Think of a Roulette Wheel
An outstanding collection of critical reviews of all things Sliders—the episodes, the comics, even the theme music. A must-read!
Think of a Roulette Wheel
An outstanding collection of critical reviews of all things Sliders—the episodes, the comics, even the theme music. A must-read!
Annie Fish is a musician, writer, and cartoonist currently based in Portland, Oregon. Her non-Sliders work can be found at anniefish.net.
Reviews
Sliders was a science-fiction television show that ran on Fox from 1995-1997.
Tracy Tormé read an article. The way that he never elaborates on that part of the story makes it seem like he was sitting in the doctor's office waiting for some unseemly exam.
Quinn has yet to come out of the Vortex. In fact, he never comes out, and the rest of the team mourns his loss for five more seasons.
So here we are, the second episode, and we're fixing the show (whether they know it or not) with some of the tropes that they'll stay with for pretty much the entire show.
Mark Mothersbaugh of popular band DEVO wrote this song, and much of the incidental music for Season One. Which is, of course, AWESOME
THIS IS THE THIRD EPISODE OF THE SERIES AND WE ARE ALREADY POINT BLANK RIPPING OFF THE PILOT.
Arturo then takes it upon himself to go through a trash can and INVENT PENICILLIN.
Hey, we're all going to die someday. That's how it works.
The show too often presents itself as a corny action show, but when it puts it's mind to it, it can make some great work about human nature.
So we have a tricky episode. It's a concept that's probably the most controversial, the easiest to end up being accidentally offensive.
It turns out that Cleavant Derricks has a twin brother! Which sounds great! It's a budget saver, it's so easy. Except for the fact that this twin brother looks and sounds nothing like Cleavant!
And that's how we end the first season of Sliders.
There are really two things to discuss about "into The Mystic," and sadly, those two things only refer to about a total of 7, maybe 8 minutes of the episode.
Apparently Sabrina Lloyd asked that they give Wade a more robust presence on the show, and this is how they complied.
Another season, another credits sequence. It's a little weird to me that every season has at least a slightly different intro.
Remember the credits sequence's "a world where San Francisco is a high-security prison?" Well, here we are, folks!
Sliders still doesn't know what kind of show it wants to be. There's no status quo to upset. There's no ground to shake. There's a strong concept, but since we don't really know how we want to apply that concept, we have mishmash, we have soup.
"The Good, The Bad, & The Wealthy" isn't solid gold (whiny kid actors will make sure of that every time), but it has it's heart in the right place.
The titular Gillian of the Spirits —a teenager who somehow is mentally tuned to higher planes—she's our link to Quinn, and she is excellent.
We're starting to notice the beginnings of the 'downward spiral of guilt' that defines Quinn Mallory's character arc.
The thing is, this episode couldn't be any less about Dinosaurs if it tried to be.
"Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" is a high-concept episode. Sure, you can have dinosaurs and you can have psychics, but this is something else—to have an episode where the plot is "the end."
In my day to day life, I talk about Sliders a lot. The reaction I get (aside from "Ian, really—again?) is pretty much just "oh, yeah, I've heard of that show—they go to different planets right?"
I'm willing to bet that the writers of the episode had absolutely no idea they were crafting an analogy for racial tension
"Invasion" is probably the most important episode of the series, and not just because it introduces a villan that would ultimately shape the future of the show.
As an unplanned Series Finale, this episode does a frighteningly good job of summing up the underlying themes of this series.
I guess this shit is so fucking mediocre that it just ends up being bad again? But that isn't to say it's not without merit.
The "antagonist" of the story is interesting—mainly because the threat isn't really the people themselves (mainly because they're half-sketched characters at best), it's their actions.
Sure, I understand that they are infused with Vortex-Hate, but damn these people have some dark sides!
Sliders first attempt to deal with DRUGS and the debut of Jerry O'Connell as a 'creative' force on the show.
I guess it makes sense that this comic is adapted from a real episode, because it's just about as boring as "Time Again & World."
I've oft repeated that the design of these comics is to tell the stories that can't be told. In this case, the story couldn't be told because they didn't want to tell it.
Over there is an Elephant. Look at it. Accept the fact that it is in the room with us. We must kindly ask the Elephant to leave. We have work to do.
HUNGER GAMES HUNGER GAMES KATNISS KATNISS TEAM HAYMITCH.
There are strange things afoot in this week's entry. Or, let me put it this way: I've never seen Stand By Me. So I feel like I'm missing out on something.
I do feel that Sliders' lack of, let's say, 'brandable identity' is not wholly unrelated to its mild unpopularity.
It's the last televised stand of Tracy Tormé, the last time the creator of the show gets to put his mark upon it.
I've been very, very forgiving to this season so far (as if you hadn't noticed). But now I can't be nice any longer.
So this, then, is the moment when a huge amount of laziness injects itself into the show.
You can hang almost every problem with Dragonslide and Season Three as a whole on the last ten minutes of this episode.
There could have been a wonderful episode here.
"Dudes Get Pregnant." To quote Sam Beckett, "Ho Boy."
