Customer Reviews

Sliders - The First and Second Seasons

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Though the first two seasons are the best, I enjoyed them
all. And it's about time this set is coming out.
Here are my personal grades and info on the episodes from
the first two seasons.

Here is what you get with the first two seasons.

1. The Pilot Part 1 ( still the best episode) Quinn first discovers that his sliding technology works. Then he tells the proffesor who at first does not believe him. But later comes around. Along with Wade Wells the three of them test out sliding. But when doing so they accidentaly pull in soul singer
Rembrant Brown.( Episode Grade A+ )

2. Pilot Part 2 ( The sliders find San Fran. under an ice age,
and The U.S under Soviet Communist rule. ( Episode Grade A+ )

3.Fever ( The sliders travel to a world that has never developed Antibiotics.Evereyone around them is sick so they must do something before time runs out.(Episode Grade A-)

4.Last Days ( Sliders find a world where an asteroid is about to destroy the earth. The professor saves the day by showing
a fellow scientist how to build a nuke.( Episode grade A+ )

5.Prince of Wails ( In this world America is still under England's Colonial rule.( Episode Grade B )

6. Summer Of Love ( Sliders find alternate world where We are
at war with Austraila and Remy replaces his dead alternate self
as husband to a old high school crush. ( Episode grade C+ )

7.Eggheads ( In this world intellectuals are treated like athletes, and Quinn competes in A weird sport that tests your intellect. ( Episode grade B- )

8. The Weaker Sex ( Sliders enter a world where women are the dominant sex. Arturo makes men believe that they are equals when he runs for office. (ep grade A- )

9.The King Is Back ( Sliders find a world where Rembrant is treated like Elvis. ( Ep grade B- )

10.Luck Of The Draw- (Sliders find a world where money is free if you play the lottery. But the catch is you must give your life in a form of population control.(Ep Grade A+ )

Season 2

11. Into The Mystic ( Sliders enter a world of witchcraft.
Quinn is sick and gets healed by a witchdoctor. Quinn refuses
to pay and the Grim Reaper himself serves Quinn a subpeona.
ep.( Grade A+ )

12.Love Gods ( Quinn,Arturo,Rembrant are in a world with a shortage of men. They are being used as studs to repopulate.
( grade B+

13.Gillian Of The Spirits (Quinn is stuck on an astral plane,
and only a psyhcic girl can see him. ( grade B-

14.The Good The Bad And the Wealthy ( Sliders enter a world not unlike the wild west. Where stocks are exchanged through gunfights. ( grade A- )

15. El Sid ( Sliders find a world where the city of San Francisco is a prison. ( grade A+ )

16.Time and Again World ( Sliders enter world where there is no
U.S. Constitution to be found except on one little floppy disk.
( grade A+ )

17. In Dino Veritas ( Sliders enter a dinosaur wild life reserve) ( grade A- )

18. Post-Traumatic Slide Syndrome ( The sliders think they are home. Rembrant then goes to a psyhciatrist and discovers they are not. ( grade B+ )

19. Obsession ( Sliders find world where everyone can read minds.
( grade B- )

20. Greatfellas ( Sliders find world where the mob controls evereything. ( grade C+ )

21. The Young and The Relentless ( Sliders slide into the backyard of an alternate Quinn and Wade. In this world the young
rule and at a certain age you lose your rights.
( grade B- )

22. Invasion ( Sliders first encounter with the Kromags and unfortunatley not the last. Though this is a quality episode.
The writers seemed to use it too much in later episodes.
( grade B- )

23.As time goes by ( On this episode thse sliders slide 3 times.
Quinn tries to prevent a murder. And the Sliders find time is moving backwards. ( grade A- )

Overall This is a great package with or without extras. We
will have to wait and see what Universal adds.

Finally I can get rid of those tapes.

Quinn Mallory ( Jerry O Connel)is trying to create an anti-gravity device and accidentally creates a device that opens up a portal. His physics professor Maximillian P. Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), and his girlfriend Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd) want to accompany Quinn through the portal to see where it leads. A washed up singer named Rembrant Brown (Cleavant Derricks)is also accidentally dragged along for the ride, when he is walking buy and sucked through the portal with them. Quinn and the rest of the group "slide" to another dimension of earth. The Sliders soon realize that they would much rather return back to their own dimension, but things are not that easy. Once you have entered through the portal, you have to keep traveling to different dimensions of earth to find the right one that will lead back home. Each episode deals with Quinn, Professor Arturo, Wade, and Rembrant exploring each dimension to find their way back to their own dimension. Unfortunately, once the Sliders have entered a particular dimension, there is only a limited amount of time to reopen the portal, and there are only a few select places within each dimension they can do it from. Finding the right place to open the portal is often a challenge to the group because each dimension is different than their own, and can be life threatening at times.

