Sliders Academy Awards: Best Screenplay

Date: 12/26/2001
From: Recall317

The end of the year is typically a time of reflection and reminiscing. "Sliders" has been off the air awhile now giving us plenty of time to look back on the 88 episodes produced. We've had many polls that rated them--so what's a few more? :)

May I present the Sliders Academy Awards. With any luck we'll take a look at the following categories in the coming weeks:

Best Screenplay (i.e. writing)
Best Technical (i.e. visual)
Best Story (i.e. concept, regardless of execution)
The Dimension of Continuity Award (episode with the fewest continuity flaws)
The David Peckinpah Award (i.e. best homage)
Viewer's Choice Award (i.e. favorite episode)
Best Episode (i.e. best overall presentation)

Today's category is "Best Screenplay," and it goes to the episode deemed the best written. There have been many quality writers who have taken up typewriter for "Sliders"- from veterans Tony Blake and Paul Jackson to one-time participants Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin. A favorite of mine is Steve Brown, who regrettably only participated in Season Two. But when it comes to the best of the best, the buck stops with the creator. My pick for Best Screenplay is:

"The Guardian"
Written by Tracy Tormé

I've only seen this episode once--and that was over 5 years ago--but its brilliance still sticks in my head. It is a genuinely moving character piece in which old wounds are laid bare. If nothing else, "The Guardian" is a blueprint for how Quinn Mallory should be written. He's a complex individual, not the automated hero he'll become. And that's probably the reason this episode is so impressive—the characters have texture, including the extras. The episode retains its trademark humor as the Professor tries to live life to its fullest…no matter if it kills him. Rembrandt and Wade's exasperation as they're dragged from one "fun activity" to the next is a great touch. Smart, funny, compelling, and a little haunting, "The Guardian" boasts the best script of the series.

"The Guardian" is also notable for one other thing: its production draft may be better than its on air script. The cut Arturo scenes are absolute riots. Check it out at

http://www.dimensionofcontinuity.com

So I ask you, the Academy, which episode do you select for "Best Screenplay"?

R317

My selection

Date: 12/26/2001
From: The_Seer

And the Oscar goes to ...

**********************************************************
As much as I would have liked to pick something different, I agree with "The Guardian" as "Best Screenplay". I myself have only seen this episode once, a few years ago when Sci-Fi first started running "Sliders" 5 nights a week. While it is only my 3rd most favorite episode of all time (behind "PTSS" and the Pilot), it is by far the best character episode of the entire series run. It explained a lot about Quinn's past and why he became the person he was (before the whole "action Quinn" thing took over and ruined the character).

There were other good character episodes ("The King Is Back" with Remmy, the Arturo sub-plot in "Eggheads", and "Season's Greedings" with Wade) but none that can touch "The Guardian". I know most people won't agree with this but I feel that, other than the "The Guardian", the closest they ever got to a "Guardian-type" episode (one where we see a side of the character we hadn't seen before in order to explain why that person is the way they are now) was with "The Return of Maggie Beckett". They did go a little overboard with the whole "hometown worships Maggie" thing and the alien was kind of goofy but we did get to see a side of Maggie we hadn't seen before.

I like this whole Oscar thing. Great idea Recall.

Well....

Date: 12/27/2001
From: Slider_Quinn21

Just in case we didn't ever get one ;-)

I have to go with "The Guardian" as well. It was perfectly done, and I honestly can't find anything wrong with it. It was Torme's swan song, and it answered a lot of questions(and IMO, answered the biggest one in Sliders' history: Arturo vs. Arturo).

Greatness in its purest form...
Quinn
http://slidersweb.net/otherworlds/214

Throwing another bone in the pot...

Date: 12/27/2001
From: SL4ever

And throwing BT after it...

 

Guardian is a well written ep, not doubt about it. But given my personal tastes in fiction it will come as no surprise that I think "Invasion" is the best screenplay. This makes what happened with the Maggs later in the series even more heinous. But just looking at this ep we have a truly unique enemy (I love that they deign not to speak to humans so they use that poor girl instead, their contempt for us is palpable), you have one of the only times differing evolution was address in the series, some truly creepy interrogation scenes, the mind >:-#ing going on with the Remmy who wasn't Remmy in the cell (THAT was spooky!), the chilling plight of the slave woman that is not fully realized until the last line spoken to her (the one about her getting an hour or something like that) in the garden before "going back to your cage", the spine chilling moment when blind Bennish snitches on them and says his whiny "if I can't go free then neither can you!", and the thing about one of them being tagged like a wild animal so their future Slides can be traced.

There is probably some backlash towards this ep because of what it led to. But as a stand alone episode, I think it is brilliantly crafted. I would give my left >:-# to be able to write something this chilling. I'm all for developing characters and I wouldn't begrudge Guardian or PTSS for winning, but personally I think Invasion is a masterpiece.

I think honorable mention should go to "The Unstuck Man." Hey! Stop laughing!!! Given the problems, JOC and COC not appearing for even five minutes (would it have killed those punks to show up for ONE F-ING day of shooting?????) and having to introduce two more characters after so much changeover already, I think the writers did a reasonable job. The Unstuck idea was pretty good, actually. Merging Quinn was also interesting, not something that's been done to death. Geiger was an interesting villain, different than the usual kind. There were a couple glaring plotholes, but given the circumstances I don't think they did badly.

Well

Date: 12/27/2001
From: TemporalFlux

I could throw out another, but it wouldn't be my honest thought. "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" is the choice I would make. A very masterful story which showed not only the implications of making it home, but also provided a great mystery with concern to Arturo's behavior. The audience was left during the entire story wondering what would come next or how this could be...right up until the pulse pounding conclusion with left a very big question richly debated to this day.

And I have to agree with SL4ever too. While "Unstuck Man" would never come close to winning the award...it does deserve some special recognition. Maybe the "Impending Disaster Partially Averted" award. ;-) I do have some season five thoughts coming up for a later award though.

Tf
temporalflux@hotmail.com
http://dimensionofcontinuity.com

Tough call

Date: 12/31/2001
From: Blinker

...but I'm going with "El Sid." The sheer textual brilliance inherent in Jon Povill's comparison of his unforgettable antihero to a plate of overcooked spaghetti is... oh, sorry. Had you going though, right?

Anyway, I'd say that Invasion, Guardian and PTSS, despite all being more solid episodes than my choice, owe much of their success of to other factors such as acting, direction, art design, music, etc. The episode that stands out as having a really strong, intelligent, offbeat script is that perpetually baffling, three-worlds-in-one wonder, "As Time Goes By."

So, uh, there you have it. "As Time Goes By."

Yeah. That's it.

- Blinker 7:-P
http://slidersweb.net/blinker

Original URL http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/27192
Nominated by TemporalFlux