Of all Sci-Fi shows on TV, I've found only two proving to be fresh, most engaging, and innovative...the first one is Quantum Leap that I reviewed just before, and the second one being Sliders.
Sliders has made a refreshing concept of 'alternative-reality' world - it did not join the already-crowded time-travel ship, instead it decided to set sail with its own, dubbed "dimensional travel". The creators must think that inter-dimensional travel should not be less engaging than time travel - "Same time, same earth, different dimension", as it is spoken in the opening credit.
They were right. I was among the ones who found it to be very engaging, brilliant and could not miss any single episode.
The premise is clearly explained in the Pilot, which, in my opinion - ironically, turns out to be the best episode throughout the whole series. A group of four with different motives - Quinn Mallory, Wade Welles, Rembrandt Brown, and Maximilian Arturo - slide into a vortex which enables them to do inter-dimensional travel. The point is, they could not control into which dimension they will land next and they often end up being stranded in unexpected situations in earths they have no idea at all - a world where Russia rules America, another one where men are inferior to women, or one world where USA is still a British colony - the quartet slide from one dimension to another as I eagerly watched...
Until the time came when they met their demise one by one; starting from Arturo who was shot, then Wade who was abducted by their archnemesis The Kromaggs, then Quinn followed when he was lost in the vortex - leaving Rembrandt alone. Well, actually he was not alone, there were others eventually came join him. Actually, the disappearance of a show's original protagonists is not something taboo - many shows actually do that without much sacrificing the quality of the show itself. What made this worse was, their demise is evoked by some dark motives behind the screen. Word has it that the actors who played the eventually-lost characters; O'Connell, Lloyd, and Rhys-Davies, were actually fired from the show or withdrew because of..well, say, conflicts of interest. Things only got even worse, when Tracy Torme, the show's mastermind, also withdrew and left the show's fate into a bunch of workers who -sadly- lacked ideas how to maintain an already-brilliant show.
For the aforementioned reasons, my interest had decreased dramatically. The last season in which I watched every episode was Season 3, only a few of Season 4 that I watched, and I did not watch any of Season 5 (when all original casts but Rembrandt Brown had lost) at all.
Rembrandt, while he was one of the starting lineups and stayed until the very end, was not enough. I don't by all means want to say that the replacement actors (Kari Wuhrer, Tembi Locke, Charlie O'Connell, and Robert Floyd) were bad - they've tried after all. Some episodes from the last two seasons actually had quite intriguing and potential plots, say "World Killer", "Genesis", and "Requiem" . But I think it's fair to say, that Sliders show has lost its spirit without Quinn Mallory, Wade Welles, and Maximilian Arturo.
The worst of all is, of course, the very last episode, "The Seer". The episode itself is not that bad, but it provides a very terrible conclusion for the show. I realize, it was initially intended to be continued with the next season. But - again, thanks to those conflicts of interest - it didn't. And so, the real victim is the viewers like me who was left clueless, like it all has totally gone into the thin air.
Many viewers had drawn inevitable comparisons between The Sliders and Quantum Leap. The most glaring one is that Maggie Beckett, one of the replacement slider is a nephew of Quantum Leap's Sam Beckett (very interesting indeed, though never officially confirmed that I know of). Both provide refreshing approaches to Sci-Fi show world and deal with uncontrollable travel and "the endless hope of getting home" though none has managed to get home until the end. But Sliders' fate is much worse than that of Quantum Leap. In Quantum Leap, Sam and Al still stayed until the very end. While I also hate Quantum Leap's cliffhanger ending, it was not contaminated by the so-called conflicts of interest, and at least it did not lost its spirit throughout the show. Needless to say, all episodes in Quantum Leap's last season are as good as those in the first season.
To sum it up, although it has been more than 10 years since The Sliders were gone, I still wish that I might see them again in the future. But let's clear it out, to me, NEVER change the starting lineups. There is some hope, for it's the good of inter-dimensional travel show - while one character dies, the same character in another dimension may be still alive.
Bring Quinn Mallory, Rembrandt Brown, Wade Welles, and Maximilian Arturo back to the show - I want nobody else - and get rid of those stupid conflicts of interest. I have been waiting for too long.
