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Sliders (1995 - 2000)
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon May 24, 2021 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

johnnybear wrote:
I was reading on a Sliders site that everyone hated the original Kromaggs! I thought they were great and couldn't understand why they never came back during the third season even if it was for one episode? The Kromaggs that returned in season four were pretty weird and their makeup wasn't very believable in comparison! The fourth season gave a new twist to Quinn Mallory being from another earth at the top of the tree rather than just a science nerd with a lucky break!
JB

I also enjoyed the introduction of the Kromaggs into the Sliders Universe.

They were a fierce and unrelenting enemy for anyone who encountered 'em.

My only quibble was the potential to overuse them as villains.

The parallel earths theme of the series allowed writers to cover any and all topics for their episodes. That gave the show an enormous and unlimited range as to the stories the series could tell.

It could tackle any hot topic issues, science fiction, horror, comedy, suspense, satire, you name it.

My concern is that writers would become lazy and fall back onto Kromagg plots too often.

"The Man From U.N.C.L.E." in its very first season offered up various foes for the secret organization in various episodes...including THRUSH.

The concept of different enemies gave us some variety to look forward to seeing each week with intriguing stories.

Eventually though the producers settle upon THRUSH as THE Primary nemesis to the exclusion of any other entity.

It made the show repetitive and stale for me.

So yes, Kromaggs were cool. However, As Star Trek: TOS did with regards to the Klingons and Romulans on their series; limited utilization of these foes was a smart move.
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Tue May 25, 2021 10:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
episode #19 - Invasion episode #19 - Invasion

A pivotal and scary episode: the Sliders arrive on an Earth mostly devoid of people and there are signs of looting. There's also the word "Kromaggs" written in various graffiti.

A strange man warns them that Earth has been conquered by a hostile, eye-eating invasion force of Kromaggs — but these are not really aliens. Right after, they spot a manta-ray-shaped flying ship hovering over them. Implausibly, Quinn brings the ship crashing down with his timer. It seems the two devices operate on the same frequency.

Quinn & Arturo explore the inside of the downed ship, finding a dead humanoid creature. Soon after, they are all chased by a couple of live humanoids — these resemble hairless (except for mohawks) apes, though they also have human characteristics.

The Sliders escape via a slide to a French-dominated San Francisco, but their safety is short-lived. Arturo took a device from the downed ship and this serves as a homing device. The Kromaggs follow the Sliders to this current Earth and this time are ready for Quinn's timer.

The Sliders are all knocked out and taken to yet another Earth, a barren world which never developed life. The Kromaggs have set up a prison base there and the interrogations begin.

____[imghttps://i.imgur.com/r4ElrhU.jpg[/img]

It turns out that the Kromaggs control sliding technology and originate from an Earth where Kromaggs evolved from a probable killer ape species who were the dominant lifeform, not humans.

After they discovered sliding technology about a generation ago, they found that almost all other Earths were dominated by humans. This revelation caused the inner-fighting among Kromaggs to halt, and they united in a world government with the intention of conquering all Earths which are ruled by humans.

The Sliders pose a serious problem for the Kromagg Dynasty: they are the first humans they have encountered who also possess sliding technology (or so they say). The Kromaggs intend to gain as much information about how this happened, including tracing events back to Earth Prime.

So, in this sense, it's lucky that the Sliders do not possess their Earth's coordinates. The Kromaggs try all manner of questioning and tricks, such as bringing a version of Rembrandt's father in to speak to his "son" (though this father makes a stupid mistake). There is also a human slave of the Kromaggs, Mary (Una Damon), who may either be the group's downfall or their means of escape.

This was an extremely effective episode, both for the frightening, chilling aspects and for the new ideas on sliding and alternate Earths. The script throws in this odd man giving the Sliders a warning in the beginning, and it's revealed that he probably escaped from an insane asylum during the invasion. This just adds to the scary lunacy of the story — just because he's crazy doesn't mean he's wrong.

The Kromaggs rival such other TV villains and nemesis as The Borg (Star Trek TNG) for providing an instant sensation as the ultimate antagonists. As in many cases, they are probably never better than in their first appearance here: grotesque, truly alien (even though from an Earth), hideously intelligent and too formidable.

There is the expected ominous epilogue, a twist, including the disclosure that one of the Sliders has a tracking device implanted in them. In all, it shows that the Sliders appear to be no match for the Kromaggs and this bodes ill for the future.