I have heard people often refer to Sliders as a rip off of Quantum Leap. While Quantum Leap was a better show, Sliders is completely different. Quinn, Professor Arturo, Wade, and Rembrant are not traveling through time. They are traveling through other dimensions of earth that differ from their own. This is what makes the show so great, because it is very interesting to see how each dimension will be different than the next. The show also offers tons of suspense. There is a "race against the clock" type feel due to the fact that the group only has a limited amount of time to find one of the few places within the dimension they can "slide" from. Jerry O Connel and the rest of the cast were excellent in their roles, and it is their performances that make the show so entertaining, especially the performance given from Cleavant Derricks as Rembrant Brown. The funniest thing about his character, is that Rembrant never asked to go with them, and was dragged along accidentally. So he often complains about each situation which usually provides for a lot of laughs.

Unfortunately, Sliders did not manage to stay great for the entire run of the show. I have to agree with many of the fans and say that the show went seriously downhill during season three when Professor Arturo left the show. Seasons four and five would become even worse, because the show left FOX to air on the Sci-Fi channel, and by the end of the show, Rembrant was the only original character left. However, the first two seasons of Sliders are what make the show rank among the top of any television show in the sci-fi genre. The best thing about this DVD package, is the fact that you get the two best seasons of the show in one set. While it is a shame that the extras are somewhat limited, this set is worth owning just for the episodes themselves.

A solid 5 stars...

What if you could travel to parallel worlds? The same year, the same Earth, only different dimension. A world where the Russians rule America? Or where your dreams of being superstar came true? Or where San Francisco was a maximum security prison. My friends and I found the gateway. Now the problem is... finding a way back home.

Buy this box set and see what happens, the set comprises the 2 hour Pilot, 8 Season One and 13 Season Two episodes.

The first two seasons of the series were the best and most thought provoking of the entire series, they examined how a different outcome in major historical events (such as who won World War 2, the non discovery of anti-biotics or the Atom Bomb) could have resulted in a very different present day earth. The main focus was on a group of 4 Inter Dimensional travelers trying to find their earth while randomly 'sliding' between alternate realities (parallel earths), with no control over how long they stayed in the respective dimension. They were also burdened with the fact that if they did not leave when their 'Timer' reached zero they were stuck on that reality for 29 years.

My Gripes on the box set:

1) The packaging:
While the foam holder gives the appearance of multiple earths which is a nice effect, it is a terrible idea for medium to long term storage. That type of foam 'breaks down' over time and eventually won't be able to hold the DVDs in place, in addition it makes it difficult to replace the plastic case as ther is no space between the foam and inside of the box. A 'REAL' booklet should also have provided instead of the 2-page booklet glued to the back of the box which holds an episode list and ads for other Universal TV titles.

2) The order of the episodes on the DVD:
Fox did not originally air the episodesin the intended order and several of the early season one episodes actually connected if you view them properly. "Summer of Love" begins with the Sliders wearing the clothes they had on at the end of the pilot movie. "Prince of Wails" begins with the Sliders wearing the same clothes they wore at the end of "Summer of Love" (not to mention that it begins with a pay off to the "Summer of Love" cliffhanger ending. I believe if you are going through the trouble of putting out a box set then you should do it RIGHT.

The correct viewing order for Sliders is as follows -

Pilot (2 hour)

1st Season 1995 (Fox)

Summer of Love
Prince of Wails
Fever
Last Days
The Weaker Sex
Eggheads
The King is Back
Luck of the Draw

2nd Season Spring 1996

Into the Mystic
Time Again and World
El Sid
Love Gods
The Good, the Bad and the Wealthy
As Time Goes By
Gillian of the Spirits
Obsession
Invasion
Post-Traumatic Slide Syndrome
In Dino Veritas
Greatfellas
The Young and the Relentless

Though not a perfect series as there were a bunch of inconsistencies and fall off in quality in later seasons, it is a good buy and Season 1 & 2 deserves high praise as they were exceptional and worth collecting.

