Pilot (a.k.a. 'Genesis') by Donald P. Bellisario

At a top-secret facility in New Mexico, Doctor Sam Beckett is in charge of Project Quantum Leap, a revolutionary experiment in time-travel. Activating the Quantum Leap accelerator, Sam steps into the time-machine and succeeds in sending himself into the past. However, the experiment does not go as planned: Sam wakes up in a strange bed next to a pregnant woman, and finds that he now inhabits the body of Tom Stratton, a top USAF test pilot. With his memory turned to ‘Swiss Cheese’, Sam is unable to recall who he really is, or how he got there, but he soon learns that he is due to fly a new, experimental aircraft called the X-2 on an assignment to break the Mach-3 barrier. Things get even stranger when Sam then starts seeing a mysterious, tuxedo-wearing man that no-one else can see…

Having saved Tom’s wife, Peg, and her newborn baby, Sam leaps into Ken Fox, a minor league baseball player – it’s the end of the 1968 season, and he must make the winning play so that he can leap once more…

Scott Bakula (Doctor Samuel ‘Sam’ Beckett), Dean Stockwell (Rear Admiral Albert ‘Al’ Calavicci), Jennifer Runyon (Peg Stratton), Christian Van Dorn (Mikey Stratton), John Allen Nelson (Captain ‘Bird Dog’ Birdell), Bruce McGill (Doctor Ernst (Weird Ernie)), W.K. Stratton (Doctor Burger), Larry Poindexter (Captain Tony LaMott), Newell Alexander (John Beckett), Lee DeBroux (Coach), Barbra Horan (Tina), David Trent (Captain Doug Walker), James F. Dean (Doctor Blaustein), Lela Ivey (Lucy), Dennis Wolfberg (Gushie), Lydia Cornell (Sally), Christine Poor (Jeanie), Doug Cox (Sportscaster), Hank Robinson (Umpire), Patrick Crawshaw (Old Man), Brent Chalem (Bat Boy), Adam Affonso (Young Sam), Mike Greenwood (Matt), Dave Duensing (Clyde), David Dawson (Barnes), Kevin Johnson (Pepper), Ken Martin (Tim Fox / Mirror), Layne Beamer (Tom Stratton / Mirror)

Directed by David Hemmings
Producer Harker Wade
Co-Producer Deborah Pratt
Executive Producer Donald P. Bellisario

TX (US): 26th March 1989

Notes:
*Introducing Doctor Samuel ‘Sam’ Beckett and Rear Admiral Albert ‘Al’ Calavicci

*Alternative title: 'Genesis'