Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, fellow travelers. Sam from Fateswide Wheel here and I'm back and it's been a while. It's a little strange to have taken off so much time, and I think there is a risk for any YouTube channel or podcast that lies dormant for an extended period of time. And this is definitely a bit of a comeback, a new beginning, a restart, if you will.
[00:00:23] If you're someone that's been here from the very beginning.
[00:00:27] Thank you.
[00:00:28] I'm thrilled to be in front of your eyes and ears again and hopefully we can have some fun going forward. If you're new to the channel, there's a lot of stuff that I want to do that I haven't really done before. So it's going to be new for all of us. So welcome. Thank you so much for tuning in for joining. Please feel free to check out some of the older content. There's a lot of interviews and reviews and overviews for especially Quantum Leap, obviously, which is sort of how this whole endeavor started. But there's also a lot of other content talking about Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Star wars, etc. And I look forward to bringing you even more of that type of thing. This is just a short kind of reintroduction, if you will, to Fates Wide Wheel. The purpose of Fates Wide Wheel from the very beginning was always to be able to go beyond Quantum Leap. You know, we started as a Quantum Leap podcast audio only, doing reviews of the original classic series, five seasons, and we finished that, I believe it was like December of 2020. I want to say it took us about three years to get there, but it was. It was really an incredible journey. And I'm so grateful that we got to do that because we met some really cool people along the way, one of whom is no longer with us. And I certainly want to try to, you know, pay tribute and honor my friend Matt Dale's memory however I can. And one of the ways that I can do that is by showing off one of the last projects that he ever had the chance to work on. So stay tuned for an unboxing video of The DNA of Dr. Who, the Philip Hinchcliffe years. I'm really excited to dive into that. It's a really, really cool book, and it's probably one of the reasons why the channel was dormant for a while, because I knew I wanted to do an episode about that. And I got a little stuck figuring out why. And there was, you know, there was a little bit of, not to be melodramatic and hyperbolic, there was a little bit of grief and mourning involved with it as well. You know, Matt was someone who I valued a great deal and had a lot of affection for.
[00:02:42] And, you know, his passing came as a shock to, you know, the community and to the people that had known him and worked with him, especially the folks over at the Quantum Leap podcast, and obviously his family, whom I had the chance to speak with a number of people, not only in his family, but close friends of his that had known him for years and years and years.
[00:03:03] And it was a little weird to want to do this thing that was associated with something that he and I both loved, which is Doctor who, something that he and I had spoken about numerous times, getting together, collaborating and doing an episode here or there, especially on the new series, but we just didn't get that opportunity. And so when this book came, it was very difficult for me to kind of open that package and dive in and say, hey, look at all this cool stuff.
[00:03:31] But eventually I realized that I would be doing a disservice to his memory if I didn't get excited about this, if I didn't open this up, if I didn't say, hey, look, Matt wrote this. Matt worked on this project, and it's a really cool project. And this, you know, thing that I backed on Kickstarter is here, and it's lovely and it's amazing. And the folks that worked on it and the other writers and everyone else involved with the project, even Philip Hinchcliffe and Tom Baker, for instance, like, they all deserved, I think, to have a little something done for it. And I'm really excited to share that video that'll be coming very, very soon.
