Sliders “The Breeder” – Season 3 Episode 19
- Image via Wikipedia
This episode is called the breeder and was eerily reminiscent of the Alien movies. Not so much the overall story of the Alien movies but the little pods they use to reproduce and the way they reproduce.
At the start of the episode the Sliders are on this jungle world with a bunch of fog and swamp like atmosphere. There are these crazy little gel things that are jumping all out over them that apparently sting them and are a real bother almost like leeches. They look similar to the little aliens that come out of pods. And they attack you in the same way.
One of them lands on Maggie’s face and implants an offspring in her.
The Sliders don’t know what is going on and they only have a few more seconds in this world and so they slide out. But she has been impregnated now and once they get into the next world she starts coughing and feeling very bad and they don’t know why. Fortunately, there is a med team right in the area.
They have these cryogenic freeze processes that they’ve perfected on this world. They put your body in a state of suspended animation to halt any further damage or spreading of any virus or bacteria that may afflict you.
So they get Maggie into the hospital and start running the normal x-rays and CAT scans. And what they discover nearly blows their minds. They actually reveal something weird in her stomach and as we know it’s the offspring symbiote.
They don’t really know what it is and even the doctor on this world doesn’t know what it is. But she does know that it replicates about nine times the rate of normal human cells. On this world they have a mandatory organ donor program for people between the ages of 18 to 25.
It’s very barbaric and draconian but if one important American happens to be in need of your organ and your a donor match they will harvest you. The good doctor is pretty jaded because her brother was 23 and he got harvested to save a government official.
The one thing Maggie wants to do is reproduce. At least that’s what the symbiote wants to do.
It likes water and steam and very hot temperatures. So first it visits some nightclub in order to find a man with a slightly higher than normal body temperature. So it goes up and just starts feeling the chest of random guys. One guy doesn’t like being played with.
He calls her on it and she ends up breaking his arm. So we now know the creature makes her very strong.
It continues on its hunt and finds a hot tub and then ends up finding the holy Grail which is a health club. It goes into the shower and eventually into the sauna where a guy is waiting. She has found the one and puts a symbiote in him.
But she’s not done yet.
Quinn, Wade and Rembrandt are all looking out for her. But Quinn and Wade are within the age range and so they get a disc put into them with their full medical history because they are now on the organ donor list.
So this creates an additional complication.
Finally, they figure out how to coax the symbiote out of Maggie with the combination of cold temperature and Quinn going in to lure it out. He taunts it by saying, “Come live in me”.
It ends up leaving Maggie’s body right before the slide and the Sliders get out of there and on to the next world. The doctor is not so lucky as the symbiote finds its way into her. It ends with ominous music as we know this world is in big trouble.
