Data World

This episode first aired in the UK on 10th August 1998 on Sky 1.

Writer:Joel Metzger
Director:Jerry O'Connell
Guests:Roy Potrice, Phil Fondacaro, Patrick T. O'Brian
Background:
* The Sliders always, when possible, stay at the Chandler Hotel.
Plot:
The Sliders exit the wormhole in a street. 8 hours until the next slide. At first they don't any one and when they do, the people are zombie-like and don't answer the sliders. The Sliders go to the Chandler Hotel, but when they enter, something happens and they are seen sitting up in the street.

(CREDITS)

Back in the Chandler (standing) they seem to be there as well and the hotel owner, Mr. Chandler already knows them. Their rooms are already prepared including extra stuff they like. Apparently, the hotel is an advanced computer system. They are told that their cash is no use here and that everything has no charge, but nothing is free. They are given the rules and go to the bar.

At the bar, they are given the usuals and realise they definately haven't been here before - Remmy thinks he would have remembered Mr. Chandler - and they read the rules. The rules seem to be more pet peves than rules. They find out from the barman that the zombies outside are called 'empties' and that they won't come inside the Chandler Hotel. Quinn sees a little guy who doesn't seem to be comforming to the rules, who then disappears. One of the rules Remmy reads says 'No singing' and the bartender explains that this is because Mr. Chandler has perfect pitch and hates anything not perfect. Rembrandt says he has perfect pitch and doesn't believe anything will happen to him if he sings, so he does, but then starts to choke and sound like a stuck record.

They go to their rooms and Maggie looks through her wardrobe. All of them still feel uncomfortable with the situation. They try to look out the window, but they find that all the windows are walled up. Quinn and Rembrandt go up to the roof to look out. Rembrandt stays by the stairs to keep a look out, and Quinn goes up on to the roof. He looks over the edge and it all seems normal. Mr. Chandler appears and explains that Quinn is seeing what he wants him to see. In order to let Quinn see the real world, Mr. Chandler hands Quinn a pair of binocular like things. Quinn looks through them and sees his own empty walking around the street. To explain, Mr. Chandler relocates himself and Quinn to his office instantaneously. Quinn realises that nothing in this hotel is real - it's all digital. When Mr. Chandler manipulates Quinn's hand, Quinn realises that even he isn't real!

Rembrandt thinks Quinn is taking a log time so he goes up on to the roof to find him, only he can't. He goes back to the others to tell them that Quinn has disappeared. Just after he tells them, Quinn bursts through the door and says they have to go, but doesn't explain why very well. They all try to go out the front door, but it's blocked up as well. They then tyr to get out a different way, but keep ending up in the lobby. They sit down at a table in the bar and Quinn explains. The little guy, Mac, returns and says that Quinn is right. He also says that at this time, he can't help them and then he disappears. Mr. Chandler appears and tells them that no-one has ever got out.

They all go to Mr. Chandlers office and he explains that they, and everything else in the hotel, is digitized representations. He then tells them all the pros: eg. never get old, ill, injured, endless supplies. He also says that he doesn't have an empty outside because he destroyed it. Quinn notices Mr. Chandler's chessboard and agrees to have a game with him sometime (to buy the sliders some time to figure stuff out).

Mac has been watching them on his little keypad and he reloctes them to the junk directory because it is a good place to hide from Mr. Chandler. He tells them that Mr. Chandler created the place as a haven when the anti-tech movement started. Chandler was given power and then began changing the environment at will. Mac won't help them get out because he doesn't think it is possible. They exit the junk directory by going in any direction - all routes lead back to the lobby.

Back in their suite, Quinn puts together a computer thing and modifies the rules to say exactly the opposite. Remmy sings to try it out and seems to be okay. Mr. Chandler appears and stops them being able to move; They are stuck to their spots. Apparently, Mr. Chandler lets Mac roam because it amuses him. Chandler makes Rembrandt choke and when Maggie swears revenge on Chandler for it, he makes her choke as well and then deletes her. There seems to be no "undelete" command in the computer. Quinn tells Remmy and Colin that they will all have to live with her deletion and do nothing to threaten their own (possibly under chandler's influence). Chandler leaves and Quinn thinks he can help Maggie if he can get deeper into the system. To do this, he will play a game of chess with Chandler. He will distract Chandler, while Rembrandt and Colin will go and find Mac.

Quinn goes to Chandler's office to play chess. As he is the guest, Quinn plays white. Chandler mirrors every move that Quinn makes.

Colin and Rembrandt find Mac and Mac fixes Rembrandts voice (when was it ever broken?).

Quinn seems to be winning the game against Chandler. Remmy, Colin and Mac look in on the game via Mac's computer thing. Chandler gets into Quinn's mind and sifts through Quinn's memories of Sliding. He begins to download it, causing Quinn pain in the process.Mac encrypts Quinn, Colin and Rembrandt's files so Chandler can no longer get at them. He relocates Quinn to the junk file and they all look for Maggie's deleted file.

Chandler turns to of his workers into Thor and Freya to combat the Sliders and Mac.

Quinn finds Maggie's disk and Quinn uncompresses it. At the same time as he does this, Chandler breaks Rembrandt's encryption and the result is that Maggie rematerialises in Rembrandt's body. Neither Maggie or Rembrandt is particually happy about this and Quinn quickly reconfigures Maggie's icon to her real body. They decide that to get out, they must fight Thor and Freya and then Chandler.

When they confront Thor, the guys fight him. Quinn has a metal ball thingy, Colin as a sword and Rembrandt has a ham (meant to be a hammer) courtesy of Mac's reconfiguring. Quinn and Remmy are thrown away by Thor, but Colin's programme gets modified so he can fight Thor. He beats him and then Remmy throws the ham at Thor to knock him out. Maggie defeats Freya without her programme being modified.

