The Worst Episodes of Quantum Leap
Every episode of Quantum Leap ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Quantum Leap!
Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Quantum Leap" is "Blood Moon", rated 6.1/10 from 434 user votes. It was directed by Alan J. Levi and written by Tommy Thompson. "Blood Moon" aired on 2/9/1993 and is rated 0.7 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "Moments to Live".
6.1/10 434 votes#1 - Blood Moon
Season 5 Episode 15 - Aired 2/9/1993
March 10, 1975: As an eccentric, possibly vampiric, artist just outside of London, Sam must bear with Al's superstitions, while trying to prevent the death of his host's young wife, at the hands of a couple who are taking a sacrificial ceremony in honor of the "blood moon."
Director: Alan J. Levi
Writer: Tommy Thompson
6.8/10 420 votes#2 - Moments to Live
Season 4 Episode 19 - Aired 4/8/1992
May 4, 1985: Sam is a soap opera heart surgeon and the obsession of a love-struck, if somewhat deranged fan. He must escape from the woman and her husband who kidnap him for reproductive purposes
Director: Joe Napolitano
Writer: Tommy Thompson
6.8/10 437 votes#3 - Stand Up
Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired 5/13/1992
April 30, 1959: Sam, as the singing half of a comedy team, soon finds that trying to convince two people that they're truly in love is no laughing matter, especially when one of them is the object of a sleazy casino owner's desire.
Director: Michael Zinberg
Writer: Deborah Pratt
6.8/10 420 votes#4 - Dr. Ruth
Season 5 Episode 14 - Aired 1/19/1993
April 25, 1985: While Sam is in 1985, running her radio talk show, playing matchmaker to her producers, and trying to help a young secretary who's being sexually harassed by her boss, Dr. Ruth Westheimer spends her time in the Waiting Room, counseling Al on his feelings towards his five wives, as well as his relationship with Tina.
Director: Stuart Margolin
Writer: Robin Bernheim Burger
6.9/10 564 votes#5 - A Portrait for Troian
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/13/1989
February 7, 1971: Sam leaps into a renowned parapsychologist where he must prevent a young widow from joining her husband at the bottom of a lake, while proving that she's not crazy, despite her claims of hearing her dead husband calling to her.
Director: Michael Zinberg
Writer: N/A
6.9/10 425 votes#6 - The Play's the Thing
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 1/8/1992
September 9, 1969: May meets December when Sam leaps into a young actor in love with an older woman, who is also an aspiring singer. If he can't boost her confidence and help her get her career on track, she will face a "fate worse than death," returning with her son to Cleveland.
Director: Eric Laneuville
Writer: Beverly Bridges
6.9/10 399 votes#7 - A Tale of Two Sweeties
Season 5 Episode 12 - Aired 1/5/1993
February 25, 1958: As a horse-playing, traveling brush salesman, Sam finds himself with two wives and two families. Although Ziggy predicts that Sam's mission is to choose between the two lives, the choice is made more difficult by the fact that there's only a 50/50 chance that he'll choose the right one. As if things weren't bad enough, Sam finds that his penniless host owes a pair of bookies some big bucks.
Director: Christopher Hibler
Writer: Robin Bernheim Burger
6.9/10 404 votes#8 - Liberation
Season 5 Episode 13 - Aired 1/12/1993
October 16, 1968: Leaping into a housewife and mother of two on the verge of women's lib, Sam must prevent the death of his daughter during a sit in, while convincing the girl's father that his marriage can survive a liberated wife and daughter.
Director: Bob Hulme
Writer: Chris Abbott, Deborah Pratt
7.0/10 807 votes#9 - The Right Hand of God
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 4/7/1989
October 24, 1974: Sam lands in 1974 as a young boxer caught between fight-fixing gangsters and hopeful nuns who now own his contract.
Director: Gilbert M. Shilton
Writer: John Hill
7.0/10 514 votes#10 - Her Charm
Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 2/7/1990
September 26, 1973: Protecting a female member of the witness protection program from a mafia hitman proves difficult for Sam, since the FBI appears to have an informant confounding his attempts to hide her.
Director: Christopher T. Welch
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario, Deborah Pratt
7.0/10 499 votes#11 - Maybe Baby
Season 2 Episode 20 - Aired 4/4/1990
March 11, 1963: Babysitting a kidnapped tot and a flaky, compulsively lying stripper keeps Sam busy as they cross Texas, on the run from the legal father and a squad of cops.
Director: Michael Zinberg
Writer: Julie Brown, Paul Brown
7.0/10 499 votes#12 - Sea Bride
Season 2 Episode 21 - Aired 5/2/1990
June 3, 1954: Aboard an ocean liner, Sam must stop the marriage of a young man's ex-wife to a mobster. In the process, he finds himself in one heck of a mess in the ship's garbage compartment.
