• From: Vancouver, Canada
  • Registered: 2021-07-05
  • Posts: 15

Topic: Clark "Quinn" Kent

In some episode where Quinn puts some microchip on his forehead/temples and then found out about some foster parents thing.  Were they intentionally trying to turn Quinn in Clark Kent - they sure turned Mrs. Mallory into Martha Kent, and had Lara-El and Jor-El pretty much in costume, too. I can only imagine that Quinn was evacuated for some Krypton-esque reason too. 

I'm not sure if this was just how the writing was in those years, or if there was a common writer on the staff that was trying to get a Superman reference in ....

  • Registered: 2015-06-30
  • Posts: 1,106

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

I never considered that, and you're speaking of the episode Genesis.  It's quite possible though.

  • Registered: 2021-01-21
  • Posts: 74

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

I never considered that they were trying to make a Superman reference. Mostly considering that the storyline was created in the first place so they would have a chance to introduce Charlie O'Connell as Quinn's brother.

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
  • Posts: 4,668

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

A lot of fans remarked that Quinn's backstory was akin to Superman at the time of the original broadcast. I cracked wise that David Peckinpah had retconned Quinn into "Kal-El of ****ing Kromagg Prime." However... I believe that the whole Season 4 Kromagg arc originated with Marc Scott Zicree although what is actually onscreen appears largely against his intentions.

The plan was for the Season 4 finale, "Revelations," to reveal that the entire "Genesis" backstory and invasion was a Kromagg trick. Colin was an altered clone of Quinn planted as a sleeper agent. The Kromaggs had manipulated Quinn into shutting down the slidecage to allow the Kromaggs to retake Kromagg Prime.

Zicree is extremely well-liked among SLIDERS fans and his story idea is also very popular. I, however, am in the minority: I think Zicree is brilliant, but in my strictly personal opinion that is shared by nobody else, his Kromagg Prime story idea was a disaster from start to finish.

The idea of Kromaggs and humans having once shared a homeworld is so antithetical to the Kromagg's xenophobia -- as established in "Invasion" -- that it'd have been better to just create something new rather than use the Kromaggs.

And I think it was a mistake to even do a to-be-debunked season-long storyline in which Earth Prime is invaded and Quinn isn't one of us. SLIDERS operates on the sliders being from a world that is similar to our own so that we and the characters have a common frame of reference for parallel worlds being different. If Earth is a Kromagg Outpost, that frame of reference is altered. Even if "Revelations" was to overturn that, that's still 21 episodes where the sliders don't come from a world that is anything like ours.

Zicree wrote an episode of SUPER FRIENDS and a character in SUPER FRIENDS is actually named after Zicree (Zi-Kree). Zicree worked with writer Michael Reaves whom Zicree apparently brought into pitch ideas for SLIDERS, one of which was bought (and butchered) for Season 5. That said, even if Zicree hadn't worked on SUPER FRIENDS, it's doubtful that any American is ignorant of Superman and Krypton.

  • From: Vancouver, Canada
  • Registered: 2021-07-05
  • Posts: 15

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

ireactions wrote:

The plan was for the Season 4 finale, "Revelations," to reveal that the entire "Genesis" backstory and invasion was a Kromagg trick. Colin was an altered clone of Quinn planted as a sleeper agent. The Kromaggs had manipulated Quinn into shutting down the slidecage to allow the Kromaggs to retake Kromagg Prime.

This is the first I've heard of that idea - that's great!

  • Registered: 2021-01-21
  • Posts: 74

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

Yeah, if they had stuck to that idea, then it would have worked and it would have made the Kromagg arc have a payoff at least. I don't know what any other ideas or other things Zicree had in terms of Sliders, so I can't stake an opinion on him.

Ireactions has a very excellent point about how making Quinn from another world (aside from being stupid) butchers the concept of four people like ourselves exploring paralelel worlds. And it also puts a flaw in the later seasons as well. Maggie's not from our world. We don't know what passes as normal for her. She would have a total different opinion when visiting these worlds. Same with Colin, Diana and Mallory.

  • Registered: 2015-06-30
  • Posts: 1,106

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

TemporalFlux may know better than me, but IMO it's inescapable that aspects of late S3 took inspiration from the Sliders comics.  They dealt with an alien civilization called Zercurvians who got sliding from a Quinn double, who invaded a world, and also helped power mad humans enslave another.  There were further editions that kind of mirrored S3 episodes (especially The Other Slide of Darkness and Soul Survivors).  One was written by Jerry, that was kind of ripped off in S4, the drug episode Just Say Yes. 

Tracy Torme absolutely had involvement in the Acclaim Comics, though I'm not sure about any creative control.  However, it's no coincidence to me that these snippets of stories wound up on screen.

  • Registered: 2021-01-21
  • Posts: 74

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

I’m surprised to hear he had significant involvement in the comics actually since he was highly critical of season 3 when they started covering monsters and magic in every episode.

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
  • Posts: 4,668

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

Torme definitely passed along story ideas to Acclaim. However, the scripts from these story ideas were written by others, and these scripts seem to have been written in a mad dash with the writers urgently watching episodes on VHS and then hacking out a script to meet a deadline. The artwork on these comics is also extremely rushed in many cases. Even with Jerry O'Connell's issue of the comic, artist Butch Guice didn't even bother to finish drawing it, leaving Dennis Calero to complete the second half of the story. It seems unlikely to me that Torme did anything more than pass along unused ideas and sign off on publishing; I doubt he was actively reviewing the scripts or pages or instituting revisions given how the comics are totally against his sensibilities in many cases.

