Topic: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

http://sliders.tv/bboard-archive/viewtopic.php?id=103

Surf Dance Chris
2015-03-10 01:23:47
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Based on a recommendation on one of the Sliders fan Facebook pages, I just watched Parallels. It is a new movie streaming on Netflix which apparently was originally to be a pilot for a new show on Fox. I strongly recommend to everyone on this board. It reminds me so much of Sliders, and would be a great series. I won't give away any spoilers here, but would be interested in discussing once some of you have seen it.

Anyone seen it yet?



Informant
2015-03-10 18:36:05
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I noticed it on Netflix the other day. I will have to watch it sometime.




KerrAvon2015-03-10 22:40:25
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I watched it and I decided it had to be a pilot or something because there was NO RESOLUTION.  I liked the idea and it so reminds us of Sliders with the idea of different worlds, doubles, etc. The main problem I have with it is the characters are just not as endearing as our beloved Sliders. 

They really got on my nerves. They were for the most part downright stupid, and just all around assholes. 

The lady they meet seemed to be somewhat likable but for the most part, I just hated this group of "explorers". 

Will it be picked up? Probably not.

Just can't get vested in the characters. I would recommend not watching this and check out something lik e Bitten or Helix.





RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan
2015-04-08 03:00:47 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2015-04-08 03:02:50)
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Saw this, really enjoyed it. The first half definitely felt like a sliders reboot with a modern day take (eg the continuum type style). I'd be happy if this actually did become a series, as it intented to, because i think it helps fill the void that not having sliders on creates... taking advantage of the 'what ifs' of the possible worlds that could exist.






SliderTen2015-04-10 15:05:42
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I finally was able to watch Parallels last night and wow! I gotta say we can dub this Sliders: The Next Generation. It is so modern and gritty and EXACTLY how I'd want a Sliders reboot to happen. Yes we don't have the genius and sliding being his invention but I kinda like how it's more of a mystery instead of them just jumping through and seeing what happens.

This follows the exact formula of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica. That was a miniseries "pilot" that they hoped would get picked up (which it did). I really liked this and I think there's great things abound for Parallels if it's done right (not airing on FOX would be a great start).

One thing that would rock is if JOC, JRD, or even Tracy Torme had some involvement with this show. The possibilities are endless. If this indeed becomes a series this alone would get me to subscribe to Netflix.

Webmaster of the old-school Sliders fan page at Geocities/TimesSquare/1473 (Archive.org copy here: https://web.archive.org/web/20091027062 … are/1473/)

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

I thought the PARALLELS pilot was an interesting vision of what could have been a new version SLIDERS. My revival effort, SLIDERS REBORN, is something for those fans who long to know that Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo are alive and well. But a more realistic SLIDERS revival would be something like PARALLELS: the alternate universe concept with a very different set of characters.

I would have been okay with PARALLELS being released with the title SLIDERS. Pretending for a moment that PARALLELS is SLIDERS: it's a neat reimagining where the lead characters aren't scientists, where sliding's creation and creator are an unknown mystery, where the focus is almost immediately on strangers dealing with sliding and dealing with an unfamiliar world as a group. The original Pilot is, by modern standards, slow.

PARALLELS moves fast while keeping a strong sense of characterization and gave you a sense of what a whole season's worth of episodes will be like because the characters all experience sliding together rather than one character going first. And because sliding is a mystery on PARALLELS, there's no need to spend half the pilot explaining the time limit or how it works or how it was created; the rules are established faster.

If PARALLELS had been called SLIDERS, I would not have been irked by all the changes from SLIDERS. All the changes serve to get the audience and characters into sliding quickly and establish what it's like for these characters to explore strange new worlds. The changes aren't just differences; they are purposeful and they are effective. Removing the scientific character from SLIDERS but plunging the characters into sliding makes the story focus on the experience rather than the details.

I sure hope this Pilot isn't just a pilot.

Also, check out THE LOST ROOM, a mini-series by the same writer/director. Great stuff -- and with a strong ending, unlike PARALLELS.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

I exchanged messages with the director on this recently. He seems pretty confident this is going to get made into a series.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

That's good to hear! Hey, if you have contact with him, would you mind asking about the status of the LOST ROOM comic? It was announced. But then quietly faded into nothing with no release ever made.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

ireactions wrote:

That's good to hear! Hey, if you have contact with him, would you mind asking about the status of the LOST ROOM comic? It was announced. But then quietly faded into nothing with no release ever made.