Once Chandler's assistants have been defeated, Quinn and Mac send everyone back to their real bodies except for Chandler who doesn't have a body and he is just completely deleted. When the Sliders return to their own bodies, they think it was all a wierd dream and they have 7 seconds untill the sldie. Slide in front of everyone else.

Did You Notice?
* Rembrandt room is number 1215
* The extras each of the sliders got:
Rembrandt = his favourite soda
Maggie = a selected wardrobe
Quinn and Colin = sports equipment
* Archibald Chandler founded the hotel on this world (and possibly all the others)
* At the bar, Quinn has a beer and Colin has an umbrella in his drink (that is unless Quinn had an umbrella in his beer, which is unlikely, and considering Colin's obsesseion with umbrellas in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, the "Mr. Mallory" here probably means Colin).
* Mr. Chandler's rules:
1) Proper dress and decorum in public places.
2) No belts with suspenders.
3) No bow ties.
4) No bouffant hair styles for the ladies (fine with Maggie).
5) No hats.
6) No blue eye-shadow (not fine with Maggie).
7) Do not pop your knuckles.
8) Do not use the phrase, "Yes, but it's dry heat."
9) No singing in public places (Rembrandt is not happy with this).
* Rembrandt has perfect pitch.
* Robbie Fisher was Quinn's idol (who's Robbie Fisher?).
* The number on the very fake looking yellow floppy disk behind Mac in the junk directory has the number: D2322-4483794.
* Quinn stares at Maggie when her clothes are changed so she can fight Freya.
* Quinn dibbles in his sleep.
Cool Quotes:

"The story of my life!" - Quinn about the natives ignoring him
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"What is this? A Michael Jackson video?" - Rembrandt about Data World
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"Where's Wes Craven?" - Quinn about Data World
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"What is this? Scream 3?" - Rembrandt about Data World
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"Quinn, you're supposed to finish you're beer before you start hallucinating." - Maggie
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"We've been through wars, plagues and all kinds of warped situations, but this takes the virtual cake." - Rembrandt
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"You sure you're not running a fever?" - Colin to Quinn
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"This is the part where my brother always has a plan. You do have a plan don't you?" - Colin
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"Okay boy genius, what's the plan?" - Maggie to Quinn
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"Never the face bitch!" - Maggie to Freya during the fight
Mistakes:
* The cards they are handed at the hotel reception by Mr. Chandler have the week's activities on one side and the rules on the back, yet when Quinn is reading the rules aloud, he is reading from the activities side as the side saying "rules" is easily visible.
* Rembrandt is heard talking normally after Mr. Chandler did something to him the second time, yet not much later, Mac is fixing his voice, even though he had already been speaking! What's that all about?
* The scenes from Quinn's memory: Some of the scenes showed himself, which of course he wouldn't be able to see. Obviously they had to use scenes alrady available, so why didn't they use less of him as himself, more of his doubles and more of the others sliders. Then it would have been more accurate, although not completely.
* The Empties: Big logic problems here. Mr. Chandler says that everything is a digital representation and their bodies are outside. Yet this doesn't work since if everything is a digital version, their brainwaves would be as well and they wouldn't really exist in the computer. Even if the brainwaves weren't, to make the bodies empty, the brains would actually have to be transferred and then, the bodies would not be walking around the street because they would have nothing controlling them. they'd all be in a heep at the door. Therefore, to have the empties walking around, either the digital versions couldn't really think and the empties would not be empty and they would go about their lives normally, only part of the brain activity is transferred, which would mean neither would be complete, or they would have to be physically linked to the computer system which they weren't. I've made a complete mess of explaining this, but do you see my point?
* How did Quinn know that none of the guests bodies had died whilst they were in the system? This would mean that these guests were dead completely.
* At the end, why did everyone think it was a dream? If their consciousnesses had been in the computer (see above) they would have remembered what happened.
* Who feeds the empty bodies? Some must have been walking around for a long time without any kind of nourishment. Therefore, most of them should be dead and the Sliders should be very hungry.
* Why were all the sliders on top of one another at the end? Even if moving around inside signified the same movement outside, they weren't that close together when they terminated the program.
My Opinion:
Not a bad episode, but I think the writers are going for a more sciency show rather than differences between cultures. The beginning contained a lot of references to one of Jerry O'Connell's recent projects, Scream 2, which was directed by Wes Craven. However, if you didn't know that, it would have worked just as well, although I think Remmy was given too many, "what is this?....." to say. It was a little confusing at the beginning, it lookeed like part had been repeated, but I think most people could work out why that was by the end. The Junk directory looked very typical and I didn't like it for that reason. I enjoyed watching the obsessive Mr. Chandler, but I think him having destroyed his body was a bit predictable. I was glad they brought back Quinn playing chess; It gave the series a sense of continuity. One of my favourite parts of this episode was maggie being recreated in Remmy's body. This gave Cleavant Derricks a chance to play a completely different character (ie. a woman) and I think he did brilliantly. To me, he even managed to mimic Kari Wuhrers way of playing Maggie. I wasn't that happy with the fight scene at the end. It was obvious to me when Rembrandt was given the ham that it was going to save the day. Also, I think that the producers (or whoever decided this) were trying to make Maggie sexier. You only need to look at her clothes in this scene for proof of that. I did not like the way Maggie was able to swing Freya round without any assistance. It reminded me too much of Xena Warrior Princess which is nothing like Sliders. The fight scene did give Charlie O'Connell a chance to show off his fighting skills, but I was surprised they didn't let Jerry do the same. Or maybe it was his descision as he was directing. Who knows? All in all an enjoyable episode, but I personally would have made a couple of changes.


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