I've always thought that this show had a great concept to it. Four people traveling from one parellel universe to another, the same city, but different realities.

I was about 12 years old when this show premiered, I remember my family always watched it. I had a short attention span, and would find something else better to do when the commercial breaks came. This is my chance to catch all these beginning episodes, and with the original casts too.

By the time I actually sat down to watch entire episodes, as a kid when the show was new, the professor character: Arturo was leaving the show (halfway through season three). He was, and still is, my favorite character on the show. That was a bummer. After buying this DVD set, I've really enjoyed the episodes.

Now these episodes on the discs aren't in the order that they were intended to be. When the show aired, the production company decided to play the episodes in the order that they wanted to. Certain websites you can find online can give you the proper order. One good example of the episodes being out of order is in season one: an episode starts out with San Francisco being underwater, then two episodes later: a giant tidal wave hits the city. Yeah.

These 23 episodes definally were the golden age of the series. Two episodes from the end of season two ("Invasion"), we are introduced to the Slider characters' enemies, the Kromaggs. A group of people that occur throughout the rest of the series from that point. Many people (including myself) thought that the idea of giving the Sliders an enemy was a stupid idea. Especially the cast of the show! These Kromagg characters were actually the reason that the actor who plays Professor Arturo left the series in season three. It's been said that the actor gives a very poor performance in the Kromaggs first episode "Invasion" out of protest. And the rest of the cast are none too pleased either.

So see how the show started in the Pilot episode. See what the Sliders did in that first episode that made it so their chance of getting home in very slim. Also in this set, see what happens when the Sliders actually do get home.

Sliders is one of those rare shows. The first two seasons are almost like magic captured on film; and each episode feels like a theatrical event unto itself. High production values, memorable actors and intelligent writing quite literally take the viewer to new worlds of entertainment with each episode.

Sliders is also one of those series that was ahead of its time in many ways. Similar to the original Star Trek series, the first two seasons of Sliders often tackled serious social commentary just under the surface. The pilot movie took us to a frozen San Francisco that evokes commentary akin to what "The Day After Tomorrow" has brought to our lives. "Summer of Love" presented a modern America where privacy was eroding while the nation was embroiled in a new Vietnam-style conflict - not so distant echoes of present day.

However, the most important aspect of Sliders seasons one and two is that they are fun. You will be entertained; and the memory of that entertainment will stay with you and possibly even inspire you. I know that Sliders has done that for myself; sparking my imagination into a jump start of ideas that has even led to my own independent creations in the worlds of storytelling.

The only disappointing note for this release is the lack of more extras. There were many more things Universal could have easily included (such as important deleted scenes, bloopers and even additional commentaries from the cast and crew); but ultimately these extras are truly what their name implies - just something extra. Clear and clean copies of the original episodes with good sound are worth the price for Sliders season one and two; and that is what we are going to get (note that the Digital Mono listing in the specs is a mistake on many of these recent Universal releases - the modern series sets have actually included a Dobly Surround track).

Bread crumbs. Even Hansel and Gretel knew to leave those behind but, of course, the birds ate them so, perhaps it might not have helped Quinn Mallory to leave a trail behind. If he had done so in the pilot there wouldn't have been a series and that's what it's all about. "Sliders" arrived on the scene and immediately faced critical barbs. Some folks accused it of being a rip off of "Quantum Leap". It wasn't any more a rip off than "Babylon 5" was a rip off of "Star Trek". They both used unique devices to let their characters travel to different situations.

Quinn Mallory accidently discovers a key to opening wormholes when he creates a device to defy gravity. Unfortunately, he, Wade (Sabrina Lloyd), his physics professor (John Rhys-Davies) and a washed up r&b singer named Rembrandt (Clevant Derrick)who happens to be passing by on his way to sing at an San Francisco Giants game get sucked into the wormhole when a power surge causes it to go out of control.

They discover that there are other worlds with intelligent life. Most of those other worlds are alternate Earths that have followed very different paths than our world. Unfortunately, Quinn has no way for them to get back home so they must keep sliding (the portals open on an unpredictable time schedule allowing them only so many hours in each world)from alternate universe to alternate universe hoping they'll eventually slide home.

