This episode first aired in the US June 18th 1999 on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Director: David Eagle
Guests: Peter Jurasik (Dr. Geiger), Aeriel Watkins (Nadine), Howard S. Miller
(Professor), G. Eric Miles (Doug)
Background:
* In the last episode, The Unstuck Man, Remmy and Maggie were
joined by two new Sliders, Mallory and Diana>
* Also in the last episode, they met a Dr. Oberon Geiger who merged Quinn with a double of his
and plans to this to more worlds.
Additional Notes
* This is Peter Jurasik's second episode this season.
* Xpose #36's review of this episode can be found here.
Plot:
The Sliders are in a park. Mallory is playing football with some frat guys. Diana wants to
separate but hasn't had any luck yet. 56 hours until the slide. They plan to go to the
Chandler, but a little girl approaches Diana thinking she is her mother. Diana tries to persuade
her she isn't. Diana's double comes up looking for Nadine (the girl) who is her daughter. Diana
hides behind Rembrandt. Diana2 had come to pick up Nadine from playcare but Nadine had already
seen 'her mother' and ran to meet her.
The Sliders go to the Chandler. Mallory has a hallucination with Maggie in. As he sees the spinning roulette wheel, he has another hallucination in which Maggie and Rembrandt call him Quinn. then a man shoots him in the arm. Back in reality, he collapses in pain. In their suite, ha talks to the others about it. Diana looks at his arm and there is a bruise/burn in the exact place he got 'shot.' Diana explains that Mallory and Quinn are fighting for dominance and control.
Diana goes to a lab where a class is in progress. She starts suggesting things and then enrolls bs. in the course so she can have access to the lab.
Maggie goes to talk to Mallory downstairs. They go back to the suite and Rembrandt tells them that this world has more advanced technology and that it can create good holographic images of wherever you could want to go. They go to Mallory's old house and see his parents looking very young.
Diana hears her double on the phone, talking to Nadine's father, Doug, because he wants Nadine this weekend and she doesn't want her daughter to see him. Doug then decides to withold the maintenance cheque. Diana returns to Maggie and Rembrandt at the Chandler, but is distracted by her double's plight. She tells them she joined the class to get access to the fusion reactor chamber. They return to the room to see a Kromagg holding a gun to Mallory's head. The 'Magg is a hologram from the machine, but Mallory doesn't know how he conjured him up. He had hallucinations of Earth Prime being overrun by Kromaggs and the holographic machine made it real. He also saw the professor shot dead.
Diana runs (literally!) into her double at the university. Diana2 seems to think that everyone in the world has an exact double so isn't too scared.
Maggie talks to Mallory and tells him about how she never thought she'd have friends because her father tught her that political allies were more important. She takes him to the bubble world prom night through the holographic machine.
Diana and Diana2 talk. Diana2 thinks it's cool and some wierd cosmic coincidence. She was forcd to drop out of school when Nadine was born and Doug doesn't like paying for Nadine's upkeep. she can't go to her parents because they didn't want her to keep Nadine in the first place. She was a physics major like Diana until she switched to American literature where she met Doug. Diana was considering swapping as well until SHE met Geiger as her mentor. When Diana2 asks Diana for her name, she hesitates before saying "Maggie."
Maggie tries to get Mallory to remember about the bubble world. Mallory thinks she is trying to turn him into Quinn and gets out teh car. He then has more flaskbacks and the background changes several times. Once out, Diana sys that the conflict is getting worse and if they can't control it, both Mallory and Quinn will become unstuck. Diana will use the lab to create a stable bubble to stop them unsticking. Diana leaves to go and get started, but Rembrandt follows her and gives her a talk on doubles. Diana wants to make her double's life better.
Diana works in the lab to create a stable bubble and in doing so accidentally brings back Geiger. He realises thaat he's not in his old lab. Didi (Diana2) brings Diana some coffee and then leaves her to work in peace. Geiger has seen other versions of Diana before on his travels and taunts her about it. Diana is very distressed by what he says and runs outside in tears and sits on the grass. She sees Didi with Doug. Doug is taking Nadine for the weekend and Didi is pushed onto the pavement. Diana goes back to the lab and asks Geiger to help her create a better world here and seperate Quinn and Mallory. He eventually agrees.
Rembrandt and Maggie are talking in the bar. Mallory joins them.
Geiger helps Diana alter a few equations. They pull the switch and things change. Didi changes job, Nadine disappears and Mallory's pain intensifies drastically. Geiger altered Diana's equations and now he can walk around the lab. Security enters and Diana2 is with them. She doesn't recognise Diana as Mallory and doesn't even answer to Didi. Geiger hides. Diana isn't supposed to be there; it's for restricted military use only. Diana2 believes that Diana is purposely impersonating her. Diana makes a run for it and goes back to the Chandler to explain to the others.
They have 32 minutes to undo the mess. Diana thinks that if she can just get Mallory to the lab, she can help him. Use finger prints and retina scan to get through security. 3 minutes left. Mallory is fine once inside the bubble. Diana then tries to fix what she did to the world, but Diana2 enters and Geiger puts in an appearence. They try to persuade her to let Diana fix what she did, but they don't manage it and they have to slide anyway.
