Out of the Frying Pan (Quantum Leap zine)

Zine
Title:	Out of the Frying Pan
Publisher:	Ecto Press
Editor(s):
Date(s):	May 1991
Series?:
Medium:	print
Genre:
Fandom:	Quantum Leap
Language:	English
External Links:
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1993 flyer, printed in Below the Surface #6

Out of the Frying Pan is a gen 102-page anthology. Art by Barb Johnson, Suzie Molnar, Sheila Paulson, Esther Reese, and Kate Nuernberg. Poetry, with two filks (by Mysti Frank and Claire Cross) and a poem by Sharon Wisdom.

Contents

• Legacy by Esther Reese
• A Tale of Two Als by Sheila Paulson
• Youth and Treachery by Louann Qualls
• Paradox by Rebecca Reeves
• Time and Teapots Wait for No One - September 8, 1995 by Kathy Hintze
• Interlude by Esther Reese
• Cages - April 27, 1974 by Sheila Paulson (A crossover with Simon and Simon)

Reactions and Reviews

[A Tale of Two Als]: sam leaps a few weeks into the future (granted it isn't much but still...) a few days before Al is shot and killed, or something like that. and sam has to stop Al from being killed with 'our' Al still helping him as a hologram.

[zine]:

Al cries: 1

Sam cries: 2

They hug: 4

[zine]: Lots of good stuff in this zine, including artwork by Sheila and Kate Nuernberg, who are, I think, two of the best QL zine artists I know of.

[zine]: Four out of five stars. How Sheila had time to edit a zine on top of all the stories and illos, I have no idea, but I'm glad she did. Lots of Al stories here. Nice computer layout and borders. This issue has a little poetry, with two filks (by Mysti Frank and Claire Cross) and a poem by Sharon Wisdom. Other different filler is some word puzzles.

• "Legacy" - Esther Reese. Sam's the big brother this time, there to help his little sister get the confidence she needs to go to MIT and become an astronaut in spite of her parents disapproval. They think she should be doing something more practical, like getting married, but she has a letter from an astronaut to inspire her. Some interesting bits of Al's background and his "present" back at the project.
• "A Tale of Two Als" - Sheila Paulson. Sam leaps into Al, just ahead of the present, so to speak. Between Sam as Al, Al as Sam and Al as a hologram, who's who at any one time can get confusing. They don't want the rest of the staff (or Tina) to know what's happening until they can find out why Al is in danger. Perfect leap-in, as Sam tries to figure out who the beautiful woman in bed with him is and how to escape to a mirror.
• "Youth and Treachery" - Louann Qualls. An Al + Tina story. Sam's between leaps so Al has time for a night out - without Tina - but things don't quite go as planned. Some of Sam's good points must be influencing Al, as he helps a woman escape from her abusive husband and realizes some things he's been denying about his relationship with Tina.
• "Paradox" - Rebecca Reeves. Time travel can strike too close to home. Sam's minor change to get two couples together causes tragedy a generation later. The story spans three leaps, causing the problem, correcting it, and a cute scene with a little boy in the library. From the hints that have been dropped (between Sally and USA Today), I expect something similar to this scenario in the season 4 finale.
• "Time and Teapots Wait for No One - September 8, 1995" - Kathy Hintze. Did the project really work, or is Sam in a hospital in a coma? I don't much like the implications of this story, though she does keep it somewhat ambiguous.
• "Interlude" - Esther Reese. Al's thoughts on the project and his life. Weird ending. One of many stories that assumes Al has been covering for Sam with his family, sending letters and cards.
• "Cages - April 27, 1974" - Sheila Paulson. Combine elements of "Vietnam" and "Dreams" and you've got the idea. Sam is having the leapee's war flashbacks, to his squad (under Sgt. Rick Simon) and another failed POW rescue mission. Lots of character development and history, as Sam learns more than Al really wanted him to know.

[zine]:

Out of the Fnjing Pan is just over 100 pages long, small but readable print. There's plenty of art, mostly good quality, but some of it is awfully familiar ~ whether that's because I've seen the drawings before or because the artist used the same original photos as others I couldn't say. There are some nice fllks and poems and even a puzzle. And, of course, there are stories.

The first story. Legacy, is basically just a nice character study of Al. Al runs across Beth, Dirk, and their full grown son at some official function. We hear out about this when he pops into Sam's easy assignment looking anguished. It doesn't take Sam long to find out what's happened, and that Al is mourning the 'might have beens'. After letting Al talk a bit, Sam finally yells at him, saying the Beth Al has created in his mind has nothing to do with the real Beth ~ and the pretend Beth is ruining Al's life. Al doesn't appreciate this and goes off to sulk. This synopsis doesn't begin to touch on the depth and complexity of the story. Sam's leap connects to what's going on in the future, giving the author the chance to have Sam comment on Al; she also deals with Al in his own time, where he has to face the fact that it was his own choices that lost him Beth; the writing is frequently stunning; and the various story elements tie together nicely - although I did rather wonder what would happen the next time Al shows to see Sam, since he left in a bit of a huff and doesn't get back together with Sam before the end of the story.

A Tale of Two Als left me cold. Sam leaps into Al's body at the QL project, 48 hours ahead of the Al who's talking to him from the Imaging Chamber. The Al in Sam's body is not too swiss cheesed, so we've got Sam in Al's body, Al in Sam's body and the holograph Al from 48 hours in the past. Sam's there because someone's trying to kill Al, and Sam has to imcover the culprit and keep Al alive. I thought the silliness went on much too long, the culprit obvious, and the resolution painful. Maybe it's my low tolerance for cute.

