Topic: Sliders Marathon

[addicted2dvd]

Now that I completed my Lois & Clark Marathon I went back to the thread and picked the next series people wanted to read about. I was a fan of Sliders since the pilot episode originally aired on Fox. Unfortunately only 4 of the 5 seasons were released on DVD so that is all I can review at this time.

Quinn, a brilliant grad student, has created a device that opens a wormhole to an infinite number of parallel universes where history has taken different paths. His first test trip goes awry, stranding his physics professor, Arturo, his friend, Wade, and bystander Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown in parallel San Franciscos.

Starring:
Jerry O'Connell as Quinn Mallory
John Rhys-Davies as Professor Arturo (Seasons 1-3)
Sabrina Lloyd as Wade (Seasons 1-3)
Cleavant Derricks as Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown (Seasons 1-5)
Kari Wuhrer as Maggie (Seasons 3-4?)
Charlie O'Connel as Collin (Seasons 3-4?) Jerry O'Connell's real life brother.

Note: I can't remember season 5 for sure... but if I am not mistaken in that season everyone except Cleavant Derricks was replaced.

Ratings:
This time I will be using the built in ratings that this site has to offer so my ratings will be...
= Terrible
= Boring
= Fair
= Good
= Very Good
= Excellent!

[Kathy]

I'm looking forward to reading your reviews of this series. It sounds like the kind of thing I would really like.

[addicted2dvd]

Season 1

1. PILOT (Double Length Episode)
A physics accident sends student Quinn Mallory and his trio of companions on an interdimensional roller-coaster ride to an apocalyptic San Francisco. After a narrow escape from an icy death, the Sliders find themselves in a Soviet-ruled U.S., where their only hope of escape is to free an imprisoned revolutionary.

My Thoughts:
This is a very good story. I enjoyed every second of it. It is a good introduction to all the characters. And the ending is well thought out where you think everything is going to be fine... then everything is turned upside down in a shocking and emotional way.

My Rating:

2. FEVER
When Wade is infected with a deadly virus on an Earth wracked by an epidemic, Rembrandt and Arturo race to find a cure and free Quinn from a Gestapo-like health agency.

My Thoughts:
Another good episode... I enjoyed a lot. This one shows that something that is simple and taken for granted can be life changing in one of the alternate universes.

My Rating:

3. LAST DAYS
The salvation of a world facing destruction by an asteroid rests in the hands of Arturo and an overzealous young scientist. Meanwhile, Quinn and Wade begin to face their feelings for each other.

My Thoughts:
Another episode I enjoyed a lot. I always enjoyed the disaster type movies with such storylines... and they did a good job converting it to a TV episode. This episode completes the first disc. The extras on this disc includes previews and a commentary on the pilot episode.

My Rating:

[addicted2dvd]

4. PRINCE OF WAILS
In the British States of America--a place where England won the Revolutionary War--the Sliders are embroiled in an assassination plot involving the heir to the throne and an evil Sheriff of San Francisco.

My Thoughts:
Not a bad episode... but really just kind of a standard filler episode. There really wasn't anything that was that exciting.

My Rating:

5. SUMMER OF LOVE
The Sliders find themselves in a present-day San Francisco where the "Summer of Love" never ended--and Wade and Rembrandt are mistaken for extraterrestrial prophets.

My Thoughts:
This is a fun episode. It was interesting to see the Sliders getting separated like that... not even knowing if they were on the same Earth.

My Rating:

6. Eggheads
While Quinn struggles with fame in a world where intellectuals are more popular than pro athletes, Arturo tries for a reconciliation with a long-lost love.

My Thoughts:
Another fun episode. I liked how they hold intelligence very high... and combined academics and sports for this dimension.

My Rating:

7. The Weaker Sex
Arturo finds himself in a potentially deadly mayoral race in a world where men are treated as "The Weaker Sex" and women hold the positions of power and respect.

My Thoughts:
While a good episode... this one isn't quite as good as the previous one. It had an interesting story... but it just didn't pull it off in my opinion. Close... but not quite.

My Rating:

[addicted2dvd]

8. THE KING IS BACK
It looks like "The King Is Back" when Rembrandt is mistaken for a long-deceased rock legend, but an old enemy would like to see the Crying Man disappear again--permanently.

