From MadCap's Couch - "Sliders: Time Again and World"

"I'm the bearded lady! Who are you, one of the freaks?!"

Oh, goodie, another episode using an important document in U.S. History as a plot device. Raise that bar, Sliders writers! Oh, I'm sorry, I'm jumping ahead, let me jump back forty-four minutes...

We begin with an opening narration from Wade, as we did back in Luck of the Draw. Apparently the Sliders have been stuck on this one world for two weeks and are all at their wits end, lashing out at one another. Rembrandt and Arturo talk in a bar, the Professor lamenting that they're still sliding after all this time. Rembrandt apparently believes that it's God's will that they're in this mess, and His will to get them out of it.

Of course, Rembrandt hasn't actually seen what is to come, but if he did he'd know that if there's a kind and loving God overlooking the Sliders multiverse, he's taking a long, long vacation...

Wade arrives to tell them about the Slide, Rembrandt paying a bearded woman for his and Arturo's drinks. On a street near where the four plan to undertake the slide, several figures in black sunglasses wait around.  The air is tense as the Sliders reunite and have some quips about the world they've landed on, then suddenly a car accident sees a woman in purple and several others take notice.  One of the drivers laments his wrecked car...and he gets shot for his trouble.

Since the writers threw some darts at a board to decide which of our main characters should get involved, Wade runs up to help the gunshot victim. With his last words, he tells her "Elsie. The Rock. 4. 5." and then tells her it's dangerous to go alone, giving her purple matchbook. They hear the sounds of sirens and Quinn pulls her away so they can slide.  Arriving just before the nick of time, they head through with Rembrandt and Arturo...and the opening credits roll.

Out of the vortex, they arrive in the same park that they just left because budget and have their traditional falling out of the vortex banter. Wade examines the matchbook, finding a black chip inside. Arturo brings up point that the last time they became involved in the affairs of a world, Quinn got a bullet in his back. Of course, this is completely discounting the following: when they helped Quinn's double the Sorcerer find the person leaking information about slide technology from his organization, when the three male Sliders were kidnapped and forced into a breeding program, when your group exposed a corrupt lawyer/gunfighter for what he was and saved a woman's company, and caused a massacre that would have made Jason Voorhees proud at a maximum security prison.

Continuity? What's that?

Wade snaps at him for chiding her for becoming emotionally invested, being pulled away by Quinn. He checks the timer, saying they have thirty-six hours on this new Earth. They wander off and, because budget, they end up in the same place where the accident occurred in the previous world...save for the fact that it hasn't happened yet. Which is odd, considering we were told in "Pilot" that the time on all worlds goes at exactly the same speed. So, strictly speaking, it should have already happened...but if that were the case, we wouldn't have a plot.

"What's a Siri?" "I don't know, Wade. We're from 1996..."

This world apparently lacks bearded ladies as well, as evidenced by some quick cuts to various people and fixtures in the area. Quinn notices the woman in purple passing by, and they call deja vu. Just as they are, the two cars from before come twisting around and the accident occurs as in the previous world. This time, Wade warns the man (apparently called Judge Nasa by bystanders) who was shot before...who shoots his shooter before getting back in his car, giving the Woman in Purple a meaningful look, and taking off.

Unlike the previous world, Wade runs up to the fallen shooter, who repeats the same words that Nasa did on the other world "Elsie. The Rock. 5. 4.." An examination of the body shows that the man was a cop. Which means that Judge Nasa just murdered an officer of the law. Uh-oh!

Later that night, kilted policemen arrive and interrogate the Sliders, led by Police Chief "The guy who played the Springwood Chief of Police in Freddy vs. Jason". The Sliders insist they didn't see anything, but the police were apparently told that Wade gave a warning to Nasa, so they decide to keep an eye on her. The Sliders are released and head off to the Dominion Hotel on this world, meeting the hotel owner who I hadn't realized until now is and always has been a young Will Sasso. Huh.

He gets them to do a fingerprint scan so they can be admitted, but is a bit uneasy about some of the things he overheard them saying, so when they head upstairs he decides to call the police about it. Upstairs, Rembrandt find a copy of Not-TV Guide telling them about "Dragnet: The Next Generation", which leads into a short conversation where Arturo takes a few jabs at the Scottish, but does mention they invented Scotch Whiskey, a definite plus. Wade, however, is not up for the jokes and jibes and still lamenting how Nasa could possibly be a cop-killer.

Rembrandt brings up the very obvious point that this is a different world, and the man might be completely different here than he was on the previous world. Of course, this ultimately is wrong, but it's a point that the writer at least bothered to bring up, so kudos there. Luckily a pissing match between Arturo and Wade is stopped when a man and a woman in trenchcoats arrive to hold them at gunpoint, telling them to forget what they saw that afternoon. One wrong move, and they'll be sleeping with the fishes, etc.

Beware, Sliders. For tonight...Curly Howard will betray you...

Rembrandt immediately gets his coat and is ready to run for the hills. The others agree...except for Wade, who apparently wants to stay behind. A man is dead and she might be able to help...somehow. Rather than knocking her out and dragging her along, however, the three leave and then come back...because reasons...and of course Wade has to be right because, as the mouthpiece for the writers' "honor before reason" agenda, she is never wrong. Also, we'd have no plot.

So following the emotional blackmail, the group get taken to the station and Wade tells the tale of how they were assaulted in their room, and of the words the man who had been shot whispered. Apparently, Agent Tyler "found the rendezvous" and it means that the police will now have "them", whoever they are. They thank Wade for being a good American, though Quinn still wants to know what this is all about.  The cops tell him of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. On our world, they were known as the A-Bomb Spies, and were executed for selling state secrets of the United States to the Soviet Union - particularly those of the atomic bomb.