[00:04:04] In addition to that, I've been working with JJ Lindell on getting something together for us to talk about. I think we have a couple of ideas. We want to talk about Doctor who, we want to talk about Star Trek, we want to talk about the stuff that he's been working on. You know, JJ's an incredible artist and has been creating some amazing comic book covers for the Star Trek comic book by idw, as well as a number of other things, including his involvement with X Files and the X Fil Museum and just so many cool projects. And so I want to be able to talk with JJ a little bit more, and I want to have JJ on, just more in general for us to kind of, you know, share some stories and our memories and thoughts of different properties that we're fans of. So I look forward to doing that with him personally. There's a lot of stuff that I want to share a lot of stuff that I want to dive into again. Fates Wide Wheel I always hoped would go beyond Quantum Leap. That's the reason why I didn't want to name this podcast or YouTube channel something that it was too Quantum Leap specific. And I felt like Fate's Wide Wheel in general lent itself to the idea that there's so many places we could land and there's so many things that we could talk about and share. And that's something else that's really important to me. I really want to share a dialogue with the community. So please leave your thoughts, leave your comments, your questions and. And let's have a great journey together. There's so many things that interest me, that move me, that intrigue me. Lately, you know, comic books have been something that I've been coming back to after not really reading a lot of comics for a while, especially DC Comics. I've always had a huge love and appreciation for DC Comics, perhaps even more so than Marvel. And I think Marvel has been so in the pop culture consciousness and awareness due to the popularity and success of the mcu. And even though that's waned over the past few years in the wake of Endgame, for instance, I still think that it holds the popular consciousness a little bit more than dc. However, we're on the precipice of the new Superman movie coming out, which looks incredible and I'm so looking forward to it. Superman's one of my favorite characters ever. I'm a huge fan of the original Christopher Reeves movies. I'm a fan of Superman Returns.
[00:06:18] I enjoy some of man of Steel, and I'm really looking forward to this. I think that based off of what we've seen so far from the trailers, it seems more in keeping with how I want to see Superman and how I want to see Superman explored, especially in the 2000 and twenties.
[00:06:38] And I again, you know, getting back to the comics has been a lot of fun. Recently watched the Pee Wee Herman documentary on HBO Max. It's incredible. I encourage anyone to check it out. I think that the, you know, the themes of identity, of art, creativity, entertainment, truth, it's really well done. And hearing from Paul Rubens himself is incredible, especially knowing that he was recording this, you know, just within the past, you know, year of his life.
[00:07:13] And certainly the, the queer themes of the piece and, and how that relates to identity and honesty were really appealing to me.
[00:07:25] You know, for those that, that aren't aware, I consider myself a member of the queer community. I consider myself to be gender fluid Non B Panromantic. My preferred pronouns are he, they.
[00:07:38] And I'm watching that documentary and seeing kind of how he lived his life and navigated his fame in light of his queerness was. Was fascinating to me.
[00:07:51] Anyway, Magic the Gathering. I do marketing work for a friendly local game store here in the Chicagoland area. We actually have three locations now. It's very exciting. Recently released a Final Fantasy themed set. I love Final Fantasy, I love mag.
[00:08:06] So the opportunity to kind of get into that set has been a lot of fun.
[00:08:10] Star Trek I've recently.
[00:08:13] My love of physical media, you can tell behind me, has kind of led me to collecting some Star Trek books, paperbacks and hardbacks that I either had at one point in time, but lost along the way, or never had, but always wanted. And that's been a lot of fun to not only collect those, but to be reading some of those novels again.
[00:08:34] So you're sure to hear a little bit about that as well.
[00:08:37] And when it comes to television, the weird thing is I haven't been watching a lot of TV recently and for a show that originated as a Quantum Leap podcast about a television show about a very specific television show that might be kind of interesting, but I just haven't had the urge to dive into a show recently. And there's a lot that I've missed and a lot that I want to take a look at. So I'm hoping to jump into some stuff and maybe talk about it here on the show.
[00:09:09] But you know, in general you can expect to hear about Doctor who.
[00:09:15] That's something that I've really been looking forward to talking about for a very long time.
[00:09:19] I do feel like I bring a unique perspective to it, especially as a fan from the US that got into Dr. Who during the wilderness years. 1993 was when I first started watching Dr. Who VHS tapes at media Play, the local Media play in Gastonia, North Carolina. I would go in, I would buy, you know, tapes whenever I could. That's what I would request for birthdays and Christmases.
[00:09:44] I remember one year I was going to vacation at my grandparents house in Iowa and I was very concerned about what the.
[00:09:54] What happened to them. But I literally took along like a suitcase half full of VHS tapes. I was like, I hope that this is okay, going through the scanners and everything, the X ray machines. But I wanted to have those tapes with me so I could watch the Doctor who all summer long when I was at my grandparents.
