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It's indeed very strange that Season 5 goes for anywhere from $80 - $300 USD on some websites for the DVD set. My guess is that sales were good for Seasons 1 - 2, average for Season 3 and so bad for Season 4 that Universal Home Media grudgingly put out Season 5 but in an extremely low quantity anticipating low sales.

That said -- if you get the low bitrate Mill Creek DVD set, the Season 4 - 5 episodes don't really suffer very much from the overcompression.

Seasons 4 - 5, due to the reduced Sci-Fi Channel budget, clearly made a switch from 35mm film to 16mm film which is cheaper due to being smaller. 16mm film has extremely large film grains compared to 35mm film, so those film grains remain large and present even when downscaled to standard definition digital videotape and compressed for Mill Creek's DVDs.

The large grains that for the image keep it sharp and clear; the textures of all surfaces are defined and detailed (for 16mm reduced to standard definition, anyway). You can see all the grooves in Kari Wuhrer's lips. In the Turbine version, however, you can make out the pores in her skin.

In terms of upscaling, you can also get pretty much the same quality for S4 - S5 whether using Mill Creek or Universal. The reason is, once again, the 16mm film grains. AI upscaling algorithms are based on mapping additional pixels to the video image based on the film grain within the image. 16mm film grains, even under Mill Creek compression, are present and retained and AI has no trouble mining that film grain for pixel re-rendering.

DVDFab is interesting, but at the time it was available for a discount, I was in the middle of an upscale and couldn't run it. I'm still pretty deep in the world of Topaz, but it would be neat if a parallel upscaling project used DVD Fab and described what results they're getting. On my end, Seasons 2 - 3 look great after a Topaz Artemis HQ upscale to 1080p whether using the Turbine SD blu-ray or the Universal discs. (I only attempted to upscale "As Time Goes By" to 720p off the Mill Creek DVD and it actually looked okay but not as sharp and crisp the Universal or Turbine based upscales.) And Seasons 4 - 5 from Mill Creek look terrific after an upscale as well.

16mm film downscaled to standard definition digital videotape yields excellent results. It's bitterly ironic that SLIDERS was at its lowest point in Seasons 4 - 5 with casting and budget and stewardship but those two seasons have the best video quality.

Not to in *any* way defend THE DEAD ZONE for the indefensible way in which it handled its myth-arc, but the Illuminati was revealed in the show to be a fraud and a sham.

Season 4's premiere, "Broken Circle," introduces the mysterious Malcolm Janus, a quiet, menacing figure of seemingly limitless influence and power brought in as a "consultant" who is able to get Reverend Gene Purdy released from jail for obstruction of justice, cover up Greg Stillson's murder of his father and become Stillson's main handler -- and Janus wears a ring with the stereotypical Freemason eye in the triangle. Janus returns in the mid-Season 4 episode ("Vanguard"), the finale for Season 4 ("Saved"), and the Season 5 premiere ("Forbidden Fruit"). In all three episodes, Janus continues to steer Stillson's rise to political power and is shown to not only understand Johnny's visions, but is able to create visions for Johnny or prevent Johnny from having visions by removing any objects that might allow Johnny to get a psychic vision. However, Season 4 also shows Janus intimidating Reverend Purdy into increasing his funding for Stillson's political campaign. Janus is terrifying -- but it's odd that this supposedly powerful figure of seemingly boundless resources needs a TV evangelist's money so severely.

Also curiously: the Freemason ring, often associated with the Illuminati, is not really emphasized after "Broken Circle."

The Season 5 finale, "The Hunting Party" reveals that Janus' organization is called the Coalition for a Better America and it's actually just a small group of former US Army and special forces soldiers turned mercenaries. Janus' organization -- and Janus -- create the illusion of being a large syndicate of infinite numbers of conspirators, but it's really just six or seven people pretending to be a larger group, using Reverend Purdy's financing resources and Stillson's rising political profile for their own gain. Purdy was in jail; Stillson murdered his father; the Coalition seized both moments to control them.

The Season 6 finale (and series finale), "Denouement," reveals that during Season 2 of the show, Janus kidnapped Herb Smith, the father of Johnny Smith. Like Johnny, Herb Smith is a psychic and Janus has been using Herb's psychic visions to steer the Coalition; this is how Janus understood how to control or avoid Johnny's psychic powers, this is how Janus seemed so all-knowing -- until Stillson learned the truth and arranged for Janus to die.

That's one of the few areas where I will mildly say the show did okay with its mythology.

TRU CALLING was good. The studio and producers of THE DEAD ZONE were very impressed by TRU CALLING, especially the scripts from writer Scott Shepherd. After TRU CALLING got cancelled, the DEAD ZONE team hired Shepherd to become the lead writer and showrunner of THE DEAD ZONE's sixth and final season. Shepherd did a very good job.

Wrapping up my DEAD ZONE rewatch and... THE DEAD ZONE is a strange show. Debuting in 2002, it neatly and cleverly addressed a lot of difficulties that other serialized-but-standalone shows had experienced, finding a happy balance between myth-arc episodes and individual episodes. But then it retreated from its own solutions and replicated the very same mistakes it had previously solved.

Avoiding the Trap: In reviewing the myth-arc episodes of THE DEAD ZONE -- I find that they are good. Like THE X-FILES, THE DEAD ZONE was an eccentric, paranormal procedural except the one paranormal element was Johnny Smith, a psychic detective with the ability to see the past and future of any person or object he touched. And like THE X-FILES, many of Johnny Smith's adventures foreshadowed a terrible, apocalyptic future that Johnny had to investigate and hopefully prevent.

Unlike THE X-FILES, each myth-arc story of THE DEAD ZONE brought some progress, perspective and characterization to the show and each mythology episode had its own unique tone and genre. The average myth-arc episode of THE X-FILES was a series of espionage thriller set pieces with Mulder gaining vital information or evidence on the conspiracy only to lose it by the end.

Stepping Into the Trap: In contrast, THE DEAD ZONE offered new information and development with each myth-arc installment -- although it soon fell into the same traps as THE X-FILES through a series of unforced errors. Both THE DEAD ZONE and THE X-FILES spent a great deal of effort on telling chapters in a story with no conclusion, making those early chapters pointless.

Opening Act: The first myth arc episode of THE DEAD ZONE is Season 1's 13th episode, also the Season 1 finale: "Destiny." Johnny discovers that his psychic powers fully came to life on the day congressional candidate Greg Stillson started his election campaign.

Johnny meets Stillson and upon touching him, Johnny starts having visions of Stillson somehow bringing about a horrific cataclysm with America in flames. "Destiny" is about the scope of Johnny's powers and how he realizes his life's purpose may be to stop a national, potentially global disaster.

Delayed Follow Up: The Season 2 premiere doesn't address this, showing that the vision of Armageddon was so traumatic for Johnny that it burnt out his powers for a prolonged period of time. The Season 2 premiere shows Johnny trying to find a kidnapped boy, eventually reactivating his missing powers. The premiere makes it clear: the Stillson arc is ongoing, but not the focus of the show.

Two Out of Nineteen: Subsequent Season 2 episodes have Johnny researching Stillson as a B-plot. But Stillson only becomes an A-plot only in episodes 6 and 19 of Season 2.

Season 2, Episode 6 is "Scars," a psychic political intrigue story where Johnny starts using his powers to interfere in the congressional election, trying to prevent Stillson from winning his seat.

Johnny uses his powers to help Stillson's opponent and tries to bury the man's past scandal during Vietnam, only for the opposing candidate to be moved by Johnny presence and confess of his own accord, leaving Stillson a clear path for the congressional seat.

Stillson is shown to take Johnny completely seriously as an impediment to his career and also being dangerous, violent, self-serving, reckless, erratic and savage -- but able to conceal his psychopathy. It becomes clear in this political thriller that Stillson's rising political star is not something Johnny can shoot down in one episode.

Fighting the Future: After this, the show switches to standalone episodes, but the Stillson arc continues to build as an ongoing subplot with Johnny regularly learning about Stillson's political rise. And throughout episodes 14 - 18, Johnny starts having visions of a strange man, someone he doesn't know, someone who isn't there, but it's quickly dismissed in favour of the psychic detective case of the week.

Delaying the Future: Like THE X-FILES, the DEAD ZONE myth-arc teases a future story of apocalyptic disaster, of Armageddon. And, like THE X-FILES, THE DEAD ZONE teases a story that it can never really tell. THE DEAD ZONE never had the budget to set itself in a post-Armageddon landscape,

THE DEAD ZONE's episodes are dedicated to the adventures of a psychic detective existing in a relatively normal world. THE DEAD ZONE isn't interested in changing its psychic procedural format to a post-apocalyptic timeframe, just as THE X-FILES was never going to devote the bulk of its episodes to a planet Earth ruled by aliens.

Limited Focus: It's perhaps best that only two episodes of Season 2's 19 are focused on Armageddon. THE X-FILES had so many mythology episodes about the impending alien invasion, a story beyond the budget and scope of a procedural drama, and by the fifth season, it was obvious that the invasion would always be delayed to some future date that would never arrive.

THE DEAD ZONE avoided spending too much time on foreshadowing for a story it could obviously never deliver.