Sliders has made a refreshing concept of 'alternative-reality' world - it did not join the already-crowded time-travel ship, instead it decided to set sail with its own, dubbed "dimensional travel". The creators must think that inter-dimensional travel should not be less engaging than time travel - "Same time, same earth, different dimension", as it is spoken in the opening credit.
They were right. I was among the ones who found it to be very engaging, brilliant and could not miss any single episode.
The premise is clearly explained in the Pilot, which, in my opinion - ironically, turns out to be the best episode throughout the whole series. A group of four with different motives - Quinn Mallory, Wade Welles, Rembrandt Brown, and Maximilian Arturo - slide into a vortex which enables them to do inter-dimensional travel. The point is, they could not control into which dimension they will land next and they often end up being stranded in unexpected situations in earths they have no idea at all - a world where Russia rules America, another one where men are inferior to women, or one world where USA is still a British colony - the quartet slide from one dimension to another as I eagerly watched...
Until the time came when they met their demise one by one; starting from Arturo who was shot, then Wade who was abducted by their archnemesis The Kromaggs, then Quinn followed when he was lost in the vortex - leaving Rembrandt alone. Well, actually he was not alone, there were others eventually came join him. Actually, the disappearance of a show's original protagonists is not something taboo - many shows actually do that without much sacrificing the quality of the show itself. What made this worse was, their demise is evoked by some dark motives behind the screen. Word has it that the actors who played the eventually-lost characters; O'Connell, Lloyd, and Rhys-Davies, were actually fired from the show or withdrew because of..well, say, conflicts of interest. Things only got even worse, when Tracy Torme, the show's mastermind, also withdrew and left the show's fate into a bunch of workers who -sadly- lacked ideas how to maintain an already-brilliant show.
For the aforementioned reasons, my interest had decreased dramatically. The last season in which I watched every episode was Season 3, only a few of Season 4 that I watched, and I did not watch any of Season 5 (when all original casts but Rembrandt Brown had lost) at all.
Rembrandt, while he was one of the starting lineups and stayed until the very end, was not enough. I don't by all means want to say that the replacement actors (Kari Wuhrer, Tembi Locke, Charlie O'Connell, and Robert Floyd) were bad - they've tried after all. Some episodes from the last two seasons actually had quite intriguing and potential plots, say "World Killer", "Genesis", and "Requiem" . But I think it's fair to say, that Sliders show has lost its spirit without Quinn Mallory, Wade Welles, and Maximilian Arturo.
The worst of all is, of course, the very last episode, "The Seer". The episode itself is not that bad, but it provides a very terrible conclusion for the show. I realize, it was initially intended to be continued with the next season. But - again, thanks to those conflicts of interest - it didn't. And so, the real victim is the viewers like me who was left clueless, like it all has totally gone into the thin air.
Many viewers had drawn inevitable comparisons between The Sliders and Quantum Leap. The most glaring one is that Maggie Beckett, one of the replacement slider is a nephew of Quantum Leap's Sam Beckett (very interesting indeed, though never officially confirmed that I know of). Both provide refreshing approaches to Sci-Fi show world and deal with uncontrollable travel and "the endless hope of getting home" though none has managed to get home until the end. But Sliders' fate is much worse than that of Quantum Leap. In Quantum Leap, Sam and Al still stayed until the very end. While I also hate Quantum Leap's cliffhanger ending, it was not contaminated by the so-called conflicts of interest, and at least it did not lost its spirit throughout the show. Needless to say, all episodes in Quantum Leap's last season are as good as those in the first season.
To sum it up, although it has been more than 10 years since The Sliders were gone, I still wish that I might see them again in the future. But let's clear it out, to me, NEVER change the starting lineups. There is some hope, for it's the good of inter-dimensional travel show - while one character dies, the same character in another dimension may be still alive.
Bring Quinn Mallory, Rembrandt Brown, Wade Welles, and Maximilian Arturo back to the show - I want nobody else - and get rid of those stupid conflicts of interest. I have been waiting for too long.