INTERVIEWS

How To Make A Sequel That’s Original But Honors The Original: A Conversation With “Quantum Leap” Showrunner Martin Gero

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Hindu mythology and Jewish tradition both have original representations of the concept of time travel in the forms of images and oral storytelling. One of the first written accounts of transtemporal travel was a story by Edward Page Mitchell titled The Clock That Went Backward that ran in the New York Sun in 1881 and was aimed towards youth. It didn’t receive any critical acclaim at the time.

There have been many movies that address the subject. Momento, Back to the Future, Time After Time, and The Terminator are just a few that are adventurous forays into the nebulous world of time travel. Dr. Who is probably one of the most famous tv show to tackle the matter.

In 1989, writer/director/producer Donald P. Bellisario’s Quantum Leap premiered and became a cult classic. Starring Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett and Dean Stockwell as his wisecracking accomplice Al, the show ran for a solid four years before ending with a cliffhanger. Fans of this brand of fun sci-fi can now tune-in to a sequel to the show, which stars Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, Ernie Hudson, and Mason Alexander Park. 

Showrunner Martin Gero, who’s worked on several network shows and limited series including Dark Matter, Deception, Keep Breathing, and Blindspot, spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about the nuts and bolts of making Quantum Leap. 

Since it’s been almost thirty years since the initial series started, what kind of changes did you have to make to the environment?

The biggest change was that we wanted to tell a story that was happening both in the present and the past. The original show was almost solely from the Sam Beckett’s perspective. For us, to be able to do the leaps was fantastic, but we felt like a modern audience would also probably want a little bit of a serialized story and a greater connection with the ongoing characters. The idea to come up with stories that could be told both in the present and in the past is how we attacked it. The mystery at the center of the show would be, ‘Why did Ben leap?’ That’s something we hope to answer over the course of a season.

Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Martin Gero

What are the challenges of crafting characters from an established universe?

It was great because the show is a sequel, and it takes place in the same universe as Quantum Leap. Aside from that, it was a blank slate. The team was able to craft this new character Ben Song that honestly, because of how the process developed, we really built specifically around Raymond Lee, our lead actor. As we got to know him, we found his strengths and wrote towards them. He doesn’t have any weaknesses…! I think he’s a perfect surrogate for Sam Beckett. They both share a tremendous amount of empathy, they’re both handsome, they both have an incredible sense of humor. We wanted to have the character resonate with the Sam Beckett character, but not just be a carbon copy.

How do you decide when and where to include Easter eggs?

We try to do as many Easter eggs as possible that diehard fans will connect to and that don’t interrupt the flow of an episode if you’ve never seen the previous Quantum Leap. We also want to build a connection back to the old show in a very active way with the Calavicci family, with how Sam Beckett saved Magic’s (Ernie Hudson) life. The new series and the old series hold hands at a number of different places. The people who are doing best at this right now are the Star Wars camp. All of the new live action Star Wars shows, even the animated ones, include an enormous amount of lore they’re built on. But if you only watch The Mandalorian, and you didn’t watch Clone Wars, you’ll still get it. If you did, you’ll have a fuller experience. But t’s not a barrier to entry.

Can you describe Ziggy and its importance in the storyline?

Sure. Ziggy (Deborah Pratt) was a construction from the previous show. Ziggy is the AI that’s making the predictions regarding what Ben has to do to jump. We use its prediction algorithm to help further the story.

Has Magic’s role changed at all?

We decided Magic would be Magic… that we would change it from a default character to one that has a real resonance with the past. That was an exciting moment in the development process. In episode 4, when Magic is finally able to tell Ian (Mason Alexander Park) why he’s connected, it’s an incredibly powerful moment for two reasons. One, Ernie is such an incredible actor. Moira wrote a really beautiful scene about consent. Are we jumping into these people without their consent and messing up their lives or changing their lives? We came up with this idea of a gentle knock on the heart and that the host makes a conscious decision to let what’s about to happen. It’s a powerful idea and frees the show in many ways from some of its more problematic aspects.

Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Magic (Ernie Hudson) Photo by Ron Batzdorff/ NBC

As a writer, do you prefer limited series like Keep Breathing or ones like Quantum Leap, that potentially have many seasons?

