Episode Review: “Eggheads”
Season 1
Original Airdate: 4/26/95
Review Rating: 9/10

The Sliders travel to a world where academic achievement is equivalent to being a sports superstar.

I like the fact that we start out on this world with a sign displaying “longer library hours” and a guy with his boom box playing opera, if you can believe it. We get two instant contrasts between this world and our own. The Sliders also discover Einstein on a fashion ad and the most shocking, Quinn’s double on an athletic billboard.

Before the Sliders can compose themselves they’re swarmed by fans. Arturo soon discovers he’s famous as well. Wade and Rembrandt’s meddling soon brings them to discover Quinn and Arturo are the “Sliders”. This episode starts out nicely and gets us to imagine how on earth Quinn could be a famous athlete, and yet at the same time a slider.

Since their doubles are Sliders, they rush to Quinn’s basement in search of the sliding machine to auto set the system, i.e. to go home. They turn up empty, with a basement full of old trophies and sports magazines. Everyone agrees to assume the identities of their doubles in order to find the sliding machine, but it’s not gonna be easy. Quinn immediately throws a teammate named Wilson off the team’s starting lineup since he was a benchman. However, Wilson and his mob has much more in store for Quinn. It turns out that Quinn’s double skipped out on some gambling debts, and therefore our Quinn is in some deep trouble.

One thing that really sticks out in this episode is the amusing hip-hop “Library Rap” music video. It so well done that it looks like it came straight from the MTV channel. This episode frequently shows us how much knowledge has influenced this world through music, sports, and even the society within.

Quinn is awestruck by the complex game he has to play in order to assume his double’s role. “Mindgame” blends games with the likeness of Othello, Family Feud, Jeopardy, and tag. The team who captures the most squares wins the game. Strangely enough, this is a university led academic sports game. You think our own educational systems would adopt such a sport. Not only would this game bring some starlight to the eggheads, but it would also make our society more intelligent and educated about the world.

The sliding machine seems as if it will never turn up and Arturo beings to question if their doubles have just fled overseas given their troubles. Professor Arturo soon gets caught up with a subpoena from his wife. Back on earthprime, Arturo’s early wife died of a brain aneurism at a young age. Here, he’s trying to reconnect with her and hopefully give his double a better chance at being forgiven. I’m really surprised by the lack of support Wade and Rembrandt give to Quinn and Arturo. They seem to just sit back, drink some beer, and watch television. Not to mention Rembrandt’s stupidity by betting on the games.

A championship game is on the line and Quinn is forced by the mob to either throw the game or quit, otherwise his life is at stake. This is an enjoyable episode, given the stark contrast between the flashy sports on our world and the academic maturity on this one. This is a favorite of co-creator Robert K. Weiss and the thought put into the episode makes it work, and work well. Only eggheads could have come up with such a clever sports episode.

Episode Review: “The Weaker Sex”
Original Airdate: 5/3/95
Review Rating: 9/10

The Sliders arrive on a world where men are treated as second class citizens while women rule.

After a rough landing the Sliders come to a pretzel stand and do a little “taste testing” to see if they’re really home. The salesman asks them to hold it down because President Clinton is about to address the nation on TV. Remember time is the same in all parallel worlds and the year is 1995. Since Clinton is president it increases the odds they’ve made it home. However the Sliders soon discover the president is not Bill Clinton, but his wife… Hillary Clinton.

Occasionally science fiction can come true, yet this Sliders episode is almost uncanny. In 2007 nearly 12 years after this episode aired Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for President. I’ll point out some more parallel scenarios from what has happened on our own earth, but let’s get back to the matter at hand.

The Catholic Pope is a woman, while men are the swimsuit models on fashion magazines. The Sliders are low on money so they need to find a job desperately. Wade soon lands a job with Anita Ross’ campaign as mayor and Quinn is hired as well. Rembrandt picks up some money from his singing while Professor Arturo finds himself out of a job. However Arturo soon gets together with the men of this world and before he knows it he’s talked into a corner. He’s been chosen by the men to be a candidate for mayor of San Francisco. Quinn soon quits the Ross campaign because of the political mudslinging against his buddy Arturo. Rembrandt is soon taken in by a so called “record promoter” who is none other than a complete phony.

I feel this is a groundwork episode for Sliders. On our world men have dominated the scene for years, yet in this one women have the upper hand and dominate over men. Wade explains that women took over hundreds of years ago because they were sick of men starting wars and killing themselves. Strangely enough during the time our own Hillary Clinton announced her presidency in 2007, a series of wars were raging in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were sparked by the current male President.

In 1972 Senator Edmund Muskie wept after a difficult question and it cost him the candidacy. Arturo’s consciousness has driven him to do the same during a debate to throw his campaign, deliberately. Oddly enough, our Hillary wept because of a rigorous campaign during her 2008 run for the democrat nomination. Sure enough the “Muskie” incident was brought to the public’s attention by political analysts across the board. Strangely enough it helped Arturo and even our own Hillary to a certain degree.

This episode is by far one of the most interesting and powerful Sliders episodes from the first season. Years later after this episode aired, science fiction met with current events and history was made. It is yet to be seen whether or not women will become first class citizens over men. Nevertheless, it’s apparent women have greater control in political and social life than they did in the early 20th century.

Although Professor Arturo pulled a damning stunt he waits in anticipation for the election results. The slide to the next world soon awaits the Sliders and Arturo has to decide, to stay or slide. He ponders whether or not he has won an election against “the greater sex”… the woman.

