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D'you think Quinn in 2015 would still dress the way he did in 1995?

Because this is a question I have to ask myself.

You may want to redownload. Just fixed a bunch of typos and also shortened a ton of technobabble. :-)

Sorry for the delay, everyone. When a decent interval has passed, I'll probably explain what the challenges were with more spoilers. I will say that I spent a stupid amount of time on graphics, only to go with something simple (putting Jerry's 2015 face on a 1995 photo of Jerry in Quinn's costume).

I really appreciate the acceptance into canon. As someone who loves STAR TREK and DOCTOR WHO and STAR WARS novels and comics and radioplays, I find that canonicity is less about approval and more about products that the audience loved and enjoyed. :-)

So, we're coming up on flu season. Anyone have measures of avoiding getting sick? I've turned to constant handwashing and using alcohol-based sanitizers as often as possible. I've also started taking a combination of herbal supplements and vitamins and minerals, specifically ginseng, vitamin C and zinc. And I'm trying something preventative as well -- I felt slightly feverish and some throat irritation starting yesterday morning, so I'm going to stay home from work and spend the day gargling salt water, drinking fluids, and see if I can beat this before it starts and turns into some ghastly 2-week experience.

I read that RINGER ended on a totally unsatisfying note -- I'm hesitant to get involved in shows that ended on cliffhangers.

**

I honestly had no idea how long "Revelation" (2) was going to be. I wrote chunks of it on my laptop, but then my laptop became so unacceptably awful that I was compelled to sell it. I then wrote long chunks of it on my iPad. I wrote a bunch of scenes in Google Docs which inserted unnecessary line breaks between every paragraph. I switched to writing in the iOS Pages app which produced corrupted Microsoft Word files. I finally shifted to using Microsoft Word in iOS. But it became clear that I was going to need to do this on a Windows machine because I needed the plot outline next to the script. (Yes, I bought a new laptop after all. Damn.)

Nigel was actually of the opinion that the outline was WAY TOO LONG for one installment. But. I think Nigel was thinking as a novelist (which he is) instead of as a screenwriter. Screenwriting is about the edited highlights.

I also had to really up the font size to size 30 or so so that I wouldn't be squinting at my tablet. And sometimes, I wrote on my home theatre PC with the screen at a healthy distance on the other side of the room, meaning the font must also be large. So I was looking at a 340-page document in the end with no sense of what Final Draft would do with the format and the word-wrapping.

I think it might end up being 150 pages or so because there's a lot of description to add.

Okay. SLIDERS REBORN Part 2 is in good shape. I have only the final action sequence left to write. And I need to insert some extra jokes into the earlier pages.

There was a lengthy sequence in Part 2 where something Informant said back on the old-Bboard that stood out to me:

And I firmly disagreed in my responses -- but then I wrote a script that pretty much agrees with Informant! Eeeeek!

.... so, when the Professor died, I was 10-years-old. It was one of the most traumatic events of my life. I felt like my own father had died. About five years later, I was rather upset with Tracy Torme over AOL Instant Messenger. I was a kid. I was furious that he'd left SLIDERS and let the Professor die. "My dad was sick and I had to be with him, I'm sorry you lost your TV dad," he said. "I lost my dad too." Arturo's death left a hole in my heart. A void that couldn't be filled.

**

A film student wrote me an E-mail recently about "Slide Effects." He asked me where I got the idea for how to resurrect the original sliders and reset the show to just after Season 2. The idea was stolen from Tracy Torme during that AOL chat. The student asked me: "How are you so good at screenwriting?" Which is bull#!t. SLIDERS REBORN's laboured development would indicate that there are some serious issues here. But I told him I understood certain requirements of screenwriting -- writing third person, showing the edited highlights of larger events, telling stories with action and visual information -- and also, that every story must have a point. An insight. Something to say.

What I wanted to say with "Slide Effects" is that fiction can only be created and never destroyed. The SLIDERS concept is magnificent. The series is truly unique. It has four lead characters who can embody cynicism and hope, experience and innocence, crusading and caution, wisdom and stupidity. It has a storytelling platform that welcomes any genre. Any story is conceivably a SLIDERS story. And once it exists, it can't be killed.

Yes, Wade was sent to a rape camp, then had her brain cut out and put in a jukebox from the movie BIG. The Professor had his brain sucked out, was shot, then left on a planet that blew up. Quinn was merged with another actor and 'lost.' Rembrandt -- fate unknown. The sliders' home Earth was invaded by Kromaggs and left that way. There was no conclusion to the Kromagg Prime saga or the search for Quinn or Logan St. Clair's pursuit or the FBI investigation and every single thing SLIDERS ever set out to do ended in ghastly failure with every single character dead or worse than dead and all because David Peckinpah was in no condition to run a show.

But it's fiction. And I think "Slide Effects" was my way of saying that if you embrace the sliders as fictional creations and the concept of sliding, everything that was lost can come back. You can retrieve Arturo, restore Wade, rescue Quinn and reunite them with Rembrandt. You can save them all.