Chapter Three: In the Season 2 finale (episode 19), "Visions," Johnny discovers that the strange man he's been seeing in his visions, Christopher Wey, is a fellow psychic living in the post-Armageddon future, able to communicate with Johnny in the present through their shared psychic powers.

Wey confesses: he doesn't know how Armageddon started; he was unconscious and woke up in an America ravaged by some unknown disaster, but he is a way for Johnny to find the truth. The stage is set for Johnny to devote his full attention to Armageddon.

Stepping Into the Future: The Wey character is a clever invention from showrunner Michael Piller and Season 2 producer Karl Schaefer. Wey's presence allows THE DEAD ZONE to show Armageddon in the present day without changing the setting to a post-apocalyptic situation. "Visions" is an hour of ominous foreshadowing to a terrible future that was only glimpsed, but "Visions" ends by showing how THE DEAD ZONE can depict that future onscreen in the present day situation -- while still leaving the present day intact.

THE X-FILES could never show the world after Colonization. But THE DEAD ZONE would be able to show the world after Armageddon in Season 3.

Out of Focus: Season 3 opens with a three part story: "Finding Rachel Part 1," "Finding Rachel Part 2" and "Collision," all three featuring a new character, Rebecca Caldwell.

In Part 1, Christopher Wey directs Johnny to investigate a mission person's case. Filmmaker Rachel Caldwell (sister of Rebecca) disappeared when filming material for Stillson's political campaign. Wey believes Rachel to be a flashpoint in Stillson's future and the impending cataclysm. Johnny investigates only to find Rachel's dead body and the police arrest him for murder.

Also, Johnny discovers that each vision of Christopher Wey has affected his memory: he cannot account for his whereabouts during Rachel's killing, he has no memory of where he was or what he was doing in the hours after each vision of this ally from the future.

"Finding Rachel Part 1" is structured like any psychic detective case of the week from Seasons 1 - 2 except Wey's guidance adds a more desperate edge to the story and the entire situation suddenly collapses on top of Johnny at the end.

Out of Sight: Part 2 switches to Johnny trying to clear his name with Johnny's path to innocence further challenged when his psychic powers make it impossible for him to pass a lie detector test (his visions set off the readings) and his knowledge of crimes past and present now make him seem like the predator.

The focus is almost entirely on Johnny's legal issues. In addition, Johnny is thought guilty of Rachel's murder by almost everyone except Rachel's sister, Rebecca, who is inspired by Johnny's decency and develops romantic feelings for him.

"Finding Rachel Part 2" is a strong DEAD ZONE story. It is a strong Johnny Smith story. But it is not an Armageddon story. Wey is shown briefly as being unable to contact Johnny any further due to a situation in the future, and while Johnny's name is cleared, the Wey arc is dropped and also strangely, the episode never resolves who actually murdered Rachel Caldwell, although the implication is that it was Greg Stillson (who wins his congressional seat).

Out of Mind: And with third part of the story, "Collision," the story moves to Johnny's budding romance with Rebecca, the sister of the murdered Rachel Caldwell. And the case of the week centers around a vehicular accident. It has nothing to do with Armageddon.

It's a good episode, but also truly jarring. Season 3 doesn't focus on the myth-arc; seems to actively steer away from it, won't even permit it to be a subplot like in Season 2..

Quality? Both parts of "Finding Rachel" are taut, capable stories. The first is a missing person's case with a disturbing connection to Armageddon (that isn't fully explored). The second is Johnny's powers proving to be a liability when he's being investigated for murder. "Collision" is a stunning exploration of vehicular trauma. But all three episodes had Armageddon as a starting point and all three seem designed to dodge it in favour of standalones.

Out of the Way: It's understandable that focusing every episode on Armageddon is not sensible; a summer cable TV show like THE DEAD ZONE needs to allow for casual viewers. But the Wey character allowed THE DEAD ZONE to show and explore the post-Armageddon future while still having standalones.

Yet, Wey vanishes from the story in Season 3's second episode and THE DEAD ZONE never ventures further into the world after Armageddon. And with the fourth episode of Season 3, THE DEAD ZONE drops ongoing serialization of its myth-arc.

Armageddon is not referred to again until Season 3's 11th episode in a passing remark. The promising avenue of Christopher Wey is dismissed as a dead end. In fact, the next eight episodes after "Collision" seem to think that Johnny's top priority is cases of the week instead of an impending and cataclysmic disaster.

Absent Arc: On the original airing, Season 3 was truly mystifying. Showrunner Michael Piller, having so diligently woven the myth-arc into the standalones as a subplot in Season 2, seemed to completely abandon that approach for Season 3's 12 aired episodes.

Years later, it would be revealed that Piller had become extremely ill towards the end of Season 2 with Karl Schaefer, taking over Piller's administrative duties for the last six episodes. Schaefer remained as showrunner for Season 3, but it is clear that Schaefer was for whatever reason not empowered to assume Piller's role in rewriting all the standalone scripts to feature the ongoing arc.

Resurgence: The 12th Season 3 episode and the season finale, "Tipping Point," however, brings the seemingly abandoned plot elements of the Season 3 opener back into play. Johnny has a vision of his Season 3 love interest, Rebecca, murdering Greg Stillson, believing he killed her sister. This potential future ends the threat of Armageddon.

Speaking to the Future: As Johnny searches for alternatives, he discovers his psychic powers are causing brain damage that require surgery that will likely remove his powers but save his life. Johnny has to decide whether or not he can lose his powers, but then he has another vision of Christopher Wey. Wey wants Johnny to speak to someone.

This someone is revealed to be Johnny in the future, Johnny after Armageddon, decades from today.

The future Johnny tells the present Johnny that he must allow Rebecca to murder Stillson and die in the process. Johnny seeing his future self proves so traumatic to his brain that he collapses.

Purposeful: Unlike the three part Season 3 premiere, "Tipping Point" is clear and focused: it has Johnny contemplating the deliberate removal of his powers to save his life. It has Johnny presented with a chilling option for ending Armageddon by sacrificing Rebecca's life and the randomness of "Finding Rachel" now seems filled with intent and "Tipping Point" is a story of terrible choices and sacrifices and the uncertainty of any choice when every person in Johnny's life seems threatened either immediately or in the near future and even Johnny himself is running out of time.

Suggestions: It is never stated onscreen, but the implications after "Tipping Point" seem clear enough: the future Johnny used Christopher Wey in "Visions" and "Finding Rachel" to steer the present Johnny towards the Rachel Caldwell murder.

The future Johnny knew that Rebecca would come to believe that Greg Stillson murdered Rachel. The future Johnny sought to create an assassin who would murder Stillson before Stillson triggered Armageddon.

Implications: In addition, Johnny's memory loss and bouts of unconsciousness are due to future Johnny deliberately rendering him incapable of interfering in future Johnny's plot. The future Johnny failed to avert Armageddon. Now he is trying to change the past by reaching backwards in time with his psychic powers.

Not Dead Yet: The appearance of the future Johnny, alive after Armageddon, also makes it clear that Johnny's psychic powers are not dangerous to his brain; the future Johnny is clearly not dead, meaning Johnny's present day health issues are due to future Johnny inducing them through their psychic connection.

Johnny's deleted memories in "Finding Rachel Part 1" led to him being wrongly accused of murder and forming a bond with Rebecca; Johnny being knocked out by his visions in "Tipping Point" allowed Rebecca to decide to murder Stillson without Johnny to get in the way.

Split Paths: It's here that the myth-arc of THE DEAD ZONE takes another peculiar turn. Season 3 only aired 12 episodes. But 13 were shot. The original Season 3 finale, "Tipping Point Part 2," had Johnny accusing Future Johnny in dialogue of all of the above -- except for causing Johnny's health problems, although the mere existence of Johnny in the distant future indicates his supposedly lethal neurological condition isn't so lethal after all.

Original Ending: "Tipping Point Part 2" ended with Johnny's interference in Rebecca's assassination attempt proving tragic: she would fail to kill Stillson and be shot to death by police. Johnny himself would suffer a gunshot wound to the head; he'd survive, but the bullet remained lodged in his brain, possibly affecting his visions.

Race Against Time: The plan was for Season 4 to have Johnny dying, not from his future self hurting him, but from the damage caused by the unremovable bullet in his brain, meaning Johnny would now be desperate to prevent Armageddon before his time ran out.

Changes Before Broadcast: USA Network refused to broadcast "Tipping Point Part 2", deeming it too dark and depressing and also an impediment to their preference for future episodes to be standalone. The episode was rewritten and reshot into the Season 4 premiere, "Broken Circle."

The New Ending: In "Broken Circle," Johnny wakes up in the hospital. He refuses to get the brain surgery that would save his life. He experiences no further health issues. He pursues Rebecca to stop her from assassinating Stillson for Rachel's death.

It's revealed that Stillson's father is actually Rachel Caldwell's killer, fearing that her documentary work had captured proof of voter fraud. Johnny reveals the truth to Rebecca and she ceases trying to kill Stillson; her life is spared, but Stillson survives as well, meaning Armageddon remains on track.

"Broken Circle" was also rewritten to bring a new character into the myth-arc, a mysterious Malcolm Janus who becomes one of Stillson's top advisors.

