Tag: Fox

Categories
Alien Nation Season 1

Partners

Alien NationSikes and George take part in a major drug bust, in the process getting the attention of an organized crime ring that has no problems targeting both of them. So it’s fortunate that Sikes’ old mentor – the old cop who pulled him off the street and made him his partner – turns up to lend a hand. And it looks like Sikes will need more backup than usual when George is accused of stealing some of the drug haul. Internal Affairs raids George’s house, even as he and his family prepare for the ceremony in which Susan will pass the pod containing their unborn child on to George, and finds the missing drugs – though George vehemently denies taking them. Has Sikes completely misjudged his current partner…or his old one?

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by David Garber & Bruce Kalish
directed by Stan Lathan
music by Steve Dorff & Larry Herbstritt

Guest Cast: Gilbert Lewis (Theo Miles), Tom Byrd (Bud Anderson), Robert Romanus (Zack Whelan), Tony Rizzoli (Jeffrey Ross), Terry Beaver (Sgt. Dustin Baxley), Bill Kalmenson (Ken Jester), Maria Rangel (Allison Wolfe), Crofton Hardester (Chester Charles), Wilson Raiser (Con), Branscombe Richmond (Haney), Arthur Seidel (Rankin), Gary Morgan (Garrison), Brad Orrison (Rickman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Alien Nation Season 1

Real Men

Alien NationAs George gets closer to giving birth, he and Sikes are assigned to investigate a report of Tenctonese hormones being used as steroids by a bodybuilder. While the hormones can vastly increase human strenngth, they also have such side-effects as impotence, irrational behavior, and murderous psychosis. And those aren’t the only Tenctonese hormones impeding the investigation, as George undergoes a seemingly endless progression of mood swings. It soon becomes apparent that more than one person is involved, but in the end, it comes down to a violent confrontation with the man who started using the hormones – and the fight brings about the premature birth of George’s child.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider
directed by John McPherson
music by David Kurtz

Guest Cast: Arthur Seidel (Desk Sgt. Rankin), William Shockley (Nick Coletta), A.D. Muyich (Viktor Wendkos), Hank Garrett (Marty Penn), Robert Neary (Don Zimmer), Debbie Barker (Karina Bowman), M.E. Loree (Doctor), Martin Garner (Sol Birnbaum), Jeff Skier (Guest), Neil Nash (Andrey), Patty Toy (Nurse), Oscar Dillon (Carl), Joe Hoke (Cop)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Alien Nation Season 1

Crossing The Line

Alien NationSikes is preparing to take a well-earned vacation to Hawaii when a murder case sparks a memory of his early days in uniform. A young woman has been murdered after being injected with sodium pentathol – more commonly known as a “truth drug” – reminding Sikes of a serial killer who he failed to stop several years ago; trying to save the life of a hostage, Sikes laid his gun down, only to watch the helpless woman shot before his very eyes. What drives Sikes insane with anger is that sleazeball reporter Burns is playing into the killer’s hands: anonymous tips are leading Burns to grisly murder scenes and messages from the killer, all of which make it into the next morning’s paper without Burns providing any useful information to the police. Captain Grazer, worried about Sikes’ obsession with the case, has to order Sikes to take his vacation; instead, Sikes goes rogue, making good on his insistence that a case like this demands a bit of vigilante justice. But in the process of trying to exorcise the ghosts of his past, Sikes may be putting Burns in line to be the next victim.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Long Mitchell & Craig W. Van Sickle
directed by Gwen Arner
music by Steve Dorff & Larry Herbstritt

Guest Cast: Jenny Gago (Beatrice Zepeda), Tobin Bell (Brian Knox), Robert Alan Browne (Foreman), Ivory Ocean (Dutchman), Jeff Doucette (Burns), Michele Lamar Richards (Lois Allen), Robert Balderson (Wounded Officer), Heather McComb (Cyndy), Eva Von Widman (Nurse Adele)

Notes: Jeff Doucette is demoted to a guest star in this episode, having appeared in the opening credits – but very few episodes of the show itself – for virtually the entire season.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Alien Nation Season 1

Rebirth

Alien NationDuring a routine call, Sikes is attacked by a Newcomer criminal and is fatally wounded. Inexplicably, after he is pronounced dead, George discovers that he is still alive. Sikes later reveals that he had a vision of his attacker visiting him, dropping Tenctonese crystals on him, apologizing for killing him, and then bringing him back to life. The only evidence of this vision is the presence of a single crystal left with Sikes. The crystal is one of a variety used by a human/Newcomer religious sect where Sikes and George made an earlier routine stop. Sikes pays a visit to the order, and they lead him through a ceremony which causes him to remember with perfect clarity the vicious attack that crippled his father. Suddenly, Sikes isn’t just looking for a criminal on the loose – if his vision was any indication, he may be looking for a Newcomer who can perform miracles.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Tom Chehak
directed by Tom Chehak
music by David Kurtz