**

Tom said I should do my own SLIDERS podcast. I think the stuff I have to say about SLIDERS is better said in scripts. SLIDERS REBORN is an effort to give SLIDERS something that it currently lacks, even with "Slide Effects." You'll see what I mean.

I was thinking back on the original series and Season 1. And it wasn't really *that* different from what HEROES REBORN is doing as far as multiple characters in spread out locations dealing with separate stories. I think the *main* difference was the scripting style. The overall plot might have been all about the myth-arc of evolved humans. But the individual scenes, as scripted, were not about the mythology, but rather the characters.

HEROES REBORN done Season 1 style would be subtly different. Noah's scenes would be less about finding out what the Evil Company and more about him and Quentin bonding over their respective losses and recovering from their grief. Ren's storyline would be about how he's an obsessive gamer who keeps treating Real Life like a game only to be hit with consequence and danger and loss. Luke's storyline would be about his bloodlust for EVOs only to realize he's one of them. I think Carlos' plot has been pretty Season 1-esque -- every scene is about his trauma and his rage. Tommy's plot has been about his loneliness and isolation.

I really have no issue with the *plots* themselves, but rather the scripting style. And I think that this is what Bryan Fuller brought to the table. In Volume 4, Sylar's father was going to be the satanic villain of the volume. Fuller took that plot and just made it Sylar and John Glover talking for 3 - 4 scenes. The hunt for metahumans was part of the story, but it was ultimately about Sylar recognizing that his killing spree would simply leave him empty, isolated and alone. That emphasis on characterization is missing from HEROES REBORN.

So, Volume Five, Week Two. It was okay.

I guess the problem I'm having right now is that only some of the character arcs are really compelling in themselves and much of the story is still being driven by vagueness without concrete information. This drove me *crazy* with the original Season 1 of HEROES, but it also kept me coming back because I was invested in the characters. How would Claire deal with learning about her powers? What was Peter's secret as he ventured forward and learned more about his true nature? How was Nikki going to cope with her identity crisis? How could Hiro become a hero?

With HEROES REBORN, I'm not as invested in the characters. The Noah Bennett arc is strong, but the lack of solid information, even with clues, is keeping me from getting into it. The Luke character arc wasn't as well handled as I'd hoped; his lack of enthusiasm for continuing his murder spree actually reduces the impact of the reveal that he's an EVO. It would have worked better if he'd continued to genuinely hate EVOs right up to discovering he's what he's been hunting; the way they did it is instead rather muted.

The Ren and Katana Girl arcs suffer from the same problem as Molly Walker and Taylor. There is really no clear sense of who these people are. Why does Ren have so much time and enthusiasm for the Katana Girl mystery? Miko herself is largely devoid of personality. Molly is vulnerable and in danger, but there's no sense of who she is either or what she cares about or what she wants. Taylor is defined by being an agent and Francis' girlfriend. This absence of individuality is also matched by an absence of information. It's not fun to watch these characters onscreen.

The girl in the Arctic Circle has no personality and she's fighting a vague sense of vagueness.

The Carlos as El Vengador arc is strong. The Tommy teleportation arc is strong. Mostly because these characters are well-defined and have interesting dilemmas. Carlos is a burnout who suddenly finds direction from his need for vengeance and answers; Tommy is seeking peace but at the center of an EVO plot. There's mystery, but there's also concrete information. I know who these people are and what they want even if I don't fully understand what's going on around them. Same with Noah Bennett. But that means with 50 per cent of the show, I don't know who these people are and I also don't know what's going on.

So, basically, it's a Tim Kring show without Bryan Fuller to help.

The JESSICA JONES trailers struck me as trailers aimed specifically at the fans. People who already know who this character is. And you know, that's okay -- if the show is meant for that precise demographic, then the trailers are just about right. As for being successful? If the show is aimed at a small audience, then it's presumably budgeted so that the cost of making it is below the amount of revenue it will draw from that small audience.

I've had some issues with Marvel movies. I loved IRON MAN, INCREDIBLE HULK and THOR, but IRON MAN II and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER were weak films that led to the also-weak AVENGERS and the very weak first season of AGENTS OF SHIELD. However, one thing that these projects all handled very well was budget and market research. Marvel Studios had a pretty clear idea of who would be interested in seeing these projects and how much money they were likely to make. They then made sure to spend just the right amount so that even a modest success would turn a profit.

I thought IRON MAN III, CAP II, THOR II, DAREDEVIL and the second season of AGENTS were very strong, and I felt a huge part of that was also the creators handling budget constraints more effectively than AVENGERS (where most of the movie was set on the Helicarrier). Marvel Studios has, traditionally, been very good at making sure their costs don't exceed their earnings. I'm sure JESSICA JONES, a low-budget Netflix series, will be handled just as well.

That said, I'm not sure how true that will be for future projects. One of the main forces behind avoiding wasteful spending was Ike Perlmutter, the reclusive CEO of Marvel Entertainment. He had a lot of wise and brilliant business approaches to filmmaking. Filming schedules, locations, scripts, cast availability and budgets were meticulously and obsessively timed and organized. Most Hollywood blockbusters waste millions of dollars due to poor planning that has actors sitting around paid but not working because sets and props aren't ready, location filming that turns out to be unnecessary, special effects sequences that are bought and not used, etc..

