episode #07 - The Weaker Sex

Air Date: 05/03/95 written by Dawn Prestwich & Nicole Yorkin Directed by Vern Gillum

The Sliders arrive on an Earth where the gender roles are reversed: women hold all the positions of corporate and political power, with men relegated to 2nd-class citizenship. There is a President Clinton - Hillary Clinton, that is (played briefly by an actress in a TV spot). The Sliders are out of money and need to get jobs, because they are stuck on this world for 6 weeks (the longest period of any episode?). Wade easily scores best in this endeavor, getting a high-paying job with the Mayor's office. Quinn can only get a menial job in the same office, only due to Wade's help. Rembrandt ends up in the street singing for change and gets picked up by a predatory female. And Arturo ends up running for Mayor in the current election (Election Day happens to be the same day that the Sliders are scheduled to leave ). Arturo is most vocal about the social inequities of this world order and catches the ear of some local male dissidents. Soon enough, surprisingly, Arturo's campaign begins to present a serious threat to the incumbent female Mayor.
Though much of this is silly, this episode does offer some genuinely entertaining and amusing moments throughout. This ends up being an Arturo episode as he becomes the mouthpiece for all outraged males, ostensibly revolving around equal rights, but perhaps also to showcase the natural belligerence of the male animal. Most of the resident females, on the other hand, have at best a condescending attitude, feeding the trough, as it were. Somehow, hundreds of years ago on this world, females got fed up with men and their wars, and took over. How was this done? I dunno - and maybe it doesn't matter in the context of this story. It's a trip to see women behaving like boorish men - such role reversal always offers up some eyebrow-raising scenes. There's one clever recreation of the assassination attempt on President Reagan, made famous by existing video footage. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10