Guest Cast: Brian Thompson (Peter Rabbit), Ellen Wheeler (Okno), Milt Kogan (Doctor), Raffi Diblasio (Billy), Rif Hutton (Officer), John Sudol (Sikes’ father), Terri Semper (Nurse), Ryan Cashas (young Sikes)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Alien Nation Season 1

Gimme Gimme

Alien NationA uniquely Tenctonese cross between a lightweight fabric and an incredibly resilient metal, Nu-Knit is rolled out as a prime investment opportunity for Newcomers and humans alike. Its inventor, newcomer Edgar Allan Poe, has forged an uneasy alliance with a shifty human business partner, but when Poe is murdered – after someone replaces the water in his swimming pool with deadly salt water – that partner becomes a prime suspect. Sikes and George are on the case, but after hearing George sing the praises of Nu-Knit, Captain Grazer has also invested heavily in the company, and insists on pursuing the case from the standpoint of protecting his money. A visit to Nu-Knit’s factory leaves Sikes nauseous, almost to the point of fainting, prompting concerns about the company’s compliance with environmental laws. When Poe’s former business partner produces an alibi that, while not commendable, at least turns out to be true, the hunt is on for the real killer…someone who also has a reason to cover up the deadly secret behind Nu-Knit.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Andrew Schneider & Diane Frolov
directed by David Carson
music by David Kurtz

Guest Cast: Alan Fudge (Phil), Kim Braden (Marilyn Houston), Joseph Cali (Lee Smith), Armin Shimerman (Cyril Roman), David Selburg (Edgar Allen Poe), Beverly Leech (Rita Poe), Michele Lamar Richards (Lois Allen), Michael Zano (Mr. Elias), Bob Minor (Cop), Lance E. Nichols (Delivery Man), Stephen Hart (Thug)

Notes: There’s something refreshingly un-ironic about Armin Shimerman in the role of an unscrupulous, profit-mongering alien, even if it predates his regular role as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Quark by three years.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Alien Nation Season 1

The Touch

Alien NationCathy learns that Andron, a child who she protected about the Tenctonese slave ship, is receiving some sort of special treatment, and she suspects it’s the same “treatment” he’s been receiving for years: he was taken from her to be indoctrinated into the ranks of the Overseers, beginning with the violent sacrifice of one of his own people. At first, Cathy’s warnings fall on deaf ears among both human and Newcomer child protection officials, and with no proof to back up her claims, even Sikes and George can’t act on her warnings. Desperate to help Andron and expose the Overseers who are working to once again enslave the Newcomers on Earth, Cathy takes matters into her own hands and spirits the boy away, but all she accomplishes in so doing is drawing potential kidnapping charges. The Overseers soon track Andron down, and decide that Cathy would make a fitting sacrifice to complete the boy’s training…

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Long Mitchell & Craig W. Van Sickle
directed by Harry S. Longstreet
music by Steve Dorff & Larry Herbstritt

Guest Cast: Jenny Gago (Beatrice Zepeda), Mike Preston (Rigac), Barbara Bush (Lorraine Clark), Jonathan Brandis (Andron), Dorothy Fielding (Ella Day), Doug Ballard (Mr. Eugene), Martin LaPlatney (Troy), Margaret Howell (Andron’s Mother), Yvette Freeman (Helen), Mitchell Allen (Andron at 7), Vlado Benden (Desk Clerk), Dustin Berkovitz (Newcomer Boy), Eli Guralnick (Female Overseer), Marin May (Newcomer Girl), Tom Pabst (Newcomer Sacrifice), Van Quatro (Male Overseer)

Notes: Cathy’s Tenctonese name is revealed to be Gelana. Guest star Jonathan Brandis would soon find fame in another genre series, seaQuest DSV, in which he starred as whiz kid Lucas Wolenczak. He does not say a single syllable of dialogue in this episode. Brandis later took his own life, at the age of 27, in 2003.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Alien Nation Season 1

Green Eyes

Alien NationAs an investigation begins into the suspicious death of a Newcomer judge, George passes the exam that ensures a promotion that will make him Sikes’ superior. But even as George and Sikes interview a suspect against whom the late judge once ruled, a prominent Newcomer doctor receives an anonymous gift that results in his death. The judge’s autopsy reveals the presence of a genetically-engineered agent designed specifically to kill Tenctonese – and George’s recent promotion may now make him a target. A letter from an organization calling itself the National Purists’ Front arrives, claiming responsibility for the murders and promising more Newcomer deaths. As they try to track down the racially-motivated serial killers, George and Sikes find themselves seriously at odds with each other over George’s promotion. Their own racial tension even spills over into Sikes’ relationship with Cathy. As Sikes retreats into the arms of a human woman, an anonymous gift intended for George infects Susan and Emily instead. But what even George and Sikes don’t know is that this latest attack is merely a test of a new version of the toxin, which the Purists plan to use to wipe out all the Newcomers.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider
directed by Tom Chehak
music by Steve Dorff & Harry Erbstritt

