My biggest gripe with the show (which the family and I have been rewatching) is the episodes where they travel to dimensions where things that are just flat against the laws of physics are occurring - Hollywood magic and so forth. I can accept that the timer is only moving them between Earths in a "local" set of probabilities, and that's why they never end up on an Earth that lacks a breathable atmosphere, or in the middle of an asteroid belt that used to be an Earth. But that being the case, they definitely shouldn't be diverging enough that love spells work or crap like that. That said, I love the show. I wish they had kept throwing in a real world gimmick now and then (like the Azure Gate Bridge or the mention of O.J.'s trial) though. Oh, btw - Derricks and his brother weren't identical. If you look close, you can tell after a couple of episodes with his brother in them.
Sliders, in my opinion, will always have the greatest premise of all sci-fi shows. Whether it was fully realised or not doesn't really matter (though I think a reboot is a no brainer). The possibilities are endless, and it's a shame that some people who worked on the show didn't really know what they had. The first two seasons are great, even the weaker ideas are still better than much of what came in seasons three, four and five. The two things that absolutely worked was the parallel world ideas and the characters put into those worlds. I can't really fault anything in those areas. It was season three where the cracks started to show. Filming was moved to LA, the characters had a makeover and most of the stories became rip-offs of Hollywood b-movies. I'd say that in season four, attempts were made to improve the quality of the series, but it had become very different by that point and half the original cast was gone. Season five was a lost cause, though there were still some good ideas. I'd prefer they pulled the plug after season four ended.
We are nearing the end of season one..and so far so good...haven't even touched a Cromag plot, so I am interested to see what all the fuss is about.. sliders/SG1 do share some of the formlua. Maybe someday they might do sliders all over again, but let the showrunners have more control... Rob
I think it had a great premise and start. But a lot of episodes were just tedius. I remember on my last watch through just finding it rather excruciating getting through whole batches of episodes. The last season is fun... it changes so much, and they try to compensate... and I think it works surprisingly well. But overall, great idea but lousy execution for the most of it.
Sliders almost never made it to a second season. It was so long before it showed up on the schedule again, a lot of people just assumed the show had been killed. I liked the first season VERY much, but it'd been gone for so long you couldn't help but be surprised it'd come back. Right from the start of season two, however, it began to look cheap. There was this weird scene in the season opener that (without giving things away) suggested it'd been filmed with an entirely different concept for the second season in mind, a concept that ended up being scrapped, but they felt they had to include the scene anyway. Events in the third season could have soured the most forgiving of fans, and then, in a cliff-hanger, the show was dropped by the Fox network. Again, likely over a year later, SciFi Channel announced they'd picked up the show (which had been produced by SciFi's owner, Universal Pictures). The 4th season left something to be desired, due to changes in the cast. Year five likewise, for the same reason, along with others. If they offer the entire series and you watch it one episode after another, in order, you will note the slow death of what could have been a GREAT show, if only it'd kept up what it'd been during its first season. I say watch it all the way thru to the end, but be aware it's gonna hurt and you're gonna be mourning even before the final episode... Which is also an unresolved cliff-hanger.
I thought the show went downhill starting with the episode where they went to COMMUNIST WORLD, where all the main characters just happened to be figures of importance.
The series was OK until the alien/cross-dimensional visitors became the "heavies" then people like the brother were introduced, and the a new main character, ugh. Maybe the first couple seasons are all that was worth watching.
That was the first episode!! And it was only two of the main characters that played out that way (one of them being more unbelievable than the other), but the pilot movie had few quibbles like that in it (just like most series do at their birth). In all, it was still a solid pilot in my opinion, and I personally still hold it as the best start I've seen from a series.
Season 4 is much better than season 3, but you will get enjoyment out of 3 if you like retelling old stories in somewhat new ways. I haven't seen any of season 5 in such a long time I can't give any judgment. 1 and 2 are classic, though I think 2 is overrated a bit. I still wish there was a sixth season or a movie. I didn't mind the rotating cast, I kind of liked it.
I think the B rating pretty much sums up my feelings on the show. I need to go through the whole thing again though. It's been years since I've seen an episode.
They did emerge in a dimension where the world was literally fire, and some of the fire slid with them to the next world. I loved the first season. The second season wasn't bad. What killed this series was: - the Kro-maggs. IF we absolutely had to have a story about them, it should have been no more than an isolated two-parter. - casting changes. The show just wasn't any fun without Arturo. And the idea that Quinn and Maggie could possibly ever have been friends, let alone lovers or spouses, just turns my stomach. The final season cast (with the exception of Rembrandt, of course) belongs on a fourth-rate soap, not Sliders. - increasing use of technobabble and outrageous coincidences and pseudoscience that shows the producers had NO respect for their audience. The show where Maggie was introduced was the first blatant use of "Yeah, the science is dumb but so is the audience" attitude shown by the producers. Sadly, by the end of the series, I just didn't care anymore. But there's always fanfic, and someday I'll get around to finishing my own that runs with the idea that Alexander the Great not only didn't stop exploring/conquering in Asia - he got all the way to the New World, which puts a different spin on the "Greek to me" saying...