Perlmutter's fastidious business sense avoided most of that. Actors were paid sensible figures for their initial films, in the $500,000 to $2 million range, although the success of the earlier films meant increases for the sequels. Inexpensive but talented directors were chosen like Shane Black for IRON MAN III and the Russo brothers from COMMUNITY for CAP II and Alan Taylor from GAME OF THRONES for THOR II. Actors were not given endless luxuries; they were not given vast expense accounts or free airline travel for their entourages. Journalists were only allowed one soda each at press junkets.

Unfortunately, Perlmutter was also a crazy ****ing lunatic who was sexist, racist, homophobic and hateful towards his employees. It's one thing to handle money this way; something else to handle people and talent in precisely the same manner. Perlmutter's downfall came when Downey Jr. expressed his interest in starring in CAPTAIN AMERICA III in a larger role. Perlmutter considered this Downey Jr. trying to grab more money. Arguably true, but surely if it wasn't financially sound, Downey Jr. could have been politely told, "Thanks, but no thanks." Instead, Perlmutter vindictively sought to have Downey Jr. written out of the CAP3 script entirely and this led to Perlmutter being removed from Marvel movies.

I honestly don't know if it's a good thing. The past years have seen increasingly foolish and idiotic studio behaviour where studios vastly overestimate the audience for their films and spend far more money than they can expect to earn back. (The stated budgets of these films are pretty meaningless because there's apparently additional preparatory and marketing costs that don't show up in the IMDB budget pages.) Look at JOHN CARTER or TOMORROWLAND or TERMINATOR GENISYS or anything directed in the last decade by the Wachowskis.

GENISYS is the perfect example of this poor thinking. Would anyone expect a TERMINATOR movie to earn more than $200 million worldwide? It's a 1984 franchise that hasn't been relevant since 1991. The films are aimed at people who saw and loved the 1984 and 1991 films. It's not a huge audience, and the time travel and continuity make it a tough sell to a general audience. So, to spend a huge sum on such a film would be foolish; any TERMINATOR film should be at most a $50 million dollar film. Paramount spent -- well, I don't know how much they spent, but GENISYS earned $440 million worldwide and yet is considered a failure with its sequels cancelled, which means they really shouldn't have made the movie for however much they invested.

MAN OF STEEL earned close to $700 million and is also considered by Warner Bros. to be a non-success -- in that they didn't make as much of a profit as they'd hoped. That's why MAN OF STEEL II became a BATMAN & SUPERMAN film; that's why there are no standalone Superman films planned. And to me, that's just ridiculously poor mathematics; if summer action films are earning hundreds of millions and their planned sequels are being cancelled, then too much is being spent to make them.

As I said, Marvel has been good at avoiding this silliness, but they have stumbled into it with AGE OF ULTRON, which earned $1.4 billion and is considered a disappointment at Disney. Not because they lost money, but because they didn't earn as much as they'd hoped -- which means they probably shouldn't have spent as much as they did.

But I think JESSICA JONES, being a smaller-scale project, is safe from such things.

Where can I watch DARK MATTERS outside of iOS? I really hate the app.

Good point, Jessie. Hope the Netflix campaign works out!

Yes, this I understand.

I'm not sorry for releasing Part 1 when I did. March 22, 2015 was too important a date to miss. However, completing the script for Part 1 a mere three weeks after the outline gave me a false sense of confidence. Part 1 was not terribly plot-driven and there were far fewer clues and setups than were needed for the payoff of Part 2. With Part 2, seemed fine in a general outline (or possible to rationalize) became illogical, nonsensical and incomprehensible when typing out actual scenes with events and dialogue. But it has gotten a bit ridiculous that a June 2015 script is coming out in October.

I wrote a scene today where Rembrandt encounters a double of Maggie who is a secret-agent-action-girl. Well. I think at 48, I have to call Maggie an action-woman. The plot and pacing required that Rembrandt convince this stranger that he is her ally and can be trusted. The means by which I had him do so is questionable in the extreme, but damn it, this had to move along.

I genuinely do not know if it's true to Rembrandt to have him declare that of all the sliders, Maggie is the one he knew best. Or if it's true to say that he knows her so well he can convince any Maggie-double that he's a friend. And also to say that Maggie gave him (off-camera) combat lessons during their two and a half years together. (But surely she would have?) But I think when writing tie-in fiction, you have to take some chances like these in extrapolating this way.

Something I really enjoy about fanfic -- many people have told me about the importance of not being self-indulgent in your fiction. Killing your darlings. Doing what serves the story as opposed to your personal fetishes and obsessions. But fanfic is a place where you can do all that. I was listening to the SLIDERS Rewatch podcast where Tom and Cory were joking about the Elston Diggs character of Season 3, laughing about how this silly character pops up in scripts and spouts expository dialogue to the sliders without any provocation, inexplicably telling strangers about his world and society like he assumes they're interdimensional visitors and need to be informed of what for Diggs would be common knowledge.

