ALL SCI-FI Forum Index ALL SCI-FI
The place to “find your people”.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Sliders (1995 - 2000)
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi on Television from 1970 to 2000
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Bogmeister
Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 574

PostPosted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
episode #14 - Love Gods

This was probably inevitable: a world of women.

On this Earth, the Iraqi unleashed a virulent virus that wiped out the Y-chromosome a few years back. This killed only males.

As Arturo soon explains, there will always be survivors to plagues — those who are naturally immune or resistant — so there are a few men left. But very few.

Those men who remain are essentially locked away in special breeding camps because the female leadership has deemed this the only way to regrow to regrow the male population.

Naturally, very soon after the Sliders arrive, the three new males cause a riot in the streets among the women. The men are arrested while Wade manages to slip away. The three gents are shifted to a breeder camp in short order.

There, they see that being choosen as 'Breeder of the Month' is one of the carrots tossed to the incarcerated men. The champion stud is an obnoxious Aussie who has over 200 confirmed impregnation in the past month.

Speaking of Australia, they are the new world power, since their male population fared best in avoiding the death cloud of the virus. There's conflict between the U.S. and Australia, usually over the remaining men. Ironically, almost all the males in Iraq were whipped out by the very virus they unleashed!

The Sliders and fellow inmate escape from the breeding camp, after which Quinn ends up being cared for by a rich and attractive widow who hides him and hopes he'll make her pregnant.

______________

I found this episode to be largely underwhelming as it missed many opportunities to explore the outlook of an unusual minority — men — who have become sex slaves to the dominant female culture. Maybe this was simply a limitation of TV back then.

Everything is skimmed over or treated in a perfunctory, even silly fashion. It does state the obvious — that for those couples in a serious, loving relationship, this entire scenario would be painful.

Love has been taken out of the equation on this world and it's all about the pragmatics of procreation. But besides presenting yet another totalitarian regime, there is no commentary on what this has done to the human spirit.

It only enters a poignant note in Quinn's brief relationship with the woman who needs his help to get pregnant, for reasons other than pure necessity. However, he declines her request on the grounds that he wouldn't want to father a child he'd never see again.

Wade makes a mess of things at the midpoint by leading the authorities straight to where the heroes are hiding out. Also, yet again, at least one guest character slides with the group at the end, but we never see them again.

The slide at the end is unusual; all but one of the Sliders are inside a moving van when they enter the vortex!

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

Earths Depicted -- #27: a world mostly of women, with most men wiped out by a biological bomb



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bogmeister
Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 574

PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

episode #24 - Double Cross

The first episode of the 3rd season was marked by a shift to Los Angeles shooting and a slightly higher budget.

The Sliders slide into a megapolis called San Angeles, which stretches from what we know as Los Angeles all the way up to San Francisco. Things like food and power are portioned out in meager scraps because resources are so strained by the populace.

The group is quickly tracked down by female scientist Logan St. Clair (Zoe McLellan), who is working on her own version of sliding technology, in a much more sophisticated lab than Quinn's old basement. She does admit to needing Quinn's help to work out the kinks.

Her previous partner had been a version of Arturo, who had been killed trying out a slide. But one of the kinks is that objects come back burned to a crisp.

Suspicions are soon raised about St. Clair's motives and about what really happened to the Arturo of this Earth.

Rembrandt, meanwhile, goes off on his own to be with a female fan of this world's Rembrandt (who is touring in Europe); this woman turns out to be on the psychotic side, and with a muscular, jealous boyfriend.

Rembrandt's whole story line is predictably goofy and a waste of time, but the main plot involving St. Clair and sliding tech is a great example of the show's potential — presenting concepts that are fascinating and nearly mind-blowing.

The plot has its tensions, revolving about a possible murder mystery and subterfuge, but the real revelation is when we find out who St. Clair really is (St. Clair is not the last name she was born with). She is this world's version of Quinn.

Quinn asks how he can be female on this world — Arturo answers that it simply involves the Y chromosome.

Here is where the series shows us how it can present concepts that are not possible on other TV series, that it can be science fiction of the most wild nature. The actress playing Logan was excellent and the final act is genuinely exciting. Too bad that the implications of the climax were never followed up on.

But, there is a permanent change due to the events of this episode: from now on, instead of just the San Francisco area, the Sliders will slide into anywhere within a 400-mile radius of the S.F. location — usually L.A. we would guess.

