From: billones@grebyn.com (Jeremy Billones)
Subject: QL: Two-Faced Reviews: Liberation
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 02:53:08 GMT


The following post contains spoilers for the 1/12 episode of Quantum Leap





















I find myself painted into a corner.  I did not like this episode, but I'm
having trouble coming up with valid reasons why.

First thing, look at the characters.  I think a large part of the problem
is that I did not find a single one of the characters to be sympathetic.
Not the husband, not the daughter, not the sheriff, and certainly not the
activist.  The two candidates for the job did not impress me either - he
was too sleezy and she had only the one scene.  Now, were these good
characters?  Did they have motiviations and reasons for doing the things
they did?  Yes and no.  The activist was the best developed in that respect,
but I really couldn't see any reason for the other characters to do stuff
other than "That's what the script says."  Given the characters, the episode
made sense from a chain-of-events standpoint, but they were all so extreme,
so stereotypical, that I had a hard time "giving" the characters.

A seventh-hand source described this episode as "What Price Gloria with
fangs."  Fangs it had, but in honing its edge it lost all of the humor.
There's little argument that this was a "message" episode, but in two ways
I think it went too far.  First, it didn't present both sides.  Before you
start flaming me about being against women's rights, let me explain.  This is
not the forum to debate the individual points on their merit (especially the
equal work vs equivalent work situation).  But more directly, not all men
are as bigoted as every man in this episode was portrayed.  *Every* man.
Sam Beckett withstanding, of course, but he doesn't count.  Usually the
folks at QL make a point of showing the "other side" as being normal
people, and as having at least a little merit.  Not this time.  The other
beef I have is that a few other pot shots got thrown out.  I seem to recall
national health care being bandied about the dinner table near the end.
Look guys, whether you thing its a good or bad idea, it had nothing to do
with the story, except to reinforce that the entire point of the episode
was to jam certain political views down our throats.

And oh by the way, when Al gives the happily ever after about the activist
serving her 5 years then helping get the ERA passed, I got confused.  She
was going to kill a cop, would have succeeded if Sam didn't knock him out of
the way, and she's still supposed to be the "good guy?"  What did I miss?

Am I simply being a MCP about this, disliking the episode because I dislike
the message?  I don't think so.  What Price Gloria had the same message,
but put it within a separate context and in a much more enjoyable episode
(both dramatic and funny).  Justice wasn't very funny, but IMHO did a much
better job of showing how it's otherwise normal people who hold the other
view.  Running for Honor stereotyped the bad guys, but unlike Liberation
didn't ask us to accept good guys who weren't all that good.  Which goes
back to my first point that I just didn't like any of these people.  And
I honestly don't know if I was supposed to.

Next week, their second make-out with history.  Will they manage to tell a
story that doesn't depend on the use of a known figure?

Jeremy Billones                                 billones@grebyn.com
"He waded through the ankle-deep debris and shreds of crumpled paper to the
table on which Saavik was curled asleep, clutching a mangled page in her
hand.  The words were malformed, torturously carved, but they were legible
and correctly spelled: SPOCK NOTGO MY NAME IS SAAVIK"
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