My brother told me about this episode when it aired in Australia in the early nineties - but I had to wait for the DVD (in 2007) to see it myself. I'm impressed with how entertaining this episode is, while also dealing with a wide range of the issues around homophobia (including internalised homophobia).
I particularly appreciate that Sam is totally at ease in his temporary new skin as naval sports jock Tommy - readily accepting Ziggy's strong prediction (86%) that Tommy is gay.
Previous seasons of Quantum Leap have informed us that Sam Beckett is honest, compassionate and refreshingly free of prejudice. And so in this program Sam quickly pulls Al back into line for making ill-informed value judgements about Tommy's natural mannerisms.
This show has relevance to gays to the military - but it's really a universal statement that homophobia is everyone's problem.
I've always had a crush on Scott Bakula (and a boyhood crush on Dean Stockwell). I now have even more respect for these two fine actors.
This program alone is well worth the purchase price of the 4th season DVD set.