War is hell for the sliders when they arrive in the ravaged wasteland of an asteroid caught in hyperspace. With the timer inert, they are captured by Sergeant Vernon Larson and his men, who are trying to stave off a hoard of Kromaggs. The humans are guarding a bunker, which could contain the final solution to the Kromagg problem. But life, as Rembrandt discovers, is never that simple...

Sliders does Saving Private Ryan in a fairly entertaining hour which offers some impressive production standards and more stunts and explosions than some action shows could fit into an entire season. compton even steals the odd camera trick from Steven Speilberg - bleaching out some of the pictures, and utilizing shaky hand-held cameras. It all looks great, but in its first half the episode stalls dramatically and it's not until the mention of Michael Mallory and his weapon to defeat the alien invaders that is starts to get a whole lot cleverer.

In the guest role of Larson, Jerry Doyle is fine, but the grizzly sergeant is hardly a huge stretch from Babylon 5's sardonic security cheif.

On the whole, Strangers and Comrades makes for acceptable viewing, but one gets the impression that Sliders is stuggling to recover storytelling heights of season 4.

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