Contradictory: "Broken Circle" is a myth-arc episode that is extremely capable as a standalone hour and as a chapter in the myth-arc. It's a chase episode: Johnny is falsely accused of trying to kill Stillson when he's trying to save his life and it's Johnny doing THE FUGITIVE as he flees federal agents, jumps off bridges, gets into foot chases -- all of which show Johnny in perfect health. He has several visions; none harm him. The implication is that only far future visions cause his health problems.

Unharmed: However, Johnny has a final confrontation with Future Johnny. Johnny accuses his future self of manipulating him to turn Rebecca into an assassin and his future self confirms it. But Johnny suffers no ill-effects from the vision when previous far future visions knocked him unconscious and put him in the hospital.

Undiscussed: Johnny never accuses his future self of causing his health problems. Johnny never refers to how he was dying one episode ago. The future Johnny makes no effort to incapacitate his past self despite having done so in "Finding Rachel Part 1" and "Tipping Point." The plot point is simply not addressed as though the creators hoped the viewers will forget about it.

Unstated: The viewer could infer that Johnny's awareness of his future self now makes it impossible for his future self to control him, erase his memories or knock him unconscious -- but this is never stated anywhere onscreen.

Treatment vs. Script: Curiously, the "Broken Circle" story treatment clearly states that Johnny's health is steadily diminishing with each scene, that he's struggling physically, that each vision is draining, that the final vision of Future Johnny knocks him out, that Johnny realizes at the end that each far future vision has been the problem and that he has to cut off contact with the future to heal his body.

Johnny's Health: And yet, the treatment calls for so much physicality from Johnny: running and jumping and diving -- it would have been difficult for the actor to perform both feats of strength and speed and portray Johnny's ailing health. The outline is severely at odds with itself and the final script elects to ignore Johnny's health problems entirely.

The Showrunner's Health: "Broken Circle," despite being exciting and enjoyable, shouldn't actually qualify as a good episode of television; the leading man was hospitalized and at death's door one episode ago only to become an action star now without explanation.

It is bizarre that the usually brilliant showrunner Michael Piller oversaw the conversion of "Tipping Point Part 2" into "Broken Circle." These obvious oversights show how severe Piller's health problems must have become at this point.

What Myth-Arc? THE DEAD ZONE after this Season 4 premiere went dark on the myth-arc. For six weeks, THE DEAD ZONE decided that Johnny's top priority would be crimes of the week, a bizarre choice when anyone Johnny might save would still be doomed to die in some horrific holocaust.

Vanguard: THE DEAD ZONE would not address Armageddon again until the seventh episode of Season 4, "Vanguard," in which Johnny discovers that one of his former science students, Alex, will create a missile guidance system that is some key piece of the nuclear war that is Armageddon, a nuclear war that will be brought about by Greg Stillson when Stillson is President of the United States.

Johnny tries to sabotage Alex's work, is exposed; then tries to tell Alex the truth -- and Alex is killed when trying to destroy the technology. At the end, Johnny mourns his student while the mysterious Janus is able to retrieve the guidance system.

Standout: "Vanguard" is a powerful hour, a tale of sacrifice and responsibility, and about the inevitability of technological advancement. It is one of the finest episodes of the series. It is a much darker hour than other Season 4 episodes and bizarrely out of place with all five lightweight episodes before and after it.

Saved: The next Season 4 myth-arc episode is the 11th and final episode of Season 4, "Saved," in which Stillson's fiancee goes missing and Stillson asks Johnny to help find her. Johnny at first refuses to help Stillson only to discover: if Stillson and his fiancee aren't reunited, Armageddon will not happen. Stillson's fiancee is a key step to Stillson becoming President of the United States.

Cliffhanger: Johnny attempts to appear to help without actually doing so, but his efforts fail and Stillson's reunion with his future wife puts Armageddon back on track. Johnny is further disturbed when he goes home to discover that Malcolm Janus, Stillson's advisor, left a Bible in Johnny's bedroom, a Bible that Janus touched to allow him to plant a vision for Johnny, a vision where Janus invites Johnny to join Stillson and use his psychic powers to help Stillson acquire political power.

Inversion: It's a dark, disturbing and truly effective myth-arc episode and season finale. Johnny is put in the unusual situation of being a psychic detective trying to keep the case of the week unsolved. And Janus is terrifying, raising the stakes of the Armageddon episodes unlike any before. Janus is masterminding Stillson's rise to the White House. Janus somehow understands Johnny's psychic powers. Janus somehow knows how to create visions. Worse, Janus seems to know how to maneuver Johnny to prevent him from interfering.

"Saved" is one of THE DEAD ZONE's finest hours with a truly unnerving lead-in to Season 5.

Interruption: "Saved" receives no follow up in the next episode. The next episode ignores "Saved"; instead, it is a lightweight Christmas episode aired between Seasons 4 and 5 that doesn't address the Season 4 finale at all.

It is a confusing choice and reflects a certain disinterest in the viewing experience. Strangely, this trend has become somewhat common with other shows that often broadcast Christmas episodes that are set outside any ongoing arcs.

Resumed: Season 5 opens with "Forbidden Fruit" and the return of the myth-arc. The premiere has Johnny attempting to expose Janus as a security leak in the US government only to discover Janus has outplayed him and steered him into exposing a rival to Stillson's power.

Urgent Questions: Once again, Johnny is outmatched by Janus and it's unclear how Janus can anticipate Johnny's every move. The episode is a strong opener raising questions as to who this Janus person is, how Janus can be so implacable and invincible. The stage is set for Johnny to focus on the mystery of Janus as he did on the secrets of Stillson. The next episode must address Janus. The next episode ignores "Forbidden Fruit" and is about Johnny dealing with a traffic jam as though stalled cars are more important than the coming nuclear holocaust.

Ignored Questions: After the Season 5 premiere, the next nine episodes have Johnny dealing with murders and cults and heists; the end of the world doesn't seem to rank high on his list of priorities.

THE DEAD ZONE not only downplays the myth-arc, it flat out ignores its previous myth-arc episodes, first with the Christmas episode and now with no proper follow-up to the Season 5 premiere. Even when a myth-arc episode demands immediate follow-up, the next episode is a standalone with no continuity on Armageddon.

Vortex: There is one exception to this in Season 5's middle-season myth-arc episode: "Vortex." Oddly, "Vortex" is not actually about the myth-arc at all and offers no progression for the arc beyond Stillson's rising political star mentioned as continuing to rise, a fairly repetitive point of non-development.

And yet, "Vortex" is a strong episode and opens with Johnny upset and worried about the impending Armageddon (despite having not even mentioned it for the last six episodes). Later, Johnny is investigating a doomsday cult after he has visions of them using landmines and killing a child.

Doomsday: Johnny 'joins' the cult and they learn about his visions of Armageddon; Johnny must save the cultists before the leader detonates the entire compound. The story has a framing sequence where Congressman Stillson questions Johnny about his role in the cult; the episode ends with Johnny able to save all the cultists from their leader and hopeful that having prevented one doomsday, he can prevent another.

Incorporated: "Vortex" is excellent. In some ways, "Vortex" reflects how future shows like SUPERNATURAL would incorporate standalone episodes with arc episodes; the standalones would be thematically relevant to the season-long arc even if the standalone wasn't relevant in terms of its plot.

However, "Vortex" is an outlier and all other Season 5 standalones seemed to take place in some alternate THE DEAD ZONE continuity where there was no impending nuclear disaster. The next two episodes after "Vortex" were standalone cases of the week with no references to Armageddon.

Helpless: Season 5's 11th and final episode is "The Hunting Party" in which Johnny tries to stop the assassination of the US Vice President and fails, leading to Stillson becoming the new VP. It is a powerful, frightening, conspiratorial episode. It is effective in its plot and disturbing in its bleak presentation of Johnny seeming powerless against Stillson and the mysterious Malcolm Janus who manages to manipulate Johnny into only being a witness to a murder he cannot stop.

The episode ends with Janus appearing in Johnny's house again, warning Johnny that if he doesn't join Stillson, he will die. Never has Johnny seemed so helpless, his powers so utterly useless. Janus is manipulative, masterful, powerful.

Stalled: And yet, "The Hunting Party" makes it clear that despite this episode being strong, the myth-arc has become irrelevant.

Janus already visited Johnny in "Saved" and proposed a partnership; the next episode immediately switched into a lightweight Christmas episode and ignored the previous installment. "Forbidden Fruit" ended with Johnny defeated by Janus; the next episode had Johnny cheerfully attending a fireworks festival without any mention of it.

There is no reason to think "The Hunting Party" will be treated any differently by a show devoted to standalones.

Posturing: Janus ends "The Hunting Party" -- and Season 5 -- by telling Johnny that the assassination of the US Vice President was "A preview. The opening act of the greatest drama ever conceived by a man. An epic tale born of victory and penned in blood." He remarks, "Think it over, John. It's almost showtime."

But Janus' threatening, portentous words only indicate how the Armageddon never get past being "a preview" and an "opening act," constantly declaring it to be "almost showtime" without the show ever actually arriving. THE DEAD ZONE clearly never wants to tell that story. THE DEAD ZONE's myth-arc episodes are the most exceptional hours of THE DEAD ZONE, but the bulk of the show avoids acknowledging their existence.

Stillson being one step from the US presidency is irrelevant. Stillson could become God Almighty in one episode and the next one would still ignore it and focus on a standalone case of the week.

