Posted by Smalls at adsl-63-196-58-73.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net on January 23, 2004 at 01:49:20:
In Reply to: I bow to your wisdom, mighty god of sci-fi. posted by jkm822 on January 23, 2004 at 01:30:23:
I don't believe in the ethos of total authorial intentionality.
IE if something can be read into a text and the author didn't intend it? It's still there, it's still valid.
NBC's cancellation of Quantum Leap forced its creators to create a succinct moving and classically-structured ending to the series instead of letting it peter out into fanboy hell.
That doesn't make the ending as it was any less valid.
I mean, in Amy, Kevin's said he didn't intend that the skeeball conversation about prizes not being worth nearly the money you put in to be an analogy to the unfulfilling nature of most casual dating... but it could be validly infered and therefore, it's there to run with.
I've been on enough film sets to realize how often the best and most meaningful parts of a production don't come together until shooting, sometimes you don't even see them until you're looking at the footage later and... here it is, this beautiful accident that speaks more for this message than anything planned could've.
The butterfly landing in the end of A Better Place. It just happened that way.
So too is Quantum Leap.
What happened worked better than what was intended on any number of storytelling levels. At least for me and, it appears, Mr. Bruce.
Mike