And when a scene required a receptionist, I could not resist making that receptionist Elston Diggs while presenting his bizarre expository dialogue as an indication of a compulsive mental disorder.

Okay. At the rate I'm going with the second SLIDERS REBORN script -- writing a scene or two on weekdays, writing large chunks on weekends -- it will be done by next week Sunday.

I was going to send Nigel Mitchell the script -- but I think that might be waiting too long. Part 2 was supposed to come out in June and I think I've integrated Nigel's input regarding the outline as best I can. One of his remarks was that while he could provide me with bits and pieces to add to the story, he was reluctant to suggest specific changes as the story was intricate and he found that pulling on one thread would unravel the whole thing.

I think, for September 30, I will post the first 15 pages of the script just to indicate that it's well on its way to completion despite the laboured development process. I'll have the first draft done by October 3 and I'll give myself a week to go through each page and punch it up, and then post the Part 2 script and the Part 2B novella (already written) on October 10.

Part 3 -- I think I'll reschedule that for a January 2016 release date, in light of all the issues I had writing Part 2.

"Slide Like an Egyptian." I honestly don't know what to make of this episode and my reaction mirrors Tom and Cory almost exactly. The episode is very strangely edited with scene to scene progression lost as character motives fade in and out of the story. Quinn's death is a moment in a muddled, confused, disorienting episode and leaves me completely cold. The sliders stumbling across a replacement timer that works pretty much the same way the old one did is just baffling to me. It knocked me out of the story completely. The scarab special effect is appalling. Why are the creators of Season 3 so utterly convinced that special effects will attract an audience when the special effects are so terrible?

I really can't figure out what the point of this episode was beyond David Peckinpah's wish to have the Torme timer destroyed and replaced with one he can call his own. As Cory and Tom note, Michael Mallory's advice to Quinn is meaningless nonsense. There's no real exploration of the Egyptian alt-history. This episode is a boring mess and it's hard to tell what they were going for.

With "Paradise Lost," we come to one of the most loathed episodes of SLIDERS ever made. Tom and Cory note all the obvious, glaring errors throughout the story from misdelivered dialogue to silly chronological errors and baffling contradictions in how this town keeps its secrets or discovered the immortality-granting substances.

"Paradise Lost" features two of the worst guest-characters on SLIDERS. Trudy is appalling, claiming to be trying to save innocent people while only ever providing vague, unspecific warnings that have never saved a single person. Laurie is a non-entity paraded in front of the camera as a Baywatch babe, so dull that Tom and Cory have trouble remembering her scenes. And there's an alarming lack of oversight such as Quinn addressing the Professor as "Max" or actors confusing the words "do" and "don't."

This episode is a clear reflection of how the Season 3 production is unprofessional. They commission scripts for SLIDERS even when the pitches clearly lack parallel universe story elements, which reflects the showrunner's indifference to the series. They permit scripts to be filmed without any concern for introducing guest-characters or scene-to-scene progression or reviewing dialogue, indicating that the script editor is not on the job. They permit actors to mis-read dialogue and do not do reshoots, suggesting the script supervisor is either incompetent or being ignored. All this leads to a nonsensical final product.

I think, earlier in the season, some of the Season 1/2 writers (Tony Blake, Paul Jackson, Nan Hagan) were still writing for the show they knew in Season 2, so you'd get episodes like "Double Cross" and "Dead Man Sliding" which merge the Season 3 spectacle/action approach with Season 1/2 storytelling elements. You had writers like Eleah Horwitz writing perfectly decent stories like "The Prince of Slides" and "Season's Greedings," aiming for the same. These were writers who, I think, were willing to do their own quality control on their material. David Peckinpah did the same for himself on "Murder Most Foul."

But then there are the scripts where the writers were either not reviewing their own material or there were changes being made to film material more cheaply and more quickly but without any concern for coherence or watchability.

In Season 1, Tracy Torme, Robert K. Weiss and Jon Povill were often rewriting scripts. "Last Days" and "Eggheads" were heavily redone. "As Time Goes By" had multiple writers working on the individual threads. "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" was heavily workshopped. With Season 3, little to no effort in this area is present. "Paradise Lost" is a marker -- the Season 3 episodes that follow are mostly from scripts that have not been reviewed for basic professional standards (introductions, exposition, in-character dialogue, basic scene-to-scene progression) or have been rewritten in ways that aren't concerned with those standards.

"The Last of Eden" also reflects all the problems that result when scripts aren't being reviewed with these concerns in mind. Cory and Tom explore how the underground society makes no sense and are wildly inconsistent in the threat they pose and the timeline presented by the episode makes no sense whatsoever. The script raises questions about the Gineers that aren't explored in the slighest. The script plunges the sliders into a plot that makes no effort to explore the surroundings or the civilization in any meaningful or informative way, treating every guest-character in this episode as a threat or a mechanism to move the plot to its tedious conclusion.

