Customer Reviews

Sliders: The Classic Episodes

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I really wish there was a "0" star rating.

As a fan since day one of Sliders, I can tell you that basically what you have with "Sliders: The Classic Episodes" is a piece of trash...especially when you consider that this book underwent a year's worth of delays to get to the sorry state it was released in.

First of all is the bulk of the book, the episode reviews. Not only is the job done in the most unprofessional manner possible (you get more childish ranting and rambling opinion of the author than actual information), but it's hard to tell what show the reviewer was watching. The reason for that is that the reviewer never bothers to point out that he is not watching the episodes that were broadcast...thus he never points out that many of the things he talks about in an episode review were *never* broadcast. He just treats the rare inside info as parts of the episode and adds so much of his own rhetoric that the main idea of the "lost scene" is lost (thus confusing the reader and robbing them of the enjoyment of inside information which would otherwise be a treasure). Examples of this can be found for the episodes "Summer of Love" and "The Young and The Relentless"...just to name a few. This just blends into the larger problem...Linaweaver based his book on the production scripts and not by viewing the episodes (he misleadingly tells the readers that he viewed the episodes). I've read the production scripts...I know. And don't even get me started on the pleothra of unintelligible mistakes in the episode information of this book that any "long time" fan would never make.

Of course, the most annoying thing of all is that even with one year to get it right, Linaweaver still couldn't "find the time" to review the last parts of season three. What was he doing during the delays?

The highlight of the book is the interviews...but that isn't saying much. The interviewer seems to take up all the time commenting on himself and his assistants rather than getting information from the stars and creators...and I personally love how the *co-creator* of the show (Bob Weiss) only got a page and a half in the book where as Peter Spellos (a *guest* actor) got a more in depth interview. Where were the priorities? Or do you get more inside info from the guest actor?!? And of course, every interview contains the endless mentions of how the book is dedicated to Ken Steadman...which takes any true, honorable meaning away from the gesture.

Bottom line: Save your money. You can find more comprehensive, better structured, more reliable, more insightful Sliders information on the internet for free (and you don't get as much pompous attitude and lude comments either!). Just consult your local search engine to find more inside information and thoughtful commentary on Sliders...and you'll find more enjoyment too.

Tf

temporalflux@hotmail.com

I read this book, "Sliders: Parallel Universes" and decided that I had to present a fair analysis of it to those who might buy it, i.e. diehard Sliders fans. (Sidenote: Those of you who stuck around through and after Season Three, you deserve a medal.)

This book falls short of being good for several reasons which I can name off of the top of my head. For one, the book for the most part is no longer relevant. It doesn't deal at all with the current season being aired on the Sci-Fi Channel and there are no interviews with Charlie O'Connell, Marc Scott Zicree and many others who would be vital to any complete Sliders volume. I realize this is because the book was delayed so long, but couldn't they have made some changes during that time?

Secondly, Brad Linaweaver's wit leaves much to be desired. This is a much bigger problem than would normally seem the case because he liberally splatters it all over every page, including episode synopses and interviews. Brad, just write it straight, it's not a showcase for your writing talent, it's an episode guide for Sliders for crying out loud!

Thirdly, the book provides little information that you couldn't get over the internet. Despite the disappearance of the Sliders haven known as the Expert's page, most of this interview information and all of the episode guide can be obtained on just about any Sliders page in existance.

Who should buy this book? I would recommend it to Sliders fans who do not have access to the internet and/or have missed early episodes (Season One to Season Three). Otherwise, I would recommend passing this one by and maybe buying an alternate history book instead.

I was really looking forward to this book, especially after having to wait for over a year for it to be published. From reading it I can't see why it was delayed. Absolutely nothing new was added to this book since the author completed it two years ago. I know they changed the title from Parallel Universes to The Classic Episodes to cover themselves. BUT COME ON. For a book that came out less then four months ago not to contain information on episodes that where broadcast in early 1997 is plain idiocy.

The author completely butchered the book with his own personality, which was not very appealing in the first place. There where so many errors in the episode descriptions that it was almost unreadable. His summary of the episode "The Young and the Relentless" is such an example. There was originally supposed to be a Kromagg teaser at the end of the episode but it was cut before the show aired. The writer puts it in the summary like it was in the actually episode that broadcast. He never makes any mentioning that the viewing audience never saw this scene.