My Thoughts:
This one... while a decent episode... is not one I enjoy as much as most. Basically a bit too much music for my taste.

My Rating:

9. LUCK OF THE DRAW
Wade finds that she has money to burn when she wins the lottery in a seemingly utopian world, but she soon discovers that her silver cloud has a very dark lining.

My Thoughts:
This one is a good episode. I liked the storyline... even if it has been told before.  As Professor Arturo said in the episode... if something seems to good to be true... then it probably is.

My Rating:

SEASON 2:

1. INTO THE MYSTIC
With Quinn seriously injured from a gunshot wound, the Sliders search for a doctor on what appears to be the strangest Earth they've yet seen. The only one they can find is a witch doctor, who tells them about the all powerful sorcerer who is said to have the knowledge about sliding. The sliders set out upon a journey a la "The Wizard of Oz" to his castle beyond the Golden Gargoyle Gate bridge to find the sorcerer in the hopes of finding their way home.

My Thoughts:
The first episode of the second season isa good.. if not a bit weird episode. And the ending of this episode...you know it had to happen sooner or later.

My Rating:

11. LOVE GODS
In a world where germ warfare has exterminated most of the male population, Quinn, Rembrandt and Arturo discover that they've been pegged as runaway "breeders," and every nation of the world wants to capture them.

My Thoughts:
This one is not a bad episode... but not a favorite either. It pretty much feels like no more then a filler episode.

My Rating:

[Kathy]

This one... while a decent episode... is not one I enjoy as much as most. Basically a bit too much music for my taste.

 WHAT?!?  A little too much music for Pete?!?

 

[addicted2dvd]

I know... unbelievable isn't it? 

[addicted2dvd]

3. GILLIAN OF SPIRITS
When a bizarre accident separates Quinn from the rest of the Sliders, the only hope for the remaining trio is to put their faith in a troubled young girl with a history of hearing voices--and an ability to communicate with spirits.

My Thoughts:
This is a good episode. I enjoyed it more then I thought I would. For some reason I was remembering this not to be an as good episode. But it was really good. I liked how they had Quinn as something like a Ghost through-out the whole episode. I do wish we would have been able to have some more time in the world they slid to from anti-technology world. I mean who wouldn't want to spend some time taking in the sites at Nudist World!

My Rating:

4. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WEALTHY
In an America in which all land west of the Mississippi is part of the Nation of Texas, Quinn finds himself at the center of some highly unorthodox corporate raiding when a gunfight earns him a reputation for being quick on the draw.

My Thoughts:
This is a good episode... but not one of my favorites. I had a hard time with the combination of the old west and corporate business/Stock Marcket.

My Rating:

5. EL SID
When Quinn rescues a beautiful young woman in distress on a world ruled by violence, her homicidal boyfriend swearing vengeance for an imagined slight, follows the sliders through the vortex to a world where San Francisco is a maximum security prison.

My Thoughts:
This episode I enjoyed. I liked the whole prison idea.

My Rating:

6. TIME AGAIN AND WORLD
Wade witnesses a shooting seconds before a slide, but when the vortex lands the travelers in a parallel San Francisco just as the same murder is about to occu r, she intervenes--an action that embroils the quartet in a bizarre plot involving a disgraced federal judge, an underground resistance movement and a United States under martial law.

My Thoughts:
Pretty good episode. An interesting idea... but thought the story was a little on the slow side. I found my attention drifting from the episode to other things.

My Rating:

[addicted2dvd]

7. IN DINO VERITAS
The sliders land on a new world and are trapped in a cave, menaced by a man-eating allosaurus that has survived since the prehistoric age. Quinn must leave the safety of the group to go in search of the timer, which was lost somewhere outside.

My Thoughts:
This is a very goodf episode... actually one of my favorites of the entire series. It would have been a huge miss if they didn't do an episode where the Dinosaurs were still among us. And I thought the hologram ranger for the dinosaur reserves area was a very good idea. And I also enjoyed the truth collars they had to wear from the previous world. I would have liked to seen an episode on that world alone.

My Rating:

8. POST TRAUMATIC SLIDE SYNDROME
The Sliders finally land in the one place that none of them wants to leave--home--but Quinn is the only one that has doubts about their good fortune. Meanwhile, Arturo hatches a plan to use Quinn's discoveries to win a Nobel prize.