A Delayed Solution: Season 6 of THE DEAD ZONE opens by ending the Armageddon arc in a single episode. The seemingly masterful and all-powerful Malcolm Janus is abruptly killed off; Johnny's visions of Armageddon cease upon Janus' death.

There is no explanation as to how Janus could be so in control in Seasons 4 - 5 and so easily dispatched in Season 6's premiere. It is rushed; a five season arc is dismissed in one episode. It is dismissive; all of the clues and hints and details about what would bring about Stillson's nuclear war are irrelevant to this ending. It is clumsy; Johnny plays no role in Janus' defeat at all.

It was necessary for Season 6; Seasons 4 - 5 had made it impossible to take Armageddon seriously any longer. With Armageddon gone, Season 6 could tell standalone episodes unburdened by the threat of nuclear disaster. No longer would Johnny's victories be made pointless by the myth-arc. The Season 6 solution seems to come rather late; it might have been best to do something like this as early as the Season 4 premiere.

A New Start: Season 6 starts a new arc, one about Johnny Smith's father and family legacy. The family theme is suited to Johnny's character and proves effective for the standalone format, allowing characterization to run from episode to episode even if the cases of the week are isolated to each individual episode.

Two Steps Back: In the Season 6 finale, Johnny discovers that his father, long thought dead, is actually alive. In addition, his father has psychic abilities just like Johnny. Mr. Smith Senior, however, is suffering from dementia; it's revealed that the departed Malcolm Janus somehow located Mr. Smith and used him as his personal psychic. This is why in Seasons 4 - 5, Janus seemed to understand how to control and avoid Johnny's visions; this is why Johnny was defeated every time.

It's explained: between Seasons 5 and 6, there came a point when Stillson tired of Janus' control and maneuvered Janus into his death in the Season 6 premiere. The explanation is satisfying and Johnny's reunion with his addled, confused but deeply loving father is beautiful.

However, the events that lead Johnny to find his father also alter the future once again, and the once-averted Armageddon is put back on track.

Unfortunately, the series was cancelled after this episode and no resolution was ever filmed.

Empty Threat: The results of this unplanned finale are a mixed bag. It is heartrending and powerful to see Johnny reunited with his father. The performances are stunning and beautiful. The episode closes beautifully with a father reunited with his son. As a single episode, this finale is extremely strong.

As a series finale, it is disappointing that Armageddon is raised once more only for the show to be cancelled. Once again, Armageddon had no ending. While the Season 6 premiere was not a satisfying conclusion, it had at least been a conclusion and the series seemed better when freed of it.

Armageddon's return here was repetitive: Armageddon had ceased to be a plausible danger long ago.

Disguised Blessing: In terms of the cancellation, Armageddon having been defanged long ago was in some ways a blessing. Despite there being no ending, Armageddon had been ignored and curtailed so repeatedly that surely in the hypothetical Season 7, Johnny would find another easy, simple solution. The arc had ended due to its impracticality on cable TV; it would have been just as impractical in the Season 7 that never came to pass.

What Went Wrong? Why didn't the myth-arc work on THE DEAD ZONE? How could it have worked?

Problematic Percentage: THE DEAD ZONE developed a serious messaging problem with its myth-arc. Most of the Season 2 episodes had featured Armageddon as a B-plot, sending the audience the message that the myth-arc mattered and was on the characters' minds. This changed starting with Season 3. In the 35 episodes that made up THE DEAD ZONE's third to fifth seasons, only nine actually mentioned Armageddon.

This means that for 26 per cent of the show, the Season 3 - 5 audience was told that Armageddon was dire, threatening, pressing and urgent, but the other 74 per cent of the episodes declared that Armageddon was so trivial that it wasn't worth mentioning.

A Confusing Message: The standalones undermined Armageddon's importance, declaring it inconsequential by never mentioning it. The myth-arc episodes in turn undermined the standalones by saying that everyone Johnny saved from car wrecks and floods and murder was still doomed to die in Armageddon.

THE DEAD ZONE was cancelling itself out long before its cancellation.

A Permanent Delay: Anyone who'd ever watched THE X-FILES knew full well that Armageddon was an untellable story that would never take place. While THE DEAD ZONE created tremendous drama and compelling stories from teasing this untellable story in Season 2, by Season 4, the tease had become predictable and avoidant.

A Story for the End: THE DEAD ZONE was also part of an era of television where showrunners acted as though if the central myth-arc of a TV show were resolved, the show would have no further reason to exist. QUANTUM LEAP never got Sam Beckett home. Mulder and Scully on THE X-FILES never exposed the alien conspiracy. Johnny Smith never stopped Armageddon. These were stories that showrunners would only tell if they knew the show was ending, rarely did showrunners know that the end was coming in advance of filming their season finales.

THE DEAD ZONE made itself dependent on knowing precisely when they'd be filming a series finale, a luxury few showrunners of the era could ever expect and one THE DEAD ZONE didn't receive.

Why Didn't the Myth-Arc Stay a B-plot? Season 2 found a winning approach: standalone episodes, the myth-arc as a running subplot, one myth-arc episode out of every 10 or so installments. Why didn't Season 3 stick with it?

The running arcs were in Season 2 because showrunner Michael Piller had been rewriting all the scripts to add running character and mythology arcs. He became too ill with cancer to do this regularly in Season 3.

But why didn't his successor take over?

Hiding: For reasons unclear, the studio did not truly appoint a successor empowered to handle rewrites and arcs during Piller's illness; they only did so for Season 6 after Piller had passed away.

Despite production diaries referring to Karl Schaefer and Tommy Thompson as "showrunner" for Season 3 (Schaefer) and Seasons 4 - 5 (Thompson), standalone scripts didn't seem to be rewritten during to incorporate ongoing arcs under their terms.

In Seasons 4 - 5, many of the standalones seemed to be first drafts from freelancers with all character development experienced by guest-stars and no characterization for the regulars.

Unempowered: There was the odd sense that no post-Piller showrunner for Seasons 3 - 5 had the authority to execute any development on the Armageddon arc or the character arcs. Certainly, the production company was reluctant to admit that Piller was ill; his cancer was not revealed until after his death and the studio's publicity materials all presented Piller as actively running THE DEAD ZONE.

After Piller died, production blogs revealed that he had less present starting in Season 3 and largely absent for Seasons 4 - 5. Only with Season 6 was the new showrunner, Scott Shepherd, permitted to develop the arc (and end it).

More For Less: There was also the manner in which Seasons 4 - 5 were filmed. In a cost-saving measure, USA Network mandated that Seasons 4 - 5 would be filmed in 4 - 5 months with a reduced budget and 23 episodes to air as two separate seasons of 12 and 11. They also mandated that all 23 episodes be completed before Season 4 had even finished airing, even though Season 5 would be broadcast a year later. This allowed USA Network to avoid paying for increased cast salaries in a fifth season.

THE DEAD ZONE's fourth and fifth season had to produce more episodes with fewer resources and less time than any previous season. To cope, production had to film episodes severely out of order based on cast availability, with cast absences scattered throughout the episode order.

Recurring guest-stars filmed episodes in a few weeks but saw their episodes broadcast years apart. This may have been why production developed an aversion to ongoing, episodic continuity. One would think that Piller would have taken the role of overseeing continuity, but he was too ill to do so.

Solutions: What should have been done? The frustrating thing is that THE DEAD ZONE had found solutions to all these issues, it simply didn't stick to them.

The myth-arc should have been maintained as a subplot through Season 3 with the Christopher Wey character used to position the standalones as relevant to the myth-arc. The myth-arc should have also been maintained through Seasons 4 - 5 in the Season 2 fashion.

Alternatively, if USA Network was disinclined to let THE DEAD ZONE focus on Armageddon, it should have been resolved in a fashion like the Season 6 premiere: a single episode or even a two-parter could end the arc and the show could start a new one that the network would actually support.

The Season 4 finale and the Season 5 premiere had crafted a storyline that could have easily served the same purpose as the Season 6 premiere.

Sadly, despite the Season 6 opener ending the Armageddon threat, THE DEAD ZONE once again backtracked from the answer to its problems and brought Armageddon back for the Season 6 finale. THE DEAD ZONE would not commit to its own solutions and kept recreating the very problems it had so deftly avoided.

Legacy: While THE DEAD ZONE is filled with brilliant, revolutionary episodes, its myth-arc defined every season even when it was absent.

It is very odd that THE DEAD ZONE surpassed THE X-FILES in its approach to serialization, but then backtracked on its innovations. THE DEAD ZONE went from doing better than THE X-FILES to being just as circular, directionless, self-destructive and pointless with its mythology.

Well, they've been upscaled in two different ways and Topaz is a crowdpleaser for a variety of reasons.

Lanczos upscaling operates on a specific mathematical algorithm that I don't actually understand except to say that the extra pixels added to make the image bigger are blended smoothly into the final version. Where bicubic scaling can add pixelated edges to the larger image, Lanczos scaling is softer, more forgiving, and also has the effect of mildly diminishing the noise in a grainy image.