I'll do what I can.  I'd also recommend you reach out to him over twitter.


Was Lost Room good? Seems the ratings are good for it but i'm guessing its not in the speculative scifi genre i'm mostly into.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

I had just spotted this movie on Netflix. Definitely going to give it a watch and review!

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

I enjoyed Lost Room but felt it would have been better with more Episodes.
There was a lot crammed in to so few Eps.

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

LOST ROOM is great. Eerie. Mysterious. And filled with ideas; it's like five seasons of a TV show in three movies, and I loved the hypercompressed, concept-filled story with a series finale built right into it. The ending was suitably ambiguous, serving both as a conclusion AND allowing for more stories someday. It wasn't like PARALLELS; LOST ROOM was fine all by itself -- although I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more. Best kind of ending. :-)

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

I ... I hated it. Sorry.

Though Parallels borrows heavily from Sliders, it digs out all the cool stuff ... but then seemingly forgets to add in all the rather important and relevant angles like, oh, character interactions, development, motives, science, history, story tension - you know, all the 'boring' stuff.

It's like they amalgamated all 5 seasons of Sliders into this backdoor pilot. Unfortunately, they picked all the flashy and no substance parts...

WARNING! RAMBLE AHEAD!

So, we have a mysterious TARDIS like building that has punched through all known dimensions, and so, appears in every single alternate reality - which serves as the 'vehicle' for our dimension hoppers. Let's just ignore the improbability and the unbelievably massive scale of this for now. We also have an arbitrary countdown of 36 hours (why 36 hours? Don't know. Just something pulled out of someone's ass) before the building 'moves on' to the next world. (Well, not the actual building, but the people inside it when the countdown ends. Just ... just don't ask...) A number made even more confusing because we know from some throwaway lines that people have come in - and out - of the building every now and again, even though supposedly the building doesn't actually return to a world it has already been to.

The main - and severely bland - characters suddenly turn out to have parentage from the 'core' world - the people who created the technology. (Another pull from Sliders) and the mysterious Dad runs off in the end to continue his fight with some mysterious dudes and abandons his kids (again) to search for their Mum who - apparently - isn't really dead as they all believed. (And his Son had to face the trauma of for all these years).

Confused a little? Yeah.

We are only treated to 2 new dimensions, but like I mentioned before about leaving out all the important stuff from Sliders, we aren't really given any real background, history or discovery about these worlds - which is the most important thing you need in an alternate-dimension show. Just some throwaway pieces is all we really get. No real development or knowledge is explored.

No show is complete without a villain, and on post-apoc Earth we have a guy who has been 'watching' the building for some time now as the main character's Dad nuked their world. (Another WTF. Don't ask). He gets pulled along for the ride into High-Tech world and creates an interface which hacks into the building, which now allows the characters - if I have to call them that - to now choose their next destination. It's ok though, he built a miniature nuke on his own world, so he is quite intelligent to hack into the technology of people who can puncture a whole into every single known reality.

Ahem.

The only saving grace of the whole thing is Polly, our sassy dimension hopper who provides the outcasts with some knowledge about travelling between dimensions since she has done it for some time now. Though I spotted something weird early on, we find out in the end that she has 3 of her duplicates (i.e alternate selves gathered from other realities) hidden in the building, and they each take turns to go out with the others into a new reality.

Why? Well, we will never know because this backdoor pilot hasn't been picked up as of yet.

And let's hope it never will.



Sorry. This is what I fear the most about a Sliders reboot. Where's the substance? Where's the heart? Where's the actual science and history? Where's the characters to care about being suddenly sent adrift into the multiverse? Honestly, it was like a bad fanfic. I really don't want this from a reboot if it ever happened.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

I don't disagree necessarily with any of which you just said, but I suspect that many of these devices had planned payoffs later in the series had it been picked up. If Sliders' pilot was produced and nothing picked up afterwards, many of the same things could be said about that.

The building and countdown do seem rather convenient, especially the building part. The 36 hours was probably purposely done by whoever designed it, I'd guess. I'd certainly be interested in watching this series of it were to get picked up. Yeah it's not Sliders but it certainly has potential.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Slide Override wrote:

I ... I hated it. Sorry.

We are only treated to 2 new dimensions, but we aren't really given any real background, history or discovery about these worlds. No show is complete without a villain, and on post-apoc Earth we have a guy who has been 'watching' the building for some time now as the main character's Dad nuked their world. (Another WTF. Don't ask).