My Thoughts:
Another episode I have always enjoyed a lot! They think they are home... but minor differences proves that they are not. Then finding out that Arturo had been replaced by his double and tries to claim Sliding for his own. The one thing I didn't care for is leaving it open if the "real" Arturo is the one that slid with them or not.

My Rating:

9. OBSESSION
When the quartet slides into a society dominated by psychics, Wade meets the man of her dreams who happens to be next in line for the position of Prime Oracle, the most powerful person in the world. But when she discovers that her love wants her to remain with him forever (at any cost), the future doesn't look quite so rosy.

My Thoughts:
This episode, to me, is no more then average. The whole psychic thing was an alright storyline... but I didn't care for the dream sequences to tie the story together.

My Rating:

10. GREATFELLAS
In a U.S. where Prohibition was never repealed, the Sliders find themselves embroiled in a vicious struggle among warring organized-crime families, corrupt government officials and dedicated G-men--one of whom looks exactly like Rembrandt.

My Thoughts:
Another episode that is just average to me. This is probably do to the fact that I never liked the whole Organized Crime storylines... for any show really.

My Rating:

[addicted2dvd]

11. THE YOUNG AND THE RELENTLESS
Quinn finds himself on the trail of his double's murderer when the Sliders land in a world where Wade and Quinn's counterparts are corporate executives up to their ears in a shady computer-software deal.

My Thoughts:
This is a good episode... though not quite as good as some episodes. In this one I enjoyed the side story of Rembrandt and Professor Arturo more then I did the main story.

My Rating:

12. INVASION
The Sliders land in the middle of an invasion. Acting in self defense, Quinn brings down one of the maurauding ships, only to find that the invaders are not what they seem.

My Thoughts:
This is the episode that introduces the Kromags. I have always been mixed on my feelings about the whole long Kromag storyline. While I am able to get into it... the storyline starts off as not so interesting to me.

My Rating:

13. AS TIME GOES BY
Quinn locates Daelin, a long lost love from home, on a roller coaster ride through three worlds--an America that lost the new world to the Spanish, an earth where time moves backwards and the Sliders are accused of Daelin's murder and a world which seems perfect for Quinn and Daelin to be reunited--but first Quinn must make a decision that could sever their ties forever.

My Thoughts:
This is the last episode of the second season. And completes the first boxset of DVDs. This episode I enjoyed quite a bit more then the previous several episodes. I liked that we actually got to see a few different demensions in this one episode... but with a story that interlinks through them all. Made for a different and interesting story.

My Rating:

[addicted2dvd]

Season 3

1. RULES OF THE GAME
The Sliders arrive as contestants on a world where the entertainment is government-sanctioned combat between teams - out of which only one team can emerge alive.

My Thoughts:
This is a good start for the third season. Lots of action in this one. Professor Arturo is temporarily blind in this episode. It was fun seeing Rembrandt stuck in the electronic spider web getting ready to be electrocuted and needing a blind Arturo to shoot the robot spiders.

My Rating:

2. DOUBLE CROSS
The local inhabitants of a world where sliding is being developed for malicious intent try to trick Quinn and the Professor into perfecting their technology.

My Thoughts:
This is a decent episode. I got a kick out of the fact that they made Quinn's double a woman in this episode. And the obsessed fan for Rembrandt was alot of fun as well. Then there is the fact that at the end of this episode they put in your mind there is another lost slider out there somewhere that is after them... one that can possibly track their tunnel. I just can't remember if they ever touched back on her or not.

My Rating:

3. ELECTRIC TWISTER ACID TEST
On a world plagued by deadly tornadoes, Quinn helps expose a small dictator whose own guilt about the twisters clouds his mind and his ability to control them.

My Thoughts:
This is a good episode. I defintely enjoyed it. Got a kick ouyt of the kick surfing the small tornado. Looked like fun! There is a couple familiar faces in this episode. First there is Corey Feldman. Then there is Julie Benz (Darla on Buffy & Angel).

My Rating:

4. THE GUARDIAN
On a world exactly like their own, except it spins a teeny bit slower, Quinn has a chance to influence his own childhood.

My Thoughts:
Another episode I liked a lot. This one finds a way to sort of travel through time without actually traveling through time.

