Sam leaps into Nigel Corrington, a guy who is either a vampire or just really into vampire lore. His young bride Alexandra is destined to die on the night of a creepy ceremony called the “Blood Moon”. Sam has to find a way to stop Corrington’s vampire-obsessed house guests, Victor and Claudia, from carrying out their obsessions and killing Alexandra.

Written by Tommy Thompson . Directed by Alan J. Levi

Previous Episode: Dr. Ruth  • Next Episode:  Return of the Evil Leaper

Comments:
I am not a fan of this episode. I admit that part of this is because I really don’t like vampire stories. The idea of evil being something that is supposedly so sexy and enticing just kind of grosses me out. But the thing about Blood Moon is also that it is some incredibly silly. The episode is basically built around the idea of giving everything as much of an old Hammer horror film vibe as it possibly can, but in such a cheesy way that it comes across more as a parody than it does an homage.

Thus you’ve got an episode that is just full of everyone acting ridiculous. Guest characters like the villains, Victor and Claudia, or the butler Horst, never read as anything but cartoonish cosplay versions of figures you might find in a haunted house theme park ride. Al spends most of his time being the comic relief as the guy who is terrified of vampires against Sam’s straight man. Dean Stockwell gets some laughs with this, but it doesn’t do the character of Al any favors.

And Sam himself seems really unable to take action to deal with the problems that are going on. He knows that Alexandra is going to die, he knows that Victor is really creepy, he knows that somebody killed his dog, and yet it’s ages before he just decides to cancel the macabre ceremony he’s supposed to be hosting and kick the bad guys out of his house. There’s no particular reason for this except that the episode has to fill out its runtime. It’s only then, when Sam actually attempts to take action, does the episode feel like it’s giving us a story and not just a bunch of atmosphere.

The one bright spot in all of this is the performance of Shae D’lyn as Alexandra. The character is fairly one-note, but she plays that one note with incredible commitment. She’s pretty much the only one I believed was not just a horror movie trope brought to life for the fun of it, but an actual character.

Cast Notes:
• Ian Buchanan (Victor Drake) played someone named Dick Tremayne on Twin Peaks that I don’t remember.

• Rod Loomis (Horst, the Butler, who for some reason is credited as “Boris” on IMDb) was Paul Manheim in a mediocre episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called We’ll Always Have Paris, and also played Freud in the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Who and Where is Dr. Sam Beckett?
Sam is Nigel Corrington, a British landowner and vampire enthusiast (and potentially, a vampire), outside of London, England, on the night of March 10, 1975.

What does Sam have to do?
Sam has to prevent the death of Corrington’s young wife Alexandra at the hands of his houseguests Victor and Claudia (and potentially, at the hands of Corrington himself)

What do we learn about Sam Beckett?
Sam doesn’t believe in vampires, unsurprisingly. Although maybe it is surprising since the show has also given him evidence to believe in ghosts, psychics, UFO’s and undead mummies. Oh well, the Swiss-cheese brain strikes again!

Sam knows where the carotid artery is located, which of course is not surprising given his training.

What do we know about Al?
Al does believe in vampires, or at least he is ready to believe in them at the site of Corrington in the Waiting Room, and with everything going on with Sam on the lap.

What about the experiment?
There is nothing in particular, except that apparently everyone at the Project is so stressed about the idea of vampires that nobody has had Ziggy run the program that would tell Sam what he needs to do.

“Driven by an unknown force…” (God or Time or Something)
There’s nothing this time around.

“Oh Boy”
The catchphrase is heard right when Sam arrives, as is typical, and also at the start of his next leap, which is also typical.

Sam’s Complicated Love Life
Sam is married on this leap to Alexandra Corrington, and she is very affectionate towards him. Though he seems tempted, he doesn’t reciprocate and does what he can to keep her at arms length.

Claudia also touches Sam briefly in a way that’s kind of inappropriate, but she seems to do that with everyone. And she invites Sam to join her and Victor upstairs while she “bathes in Victor’s power,” whatever that means.

The Many Loves of Al Calavicci
Al is too distracted with all the potential vampires everywhere to really focus on women or sex in this episode, which is slightly surprising given how attractive both Alexandra and Claudia are. He does mention Tina though at one point.

Other Observations
• Sam leaps into a coffin, which is kind of funny.

• Vlad the dog recognises Sam, although they don’t say this explicitly (at least, I think they don’t. Full disclosure, there was a problem on my DVD and I couldn’t watch the first couple of minutes of the episode).

• Al arrives into the episode already super-jumpy, ready to scream and start at everything, all because of how creepy Corrington looks in the Waiting Room.

• There are some occasional funny exchanges between Sam and Al. Al says of Corrington, “He’s got all the markings of the undead.” Sam replies, “And you have all the markings of the brain-dead.”

• And then later, Al says of Corrington, “He’s got the pale complexion, the beady eyes, the lustful stare,” and Sam replies, “Al? You just described yourself.”

• Al also says of Sam / Corrington, “You’re a blood-sucking ghoul from hell!” which is kind of funny.

• And even later, Al shows up with a book called “How to Spot a Vampire” by Dr. Laszlo Fang!

• Al puts down the book he’s carrying so it disappears from sight, but it’s not a completely convincing effect.

• Sam is tied up in a pretty unconvincing way.

• Almost my favorite line is when Sam says to Claudia, “This is not some gothic novel. This is real life. And unless you untie me, innocent people are gonna die.” I like it because it shows Sam finally cutting through everyone’s garbage and getting to the point. Claudia replies, “Victor says our fates are preordained,” and Sam then replies, “I don’t know how to break this to you, but Victor is insane.”

• After Sam removes Claudia’s fake fangs, he says to Al, “Your vampires are fake, unless they got a dental plan in hell.”

• Sam gets Alexandra to leave so she doesn’t have to interact with the real Corrington again, which I think is a nice touch. And Alexandra winds up as a missionary!

• Of course, Sam has no reflection at the end. It wouldn’t be a Quantum Leap episode with some supernatural quality if it wasn’t going to have a closing tag which confirmed or at least strongly implied that whatever the thing that one of the characters was protesting was fake for the whole time was actually real.

Sam Leaps To
Return of the Evil Leaper

Favorite Dialogue
I think my favorite line is one of Sam’s protests to Al about how ridiculous the whole vampire thing is:

Al, I cannot believe that there are guys out there running around in bad tuxedos, biting people on the neck.

Special thanks, by the way, to this site for the episode transcriptions.

The Best Moment
I didn’t really like the episode all that much but the closest we get to a real heartfelt moment is when Alexandra is sharing her backstory about growing up as an orphan. It’s impossible to really believe it, but that’s just because the episode is so ridiculous–the actress gives it her all and almost convinces me.

Previous Episode: Dr. Ruth  • Next Episode:  Return of the Evil Leaper