TemporalFlux wrote:I always had a fascination with Montague:
When not in class, did he accidentally solve murder mysteries? I bet he did.
In my final SLIDERS REBORN script, I remember writing a role in for Montague and thinking, "TF would be so proud of me for this."
I have actually harboured a suspicion for decades that Montague was not exactly what he appeared to be. His presence in Arturo's class is peculiar; he isn't just struggling to grapple with Arturo's mathematical conundrum, he seems intimidated and avoidant. He clearly doesn't want to be there, yet to be in this advanced graduate level study of select students, he would have had to put tremendous effort into getting there.
"Summer of Love" is also peculiar in that Quinn Mallory's disappearance along with Wade, Rembrandt and the Professor is being investigated as a federal case rather than a municipal or state matter. The incident, which would be easily dismissed as a crank hallucination by most law enforcement agencies, has been elevated to a high echelon of investigation.
My suspicion is that Montague was not actually a physics student at all, but an FBI agent planted in the Professor's class who lacked any actual scientific training and was advised to cower in the face of any questions (because he didn't have the ability to answer them and this could maintain his cover).
My suspicion is that in "Summer of Love," the FBI didn't come to investigate Quinn's disappearance, but that they had been watching him all along; they had been investigating the disappearance of Michael Mallory, a renowned physicist and engineer who had vanished after a car crash which the FBI determined had been staged with the medical records forged, the death certificate bought and the actual body missing.
This was further advanced by Tracy Torme himself who informed fans in private conversations: he had planned to reveal that the Michael Mallory was alive with the thought that the sliders would make it home, but find Michael present and think they had the wrong Earth when they didn't.
Why had Michael faked his death? Torme had a number of possibilities but was not commited to any: he might have abandoned his family for selfish reasons, he might have gone into hiding to protect Amanda and Quinn from dark powers wanting his scientific skills for malevolent reasons, powers who might threaten his wife and son. However, Torme never got around to using this idea and other paths presented themselves for Michael Mallory.
In this context, it becomes clear that Montague is a person who has spent his life unable to assert himself, unable to speak for himself, whose utter lack of distinction in every area of life allowed him to acquire a security clearance and work in a clerical position at the FBI as his life was too boring to pose any security risk whatsoever; Montague cannot attract attention from waiters in a restaurant, cannot be forceful in ringing a doorbell, and is the perfect covert agent to position in Quinn Mallory's life as a near-invisible student, observing, waiting, recording and reporting.
But in the course of these tasks, Montague discovers he has a talent; he can find the breaking point in cold cases. He has a gift for stumbling into previously unrevealed information as people forget he's in the room and confess scraps of information that lead to exposing cover-ups and conspiracies. He has a proficiency in occupying a room unnoticed and unseen, absorbing smaller details that otherwise go unnoticed, and identifying motives and methods that would otherwise go unrecovered.
In the years that have passed, Montague has in his meandering through life solved approximately five cold cases a month. The only cold case he cannot solve, the only cold case that haunts him day and night: the disappearances of Quinn and Michael Mallory.
It is 27 years since the Mallory son vanished, years after the Mallory father disappeared. The time has come. His greatest mystery may finally be resolved. Clearly, SLIDERS' revival will be focused on the hero who was standing unseen in plain sight right from the very beginning.
Surely NBCUniversal will commission a new SLIDERS series on the strength of Montague alone. For this is the moment. The moment of Montague.