Well. Personal taste. I really enjoyed PARALLELS. With the lack of detailed alternate history -- I felt that it was part of the show's approach. PARALLELS focused on the confusion, the disorientation, the alien environment of a parallel universe. The characters don't stumble into infodumps via exposition, they encounter only bits and pieces of information and are ultimately encountering only fragments of larger realities. The only area in which I would dispute your criticisms  --

Slide Override wrote:

So, we have a mysterious TARDIS like building that has punched through all known dimensions, and so, appears in every single alternate reality - which serves as the 'vehicle' for our dimension hoppers. Let's just ignore the improbability and the unbelievably massive scale of this for now. We also have an arbitrary countdown of 36 hours (why 36 hours? Don't know. Just something pulled out of someone's ass) before the building 'moves on' to the next world. (Well, not the actual building, but the people inside it when the countdown ends. Just ... just don't ask...) A number made even more confusing because we know from some throwaway lines that people have come in - and out - of the building every now and again, even though supposedly the building doesn't actually return to a world it has already been to.

I don't understand the premise of your criticism. Science fiction is often driven by inexplicable constructs defy sense and reason and any restrictions of physical reality. The idea that the timer can split the skin of reality and send four people to another dimension based on equations and a laser light show is the worst manner of lie ever created.

The TARDIS of DOCTOR WHO and the starships of TREK operate on the idea that they can travel vast interstellar and/or temporal distances through highly advanced technology beyond human comprehension (magic). If the building is such a dealbreaker, I don't understand why you'd watch a science fiction show.

The mystery of the nuclear weapon -- given that it's presented as a mystery, I don't think it's fair to declare it to be poorly considered or illogical -- it's point-blank indicated that there's more to be revealed should and when PARALLELS returns.

But perhaps these elements are only acceptable if you're engaged with the characters and you most definitely weren't?

12 (edited by Slide Override 2015-12-02 14:38:02)

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

ireactions wrote:

But perhaps these elements are only acceptable if you're engaged with the characters and you most definitely weren't?

No, these elements weren't acceptable to me because they didn't make any sense within the worldbuilding that was being presented. You can't throw in this incredible technology to puncture a bridge between every single known dimension, and put a building in every single one that someone can then use to somehow travel through, slap a random arbitrary number countdown on it, have a bomb maker suddenly be able to hack into it - within what like half a day was it after finally going into the building? - throw the estranged sibling's Dad in it who supposedly used to travel along it - oh and he or an alternate bombed the hackers world by the way - have a mum that was dead but somehow now isn't - go find her! And oh, they are both actually from the Core worlds, and oh, that hacker now has created a bridge so you can choose your destination?!! ... It's just a string of random nonsense. Something more akin to the movie of the week Sliders phase of season 3. There was no solid basis or foundation for the show, except - anything can happen. And yes, that's 3 Pollys!

It's obvious you liked it, that's fine.  But I just didn't like it. And this is coming from someone who is a massive science fiction fan.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Slide Override wrote:

You can't throw in this incredible technology to puncture a bridge between every single known dimension, and put a building in every single one that someone can then use to somehow travel through, slap a random arbitrary number countdown on it, have a bomb maker suddenly be able to hack into it

I don't understand. Why can't you do these things in a story? What tenets of storytelling does this violate? Why is this a problem for you? I would like to understand your thinking and learn from it.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Helloooooooooo? Paging Slide Override? People are interested in your thoughts.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

I've waited a while to pin down my thoughts (and see if anyone else was going to chime in). I think, ultimately, it comes down to poor worldbuilding. Suspension of disbelief can be stretched, twisted, and warped any which way within a construct that has been created - but rules need to be set firmly in place before this can happen. I personally don't feel like Parallels succeeds in successfully presenting anything.

I usually find that most media can be deconstructed into a single core concept, the most engaging of which are the concepts which can resonate with me on a core fundamental (usually emotional) level, regardless of the actual construct of the story that can spiral out from this. For example Sliders  - four friends just trying to find their way home - is such a concept. Being lost sliding from one alternate dimension to another is a really cool tool used to facilitate this, just like with Quantum Leap and time travel, but that core concept of 'finding home' is the resonating factor here.

But this is right where my issues with Parallels begins.

