“Genesis: Part 1 – September 13, 1956” is episode one of season one of Quantum Leap.
A futuristic car is travelling at night down what looks like a desert highway. The man inside sees a woman broken down by the side of the road with a flat tyre. He tells her he’d love to change the tyre, but he’s wearing the tux. But he’s friendlier than the coyote they can hear howling. That’s what the woman is worried about. But she gets in, admiring the car. It’s an experimental model. They see a glow on the horizon, and the woman wonders what it is. The man says it’s sheet lightning. It looks like he’s lying. The woman says that’s where they set off the first atom bomb and there’s rumoured to be a top-secret project there. Then someone, Gooshie, calls the man, Al, to tell him Sam is leaping. Al says they’re not ready. And to put Sam on. Gooshie can’t; Sam is in the accelerator. What should he do? Nothing; any interference may kill Sam. Al is on his way in.
A clock spins backwards in a house, then clicks forwards. Sam wakes up in bed and thinks he did it. But he can’t remember what he did. Or anything. Like who he is. Or where he is. Or who the very pregnant woman he was in bed with is. The woman tells him she will put the coffee on, calling him Tom.
The woman, Peg, tells Tom – Sam – to hurry up. Sam decides it’s a dream and he will flow with it until he wakes up. Peg gives him some new shaving cream. Sam thinks it smells real. It feels real. Then looks in the bathroom mirror and sees someone else. He asks Peg who he sees in the mirror. She sees Tom. And herself. She looks awful. Sam says he’s not Tom. Then a young boy, Mikey, calls Sam ‘Daddy’ and says Captain Birdell is on the phone. Peg is wondering if Tom is sick and says he’s not going to fly if he is, is he? She wants Mikey to get Birdell’s number. Given he’s never at the BOQ.
Mikey is doing this when Sam remembers a number and goes and gets the phone. He dials it. It doesn’t work. Peg tells him he’s dialling too many numbers. A confused Sam heads outside and sees a lot of similar houses, old cars and a fighter jet flying overhead. Sam decides this is not a dream. It’s a nightmare. And, sooner or later, the bogeyman will show up.
Sam is riding out the dream. He’s now in a car. Everyone thinks it’s 1956 and he’s USAF Captain Tom Stratton. His best friend, Captain Birdell, is driving. Everyone calls him Bird Dog. And Sam soon finds out why, as Birdell pulls over to chat up a pretty young woman, saying that they are the only two in the USAF brave enough to fly the X-2. The young woman asks what about Captain Lamont.
After speaking to the woman, Bird Dog drives off again. Sam asks him what if Sam told him he couldn’t fly. Bird Dog thinks that’s a great prank to pull on Weird Ernie. They, and other pilots, tell Weird Ernie that they are losing memory from flying the X-2. Ernie thinks this is interesting and worth looking into. He also says they have rewired the systems on the X-2, so the fire warning light shouldn’t come on now. Al is now there.
Peg is talking to some other Air Force wives when they hear the X-2 mothership taking odd. Bird Dog and Sam are flying, with Captain Tony Lamont going to fly the X-2. Sam is relieved he doesn’t have to fly., Then Bird Dog leaves him at the stick. Sam doesn’t know how to fly and Weird Ernie contacts the plane to find out what’s wrong as it’s banking unexpectedly. Bird Dog returns and takes over, telling Ernie that there was a problem.
Tony gets in the X-2 and Sam sees Al in the back. Bird Dog does not. The X-2 is dropped, but Tony gets a fire warning before hitting Mach 3 and turns off the rockets. He banks at too high a speed and loses control. The X-2 ends up exploding, but Tony has punched out.
No-one else is seeing or hearing Al. Because he’s not really there, as he later explains to Sam. Sam’s own memory is full of holes and he can’t remember who he is, where he is or what he was doing, though fragments sometimes crop up. And Al can’t tell him anything. He’s also a USAF test pilot who can’t fly. The story continues in “Genesis: Part II”.