BoG's Score: 7.5 out of 10

Earths Depicted:

~ #49: San Angeles is a huge city stretching along the CA coastline; brownouts are daily, sliding tech almost developed

~ #50: a Los Angeles referred to as "Lotus-land" — possibly very Jamaican-influenced; seen only in an epilogue



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Bogmeister is right, this episode does have some good points . . . but it starts out with a string of utterly idiotic moments that practically ruin it in the first five minutes!

In the opening scene, the sliders arrive through the portal and find themselves in a dimly lit man-made tunnel with train tracks. A sunlight entrance is visible is a quarter-mile away.

And yet our brilliant heroes ask each other stupid questions like, "Hey, where are we?" and "Is that light down there getting closer?"

Then the geniuses come to a brilliant conclusion. "We're in a subway tunnel!"

Like, duh . . . Rolling Eyes

So, do they flatten themselves against the way and let the train race by? Of course not! They flee towards the sunlight entrance will the train bears down on them. But Rembrandt falls down when he somehow gets the hem of his pants leg caught on a bolt which holds the train rails together.

His companions rush back and make frantic efforts to get his pants free of the bolt . . . while the train draws closer and closer. They yank on the clothe and they shout at each other, but somehow these three eggheads can't free the fabric.

When the train is about to run over the group, do they leap to the side and THEN hug the wall, reluctantly leaving poor Rembrandt to his tragic fate?

Of course not! They all crouch down, close there eyes, cover their heads, and wait to be reduced to guacamole. Confused

Suddenly the sound of the train is gone, and when the look up they discover it just a few feet away, motionless. And then (get this,, flks) a loudspeaker in the tunnel says, "Power is suspended for 30 minutes to conserve energy. Power will return at 4:00."

Wait . . . what?! The power was shut off, and the train came to a dead stop INSTANTLY? Shocked

After that, the episode had dozens of smaller moments of illogic, but describing them would be mere nitpicking after that monumental "Oh, brother!" opening scene. It was a prime example of the kind of idiocy in TV shows that just baffles me.

I mean, come on . . . how can the writers create such silliness and then present it to the producers, who then turn it over to the director, who then gives instructions to the actors, who them play the scene . . . without anybody in this whole chain of command saying —

"Wait a second, this is ridiculous. People wouldn't run from a train in a tunnel and then crouch down, waiting to die! And how the hell could a speeding train just stop on dime!"

This isn't even an example of bad science in a sci-fi show. It's total, complete lunacy by characters how are supposed to have above-average intelligence!

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bogmeister
Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 574

PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________________________

episode #25 - Rules of the Game

The Sliders arrive inside a flying airplane — or so it seems. Quinn remarks that they have always arrived on the ground before, never in the air.

Indeed, the whole thing is faked — part of some futuristic reality TV show in which contestants pretend that they have crash-landed in the middle of a dangerous environment.

But, there is no pretense in the danger involved. The setting seems to be a typical neighborhood and town, but it's filled with booby traps, and other streets look like a war zone.

Teams of players vie against each other using real shot guns and automatic weapons, going through different 'levels' until the winners reach some kind of finish line. It's a recreation of various video games, but in a real world setting.

Arturo quickly gets blinded by a laser flash and things get more dicey from there. The group gets split — Quinn & Wade go one way, Rembrandt & Arturo go another.

Some of this copies the Westworld/Futureworld concept — the play setting also contains things like android dogs.

However, rather than relax in a make-believe setting, the whole set-up is geared around survival and chase. There are also phrases reflecting this alternate culture, such as "We you to the beach" — this is another way of describing reaching the finish line just wishing someone good luck.

A brief explanation reveals how a civil war was avoided a decade earlier with the creation of these elaborate games. It's another commentary on mankind's aggressive nature. This was also copied later by the now-famous Hunger Games books and movies.

A now-famous highlight is when Rembrandt and Arturo encounter a metallic spider web, complete with mechanical spiders with electrifying mouth-pincer. Arturo reveals a fatalistic streak due to his sudden blindness and this adventure serves to bond him and Rembrandt. Quinn, meanwhile, considers Wade just a friend by this point.

Earths Depicted:

~ #51: an Earth dominated by special televised War Games in which contestants play to the death

NOTE: the previous Earth to this one is described by the Sliders as "igloo world" - meaning another ice age type of Earth - but this Earth is only mentioned, never depicted.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

This was a much better episode than the one in which the sliders squat on subway track and hope that squeezing their eyes closed will instantly stop the approaching train! Rolling Eyes

Ironically it sort of worked, which made the whole thing even dumber.