We start with a familiar concept, but by the end of the very pilot, the worldbuilding involved around this has utterly distorted it, much like Season 4 of Sliders did. It is no longer about being lost, since they can now control their destination. It is no longer about finding home, since that was just the Earth they were born on and their parents are actually from the Core world. We could argue that it is still about the journey and that sense of adventure whilst trying to track down a family member, but do you not see the issue here? Within a single pilot the core concept has been allowed to take such a sudden, and ultimately jarring, turn, several times over.

You could argue why is this wrong? Why can't a core concept shift and change over time? Well we could easily argue until the cows come home about all the problems and perils of changing a show's core concept halfway through its run, but within its own pilot? Ultimately, the real question is, has the pilot built a strong enough foundation of its world building to either facilitate or ignore such a change?

My personal answer is a resounding no.

We hear of this Core world, with incredible technology beyond what we can imagine, which can punch a hole through to every known dimension in order to place a mysterious building within each world, serving as the gateway for our travellers. Yet, a hacker from a nuked Earth hacked into this building that has such advanced technology (with another world's advanced technology that he wasn't even knowledgeable with) in less than 36 hours? A number which, as I've mentioned before, so far has absolutely no meaning whatsoever and is immediately rendered obsolete by the end of the pilot.

We are told of trauma of this young man's life as he fled the family home after the tragic death of his mum due to a fault of his own, leading him to a life of fights before he found an outlet as a boxer. Yet, he doesn't bat an eye, doesn't show any emotion or impact at all when his deadbeat Dad tells him that she is alive? That the years of guilt, years of anger and sorrow that he or his sister felt, was meaningless? ... Nothing? No emotional at all? This fiery tempered boxing youth?

We see a world more advanced than ours with advanced tech, flashing billboards, and bio-prints which are used as everything from opening doors to paying for goods and services. Yet, we are to believe that a high ranking lawyer's laptop is encrypted with a simple password?

We see a world that has been nuked (by their Dad, or a double, who knows as it wasn't explained) and become a wasteland. Yet, some guy has not only replicated a suitcase nuke, but he has created his own gun that can adapt to ANY ammunition that he can scavenge?

What available worldbuilding or characterisation leads us to believe any of this? Do you not see my problem here?

So, if the worldbuilding is so fragile to start off with, I would argue that shifting its concept (or revealing its true concept from here on out) was a huge mistake. I don't get it. I don't buy into it. I'm not emotionally involved in the story, or the concept, or the characters, or the world building. So what else is there left for me?

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Thank you. I shall rewatch PARALLELS with your thoughts in mind.

17 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2016-02-26 16:35:52)

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

For anyone interested, $5 deal for Christopher Leone's new book

https://www.inkshares.com/books/champio … ird-planet

Also, he gave an update on Parallels in a recent Reddit AMA.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ … rector_of/


The entire AMA is real interesting.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Great to hear that Parallels is not dead yet.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Surf Dance Chris wrote:

Great to hear that Parallels is not dead yet.


Yea, I'd be super excited if it got picked up.  I'm not sure if it will go in a direction where I start losing interest, but I really liked a lot of what they did with the original pilot and loved the alt-world execution, which I hope would keep up episode to episode.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

choanata wrote:

So the Netflix show Parallels is being turned into a tv show now, co-produced by Neil Gaiman. I loved the movie, can't wait for the series.

http://nerdist.com/neil-gaiman-fox-the- … fi-series/

As you know, I didn't like it ... but it would be nice to have something to help for my Sliders fix, so we'll see...

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Interesting to see this come to fruition. Christopher Leone gave an interview about it a couple of weeks ago and said some stuff on twitter, so I had expected this. Interesting FOX choose someone else to be the no. 1 guy but still cool Christopher was able to pull this off. It seemed like he worked hard for it.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

That's great news! I enjoyed Parallels.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Fantastic.  Wonder if it will be a continuation of the movie or start from scratch with new actors. I thought the crew from Parallels had pretty good chemistry.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

All the actors are available -- except Constance Wu who played Polly. At this point, there can't be any contractual obligations holding the actors to the show. I think, given how much time it's been, it might be best to treat PARALLELS is a rough pilot and simply start over again, but they might pick up on the series with a different set of characters who discover the Building or make Polly an occasional guest-star. It's a pretty wide concept, although I think that bringing in a new cast of characters when the original characters has only had the pilot would make THE BUILDING rival SLIDERS in being dismissive towards its leads.

Re: THE BUILDING (née PARALLELS)

Here's hoping they look into all the issues with the pilot.