I really liked Youth and Treachery, which is an 'all Al' story. Al is out cruising, basically just to convince himself that Tina doesn't own him, but instead of picking someone up he decides to help a battered wife who's afraid to leave the bar because her husband's waiting outside. Al's rather dismayed at what her situation reveals to him about himself. Plenty of action, a good chunk of soul searching, a few self-realizations ~ what more could you ask? Okay, okay, so maybe there's not much for Sam-fans who don't care about Al. This one's still way up on my list.

Paradox begins with Sam and Al discussing how their actions have changed history-- and what the repercussions might be. Next leap, Sam finds out firsthand, since he's dealing not with Al, but with a stuffy, cold woman named Colonel Rand. Turns out Al was killed before the Project really got going. Sam remembers the original timeline, of course, which convinces Rand he's losing it (not, one gets the impression, that she was ever too impressed with his rationality in the first place). Considering the fact that Sam and Al only interact in about half the story, I'm surprised how much I like Paradox. It's intense, well written, has touches of tragedy and of comedy, and hangs together well, so I'm willing to cut the author some slack for keeping Al out of much of it. Good stuff.

Then there's Time and Teapots Wait for No One. The author can't seem to make up her mind, but I guess it's an alternate reality story. When Sam leaps the first time, there's an explosion, he's caught in a huge fire, and at the beginning of the story he's been in the hospital, unconscious, for four weeks, with little showing on the brain wave monitors. The doctor wants to pull the plug on him, Al doesn't. Sam's sister and mother show up, they end up siding with the doctor, but as they're about to do him in Sam 'leaps' in, basically as a most, sizes up the situation and rejoins his body in time to convince them he's still in there, so they leave him on life support. At which point everything begins to unravel. So far as Sam's concerned, he's been leaping for some time — his last leap was MIA — and Al's been with him as a hologram. But Al remembers none of this — from his point of view, the first time Sam even tried to leap everything blew up. Then while Al's with him Sam 'fades out' and leaps again, without the aid of the Project ~ the Project ends up decimated about this point ~ and once again, Sam's experience is that Al's there as a hologram, while the Al with him doesn't experience any of this. I didn't get it. If you're going to have an alternate reality where Sam gets trashed first time out, why then say Sam's also gone through a whole slug of leaps? Did he leap to a parallel universe where this is the way it worked ~ if so, where's the Sam who belongs here? He's not leaping with the hologram Al, because the Sam in the story does that. And if the 'original' Sam's brain was destroyed with the aborted leap attempt, and the Sam whose experiment worked has been 'given' his body to stay put, where does that leave the Al who's been a hologram with the traveling Sam? Or 'our' Sam's body? And why did the author destroy the Project while at the same time establishing that Sam's started leaping without it? And why am I tearing my hair out trying to imderstand a 15 page story?

Interlude is basically 'an evening of Al's thoughts'. Nothing really happens while Al frets about the meaning of life and leaping in particular. Not my kind of thing but well done.

In Cages, Sam leaps into Brian Hamilton, a Viet Nam vet who is due to suicide in a day. Brian's been suffering bad flashbacks; somehow they're bleeding over the link, and Sam's experiencing them. Turns out Brian's life and Al's crossed while Al was a POW, Sam has to live through Brian's memories to find out what Brian is hiding from himself and in so doing realizes what he really left Al to when he chose Tom over the POWs. Lots of angst and pain in this one, as Sam and Al both realize they still need to resolve some things from The Leap Home Pt 2'. There's also a teeny tiny guest appearance by Rick Simon; I didn't even notice him first time through. Although Rick Simon didn't stand out for me, there's some nice character work with Brian's mother and ex-fiancee, both strong women who aren't sure how to deal with the situation. A solid story.

All in all, a pretty good zine, except for those two clinkers. Then again, where better for Time and Teapots to appear than Out of the Frying Pan, what with Sam ending up in the fire.... Fate.

[zine]:

Wow! This is a great Quantum Leap zine, especially for those A1 fans out there. There are several nice portraits of our favorite hologram, and Al figures prominently in many of the stories. Sam Beckett isn't forgotten, either, as he leaps into:

—a college student home on vacation ("Legacy")

—a Vietnam vet with delayed stress syndrome ("Cages")

—a male nurse on the maternity ward and a bum on Skid Row ("Paradox")

— and a Project Observer with a very familiar face ("A Tale of Two Als").

Some of the stories are not conventional QL, which I found all the more interesting. Perhaps the most original is Kathy Hintze's 'Time and Teapots Wait for No One." Sam Beckett lies in a coma, following burns he received when he stepped into the Accelerator. Al Calavicci has stubbornly refused to give up on his friend's life, and he's rewarded when Sam finally regains consciousness. But is it true that all of Sam's leaps that only been dreams? Can Sam convince Al otherwise? (Read the story; I'm not telling!)

Sheila Paulson's "A Tale of Two Als" is fun. Sam leaps into Al, at Project Quantum Leap headquarters. He has to save his friend's life, but Ziggy doesn't know why.

The holographic Al hasn't lived these events yet, and the Al in the Waiting Room has holes in his memory. On top of that, Sam has to convince people he's Al, and keep Tina at arm's length—something which is definitely un-Al-like.

Two stories focus on Al alone, back at Project Quantum Leap. "Youth and Treachery," by Louann Qualls, casts Al as the hero as he helps a young battered wife escape her husband. Esther Reese's "Interlude" is a brief character study of Al, focusing on his thoughts as he goes home one night "Legacy," also by Reese, has Sam helping Al come to terms with meeting a happily-married Beth, her husband and their son. Excellent characterizations and dialogue make this story one of my favorites.

Overall, Out of the Frying Pan is a fine, literate QL zine, and well worth its price.