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10

Earths Depicted:
---------------- #38: an Earth already conquered by the Kromaggs, possibly days before
---------------- #39: San Francisco and possibly the continent governed by the French
---------------- #40: a barren Earth where no life began, designated Earth #113 by the Kromagg Dynasty

Sliding Trivia: The prisoner in the cell next to the Sliders on Earth #113 is played by Jason Gaffney, who played Conrad Bennish in several previous episodes. However, he is credited as simply the "prisoner" and the Sliders do not seem to recognize him (maybe the lack of eyes?)



BoG
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Last edited by Bogmeister on Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:43 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 11:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some Sliders Stuff

Tracy Torme & Robert T.Weiss are the creators of the scif~fi show.

Weiss said that The Twilight Zone and The Time Tunnel were inspirations for Sliders. The Robert Heinlein book "By His Bootstraps" was also inspiration for Sliders.

Torme said that a magazine cover with two worlds on it inspired him. And that he wondered about major historical events and what if they had turned out differently instead of what really happened.

Tracy Torme worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation as a writer and consultant. He was also a protege of Gene Roddenberry.

That series influenced him to want to explore controversial topics and social issues set on another planet. He realized that Roddenberry, Rod Serling, and other writers figured out that they could tackle hot button issues more easily via a TV network if the issues were presented in the science fiction genre as opposed to real life.

Robert T. Weiss did the voice over originally that is heard whispering 'Sliders' in the opening credits. Later on various cast members of the show would also do the same voice over.

Jerry O'Connell (Quinn Mallory) said that it took 2 weeks to shoot the pilot scene where he is talking to a different version of Quinn in his basement laboratory.

So the Sliders pilot first aired back in March of 1995. So I'm thinking that twenty-five years ago it technically took that long in order to film such a complex scene.

I'm assuming visual effects tech has developed and become much more sophisticated these days and that such a scene wouldn't require that amount of time to shoot in this day and age?

Tracy Torme was responsible for creating the Kromaggs. He did it in order to have recurring villains for his show. The FOX network did not like the concept at all, so Tracy had to really fight for it in order to become reality.

As already noted, many fans and critics were also not at all fond of the Kromagg story line. I liked it just fine. The series would just need not to bring in the Kromaggs too much.

Cleavant Derricks' (Rembrandt Brown) twin brother Clinton Derricks Carrol appeared in three episodes playing Remy's alternate iteration on another earth.

Cleavant would be the only original cast member to remain on Sliders for its entire five seasons.

Kinda ironic, isn't it? In the pilot for Sliders we see Quinn inventing the machine that opens up a vortex to parallel earths. He wants to explore these worlds and convinces his friend Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd) and college professor Maximillian Arturo (John Rys~Davies) to join him.

Remy was accidentally swept up in the slide and never signed up for doing it in the first place. Yet it is only Remy that makes it to the end.

John Rhys~Davies was the first cast member to exit the series. He was quite displeased with the scripting as the show went on. He felt the writing paled in comparison to the show's enormous potential for exploring alternate earth civilizations.

Davies loved working with the cast and felt badly he had to leave. Sliders was one of the biggest missed opportunities of his life he said.

The FOX Network cancelled Sliders after Season Three. The show was then picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel.

Sabrina Lloyd decided to leave and not return for Season Four.

Sabrina would later provide the voice-over for Wade in order to tie-up her character's fate in Season Five.

What they did to Wade Wells was an insult to both Sabrina and fans of the show. I loathed it.

Torme, Weiss, and producer John Landis all departed during Season Three.

It showed, the quality of Sliders was never as good as it had been early on.

Guest star Ken Steadman tragically died while filming the episode "Desert Storm" when a dune buggy he was riding in overturned. The producers saluted Ken in the ending credits of the episode.
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Krel
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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2021 4:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Davies loved working with the cast and felt badly he had to leave. Sliders was one of the biggest missed opportunities of his life he said.

It was reported in magazines at the time, that the reason Davies left is because he was kicked off the show because he pis...uh alienated a Fox Executive at a party.

David.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2021 9:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
Pow wrote:
Davies loved working with the cast and felt badly he had to leave. Sliders was one of the biggest missed opportunities of his life he said.

It was reported in magazines at the time, that the reason Davies left is because he was kicked off the show because he pis...uh alienated a Fox Executive at a party.

David.

Yeah David, I read that same story someplace. I suppose Davies leaving could have been a combo of his dissatisfaction with the scripts and his confrontation with one of the FOX execs.

Jerry said in an interview that he and John became close friends. He also said that when the cast gathered to read a script in rehearsal that if it wasn't up to John's high standards he could pound the table and raise his voice.

Davies wasn't being a prima dona; he was just so passionate about the show's potential that he couldn't tolerate writing that was substandard in his view.
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PostPosted: Fri May 28, 2021 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

List of the number of alternate earths that the Sliders' visited.