Television is a strange beast. A different world in a tiny box. A thousand different worlds in a tiny cube. An infinite number of tiny impossible worlds, all trapped in a box. Television, then, is Sliding.
"State of the Art" is the most bizarre failure of screenwriting I've ever seen allowed to be on a screen.
Out of nowhere, we have the show pull another semi-gem out of its ass.
Peckinpah. That name, to Sliders fans, is synonymous with Pain.
Probably the greatest scene ever to come out of the show.
What could I say other than "yeah, they're right, this blows." It's actually literally impossible to give a redemptive reading of this episode—so why not have some fun with it?
It must be really stressful to write something like this.
Sliders is a show that keeps up a façade of optimism. It falls apart as you watch.
Look, I have to admit something to you. This is maybe the hardest post I've had to do. This episode is really hard to discuss because it changes everything about the show, but it just isn't very good.
In which I reveal the secret fact that this is actually one of the best and most radical episodes in the show's run. A televisual essay about strength and weakness, and their place in the Multiverse. Also, Zombies.
The darkest hour yet. Face to face with a Mirror Demon—the dark ghoul of the Multiverse. Special appearance by Haints & The Fogguns.
This isn't my show. I don't want to watch this.
There's this vampire rock band—they used to be like, doowop or whatever, but now they're like, shitty alt-goth—and they're putting voodoo spells on chicks and eating them. And one guy from That 70s Show works for them, but I don't think he's a Vampire... I don't know, he might be.
The final victory of the 18-34 demographic. Who, as it turns out, are all parseltongues.
Why is that Dinosaurs bring out the best in this show?
A monstrous diatribe against the worst atrocity the show has yet committed. I have to say goodbye to Wade—here? Now? I'm not the only one who wants to jump howling off a cliff.
All my friends are dead.
Sorry, y'all. But I just don't think Tracy's Last Stand was going to be very effective...
You can't go home again—especially when there are a bunch of Pig-Ape dudes taking joy rides in Hummers all over the place!
Hey, that show I used to watch called "Sliders" is back! I think I'll watch it—I hear it's pretty smart!
The humanization of the Kromaggs? Or the de-humanization of Rembrandt?
It's Maggie's hour, in this televisual prequel to Inception. It's better than you think. It's probably also better than Inception. I didn't really like Inception. But I really liked this episode!
All along, something was missing. And, as it turns out, it was this.
Hey everyone, it's time to meet our new Slider, Colin! Too bad he is the reason they invented the phrase "not the sharpest tool in the shed." Also, Canada!
Memory Cheats, they say. Well, I never said that. Someone did. Oh God, was that a Ghost? It was? Tight.
Despite all their rage, they're still just rats in an interdimensional cage.
Three-quarters drivel, one-quarter terror.
The show, seemingly accidentally, stumbled upon its thesis, four years too late.
Somewhere, there is another world where Sliders is not a tonedeaf "boy's club." This, however, is not that world.
There is no right or wrong—there is only fun or boring. HACK THE PLANET.
I had a friend who lost his virginity to "Hotel California," which really is a lot like this episode. But he probably had a better time then than I did watching this.
The one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest knows what's up.
Another frightful case of me missing the days when "overthrowing the government" was part and parcel of the Sliders Experience.
This is supposed to be the second-worst episode of the series. I don't know what I just saw, but it wasn't that. I don't know what it was, was it real? Did I imagine it? I feel terrible now, but I know one thing—this isn't the second-worst episode of the series.
On this week's thrilling episode of Sliders, Quinn and Maggie bump their heads and dream of the most dully heteronormative relationship imaginable; later commit genocide.
In which Sliders hits its head on the console and regenerates.
The show is once again at war with itself. But instead of the ridiculous mess you'd expect, we get a contender for "best episode since Season Two."
That pesky ol' cynicism rears its familiar head and wreaks havoc, and something happens to Diana I think but I don't remember what it was.
WE HAVE TO GO BACK, MAGGIE. WE HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE ISLAND.
Rembrandt Brown is an awful human being, and I hate him. Didn't see that one coming, didn't you?
"I did not have gastronomical relations with that hot dog, a chili cheese." I made that joke when I was 7. Still pretty funny, right?
I've got a killer caffeine headache and all this dancing is definitely NOT helping.
Oh, how I've missed you, for the first time.
They make a joke about Easy Rider in the first five minutes. Before anyone knows that this world is completely based on Motorcycles. ALSO IT IS SO FUN WHO CARES!!!!
The epilogue to the book you stopped reading and threw across the room, shoved down your throat.
The human consciousness is connected to the multiverse. The multiverse is connected to the head bone. The head bone is connected to the dumb bone.
Sliders uses moral soapbox pontification. It is super effective! (not)
This episode is about Pirates as much as it's about the Elements. But arrrrr, it's good.
Gotta steal these jewels so I don't tread on the infinite anymore!
Buried beneath the sands of time, obscured by ancient flesh, we are left with only dust, or less—the memory of the dust that was.