  • Registered: 2015-06-23
  • Posts: 23

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

Grizzlor wrote:

They dealt with an alien civilization called Zercurvians

Every time I see this, I am reminded that in the original solicits for those comics, The Zercurvians were called Draconians.  Which I believe was the same name of the bad guys in The Buck Rogers tv show starring Gil Gerard. Which is probably why it was changed.

Didn't stop me from using  it in Earth 374...

--Chaser9

  • Registered: 2021-01-21
  • Posts: 74

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

Torme definitely passed along story ideas to Acclaim. However, the scripts from these story ideas were written by others, and these scripts seem to have been written in a mad dash with the writers urgently watching episodes on VHS and then hacking out a script to meet a deadline. The artwork on these comics is also extremely rushed in many cases. Even with Jerry O'Connell's issue of the comic, artist Butch Guice didn't even bother to finish drawing it, leaving Dennis Calero to complete the second half of the story. It seems unlikely to me that Torme did anything more than pass along unused ideas and sign off on publishing; I doubt he was actively reviewing the scripts or pages or instituting revisions given how the comics are totally against his sensibilities in many cases.

It makes sense hearing that they were a little rushed. I think that makes sense that Torme didn't like the comics himself but he still wants to consider it part of the cannon. I think in PTSS when the Arturo double goes on tv holding out a device from a parallel world, Torme later commented that it was from one of the comics. Question now that I think about it. How would Arturo 2 get ahold of that? Did he raid our Arturo's pockets as well to see if he had any valuables on him?

  • Registered: 2015-06-30
  • Posts: 1,106

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

Torme's involvement on the comics doesn't really solve the puzzle though, as to how various ideas coincidentally found their way into late S3 scripts, perhaps rewritten after JRD left?

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
  • Posts: 4,668

Re: Clark "Quinn" Kent

I don't remember Arturo picking up any arrowheads in "Blood and Splendor," but if Torme says he did, then he could have done so off-panel. I don't doubt Arturo-2 stole everything that was Arturo's, including his friends and his life.

**

The Acclaim comics, in my view, are mostly awful, but it's not due to a lack of talent. Writer DG Chichester wrote some of the best DAREDEVIL stories after Frank Miller. I'm not familiar with Jeof Vita and Jeff Sommers, but Andy Mangels wrote some magnificent STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE novels and I don't even like ENTERPRISE. Mangels also did amazing stuff with the post-cancellation ROSWELL novels.

Artist Dick Giordano is an industry legend. Bernard Chang did beautiful work illustrating WONDER WOMAN. Dennis Calero is a splendidly atmospheric artist who captured the spirit of the four sliders and probably should have drawn every page of every SLIDERS comic ever. Artist Butch Guice did a magnificent job on CAPTAIN AMERICA and was also behind the visual identity of the Victorian detective series RUSE.

Guice is also significant to me personally: he drew DC/MARVEL: ALL ACCESS #1 which featured Superman and Spider-Man (!) fighting Venom together (!!!). It wasn't the first comic book I read, but it was the first one that made me look for a comic book store so that I could find the next issue. Recently, he's been doing great stuff on SAVAGE AVENGERS.

The SLIDERS comics had enough talent to tell the greatest SLIDERS stories of all time, so the fact that they did not tell even passable SLIDERS stories most of the time is likely due to difficult circumstances. The mad rush to hack out product is probably why the characterization is so shaky, why the artwork is so unfinished, and why the writers keep defaulting to superhero comic book style over winsome dramedy. It's possible that FOX and Universal's licensing departments gave them an extremely limited window to submit material for approval, or perhaps the licensing fees meant the comic book had a budget that didn't allow for more time and resources.

There's also the fact that Acclaim Comics was, creatively, a well-run comic book publisher in my opinion. They developed the brilliant QUANTUM AND WOODY and other great titles. The Editor in Chief was Fabian Nicieza, a gentleman with a reptuation for decency and professionalism in comics (a field where that can be hard to find). Nicieza also had a hilarious run on CABLE & DEADPOOL years later.

Former employee Valerie D'Orazio, an editor at Acclaim, described what a fun, enjoyable, reassuring and talent-supporting environment it was in her autobiography. She also noted a party with an open bar where she got wasted and has no memory of how she got home and when she returned to the office, Nicieza gave everyone a firm but loving lecture about how they had to consume alcohol responsibly and take care of each other at events and act like a team rather than a bunch of unhinged college kids.

Acclaim went bankrupt, not due to the comics division, but due to the video game division's poor sales crashing the rest of the company, although the comics were having across the board distribution problems in getting the books into stores.

Acclaim looks to me like it was a good company. All these writers look pretty solid to me, even the two I've never heard of, Jeof Vita and Jeff Summers, did a joke documentary about their SLIDERS comic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9& … V4VnURlMdc

All these people should have told great SLIDERS stories. The fact that they didn't tells me that the creators and the publisher were unable to do so due to a situation beyond their control. I am absolutely sure they did the best they could with what they had.