Season #1 : 18 worlds. Season#2: 23 other earths.

Season#3: 28 earths. Season#4: 18 new earths.

Season# 5: 20 earths.

List excludes any episodes where the Sliders returned to their earth.
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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2021 8:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very nicely put, gentlemen! The series did have a great set of possibilities but it was considered too kiddie like to the suits I'm guessing!

The Kromaggs looked pretty scary in Invasion but they were really laughable in the Sci-Fi fourth and fifth seasons!!! I wonder why all invading alien armies are always represented as a Nazi style even down to the uniforms they wore? They only appeared in flashback in the third season so you could tell that they weren't well loved by the execs. If they had of been, then we'd have had 12 or more episodes featuring them in the next batch of 26 shows, but we didn't get them back!

The thread of which member of the team had a homing device was returned to in the fourth season opener!
JB
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2021 4:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So true, JB. The original makeup for the Kromaggs was indeed scary. Later on, not so much.

I wonder if the change was due to budgeting issues or someone's poor decision? Maybe both?

The Nazi-like uniforms of the Kromaggs apparently is to convey to the audience (with the subtlety of a jackhammer) that Kromaggs=bad. We'd never figure it out ourselves based upon the dialogue & action.

Tracy Torme said that the executives at the FOX Network wanted to pigeonhole Sliders into a neat understandable category. FOX wanted the show to be a 'straightforward action/adventure show.'

Tracy liked the dark humor and satire of the series; FOX was very uncomfortable with it, he said.

Torme felt that no one at FOX truly "got the show" and how to properly develop it.

According to Tracy, "I thought Sliders should be this boundless show that should be able to do almost anything, and all of a sudden we had these mandates: No politics, nothing too dark, nothing too this, nothing too that, not too science~fictiony!"

Once again we have a network willing to invest into a science-fiction show, and then not comprehending the premise or its potential.

Next, the network then litters it with all types of asinine restraints so the show is severely weakened and ultimately fails.

That my friends is a tale as old as time regarding how networks undermine their own sci-fi series.

And the show, cast & crew, and fans pay for it.
Again and again.
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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Budget all the way, Pow! The original look was clever while the later versions were just smooth bald heads with piggy noses! Oh and the Nazi uniforms too! Laughing
JB
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 9:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Today I watched the first few episodes of my recently purchased box set. The website below states that the episodes were often shown in the incorrect order (thanks to network execs who switched them around).

List of Sliders episodes

The list of episodes on disc 1 reads this way.

Pilot
Summer of Love
Prince of Wails
Fever


However, the Wikipedia page says that these three should be first.

Pilot
Fever
Last Days
Prince of Wails


I wish the DVD set had corrected the order of the episodes.

As for the series in general, it's definitely imaginative! However, sometimes the plots include less-than-believable behavior that detracts from the strong aspects of the story.

Like whenever they try to tell people they're from another dimension in an attempt to explain why their different. That's a tough sell, and they ought to realize that.

By the time I reached the third episode I knew I needed to cut the series the same kind of slack required to enjoy Xena: Warrior Princess — which I'm very fond of. That series makes no attempt stick to reality, and the audience knows that 90% of what they see is deliberately tongue-in-cheek.

The right blend of "silly and serious" makes for good entertainment. So, with the proper expectations, both series can be enjoyed.

So far, the sliders episode I've enjoy the most has been The Prince of Wails. Jolly well done! Sad

And the episode about the pandemic called Fever is chilling in the wake of Covid-19. It even addressed the dangers of transmitting infectious diseases from one "Earth" to another.

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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 9:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
Episode #03 - Summer of Love

This was the rare episode (because later ones would no longer do this) which featured some short scenes back on Earth Prime with Quinn's college classmate Conrad Bennish (Jason Gaffney).

Government agents are aware that the 4 Sliders have gone on their journey, probably beginning an investigation after Quinn's mother reported him missing. Bennish is questioned by these agents in Quinn's basement lab.

Meanwhile, the 4 Sliders have arrived in a deserted San Francisco. A swarm of giant spider-wasps are heading for the city — yes, giant spider-wasps (about a foot in length, with a brief explanation is offered, to the episode's credit).

The Sliders rush to another slide, but because the vortex cuts off at one point, they are separated. Wade & Rembrandt end up in a park with a bunch of flower children, while Quinn & Arturo (along with a couple of the giant insects) land in a construction site.

Wade quickly becomes a guru to the hippies, who have no knowledge of astrology, while Rembrandt hooks up with his wife on this world (his double was supposedly killed in the war in Australia here — similar to our war in Vietnam). The President of the U.S. on this one is Oliver North.

