QUANTUM LEAP’s Martin Gero Explains the Time Jump, Previews Guest Star Janet Montgomery

Ben (Raymond Lee) got one major surprise in the QUANTUM LEAP season premiere when he was told he didn’t just not jump home as planned—he had also been missing for three years.

“As we were rounding out of season 1, obviously, we made these episodes back-to-back, so there wasn’t a lot of time for introspection,” co-showrunner Martin Gero tells Give Me My Remote. “But I think one of the things we were most frustrated about, just as writers in season 1, is that we had been saddled with this very dense and science-y, mathy, brain-hurty mythology—just an enormous amount of explanation.”

“So what it did was it saddled the present-day team, a group of extraordinary actors, [with] mostly a lot of exposition,” he continues. “So as we were moving into the second season, we were like, ’Well, what is the way that we can not do that and not have our antagonist be something that’s so confusing that it’s eating up all of our present-day space?’ We would love to take the stories away from plotty to the emotional space.”

Gero and co-showrunner Dean Georgaris started pondering possible solutions and came up with “what if he did disappear? What if he disappeared for a long time?” Gero recalls. “Because that would give everyone some time to grieve him and they’re over it, a little bit; they’ve moved past it a little bit. And, also, in a show like this, [it would] build up some secrets that we can explore this season that were interpersonal and not external.”

“So that’s why the three-year time jump,” he continues. “It was a way for us to reset the show a little bit. But, most importantly, build a mechanism for us as writers and for them as actors to really get to know these characters more, which is why I love watching TV in the first place.”

As Ben is reeling from the news, he leaps into a bank teller who is quickly caught up in an armed robbery. NEW AMSTERDAM vet Janet Montgomery also guest stars in the hour, “Ben & Teller,” as a fellow teller.

“We just can’t believe our luck with guest stars this year,” Gero gushes. “I mean, that’s the fun thing about having a season 1 out there—so many people watched the show and got excited about the show and [asking people to be on the show became] easier calls to make. To start with 2×01, to have Melissa [Roxburgh] and Aaron [Abrams] and P.J. [Byrne] and Francois [Arnaud]—[it’s an] incredible cast to start.”

“[Janet] does such an incredible job,” he continues. “It was a different character than we’ve seen her play, and I think she’s hitting Ben at an incredibly sensitive moment in his emotional life. And so to have someone there who’s just like deeply kind in the middle of a scary situation, as well, is really great for the story. And to have someone like her, with Janet’s capability, is very exciting.”

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