Topaz AI upscaling, however, looks to me like it's composed of multiple algorithms for a wide variety of textures: skin, hair, grass, pavement, metal, sky, clouds, wood, fabric -- with specific models applied to specific portions of each frame. (The ability to recognize the texture and apply the right model is the AI part.) The models are dependent on using film grain as a guide to reconstruct the image at a larger size and to re-render that grain as pixel detail. As a result, Topaz upscaling is sharper than Lanczos because Topaz is actively re-rendering the film grain as a rebuilt pixel-based image. Most grain-reduction methods operate by blurring the image, but Topaz converts that grain to sharpen the picture.

In contrast, Lanczos is simply stretching, but with its single-algorithm serving to make the added pixels (mostly) smooth. It isn't re-rendering film grain, so the grain stays intact, just slightly faded out. It offers a mild level of sharpening with added contrast at the edges, but mostly in a way that offsets any new blurriness from stretching.

Topaz is generally better for closeup and medium shots. However, for wide shots, there's a smudged, painted look because the film grain is only serving to render an undetailed, distant image and the AI tries to sharpen detail that isn't present. The same wide shots in Lanczos, however, maintain the original blurriness and graininess so that it doesn't look like a watercolour mishap. Season 1 episodes stored on low-res analog videotape also do better with Lanczos because there isn't any film grain to use for sharpening.

Because SLIDERS was composed largely of closeups and mediums for television, most people will prefer a Topaz AI upscale for the digital videotape episodes.

Well, I think Slider_Quinn21 is just waiting until six months after his second dose. If an improved vaccine is announced and scheduled for six months and 2.23 weeks after his second dose (my personal tipping point), that might (might!) make sense. SQ21 got his second dose and he is not an anti-vaxxer; if he's holding out, it's because he's looking to get maximum shielding from his shot. I am not a doctor; I cannot evaluate that strategy except to say it's not from a place of mistrust for vaccines.

I don't qualify for a third dose for another two weeks; my mother doesn't qualify for another nine days. I'm not going to wait and I've informed my mother that she's not waiting either.

I used Topaz to clean off the rest of the grain from seven minutes of the Lanczos upscaled "Prince of Wails" -- and it isn't an improvement. The video was better with the graininess to add some weight and filler to an otherwise undetailed 250 line videotape image that, without the video noise, is simply blurry and undefined. I'd keep the grain and keep the episodes looking like low-res videotape of film as opposed to looking like low-res videotape.

**

I think this is where the upscaling journey for SLIDERS ends. The pilot looks great with AI upscaling. The rest of Season 1 looks a bit better with Lanczos scaling. Seasons 2 - 5 look great with AI upscaling, although...

I've run a few shots from the Turbine version of "As Time Goes By" through the Topaz process for 1080p. I ran the Turbine file separately through the Lanczos process for 1080p. I find that for standard definition digital videotape, Topaz is really good for medium and closeup shots, resolving the grain image into pixel detail. However, for wide shots, it's less effective. The Topaz upscaled wide shots of "As Time Goes By" turned out fine for living room distance viewing, but the AI definitely smeared the shots a bit, creating a slight oil paint look to them. It's not really a big deal and not as bad as with Season 1 episodes.

This is probably because when wide shots on film are transferred to standard definition videotape, they lose anywhere from from 50 - 60 per cent of the detail in the downscaling and even with image forming grain, that grain forms a blurry shot. Interestingly, this wasn't a problem with Seasons 1 - 3 of THE DEAD ZONE shot on 16mm film, likely because for that 2002 - 2008 show, the film was transferred to high definition digital videotape whereas SLIDERS was transferred to SD DV tape.

For the best results for Seasons 2 - 3, it would probably be best to create a Topaz upscaled version and a Lanczos upscaled version with the Topaz version used for medium and closeup shots and the Lanczos version used for wide shots. I'm not sure if there's a plug and play solution to achieve that and the wide shots won't look too bad via AI only, just a bit too smooth. Seasons 4 - 5, however, being shot on 16mm film with larger film grains, is probably fine to drag and drop into Topaz for upscaling.

That said, given how good the Turbine SD files look to begin with, it might be best just to use plain Lanczos scaling for similar but better results to the Season 1 episodes: diminished grain, slightly fuzzier compared to Topaz, but consistently above average. Topaz takes 7 - 8 hours per episode whereas Lanczos scaling just needs one hour per episode.

I watched them both on my 55 inch HDTV, played on my Android TV box.

The Topaz enhanced version looks okay/good enough in mediums and closeups, but poor/terrible in wide shots. The Lanczos version looks okay in all shots, fuzzier and with a heavy level of what seems like film grain (but is really compression noise). The wide shots are still blurry and undetailed, but the film grain look makes it look consistent with the mediums and wides. It is consistent whereas the Topaz version keeps jumping back and forth between not-bad to terrible. Even if the episode is only looking okay, at least it looks okay from beginning to end. You get used to the visual quality and then you can get into the story.

I watched two versions of "Prince of Wails" today: the version decompressed in Topaz and Lanczos scaled to 1080p, and the version scaled from the DVD file to 1080p via Lanczos on its own.

The Topaz-enhanced version is sharper in medium and closeup shots, but for wide shots, there's a painful fuzziness, blurriness and vagueness to the shots that is frustratingly jarring when the medium and closeup shots look so much better.

The Lanczos version is not as sharp in the medium and close up shots compared to the Topaz version. It's a little blurrier and the wide shots have the same lack of definition as the AI cleaned version. However, it looks better than just scaling the DVD image bicubically. Lanczos has softened the compression artifacts and now it looks like film grain. There's a sense of definition and texture. The wide shots with this noise look better; the noise partially fills in the lack of detail with some texture.

I prefer the Lanczos version because even though it isn't as sharp in the close up and medium shots, it's consistent: the haziness and noise are on all the shots, so you can get used to it as opposed to being distracted by the inconsistency of the Topaz version.

It doesn't look as good if you're watching it on a computer screen and studying the image closely, but it looks good when played on my Android TV.

I've mostly been using Topaz Artemis HQ which is mostly about rendering film grain into pixel detail and removing compression artifacts. The medium and low quality Artemis settings are more aggressive with noise and compression artifact removal, but they create an overly airbrushed look.

The noise in the Lanczos upscaled files is compression noise, not image forming grain, so Topaz just removes it. It's not really worthwhile especially when Topaz needs 20 - 22 hours per episode. Usually, it only takes 7 - 9 hours to upscale a 480p image to 1080p in Topaz.

Well, I had a look at the raw Universal DVD files upscaled to 1080p via Lanczos this morning. Avidemux's deinterlacer didn't deinterlace the files properly, so they were riddled with interlace lines. However, looking at a few shots: Lanczos did a pretty nice job of scaling the video forgivingly. It scaled the DVD compression artifacts up as well, but the pixel blending toned them down slightly so it looks more like film grain (even though it isn't) and looks less like DVD compression artifacts (which is what they are). The diminished but present noise also helped on wider shots where the original fuzziness and lack of detail has some of that void filled in with admittedly filler noise. Admittedly, it's hard to tell if it's good or bad because the interlacing is such a problem.

The deinterlacing issues are too severe to run Topaz over them, so I've deleted these files. I deinterlaced the raw DVD files in Handbrake and I'll run them through Lanczos again for a better look.

Loading the raw Universal DVD files into AVIDemux now to try upscaling them to Lanczos at which point I'll try running them through Topaz Artemis HQ to see if that creates any improvements. My soul can't rest without knowing.

Hunnh. BATWOMAN's seventh episode is its mid-season finale. Season 3 won't resume until January 12 and there are only six more episodes left in Season 3; BATWOMAN will only have 13 episodes this year. I guess that was to make the economics work considering its ratings and sales.

Lanczos upscales are complete. Bicubic upscales running now (while I sleep). Tomorrow morning, if I get up early enough, I'm going to put the Turbine files for 102 to 109 into the queue to upscale to 1080p via Lanczos as well and it ought to finish by the time I get home from the office. It's possible that one or two of the Turbine files might turn out better through Lanczos than any version of the Universal files.

**

Looking at the "Prince of Wails" wide shots, it looks like because they weren't as deliberately soft focus as wide shots in other episodes, Topaz tried to sharpen them, but the lack of film grain created an ugly stained glass effect that isn't too troubling at 480p (because Topaz wasn't adding new pixels) and is glossed over by bicubic upscaling, but the stained glass issue is unfortunately deepened by Lanczos.

**

Another thought -- I wonder if the Universal files might benefit from scaling them to 1080p via Lanczos before running Topaz over them.

Not really SLIDERS-related, but RussianCabbie noted that he doesn't feel all Season 1 episodes are at the same video quality and that "Fever" and "Last Days" actually look worse than the rest. While I do think they all look bad, I've personally rated "Luck of the Draw" as being the fuzziest among them all.

I've noticed something odd in THE DEAD ZONE. I was watching "Playing God" (Season 2, Episode 12, aired in 2003) and my HD upscale looks great, the picture of a digital film scan (or rather, 16mm film transferred to digital videotape and upscaled to 1080p via AI). However -- there are a couple shots at the end that are extremely fuzzy when Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy are having an argument. The shot with Hall and Sheedy in the same frame is really blurry. This master shot is intercut with single shots of Hall and single shots of Sheedy. The singles look like 16mm film / high quality digital videotape that upscale to HD perfectly. But the master shot looks like low resolution analog videotape. It cannot be upscaled to look like an HD shot.

