HOLOGRAMMATICAL ERRORS:
Hologrammatical Error #1: During Al’s first conversation with Sam, Al reflects in the train window. (MPB) Al’s shadow is also visible in the corridor. (ARS)
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE PROJECT:
Project Trivia: We still don’t see the Imaging Chamber door, although we hear it once. Most of the time, though, Al still pops in and out without any visual or audio effects. (MPB)
Project Nit #1: Why, after PQL has already
received so much funding, and has been in the works for so long, is a Senate
committee suddenly questioning the worth of the project? Why would Congress
refuse to grant even some of the funding money after spending so much on
PQL? If they’ve already spent forty-three billion dollars, wouldn’t it
make more sense to decrease the funding, rather than cut it altogether?
And why would Al expect a bunch of bureaucrats to believe that God is manipulating
the Project? Not exactly politically savvy on his part. (NM & LW)
PCR: Maybe they decided that forty-three
billion dollars is a tad high a price for helping to write "Peggy Sue."
(LW)
Project Nit #2: Al makes a serious miscalculation
when he tells the Senate committee that Sam will change the U-2 incident.
If Sam indeed manages to do that, then everyone else will only be aware
of the altered timeline, and will still perceive no change in history.
The Senators would just say, "What U-2 incident?" and would accuse Al of
making it all up. (NM, ARS, MPB)
PCR: Ziggy would be keeping track of the
altered timelines. Its records could be used to support Al’s testimony.
(LW)
Anti-PCR: Ziggy’s records might
be considered suspect by the Senators, since Ziggy is PQL’s own computer.
They might accuse Al of rigging Ziggy’s data to prove his case. (JE)
Anti-Anti-PCR: In order to get PQL funded
in the first place, Al and Sam probably had to present a detailed proposal,
with specifications for the project. Also, such an expensive project would
surely be audited on a regular basis to make sure that the data received
from the Project were trustworthy. (LW)
Anti-Anti-Anti-PCR: It would be a mistake
to expect logical behavior and sound fiscal policy from the US government.
(MPB)
Project Nit #3: This episode seems to contradict
evidence in "Star-Crossed" which indicates that Weitzman and "the Committee"
(whoever they are) are well aware that Sam is indeed traveling through
time and altering the past. Also, "Star-Crossed" seems to indicate that
there is ongoing third-party oversight of PQL and Sam’s behavior during
his Leaps. (LW)
PCR: Perhaps by changing his own past
and marrying Donna, therefore involving her in PQL, Sam also somehow changes
the Project’s relationship to the Committee and the oversight process.
(MPB)
BACKSTORY NITS:
Backstory Nit #1: Al says that when Sam was ten years old, he could beat a computer playing chess. That wouldn’t be much of a feat. In 1963/64, when Sam was ten, there probably weren’t any computers sophisticated enough to play tic-tac-toe, let alone chess. Now, if, at age ten, Sam had designed a computer that could beat a human at chess.... (MPB, LW)
GENERAL NIT-PICKING:
General Nit #1: Ginger the cat is
seriously misnamed. The cat is definitely grey, not ginger. (LW)
PCR #1: The original Ginger refused to
go up the tree. (LW)
PCR #2: Ginger’s owner is chromatically
challenged. (MPB)
PCR #3: The cat is Ginger’s stunt double.
(MPB)
PCR #4: Ginger was indeed ginger, until
he saw Sam Leap in, which immediately made him turn grey. (MPB)
General Nit #2: As Sam himself notices,
it seems odd that Tom would take his gun and handcuffs on a honeymoon,
even though he is a cop. (LW)
PCR #1: Perhaps, as Sam suggests, Tom
and Diane are into role-playing games. (LW)
Anti-PCR: That still doesn’t seem to explain
the gun. It’s conceivable that an off-duty cop might carry a gun in New
York City, but to Niagara Falls on his honeymoon? What kind of trouble
would Tom have been expecting? (MPB)
PCR to Anti-PCR: Could Tom have known
about Roget, but just hadn’t told Diane so as not to worry her? (MPB)
General Nit #3: How could Diane hide her
divorce from Tom? Wouldn’t she have to list her marital status as "divorced"
on the marriage license? (LW, LS)
PCR #1: If Diane and Roget were married
in France, there might not be a record on file in the US. So Diane might
have been able to get away with lying on the certificate. (NM)
PCR #2: Perhaps the marriage had been
annulled, so Diane could legitimately list herself as single. (JE)
PCR #3: Maybe Diane’s daddy pulled some
strings to get records of her first marriage obliterated. (NM)
General Nit #4: Other than when the
train comes to a halt, the characters don’t seem to move to the rhythm
of the train. (LW)
PCR: Would you believe really, really,
really good shock absorbers? (MPB)
General Nit #5: When Sam first leaves the
compartment to talk to Al, and Al stays behind to ogle Diane’s, um, assets,
wouldn’t she hear Sam calling Al, as well as the first part of their conversation
just outside the compartment door? (MPB)
PCR: The train’s too noisy, or she thinks
Sam/Tom’s talking to somebody else. (MPB)
General Nit #6: When Sam first quizzes Diane about her law studies, he says that a state enactment must meet a three-part test. But in her response, Diane only gives a two-part answer. (MPB)
General Nit #7: Why, when Sam thinks he’s disposed of both Roget and Henri, does he ask the conductor for a gun? If it’s all over, as Sam believes it is, he doesn’t need one, does he? (MPB)
General Nit #8: How does Sam ever get the
knife into his hand in time to stab Roget? (NM)
PCR: Would you believe Sam has really,
really, really good reflexes? (MPB)
General Nit #9: Why would someone
who’s studying for her bar exam make the mistake of thinking the Fourteenth
Amendment addressed private action? (NM)
PCR: Diane is really distracted. (NM)
OH, BOYS:
Lots of "Oh, boys" in this episode. Besides Sam’s Leap in, Diane gives him cause for a few "Oh, boys": first, when he’s going to talk to Al and she asks him to kiss her good-bye, and later, when she appears in her little black nightie. Sam also says "Oh, boy" when he first notices Tom’s gun. (MPB, ARS)
DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS:
Detail #1: Interesting how it’s Tom McBRIDE who’s on his honeymoon, isn’t it? (MPB)
AL’S WOMEN:
Here we learn a little about Al’s wives--that he took his first, third, and fifth wives to Niagara Falls for their honeymoons. That Sharon, his fourth wife, wore pink baby dolls, and that Maxine, his fifth wife, wore nothing at all and flavored her toes with mint leaves. (MH, MPB)
THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY:
This episode recalls the train scenes with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint from "North by Northwest." (MPB)
FAVORITE QUOTATIONS:
Al: "I took my first, third, and fifth wife to Niagara Falls."Sam: "How odd."
Al: "Not the restroom again, Sam. I’m starting to feel like a pervert!"
Al: "I have loved every woman I ever slept with at the time I slept with them."
Al: "You’re going to have to face a beautiful woman who wants to spend the entire night making mad, passionate love to you....It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it."
Al: "You swim with the sharks, you
get bit."