Afterimage

Fanfiction
Title:	Afterimage
Author(s):	Gina Goff
Date(s):	16 Aug 1993
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Quantum Leap
External Links:
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Afterimage is a gen Quantum Leap story written by Gina Goff.

It was posted to alt.tv.quantum-leap.creative in 1993. It was also printed in Leaps Unbound in 1994.

Summary

SYNOPSIS: Sam leaps into Al's youngest daughter and tries to to alter the design for Project Quantum Leap. NOTES: watch "M.I.A." and "Mirror Image" before reading this

Author's Notes

From ql-archive:

Special thanks go to Beth Hlabse, who speculated that Al's daughters

might have the same names as his ex-wives. I don't think she realized she was creating a monster when she made that innocent remark. :-)

Another thank-you goes to Dorothy Klein, whose suggestion prompted me to put in a scene or two that I'd thought about doing but punted on. (Sinus headaches really undermine my work ethic.) Now that I've done the extra scenes, I'm glad I put them in.

Thanks also to Tim Lynch and Andrew Hackard for being my guinea pigs/proofreaders. (You'd think by now that Tim would know better, but nooooo...)

And thanks to all the people who have posted to alt.ql.creative in the past. The high quality of the stories in the archive made me think it might be fun to do a story of my own. -- Gina Goff

Parts

• part 1
• part 2
• part 3
• part 4
• part 5
• part 6
• part 7
• part 8
• part 9
• part 10
• part 11

Reactions and Reviews

1995

From a much longer discussion:

[Afterimage]: "Afterimage" is a big favorite of mine, and I'm curious as to what you thought of it, because it is so far from your ideas on the resolution of MI, right down to the naming of Al's daughters :-) I think it does an great job of restoring the status quo without any major disturbance of QL country. I also think the characterization is excellent -- from the revelation of Sam's slight awe of Admiral Calavicci right down to Al's ribbing of Sam about his, umm, intimate life with Donna :-)

[Afterimage]: I think Gina Goff is an excellent writer, and this story manages to rise above the cringe-factor of giving the daughters the same names as the wives (though it would've been much better if she hadn't done this, IMHO -- that really makes me shudder). I think the Sam/Al interaction is great; I loved the "whack the Barbie" line; I think the girls are excellent (except for their names). I sort of missed an explanation of how Al spent all the time he wanted to with his daughters and still managed to do everything else (was Gina's timeline on the space program, or MIT, different?) he had to get to PQL. It's not a plot I would've chosen, but it's not my story, so that's not a problem. She handles it well, certainly better than the episode it "followed" was handled. Of course, I didn't like having Al the Bartender in it, so I skipped those scenes (just kidding; I read them -- but I honestly don't think they were needed).

Finally, my newsfeed stops burping, and I notice that my ears should be burning... :-)

>>"Afterimage" is a big favorite of mine, and I'm curious as to what you >thought of it, because it is so far from your ideas on the resolution of MI, right down to the naming of Al's daughters :-) I think it does ... rise above the cringe-factor of giving the daughters the same names as the wives (though it would've been much better if she hadn't done this, IMHO -- that really makes me shudder). I think the Sam/Al

I know this bothers you, but you've read far more into this than I ever intended. I don't think the daughters are "replacements" for the wives or that they aren't individuals in their own right. It may be that the daughters are named after the women Al *might* have married, had things been different -- in the new timeline, these women were only friends of Al's, but I think the naming is just a wink on the part of the bartender.

I've seen a lot of negative reaction about the bartender in MI. A lot of people didn't like the idea that he was GTF -- they seemed to think the bartender was mean for not letting Sam go home or he was too enigmatic in his responses, and they apparently thought God would be "nicer". I didn't find him to be mean/arbitrary (more on this later) but to those who did: check out the Old Testament. MI was small potatoes compared to a lot of the stuff detailed there.

I don't think the bartender was deliberately trying to screw with Sam's mind. It's just that the things Sam wants to know may not be that easy to explain, and Sam may understand things better by partially discovering them himself. As far as going home is concerned, I think Sam *wants* to go home but also knows that people need his help. Sam chooses to help and GTF picks the assignments. I do think Sam will go home soon -- and I think he'll choose to leap again after he's had a rest, knowing that he can come home again when he needs to.

>>an explanation of how Al spent all the time he wanted to with his daughters and still managed to do everything else (was Gina's timeline on the space program, or MIT, different?) he had to get to PQL.

I honestly didn't think about those aspects, although I thought about when the daughters might come along. Maybe I'd have to do another leap where Al gets rescued in '71, so he'll have time for all that stuff. ;-)

>>it "followed" was handled. Of course, I didn't like having Al the Bartender in it, so I skipped those scenes (just kidding; I read them -- but I honestly don't think they were needed).

Again, this depends on how you responded to the Bartender. He was enigmatic, but I sensed a gentleness in him that others apparently didn't. The only thing I didn't like about MI was the "Sam never returned home" part, so that's the only part I un-did. :-)

As for the bar scenes in "Afterimage" -- the first drives the plot because that's when/how Sam remembers what he's there for, the second... hmm, I won't say what I think about that one, and the third gives my perspective on why Sam might *want* to continue leaping (it gives him the chance to do everything). Gina