On this world, though, they killed President Kennedy. Bit of an upward career move. Maybe they were on the grassy knoll.

Realizing they might have screwed up (and realizing the two who assaulted them in their room were undercover cops), Quinn and Wade return to the Hotel to learn that the cops are there. The group ducks into the bar and they learn that apparently the world diverged from there's in 1962...when J. Edgar Hoover got elected to the office of President, and we get some background on Judge Nasa - apparently he was a former California Supreme Court Judge who went against the FBI and is a "free thinker", which have both put him at odds with them.

"Hey! You can't do this! I haven't even been in the Three Stooges movie yet!!!"

Seeing that the same computer chip she was given before seems to exist on this world, too, Wade and Quinn hit up the Electronics Store where they worked on their world in "Pilot" and discover that the chip holds an encrypted copy of the Constitution of the United States of America. Rembrandt also discovers, much to his dismay, learns that Rock and Roll doesn't exist on this world (though Kurt Cobain has a Christmas album).

And now, because I am hilariously snarky, I shall now and forever more call this world "Footloose Earth".

But Wade has come to the horrible realization that they've set Nasa up to walk right into a trap and need to correct the problem. Thus, Wade and Rembrandt a bar...that looks a bit like a high school prom (or as Remmy puts it, full of squares)...and ask the bartender about Elise. He says he doesn't know of an Elise who works there.  Wade and Rembrandt leave, thinking the whole thing a wild goose chase, but fail to notice the woman in purple.

In the park, the group reunites and Arturo tells about the group J. Edgar Hoover's cross-dressing to explain the dress code with policemen wearing skirts. Wade begins to connect "the Rock" with Alcatraz, since that's the nickname it went by on that world. Asking a bypasser, they learn that Alcatraz is open to the public...and is where several political prisoners such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy are kept. When Quinn asks who's in cell 54, the bypassers think they're Secret Police and they shove off after telling them about Radio Free America and to ask for a "Natalie".

Quinn needed a friggin' drink...can't blame him after the last few episodes...

Back at the bar, Quinn asks for someone named "Natalie" and finds out that it's the woman in purple - now no longer in purple. He pops over and they have a side by side discussion, Quinn telling her that that Judge is about to be set up and shows her the disk as proof. He and Wade follow her to the back...with two men in suits not far off watching menacingly. Backstage, there's a much more lively nightclub feel going on as Natalie leads them to speak with Roy Clark, the voice of Radio Free America.

However, before they can put the Constitution over the airways, the cops bust in and a firefight ensues. Quinn, Natalie, and Wade escape, Quinn pulling a Cannonball Run to get them out in spite of the cops who forget they have guns. But with the party broken up and Clark arrested, it seems that all hope is lost. The Judge, too, is arrested...who the group passes just in time to see them arrested. It is also revealed the Calhoun is a double-agent for the Resistance...but has been turned.

At the bar, Rembrandt and Arturo are drinking away their sorrows and fearing that Quinn and Wade shared a similar fate. Eight hours from now, they'll be sliding...but luckily, the two arrive and all is well for the moment. Wade, it seems, has a plan much to Arturo's irritation.  The plan begins with Rembrandt marching right into the police station with a confession - they have an unabridged version of the United States Constitution. The cops are less than willing, but eventually agree to his terms after he reveals that killing him will see the Constitution sent over the internet in it's entirety.

Of course, being that it's 1996 even on this world, the police and FBI might have problems in...oh...two, three weeks?

Quinn lamenting the worlds where "I'm Jerry O'Connell" is not a pick up line...

But since the police haven't installed more firewalls, they do agree. And so, with around seven minutes left, the Sliders plus Natalie wait on a bridge in the dark. Quinn and Arturo take the time to wax poetic about the nature of freedom and democracy. Quinn brings up that good ideas only work if there are good people to fight for them. Arturo counters with the fact that while the idea of freedom is reborn with each generation, only one generation ever created the U.S. Constitution. Something to consider, considering what they're giving up so one man can be free.

But the fuzz arrives with the armored SUVs of doooom. The hand off occurs, Nasa being released into their custody. Wade hands over the disk. Quinn gives a muscle-bound lunk head of a cop who can't speak well some lip about destroying the Constitution. But the cops head off, Nasa thanking the Sliders for what they've done and each of them getting a word with him in turn (Wade still having a rather creep-ish Father-daughter moment) except for Quinn, and they slide. Quinn, as we expect, gets a word with Natalie before he slides, never bothering to ask her about her fur coat.

...okay, that was a bit of an obscure reference, sorry.

But it seems that all hope is lost even as the Judge and his daughter will continue the fight...at least until we cut to the Electronics Store. A customer calls over the Salesman, all the people in the store reading...the preamble to the United States Constitution, just as Wade intended it would seem...

The people of 1996 were utterly baffled at the thought of high-speed internet. All that porn!

This is actually a pretty good episode. The pacing isn't all that bad, the main characters are very consistent as we've come to know them, and the ending is a pretty good one showing of Wade's computer savvy and providing some hope for the future. While I'm still confused as to why they had to go to a different world for this one and didn't just arrive on the world to begin with. That coupled with the use of a document of U.S. History as a plot device again after we just had one in an episode not long ago does kind of make it a bit of a drag, but no real major problems.

Next time...dinosaurs!

...sadly, no space ship.

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