Episodes like "Double Cross" and "Dead Man Sliding" showed that SLIDERS could give FOX the light entertainment and action-spectacle they wanted while still telling stories with alternate histories and strangers in strange lands. But in the end, the problem isn't even that Season 3 reducing alt-history for doing monsters and horror and fantasy. Any story is conceivably a SLIDERS story; even a story without a strong alternate history is potentially a SLIDERS story. The problem is that Season 3 is doing *bad* monster movies and horror movies and fantasy movies. This regime has no concern for quality or viewer enjoyment and "Paradise Lost" is the point at which this is consistently indicated in nearly every episode that follows.

Behind the scenes information courtesy of Temporal Flux.

David Peckinpah's family posted on the old Sci-Fi Board, protesting the fans' mockery and ridicule towards Peckinpah. Saying he was a wonderful father and a loving man. Informant replied, "What you have to understand is that when you run a show like SLIDERS, you are creating a legacy. People who don't want to be mocked and ridiculed really need to put some thought into what they're producing. I have no doubt that David Peckinpah was a solid citizen. Unmatched in his moral integrity. The last good man on Earth. His show still sucked."

After Peckinpah died, the family posted some stuff on IMDB about how the poor man was simply broken after his son died. And looking at SLIDERS -- Season 3 is a man in pain lashing out. Seasons 4 - 5 represent a man who has given up and simply wants to die.

The 'rock concert' environment of "The Exodus" can be seen in the gag reel. Lloyd is clearly hungover in "The Exodus Part 2," as are Jerry and Cleavant, in the Professor's eulogy scene. John Rhys-Davies was, I think, more irritated by the scripts, which led to Peckinpah despising him and removing his character from the show by sucking out the Professor's brain, shooting him, then blowing up the corpse. Sabrina Lloyd didn't like working with Kari Wuhrer. I have no data on how they felt about the on-set quality of filming.

In the end, yes, David Peckinpah is responsible for SLIDERS' downfall and had little-to-no credit in its continued survival on Sci-Fi. But he wasn't a demonic monstrosity. Just a man. Weak and lost. I think it says something about sobriety -- one must commit to living a healthy life for one's self, not for someone else, not even a beloved child. Be angry with him if you have to. But forgive him.

Behind the scenes information courtesy of Temporal Flux.

So, "State of the ART." Like Cory and Tom, I don't mind this episode too much, although Arturo's aptitude with physics and mathematics seems to have gotten an absurd upgrade to the point where he's repairing robots! The purple sky is intriguing. Visually, this episode is kind of cramped and dull with its bland sets and soundstages and the editing is a little flat. But I didn't mind it too much. Not exactly thought provoking, however. I enjoyed Cory and Tom talking about whether or not they'd submit to being transplanted into robot bodies. Tom's thoughts on artificial intelligence were intriguing as he argued that Derec's 'emotions,' such as they are, don't represent any internal state. They're just programming instructing a machine to show specific symbols on its display, using a human face as its screen and human expressions as its graphic user interface.

At the same time, is the human brain or body anything more than a machine in itself, albeit one of biological components as opposed to mechanical parts? I dunno! Interestingly, Bob Weiss, co-creator of SLIDERS, is also an expert in robotics and is the CEO of a company working on robots that can perform surgery. (I don't think he's currently working on artificial intelligence.)

Then we come to "Season's Greedings," which is again a combination of the Season 1/2 alt-histories with the Season 3 approach of aiming for light entertainment. Unlike "Double Cross," the emphasis is less on action but ultimately about good triumphing over evil. Unlike "The Prince of Slides," this episode has something truly meaningful and important to say about the futility and pointlessness of consumer purchasing and consumer credit. And I like it a lot. It's heartfelt. It's sweet.

It's got an absurd and ridiculous climax where the sliders delete debt records to free everyone in the mall from their servitude -- I find it *very* difficult to believe there wouldn't be extensive backups of this stuff. I get the impression this script was written well before computers were as common as they are now and in our pockets. I enjoyed Cory and Tom noting how the friendly, cheerful setting of the mall is essentially a polite face on slavery, however, and I suppose that's part of why I don't quibble too much with how the story is resolved.

But certain things trouble me.

Quinn Mallory. Something has gone wrong with Jerry's performance and the scripting of the character. The physicality and the expression of the character have gotten confused. The scene that strikes me as most wrong is when Quinn and Kelly go to dinner. Quinn talks about his family's traditions. Jerry is completely out of character in this scene. He acts like he's accustomed to attention from women and enjoys it greatly.

I think a Season 1/2 Quinn would perform exactly the same dialogue, but with Quinn's usual reserve and slight social awkwardness, making it less of a performance and more of an awkward sharing between himself and a new friend. Jerry, however, plays this scene as completely flirtatious and intensely sexual and it's deeply uncharacteristic for Quinn; why would Quinn be flirting with Wade's sister at a time when Wade is hurting for family? Had Jerry modulated his performance correctly, it would have come off as Quinn trying to better understand Wade through understanding Kelly.

