, it's unlikely that investigators would track every single fingerprint
on the door--just those of the burglary suspects. (BK) Then again, if Donna
and Bryant were detained and questioned Colonel Wojohowitz could explain
their presence. (SA, GJM)
General Nit #8: When Bryant Leaps back,
won't he be thinking, "What am I doing in Washington? I should be
back at Lawrence hitting on more of my students." (SA)
PCR: This is a downside of the way the
project works. (BK)
OH, BOYS:
There's no "Oh, boy," at the start of this episode, although Sam does say "Oh, Boy," when Jamie Lee appears in her Guenivere costume. (MPB)
DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS:
Detail #1: It's a sad irony that, in this episode, Sam says Donna jilted him because she was afraid he'd abandon her like her father did. Then, in "The Leap Back," we find out that Sam did abandon her, not once, but twice. While it wasn't intentional on Sam's part, it's rather poignant that he gets Donna back only to condemn her to the very fate that she feared in the first place. (MPB)
Detail #2: The relationship between Jamie Lee and Bryant forms a comical parallel to Sam and Donna's. With Jamie Lee and Bryant, Sam tries to prevent a marriage that shouldn't have happened but did. With himself and Donna, Sam tries to cause a marriage that didn't happen but (in Sam's opinion) should have. (MPB)
Detail #3: Jean-Pierre Dorleac apparently did his homework well. The seventies were a transitional time for religious garb. Some of the nuns we see in the background wear full habits, while others wear the more modern (and more comfortable) clothes permitted after Vatican II. (MH)
TRIVIAL PURSUIT:
Trivial Item #1: So, when exactly is Donna's birthday and when did she and Sam get married? Sam met Donna in 1983 or 1984, when she was turning thirty (in "Star-Crossed," which takes place June 15-17, 1972, Donna is eighteen, so she must have been born sometime between late June, 1953 and early June, 1954). From Al's comment that Sam won't meet Donna for twelve years, it's more likely 1984, rather than 1983. Donna was working at Starbright--just leaving the project, according to Sam. Sam says he and Donna got married on June 5, but he doesn't say what year. Looking at a calendar for 1984 and any of the next couple years puts June 5 right in the middle of the week, not an impossible day for a wedding, but not the most convenient scheduling, either. (MPB)
AL'S WOMEN:
A Tale of Two Tinas (reprise):
Al asks Sam if he knows Tina, and Sam
says he does (and Weitzman knows her, too). So is this the same Tina
Al picked up in "Genesis," or a different woman? (NM) Al's attitude toward
Tina (encouraging her to seduce Weitzman) in this episode does not match
with his jealousy in "How the Tess Was Won" only a short time later. (LW)
PCR: Al is the king of the double-standard.
Having Tina blackmail Weitzman was probably all right with Al because a)
it was Al's idea; and b) it was only a scam--Tina wasn't really interested
in Weitzman. Al and Tina probably had a good laugh about it afterward.
(MPB)
NAME THAT TUNE:
"American Pie" - Don McClean
"Betcha By Golly Wow" - The Stylistics
FAVORITE QUOTATIONS:
"Don't give me that sick puppy look. Stop it. I'll never scratch you behind the ears again." --Al
Donna: "If only you were a little
..."
Sam: "Little younger?"
Donna: "Or I was a little older."
Sam: "You will be."
"She knew... she knew how I liked my burger. Shove that up your guage circuits Ziggy." --Sam
"If you look into my eyes, you'll see another soul." --Sam
"Ziggy's blowing out microchips like they were popcorn." --Al
Donna: "It wasn't meant to be."
Sam: "You sound like Ziggy."
Al: "Ziggy's blowing out micro-chips like
they were popcorn. (laughs) He never saw it coming."
Sam: "What?"
Al: "What? Sam, it's the seventeenth of
June, ninteen hundred and seventy two."
Sam: "So."
Al: "You're in the Watergate. (hints)
Break in. Nixon. Impeachment."
Sam: "I don't remember."
Al: "Boy the Republicans would love you."
(NOTE: This in the script version only)