Created by Tracy Torme (who was a staff writer on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and for trivia buffs the son of singer Mel Torme)and Robert Weiss, the series started off with a lot of potential. Although the quality varied a bit from year to year, the best stories were always interesting and the performances were, for the most part, very convincing.

We get the shortened first and second season here in a box that is packaged in a half cardboard half clear plastic box with the DVDs suspended by a foam core. It creates the illusion that they're suspected in the middle with out any means of support. It looks quite cool. The picture quality is very good with few blemishes and the sound has exceptional mastering as well. I didn't detect a lot of compression or distortion. So the show looks great and tastes great, too.

The extras are lean. We get a featurette on the making of the show and a stills gallery but that's about it. On the back is a one sheet with info on the DVD when you fold it out it has an episode guide but without any cast listing or crew credits. When yo pop in each disc and select an episode you get an on screen symposis similar to that on the "Quantum Leap" first season set. I have to give Universal praise for putting both the first and second season in one set (unlike "Quantum Leap") although the price is a bit high especially when compared to another release from the same day, "Knight Rider". That set retails for about 1/3 less than "Sliders" and it has more features (although the design of the box isn't quite as sharp). Clearly Universal has the impression that this series is going to appeal to a cult audience and, as such, as tried to make it as attractive looking as possible.

We only get a commentary track on the pilot by Torme and Weiss. While it's interesting and provides fascinating tidbits about pre-production, production and post-production problems the crew ran into, I would also have liked to hear from the original cast members as well. The show has aged surprisingly well although not all the CGI effects have held up but then again that's true of most movies and television shows. The CGI effects work at moving the story forward and that's their purpose. I would have liked to have a featurette on the CGI visual effects, more commentary on the various directions the show took over time, etc. Perhaps that'll be on the next couple of sets.

While I like the unique design, the box can be a bit of a pain to put back together and it might not withstand wear and tear as much simpler sets. I'd suggest buying a couple of amray DVD containers and putting them in there and keeping your box as a colletible. It almost looks cool enough to put on display.

There's been lots of discussion about the varied quality of the show over the years. It doesn't matter. The best episodes are worth viewing again and again. Although there might be more memorable ones in this set than another, there's always something memorable about even the weakest episode of the series. Pick it up today but try to avoid paying retail full price if you can.

The first two seasons of Sliders are fantastic. Unfortunately, the seasons following were much less so. But with this set, you get the good stuff. Grad student Quinn Mallory creates a device that allows him, two friends, and an innocent bystander to "slide" between parallel Earths -- but unfortunately, they can't choose their destination, and must continue to slide until they find home.

I'd love to give this set 5 stars, but can't for two reasons. First, as mentioned by just about every other reviewer, the packaging is HORRIBLE. I don't know if this was done for aesthetics or cheaper manufacturing costs (I suspect the latter), but it's just inexcusable. The other reason is the "Invasion" episode: series co-creator Tracy Torme wanted to do "hardcore" and "dark" science fiction, but this episode goes beyond that: it casts a shadow of doom over the entire series -- the Kromaggs are out there, and they are coming. Not only does it establish this ever-present threat, but it also lays the groundwork for further damage to the series later on -- in an episode of a later season, it is establish that Quinn is NOT from our world, but rather from a world where his "real" parents were sliders who placed him on our world to escape the Kromaggs, and that he also has a brother on a different Earth. This episode is more destructive than any other episode I've seen of any other series. Not to mention it's got an EXTREMELY weak script, with dialog that would make Ed Wood blush! Ironically, the network was opposed to this one -- for once, the suits were right.

One other point of interest: the episodes in this set are presented in broadcast order, not the order they were intended to be shown. Several season one episodes were written and filmed to lead into the next, but because the network shuffled them around there were minor continuity issues. One of the other reviewers posted the correct order of the episodes (thanks!), but I'm not going to reprint it here because I don't want to steal that person's helpful votes. But I recommend finding that review, and watching the episodes in the intended order.

you can bet I'll be pre-ordering regardless! My VHS off-air tapes have gone the way of all things that dare battle the second law of thermodynamics, otherwise known as that evil force called "entropy"...