[00:10:12] And the novels were huge for me. Very important to kind of the tapestry of Doctor who during those years and, you know, the revival series, the new series, whatever we want to call it, you know, it's 20 years old now, and I remember the excitement when it came back. And watching those first few episodes, you know, I couldn't wait to get my eyes on them. And it's been something that has played a huge part, I think, in. In my life and is one of the just integral parts of my media literacy, if you will. I think that it's helped to shape a lot of what I enjoy and a lot of what I like about, you know, popular fiction in general. And it's probably one of my favorite pieces of media, period. So the opportunity to talk a little bit more about that will be a lot of fun.
[00:11:07] You know, it's interesting because my love of Star Trek certainly came a little bit before my. My love of Doctor who, but in some ways they. They tend to be a little intertwined. Star Trek, Deep Space 9 and Doctor who were two things along with professional wrestling, quite frankly, that got me through the late 90s and early 2000s. Right before I started college, I was having kind of a weird time. We. We moved and, you know, I wasn't connecting with anything or anyone. But those, you know, reading Doctor who novels, watching Doctor who, watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine as it kind of careened towards the final episodes, those were things that really kind of, I don't know, sparked me, ignited me in a way that a lot of other stuff wasn't at the time.
[00:11:52] And wrestling. I loved wrestling.
[00:11:56] And I still do. I still do.
[00:11:58] But anyway, I'm really looking forward to kind of continuing this journey and seeing what fate's wide wheel has to hold for the future.
[00:12:06] The funny thing is, is before you see anything else from Fates wide wheel, you might actually catch me over on fandom Entanglement. Damon Sugamelli, who is a friend of the show and has been for quite some time his show, he and his co host, Mike, they invited me on to discuss an episode of Sliders. It's the first episode produced for season three, not the first aired. You can hear us talk a little bit about that on the show. But I'll be guesting over on Phantom Entanglement.
[00:12:34] Excuse me? Fandom entanglement. Not Phantom. I'd be something else, wouldn't it? But fandom entanglement for an episode about Sliders Double cross, which I'm really looking forward to getting out there. I had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun revisiting Sliders, actually. I.
[00:12:51] My history with Sliders which I talk a little bit about in the show, is kind of interesting because it seems like a show that would be right up my alley, especially, you know, with my love of Dr. Who, for instance, in Quantum Leap. I mean, you know, there's. There's definitely some. Some common threads there, but I didn't watch it.
[00:13:09] I didn't make an appointment viewing, and it's not because I didn't enjoy.
[00:13:13] Just kind of fell off the map for me. And so I didn't get the chance to see every single episode. And I came to this guest spot on their podcast in a very novice way. I had a working knowledge at best of what Sliders was, and I had seen. I remembered the first couple of episodes pret. I remembered a couple of moments from episodes that I had seen, some of which were from the later seasons, actually.
[00:13:44] I caught a couple of, like, marathons on the Sci Fi Channel in the early 2000s, but genuinely did not have much of a base of knowledge to work from. So it was really cool to watch an episode of TV again with that eye. For what do I want to talk about? What can I bring to this? You know, what, What, What. What hits me and not, you know, watch it in a less passive manner than I think. I've been watching a lot of TV recently, you know, just kind of for entertainment. This was like, okay, I'm. I'm doing some work, if you will. And it was really cool to kind of come back to that. I hadn't done that much, you know, since I last recorded an episode of the podcast, so that was a really cool opportunity. And then to also talk about something that I didn't know as well as, say, Quantum Leap or the episode of the Twilight Zone, for instance, that we talked about the JJ and I talked about last year. So it was a really great chance to kind of get back into this chair, but to do it with a little bit less pressure. I didn't have to be the one driving the conversation. I didn't have to be the one with all the knowledge. I could be very reactionary. I could, you know, I could watch this episode. I could do my homework in a way, but I didn't have to necessarily be the authority. Not. Not that I've ever been the authority in this seat either, but it was a nice different perspective for me and I think helped to spark my desire to make sure I getting back in front of the camera. And I'd already recorded a couple of episodes for Fates Wide Wheel, but I just hadn't dropped them yet. For a variety of reasons. So, all that said, check out fandom Entanglement Sliders, Double Cross. That's season three, episode one, production wise. It was actually the second episode aired. That's something that we talk about too, but it was a lot of fun. I had a great time with Damon and Mike and I hope to do it again sometime. And it made me want to watch more Sliders, which is always cool, right? It's available on Peacock.
