10 Sci-Fi TV Series That Deserve A Second Chance
7. Quantum Leap
Launched in 1989, Quantum Leap became a surprise hit for NBC. It ran for five season with a grand total of 97 episodes. It also has one of the worst series finales of all time.
Dr. Sam Beckett, played by Scott Bakula, believed that time travel was possible within your own life time. With the government who funded the project looking over his shoulder, Sam tested his accelerator on himself and was thrown back in time. Generally, testing your experiment on yourself is a great way to cause problems in science fiction.
He spends the next five seasons jumping through time, inhabiting the bodies of different people and trying to correct historical mistakes while also trying to get home. Sam's only companion is Al, a friend from his present who appears as a hologram only Sam can see.
The last episode was written to serve as either a season finale or a series finale depending on the network. When the decision came down, Quantum Leap was cancelled and a title card was tacked onto the end of the season five finale saying Sam never returned home. This ending angered most fans as the unsatisfying fate of the show's protagonist was so callously announced.
A rebooted series would has the potential to correct a very old wrong.