Instead, Jerry plays it like he's on a date. Tom and Cory highlight deleted scenes where Quinn was written to have had a crush on Kelly since their first meeting at Wade's house over dinner. That also doesn't sync with Jerry's performance. Would this confident, flirtatious, girl-chasing Jerry O'Connell have been at a loss for words when first meeting Kelly? Would he have been "unable to take his eyes off her," as Wade says in the script? No -- this version of the character would have asked Kelly out.

The other scene that really rubs me the wrong way with Quinn is Quinn pouncing on the mall manager at the end and punching him out with enraged satisfaction. I don't see why Quinn would do this; the man's business has been shattered, he's wanted by the law, his assets have been destroyed and his face is known to all. What was the point? Quinn knows when a guy is beaten; he doesn't enjoy inflicting physical pain. Something has gone really wrong here.

The ending. Oh, the ending. Yes, it's nice to see a happy ending. But I remember this article where Tracy Torme remarked that he felt Season 3 of SLIDERS (at the halfway mark) was doing empty, feel-good television. Everything is wrapped up happily at the end. All is well. The sliders open the vortex off camera to save money. And they leave. No twists, no thought-provoking endings. Just acceptable mediocrity.

Film director James Gray once remarked, there are two words in the English language -- "good" and "enough" -- that, when combined, are a recipe for low standards. "State of the ART" and "Season's Greedings" are certainly good enough -- but SLIDERS is no longer receiving the detailed care and love to characterization and viewer enjoyment that often made it great.

Next: The terrible truth of Season 3.

Maybe it's just me -- but I fail to see how missing episodes on Hulu and Netflix could truly prevent any of us from watching them anyway. I mean, we're SLIDERS fans, for God's sake. We may as well have invented the Internet when it comes to TV shows.

(I'm using various qualifiers in case Temporal Flux sweeps in and has exact and precise information that makes me wrong.)

I would be astonished if the real San Francisco has ever appeared in SLIDERS outside of stock footage of the Golden Gate Bridge.

What's your beef with Firefox?

My issue is simply that it's gotten bloated and slow -- but I still like it in theory. And with all the extraneous features stripped out.

I have now completed 1/4 of the Quinn-Arturo scenes.

In other news, I've discovered a really great web browser -- Pale Moon. It's a variant on Firefox. I really like Firefox for all the great extensions and the way you can customize it. But Firefox has become a bloated mess of a browser. And even on i7 processors and 8GB of RAM, it's prone to delayed starts and regular freezing up compared to Chrome's instantaneous response. I recently discovered Pale Moon, which is a build of Firefox that's extremely stripped down and lightweight. It has all the features of Firefox, but none of the absurd demands on the CPU and processor. The main subtraction is compatibility with older-generation processors and operating systems. I've been settling for Chrome because Chrome is fast, but I think I might switch to Pale Moon.

I don't think it's a good idea.

I don't think Tom and Cory completely captured my opinion, which is this: you can have new actors play Quinn the boy genius, Arturo the bombastic man of wisdom, Wade the moral crusader and Rembrandt the outdated showbiz icon. But trying to have new actors imitate Jerry, John, Sabrina and Cleavant creates an awkward uncanny valley effect where all the audience will notice is how the imitation is either wildly off-the-mark or close but not-quite-right.

It's also a crappy situation for the actor. Instead of trying to capture the emotion, intensity and dynamic of a scene, they're trying to capture what some other actor might have done with the scene. It doesn't make for a good performance.

Even Robert Floyd, whose Jerry-impersonation is perfect, wasn't keen on imitating Jerry. He didn't think it was a good idea for him to play Quinn 1.0 and only Quinn 1.0. because he felt the audience would get tired of it and he would simply be copying another actor. His opinion was that it would be best if he could constantly shift between Quinn and Mallory. That way, imitating Jerry would just be one part of creating something new.

So, "The Prince of Slides." Cory and Tom seemed to enjoy this one aside from a few small plotholes (specifically, the Duke nearly getting killed at his cottage, then remaining at the cottage for anyone to find him). They liked a lot of the well-crafted characterization with George being revealed as a pawn rather than a villain. The alt-history with America as a post-Revolution monarchy was effective for them and they also liked the expanded alt-history in the deleted scenes. I enjoy "Prince of Slides" too -- it's a strong combination of the alt-history of Seasons 1 - 2 with the action-spectacle approach of Season 3. This is how the average Season 3 episode should have been; an engaging, enjoyable, professional product.

But there are little things that irk me. First of all, monarchies are bull$#!t. I'm not an American, but I find "Prince of Slides" to be treacherously unAmerican. To put it simply, you people living in America are capable of governing yourselves; you don't need kings to be selected for you by right of blood and birth (a.k.a. luck). If God chooses your rulers in this way, he's not much of a God. I'm not saying Americans do a great job of governing themselves; I'm just saying that of all the ways to organize your society and move towards greatness, monarchies are the dumbest way to do it, choosing leaders by family rather than by demonstrable ability.

So, to see the sliders defending kings and queens is pretty weird, although "Prince of Slides" makes it an internal revolution rather than a revolt from an oppressed population. What's troubling to me is that the sliders barely question or critique this absurd system of government, with Arturo actively supporting it as he laps up the luxuries of royal life. This is troubling when contrasted with "Prince of Wails" where Arturo was both supportive and critical of such power structures.

