Quantum Leap presents a particularly interesting take on fate. Dr. Sam Beckett "leaps" through time by transporting his consciousness into the bodies of people throughout the past and helping them carry out some sort of intended destiny that cannot be realized without his intervention. Accompanied by the holographic image of a companion named Al Calavicci, who advises Sam on what their supercomputer "Ziggy" calculates his mission to likely be, he attempts to set things right at times in the past when things seem that they may be going awry. This overarching plot in itself is a particularly interesting take on destiny, in that it almost suggests that Sam had always been intended to intervene to carry out certain events in the past in the way in which they happened. In the vein of a fixed-timeline time-travel story, this suggests that Sam's consciousness had always been at play at certain times in the past, and that his time travel was a predestined occurrence. In fact, to add a layer of intrigue to all of this, when Sam begins to realize that he seems to be leaping with some sort of divine or universal guidance, he starts to question whether or not he could be being thrown around through time by God in order to play a greater role in fate than he had originally thought.

On an episode-by-episode basis, the show also presents us with interesting small-scale instances of the manifestation of fate, often having Sam realize a very subtle influence that he was meant to have on the past when he had been pursuing a completely different goal throughout the episode. For example, in an episode of Quantum Leap called "How The Tess Was Won", Sam leaps into the body of a farm veterinarian named "Doc", who he and Al begin to believe is meant to fall in love with the ranch owner's daughter "Tess". In a twist near the end, it becomes apparent that another man - "Wayne" - has been secretly holding on to love letters and pining after Tess, and when this is discovered, Sam realizes that it is Wayne - not Doc - who is meant to be with Tess. Upon successfully putting things right, Sam and Al start to question why Sam hasn't leapt out of Doc's body yet, since this is usually what happens shortly after accomplishing his mission...