Data World was an episode that was very imaginative for its time but also somewhat boring. The sliders first come into this world screaming and hollering. Collin tells Rembrandt, “You don’t have to squeeze them so hard.” At which Maggie chimes in with, “That’s probably why she kicked you.”
It’s not often in the Sliders series that they use sexual innuendo but this is one of those times it was pretty funny.
Of course it turns out they’re only talking about Rembrandt milking a cow.
Apparently his technique was off and he says from now on he prefers his milk in a jug. He wants his hamburgers with special sauce and sesame seed bun like you get from McDonald’s. I wonder how much McDonald’s paid for that product placement.
Anyway, the Sliders find themselves on what they think at first is another abandoned world. But then some people walk by but they ignore them. Quinn attempts to talk to them but they continued to ignore him. They all look like zombies. Only not the zombies from the zombie world.
They simply seem like lifeless bodies are wondering aimlessly not wanting to hurt anyone.
It’s very weird to the sliders so they decide they should go to the Chandler hotel. They walk close to the front door and then all of a sudden are transported inside. None of them can remember opening the door nor how they got in.
It becomes clear to them very quickly that this is a weird world and things are not as they seem.
Quinn is the first one to be told by Mr. Chandler that they are only data now. When they walked up to the door their bodies were scanned, their neural impulses and brain functions recorded, and digital bodies were created. And the essence of who they were was implanted into the digital bodies.
Obviously, the Sliders do not like this turn of events. They search for many ways out of the hotel but cannot find a way. The roof is no good, the basement is no good, the front and back doors are bricked over.
Mr. Chandler is the owner of this virtual utopia.
He’s having a blast watching his new visitors attempt every way possible to extract themselves from this hotel. Their bodies are outside in an empty state and they want to be put back in.
They become belligerent and Maggie threatens to kill Chandler. So he deletes her and the Sliders believe that she is gone forever. Quinn hatches a clever scheme to distract Chandler by playing chess with him.
While he is doing this there is a little hacker midget that they have teamed up with. His name is Mac and with his help they believe they can get out of there. While Quinn has Chandler distracted they start work. They found the trash bin where Maggie’s file was hiding and re-created her.
Chandler sent some of his goons to attack and defeat them but they end up beating down Thor and Frea.
Quinn has an idea and punches in a few things basically defeating Chandler. We see Chandler disappear and can only beleive that he has been deleted. Since he told Quinn that much like Cortez he burned his ships he is gone. He killed any corporeal body or container that he had so Chandler existed only as virtual data.
Since we believe he is deleted that means for all intents and purposes he’s dead.
Everyone that was trapped in the hotel has now returned to their empty bodies. Although they don’t know what has happened Quinn looks at the timer and sees there’s only a couple of seconds left on it. He opens the vortex and then leaps into it freed from their virtual prison.
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A very appropriately titled episode though probably not for the reason you think. Just to give you a quick spoiler none of our Sliders end up dying in this episode. at least not in the sense that we know dying to be.
We start out seeing Rembrandt, Maggie, and Mallory walking down a dark alley with the sliding timer in hand.
They’re wearing fake plastic looking crowns like the ones you get at a fast food restaurants or the ones you see the Burger King character wearing in those Burger King commercials.
Then we see these other 3 guys dressed as clowns who are holding guns on them.
They have taken Diana and they ask the Sliders if they have what was promised in order to get their friend back. We find out the Sliders had to infiltrate another burger joint to get their secret sauce in exchange for Diana.
On this world there is literally a burger war. And it’s a bloody war.
The Burger joint the Sliders stole from show up and a shootout begins.
The Sliders take cover and Rembrandt grabs a metal rod intending to do damage. He opens up the crate to find Diana in a semi-conscious state. She’s unable to move so he picks her up and they open the vortex to slide out of there.
Where they land seems to be “happy, healthy, well-adjusted world”. It’s temperature is mild and there don’t seem to be any wars going on so the Sliders are filled with joy. Maybe they landed in a happy little world for once.
But as with all things it is short-lived. Rembrandt and Mallory do some recon to find out this is what they call “entertainment world”.
On this world it is all about videogames and real life virtual stimulation. I know that last statement sounds like a paradox but stay with me.
Rembrandt decides he wants to experience the 70s buddy cop scenario. Mallory decides he wants to be a rebel soldier in the Civil War. Maggie and Diana decides to lounge at the spa.
What boils beneath the surface is a bit shocking. Maggie and Diana are drugged while they’re in the spa and taken away. You don’t know where at the moment but will soon find out.
Rembrandt and Mallory had unsatisfying experiences in the games they chose.
They search for Diana and Maggie only to come up short. They’re not listed in the spa registry and the manager of the spa tells them to leave because if they’re not in the registry then that means they were obviously never there.
They end up getting in good with this technician guy. He shows them the seedy underbelly of this operation.
People who are on vacation get kidnapped and plugged into these little holographic goggles. Their holographic projections are put into the game for the theme park visitors to play against because they couldn’t get computers to be smart enough. So to maintain the quality of the gaming experience they substitute real humans.