I also really took issue with Arturo creating a false identity for Quinn as a "fitness instructor." Holy S-word. We have really lost sight of who the hell this character is, haven't we? I think Arturo would have presented Quinn as the Duke's scientific advisor; you'd barely need to alter the dialogue for this.

I adored how Cory and Tom protested Arturo being presented as a Swiss-Army-Knife who walks like a man, noting that Arturo is now an expert on royal decorum and can perform C-sections. And I really liked their irritation towards another bizarre backstory for Rembrandt; his revelation that Danielle is the reason he calls himself the Cryin' Man is... I'm not saying it couldn't work, but "Prince of Slides" doesn't hit the mark. I'm not sure why, and I'll need to follow up later, but the story rings false to me and Cory and Tom found it over-the-top in trying to elevate the Danielle character's importance.

They also found it strange that Quinn wins the swordfights. Well, Jerry O'Connell is/was a championship-level fencer who'd won many competitions. Given Quinn's sports-obsession, I don't think it's impossible that he a fencer as well as a surfer / basketball player / baseball player / football player / waterboarder etc..

"The Prince of Slides" is pretty good, but, as stated, I have some concerns.

So, the "Desert Storm" podcast. Cory and Tom didn't like this episode much, nor do I. It's the spectacle-oriented version of SLIDERS but there is absolutely no energy, no drive, no excitement. The direction and editing of this episode are amateurish and incoherent, and the entire story is just a collection of setpieces pastiching the MAD MAX movies.

Ian McDuffie put it beautifully on his blog, noting that if people want to watch MAD MAX, they'll watch MAD MAX. They won't be interested in a cheap fan-film version that happens to feature the cast of SLIDERS. What's the point? The intense level of indifference within the production is disturbing; this is an episode where Arturo's illness is referred to as a *heart* condition when in "The Guardian," he was getting a BRAIN scan. God damn it.

And finally, "Desert Storm" is a scathing indictment of the LA production team on SLIDERS. A show so incompetent and incapable in its operation that it couldn't even avoid getting people killed. The stunt and safety standards on SLIDERS were so sloppy and lax as to be criminally negligent. Before "Desert Storm," there were constant visitors to the set; after "Desert Storm," production started locking down on visitors in an effort to cover up the circumstances Ken Steadman's death. SLIDERS in Season 3 was so bad that it KILLED someone.

And then we come to "Dragonslide." Oh, "Dragonslide." This is where I really gave up on SLIDERS. Tom and Cory didn't make too big a deal of it, clearly drained by "Electric Twister Acid Test" and "The Dream Masters" and "Desert Storm." But "Dragonslide" is the episode that flat out declares that magic exists in the SLIDERS mythos.

This is simply wrong. SLIDERS lends itself to many kinds of stories, sure. But the core of the show is founded on sliding as a scientific creation. A marvel of engineering. Much of sliding operates on how scientific principles are behind the wonders of the multiverse. And most SLIDERS stories, certainly the strong ones, operate on the sliders appreciating that the realities they visit operate on rules that can be understood and manipulated.

Tom and Cory took issue with the silliness. For me, the issue is abandoning any notion of rules. Within a work of fiction that operates on physics, mathematics, engineering and a loose sense of quantum mechanics, you can still have fantasy elements. You can have psychics and telepaths and present that a somewhat scientific concept from tapping the undiscovered abilities within the human mind. You can have monsters as the product of genetic engineering or cybernetic enhancement. It may be a stretch to call any of this science, but SLIDERS ultimately functions on the idea that the world(s) can be *understood* through reason and rationality.

But when you have people transforming into birds and magically taking over bodies and resurrecting and shapeshifting through spells, you've stepped into a level of arbitrary and, quite frankly, inexplicable fantasy. There is no reasoning or logic to how Quinn can come back to life or why killing Phillip Mallory would damn the villain. There's nothing for the sliders to investigate and understand. It's simply about manipulating meaningless symbols. Swords. Potions. Incantations. And SLIDERS simply isn't suited to this kind of storytelling.

When encountering psychics, the sliders learned the advantages and limits the psychics had and then formulated a plan. When encountering dragons and wizards, the sliders pick up magical objects. It doesn't call upon their intelligence, ingenuity, inventiveness or teamwork. "Dragonslide" also throws away any notion of world-building via an alternate outcome to a historical event. That sort of writing operates on applying logic, reason and extrapolation, and "Dragonslide"'s version of SLIDERS throws all that away in favour of magic.

Magic is a disservice to SLIDERS and its characters, and that's why "Dragonslide" is such an abomination despite being inoffensive as a piece of television.

Anyway. I laughed out loud when Tom and Cory balked at "Dragonslide"'s claim that the Rembrandt of the Pilot was getting ready to move in with Alicia Avo. That's just silly. The Rembrandt of Season 1 was clearly single and not desperate to return home to a lover from whom he'd been unwillingly parted.