The fact this set costs more than mindless 80s rubbish like A-Team, Dukes of Hazzard, and Knight Rider rather suggests they're actually going to put out some decent quality discs. And, as a customer who cares about product quality, I'm ecstatic. I will happily spend more to get the best looking sound and video, especially for a series that outright DESERVES such quality.

Of course, it's silly to rant about something I haven't seen, so I'll give my two cents on the series' seasons encompassed in this upcoming release: 22 episodes of the best Sliders eps ever made, and they're all in one set. Combining seasons 1 and 2 to one set was a brilliant move on Universal's part, though season 1 being just 9 episodes with season 2 having 13...

The first two years of Sliders were as creator Tracy Torme had envisioned the show to be. Fun, dramatic, exciting, and a unique way of creating social commentary by creating a society loosely-based on historical events that took a different turn. Using a theory surrounding parallel universes, the main characters went to parallel worlds where history had taken a different course. As a result, they'd end up in seemingly bizarre situations and, indeed, get confused when they arrived in a dimension that seemed very nearly identical to their own (albeit with minor differences, posing the question "Would they know if they made it back home?)

Epsiodes to look out for are "Pilot", "Fever", "Last Days", "Eggheads", "The King is Back", "Luck of the Draw" (easily the best from season 1 though "Pilot" was pretty well rounded as well), and most of season 2 (barring "Obsession") though BIG KUDOS have to be mentioned for episodes "Invasion" and "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" which are not just great Sliders episodes, they outright change the face of the sci-fi genre. They are NOT to be missed!!

I wish Rembrandt had been given consistently good treatment throughout the series' run. He was envisioned as being the "common guy" of the group; how any of us might act if put into that situation, and I saw what they were trying to do. But others denounced the show as being racist because Remmy just happened to be black. I disagree with their assertion... But some writers did treat Rembrandt unfairly, giving him the slapstick comedy while everybody else did the brainy stuff. It depends on the episode, some treated Rembrandt as if he had intelligence too, fortunately!

Oh. FOX's season 3 of the show was 99.8% crap with only "Double Cross" being watchable (the series became a "Let's rip off a popular movie every week" joke), and the Sci-fi channel's production team changed the premise and humanized the Kromaggs by making them into a generic military army... yuck, it wasn't worth the $50/month just to get sci-fi channel to watch that drivel, though "Virtual Slide" was great and "Slidecage" was surprisingly good, despite the change of series' premise by that point... "Just Say Yes" was another good episode as well...

I enjoy Sliders, particularly the earlier episodes when it tended to be more light-hearted, but this packaging has to rank among the worst in DVD history. Besides it being a bit tricky to reinsert the discs into the slots in the foam, the material can scratch the discs, as well as coating them with dust that can cause playback problems.
If I'd known that in advance, I wouldn't have bought Seasons 1 & 2. I won't be buying Season 3 (if it ever comes out) unless the problem is fixed ... but I would actually consider buying a replacement for Seasons 1 & 2 if it were repackaged.
The reason I only gave it two stars was sentirely due to the packaging. Unfair to a show that was so entertaining and occasionally thought-provoking. Well, what can you expect for a series that was so badly treated when it was on the air?

"What if you could find a portal to a parallel universe? What if you could slide to a thousand different worlds, where it's the same year, and you're the same person, but everything else is different?"

When this show started, I couldn't be more excited. What I liked most was that instead of roaming around the galaxy looking for aliens and other civilizations, like star trek and stargate sg-1, a group of regular people are exploring parallel Earths.

The first two seasons were great, in my opinion. The episodes were dynamic and interesting. The professor added an eclectic mix of charm, sarcasm, and wit the others just couldn't. Quinn, Wade and Rembrandt were also a good trio of actors.

When the Kromaggs were introduced, I thought they were going to become a regular adversary and a thorn in the sliders' backside, but I was disappointed that they didn't do much with them. There were several episodes including the Kromaggs, but they were nothing spectacular. It's a shame, really. They could have been something like the Borg or Star Trek or the Goa'uld of Stargate.

After they replaced Arturo and Quinn the show really started taking a downhill twist. As it went on, diminishing marginal utility kicked in and I wasn't excited anymore. Sliders became a hodgepodge of mixed episodes that seemed to lead nowhere. The ending also left a lot to be desired, to say the least.

Despite the terrible direction the show took, I would buy the first two seasons, as long as the pilot is included. These boxed sets would probably remain classics for originality, but I don't know about the others.