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DVD : Sliders - Third Season |
- "Sliding" into season 3 of cult sci-fi showFirst this is an honest to goodness review of the boxed set. There's no speculation here as to what's in the set. The first two seasons of "Sliders" found the series looking for its "slider legs" so to speak. By the second short season the series had found its niche and a solid direction for the series. Both seasons had their fair share of strong episodes. The third season was the first full one with 25 episodes produced. While there were about as many quality episodes here as seasons 1 & 2, we get a number of the series best episodes here including one where Dr. Arturo leaves the group permanently in a moving episode. Regardless, season three had a number of strong episodes ("Rules of the Game", "Number 1 Fan", "The Exodus" Parts 1 & 2 and "The Guardian" are a few highlights). I'm not going to go over the plots of the episodes (there's too many to do justice to the series)but you can find synposis of each at the tv.com website.
Image and sound quality are exceptionally good. The series looks great with vivid, bold colors and features nice use of the Dolby Digital Surround format (evidently Universal must be thinking of the other "Sliders" produced on an alternate Earth as they list the soundtrack as being in mono in a number of places). Extras are light for season three with only a gag reel (provided by one of the fan sites). There was more material that another fan site had and would have offered Universal for free if they had been contacted in time (at least according to Gord Lacey at tvondvd). I'm hoping he's right as, perhaps, we could see this material on the mixed fourth season boxed set.
We do get as a bonus episodes of "Earth 2" and "Cleopatra 2525" ("The Man Who Fell to Earth", no it isn't related to Nichoas Roeg's movie, and "Quest for Fire Power" respectively)which is designed to get "Sliders" fans to purchase those series as well. While "Earth 2" had its moments, "Cleopatra 2525" never appealed to me all that much.
The packaging has improved with a digipak plastic container holding the discs. They no longer appear to "hover" in their container like the first season set (the design of which many fans disliked)but the digipak plastic container has its own challenges. Personally, I'm going to be putting mine into four slim line cases as these discs are dual sided and, as I experienced with "The Outer Limits", suffer damage so much easier than single sided dual layered discs.
Overall, season three had a good run of great episodes. While the quantity of episodes was up the quality didn't increase with more episodes so there's about the same ratio of good to so-so episodes here. At least this set is more reasonably priced and that's good news.
Rating:
- Not the best, not the worstSeason three of Sliders is kind of mixed in terms of quality. The first part of the season, when it was still the original lineup of Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, and the Professor, is pretty much outstanding. The latter part, after the Professor is written out of the show and replaced with Maggie (played by Kari Whurer) is where things start to decline. There were some pretty interesting episodes after she came on board. However, there were also several which were pretty much just blantant ripoffs of "B" sci-fi movies.
Still, even when the episodes weren't that great, there was still an element of fun to them, which made them enjoyable to watch.
If you're a die-hard Sliders fan, I definitely recommend picking this up.
If not, give it a rental and see what you think of it.
Rating:
- Mixed SeasonOverall, this is a decent season of Sliders. The first two seasons were great, with good storylines and character development but Season 3 goes a little bit downhill. The main problem with Season 3 is it's ridiculous storylines. Mainly consisting of ridiculous plots, terrible special effects and bland movie rip-offs (including dracula, anaconda and spieces). The worst part however was the departure of John Rhys-Davies, who played Maximillian Arturo. In my opinion he was one of the best characters on the show, however his death was cheapily done, making not only disrespecting the character but the actor.
The strongest points of the season is defiantly the orginal cast, containing of four characters Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo who all have great chemistry together. The season also consisted of 25 episodes which was it's biggest episode order and longest season of Sliders. The season ended on a reasonably good cliffhanger and contained a very deccent two parter episode.
The best episodes of the season include Double Cross, Rules of the Game, Dead Man Sliding, The Guardian and The Exodus pt. 1.
My ratings for the episodes:
DOUBLE CROSS - 9/10
RULES OF THE GAME - 8/10
DEAD MAN SLIDING - 8/10
ELECTRIC TWISTER ACID TEST - 6/10
THE GUARDIAN - 9/10
THE DREAM MASTERS - 3/10
DESERT STORM - 6/10
DRAGONSLIDE - 7/10
THE FIRE WITHIN - 4/10
THE PRINCE OF SLIDES - 7/10
STATE OF THE ART - 6/10
SEASONS GREETINGS - 7/10
MURDER MOST FOUL - 7/10
SLIDE LIKE AN EGYPTION - 4/10
PARADISE LOST - 6/10
THE LAST OF EDEN - 4/10
THE EXODUS PT. 1 - 9/10
THE EXODUS PT. 2 - 7/10
SOLE SURVIVORS - 6/10
THE OTHER SLIDE OF DARKNESS - 7/10
THE BREEDER - 7/10
STOKER - 3/10
SLITHER - 4/10
DINOSLIDE - 6/10
THIS SLIDE OF PARADISE - 6/10
Rating:
- Sliders reviewI love this show.
I do believe the original characters, Quinn, Wade, Rembrant, and the Professor were the best set of characters.
It seemed as the original cast REALLY ENJOYED making the show.
In my opinion, the first two seasons were truly the best.
In season 3, they picked up Kari Wuhrer. As gorgeous as she is, her pressence did not help improve the show.
Some interesting bits about Sliders :
Apparently, Cleavant Derricks' (Rembrant) real life twin brother was in a few episodes.
In the second season, Jerry O'Connell's real life brother made an appearence in 'As Time Goes By', only to become a regular member of the cast.
I was not very impressed with Season 5. The guy they took on to replace Jerry O'Connell was... well, absolutely terrible. I remember in one episode the 'new Quinn' saying to Rembrant "I had a summer job - breaking and entering." Keanu Reeves' fans will recognize this as a line stolen from 'Johnny Mnemonic' - which was released long before season 5 of Sliders.
I saw someone else's review of season 5 where they made mention of Sabrina Lloyd's MINIMAL appearence.. it was an episode where the Sliders were dealing with the Kromags (did I spell that right?). It was terrible. The Kromags had captured Wade, put her in a tank, and controlled her with mind altering drugs - apparently Wade had the ability to create/control a sliding tunnel merely by thought. This episode, and the pilot episode were the only two I watched of season five.
And so I wait for my pre-ordered Season 3 to arrive. True fans will still enjoy it.. even if season 3 is the start of the show's downward spiral.
Rating:
- Monotonic Slide >>>>.Most shows begin a downward "slide" after a few seasons. With internal bickering and cast changes this season was truely the sign of things to come. The whole series departed from an "Imaginative succession with poignant ironical twists" to "Unimaginative SciFi Slime". Even with Season 3 having some of the weakest episodes, a handful of gems are gleaned from this clever series. Some of the Season 3 top passages for me include:
"Rules of the Game, Desert Storm, The Fire Within", and of course everyones holiday favorite, "Season's Greedings".
So now that Season 3 has been released, I'll probably call it quits. Well, I might possibly go for Season 4 but it was just so-so. Somebody would have to PAY ME to accept Season 5.
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