SLIDERS episode one: PILOT
SLIDERS
episode one: PILOT
I won’t go
on and on about how great SLIDERS is. As a premise it is unbeatable and as the
main four characters are intensely likeable (though somewhere on the net
someone clearly hates Wade Wells but I don’t know why) or how exciting it was then
and now and how it’s lost nothing but gained more emotionality since 9/11 even
though it was far before that. As Quinn realizes his love for Wade when it
seems she’s dead…it’s a touching scene and that their search for home seems
over but isn’t is also touching.
I used to
think this first episode with Russia having won the Cold War and the US having
lost the Korean War, thus a present where Russia rules America…was boring but
it’s not. It wasn’t then and isn’t now. There’s also a visit to an ice age
Earth and of course, the start to the whole thing and another Quinn. Everyone
is quickly established here.
The pilot
also makes use of others in the world of this foursome and I wish that
continued and Yee Jee Tso, of DOCTOR WHO THE TV MOVIE would have been used
again. People in the main Earth world turn up again in the Parallel Earths,
usually in different roles or different jobs, being the doubles of their real
Earth counterparts.
I wish that
aspect was continued and while the first season may have this, the others
seemed to downplay that a lot. There was an episode somewhere where Quinn was
female but that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
The Russian aspect
is well played and today, the idea that communism was dead along with Russia,
seems a bit too naïve and a false claim but then…it felt really good.
The entire
thing is played like a slow building horror movie and that works, too.
Here’s a
great review of all of it:
https://www.everythingaction.com/2010/09/04/total-recall-sliders-pilot/
I can’t
really beat that or add to it much but the moment Quinn’s father walks in and
we know they ARE NOT home was one of sheer terror AND amusing irony and dark
humor, in a way.
There are
also MANY funny lines in this first episode revolving around mainstream culture
such as The People’s Court, Jeopardy, and the phone company coming after you
when you do not follow their orders.
This show is
under rated and mostly forgotten today but it really had tremendous potential
which sometimes it fulfilled and this pilot brought that to the forefront. I
miss this show and wish it stayed the course and didn’t change so much during
its five year run.
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