This season, Quantum Leap evolved when it picked up after a time jump of three years, with the program having been shut down and everyone believing that Ben (Raymond Lee) was dead, including Addison (Caitlin Bassett), who after having buried him, moved on and now has a new beau. Understandably this has been difficult for Ben, but it’s enabled the writers to have a reason to continue to put other characters into the imaging chamber, which is a good thing. It also opens the door for Ben to connect with others, including Hannah (Eliza Taylor), who appeared in an episode earlier this season and will be returning in the next episode, which premieres next Wednesday. SciFi Vision recently spoke with showrunners and executive producers Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris about Ben and Addison’s breakup, Hannah’s return, other big episodes this season, and more.

Read the full transcript below and catch and all-new episode next week on NBC.

SCIFI VISION:   What can you say about Hannah coming back and maybe the next episode? 

MARTIN GERO:   …[Hannah] is an important part of 206. I mean, obviously, it's the return of the Hannah character, and it's also just one of our most exciting episodes. It's real swashbuckling fun, almost Indiana Jones themed, you know, an episode [with] a lot of puzzles and mysteries and a lot of great chemistry. So, we’re excited for everyone to see it for multiple reasons. 

SCIFI VISION:   Can you kind of explain a bit how you're able to bring her back? Or is that something that's saved for the episode that you can't talk about? 

MARTIN GERO:   I didn't watch the episode. I will say she's not a time traveler. She's not an interdimensional being, like, she's just a regular person, but I think, you know, watch and find out. 

SCIFI VISION:   Okay. Was there a specific reason that you guys decided to bring a character back? Or was it just like you wanted to bring the actress back? Or was it a story thing? I'm just kind of curious how that idea kind of came about? 

DEAN GEORGARIS:   Well, I mean, I think it's twofold. One of the things is, every week Ben gets to sort of physically and emotionally interact with a really great guest star, and then no one ever sees them again, including Ben…So, that's a bummer. But also, from sort of a bigger philosophical standpoint, at a certain point, when you're a time traveler, you don't really actually have a home of your own. What does that existence become like, and will there be relationships, friendships, characters, people? Would you stop in? Would you start to just revisit people, even if you just happen to be in the same time period? So, I think it gives the writers room more to explore. It gives Ben a character that he can have some sort of new relationship with and an evolving understanding of what it means for him to keep leaping. It's just at a certain point, asking Ben to just have no continuity with anyone except holograms just feels like a very small view of the Quantum Leap universe, which is just way more interesting and magical and more stuff is going on. 

SCIFI VISION:   Well, it's definitely an interesting twist. So, I want to ask about that. How do you necessarily decide who you're going to stick in the imaging chamber? I mean, is it always about like episodic story, because obviously, the [recent one] I'm assuming it came because of the plot, to put Magic (Ernie Hudson) in there? But is it always because of that? Or is there a different way that you decide that? 

MARTIN GERO:   I think, for us, one of the reasons that we were excited about the new construction of the show or the new conceit of the season is it would allow us to get other characters into the chamber. We did it once, I think, last year when Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) kind of came in. In a big way, obviously, Ian had come in as well. But Jen, kind of because she had a legal background and it was a legal episode. Then, you do that. So, there are those reasons, but I think, for us, obviously, you want those characters to thrive or at least have the the beliefs be emotionally resonant for them, ideally. But we took a lot of guardrails off this year with, like, not having to have a crazy justification for putting them in there. So, I think, obviously, this leap deeply resonates with Magic. So, putting Magic in there, for us, as writers, was interesting, but there are episodes coming up where it's not necessarily like, the most resonant episode for Jenn to be the hologram –

SCIFI VISION:   But it’s cool. 

MARTIN GERO:   But it's cool. It's a cool thing. It's fun to have Nanrisa in there. It's fun to have that character in there. So, it's been a real joy to be able to have that be an option this year. 

SCIFI VISION:   Because Addison isn't going to be his hologram necessarily, right now, is the whole relationship thing going to kind of take a backseat? Or is it more going to be a way for him to cope with it and discuss it with other people? Because, obviously, in [the last] episode, it seems like that seems like that could be the case anyway. 

DEAN GEORGARIS:   I mean, I think it really is more of a way for him to cope with it and discuss it with other people. You know, in real life, if you go through a traumatic breakup, there's a period of absence. There's a period where you’re commiserating with friends and stalking on various social medias and lamenting, and Ben has not had the luxury of doing any of that. This gives Ben time to do that. It gives Addison time to do that. And also, in a really subtle way, it gives the audience time to sort of [go], “Oh, yeah, like they're really good together. I miss them together. I'd like to see them get back together.” It's like we're hoping absence makes the heart grow fonder. Like, while we're entertaining, we keep other people leaping in there with him every now and then. Yay. You know, I think he misses Addison, and I think we the audience, we all miss her, and that's good. We're all feeling the same thing. 

SCIFI VISION:   Can you tease a little bit about the the 1600s episode coming up, the Salem Witch Trial type episode? 

MARTIN GERO:   Sure, it's a great episode. It's the deepest leap we've had. It goes back very, very far. I think, I mean, it's real spooky. There's a lot of fun stuff. I don't know, Dean, what do you what can we tease about it? 

DEAN GEORGARIS:   I think I will say this. You know, a lot of things that we take for granted is just things you can do and information, they can look like witchcraft. 

SCIFI VISION:   All right. Fair enough. I'm really looking forward to that and the Egypt episode. We're almost out of time, vut is there anything you can say about that one really quick, because that's the other kind of big one? 

MARTIN GERO:   Yeah, the Egypt episode is really the culmination of just an enormous amount of people's hard work, including an incredible crew in Egypt. You know, for us, we really want to keep expanding the scope of the show and tell bigger and bigger stories, especially for something like our midseason finale. So, I think, the idea - you know, on Blind Spot we had been to sixteen countries and five continents or six continents. So, the the ability to kind of do this, we had figured out. So, early in the year, we were like, “Okay, we're gonna go somewhere. Where do we go?” And it was not about just finding a place where we could actually shoot and get a lot of like, incredible scope, but like a place that had sections of Cairo, for instance, that feel like it's still in the 60s that with a little minimal digital paint out, you know, like taking away the odd cell phone tower and stuff, it looks like it did in the 60s; it looks period. So, I think people are gonna lose their minds. Like, I can't I can't believe how much of that, how much of the episode, actually got shot entirely in Egypt, and I can't wait for people to see it. And it has some great guest stars.