On what looks like a medievil world, the Sliders sit in the Chandler bar. Diana is upset by what she did and isn't sure if she wants to continue, but the others persuade her to.
Did You Notice?
* Quinn must have been shot in the arm because a man thought he was cheating at cards sometime
between Revelations and The Unstuck Man
because it was before they met Mallory and Diana, but Maggie's hair was consistent with
season 5 rather than season 4.
* Prior to season 5, Maggie, Rembrandt and probably Quinn and Colin went to a world with 'the
stuff' and monkeys.
Cool Quotes:
In this one, I don't see why they kept using the word 'alternates.' It's irritating. What happened to 'doubles?' I can perhaps understand why Diana the scientist might perhaps use it, but if my memory serves me correctly (for once :-) it was Maggie that used it!
Maggie seems to have her attitude back. At least when she was dealing with Mallory at the beginning of the episode.
What I really liked about the episode: The conflict between the two Quinns. It was compelling and had to happen really. But the slide with the shooting in the casino must have happened not long before they ran into Geiger for it still to cause a mark on Mallory. The way I think anyway. I also loved the moral dilemma of which Quinn they should save. Another thing that was bound to come up, but it addresses a very important question. How do you choose? I'm not sure I would be able to. Did they ever really come out with an answer?
I notice that Maggie doesn't seem to like looking at Mallory. She tends to look in the opposite direction. I assume it's done on purpose. Personally, I think it's a nice little touch. If Maggie really does feel for Quinn in the way she says, then it's perfectly understandable that Mallory would remind her of her loss and looking at him would pain her.
More VR? Okay, I'm a little sick of this hi-tech stuff now. There was some alternate stuff in this with Diana (I'll get to that later), but there was technologically orientated stuff as well. I admit that I liked Diana's attempt to improve the life of her double with technology, but in general, I'm a little sick of technology. And the VR thing showing what you want to see, isn't that similar to one (or several) of our storygames? But we can't sue or anything since this was filmed before we even got started.
I also enjoyed the introduction to the reality of doubles. It's understandable Diana would be surprised. It's not exactly something you really imagine. And I liked how Diana was mistaken by her daughter for her double. Easily happens. But it was the surprise and the emotions she went through when she saw how her double which intrigued me the most. I found that all perfectly believable and completely plausible. This is something I try to add into my spin-off fanfic. But back to the point, I can even completely accept Diana introducing herself as Maggie. It figures. You have to think up a name real quick, and one just pops into your head, in this case probably because Maggie was the last female she had really spoken to, she was her companion or something like that. But the whole Diana and doubles thing I really liked and found it really compelling. Kudos for that! It was fabulous!
One thing I would like to know is why there was no mention of Wade. Colin came up several times I think. The professor came up which was great and with the comment with it it was just perfect! They are really doing something right continuity wise. But there was no mention of Wade. It just seemed odd to me. I expected there to be one around the same time as the professor. Even if Quinn didn't love Wade, she was still his friend and her loss should have upset him. But perhaps I'm just being too picky. I guess we can't have everything.
I see they've put in a little justification for Maggie's change between seasons 3 and 4 with her becoming friends with Quinn, Remmy and Colin (Wade was conspicuously absent from this list, but that's not surprising since they didn't get on) whereas before it was all professional. More continuity and explanations? Wow, these guys really are getting good at this.
A couple of little things. I see Maggie overdid the eye make-up a little in one scene. Or maybe she was going for that look. And Maggie the team-player? Oh she has changed.
Ooh yeah, the clips they showed. I quite liked that as well. I picked out these episodes (no order): Invasion, Seasons Greedings, Electric Twister Acid Test (though it looked more like twister), Slidecage, Desert Storm and Dinoslide, but I'm not sure I'm right on all. Also, I wasn't sure what the waterfall or cityscape ones were. Anyone help? My sister suggested the waterfall on might have been The Other Slide Of Darkness, but I'm not sure I agree.
Those clips were better than the ones from Quinn's memory in Data World. what I want to know is how Quinn could remember seeing himself (and not a double) in some of the scenes.
What can I say about the end? I LOVED IT!!! They couldn't fix it in moments! Perfect! These writers are doing perfect trying to stay away from cliche. That was what always irritated me about Star Trek; they always made it right (except for a DS9 episode) as far as I remember. But this? Brilliant. Provides oppertunity to give her a guilty conscience and also stay away from cliche. I suppose if this happens too often, it will become a cliche itself, but not yet. And Diana's character doesn't seem to be the stereotyped-unstereotyped female character just yet which happens when they're trying to create a non-strereotyped one and go completely the other way. Tembi seemed to manage fine with the doubles. The two were different, yet the same. As it should be.
Great episode, loved the conflict, ethics, doubles and non-cliches. Excellent. The only thing I wasn't too sure on was bringing back Geiger so soon and the technical side, but the end justified this. And nice little throw away world at the end there.
Let's hope this episode is a sign of how season 5 will be!