[00:15:39] Oh, peacock. Oh, NBCUniversal.
[00:15:42] So much, so much to say, of course, you know, my love for Quantum Leap.
[00:15:47] It's an amazing J.J. lyndall print, by the way, for the classic series MIA. Check it out.
[00:15:52] But it certainly still exists. And I want to, I want to do a little bit of, you know, a post mortem, if you will, on the revival series. I'd love to talk what it's like to be a little over a year removed from the cancellation. And, you know, as a fan, as a member of this fan community, you know, kind of just talk a little bit about what the show meant in retrospect, what it did, right, what it didn't, you know, what some of the folks involved are doing now and, you know, really just kind of explore the feel a little bit because I've had a lot of feelings, a lot of feelings in the past year when it comes to Quantum Leap.
[00:16:40] There's a lot that I'd like to talk about and I'm really hoping that I can get some folks that were involved with the show back on to fate's wide wheel to talk a little bit about that. But even more so, just talk about what they're up to now, what their thoughts and feelings are on entertainment in general right now, the television landscape, you know, the rise of AI the, you know, the fact that LA is now trying to make things easier for filmmakers to come back and incentivize filmmakers to come back to Los Angeles when, you know, they were kind of standing on the precipice where you're getting articles about the death of Hollywood and how, you know, so many productions were moving elsewhere. They didn't want to shoot in LA anymore, it was too expensive, this, that and the other. So I'd love to kind of get some, some thoughts and ideas about those things because, you know, I had the distinct privilege to talk to folks working in that industry, working very hard, working in, you know, very high level, and to get their thoughts and opinions on kind of what the future holds, you know, for them. And yeah, of course, talk a little bit about, about you know, Quantum Leap in retrospect as well. Don't know if it's going to happen, quite frankly, but I'd love to have the chance.
[00:17:49] You know, one of the things too that I would really like to do is create some shorter form content and get stuff that, that is a little bit more easily digestible than the long, you know, two hour episodes. Although I had a lot of fun creating those. And I always enjoyed the interviews that I was able to do and I so grateful for the time given to me by these very busy people.
[00:18:12] And it was such a joy to get to spend time with them and ask lots of questions here, lots of stories and share that with you all. So I look forward to being able to do that, of course, but I would love to also give you some, some shorter stuff and in the spirit of that, I'm going to wrap this up and I just want to say again to anyone that has been listening or watching the show, you know, whether it's since we began or just in the past couple of years, thank you so much.
[00:18:41] It's really remarkable to me, it always has been that people watch or listen to this show.
[00:18:48] My intent is to keep it out there for as long as possible so that people can go back and listen to the old stuff, the audio and people can watch the video and kind of just chart the course of Quantum Leap and what that looked like from Genesis back in 1989 all the way up to 2000.
[00:19:12] So, yeah, I just want to close with again, thanking you all for that and also mention that a friend of the show. I can't believe I get to say that Deborah Pratt has a new Kickstarter for Warrior One Absolute Edition. Make sure you check that out.
[00:19:28] I think if you didn't have a chance to back the previous Kickstarter, this is such a really wonderful opportunity to get an amazing personalized graphic novel with some new cover art and other goodies in store.
[00:19:42] Deborah has written a really, really great, just cracking sci fi story that not only, you know, is science fiction, but feels almost more in that speculative fiction area as well, having to do with everything from, you know, climate change to technology and AI and also, you know, being that kind of classic, you know, hero's journey coming of age.
[00:20:11] And I think that it's a great opportunity to back a creator and an artist that we all love. I'm assuming you do if you've found your way to fate's wide wheel.
[00:20:19] So make sure you check out Deborah Pratt's Warrior One Absolute Edition Kickstarter. I'LL leave a link below for that.
[00:20:27] But in the meantime, I'm going to leap out of here. Take care of yourselves, take care of one another, stay safe, and always, always leap responsibly.