The interviews where extremely weak. Almost all the information given in them could be found in Starlog Magazine and other sci-fi publications that did interviews with the cast from that time.

Hardly any inside information what's so ever. Brief mentioning of the departures of two of the series stars. It seemed to me that I should be telling the author about the series instead of the other way around. It's obvious that the author was just trying to make a quick buck with this one.

So now we got two bad Sliders books from the same bad writer. The terrible thing is these are the only two books out there for the series. Linaweaver has probably killed the publication aspect of Sliders.

In closing, this book is a complete waste of time and money.

Instead of being a dry, boring description of episode plotlines and lists of stars, Sliders: the Classic Episodes is written as though one friend is telling another friend all about a show he really likes-- the good stuff is praised and the bad stuff is razzed. I enjoyed reading this book, particularly knowing that it had formal approval by the producers of the show. Amazingly, Linaweaver was able to get in some pointed digs on what were surely sensitive topics (the firing of John Rhys-Davies, for instance).

There is a good selection of still photos from the show, but in general they seem muddy or murky. This is probably the result of making black-and-white photos from color photos. But while some of the photos seem nice and sharp, there are others I really question why they were used (Mel Tormé, for example, on page 124 -- nice shot, but it just looks fuzzy).

An especially nice touch to the book is the great interviews with the stars AND the producers/creators/writers. Actors on any series can tell us about how they enjoy the show and the work they're doing, but often they don't have any great insight to offer into the whys of what the show is all about (John Rhys-Davies being a most notable exception in this cast). By having interviews with creators Tormé and Weiss in the book, we get to learn about how they developed their theories of what the show is about and how it was supposed to work. I really enjoyed the interview with Tormé because it showed that someone was really THINKING about the situations they were setting up and understood the real history behind the alternate they were presenting.

if you are a fan of the Sliders television show I highly recommend this book. If you are a social studies or science teacher I highly recommend this book. If you have ever considered how the changing of one minor detail might completely alter civilization this book is for you. Although, the series in action I will admit is of course better for now this is the best I can do to enjoy it. Being as it was canceled. It was probably best that it was canceled though, because man, the series had really started to (...)! Actually, pretty much the moment Sabrina Lloyd left the show was (...). That doesn't matter though for this book, because it only covers seasons one through three which are truly "the classic episodes."

Back in 1996 when Sliders debuted on Fox, it seemed like a great science fiction concept, ideal for a TV series. It poses the idea of a group of people using new technology which enables them to travel to parallel worlds where slight differences in the outcomes of events change history--either radically or slightly. The technology in this case breaks, and they lose the tether to their original world. They must then travel constantly to other worlds until they stumble back to their own reality, each episode able to show new worlds, new alternate timelines.

Brad Linaweaver is certainly one of the most qualified persons to write the episode guide for the TV show Sliders. After all, he wrote Sliders: The Novel, which recounted the two-hour premiere of the TV show in written form. Linaweaver visited the set, spoke with the show's creator and prime mover, Tracy Tormé, and interviewed the main cast. He lives in Hollywood and has worked in several aspects of show business. And his knowledge of the show and buisness around it shines through the entire guide.

Sliders: The Classic Episodes consists of detailed synopses of the first two and a half seasons, with brief descriptions of the second half of the third season, the last season on Fox. Linaweaver interviews the four main cast members, Sabrina Lloyd, Jerry O'Connell, Cleavant Derricks, John Rhys-Davies. Two of these were replaced late in the third season, and I agree with Linaweaver that their departures were the show's loss. Rhys-Davies is a powerful actor, in voice and demeanor, and he instantly improves any scene of any movie or TV show in which he is part. Sabrina Lloyd has an elfin charm and the kind of strong female presence Hollywood seems to instinctively hate. I was not surprised to read she started in theater, where the "scripts" are better.

In addition, there are interviews with Peter Spellos, one of the guest actors, as well as with Tracy Tormé and co-creator Robert Weiss. All the interviews were conducted before Lloyd and Rhys-Davies left, and before the show started to suffer and slide downhill. Sliders was cancelled by Fox after the third season, although the Sci-Fi Channel picked it and resumed production, under new management so to speak. There's a certain buoyant innocence in the interviews, where Lloyd talkes about being "on for the duration," and Tormé talks happily about his numerous battles with executives constantly urging changes, from the significant to the trivial.

