Once upon a time there was a show called... Sliders (with spoilers, but don't worry, you won't care)

It was a basic 1995 Fox sci-fi show about Quinn Mallory who accidentally invents a "Timer" which opens a dimensional rift (wormhole) that he can "slide" through, coming out on a parallel earth. He is the same, but the world is different. It may be a small change, like Coke tasting different, or a major one where the Soviets conquered the U.S. He takes his friend Wade Welles and his teacher, Professor Maximillian Atruro on the next slide. A miscalculation makes the wormwhole too large and it swallows up singer Rembrandt "Cryin' Man" Brown. They find themselves trapped on an ice world with their lives threatened and they wind up sliding before the timer is set to return them home. They find themselves in another world, and for the first two seasons they travel to parallel earths, hoping to land back home.

I have always loved the concept of parallel universes. What would have happened if I turned left instead of right, or chose a different college? Those are the kind of things that I think of at night when I can't sleep. The first two seasons played this out well and it was an enjoyable series. Not great, but good. There was hope it would get better. Unfortunately, after watching most of the first two seasons, my life became quite a bit more hectic and I missed out on the last three. That is until this fateful weekend, when I went though a Sliders marathon via Netflix instant streaming. I still liked the first two seasons... then I saw the third.

Dear God, what in the hell are they doing? Midway through a season filled with magic "water finding people" and a giant worm that eats people, the professor dies, yes dies at the hands of some freak who needs "brain juice" to live. They are joined by Captain Maggie Beckett in their pursuit of brain juice guy, across multiple worlds. As you would expect, we move on to zombies from there. Then parasitic bugs. And on to vampires... wow. They didn't just jump the shark, they beat it into the ground. The season finally ends on an island of Dr. Moreau knock-off, with Rembrandt and Wade going home to their Earth while Maggie and Quinn slide on. That was a weak ending for a season that I could barely stomach to begin with.

Somewhere in there, all the writers were fired and all new ones were hired. Then Fox dropped them and the SciFi channel (now known as SyFy) picked them up, and supposedly brought back the original writers. The plot of the first SyFy season centers around humanity's battle against Kromaggs, which are people-ish things from a parallel earth. Quinn finds he has a brother (played by the actor's real-life brother) and they hunt for him. Not great, but getting better. There are a few decent episodes, similar to the first two seasons. But Captain Beckett magically transforms from a hardened Marine into a soft, fluffy lady who likes to shop and just isn't herself... at all. Literally they changed the character almost completely. Wade is somehow captured by the Kromaggs, but the group never bothers to look for her, although she is mentioned on occasion. Despite all of this, I had hope since the good elements of the show appeared to be returning.

Then, like so many wonderful dreams, they were smashed on the ground with the arrival of the fifth season. It wasn't just bad, it was insanely bad. Quinn and his brother (the characters and the actors) vanish. We got a whole new Quinn (who goes by Mallory) who has classic Quinn fused with him on a subatomic level. The brother, Colin, is just gone and no one really seems to care. Magically, Wade reappears as a head in a jar who then dies. Then we hear that Quinn cannot separate from Mallory, so Quinn is officially dead. Still no one cares about Colin.

And the viewers don't either. This season is so bad that it retroactively damages the first two. Only Remington survives from the original series, and he tries, oh he tries so hard, but wow this is bad. Maggie's fake affair with the president, pirates, bikers. It is just one weak plot after another. No longer are we dealing with the changes the worlds go through, but instead just the trivialities of survival. The show's soul is dead and gone. It ends, as you would expect, with a weakly formed cliffhanger that makes no sense... and Maggie crying. Yes, Maggie we all cried with you because this show didn't just die, it crashed and burned.

For those of you brave enough to venture into the world of Sliders watch Season One and Season Two. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE WATCH ANY MORE! When they throw dragons and magic into the mix you know it is too far gone.

-Uncle Walter

Comments

[Kathleen Bradean]

that about sums up my view of it too