Despite an exciting first act, including good FX of the big insects, this episode rapidly does downhill, a severe step down from the pilot. At first, it seems as if the two sets of Sliders ended up on different Earths, lending some tension to the plot, but we soon realize that they just ended up a few miles apart on the same Earth.

Wade's scenes with the long-haired hippies (including Barry Pepper in an early role) are ridiculous, while Rembrandt's story with his new wife is tedious. At first she's a sex bomb, but she turns out to be a shrew.

Quinn & Arturo don't have much to do in this one, running into the same agents we see on Earth Prime in the first scenes. There is one amusing moment when they meet the Bennish of this Earth, a Republican with a crew-cut.

There is also one hint of the possibilities of such a premise, since the Sliders introduced a couple of the giant spider-wasps to this Earth, which might mean eventual catastrophe.

At the same time, stupidity informs some scenes even during the better moments. When escaping the giant flying insects, the Sliders delay their urgent slide, deciding who slides first (it ends up ladies first). That few seconds of delay causes the vortex to cancel out momentarily, separating the group.

Later, Quinn clobbers Arturo with a flung stone while aiming at one of the spider-wasps. Rather than funny, it just depicts the characters as plain stupid — not very encouraging.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

Earths Depicted:

~ Earth #1 - Earth Prime, Quinn's origin point
~ Earth #6 - an Earth under siege by giant spider-wasps
~ Earth #7 - war in Australia, hippies, President Oliver North
~ Earth #8 - San Francisco engulfed by a huge tidal wave



BoG
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 9:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________

Episode #05 - Fever

This one also begins in a silly way, with the Sliders arriving in a San Francisco where oil gushers are heralding a new oil boom. Everyone in the city is instantly rich (does that even make sense?).

The Sliders are there for only a few minutes and then arrive in the city which is in the middle of a deadly epidemic, dubbed the 'Q' — and they're stuck there for 2 days.

Men in blue containment suits are carting bodies to garbage trucks. Quinn's double here is known as 'Patient Zero' and has a million-dollar bounty on him (Quinn = Q), enforced by a health agency — the CHC — which practices totalitarian methods.

Obviously, this spells trouble for Quinn and his group, made worse by the fact that Wade quickly becomes ill (a result of her usual impulsive nature when she kisses a sick guy who rescued her from an oncoming truck).

Quinn is soon captured and spends his time trying to explain that he is not the same Quinn as this Patient Zero. The other three are taken in by an underground movement of dying victims, including the alternate Quinn.

It's there that Arturo finds out the essential problem — this world never discovered penicillin. He might be able to devise an antidote.

There is a fallacy to this set-up. If this world never had antibiotics, things would have been very bad far before the nineties. This episode proposes that everything was just the same on this world before this new epidemic.

The story gears everything around the old plot of the rich vs. the poor. The corrupt CHC works only to help the rich. It is intriguing that the Sliders — notably Arturo — effect a massive change to this world, presumably for the better, before they depart.

As Quinn notes towards the end, this is a first for this series.

As with more than a few episodes, this one had the feel of copying a movie of the times, in this case Outbreak (1995).

This episode also featured an appearance by the same cab driver from the pilot episode. A cutesy epilogue is ambigious: the Sliders are seemingly safe on some new Earth, in a tent (nothing is shown of the outside); but, we find out that they are surrounded by cannibals.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

Earths Depicted:

~ Earth #10 - the start of an oil boom in San Francisco

~ Earth #11 - The U.S. is gripped by an epidemic

~ Earth #12 - land of cannibals (nothing shown, just mentioned)



BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bogmeister wrote:
There is a fallacy to this set-up. If this world never had antibiotics, things would have been very bad far before the nineties. This episode proposes that everything was just the same on this world before this new epidemic.

Bog is right. This was huge chunk of poor logic. In fact, the characters say they can't inject the penicillin they create because this world doesn't have syringes or IV needles! They have to have the patients drink it in a solution.

Good lord, what kind of world is this that doesn't have the equipment needed to give blood transfusions, insulin shots, etc etc etc.
Shocked
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bogmeister wrote:
This episode also featured an appearance by the same cab driver from the pilot episode.

This was intended to be a running joke in the series. No matter what Earth they landed on, he was to be a cab driver. I don't remember why they said it didn't work out.

Another joke was that no matter what Earth they landed on, it had that same hotel.

David.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 11:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And having Arturo invent penicillin on this alternate earth-in spite of his being a brilliant cosmologist-was a stretch for this plot.
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