I assume there was some sort of mistake in transferring the master shot to digital videotape, that the bitrate was accidentally reduced. It was probably spotted but ignored because in 2003, THE DEAD ZONE was being broadcast in standard definition to cathode ray tube TVs. No viewers would have noticed.

I wonder if SLIDERS' digital videotape episodes have any such errors.

The reviews for your model are very impressive. The thought of an incredibly lightweight 17 inch laptop screen is amazing.

I find that the market these days is split between eMMC drives and SSDs. I buy most of my hardware at deep discounts from stores that offer refurbished items that were usually released 2 - 3 years ago and none of them have spinning hard drives except for the ones running Windows 8 (they're refurbished). eMMC is ghastly, though, so laggy and slow that a spinning HDD would actually be better. eMMC storage leads to slow startup, programs taking so long to load you wonder if they ever will.

I have two laptops. One is a heavy (and cheap) gaming laptop with an i7 processor, 32GB of RAM and a 1 GB graphics card. that used to have a 256GB SSD for the operating system and programs and a 1TB HDD for storing media. I ultimately replaced the HDD with another 1TB SSD so that I could install games on it and keep the 256GB SSD just for the OS and office programs. It's permanently plugged into my desktop monitor. It is my personal laptop and I use it for work, especially video and graphics editing.

It's great, but since getting it, it became clear that in addition to a desktop workstation, I needed a lightweight laptop that I could carry around from room to room. The search for this mobile companion took quite a few years. Failed candidates included:

The Asus Transformer T100 Chi, a 10.1 inch laptop that weighed 2.4 pounds. It had an Intel Atom processor with 2GB of RAM and a 64GB eMMC drive. This computer was a disaster: dust got under the screen, bluetooth would disable wifi, the touchpad would freeze up, the screen orientation would go upside down, the keyboard would disconnect and eventually, the charging port broke.

I got a Windows Surface 3 with the same specs. While I liked the 10.8 inch screen and 2 pound form factor, there came a point where I gave up on it; it was when I was typing in Notepad and noticed that there was half a second between me hitting the keys and the letters appeared on the screen. It was time to move on. I sold it.

I got a Windows Surface Pro 3 with a 12 inch screen, 2.1 pounds, an i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of memory. I loved it. Greatest lightweight computer I'd ever owned. I banged it into a wall and twisted the speaker grill and it looked hideous. I sold it.

I had a Samsung Chromebook 3 for awhile, but there came a point when I needed Windows office productivity software.

I had an HP Elitebook 1030 G1, a 2.25 pounder with a 12.1 inch screen, an Intel Core M processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. While I was okay with it, the Core M processor was slow; websites always froze up for 2 - 3 seconds before loading, programs lagged before opening, etc.. Also, the touchpad didn't depress; there was no click. It was designed to have no tactile response, only a speaker-played click. The touchpad was odd, often reading a left click when I wanted a right click. There came a point when the battery was dead. I was told that the battery could be replaced for $150... and I just didn't think this Core M computer with its performance was worth $100 to get back into working order. I handed this model over to an electronics recycling service.

Anyway. My secondary laptop now is my work laptop, but I got to choose and customize it and will be able to pay the office to keep it if I so choose. It is a moderately lightweight 3 pound laptop with a 13 inch screen, a low-end Intel i5 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 255GB SSD. This one is more like your LG Gram and I use it solely for personal endeavours like typing all my emails and social media posts. I guess get more done with my personal laptop for work because it's plugged into an ultrawide monitor and I complete more projects when I have more screen space.

Topaz Artemis HQ for removing DVD compression (noise, artifacts), but leaving it at a 480P file.

Close-up and medium shots from this denoised, deartifacted version are effectively upscaled to 1080p via Lanczos.

Wide shots are best upscaled bicubically.

I have really been impressed by the reviews of the LG Gram, but I see it going anywhere from $1,000 - $1,700 USD even with the older models. That seems a bit much even for a 15 - 17 inch screen in a three pound laptop body.

Yay! Vaccination! Every time someone gets vaccinated, an anti-vaxxer has a nervous breakdown.

Hi, everyone. Due to this forum being built in 2015, it was on HTTP instead of the supposedly more secure HTTPS. While nobody uses this site for private information except in the form of absurd personal oversharing, a lot of web browsers including little-used and obscure software like Google Chrome were refusing to load the forum, calling an HTTP connection a security risk. I've turned on HTTPS and updated the settings accordingly. There were some glitches at first (stylesheets not loading, directory links confused), but I believe I've corrected the issues now. However, if there are any problems you find, please post here or email ireactions (at) gmail.com. Serving you all makes my life worthwhile. I was just referring to "Prince of Wails" when saying that, but... I think it's true.

No worries about the spoilers. I'm about to sit down with a bottle of red wine (okay, club soda) in my private home cineplex (alright, fine, it's my tablet on a lap desk on my bed) with surround sound (okay, it's bluetooth headphones) to watch FLASH and BATWOMAN. But I would like to say something about Kara:

I would say that Kara has an extremely detailed, well-considered, thoughtfully presented and calculatedly performed character. Her defining moment in the show -- well, there are two that immediately come to mind. The first is in Season 1's "Falling" when three schoolgirls are mocking a classmate for wearing a red cape and an S-shirt. "You look so stupid!" one of them snarls. "Everyone thinks so, that's why you don't have any friends."

Kara descends from the sky. "I wouldn't say that," Kara tells the cape-clad girl. "I think you look pretty awesome -- " and after X-raying the girl's backpack to read the name on her notebook, Kara adds, "Laura."

"You know Supergirl!?" the mean girl sputters.

"I'm friends with all the nice girls," Kara says, pats Laura on the shoulder and flies off.

The second is in Season 5, Episode 18 when Lena Luthor knocks on Kara's door and stands in the hallway awkwardly, Lena having recently betrayed Kara, tricked her into thinking they were still best friends, manipulated Kara into stealing for Lena, stolen stolen Kryptonian technology from Kara, sent Kara into the Phantom Zone, teamed up with Lex Luthor and stopped taking Kara's calls for deep and meaningful girltalk.

Lena, with a shaky voice and on the verge of tears, says "I have made a terrible mistake. I was hurt. I was so hurt. And I thought I could get rid of the hurt. But I was wrong. I know what I said and I know what I did, but I am... I am really hoping that you will believe me right now -- Lex is working with Leviathan, and they are going to use Obsidian to do something terrible. Using the system that I made with my project. I didn't know I was helping them, but I did. And now I want to help stop them, so please, okay? I want to help stop Lex and Leviathan."

Kara stares at Lena with suspicion. Exhaustion. Grief. And then resolve. And then Kara pulls a chair from the table and asks Lena to sit down.

Kara Danvers is not "really nice." Kara Danvers is superhumanly nice. Kara Danvers is nice to a degree that it could conceivably be some sort of mental illness.

This characterization does not necessarily lend itself to character arcs beyond giving Kara an anxiety disorder in Season 1 and a panic attack in a Season 3 episode. Kara Danvers being superhumanly nice to the point where her friendship with Lena didn't end in some GAME OF THRONES type bloodbath is something that is hard if not impossible to find in the real world. Did you read the Return of Sliders thread, did you see me blow a gasket on Transmodiar? Have you read my status updates where in a fit of rage, I told my favourite actress that I'd found someone else to be my favourite actress and replaced her? Kara Danvers would never do anything like that. It is not easy to be nice in this world.

I freely admit that this isn't a complicated character and that Kara isn't exactly Olivia Dunham from FRINGE or Wanda in WANDAVISION. But, I mean, entire religions have been founded around one character who was defined as "nice to the point of being superhumanly nice," so Kara Danvers is in rare company.

It's okay for a lead character to be very simple and straightforward. Not every character should be so simple and most characters who lead TV shows aren't, but surely in a world of Dexters and Ryan Wilders and Dr. Houses, there's room for a character as plainly defined as Kara Danvers. Kara Danvers isn't just "really nice." Kara Danvers is superhumanly nice, so nice that she's either a Mormon out to recruit or she's Supergirl.

Well, I deblocked/denoised "Summer of Love" off the Universal disc but kept the file at 480p. The LQ preset cleaned up the DVD damage and added a lot of sharpness to some shots, but it also created that peculiar watercolour filter effect even without increasing resolution.

The HQ preset, however, simply lifted off the DVD compression artifacts and then otherwise left the image alone. When scaled to 1080p, the image looks good enough. It's still fuzzy, but not as fuzzy as the Turbine version while having the same non-noisy clarity of the Turbine files. And it doesn't have the distorted edges like in my previous Season 1 upscales (because this isn't an upscale).

I'm going to try running this cleaned up file through Avidemux and scale it to 1080p with the Lanczos algorithm which increases image resolution by blending extra pixels into the image to avoid jagged edges. It's not an AI, however; it doesn't apply specific filters to specific classifications of imagery and texture. It's just increasing the image size while toning down the pixelation that would result with a bicubic size increase. I used to use Lanczos on my old home theatre PC to upscale standard definition TV to 720p resolution, but I've never used Lanczos on a video file as blurry as a Season 1 episode of SLIDERS.

Yes, I've seen your fanfic all over FanFiction.net. It's so insulting, no one ever steals mine.