Sliders: The Classic Episodes works on several levels. It is an excellent research guide, listing the writers, directors, and composers for each episode (this isn't Babylon 5 where one person wrote over 80 percent of the five year series; instead 24 writers tackle 46 episodes, with several repeats but also many one-time writers), as well as supporting cast members. The synopsis of each episode is clear and informative. And opinionated. Linaweaver pulls no punches, reaming at least two of the stories as incoherent, and wistfully pointing out how other episodes could have been much better. Linaweaver slips in humor as often as he can, and in ways only he can; the informal style makes even the shorter plot summaries quite readable.

Linaweaver takes pains to make the episode guide entertaining, as well as show the evolution of the show and the characters. Although he covers only three seasons, we see the growth of Sliders as it struggles with its inital limitations; the first two seasons were set in San Franscisco, and it moves to Los Angeles in the third, leaving room for many Hollywood inside jokes in the interviews. People who live in LA lnow how to laugh at themselves and especially Tinseltown. Although the humor is uneven at times, overall it lends the book an insider's touch.

Even if you're not a Sliders fan, this guide is useful and informative as a book about science fiction and the television industry. Too mnay good shows suffer quick fates (the original Star Trek lasted three seasons), and the creator rarely has full control. If you're a Sliders fan you'll want to buy this book, especially for the interviews, but also for the memories, which Linaweaver, a true fan of the visual media, captures on almost every page. Once the show's life is over, I'm sure there will be another book that brings the rest of the episodes up to date. This book, after all, is subtitled "The Classic Episodes," and we all know the story is not yet complete.

This book is great! I personaly only liked seasons 1 -3 of Sliders and this book has very detailed episode guides for these seasons. Ontop of this the book is full of nuggets of Sliders Triva and has interviews with the cast and crew. Slide-tastic (sorry but I had to say it)

Once upon a time there was a TV series called Sliders, produced by Tracy Torme, son of crooner Mel Torme. Tracy tried to do something on television which is always great while it lasts, but usually doesn't last long: produce a TV show smarter than its viewers. Joe Straczynski must have a deal with the devil because Babylon 5 managed to run 5 years with writing as good as any classic science fiction by Heinlein, Asimov, or Clarke. Torme wasn't as lucky. He managed only to get a couple of seasons of his masterpiece out before the bean-counters and the ratings watchers figured out they could get better ratings for this show by dumbing it down. Brad Linaweaver reminds of why the first few seasons of Sliders is a TV event worth remembering in the same breath with Babylon 5, The Prisoner, and those few TV shows which take politics seriously -- which means doing on TV what Orwell, H.G. Wells, and Heinlein did on paper. He didn't kiss up to the Wag-the-Dog Hollywood establishment, but instead used the science fiction genre for what it does best: comment on the present human condition by showing us the unlived alternatives. Linaweaver's episode guide takes this show's politics seriously and sympathetically. Unfortunately, this means that both Linaweaver and Torme himself are bound to be attacked by those who either are bored by politics completely, don't have the wit to appreciate genius when they see it, or are simply hostile to the libertarian messages floated in a sea of maudlin, predictable politics-of-the-pragmatic. I resent the new Sliders because without Quinn having Professor Arturo to bounce his genius back and forth against, like the episode where intellectuals were treated like NBA stars, the character of Quinn has devolved into a whiner. Brad Linaweaver understands the forces at work behind the scenes and, amazingly, has managed to say what needs to be said about this show without corporate censorship. Must reading for any intelligent Sliders aficionado.

i loved it, i used to watch the episodes on the si-fi chanel all the time, i was addicted to it. i been looking all over for the episodes in dvd but i can't find them i guess they never came out; i whish they did because i would buy the whole collecion. i liked the show ever since it started, and then when kari whurer started in it i liked it even more.

Brad Linaweaver has pulled, this book off in style,having watched Sliders since its birth, I was doubtful of the author being able to recreate, the suspene and magic of the show into descriptive writing contained in the episode scripts within the book.

Other aspects witch are a treat are the interviews, with the shows creators, and stars (Tracy Torme'& Jerry O'connell) to name a few.

The only downside is the lack of any decent colour pictures, as they are black & white. Never the less a worthwhile investment for any Slider's fan and their bookshelf.