I think they’re so different. I’ve been fortunate enough to be on a couple of shows that have gone five plus seasons. The reward of that is getting to know the people well that you’re working with. As a storyteller, to be able to grow characters over five years, capturing the ebbs and flows of their lives, is fulfilling in a way a limited series may not be. The tough thing about doing a show like Quantum Leap is  eighteen episodes a year is a lot of episodes so it’s constantly a race. It’s an all-at-once type of situation. You’re writing while you’re shooting while you’re doing post. It’s just an all-out blitz to try to get these episodes to air. Whereas with a show like Keep Breathing, we had the ability to segregate those creative moments. The writing process took a year. Shooting was five months. The post-production process was a year. To have a year for six episodes vs. eighteen episodes, efficiencies have to be made. One isn’t more pleasurable than the other, they’re just notably different.

How does the writers’ room differ for a network show as opposed to a streaming show?

As far as the construction and how they work, it’s all very similar. For most streaming shows, you will have written the script predominantly before you start shooting. Whereas now, it’s all happening at once. The bad thing is, you’re doing other stuff, so your focus is always split. The good thing is, you’re learning what works for the show as you’re writing the show. You can learn a lesson in episode two and very quickly reconceive the rest of the season based on what you just learned. I think you’re less likely to do that in a streaming sense. There are also just more bodies in the room. I like a big room. I like to employ a lot of writers. The more voices the better, especially on a show like this where we’re going into such disparate points of view. One of the drawbacks of streaming is those rooms are starting to shrink so there are less voices present.

How do you decide the directors you’re going to choose?

We just draw them out of a hat…! We’re trying to find directors that resonate with the material, but can bring a diverse set of experiences to the show to help elevate it. We’re essentially producing a pilot every week. It’s a very director-driven show and we’re looking for people to come in and take risks, take chances.

What’s the biggest problem you’ve had to solve?

Well, the pilot wasn’t very good and that’s a problem. There’s no need to litigate why, it just wasn’t good enough to be the pilot. We decided to take seventeen minutes of the pilot and make that a big part of episode six. This was tricky and full credit to cast and crew for making it work.

Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) Photo bySerguei Bachlakov/ NBC

What’s the average day in the writers’ room like?

The fun part about writing is there is no average day. I can tell you what we’re doing today. We wrote an episode that was a little too big so we’re spending some time first thing in the morning with that writer, brainstorming some efficiencies in the storytelling so we can take out a location or two. Then we’re also in the process of ending our season on the writing side. Last episode is eighteen, we’re breaking fifteen. We’re a zoom room still.

What do you think are important qualities for a showrunner to have?

Above everything, decisiveness. It’s the hardest thing to be in many ways. I remember when I was lucky enough to be number two on a couple of shows before I got my own show. I would vehemently argue about stuff that I knew was right and the showrunner would say ‘no,’ I’d go home and sleep great because it wasn’t my show. When you become a showrunner, you still have that compass about what’s right or wrong, but you now have several hundred people coming at you with their opinions and it gives you pause. It’s about navigating that confidence and clarity of vision. Your job isn’t to be a dictator, but a curator of everyone’s ideas. It’s better to make the wrong decision and correct it later than to make no decision.

What is your hiring process for writers?

I came in as a showrunner for this show, so all of the writers had been hired when I got here. That was an unusual situation for me. Usually, I do something kind of inverse on my own shows. I like to meet writers and then read their work. I can meet more people that way because reading is more time consuming. And I can tell pretty quickly if they’re a great person or someone I don’t want to spend twelve hours a day in a room with. 

You’re basically organizing a dinner party that’s going to last twelve months. I want people that have different skillsets and lived experiences than me because I have me. I’m looking for people who will contradict me. You’re always looking for one or two people who probably wouldn’t watch the show. If we can get them excited about the story, then maybe we’re doing something right here. Choosing a writers’ room is like alchemy. It’s difficult to make a guidebook for it.

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Sonya Alexander

Contributor

Sonya Alexander started out her career training to be a talent agent. She eventually realized she was meant to be on the creative end of the spectrum and has been writing ever since. She initially started out covering film festivals for local Los Angeles papers, then started writing for British film magazines and doing press junkets for UGO.com. Her focus is entertainment journalism, but she’s also delved into academic writing and music journalism. When she’s not writing, she’s doing screenplay coverage. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

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