Slide By Wire

This episode first aired in the UK on 3rd August 1998 on Sky 1.

Writer:Chris Black
Director:Robert Hudeck
Guests: Meg Foster (Col. Margaret Burke), John DeMita (Steven Jensen), Bobby Jacoby (Siskin), Nicholas Worth (magistrate), John J. Flynn (villager).
Background:
* On Maggie's world, her husband was paralyzed in a skiing accident and she gave up flying to be with him. He was working on sliding and was later killed by Colonel Rickman.
Plot:
I a military base, we see who we assume is Maggie's double jump a man and removing something from him. It's an access thing and she uses it immediately to go into a lab and swap a chip of hers with a chip on the side of a man's neck. To get out, she has to set of the alarm, so she does and she slides with the other Sliders leaving the real Maggie behind at her base.

The Sliders and Maggie2 land in a barn with horses. Maggie2 is behaving very strangely in the eyes of the others.

Maggie is given the benefit of the doubt on her double's world. She says that she saw 3 men and a woman trying to break into the sliding lab and she tried to stop them. She finds that in this world the Soviets are on the rise and suspected spies can be shot. Maggie is only sort of believed by Colonel Burke.

Maggie2 is still behaving strangely. She and the Sliders see a man being arrested by robed men with flaming sticks because he possessed some technology. They arrested him by the laws of 'El Diabalo' and his punishment was being thrown into a nuclear generator.

Maggie enters a kind of dormitary. Some of the people are in simulations, connected by a chip in their neck. She talks to a guy named Siskin who she flies with on this world.

The people on the world the others are on based their religion around a fear of technology. Maggie2 makes Quinn dance with her and then kisses him. She then feels strange and she runs out and hides. When she is confident they won't find her, she puts a chip on her neck and she feels okay again.

Maggie sneaks into the sliding lab to see if she can find anything useful to help her reach the others. However, all she finds is her dead husband's double, Steven Jensen. He tells her that she hasn't wanted to do anyhting with him since she was enhanced and to go back to the dormitary. They haven't got along together since Maggie2's enhancement.

On the other world, Quinn and Maggie2 eat blue fruit and Maggie2 is still coming on to Quinn. She's about to kiss him when Colin and Rembrandt interrupt. Colin takes Maggie2 to teach her how to ride.

Meanwhile, on Maggie2's homeworld, they are running a test simulation on Siskin, but unfortunately it goes wrong and he dies.

Maggie2 feels strange again after the riding, so she goes back towards the inn. Rembrandt follows her because he's suspicious and when he sees her putting a computer chip in her neck, he realises that she is not their Maggie. She doesn't want to go back, so she knocks him over and tells the people of the village that he has tech and then she shows them the timer in his jacket. He is taken away by the robed men.

Maggie looks at Siskin's photos of his family and talks to Steven. She tells him that she may be all but dead to him, but in a way, he's also dead to her. Colonel Burke comes in and tells them that Maggie is to be part of the next stage, which Steven doesn't think is wise to persue.

Back on the other world, Maggie2 tells Quinn that Rembrandt has gone, but she also tries to persuade him that Remmy doesn't want to be found and that they shouldn't look for him. Quinn thinks they should and then Colin runs in and tells them that Rembrandt has been arrested. Maggie2 then tries to persuade them that it would be too dangerous to rescue him and then she feels odd again. Quinn and Colin find the chip on her neck and she tells them how she just wanted to get away and how on her world she couldn't just quit because she was top secret. She also tells them that she has to be plugged in for her brain to function properly since the enhancement and that she would die without it, but she still doesn't want to go back. Quinn realises that she sold out Remmy when he found out about her.

Maggie enters a lab which contains genetically altered pilots. The next stage is them. She is to join them.

Rembrandt is sentanced to death on the other world. To stop it, Quinn claims that Rembrandt is "Ramerio", a wizard in league with "El Diabalo" (in a very strange accent). He also says that not all technology is bad and it's like the butter churn which can produce good and bad stuff. He says he is Quinntar and that he will kill them all. He opens the vortex and thrown the book the magistrate was reading from into the nuclear generator. On the otherside of the vortex, Quinn won't let Maggie2 die.

