episode #12 - Time Again and World

Air Date: 4/5/96 writer: Jacob Epstein Directed by Vern Gillum

This episode was similar to the repetitive scenarios of those repeating days plots (films like Groundhog Day and 12:01, series like Tru Calling), though only in the first few minutes. It begins on an Earth where the Sliders have been stuck for a couple of weeks; they are in a bad mood, particularly Arturo. There's nothing very unusual about this Earth, except that many females sport face hair. Just before they slide, they witness a car accident and a shooting; the dying man hands Wade a computer disc. The next Earth is eerily similar to the last one - the accident and the shooting also occur here, only a few minutes later; and, due to Wade shouting a warning, the other man gets shot. He turns out to have been a cop. As the Sliders later find out, this is essentially a police state, brought about by President J Edgar Hoover in 1952, when perpetual martial law was declared. The man on the run is part of an underground movement to reintroduce the U.S. Constitution (which is what is on the computer disc), and return basic rights to citizens.

There's a level of sloppiness evident in this episode. For example, when Wade is handed the disc at the beginning of the episode, her hand gets bloodied; yet, after the slide, her hand is clean. More importantly, the story structure doesn't hold up very well: the entire plot hinges on the shooting near the start, which involves a computer disc containing the U.S. Constitution and the existence of a police state. Yet, this same shooting occurred on the previous Earth, with the same characters. Was there a police state on that previous Earth as well? The Sliders had been on that Earth for 2 weeks and no mention of a police state was made. Therefore, the shooting on the previous Earth must have been about something else, but this is never explained. Wade becomes increasingly annoying in this episode, very stubborn and petulant; she seems willing to sacrifice her fellow Sliders to pursue some vague goal (before they know any facts). Otherwise, this was a more clever episode than most, extrapolating from changed past events of the fifties and sixties to present a social climate reflecting an archaic fifties-styled society. Hurley (Garry Jones), Quinn's & Wade's boss at the computer hell store of the pilot episode, returns here for an encore appearance. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10


Earths Depicted:
---------------- #23: most females have beards and mustaches; only observed in a prologue
---------------- #24: most men wear skirts; U.S. a police state, under martial law since 1952