Science Fiction

• Title: Quantum Leap
• wiki: link

To prove his experiment worked quantum physicist Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) “stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator and vanished.” Premiering back in 1989, Quantum Leap ran for five seasons placing Bakula at different time periods as he would “leap” into someone whose timeline needed a quick fix. Although audiences saw only Sam (except in an occasional reflection) those around him continued to see the individual into whose body Sam leapt into that week (who occasionally would turn out to be a woman). Stuck with a swiss-cheesed memory as a side-effect of the experiment, Sam would rely on the help of Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell) who, from the future, would lock onto Sam’s latest leap and, appearing as a hologram only Sam could see and hear, provide him with the information needed that week.

Collecting all 97 episodes on 27 discs, the Complete Collection offers fans of the show the entire five-year run in a single set. Sadly you won’t find any added extra features as the set only includes the previously released season sets packaged together for the first time.

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• Title: Snowpiercer
• IMDb: link

I had a very mixed reaction to writer/director Joon-ho Bong‘s Snowpiercer. One one-hand I’m increasingly tired dramas using the trappings of sci-fi to offer up dystopian futures and thinly-veiled class struggle that offer no message other than the fact that such inequality is wrong and ultimately disastrous to the human species. My rebelling against the form isn’t really Snowpiercer‘s fault other than the fact it adds to the glut of similarly-themed films in recent years. On the other hand the film certainly embraces the literal interpretation of rising above your class to offer a bizarre struggle of less fortunate train passengers attempting to climb their way upward.

At its worst Snowpiercer feels preachy and overreaching in its visual style presenting each train car as a bizarely impossible worlds for the voyagers to walk through. It’s also not well served by a performance so over-the-top by Tilda Swinton it’s amazing she doesn’t hit her head on the roof in every scene. At its best the film does serve its message and offer Chris Evans a role as a would-be hero forced to face the deficiencies in both himself and the world he hopes to make more equitable through his struggle.

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