The Dream Masters

Writer:Teleplay by Melinda Snodgrass, story by Scott Smith Miller and Melinda Snodgrass.
Director:Jefery Levy
Guests: Zack Ward (Gerald Thomas), Katherine Lanasa (Dr. Olivia Lujan), Rodney Eastman (Byron), Lester Barrie (Diggs), J. Steven Smith (Henry), Michael des Bames (Vincent Cardoza), Symba Smith (Officer Weber), Kenneth Johnson (Skater).
Background:none neccessary
Additional Notes:
* When this episode was shown on BBC2 (British terrestrial) at 18:45, certain sections were cut. I also saw the episode in German on RTL late one night, so I was able to compile a list of what was cut:
- During the second dream sequence with the blood in the bathroom and on Wade, this was left out and it cut straight to Quinn coming in.
- The sequence where the dream master puts a razor in his mouth and then goes to kiss Wade and then Quinn steps in was also cut.
- Arturo's dream where he was shot (by a firing squad?) was left out completely.
- When Rembrandt shoots a lesser dreammaster is cut (the dream master just disappears between shots)
- The sequence after the dream where Gerald walks out with his arm on fire was the last thing to be cut as far as I know.
* Zack Ward did the fire on his arm stunt himself.
Plot:
They have just arrived from a party fairground world and they are all wearing loads of beads. A man on a bike rides through an area designated no bikes. When people complain about this, he just looks at them and they change their minds. He has a symbol on his hand. When he touches a complainer with it, the complainer has a seizure and dies. The cops come and when they see the symbol they decide to list it as suicide. Arturo tries to tell a cop what happened. When Quinn suggests talking to the men on bikes (there were others as well), she refuses and says they will die if they do. The man on the bike who killed the other guy, starts talking to Wade and tries to get her to sleep with him by using the symbol. Wade hits him (go Wade!), Quinn goes to help and the man threatens both of them with the symbol. He than says he will see Wade in her dreams.

The sliders go to the bar. When Wade draws a copy of the symbol, the waiter, Diggs, screws it up. He says she can't stay awake forever to stay away from the Dream Masters. Wade sees the Dream Master, but then he disappears.

Quinn beats Arturo at chess and then Quinn and Rembrandt go to do some research. Wade and Arturo go to their room. Arturo tries to persuade Wade to sleep a little. She does and Arturo borrows her romantic/erotic novel to read while she does.

Quinn and Rembrandt talk to some friends of the Dream Master who was talking to Wade.

Wade wakes (?) and sends for coffee. It takes too long so she goes down to the bar for some. The Dream Master who was talking to her before, Gerald, comes and talks to her again. He tries to come on to her again and puts the symbol on her leg. She runs out, but is chased by more in a blue light. Then she sees the other sliders. She is seperated from tham and Quinn floats off, leaving her. She cuts herself on barbed wire. In reality she is bleeding, but there are no physical wounds.

The others wake her up and plan to keep her awake for the next 30hours until the slide. Wade comes back from a cold shower and the guys try to overprotect her. Quinn and Arturo go to talk to the cops again.

The female cop they spoke to before still won't talk to them about these Dream Masters. She goes back to them, though, and gives them an address of a shelter for the Dream Masters' victims. She was once a victim.

In the hotel, Gerald puts a drug in Rembrandt's coffee.

Quinn and Arturo go to the shelter and meet a woman. Her husband was did some research before he became a victim. There is a whole lot of people there, all in comas, her husband included. They look through her husband's papers and find that the Dream Masters use psychotropic drugs to invade peoples dreams.

Rembrandt is now asleep from the drug. He was reading Wade's novel at the time. Wade is dreaming. She sees Rembrandt asleep, then she sees Gerald coming through the door without opening it. She runs into the bathroom, but he's still with her. The glass thing shatters and sprays glass everywhere.

Quinn and Arturo come in and see her covered in blood. Rembrandt is mortified. They take her to the shelter and Arturo donates blood for her.

At a table of Dream Maasters, the leader joins Wade's dream. Wade is in a red lit lift and there is schreeching around her. Wade oulls the doors open, but is thrown on the floor. Her heart stops but the people at the shelter restart it. The Dream Masters release contact for the moment. They now want to get rid of all of them. Two other Dream Masters will help Gerald.

Quinn goes to get a scraing off the symbol so they can find out more about the drug. They find out that Rembrandt was drugged. Quinn hijacks a nerd and takes his coat and glasses. He brings back a sample which can be used to get them into Wade's dream to help her.

The Dream Master take over Wade's dream. Quinn, Rembrandt and Arturo enter Wade's dream. There is a green light with orange flashes and Quinn is seperated from the others. He sees the people who are in a coma in real life wlaking.

Wade and Rembrandt are in a snake-filled place. Rembrandt lets one bite him to prove it's all a dream. The snake has the symbol on it. Quinn is now in sinking mud. His life signs begin to fail so the woman brings him out. He goes back in again. Quinn finds the others. The Dream Masters approach and the sliders remind each other that it's all a dream. The sliders aren't affected by the knives being thrown at them because they know it's a dream. The lesser Dream Masters run, just leaving Gerald. Gerald throws a fireball, but Quinn catches it and sends it back. Gerald burns and disappears. They all wake up and so do the other people in comas. 12 hours until the slide. They all feel slide so they go to sleep without interference.

Did You Notice?
* Wade was once mugged.
* Elephants were mentioned three times, twice instead of another word.
* Wade was in stage 2.
* Arturo haas O negative blood.
Cool Quotes:

"Man, I love Mardi Gras!" - Quinn
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"Human beings are capable of sustained periods of consciousness provided they have sufficient elephants."
- Arturo (he means stimulation)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Can't I just suck on some rusty nails?" - Wade's preference to Rembrandt's suggestion of liver and orange juice for iron
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"Damned if you dream, damned if you don't." - Arturo
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"Mr. Brown, I owe you an elephant." - Arturo (he means apology)

Mistakes:
* From what I could tell, Wade cut the palm of her hand on the barbed wire, not her wrists.
* Why did all those people wake up at the end? I didn't think that the Sliders got rid of all the dream masters, just the one that was stalking Wade.
* The Dream Master whom the Sliders got rid of should have known that it was a dream since he was creating it and therefore he shouldn't have been that easy to get rid of.
* Arturo says, "This world's pharmacology might be harmful to your Earth Prime cell structure," but the Sliders eat and drink local produce on the worlds which must be just as bad.
My Opinion:
An interesting way of bringing science to the supernatural. As someone who often lucid dreams, I have to say that it is not as easy to control them as this episode may have led you to believe. I did on the whole like this episode, even if there was stuff that I would have improved upon and changed. While the different lighting and odd representations of the other sliders were what I would expect in one of my dreams, I have never, ever seen smoke covering the ground in any dream of mine. The way the dream masters controlled people was a little implausible, but never mind. This episode has some similarities to what I know of the show Sleepwalkers which recently was made, but them cancelled. However, in this case, Sliders came first, which for season 3 is unusual. When I watched this episode in German via satellite, I found that some parts had been cut for BBC2 which is fair enough considering the time slot, but it did alter the story a little.


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