They find Diana.
But since there are huge rooms of these people they are unable to find Maggie right off the bat. So they have to go back into the Civil War simulation in order to liberate her. It’s quite an ingenious and also insidious plan these businessmen are executing here.
Rembrandt ends up arresting the head guy who runs this amusement park.
They have a little spiritual debate before the head man is taken away. The Sliders Move on ready for the next adventure.
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Map of the mind is a very appropriate title for what you got going on here.
The opening scene involves this creepy balding older guy who’s holding a clown and clutching it like it’s his child or his doll. Then we see these other guys out on a lawn doing calisthenics with no order or sequence. They’re all basically doing their own thing.
You get the distinct sense that these are a bunch of crazies out there doing their own thing.
Come to find out that is exactly what is going on here.
The Sliders have gone into new worlds behind maximum security prisons before. This one isn’t a maximum-security prison but it is an insane asylum.
As per the typical storyline the Sliders get cut in half.
Rembrandt and Maggie decide to go exploring around on this world to find out what’s going on with it. Mallory and Diana stay in place talking with the current inmate who has shown interest in them. They’re having a little bit of a tea party and the inmate is playing his violin even though the violin has no strings.
So it’s a rollicking start to another adventure. Little did they know that this is actually what’s considered a riot on this world. Police and the SWAT team show up with their riot gear to quell this “uprising”. During the commotion and confusion Maggie and Rembrandt slip out because the front gate is open.
Mallory and Diana are not so fortunate. They start running through the insane asylum and Diana is caught in a net. Mallory escapes into the storage closet.
He disguises himself as a worker and makes his way out into the hallway. He grabs this temporary pass of a Dr. Shawn Carter and meets the head doctor of this facility. She accepts his mistaken identity because she doesn’t know any better.
So he poses as the good Dr. and finds out that the’ve already done work to remap Diana’s brain. They’ve messed with her brain chemistry and she is all messed up, unable even to speak.
Rembrandt and Maggie happen to meet the real Dr. Shawn Carter down at the bar. They start to scheme him and his identification as a way into the Oakwood facility.
Mallory’s ruse is discovered and the doctor is none too pleased. She puts him on the machine and says she’s going to finish her work on Diana as soon as she’s done with him.
Rembrandt and Maggie show up just in time and shoot the doctor with a tranquilizer. They free Mallory and then go to get Diana.
Little did they know but at the start when they met the first inmate, who was making the string less violin music, was the one who invented this mind re-mapping technology. He is able to do a couple of procedures which he thinks will get Diana back.
They don’t have time to find out whether the procedure worked because they have to slide. They simply grab Diana and go through the vortex hoping for the best. An exciting episode you should watch.
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Again this is a curious title called Requiem for this episode of Sliders.
I’ll openly admit to you that I had to go to dictionary.com to look up what Requiem meant. I’ve heard it used in the title for the movie “Requiem For a Dream” and also the movie “Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem”.
According to dictionary.com Requiem is a Catholic church mass for the souls of the dead. In this episode Wade makes a reappearance and so clearly is not yet dead.
But I guess in terms of her being with the Sliders she is dead to Rembrandt who still feels lots of guilt about how it ended with her.
The Sliders start out in this world that they call paradise world. There’s nobody around but basically it’s like you’re walking in the garden of Eden. There’s lush green nature and trees all around them. The temperature is pleasant. They have all the water they need.
It’s a regular undisturbed nature world.
Rembrandt starts having these weird dreams like an out of body experience.
He’s communicating with Wade and she with him during these out of body experiences. He feels like he is actually in that world and no longer on the planet with the Sliders. But his crew tells him he never left there and he has been with them the whole time.
Into the next world they go once the counter counts down and land right on a bed in a room in the Chandler Hotel. This has never happened to them.
Rembrandt is still tired and has a massive headache so he decides to just keep on sleeping. He communicates again with Wade during the dream and sees this crazy vortex again. Mallory is in the room with him and also sees it. He calls for Maggie and Diana who also witness this unexplainable sight.
So now they are part of Rembrandt’s dream. They’re starting to believe him.
Wade opens a new vortex for them, the same kind they just saw in Rembrandt’s dream. Some of the members are reluctant but Rembrandt confidently says he’s going through so they agree to go with him.
They land on this Kromagg world and Rembrandt believes Wade is there.
There is much adventure and events which happen like you expect on a Kromagg world.
They do end up finding Wade but she is suspended in this green fluid. She is alive and has a breathing apparatus but it is quite eerie to see her almost like a fish in a fish tank.
They discover the Kromaggs are intending to re-invade their home world to take it back. They have developed some sort of anti-human weapon similar to the Voratron device that the Mallory’s on their home world developed as an anti-Kromagg device.
They are using Wade and other humans who have been suspended like her to control the vortex. They figured out how to use their subconscious minds to plug right into their computers and power the devices.
Rembrandt gets through to her so she is basically able to abort their planes.
Again they escape with the skin of their necks barely intact as they always seem to do. The Kromagg invasion has been thwarted but the overall Kromagg problem still exists. Rembrandt doesn’t have a weapon or a way to get rid of them to take back to his home prime world. And now Wade does seem to be dead.