My Rating:

5. THE DREAM MASTERS
On a world where some people can enter the dreams of others, Wade falls victim to dream terrorists.

My Thoughts:
Another good one. In this episode we go a bit into the mystic over the scientific. But it does still focus mostly on the scientific.

My Rating:

6. DESERT STORM
On a desert Earth, the Sliders come to the aid of a girl with the ability to find water.

My Thoughts:
This episode is not quite as good as the previous episodes.. but it is still enjoyable. It is another episode that goes into the mystical... even more so then the previous one.

My Rating:

7. DRAGON SLIDE
On a world where Druidism survived and flourished, Quinn is mistaken for a member of a powerfully magic family - the Mallorys

My Thoughts:
Now this one goes deep into the mystical side of things... it almost feels like it forgot it was a Sci-Fi show. While I still enjoyed it... I still prefer the regular Sci-Fi based episodes.

My Rating:

8. THE FIRE WITHIN
Accidentally bringing living fire from one world to another, the Sliders become embroiled in a labor dispute at a chemical factory.

My Thoughts:
This one is more like the original episodes that hooked me on the series so much. Though it is still not as good as many of the other episodes. It is just a little on the slow side.

My Rating:

[addicted2dvd]

9. THE PRINCE OF SLIDES
Remmy is mistaken for the husband of a pregnant princess on a world where a monarchy rules... and where husbands are required to carry babies through gestation.

My Thoughts:
This is a decent episode... though not what I would call a favorite. It was pretty fun seeing a pregnant Remmy though.

My Rating:

10. DEAD MAN SLIDING
Quinn is arrested and tried on a world where justice is meted out not in a courtroom, but on the set of a game show.

My Thoughts:
This is a fun episode... and has a couple blasts from the past. It has guest stars from a couple old TV Sitcoms... Don Most (Ralph Mouth on Happy Days) and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Fredyy "Boom Boom" Washington on Welcome Back, Kotter).

My Rating:

11. STATE OF THE A.R.T.
The Sliders find themselves on a world where the only human being is Father, a man who created a race of androids to replace humans in the workforce.

My Thoughts:
This is another decent episode... but not a favorite. I think the whole last person on Earth type thing had to be told in this series. But I think my favorite thing about this show is that it has Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) as a guest star.

My Rating:

12. SEASON'S GREEDINGS
On a world where some people live in shopping malls, Wade finds a parallel sister and father, just in time for Christmas.

My Thoughts:
A good episode... I really enjoyed it. It shows just how commercialized Christmas has become... in an extreme example of course. It also tries to show what is important when it comes to Christmas... family.

My Rating:

[addicted2dvd]

13. MURDER MOST FOUL
On a world where R&R takes the form of Fantasy Island-style vacations, The Professor finds himself in the role of a detective.

My Thoughts:
This is a very good episode. One of my favorites. I like the whole Jack the Ripper storyline. And having Professor Arturo being a Sherlock Holmes like character was good.

My Rating:

14. SLIDE LIKE AN EGYPTIAN
On a world where ancient Egypt never fell from grace, the Sliders are experimented on and terrorized by a giant scarab beetle.

My Thoughts:
Another good episode. This is the first time (that I remember at least) that they missed the slide. I also enjoyed the life after death experience that Quinn went through.

My Rating:

15. PARADISE LOST
The Sliders land in a town where no one lives to be over 35 ... for good reason.

My Thoughts:
Another one of my favorite episodes. It is like a twist on the Tremor movies.

My Rating:

16. THE EXODUS (Part 1)
An Earth is threatened by a passing pulsar, and sliding is being developed as a way to save some Americans - but Colonel Rickman, in charge of deciding who stays and who goes, is also mysteriously and systematically putting people into comas.

My Thoughts:
Another excellent episode. And the introduction of Maggie... who is to become the newest regular slider. I like how you see multiple worlds in this episode as they search for a new world for the survivors of the doomed world.

My Rating:

[addicted2dvd]

OK... I need to put this marathon on hold for a while... since one of the episodes on the next disc is very horror related. And even though I can give a fair opinion on it by memory... I really don't want to skip it. So I will hold off till next month and then resurrect this thread at some point after this month.

I completely forgot about this episode till today or I would have put off this marathon and done another one in it's place.

[Jimmy]

You have a lot of will power or you don't want to be tease by us for years if you fail your horror withdrawing

Seriously, you impress me