Memorable Quotes:

Arturo: “How can I put it? I feel exhilarated. I feel like Martin Luther King must have felt on the march of Selma.”
Quinn: “You cannot be serious about continuing the campaign. You made you’re point, but come on!”
Arturo: “We have 23% of the electorate. Tracking says we can only go up. Look, there are young boys on this world, young men who—who can never dream of heading a company or being an astronaut, or even playing major league baseball. How could I let them down?”
Quinn: “If you win this election… you’re gonna stay here, aren’t you?”

You have been chosen… to download the silhouetted team of Sliders for your desktop wallpaper. Enjoy:

Sliders | 800×600 | Tunnel | Wallpaper
Sliders | 1024×768 | Tunnel | Wallpaper
Sliders | 1280×800 | Tunnel | Wallpaper
Sliders | 1280×1024 | Tunnel | Wallpaper
Sliders | 1600×1200 | Tunnel | Wallpaper

**Spoilers**

While the first two seasons are the most popular among fans, the last two seasons have their own vital significance to the series as well. I find many who are quite repulsive of the seasons and there are others who even doubt whether or not to watch them.

Let’s consider the season four premiere of “Genesis”, where it’s revealed that Quinn is from another world. Sure it takes time to get used to that fact, and yes it’s quite shocking, plus debatable if it was just a Kromagg game. But the fact remains that this plot opened up debate and imagination, more so than we were given from the third season. The Kromaggs and Quinn’s new world become a plot for enjoyable continuity throughout the entire season.

We also discover Rembrandt’s despair of leaving Wade behind among the Kromaggs; considering he could have done something. We find Maggie tamed among the other Sliders this season and friendly, calling their world her home since her own was destroyed. We find Quinn even more determined to get home and thrilled that he has a brother. There aren’t that many times when we see him as happy. Then we have Quinn’s lighthearted brother, Colin. He doesn’t fail to create interest by being naïve and yet he creates the comic side of the season. The fourth season certainly lacks no interest in character development, continuity or humor. Even though the Professor and Wade are gone, a team must go forward whenever they lose someone and that’s what we find the Sliders doing.

You’re probably thinking season five is the least enjoyable and yes, I will agree. The departure of Quinn (Jerry O’ Connell) and Colin (Charlie O’ Connell), was one of the biggest factors if not the biggest that led to that. Nevertheless, a real treat from season five is Rembrandt. At times we see him disconnected with the new Sliders, longing for his old friends. He’s still determined to get home with all that has happened; and yet he’s still the interesting guy he is. We’ve rode along with Rembrandt from the beginning and we see from his eyes all that has happened to him. In a way, the fifth season should be viewed as Rembrandt’s story, as he reflects upon his lost pals.

Now I don’t know about anyone else, but I just hate it when we see a favorite character played by another actor. Instead of replacing the characters Quinn and Colin Mallory with different actors, we’re given another plot. It’s smearing Quinn into another guy and calling him “Mallory”. It probably wasn’t the greatest idea but at least there wasn’t another actor actually trying to portray our beloved Q-Ball.

The complete series as a whole is quite unique because there were no major fairy tale endings. If the theory of sliding could be discovered in our own time it would probably end up like our favorite TV series, Sliders. No happy endings, depressing and disastrous, with a few annoying Sliders with us along for the ride.

The fourth season of Sliders is now available on DVD. This Fourth Season set contains 5 discs.

Details:
- 5-Disc Set
- Contains The Complete Fourth Season
- “Play All” Feature
- Runtime: 16hrs. 32mins.
- Subtitles: English
- Language: English Dolby Digital 2.0
- Full Frame: 1.33:1

DVD Review: The Fourth Season (Region 1)
Release Date: 3/25/08
DVD Set Rating: 8/10

This Fourth Season set is very similar in appearance to the Third Season. It looks like a disappointment yet again, and it harkens back to the rigid plastic that was presented for the third season. However, once you open the green colored case and discover more, it’s quite a different story.

The set is actually a book case design, and you can fold over each page. Each page contains one disc and they’re not overlaid. Best of all… the discs are single sided. Yes, the plastic is cheap, but what case isn’t? This fourth season case holds together so much better than all of the previous sets.

Once you slide out the case you will find an episode guide that’s actually a part of the case; it’s on the front and it continues on the back. Guess what? It’s in the correct episode production order too. The plastic case has a little style to it and I think you’ll enjoy it. There was really no style given to the third season set, just a bunch of clear orange plastic. On the back of the box there’s a synopsis of the series and the design is also similar to the previous set. But interestingly enough it’s not glued to the back, it’s actually a part of the box.

The menu has a totally new look with some Sliders theme music with a short interval of collaborated video. On a good note, the scenes that were cut for U.S. commercial airtime are included in the episodes for those who haven’t seen them. On to the disappointments; there are neither episode summaries nor any scene selections. The episode summaries are including on the case, however they’re not in the DVD menus. All you get is a numbered list of the episodes to play. However there is a “Play All” feature which is quite nice since the episodes are placed in the correct order. There are no extras which is a shame since “The Making of Sliders” was aired during the run of the fourth season. There are some sneak peeks of other Universal Studios shows, if you want to call that an extra.

Overall this is a rather big step for the Sliders DVD sets, at least for the packaging. While there are no extras, scene selections, or menu episode summaries, I feel that the case design more than makes up for those flaws.

You can purchase The Fourth Season set at your local retailer or at various places online including: Universal Home Entertainment.

*How to Play:

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