Rembrandt get some closure but the sting is still there. The wound is freshly opened.
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This episode of sliders has a title which doesn’t seem to mesh well with the episode.
They land on a seemingly barren and desolate world which has desert like qualities. But they do see a road and as they’re walking along for quite a while a bus finally happens upon them. They get a ride on the bus which is headed to the petroleum company.
Of course, none of Sliders have their paperwork but Mallory has met this seemingly nice and wild woman who helps them out.
On this world there are these two groups who are clashing. The AQMD Vs. the “smokers”.
Internal combustion engines have been outlawed on this world. The Sliders and this group of people on the bus are about to start working for this oil company. Oil is only used for plastics and other synthetics on this world.
The smokers are a bunch of freedom fighters who are basically a biker gang.
They raid the 18 wheeler tankers that are carrying the oil so they can have gasoline for their motorcycles. They operate some kind of underground refinery near here that they use to turn the crude oil into gasoline.
The Sliders end up getting on a work detail as drivers.
It’s somewhat like a military convoy with a Humvee in front of and back with the 18 wheeler in the middle of this vehicle sandwich.
The Sliders make a successful run without a hitch. Everyone in the town celebrates because the smokers have been raiding almost every convoy that’s been going out. Many of them are asking the Sliders questions how they did it without any hiccups?
They are going to this bar to celebrate when a creepy looking guy comes in.
The girl Malory hooked up with who is named Sam immediately slips out the side door. Mallory follows her as she informs him that she’s a smoker who has infiltrated the company in order to get the shipping schedule.
He rides off with her to meet her biker gang and realizes they’re just a bunch of freedom fighters. He is falling more in love with her with each passing moment. He decides to stay on this world because he likes the biker gang and feels this is the place for him.
Unfortunately for him, he finds that polygamy is legal on this world and his girl Sam whose nickname is Climax has 4 other husbands already. She doesn’t know what the big deal is but after a drawnout argument she tells him she would divorce the rest of them if that would convince him to stay.
He decides against it and is going to slide out with his buddies.
The smokers make a raid on the actual town because the Sliders have told the security and the police the raid is going down on today’s convoy. This gets all the police and law enforcement driving on the convoy in anticipation of this certain raid.
But Sam is the leader of the smokers and her intention was to raid the town when all the police officers are away. The old when the cat’s away the mice will play scenario happening here.
It’s also very brilliant strategy, like the rope-a-dope. You may your opponent think you’re doing one thing and then you do something else.
Classic misinformation and the art of war at work.
There’s a confrontation between Mallory and Sam because the smokers are about to kill one of the security guards. Sam had been posturing and giving speeches about how their cause didn’t require death that they just wanted to have freedom. Mallory calls her on this when she is about to execute this man who was little more than an innocent bystander.
They end up doing a motorcycle joust where if Mallory wins they will ride out of there. If she wins she can do whatever she wants. She agrees to the terms and ends up losing.
Some innocent bystander is saved, the smokers ride out of there, and the Sliders move on to the next world.
The conflict is definitely not resolved so we’re left to wonder how things play out between the oil company and the smokers.
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I wondered about this episode of Sliders called “The Return of Maggie Beckett. Where did she go? In the last episode she was traveling along just fine with our Sliders no health risks or impending death apparent.
Once they slid onto this world though it became apparent exactly what the episode was about.
Her double on this world was a huge hero, the leader of the crew of the Mars mission. She and her crew were the first people to actually set foot on Mars.
This world is quite different because instead of Dwight D. Eisenhower becoming president immediately after World War II Adlai Stevenson became president. Eisenhower had the shortcomings and misfortune to be relieved as the supreme Cmdr. of Allied command. The Germans broke through at the Battle of the Bulge and the war lasted 3 years longer.
So Eisenhower was disgraced which left the power void for Stevenson. And so the American government was far more forthcoming with their information than the secretive government that we know here in our world.
But all is not as it seems. The people had been lulled into a false sense of security with this perceived openness. But the government still had many secrets lying beneath the surface.
Maggie and her father had a very estranged relationship. At least the Sliders Maggie did. When the town discovers that Maggie is back from the dead they start to go nuts. She’s a hero on this world and there’s a ton of commemorative merchandise being sold. She’s basically become a commodity.
This one conspiracy theory guy ends up kidnapping her. Rembrandt and Diana start calling around to the NASA, CIA, US Air Force and other government agencies to find out if any one of them took her. Her General father finds out and comes for Diana and Rembrandt.
Things come to a head when the general finds the conspiracy guys secret base and ends up taking Maggie back.
He said he would help the Sliders but then betrays them.
She comes to learn there’s quite a lot of similarities between this Maggie and her father on this world compared to what she and her father experience. But there are a number of differences and she gets some closure in her own life discovering her father did love her even though he never said so nor showed it.
She discovers a lot about herself and deals with some of her daddy issues in a roundabout way.
If you’re into psychology and girls having daddy issues this would be a good episode for you but if not it’s one you can skip.
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