From MadCap's Couch - "Sliders: Into the Mystic"

"I'm getting better!" "No, you're not! You'll be stone dead in a moment!"

Science vs. magic. It's the one argument that keeps Star Trek nerds and Lord of the Rings nerds from getting along...and Star Wars nerds laughing at both of them. In all seriousness, pop culture has fused with the passing of time so much on the subjects of science fiction and fantasy that both concepts have almost become even more homogeneous. Which is good, there's nothing to say that magic and science can't exist in the same fiction universe and they often do. Indeed, even one of author Arthur C. Clarke's three laws states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Of course, I go for magic over science. What's the fun in having all the answers down to facts and figures? But if they do co-exist, I prefer to have Clarke's law as the guideline for it with the added corollary to it being that any magic that is sufficiently advanced technology will not be fully understood. Hence, we preserve a little of the mystery, and hence we do a lead in for the first episode of season two of Sliders - "Into the Mystic".

As you may remember from my last review, we ended "Luck of the Draw" and season one on Wade eating all the ham in the pantry as she protested the death of Quinn by someone throwing a jam jar on his back.

Here, we open on the shot that I've so helpfully screencapped here. Things clearly have not improved for the better for young Mr. Mallory. And indeed it has not as the others are not actually mourning his death, Billy from "Luck of the Draw" making comments likening Quinn to Icarus (read a book) and sucking face with Wade, and everyone deciding they have much better things to do. However, from the grave, we heard Quinn crying out in protest and a pair of hands burst from the soil.

When there's no more room in Hell, Quinn Mallory...shall be subjected to a dream sequence by the writers.

Yes, it seems Quinn was only dreaming. He's alive, and apparently no worse for wear in spite of having a bullet lodged in his shoulder, which Billy Zane removed. Though he asked Wade to stay with him on this new world, she refused and he buggered off because he was no longer important to the plot. And so, four sliders once more, they slide from the world they stopped on at the end of last season. Before he jumps through, however, Quinn sees a man working the yards who looks exactly like a gentleman from his dream...who similarly tips his hat to him and laughs in an unnerving manner.

Reaaaally creepy...

They land in a rainy street and Quinn is apparently still not doing well from his injury. The group resolves to get him to a doctor. Rembrandt checks the White Pages and they're off to a...Shaolin temple? No, apparently, this is actually a doctor's office. Apparently, the forbidden bastard child of Bill Nighy and Grima Wormtongue - as he reveals himself to be - is a trained medical professional on this world. More to the point, as Arturo looks over the man's diplomas hung nicely on the wall, he comes to the conclusion that they've just given Quinn over to a witch doctor!

However, while the man has been able to help with Quinn's headache...he doesn't do shoulders. Though the nurse suggests they could try and speak to the "Sorcerer", who the doctor immediately dismisses as being a complete charlatan. But as Wade fights off the man's advances, he gives the bill for his services as well - over two hundred dollars for getting rid of a headache. Facing this and not believing for a second that this witch doctor is anything but an outrageous quack, Arturo presents a solution to the problem that the Sliders run with...literally.

They flee as the witch doctor swears to bring a thousands curses upon their heads.

"Safely" away, they get to the Dominion Hotel and Wade tries to work the pain out of Quinn's shoulder while they gather around the Almighty Television of Exposition. From this "scoping out" of culture - as Remmy puts it - they pretty much confirm what we've come to know by now, this is a culture heavily seeped in magic and sorcery. We also learn more of the "Sorcerer", namely that he's a brand name and sells quite a few different products such as a miracle salve and steak sauce.

We also learn that Rembrandt has a skeleton in his closet - literally!

That night, they try to settle in and are aroused from sleep by something coming down the hall. It knocks four times, but is surprisingly not the Master. Instead, it's the Grim Reaper! Apparently, death has been rendered so obsolete that Death had to pick up a day job serving summons. Quinn's being sued by the witch doctor. After consulting with a lawyer, they learn that since Quinn defaulted on the bill, the witch doctor can pick a body part from him for his studies. And within the fine print, he's apparently chosen Quinn's brain.

The lawyer says he'll try to talk to the doctor's people, but warns Quinn to keep off the streets for fear of demon bounty hunters. He does say, however, that the group could be helped by the Sorcerer - who nobody ever sees.

Mecha mecha hi mecha hiney ho!

While they're walking along afterwards, Arturo gets to be the bastion of logic and reason that we've come to know him as being, refuting everything in this world as explainable by natural law. Quinn realizes they're being followed by two men in black hats and suits and they are pulled into a tent nearby at the behest of a seer. At her request, as apparently she's been expecting them, the Sliders take seats around her table.

She gives them a tarot reading, claiming that they are all in great danger and should stick together. Arturo refutes it as being general and scammy, but she refutes it by pinpointing several very specific statements about him - namely that he feels unappreciated in his field and that he somewhat resents Quinn because of how easily it all comes to him. Then she reaffirms that the Sorcerer is there only hope, and they must reach him before he next goes sliding. Yes, on this world, the Sorcerer has the power to slide and the seer tells them that he has the power to send them home at last.

Reinvigorated by this, the group heads out to find the Sorcerer. Wade and Arturo debate more on magic versus science and it gets about as far as you'd expect - that is to say, not at all - before they find the cabbie who's a cabbie in every universe and he takes them to the home of the Sorcerer, which is not an Emerald City but instead a big black castle on the other side of the Golden Gargoyle Gate Bridge.

Apparently, the Sorcerer has his castle very much in the Dracula-style of things, meaning that even the area outside the castle screams "Go away, you morons!" But the Sliders are just morons enough for this not to work (also, the plot needs to happen), and they press on into the Forest of Obvious Danger. Lions, and tigers, and bears aside (Arturo trying to explain every such noise they hear as something rational), they eventually reach and begin crossing the Golden Gargoyle Gate bridge. Halfway across, however, we learn that the bridge seems to stop in mid-air.