"Dead Man Sliding" is a fun episode for me. Like "Double Cross," it merges an action-oriented version of SLIDERS with the Season 1/2 approach and the result is an engaging, visually captivating product. It's fun. The game show murder trial situation is delightfully off the wall. Jerry O'Connell's performance does a great job of distinguishing his double from the normal Quinn. Tom and Cory didn't seem to like Arturo, Wade and Rembrandt angsting about Quinn's situation, but I found the scene heartfelt.

Tom and Cory seemed to have a mixed reaction to Wade dressing up in club girl attire; on one level appreciating it, on another, having trouble connecting it to the mousey Wade of Season 1/2. I thought it worked; after two years, the sliders are used to putting themselves into different roles in order to survive. It's a very sudden jump, of course, but all TV in this era had massive character shifts between seasons to show maturity as episode-to-episode development was impossible.

At times, however, the LA production style causes problems. Perrey Reeves (Taryn the bounty hunter) doesn't convince as a warrior. She's a fine actress, but the costuming puts her in a ridiculous skintight vinyl outfit. The result is that we don't see a character who is a capable hunter of fugitive criminals; it's a Hollywood actress in a revealing outfit.

It also results in a weird visual situation where when Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, Arturo and all the guest-stars look like stylish models and nobody looks normal, the overall sense of reality is diminished. The Vancouver episodes felt like a physical reality inhabited by all sorts; the LA episodes are creating a reality that's only inhabited by people from magazine covers. Tom and Cory seemed to have fun with this episode, and I did too -- although it would have been better if it had been filmed by the Season 2 team.

I've never seen "Electric Twister Acid Test," but I loved hearing Cory and Tom read message board posts about the fan who adored all the special effects and found them to be the perfect representation of SLIDERS at its best.

I'm not going to listen to the podcast now. I'll listen to it during my commute tomorrow. :-) Thank you, Cory.

As for DAWSON'S CREEK -- I dunno! I watched it when I was 18/19 and I was kind of a Puritanical jerk who totally agreed with the show's characters holding Jen in judgement for the apparently horrific sin of having sex. I wonder if, rewatching it today, I'd see it as the authorial voice or merely the judgments of flawed characters. Also, I enjoyed Seasons 1 - 2 a lot, but found that when Kevin Williamson left after that, he took all the humour, fun and wit out of the series. Season 3 was crass and ugly; Season 4 was bland and I never made it to Seasons 5 - 6. Loved the series finale that Kevin Williamson returned to write, though.

Anyway. Matt and I are in that situation that even the very best of friends will find themselves in -- where we must agree to disagree.

My absence was noted in the "Fire Within"/"Prince of Slides" podcast. I have been working on SLIDERS REBORN. Most of my energy for SLIDERS is going there. Had a pretty intense story conference last night, too. :-)

I am gathering my thoughts on recent podcasts, but rest assured, I think the Rewatch Podcast has been excellent.

Sorry to hear about the tech issues.

Continuing with thoughts on the "GF"/"Y&R" podcast -- I enjoyed Tom and Cory performing the 29.7 exposition scene that was cut from "Summer of Love." They did a fun job of playing the characters and Cory and Tom's impressions of Jerry, Cleavant and John are very funny.

However, this makes me more certain than ever that imitating the actors for a SLIDERS audioplay would be a very bad idea. I'm not saying it's impossible: Robert Floyd can imitate Jerry's voice well and Bob Joles made a career of copying John Rhys-Davies. But at the end of the day, I think a new actor playing these roles would be better off playing *Quinn* rather than imitating Jerry. If Rob found the time to perform dialogue for me, I wouldn't ask him to play Quinn the way Jerry O'Connell played him. I'd ask Robert Floyd to play Quinn the way Robert Floyd would play him. Same thing with Tom and his acting troupe.

David Peckinpah!

Sorry for not commenting on your recent podcasts -- when there was no in-thread post about a new podcast, I missed it!

The "Greatfellas" and "Young and Relentless" podcast was strong in discussion but frustrating for me. I don't know why, but the volume kept dropping randomly throughout the podcast. I'd turn up the volume to hear, only for the voice to be booming. Then I'd turn down the sound only to find the volume dropped so low I couldn't hear what Tom and Cory were saying. This was also present to a lesser extent in the "Double Cross" and "Rules of the Game" podcast.

Anyway. I thought it was hilarious that Tom and Cory were so disappointed by the Cleavant/Clinton doubling in "Greatfellas." I always thought it was very well-handled, but Tom and Cory found it obvious, glaring and easily noticeable when Clinton played Rembrandt-1 or Rembrandt-2. I also enjoyed Tom's fixation on Wade-2 in "Relentless." Neither episode is spectacular for me, but there's a lot of fun cast interaction and strong scenes. Tom and Cory noted that "Relentless" seems to have some serious logic and transition issues throughout: Quinn is inexplicably threatened by the unimposing Kyle, Quinn and Wade go from being captive to in control after a commercial break. Torme says the crew was tired during this time as it was the last episode of Season 2 to be filmed.

I enjoyed the talk, but it was *really* annoying at times when the audio would drop out. I'll talk about the next podcast soon. :-)