Some reflections on Sliders

Date: 04/27/2000
From: CaptainKate

I'm posting on this board for the first time. I didn't start watching Sliders until last year -- didn't care too much for the Season 4 episodes but got hooked on the reruns.

Now, watching the Season 1 episodes again in the past week, I am struck, once again, by how good they were: inventive, well-written, well-acted. This is not to say that there were no good episodes later on (I rather liked Season 4's "Virtual Slide," for instance.) But to compare Season 1 to most of 3, 4, and 5 is simply PAINFUL.

What went wrong? Well, first of all, the departure of the Professor hurt the show deeply. The presence of Arturo -- his "old-fashioned" values and persona, his crusty sarcasm, his emotional reserve behind which one could always detect a genuine warmth and generosity -- added something very special to the show. So did the dynamic between him and the rest of the group, especially him and Quinn. When that was gone, Sliders went downhill precipitously.

I also think the whole Kromagg plot line was a disaster. (So was the hunt for Colonel Rickman, but at least that was over fairly quickly.) The sudden introduction of the idea that Quinn was not from our world and that his parents were sliders completely changed, and wrecked, the show's basic premise. In the early episodes it is SO clear that Quinn -- or rather, many alternate Quinns -- invented sliding. Did they really come up with that plot twist just to bring in Charlie O'Connell as Quinn's brother and to account for Quinn having a brother? Well, sheesh. I could think of so many better ways to do that. How about this: they come to a world where Quinn's alternate had a brother -- Colin -- and the Quinn of that world died, or maybe was even killed during the episode, and then Colin decided that "our" Quinn was the closest thing he could have to his beloved brother and decided to slide with our guys. (In fact, it could even have been on the same "Amish World" where they found Colin -- maybe the Quinn of that world could have been killed by the villagers because of his "demonic" scientific experiments!)

I just can't help feeling bitter that a show which had such a wonderful beginning was allowed to become such a travesty of itself. They should have let it die with dignity.

Well...

Date: 04/27/2000
From: EustiSlider

First, let me say "Welcome to the board."

Second, if you've been lurking here for any length of time, you've noticed that peoples opinion of the season 5 episodes varys widely, but most soundly despise season 4.

While I generally agree that very few episodes in seasons 3, 4, or 5 are as good as most of the episodes in seasons 1 and 2, I have to disagree about letting the series die after being cancled on FOX. Season 5 was worth watching, and I'm not sure that anyone would have considered making a Sliders movie if the concept had died that soon.

What I've noticed about episode quality is this, the more times you see the names Robert K. Weis and/or Tracy Torme in the credits, the better the episode. The more times you see the name David Peckinpah, the worse the episode.

The mistake was not in allowing Sliders to live beyond FOX, the mistake was letting David Peckinpah take control. IMHO.

--Eusti 8^)

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