Response to Grizzlor is here:
http://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?pid=12226#p12226

Different upscalers have different results, I guess. AI upscaling to higher resolutions isn't effective Season 1, but the really limited upscaling of my Samsung blu-ray player seems to hit the right level for both the Universal and Turbine discs.

I would be interested in running an AI upscale over the Universal Season 1 episodes that leaves them at 480p, serving only to remove the compression artifacts. This would achieve the artifact-free look of the Turbine versions but retain what little sharpness is present in the Universal release. It wouldn't be an upscale, really, just denoising and deblocking to remove the damage done by the DVD authoring.

However, I am currently running an upscale of UNIVERSAL SIGNS again, trying to get it to 1080p this time and remove all the compression damage on the Vimeo file. But I could probably run the Season 1 episodes through the AI processing again and see how it goes.

But I have learned my lesson; looking at brief stills doesn't give a sense of how well the processed file plays on an HDTV, so I won't talk about it until I've actually watched at least 10 minutes of a processed episode.

What's your budget?

I'm glad you asked this question, I've been meaning to draft something about computers and calculated misery.

The Expensive Side of Cheap Computers: I spent a lot of my life buying 'cheap' computers thinking I didn't need anything fancy for web browsing and word processing and such, only to discover that these computers would break down and needed to be replaced at a rate of one a year and after buying three, I reached the point where I would have been better off putting the money spent on three bad laptops into buying one good one. An inexpensive computer can, through poor quality control or lousy manufacturing, cost you more than a pricier model or prove unusable.

Calculated Misery: Past cheap computers I've bought had quirks like dust getting under the screen. Or a touchpad that would become unresponsive every 4 - 5 minutes. Or a display that would get stuck in the upside down orientation. Or a spacebar that would stop producing spaces. Or wifi that would switch off if bluetooth were on. When manufacturers aim to hit a low price point, they don't bother to ensure that their hardware functions, thinking customers will be reluctant to refund something that cost so little and grudgingly tolerate it, or that the customer will even return it and buy a more expensive model from them. The term for this is "calculated misery," deliberately making a product difficult to use so that the customer will feel inclined to spend more money for basic functionality. There are entire lines of processors and storage drives and motherboards designed specifically for laptops intended to produce calculated misery.

Specifications: While you may consider your computing demands modest, the truth is that cheap computers can be too weak even for web browsing and word processing. I have thought as you have in the past, buying Intel Atom / Pentium / Core M processor computers with 4 GB of RAM and eMMC or spinning drives, thinking I didn't need better. Then I'd discover these machines would freeze up loading web pages. Or that when typing, there would be a 1/3 delay between my finger tapping the keyboard. Or they would crash when running word processing software because of poor driver support.

Minimums: Despite your humble intentions, nobody in 2021 should buiy a computer that isn't at the very least: an Intel i3 processor with 8GB of RAM and a solid state drive (SSD). Intel Core Ms, Pentiums and Atoms are not fast enough to run Windows properly. 4GB of RAM is not enough to run meet a web browser's memory demands reliably. A spinning hard drive or an eMMC drive (cheap flash memory) is not quick enough to load applications responsively.

You can get decent AMD processors, but I'm not sufficiently familiar with AMD's product line to know which ones are okay and which ones are designed for calculated misery.

Storage: The SSD should have at least 128GB. That's not a lot for all your family photos, but it's enough to store and run Windows programs and you can store personal files on an external drive (which can be spinning). Make sure it can run Windows 11 which is coming soon.

Refurbished Computers: I've had some good(ish) experiences with buying refurbished computers off eBay. One time, what I received wasn't what was advertised; I got a refund. It's guaranteed by eBay. Another time, I got a great deal on a business laptop that arrived with a broken keyboard; I got a guaranteed exchange, but the replacement had a severely worn battery that had to be replaced. It was still a great deal, but it was troublesome and might be difficult for someone who doesn't live near a trustworthy computer repair shop that can supply and install replacement laptop batteries. At full price, this model would have cost several thousand dollars; I was able to get it for a mid three figures -- but not everyone will go to maximum effort for maximum computing and minimum cost. Not everyone will take two weeks to get the laptop, another three to get it exchanged and another week to get the new battery.

Retailers: For the average person who knows nothing about computers, your best buy is likely a Best Buy. It's more expensive than buying refurbished, but that might be best because Best Buy is a retailer that's thrived in a retail apocalypse for two reasons: they do price matching to compete with online retailers. And due to the price of retail floorspace and the need to keep products going out, Best Buy does its very, very best to avoid selling brands and products that are prone to defects.

They don't want customers constantly returning items due to buyer's remorse over buying a low quality product at a low price; they try to only sell products that are likely to leave their stores and create such buyer satisfaction that the product will never come back. That said, Best Buy can't catch everything; my Fitbit watch went dead and one laptop I bought from them cracked open when I opened it. This brings us to our next subject --

Extended Warranties: The internet is filled with articles telling you that extended warranties from big box stores are not worth it, that it's cheaper to find independent repair services. However, this is highly situational and dependent on hardware. Best Buy's return policy is that you have 15 days to get a refund on your laptop. The manufacturer will generally offer a one year warranty, but Best Buy may not facilitate returns and exchanges after the 15 days, leaving you to the calculated misery of having to set up a delivery with the manufacturer and a lengthy period without your computer.

An extended warranty can get you up to three years where you can get a refund or exchange at the store. And it can cost several hundred dollars in addition to the cost of the laptop. This extended warranty is only for hardware failure, not accidental damage.

I find it grossly exploitative for any retailer to charge you for the right to get an exchange or refund for a defective item that they've sold to you. If it won't last, they shouldn't sell it; if they sell it and it fails, they should refund or exchange it within one year, not 15 days. But the reality is that sometimes, the extended warranty may be the best option for the product or the customer.

Repairability: Some laptops are modular and designed for easy replacement of storage drives, screens, keyboards, wifi and bluetooth modules, etc.. Some laptops have all the hardware soldered onto the motherboard and may be impossible to repair, only exchanged. Not every customer can tell the difference; not every customer lives near repair stores that would be cheaper than a Geek Squad plan; not every customer can identify a capable repair service and an inept and overpriced one.

Anyway. Here's the Best Buy listing for what meets my standards:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage … Categories

Grizzlor? What's Nicole Eggert like? I've always wondered.

**

So, I guess I'll see you all in Long Island in Summer 2022. Maybe my favourite actress and her splendid boyfriend will come with me.

My greatest ambition for SLIDERS is to meet Slider_Quinn21 and buy him a sumptuous meal for every time someone has stolen his fanfic and put their own name on it. He has earned it.

Tried playing the Universal and Turbine files for "Luck of the Draw" on my Android tablet (Samsung Tab A7, 10.4 inch screen, 2000x1200 resolution). There doesn't appear to be any upscaling.

The Universal DVD file looks okay. The image's somewhat fuzzy, lightly obscured by DVD-compressed noisiness; MX Player deinterlaces the file effectively and it plays fine as an SD image that's been scaled to a high resolution on a small, personal screen. The compression noise, however, has been scaled to a higher resolution and those stretched artifacts can make the image look really rough and unpleasantly low-res. I mean, it is low-res, but it becomes hard to ignore it in some of the daylight shots.

The Turbine SD blu-ray file also looks okay. It's a little less sharp than the DVD version, but that suggests that the DVD version could even be described as sharp, which it can't. The Turbine version also doesn't have the noisiness covering the picture, so it doesn't create the rough, ugly texture of the stretched DVD file, it looks smooth and clean. That cleanness is really a lack of texture and detail, but if you can get used to it, it doesn't distract like the upscaled artifacts of the DVD file.

The 'best' version of SLIDERS' first season might be a standard definition version without all the compression artifacts, either through a new scan of the NTSC masters or running the Universal DVD files run through AI upscaling but strictly to deblock/denoise it and output a 480p file. The video would retain sharpness in the NTSC masters and could scale to larger screens without increasing all the compression artifacts. However, you can get almost pretty much the same results with an upscaling blu-ray player.

Yeah, looking at the Universal DVDs (any episode): there's compression artifacts. Blockiness. Noise that isn't film grain.

Looking at the Turbine blu-ray: the compression artifacts are not there. Any noise on the image is film grain. However, the compressed Universal DVD is artifacted and blurry for post-Pilot Season 1 episodes. The uncompressed Turbine image for Season 1 is not artifacted, but a bit blurrier and missing almost half the colour.

Put the raw video files from the discs side by side and Turbine looks washed out and fuzzy while Universal looks saturated, blocky and also a bit fuzzy if you look past the blocks. Put the discs in an upscaling player and they end up looking about the same.

I'm afraid I made a mistake. You see, when I first got the blu-ray, I was raving about how great the blu-ray SD files looked for Season 1 on my HDTV. But I see now: I was ascribing to the disc all the great work that my disc player was doing. I have a feeling my job application for blu-ray.com will not be going forward.

Looking at the discs through MakeMKV.

Universal: 1.6GB - 1.8GB per episode

Mill Creek: Ranging from 1GB - 1.2GB per episode

Turbine: 1.7GB - 1.8GB per episode

Why do Turbine's SD files look clearer than SD DVD (if you can access them directly off the disc)? I think it's likely that the DVD authoring techniques of 2004 and the DVD format itself created the image degradation.

Turbine likely used more modern-to-2015 video codecs to create the blu-ray files from the PAL masters.