As Bogmeister said, this episode pits our multi-dimension explorers against armed foes in the form of "androids" (guys dressed up in what appears to be paintball armor with visor-equipped helmets. The cheapest humanoid "robots" EVER . . .

About the only "Oh, brother!" moment I had in this one happened when Rembrandt and Arturo are attacked in a dark alley by android pit bulls (pit bulls that are . . . just pit bulls), and they fight them with planks they pick up off the ground.

Afterwards Rembrandt says, "Come on, let's go back an get our guns."

Wait . . . they left their guns someplace in a scene we don't see, and after fighting the pit bulls with scrap lumber they decide to "go back and get them"? Shocked

Gee, I was wondering where those damn shotguns were during the android dog fight! Confused

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bogmeister
Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 574

PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________________________

episode #26 - Dead Man Sliding

The Sliders have just arrived in this latest Earth's version of Hollywood. Quinn is quickly targeted by a local female bounty hunter and captured for his double's crimes. his double is a petty criminal.

In this L.A., criminals are judged and sentenced on televised game shows, notably on a show called "The Judgment Game" (hosted by a sleaze played by Donny Most, of Happy Days fame). There's also an appearance by big star Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, whose claim to fame on our Earth was the Welcome Back, Kotter TV series.

Unfortunately for Quinn, the judges are typical idiotic fans of such shows, eager for blood, and the outcome is pretty much predetermined. Quinn is selected for death by guillotine (hey, that is painless — or so I hear). His only hope is that his Slider buddies locate the other Quinn — that and that the bounty hunter herself also begins to have doubts.

On the surface, the premise in this episode seems silly and ludicrous, but the brief explanation for how all this came about does make some sense. It all stems from the frustration endured by the general populace, an impression that criminals have more rights than victims.

Also, the game show format eliminates much of the taxpayer expense for standard trials and incarceration. But corruption has set in due to a need for high TV ratings, and some sentenced 'criminals' have actually been innocent. As Arturo explains, sleeping without fear of crime here is balanced out by the occasional death of an innocent person.

The episode has a "been there, done that" feel to it. There's a tense and even spectacular escape via the vortex at the end, though it's done in a clumsy fashion (falling down a cliff takes a lot longer on this world for some reason), and the epilogue on a new Earth is almost nonsensical.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

Earths Depicted:

~ #52: game shows judge criminals; the big Hollywood stars are Arnold Stang, Jill Whelan and Linwood Boomer

~ #53: looks like a typical suburb on Earth, but Quinn describes a resident as green and moldy . . .
Confused


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Despite having a premise that seems overly fanciful, this is a terrific episode! Very Happy

It's a "story well told" that doesn't make jokes about the twisted society it presents, choosing instead to depict the disturbing cruelty of a nation which makes a television game show out it's legal system, and which gleefully embraces the cruelty of a "court system" that resembles what the Romans did with the gladiators and the Christians in the Colosseum. Sad

Actually, it has a lot in common with Schwarzenegger's The Running Man — right down to the CGI-altered video which replaces the face of an innocent man with the image of the guilty one, so that the public can feel justified in voting for the death penalty . . . on live television! Shocked

In short, it's a wild-and-crazy concept that was done so well the viewer accepts it.

And there are admirable characters in the mix as well, including a sexy female bounty hunter who realizes she's sent an innocent man to his death, and duplicate Quinn Malory who turns out to be just as innocent of the crime that our hero was convicted of!

He even joins the team long enough to help with the brilliant plan to rescue Quinn from being beheaded on a guillotine!

So, when the sliders escape from this nightmare world, they also bring about a dramatic change that will correct the cruel system which has tarnish the souls of all it's citizens.

In conclusion, the various episodes of this series range from the admirable to the abominable . . . with everything in between!
Cool
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bogmeister
Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 574

PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________________________

episode #27 - Electric Twister Acid Test

The Sliders arrive at a devastated Earth; everything looks like a desert (filmed at the famous Vasquez Rocks area).

This isn't the result of nuclear war but of — well, you might guess by the title — twisters (also known as tornadoes).

These are electrically-charged twisters. The episode takes on a goofy tone almost immediately, They spot some kid on a skateboard who attempts to ride one of the twisters. Naturally, he's soon in trouble.

Then they find the one green valley untouched by the twisters.

Unfortunately, it's a hi-technology free farming society ruled by an addled despot who speaks warnings such as "You will pray for a quick death." The newcomers are not welcome, to put it mildly, except by the leader's daughter (Julie Benz).

To add to the problems, the timer is on the fritz, affected by the electrically-charged environment — and it also attracts one of the twisters!

