Good
Things and Bad -> State of the ART!
Date: 12/24/2001
From: Blinker
Prince of Slides prizes! You want 'em, we got 'em!
[ http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/27040 ]• Slider_Quinn21 wins an empty vial. Hey, now you're halfway there!
• HurriKain wins a new dart board... that resembles Bill Dial! Hey, the man doesn't get nearly as much bashing as he deserves!
• ThomasMalthus is hereby offered the American monarchy!
• MissingSliderRyan wins the organs that were removed from Remmy!
• SpiderMonkeeDolenz wins an honourary degree in glass basket-blowing!
• SL4ever wins my stubbornness in not watching any movie with Kari Wuhrer in it!
• Vance454 wins a trophy of appreciation, consisting of a bronze-cast placenta! (That was so sweet of you. 7:-D)
• Recall317 wins the DVD of John Woo's Face/Against the Glass!
• The_Seer wins two free passes to the Monica Lewinsky Memorial Museum on "Waiting for Lewinsky" world!
• Joey_Starr wins a gun!
• And sliderseth... wins two tampons! <ducks>The coveted GOLD STAR goes to Slider_Quinn21, for being the first replier two games in a row! Go Quinn!
=== GOOD THING, BAD THING: STATE OF THE ART ===
BLINKER: Well, I always liked the scene where Wade and Arturo debate Deric's sentience. Ordinarily, you might expect Wade to make her heartfelt speech about how he's real enough to her, then depart unchallenged leaving Arturo with a pensive expression and a new point of view to chew on... but instead he turns around and bellows "NOW WAIT JUST A MINUTE!", then continues the debate with some equally strong points.
SYNTHIA: Yeah, all too few writers can pull that sort of thing off. So what's your bad thing?
BLINKER: Ugh... the epitome of what one reviewer once called the 'traditional Sliders escape/capture/escape/capture plot.' Quinn and Rembrandt's break-out using the pan of water is a huge plot point that sucks down ages of screen time... and yet no sooner have the Sliders and their friends all reunited than they turn a corner and run into wheelchair-boy and a phalanx of his guards. It's downright *painful* to watch.
SYNTHIA: Okay, good thing: I thought it was a nice touch how they mentioned Kelly Welles in this episode. It sort of piques your curiosity about whether we'll ever get to meet her... the very week before we actually do.
BLINKER: You're not suggesting the S3 production team actually PLANNED SOMETHING OUT IN ADVANCE, are you?!
SYNTHIA: I dunno... Tf?
TEMPORALFLUX [checking production timeline notes]: Eh... I doubt it. 'Cording to this, the staff writers were in detox all that week and a trained drinking bird toy equipped with a gyroscope had to write the script for Nan Hagan. Meanwhile, Alan Barnette spent the whole week... not to mention its budget... on a shopping spree for crew ball caps, and David Peckinpah was found hanging from his roof by his sumo wrestler loincloth, raving about his ability to soar like a bird.
SYNTHIA: State of the ART Bad Thing: That low-res vortex at the end with all the clear patches. I guess they were experimenting with the effect or something -- maybe so it would look good against the pink sky -- but it just didn't turn out.
BLINKER: And that's how we saw today's episode. Your turn!
- Blinker 7:-P
http://slidersweb.net/blinkerSYNTHIA: Peck can fly like a bird?! So *that's* why they call him the Yellow-Bellied Pecker!
Channelling
TIP...
Date: 12/24/2001
From: SL4ever
But NOT BT! That won't happen until the next TWIWTA when he appears as a guest.I got the first reply! I GOT THE FIRST REPLY! Weeeeee!
Good thing: My man Robert Englund!! I loved him in "V" and the first hundred Elm Street movies, and the King of Camp doesn't disappoint in this ep.
Bad thing: Very predictable plot. Even Executive knew that Englund's character was an android. Come on.
Horrid thing: Quinn singing!!!!!!!!!!!! I still have Kruger style nightmares about THAT atrocity!!!
PS. Going back to your bad thing, my Dad's used to teach college level Electronics’ Engineering and he says that interminable escape scene wouldn't even work. So not only was it tedious and futile, it wasn't even realistic!
I,
Robot
Date: 12/24/2001
From: TemporalFlux
Asimov rolled in his grave.I have to take a slight counterpoint in giving my Good Thing. Despite the painful plot regurgitation afterwards, I really enjoyed the character development given during the first "great escape". I'm sure that Remmy had felt pretty useless as part of this group. He couldn't recite the history of any given thing from memory...he couldn't run multiple math equations in his head simultaneously...and he certainly couldn't hack a computer at whim. Remmy could sing...and that was about as far as he went.
In one respect, this is how I've always viewed the Navy situation. While I know the real reasons this character development was added, I instead view it through Remmy's head. Remmy was desperately trying to make himself look useful...and in that, he began to blurt out how he was a Navy man (even though we later learn the truth that his extent in the Navy was the USO tour and the position of cook - two positions that were still of no real value to his view when compared with his companions).
Those small scenes in this episode finally reassured Remmy that he did have a role on the team. That he was of use...that he was valuable. He could support the team through what was probably the most valuable talent of them all...that of common sense.
The Bad Thing...well, I would probably have to say unrealized potential. This episode offered yet another explanation for why Quinn's character changed...that he lost part of his soul to the robot (the robot had to learn to sing from somewhere). Yet, this was never addressed...never utilized...just swept to the side and forgotten. And that was a large problem of post Torme season three...they would develop character on the one hand (Remmy), but then squander other opportunities (like the change in Quinn). It was usually a half-way done job...at least in those instances when it was a job done at all.
