Your Quantum Leap“Trilogy” episodes constituted another milestone for Leap. How did you come up with the concept for that wonderfully complex story? How long did it take to write it?
I guess from "The Vision Quest Trilogy" you can tell I have a thing for trilogies. As for the Quantum Leap trilogy, it was one of those gifts from the universe that just filled my head and wouldn't let go. It took all summer so about 2 1/2 months to write.
When your daughter, Troian, was five years old, she appeared in the Leap episode “Another Mother”. Is this something she wanted to do? Did she ask to be a part of the show or did you suggest it to her?
I just wanted her to be part of what her Dada and I were creating. She took to like a fish out of water. Then, on the set, the first day of shooting, Dean Stockwell gave me a talking to and made me understand that putting children to work, if you don't need the money, takes their childhood and makes them responsible. I never encouraged her to go back in front of the camera. That she's starring on ABC’s Pretty Little Liars is all her doing and I am very proud I listened to Dean and let her be a kid. She's a great one and turning into an amazing young woman with phenomenal talent.
In 2006, you released the first of three Vision Quest novels. These ambitious works incorporate themes of science, technology, and spirituality. You also have plans for a feature film and video game. How did this project come to be?
It was part of a vision for a brave new world I had when I was 21. It took me a long time to believe in myself enough to write it.
tvqbooks.com sums it up as does the next video interview I did for Future Worlds.
Please explain the basic premise of Vision Quest.
Earth, set in the not to distant future, is based on the science and technology we are creating today. A new world is filled with alternate species we have created, some of whom discover their humanity. It is so new to them, unrepressed by centuries of government and religion, they remember the powers we have forgotten. The story is told through the eyes of a young man and his two best friends. It is a coming of age story where he, like most of us, must learn to release our anger to attain our bliss and open our selves to the universal powers that await us.
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Article comments
1 - Heloise
Great interview. I remember her from Star Trek. And wow, how ironic I was just researching Deborah Pratt. She is ten years older than I but I went to high school with her sisters. Her daughter is Troian Bellisario who has a role in Pretty Little Liars. I am going to link this article too because people are wondering about her ethnicity. She looks good for her age really.
Heloise
2 - Mindy
Hi Heloise: Thanks for your comments and for linking the article.
3 - Marilyn Johnson,ND
Thanks so much for this awesome article. Deborah Pratt's work has opened my eyes and brought my belief in my own talents as a writer and a woman of color to a much higher level of expectation.
I too dream of a world like she has presented in Vision Quest and Quantum Leap!