♫ So Why Don't You Slide ♫

Sliders Background:
Sliders was a sci-fi kind of show created by Tracy Torme and Robert K. Weiss. It ran for 5 seasons between 1995 and 2000. It first aired on Fox, but after its third season switched over to the Sci-Fi channel and got a little too weird for me to watch. However, while it was on Fox, it was a fantastic show that had it all mystery, suspense, romance, humor.

The Beginning of Sliders:
I remember being only 14 years old when the pilot aired in March 1995. My brother and I were first introduced to Quinn Malory, played by Jerry O’Connell (who was such a babe to teenage girls at the time). The episode started with Quinn watching a self-video and trying to solve an equation for crossing the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky Bridge, which was a way to slide to a co-existing Earth on a multi-dimensional space/time continuum. In other words, numerous Earths exist in different dimensions where it is the same year, the same day, and the same place (San Francisco), but society is different.

Unfortunately, it was one of Quinn’s doubles and not himself that solved the equation. Quinn slid without understanding everything about sliding and mistakes were made. Quinn and three unlikely friends end up on a parallel Earth with no sure way of getting home. Each Sliders’ episode is a journey to see if the next slide will bring them to another unique Earth or back to their own.

The Characters:
Quinn Malory, played by Jerry O’Connell is a genius college student that discovers sliding to parallel Earths in his home basement.

Wade, played by Sabrina Lloyd, was Quinn’s co-worker on their Earth, but throughout sliding has become his love interest. The two actors bring great romantic chemistry to the screen, unfortunately the audience is only teased once every few episodes with the prospect that the two will end up together. While Sliders has this little bit of romance, it is not a show to watch for romance.

Maximillian Arturo, played by John Rhys-Davies, was Quinn’s professor on their world. He joins Quinn as the brains of the sliders-bunch, helping the other to better each society they leave behind.

Rembrandt, played by Cleavant Derricks, is known as the ‘Crying Man’ because of his singing career on their Earth. Throughout the Sliders’ episodes he lives up to this name as he is the whiner of the bunch.

All four main characters play their roles well. They are believable and add action and suspense to each episode even when coming into contact with one of their doubles on another Earth. Quinn is obviously the lead of the characters, however, I never was annoyed by how much camera time each character gets. They are all equally pleasing to watch and each character’s journey has me on the edge of my seat and there in the picture with them.

While we get to know each character throughout the episodes we do not watch the characters evolve. Instead, each episode focuses on the evolution of each society. Perhaps we will never see Quinn and Wade fall in love, but we might watch them save many Earths so others have the chance of love.

A Peek at Sliders:
Season 1 had 10 episodes called: Pilot, Fever, Last Days, The Prince of Wails, Summer of Love, Eggheads, The Weaker Sex, The King is Back, The Luck of the Draw, and Into the Mystic.

Season 2 had 13 episodes titled: Love Gods, Gillian of the Spirits, The Good The Bad and the Wealthy, El Sid, Time Again and World, In Dino Veritas, Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome, Obsession, Greatfellas, The Young and the Relentless, Invasion, As Time Goes By.

Some examples of Episodes:
In Fever, many citizens are dying of ‘The-Q,’ which Professor discovers is a type of plague curable by antibiotics. Only this world has never heard of antibiotics. The professor tries to concoct an antibiotic antidote using mold before it is time to slide out of this world.

In The Good, The Bad, and The Wealthy the group lands in a world like the Old West. It is Texas Country and most people shoot first, and ask questions later. Can the Sliders help this society realize violence is not the answer?

A couple of my favorite episodes, which I am sure more women will appreciate than men, are called The Weaker Sex and Love Gods. In the first, women rule the world and men are the weaker sex. Men are used for sex by women, they are the lowest people on the career totem-pole, they cannot hold office or play in the major league. Also, Hillary Clinton is president there. In the second of my favorites, the male species has been mostly wiped out by a virus and now the women of the world must repopulate the Earth.

Other episodes follow plots similar to some movies you may have seen or books you may have read. Luck of the Draw reminded me of “The Lottery,” in which the lucky winner sacrifices their life has a means of population control. In Into the Mystic the gang meets a Wizard of Oz bunch and must retrieve the ‘witches broom’ before the sorcerer will send them home.

Each episode is a new suspenseful journey; a chance to either make it home, or improve the society they find. Whether the sliders help the society or not does not seem to heighten their chances of landing back on their own Earth. Most of the time when they interact with society it is because of the role of their double on the Earth like Quinn’s double infecting people with the plague in Fever or Rembrandt’s double being as popular as Elvis in The King is Back. Other times they involve themselves with the society out of their own desires to advance and help other worlds. The timer decides how long they will stay on each world and I am always on the edge of my seat to see if they will all make it to the sliding portal in one piece and on time.

Some of the other worlds they visit throughout the episodes are: the world is ending as a meteor is set to hit Earth, a world without technology, a world with bearded ladies, a world with skirted men and no Constitution, a world where the hippie craze never ended, a world run by Russians, a world where San Francisco is a maximum security prison on a earthquake fault line, a world where a swarm of spiders are about to attack, and more. There is new excitement around every corner.

Age Appropriateness:
Sliders is an unrated show. I was 14 when I started watching it and my brother was 15. The show does have some references to sex and violence, but for the must part it is okay for a mature 13 and up audience. As always, you should screen episodes before determining if it is safe for your child to watch.

About the DVD Set:
The set comes with 6 discs total for Season 1 and 2, with a total of 23 episodes that run from 40 minutes to 43 minutes; totaling 17 hours. The discs are in a box set and each disc slides out into foam to secure. They are not individually cased and this may make it difficult to preserve the life of the discs.

Each disc has a Play All option, Episode Index, Language/Subtitle selection, and a Bonus. The Bonus includes audio commentary by the creators, a Photo Gallery, Making of Sliders, and Credits.

Overall:
Sliders was one of my favorite shows growing up. It has something for everyone in the family: suspense, action, special effects, romance, history, fantasy, and more. The show looks like it could have been produced this year as the special effects seem before their time. The suspense factor is severe and despite always assuming all characters will end up leaving the world at the end of an episode, my heart races and I hold my breath in anticipation.