Director: Joe Napolitano
Writer: Deborah Pratt
7.0/10 475 votes#13 - One Strobe Over the Line
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/1990
June 15, 1965: Sam is a photographer who must protect a fashion model from a growing dependency on amphetamines and a predatory manager's ambitions.
Director: Michael Zinberg
Writer: Chris Ruppenthal
7.0/10 429 votes#14 - Heart of a Champion
Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 5/8/1991
July 23, 1955: The heart of a champion belongs to Ronnie, a professional wrestler, who will die if he competes in the title match. Sam, as his brother and new partner Terry, must convince him of his hidden health problem, while avoiding his own health problem - the jealous wrestler-husband of a woman who has taken an amorous interest in Sam.
Director: Joe Napolitano
Writer: Tommy Thompson
7.0/10 414 votes#15 - The Last Gunfighter
Season 4 Episode 14 - Aired 1/29/1992
November 28, 1957: Sam finds himself in the life of Tyler Meanes, a teller of tall tales who faces death at the hand of an old friend in a shootout at high noon.
Director: Joe Napolitano
Writer: Chris Ruppenthal, Sam Rolfe
7.0/10 369 votes#16 - The Beast Within
Season 5 Episode 19 - Aired 3/16/1993
November 6, 1972: Sam leaps into Henry Adams, one of a trio of friends who fought in Vietnam and came home each with their own personal scars and the memory of a lost buddy. He has to save the life of a friend, Roy, as well as of a young boy, Daniel, who ventures into the woods of Washington looking for proof of Bigfoot.
Director: Gus Trikonis
Writer: John D'Aquino
7.1/10 571 votes#17 - Thou Shalt Not...
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/15/1989
February 2, 1974: Sam's task as a rabbi is to keep his sister-in-law from falling for a sleazy author and ruining her life. In the process he also helps the family recover from the year-old death of their son.
Director: Randy Roberts
Writer: Tammy Ader
7.1/10 509 votes#18 - Leaping in Without a Net
Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 3/28/1990
November 18, 1958: Sam remembers he's afraid of heights when he leaps into a trapeze artist, whose sister wants him to catch her as she does a triple without a net. Dad is less than pleased, since his wife died a few years earlier while attempting the same stunt.
Director: Christopher T. Welch
Writer: Tommy Thompson
7.1/10 481 votes#19 - Leap of Faith
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/1990
August 19, 1963: Sam finds himself in one holy mess as a priest in Philadelphia, trying to help an alcoholic priest deal with a killer and the death of a young parishioner.
Director: James Whitmore Jr.
Writer: Tommy Thompson
7.1/10 485 votes#20 - Piano Man
Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 3/27/1991
November 10, 1985: Joey Dinardo is a lounge lizard on the run from mob hitmen. When Sam leaps in, his ex-girlfriend, and former musical partner have found him, and now both are on a run for their lives from a killer who seems to know their every move.
Director: James Whitmore Jr.
Writer: Ed Scharlach
7.1/10 451 votes#21 - Dreams
Season 4 Episode 8 - Aired 11/13/1991
February 28, 1979: It's more like a nightmare when Sam leaps into a detective, investigating a gruesome murder. He may be next if he doesn't find out who eviscerated the victim and his only hope is the victim's catatonic son and her husband's psychiatrist. The horrific flashbacks he's experiencing don't help matters much either.
Director: Anita W. Addison
Writer: Deborah Pratt
7.1/10 438 votes#22 - A Song for the Soul
Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 2/26/1992
April 7, 1963: As a backup singer in a black, amateur girl group Sam finds between the fifteen year-old lead singer and her father as he attempts to rescue the girl from a sleazy night club owner's clutches.
Director: Michael W. Watkins
Writer: Deborah Pratt
7.2/10 744 votes#23 - How the Tess Was Won
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 4/14/1989
August 5, 1956: Sam finds himself on a Texas ranch in 1956 as a submissive veterinarian in love with a tough rancher.
Director: Ivan Dixon
Writer: Deborah Arakelian
7.2/10 707 votes#24 - Play it Again, Seymour
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 5/17/1989
April 14, 1953: With looks that could double for Humphrey Bogart, Sam is Nick Allen, a private investigator looking for the murderer of his partner and, if he doesn't find the answer in time, himself. The case is solved with a number of Casablanca references as Sam launches a new pulp novelist along the way.
Director: Aaron Lipstadt
Writer: N/A
7.2/10 534 votes#25 - Animal Frat
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 1/3/1990
October 19, 1967: Trapped in the body of Knut Wileton, better known as "Wild Thing," the typical frat jock, Sam must win the confidence of an attractive campus radical before she bombs the college's chemistry building as a protest against the war in Vietnam.
Director: Gilbert M. Shilton
Writer: Chris Ruppenthal