Living underground just outside the safe area is the leader's son (Corey Feldman).

This is one of those episodes that seems very derivative of a then-current popular movie of that time (Twister, the 2nd biggest grosser of '96).

However, it does concentrate on other themes, mostly involving science which has run amok, and the guilt of the main antagonist.

The leader (the always disturbing Bill Bolender) seems to be a typical religious fanatic — anti-technology and so on — but it's revealed that he is one of the scientists responsible for the cataclysm.

To assuage his own guilt, he has taken on the role of savior & dictator of a small group of people, condemning himself and his congregation to an Amish-like existence in possibly the last oasis on Earth. As with many low budget TV episodes, it begs the question of are there truly no other survivors on all of this Earth?

Feldman, as the fanatic's son, plays the last reasonable man. It's odd & eerie (yet familiar) how only the madman's offspring offer any rationality. The rest are just sheep. The climax is rather abrupt, with surprisingly no just fate for the villain.

BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10

Earths Depicted:

~ #54: an Earth devastated by electrically-charged twisters
NOTE: the Sliders arrive in some kind of bobsled, suggesting that they were in the middle of a sports event beforehand



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

This is an enjoyable episode, but the cheap CGI effects showing the twisters were terrible.

Furthermore, in the first scene showing a "twister", one of the characters calls it a dust devil, but another characters says, "No, that's a tornado."

He's wrong . . .

Anybody familiar with tornadoes knows that they form out of super-cells — massive storm systems that begin to rotate and then drop the tornado down to the ground.

On the other hand, a "dust devil" (aka "dirt devil") forms when the dry, hot ground — baked by the sun on clear days — causes convection currents of warm air to rise and begin turning, and this rising air lifts up fine dirt particles. These particles never rise especially high (compared to tornadoes), nor do the wind speeds get above 50 mph.

They rarely cause any serious damage. And yet in this episode of Sliders the "twisters" cause considerable damage to several builders.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bogmeister
Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 574

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________________________

episode #30 - Desert Storm

The Sliders have arrived on an Earth which had turned into mostly desert wasteland in the recent past and water is very scarce. No explanation is given for how this happened.

There is no law & order, just scattered settlements and roving gangs on dune buggies & dirt-bikes. As has become the norm, the group follows the erratic impulses of the headstrong Wade to rescue a young woman from an abductor.

This girl turns out to be a water-witch, a person gifted with the psychic ability to find hidden water. This makes her valuable to scum like Cutter (Ken Steadman) and his gang. Cutter had kidnapped her years ago and she has, for some reason, grown perversely attached to him. A member of her real tribe, which is located in a hidden oasis called Aquarius, is trying to bring her back.

Much of this is obviously derivative of The Road Warrior scenario and all its copies in eighties films — the post-holocaust outlaws zooming around on a desert terrain.

Where it gets really goofy, however, is with this hidden paradise of pacifists who seem to be channeling seventies flower power.

It's also never explains why the female members of this secret community possess various psychic powers. At least one male, a small member, also has healing powers and this subplot follows up on Arturo's terminal illness (revealed in The Guardian).

Many things do not make sense, including the appearance of the hidden paradise (in the middle of a barren wasteland). Likewise, the actions of some characters are senseless. For example, near the end, Rembrandt sticks close to a cave-in so he can look over the dead bodies of the gang afterwards. Naturally, one gang member is still alive and takes Remy hostage.

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10

Earths Depicted:

~ #58: a barren Earth where water is rare and civilization has collapsed



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Bogmeister nails the problems with the episode perfectly, although none of the flaws quite measure up to the infamous "Oh, brother!" moments in Double Cross where the sliders squat down on a subway track and wait be run over, instead just standing against the tunnel to walt and letting it pause.

However, as Bogmeister pointed out, Rembrandt DOES hug the cavern wall during a cave-in (instead of running when the cave-in started), and somehow survived when the entire biker gang is killed.

I guess it's a variation on the old axiom about playing poker, but slightly revised.

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Know when to hug the wall, and when to squat and pray." Laughing

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bogmeister
Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 574

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________________________

episode #31 - Dragonslide Empty episode #31 - Dragonslide

One of the episodes that dips into fantasy, is extra-silly, and has nothing to do with science fiction — except that it's supposedly a parallel Earth.

The Sliders arrive on an Earth where magic is commonplace and dragons actually exist. This is due, implausibly, to a Druid sect which never faded away as it did on our Earth, but expanded its power.

