Quantum Leap #6: A Song for the Soul

A Song for the Soul

(07 April 1963)

Sam is...Cheree Watkins, Supreme Singer 

The Mission...Ensure bandmate Lynelle Walters doesn't sign a contract with sleazy club owner Bobby Lee

This episode holds a special significance for me as it's one of the first Quantum Leap stories I ever saw and I was drawn in purely by my burgeoning love for crossdressing and bodyswapping back when I was a teenager. I can't remember if I saw a trailer for it or just read the description in the TV Times but it was clear that a man was going to be dressing up as a woman and I had to see it. 

The opening scene doesn't disappoint either as Sam leaps straight into a performance by aspiring girl band, The Dovettes, all clad in black strappy bin-bag-like dresses with beehive hairdos. The mission is a straightforward one for Sam as he has to stop bandmate Lynelle signing the contract with club owner Bobby Lee and also bring her father round to the idea of his daughter wanting to pursue a singing career. This is made easier by the fact that he moves in with them for a time as Cheree's parents are handily 'not at home' and that's the last we hear of them. This episode also gives Scott Bakula another chance to show off his wonderful singing voice. 

This is another example of an episode that would probably not be made in this day and age but yet would have seemed more progressive back in the early 1990s. It's admirable that while all but the regular cast (Bakula and Stockwell) are black, the optics of a white man acting the part of a black female teen would not be looked on so kindly. Saying that though, seeing said man dressed as a woman was a big thing for this teenager interested in exploring their gender identity. 

As ever, Scott Bakula puts in a wonderful performance especially portraying Sam's awkwardness in the initial 'leap in' singing scenes when he's one step behind the others. He does seem to shift into the role of a mother hen at times, trying to protect the other two girls when he should be trying to fit in and is a little patronising at times. Support is provided by Tamara Townsend as Lynelle and T'Keyah 'Crystal' Keymáh as Paula who play the rest of The Dovettes and are very believable teenagers. Townsend is the main focus as Lynelle and does a great job as well as showing off her marvellous singing voice. Harrison Page is Lynelle's preacher father and a pre-E.R Eriq La Salle appears as our villain Bobby Lee. While The Dovettes are a proto Supremes, there are shades of Ike and Tina Turner's relationship in Bobby and Lynelle's. There are some lovely 1960s fashions too in the dresses the girls wear especially the bright pink sparkly ones they don for their big performance at Bobby's club (which looks more like a café). 

There are a few issues. The overall plot feels a bit hackneyed but then Quantum Leap plots were usually quite simple missions. Sam initially seems to side with Lynelle's strict father who nearly hits her in one scene. Bobby seems to walk straight into Lynelle's house and up into her bedroom without much trouble so did he break in? You also wonder what may have happened to the girl band he had The Dovettes' pink dresses made for. The reason for Lynelle's mother's death isn't really clear and why are they so concerned about having her father hear her sing anyway when she sings in the church's gospel choir every week? 

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a real conclusion to the story, just a tearful father and daughter reunion which tells you that things are most likely going to be alright despite the fact they never have much of a discussion. Did Lynelle sign with Bobby Lee? Presumably she told him to take a running jump otherwise Sam wouldn't have left. We also learn nothing about what the future has in store for the characters which was always a nice coda to the episode for me. All in all, this is a middling episode of Quantum Leap but one which I will always remember.