Spoiler warning: Kara Danvers is Supergirl. Haha!

I agree and disagree with the thought that Kara revealing her dual identity to the world was not set up earlier. But it's arguable that it was set up as early as the very first episode of SUPERGIRL.

One of the weaknesses of ARROW: for the first several episodes, Oliver had nobody to talk to, so we had that ridiculous monologue until Diggle joined the cast. THE FLASH avoided this by making sure that as of the first episode, Barry Allen had a full support staff. SUPERGIRL did the same.

However, THE FLASH and SUPERGIRL both created a new problem with the instant support staff: the secret identity seemed utterly pointless. Aside from Iris and Cat Grant, every regular cast member on THE FLASH and SUPERGIRL knew that Barry was the Flash and Kara was Supergirl.

In both shows, the Flash and Supergirl seem to be putting in excessive effort to maintain secret identities to shield the truth from exactly one person, and when that person found out, somebody else became the shielded party. Iris found out The Secret, so Patty Spivot became the person who wasn't in on The Secret for THE FLASH's second season. Then THE FLASH decided not to bother having any regular cast members who weren't on the team.

SUPERGIRL from Seasons 2 - 4 focused on hiding The Secret from Lena Luthor after Calista Flockhart left. In Season 5, Kara's secret was hidden from William and Andrea. And aside from one episode in Season 4 where Supergirl changed into Kara Danvers' identity to seem like a helpless civilian when hunted by one of Luthor's thugs, the secret identity has been pointless. Why does Kara Danvers need a day job as a journalist? The original 1938 ACTION COMICS had Superman becoming a journalist so that he could learn about all of society's problems. That has been totally unnecessary since the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008; Kara could get the news without having to actually work in the news.

Why does Kara hide her identity as Supergirl when 99.99 per cent of the people in her life already know it? Why does Kara need a day job? Her Supergirl exploits are affiliated with the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, a federal organization that would have to pay her a minimum of $65,000 a year -- not counting all the money should could earn by donating fluid and cell samples for biological research for medical treatments.

When Kara got fired from Catco in Season 2, she didn't have any trouble affording her luxuries and supplies and home, partially because the show ignored the financial issues but also because even without Catco, she was still a federal agent.

Kara Danvers' civilian life is with her co-workers, all of whom are superheroes. Kara has absolutely no hobbies, pursuits or interests that would be impeded by becoming a celebrity in both identities.

The secret identity made sense when Kara was a teenaged girl, but since the first episode of SUPERGIRL, the secret identity has been totally unnecessary. The show is fully aware that it's completely unneeded with Lena Luthor outraged that Kara would have one.

I would agree that Season 6 did not really have a lot of episodes where Kara was wondering why she even has two separate identites when everyone she hangs out with already knows. But this has been a glaring peculiarity since the first episode of SUPERGIRL.

Season 1 played it as a psychological deficiency: Kara is a deeply insecure girlchild, Kara is nervous and socially awkward and intimidated whereas Supergirl is an identity where she can be assertive and forthright. But starting with Season 2, there was really no reason for Kara to have a civilian life.

**

I wonder at what point the finale was filmed. Was it before vaccinations became available? There wasn't the sort of distancing that BATWOMAN's second season had where Ryan Wilder couldn't kiss her girlfriend, so everyone was probably quarantined for two weeks prior to filming. And it looks like Calista Flockhart filmed alone. The one shot of her and Kara sitting together is a body double with hair obscuring the face.

**

I was... put off by some of the choices with Lena and Lex this year. Making Lena a witch is, as I said, a baffling choice for a character written and characterized as a scientist.

Giving Lex a love story with Nyxly is another odd choice given how the character has been written as self-serving and unsentimental with every expression of love having been a manipulative lie. Lex might have wanted Nyxly's power, but there was absolutely no sense onscreen that they had or could have ever had any kind of emotional relationship, nor did Jon Cryer or the scripts do anything to make Lex's love for Nyxly seem real. SUPERGIRL has on two separate occasions presented Lex as loving Lena as a sister or loving Eve Tessmacher only to reveal it was a trick. Saying that Lex wrote love poems doesn't explain how or why a self-serving sociopath like Lex could have actual romantic feelings or why Nyxly would be the recipient of those feelings.

Lena being a witch and Lex being in love didn't work for me. The totems... were a silly MacGuffin of nothing and aside from being something to fight over, I had no investment in them at all. There was a lot of drama over Andrea Rojas and her morality and I didn't really see why anyone should be invested in that character; she was just Kara's civilian employer. I found all the time invested in these story elements rather puzzling and not worthwhile.

I was also puzzled again by how Lex Luthor in the series finale was a physical combatant firing ray beams at superheroes. Is that really an effective use of Lex the master planner? Lex the manipulator? Lex, the man who took over America from his prison cell by using white grievance against aliens and people of colour? Is that really making use of what makes Lex Luthor unique and distinct from the average thug?

Overall, I enjoyed Season 6, but it was flawed in many ways, some unavoidable and due to unforced errors. Season 6 is actually best understood as two separate seasons: a run of episodes with limited appearances from Melissa Benoist followed by a run of episodes where she's back full time.

The Benoist-lite episodes were extremely well done, especially with the return to Kara's teenaged years. The superfriends friendships were vibrant and charming. There was a terrific exploration of how this team functions around Supergirl by having Supergirl absent. The Kelly/Alex and Nia/Brainy romances were extremely strong and Lena had a fantastic arc in defining her place when surrounded by superheroes.

But Supergirl's return to SUPERGIRL was rather weak: a rushed shot of Kara and Alex hugging, a token episode of Kara's father being thrown out of the series. Nyxly was an effective antagonist in the Phantom Zone, but she had no real rapport with Kara once on Earth, no course in the enmity and Lex was so un-Lexlike in his characterization this year that it might have been better to not use him at all.

While the individual episodes after Kara's return were mostly strong, the core plot of pursuing totems that somehow ensure all the good in the world was a clumsy shift away from Supergirl's technology-defined reality and into fairy tale magic.

Thankfully, the character arcs were still effective admidst this framework. I really liked the use of William Dey as an imbedded journalist and his end was tragic. I was very pleased with Kelly and Alex adopting a child, a note which also touched on why Alex and Maggie Sawyer broke up in Season 3.

I think that the second half of Season 6 suffered for a variety of behind the scenes reasons. There was no specific sense, it seems, of precisely when Benoist would be back on the show. There was no clear sense of what filming could and couldn't be done at that point as the pandemic protocols were continuing to evolve. There was clearly a lot of thought put into character arcs but there seemed to be much less thought put into the villains, their plans, the threats they posed and their reasons for their actions -- which led to magic totems and Lex being in love for Reasons.

I would have liked a seventh season of Kara Danvers, Celebrity Superhero. I'm not entirely sure why SUPERGIRL is cancelled, but the reality of every TV series is that every year, costs go up with salary increases while ratings go down with viewer attrition. In addition, SUPERGIRL was budgeted (and the actors paid) with the show to air on CBS and with the expectation of a tax credit for Los Angeles filming that didn't come through. The budget was cut and the show relocated to the CW with Vancouver filming, but it's likely the actors were still getting their CBS-budgeted salaries and annual increases as part of their original contract.

SUPERGIRL performed really well for CW with 3 million viewers for the Season 2 premiere; even the most viewed episode of ARROW had about 4 million viewers. By Season 5, SUPERGIRL was at about 65 - 90 thousand viewers; about where ARROW was for its seventh season. I'm not sure live viewing figures mean anything, however, as CW shows seem to draw most of their revenue from sales to streaming services. But THE FLASH, ARROW and LEGENDS didn't start on a CBS financial model. SUPERGIRL did, and it's likely that Season 6 was the last because it had reached the point where its sales no longer justified the next round of CBS-contracted salary increases.

**

It's interesting how we have come to expect endings to TV shows. In contrast, shows up to the early 2000s were produced for indefinite renewal with conclusions / cancellations only known after the final episode had been filmed. It was rare for writers to know in advance and script accordingly. This was viewed as an unfortunate reality of how the TV business functioned.

But today, a conclusion is expected. A failure to provide one is viewed as mismanagement. If a show gets cancelled without an ending, studios and networks are called upon to order 1 - 2 more episodes to offer a finale. Shows without endings are not suited to streaming services. There was some chatter about how Netflix staff were upset and embarrassed at the bad publicity that came with cancelling LUKE CAGE, IRON FIST, THE SOCIETY, I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS, TEENAGED BOUNTY HUNTERS, GLOW, DAYBREAK, SANTA CLARITA DIET; for the TV show TRINKETS, they renewed it for Season 2 but advertised it as the final season to avoid such issues. The CW did the same for SUPERGIRL, renewing for Season 6 but stating in advance that it was the last season. It's a shame that the pandemic and Benoist's absence made it hard to plan better.

I thought it was good. Not great, but very good. Some people are upset that Kara and Lena are just "gals being pals," as Den of Geek put it, but as I was watching it, I felt like maybe the true six season love story of SUPERGIRL has really been the love of two sisters, Kara and Alex.

Some odd choices with Lex and Lena this past year. Loved all the cameos. I was impressed at how Kara's happy ending wasn't finding a boyfriend but rather finding Supergirl.

More to say tomorrow.