**Spoilers**
Don’t get me wrong there’s some pretty bad episodes in season five. Plus in my opinion probably the worst of the entire series… “Easy Slider”. But there is some relevance to this season. Hear me out.
Although we lost Quinn and Colin, the writers still threw in a character named Mallory. They made the best of both worlds, instead of us seeing someone trying to be Jerry O’Connell, they used some brains and scifi, eventually coming up with a fraternal twin merged with Quinn. Yes it wasn’t pretty but it could have been a lot worse.
Sporadically the Sliders would refer to Quinn and Colin, discussing the possibility of having them back again. There was discussion and episodes of how to get Colin back and unmerge Mallory from Quinn. You may say it was a lost hope, maybe it was, but at least the writers gave us that hope and kept peaking our interest of the good times. That’s one of the nice things about this season, they never forgot about their past. The Sliders never turned their back from the lost Sliders, especially Rembrandt Brown. Rembrandt was played by actor Cleavant Derricks and I believe he gave some of his most passionate acting in this season for Sliders.
Take for example Cleavant’s performance in “Requiem”, which is flawlessly done. The episode entails Rembrandt connecting with Wade telepathically and eventually slides to her world in hope of reuniting with her. He beats himself up in this episode, regretting the time he left her at a Kromagg prison alone. His performance is incredibly genuine in this episode, I can’t say it enough. Oh and by the way did you know that the real Wade (Sabrina Lloyd) presented a VoiceOver for her character here? You may say they just made it worse by having Wade’s head in a jar, but at least they tried to resolve a plot that was previously dead in the water.
There’s a few nice gems in season five including episodes like “New Gods for Old”, “Requiem”, “A Thousand Deaths” and “Dust”. A last thing I want to touch on is the tension and passion in season five. It’s clear Rembrandt is frustrated of the fact that his friends are lost while “Mallory” is trying to fit in with the others. Take for example, these quotes from “Applied Physics” and “New Gods for Old”:
“Applied Physics”
Maggie: “Quinn’s body is remembering who he is. He’s trying to come back.”
Mallory (angrily): “That’s what you want, isn’t it? To get your Quinn back. That’s the only reason you brought me along, right?”
Diana: “If there’s a chance that we can separate you from Quinn, we can…”
Mallory (interrupts): “And what if there’s not? What if you only get one Quinn per customer? Which one do you want?”
(silence among the Sliders)
Mallory: “That’s what I thought.”
(Mallory immediately exits the room)
“New Gods for Old”
Mallory: “Quinn is gone, for good.”
Maggie: “I know. I’m beginning to like Mallory.”
Rembrandt: “You believe that?”
Mallory: “Yeah. I feel it.”
Rembrandt: “I don’t… and I won’t.”
If there are any diamonds in the rough of season five it is certainly the stellar performance by Cleavant Derricks, the frequent reference to our long lost friends, and the passion this season brought out. Here’s to Arturo, Wade, Quinn, Colin, and of course the man who endured it all, Rembrandt.
6 comments
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pete5125
February 12, 2013 at 7:27 pm (UTC -8) Link to this comment
Easy Slider was actually an OK episode due to the fact that the cast was having fun, something after they decide Quinn is not coming back happens and that is the new cast gells better than even the original cast did, the scripts are bad, the budget is low…but they search the backlot and try to have more variety then season #4 ever thought about, continuity is almost as good as season #1, and the cast is having fun something that helps this show a great deal.
You do have to get past the fact that Quinn is gone and not coming back and the solutions to most of the lingering problems are horrible, also you have to be OK with Rembrandt constantly having bad things happen in his life.
TheSorcerer
February 13, 2013 at 10:31 am (UTC -8) Link to this comment
Nice write up.
I always found it funny the accidental slider was the last man standing.
Ian
February 13, 2013 at 12:25 pm (UTC -8) Link to this comment
I agree with the post completely. I do, however, wish that they had finished it somehow. A book would have been fine.
Thomas
February 13, 2013 at 2:56 pm (UTC -8) Link to this comment
Same here. I hope some day they can wrap it up properly. I’d like to see a trilogy movie series, that would be nice.
Bojangles
March 5, 2013 at 10:33 pm (UTC -8) Link to this comment
Easy Slider though it gets dumped on was not the worst episode of Season 5. The Great Work would rank as the nadir of the season.
Derricks was always a great trooper and thrilled us with great work in the final two seasons. He is the ultimate professional and sadly an overlooked and underused actor.
Once we got past the fact that 3/4 of the original cast was no longer in the show, we could sit back and enjoy some of the real gems of this final season.
APPLIED PHYSICS
REQUIM
THE RETURN OF MAGGIE BECKETT
NEW GODS FOR OLD
Slide Fan
March 26, 2013 at 5:53 pm (UTC -8) Link to this comment
I would love to see a script called “The Five Quinns” where five doubles are brought to together stop the Evil Quinn. Quinn #1 the Original , Quinn #2 the Hippy Quinn who slid the entire planet but now uses Sliding to find the perfect drug high , Quinn#3 the Straight Edge Quinn who gave the original Quinn the last part of Slide Equaition, Quinn #4 The Badd A** Ranger on his home world all people are required to enlist where he fought off the Cromaggs, and Quinn #5 the younger version of them all.. That would be a great way to wrap up the show. The Evil Quinn is Sliding from world to World collecting technology to amass power for trans dimensional dominance.