Maggie tells Steven that she is a slider and not his Maggie. He sort of believes her when he sees no neural implants. Colonel Burke comes in and thinks she is a traitor and wants her threat to be neutralised by using her for the next stage as an genetically altered pilot cannot betray.

The others use Maggie2's implant to send an e-mail to Dr. Steven Jensen to get him to open the door for them. He comes and lets them in, finally believing Maggie's story.

Maggie2 has the treatment, but Dr. Jensen's tampering means that her body won't accept the DNA implants and she dies. However, when Colonel Burke leaves the room, Steven, Quinn and Colin ressusitate her. Maggie2 says sorry and our Sliders slide out from the lab.

Did You Notice?
* Rembrandt was annoyed at Maggie2 for cutting it so fine for the slide, but the real Maggie cut it even finer and found she'd missed it.
* Maggie's middle initial is 'E'
* Maggie2 copied Rembrandt's habit of calling Quinn Q-Ball.
* Quinn and Maggie ate blue fruit.
* The book the magistrate reads from is:
El Diabalo
Nuclear Generating Facility
Operating Manual
* Quinn didn't seem to oppose Maggie2's kiss. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it.
* Siskin says, "King and Country," which implies the USA is or is part of a monarchy, though he could just be quoting.
* Maggie doesn't wear her wedding ring, andI don't think Maggie2 does either,
* When Maggie and Steven are talking after Siskin's death, the clock on the wall says 11:50.
* Maggie2 has one hell of a punch.
* When they exit 'El Diabalo World' we see the vortex from the back, and we only see Quinn jump in.
* EPP = Enhanced Pilot Program.
* Quinn and Colin both slide in their technicians uniforms.
* Maggie winks to Maggie2 just before our Maggie slides with the others.
Cool Quotes:

"I don't even wanna know what's behind door number 2." - Quinn about the Temple of El Diabalo
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"Is there any danger?" - Colin
"I really don't wanna stick around to find out." - Quinn
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"And you said you couldn't dance!" - Maggie2
"I guess it's all those physics club mixers!" - Quinn
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"It's kind of a rancid place to get excited about, don't ya think?" - Quinn to Maggie2
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"What are you doing here?" - Steven Jensen
"Sleepwalking?" - Maggie
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"How come you and I never got together?" - Maggie2
"Oh gosh, I dunno. Between fighting Kromaggs, trying to find my homeworld, I guess there really isn't that much time for dating." - Quinn
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"D'you want your life to be a series of one-world stands?" - Maggie2 to Quinn
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"Technology is neither good nor evil; It depends on how you use it." - Quinntar the wizard (Quinn)
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"You people should really check out the library; There are a lot better books than this!" - Quinntar the wizard (Quinn) about the nuclear generator manual
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"That was a rescue plan? You (talk about) the buttery goodness." - Rembrandt
"I don't have writer y'know." - Quinn (yeah, right. Of course he doesn't have writers [!])
Mistakes:
* If Maggie2's neural implants HAD been removed, there would probably have been a visible scar, more so if it had been a recent removal.
* After Maggie2 had died and been brought back to life, she would need time to recover and probably a lot of rest, yet she gets up almost immediately without apparent discomfort.
My Opinion:
I don't think that they have ever taken a double with them on a slide without realising, so this was a fresh plot and in itself it was interesting. It gave Kari Wuhrer a chance to show off what she could do as it's usually Quinn's duplicate they meet or sometimes Remmy's. Now all we need is a few more Maggie and Colin doubles and they'll all be able to show of their talents a lot more. A good episode with an interesting plot even if we did all know the others would find out she was not their Maggie and go back for the real one. I liked the way Maggie2 immediately hit on Quinn, it shown a very different possible side of Maggie, though I can't understand why she would do this if she was still in love with Steven Jensen. I also really loved Quinn's "improvised" speech. It really did sound improvised, although it most likely was scripted. I though that speech was very funny and entertaining. The only thing was, the Sliders seem to land on an awful lot of technophobic worlds.



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