Tf
temporalflux@hotmail.com
http://dimensionofcontinuity.com
Good/Bad
Date: 12/24/2001
From: Slider_Quinn21
NSR-(Bad)-Beginning text is a force we must destroy!!!!!SR-
Good-The punderful title...
Bad-The way they slammed it down our throats, showing us "ART" several thousand times...
My
take on this one
Date: 12/24/2001
From: The_Seer
Do not open unti Christmas!******************************************************
Good things:
- An actual season 3 episode that had character development. Who would have thunk?
- It was refreshing to see the pairing up of Arturo/Wade and Quinn/Rembrant instead of the usual pairings of Quinn/Arturo and Wade/Rembrant or Quinn/Wade and Arturo/Rembrant.
- Yes, the whole "man v.s. machine" argument has been done many times in many different series or movies but I thought they did a good job with it here.
- Robert Englund did a pretty decent job as the bad guy. He wasn't one of those cliche, "over the top" type villians.
- Quinn's awful rendition of "Tears In My Fro" was hilarious. I hope for Jerry's sake that he was singing off key on purpose.Bad things:
- Since when can Arturo outrun Quinn in a footrace? If anyone should not have been able to outrun the bad guys it would be Arturo.
- How the hell did Quinn's house end up in L.A.? Maybe it was supposed to be any old house but that basement sure looked a lot like Quinn's.
- Without talking to them and with them still being several yards away, Arturo and Wade realized quickly that the robot Quinn and Rembrant weren't the real ones. Huh? (I will say that, had it been a late season 3 episode instead, we all know the differences would have been even harder to spot).Overall the episode was pretty good. In fact, for a season 3 episode it was outstanding. How did they ever sneak this one by Peck?
Change
the channel, SL4ever!
Date: 12/24/2001
From: TheIrrelevantPoster
Heheh yeah yeah! TIP sucks and will never score with BT!!!
TIP:Awww ... please Beg Te, baby, take me back!!!
I
see a world with robots and
Date: 12/25/2001
From: ThomasMalthus
that Freddy Kreuger guy! Go with it!The Good: As many have stated before, as Season Three eps go, it wasn't too bad. However, as a Recall317 poll pointed out earlier, this ep was considered to be the penultimate mediocre episode: not good enough to remember with fondness nor bad enough to remember with horror. Nonetheless, for me the character of DERIC was one of the more interesting one-shot characters of the season, proving that even an artificial personality is better than most of the characters Peck can come up with.
The Bad: This episode allows us to trace Nan Hagan's descent into bad writing. From "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" (my favorite episode) to "State of the ART" to "This Slide of Paradise" (the worst episode ever, Recall's passionate prosecution of "Paradise Lost" notwithstanding). From the best to the most middle-of-the-road to the worst. It's "Sliders" in a nutshell.
ThomasMalthus
Peck
can be flipped the bird, anyhow
Date: 12/25/2001
From: DoctorWhy
Good thing: Wade's Star Wars allusion ("I have a bad feeling about this".)Bad thing: The writer's Star Trek allusion (the show with Kirk subverting his robot twin during mind transfer and the mad scientist who is revealed as a robot himself.)
Not
quite Buffy bot...
Date: 12/25/2001
From: Recall317
...nor 3% as interesting, and that was a mediocre Buffy episode!The Good: Uh...um...yeesh...that ERICA was kinda hot.
The Bad: Aside from the episode having no real reason for being?
I just can't muster any interest, enthusiasm, or commentary for this episode. That's why it remains my pick for MOST INCONSEQUENTIAL Sliders' episode of all-time!
R317
PS. And ThomasMalthus, I too agree "This Slide of Paradise" is the worst Sliders' episode ever. Although for sheer comic ineptitude, you can't top "Paradise Lost": the episode where no one made any effort at all.
The
Artistic State of the A.R.T......
Date: 12/26/2001
From: MissingSliderRyan
sucks, don't you think?Bad thing: The beginning I think of the heartless bastard Quinn.
"Cover your heart, Indy! Cover your heart!"
Good thing: Robert Englund. Like SL4, I loved him in 'V' playing Willie as well as The Nightmare on Elm Street Movies.
You wanna see robots? Watch MAC-27 in The Outer Limit's 'In Our Image'. :-DMSR
Good
thing, good thing, .... good thing?
Date: 12/26/2001
From: SpiderMonkeeDolenz
Excellent thing: I seem to have blocked most of this episode from my memory.Good thing: The episode title has given Sliders fans yet another riveting piece of trivia to debate. "Which Arturo slid?" Pah! "Wells or Welles?" Enh. "State of the ART vs. State of the A.R.T." ranks right up there with "Time Again and World" vs. "Time and Again World" for sheer engrossing conversation.
Bad thing: Oh shit, it's starting to come back to me.
-SPIDER MONKEE-
Am
I too late to play??
Date: 12/31/2001
From: Joey_Starr
It's all BT's fault!!!!!!!!
Good Thing: Besides Robert Englund(THE premiere Boogyman), I would have to go with how funny the bad version of Tears in My FroBad Thing: Besides that sliderseth probably adores this episode; I was left wondering, when the robot kissed Wade, did he get "wood"?
JS
Please, No More Tomatoes!!!!!!!
Original URL http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/27180