Quinn quickly recognizes it as an illusion - a literal trick of the moonlight as the bridge is still there, just invisible to the eye. He proves this by throwing his jacket out ahead of them and it thuds solidly against the nothingness. Then, it's off once more to see the Sorcerer. The Scintillating Sorcerer of...whatever this world is called. They arrive at the castle and gain entry, waiting in the lobby for a time before the Sorcerer's Executive Assistant arrives to speak with them.

"I am...Dracu-I mean, the Sorcerer! Yeah...the Sorcerer.

He tells them that they cannot see the Sorcerer and are about to escorted out...until Quinn mentions that they're Sliders. A booming voice thunders through the room and orders them to be brought to him...after which they are taken to a large chamber and a projection of a man in a totally not Dracula get up is seen. This is apparently the Sorcerer, who hams it up as he says he must determine if they are friend or foe and will reward them for the courage of their journey by getting them home...if they do something for him.

Though he doesn't say it onscreen, a later scene has Wade wondering why the Sorcerer would want some blueprints owned by the witch doctor who treated Quinn in the beginning. Because they apparently said, "yes" to this deal, they're going back to kick the hornet's nest that they already kicked once before. They could, of course, simply wait around near the Sorcerer's place for the next slide - in fact, Arturo even suggests this.

But then we'd have no plot.

Also, Quinn being held at gunpoint by a midget bounty hunter kind of ruins any chance of that happening. Quinn's taken back to the witch doctor and strapped down for his lobotomy. The other sliders rush in and Wade tries to put her feminine wiles to use in saving him...which distracts the witch doctor just enough for Rembrandt to snatch the bounty hunter's shotgun from him and declare that he's had enough with all these motherfuckin' sorcerers on this motherfuckin' plane. The bounty hunter GTFOs at Remmy's suggestion and Quinn gets the blueprints from one of the rooms off of the main office. Whereupon Rembrandt takes out the witch doctor's pet snake, because he's had enough of...

...no, I already did that joke.

After butting the witch doctor in the head with the shotgun, the group heads out to meet the Sorcerer once again. The assistant tries to stop them, but Quinn tackles his way through and up the stairs to find...himself.

Times the Sliders Have Run into Parallel Versions of Themselves: 7

Yes, it seems that the Sorcerer of this world is Quinn Mallory. Upon seeing the blueprints, he realizes that his Executive Assistant got the plans to the witch doctor and has him thrown out of the castle. It seems that the Sorcerer is not a bad guy, very much as Prime Quinn is, just kept behind his staff that apparently wish to preserve the mystique of his moniker.

As Wade later puts it, he's become a prisoner of his own success. Not originally from this world, he worked with his former business partner to bring supplies in from other worlds to sell in this one - muscling out all the shamans and other magically inclined types who had dominated the market before. Hence why the witch doctor wanted the Slide machine in the first place.

And, true to his word, Sorcerer Quinn promises to try and get them home. Our Quinn and Arturo do some technobabble which basically translates to the Sorcerer basically taking the "Reality is a giant roulette wheel" idea Quinn had and simply stopping the wheel on the appropriate slot. The portal is opened and, after some goodbyes, they all slide through, appearing in San Francisco during the day time and in front of a strikingly familiar house...

Quivering with anticipation, they realize that the next slide is in less than a minute. So to test if this is their Earth, Quinn heads over to his front gate. If you remember from "Pilot", the gate squeaks when opened, something that had been the case since Quinn was twelve. He opens the gate...but to his dismay, it doesn't squeak. Not their Earth once again. All discouraged, they open the portal at the appropriate time and slide through...only for Quinn's mother and the family gardener to come out as soon as the portal closes.

As it turns out, they were on their Earth...the gardener just fixed the gate. Mrs. Mallory is still quite saddened by the disappearance of her son, though the gardener tries to comfort her that Quinn will be back some day...some day...

It may just be because I had so many of the gripes I did about season one, but I really like this episode. I explained my view on the whole "magic vs. science" debate at the beginning, and the writers apparently were thinking somewhat similarly with their writing. Though the world is apparently as much science-based as our own, enough people have been selling mysticism for it to still be the coin of the realm. Until the end, we don't really know if anything is really magical or not.

In the ending, Sorcerer Quinn outright states that the shamans and witch doctors are all crackpots who had been controlling people through superstition. Mind you, that doesn't explain how the seer was able to so accurately predict the plight of the Sliders - which is not followed up on, by the way. But that's one minor niggle in what is otherwise a very solid episode. The Sliders actually show some logical thinking, such as Arturo bringing up that these should just take to hiding out for a few days until the slide when faced with having to deal with the witch doctor again.

The whole thing has a very Wizard of Oz feel to it, and not just because it completely rips off the plot of that film more or less - at least the final act. But really, the entire show has had that vibe. Consider in "Pilot", when the group is forced to make a slide to avoid the ice-nado. What is it that sends Dorothy to Oz from Kansas? A tornado. And who does she go to see in order to try and get back home? The wizard. Or, in the case of the Sliders, the Sorcerer - a rather nice, if somewhat shy man hiding behind a persona of absolute power and authority.

I'm inclined to be nicer to this episode since the Pilot did technically set up that feeling and it's an intentional homage (I strongly believe) rather than some of the utterly shameless rip-offs that we'll be getting in later episodes. It's a good episode on its own and a great start to the season. Let's hope that trend continues when we return next time, where the most dangerous (and wanted) game is man...literally...

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