The top wizard, Gareth (Gregory Martin), lives in a strange castle perched on a small mountain. He's after Melinda (Michelle Rene Thomas), a former apprentice who fled from him. She ends up with a scarred face after sacrificing her power to help Quinn. Remy, meanwhile, runs across a version of an old flame and ends up falling in love with, Wade due to a magic spell.

This episode just piles on the nonsense — even the four regulars do not behave in rational ways. They take in all this magic stuff as if it happens to them all the time.

Another revelation is that the Mallory clan was at some point the most powerful on this world, but there is only one Mallory left (it's not a double of Quinn as we might expect).

There's a lot of hocus-pocus and a confrontation with a dragon at the end to finish matters. The FX weren't bad for this type of TV show. The secondary plot with Remy & Wade goes nowhere,

At one point, it looked like they were going to reveal a few things about Remy from the time before he first joined in the sliding, but it didn't pan out.

BoG's Score: 3 out of 10

Slider Trivia: In a small role here as a sheriff's deputy is Charlie O'Connell, who returns as a regular — Quinn's brother — in the 4th season.

Star Trek actor alert: Max Grodenchik plays Gareth's shape-shifting minion, best known for his role as Rom in DS9

Earths Depicted:

~ #59: a world of Druid magic



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I enjoyed this episode much more than Bogmeister did, probably because I've been having so much fun with my new box set of Xena; Warrior Princess for several weeks, and this episode borrows a page from Xena's playbook, so to speak. Cool

Since I've now watched more than half the total Sliders episodes, I can appreciate how difficult it was for the writers to come up with all the original "Earths" needed to fill the series with enjoyable stories. Very Happy

Frankly I've objected more to the Sliders sci-fi episodes which were flawed by bad science than I did to this episode just because it had almost no true "science fiction" elements, according to Bogmeister's opinion.

However, the true merit of this episode is the conflict created by Professor Maximilian Arturo's total rejection of all the examples of true magic he encounters and his unshakable belief that magic is bogus and science is all knowing.

The climax pits his refection of the fact that magic is real in this dimension against his absolute faith in science and science alone as the way ALL universes can be understood and controlled.

With that in mind, Bogmeister's claim that this episode includes no science fiction concepts is very wrong. After all, we're dealing with stories about different dimensions . . . which are sometimes governed by different physical laws. Sad

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Pow
Galactic Ambassador


Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 3401
Location: New York

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Science fiction author Brad Linaweaver writes in his Sliders The Classic Episodes companion book that he was not a fan of this episode.

Brad writes that he is a fan of fantasy. Ray Harryhausen's The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad hooked him on the genre.

"But if the Sliders enters a world of magic, I'd like a science~fiction explanation, such as the thoughtful one provided for Into the Mystic. Science-fiction should play fair. Unfortunately, this episode is the first to give us hard-core fantasy. No explanations allowed."

I agree with Brad. If you're producing a science-fiction TV series, then that is the genre you are obligated to adhere to for its audience. Otherwise its a cheat to introduce fantasy elements strictly as fantasy elements.

ST:TOS gave us some stories which appeared as fantasy, but in the end they turned out to have a sci~fi basis.

In The Squire of Gothos we think that Trelayne is some kind of mad hatter magical genie with his ancient castle and his abilities to make things happen out of thin air

Seemed more like an episode of Lost In Space. And that's rarely a good thing.

However, we discover that he is in fact a child super-being with extraordinary instrumentation at his command. He's a naughty god-like alien.

In Catspaw the Enterprise crew arrive at a planet with people who appear as human beings. They also live in a castle and can perform astonishing feats unknown to the Federation of Planets or Starfleet.

Once again the reveal is that they are also aliens in reality — really tiny ones that look like plants.

The writers of Dragonslide — Tony Blake & Paul Jackson — should have been clever enough to explain in a sci~fi manner about the how-and-why of this world.

To simply say to the audience that its a "The Wizard of Oz," iteration of Earth and walk away is a cop out...and lazy writing.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 4:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Mike, let's be totally logical and scientific about the premise of this series — which states there are an INFINITE NUMBER of universes which can demonstrate an infinite number of worlds, each of which have their own physical laws! Shocked

In each of these universes, the physical laws of OUR universe might be (a) the exact same as theirs, (b) somewhat similar to theirs, or (c) totally different from theirs!

With that said, any universe which demonstrates aspects of fantasy can't be criticized for not providing a "science~fiction explanation", when the science in THAT world is very different from the one in ours!

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi on Television from 1970 to 2000 All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7  Next
Page 5 of 7

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group