Guest Cast: Jenny Gago (Zepeda), Barbara Bush (Lorraine Clark), Michelle Lamar Richards (Dr. Lois Allen), Lee Bryant (Phyllis Bryant), Kim Braden (Marilyn Houston), Haskell V. Anderson III (Principal Fisher), David Purdham (Marc Guerin), John Calvin (Rick Parris), Geoffrey Bryant (Michael Bukowski), Edith Fields (Martha), Andras Jones (Noah Ramsey), Geoff Pierson (Dr. Bogg), Thomas Knickerbocker (Judge Kaiser), Thom Zimerle (Joshua Tree), Joe Hoke (Newcomer cop), Michael Najjar (Delivery man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
M.A.N.T.I.S.

M.A.N.T.I.S.

M.A.N.T.I.S.A well-organized and planned heist of a bank in Ocean City is cut short by the appearance of a silhouetted figure wearing a high-tech helmet. By the time the police arrive, the helmeted man is gone, but the robbers are still there, frozen in place. In one of the robbers’ mouths, police find a metal figurine of a praying mantis.

In the run-up to the 1994 election, which will decide the next Mayor of Ocean City, the race is down to two men – Ocean City’s Chief of Police, Frank Stark, and an incumbent, elder-statesman Mayor. Stark has attracted controversy by mandating violent “anti-riot” tactical training as the answer to gang activity, while claiming that the sitting Mayor is soft on crime, but most of Stark’s crime-fighting activity is focused squarely on the city’s African-American populace. When amateur videotape of the helmeted man lands in the hands of TV reporter Yuri Barnes, he suspects that the mystery vigilante – known on the street only as “Mantis” – is part of some undisclosed secret plan being hatched by Stark. Barnes’ girlfriend, Dr. Amy Ellis, is an examiner at the city coroner’s office, and says she’s heard nothing about this being part of a police operation.

It’s not long, however, before Dr. Ellis sees the masked man in action for herself, as he arrives in a flying car to break up a crime that uses a deliberate traffic jam to cover for a spree of robberies. The perpetrators are shot with some kind of dart that leaves them paralyzed, like the bank robbers, and then the helmeted man flies away with police helicopters in pursuit. The impossibly high-tech flying car dives into a tunnel, where it shimmers, emerging from the tunnel as an ordinary (if vintage) car. The frozen perpetrators are examined at police headquarters by biophysicist Dr. Miles Hawkins, who is unable to offer any conclusions. After seeing Antoine Pike, head of the Mayor’s anti-gang task force, in action, Dr. Ellis suspects that he may be “Mantis”, though Barnes dismisses that theory. Dr. Ellis has another theory: Dr. Hawkins’ attempts to determine what paralyzed the criminals may lead to Chief Stark having a powerful new weapon which she fears will be used predominantly on Ocean City’s African-American population.

Word reaches Hawkins that Pike’s much-touted truce between the city’s gangs is broken, “Mantis” swings into action to prevent a gang war that will give Stark an excuse to declare a war of his own, whether he does so as the Chief of Police or as the Mayor. But what no one realizes is that M.A.N.T.I.S. stands for Mechanically Augmented Neuro-Transmitter Interception System, a powered suit devised by Hawkins to allow him to move without his wheelchair. But the suit also gives him powers beyond walking, and he’ll need every one of them to stop Stark’s scheme to influence the election…and start a massacre.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Sam Hamm
story by Sam Raimi & Sam Hamm
directed by Eric Laneuville
music by Joseph Lo Duca

M.A.N.T.I.S.Cast: Carl Lumbly (Dr. Miles Hawkins), Bobby Hosea (Yuri Barnes), Gina Torres (Dr. Amy Ellis), Steve James (Antoine Pike), Obba Babatunde (Cornell), Marcia Cross (Lila McEwan), Wendy Raquel Robinson (Hawkins’ Assistant), Christopher M. Brown (Hawkins’ Assistant), Phillip Baker Hall (Smitty), Yvonne Farrow (Magda), Francis X. McCarthy (Chief Stark), Alan Fudge (Captain), Grant Heslov (TV Crew), Louis Ramos (TV Cameraman), Billy Kane (DeCarlos), Jeremiah Birkett (Kid MG), Dex Elliot Sanders (L.T.), Theo Forsett (Jay), Jerry Black (Mayor Beane), Larron Tate (Day Day), Vicellous Reon Shannon (Ski), Tierre Turner (Rahsaan), Martin Davis (Todd), Kimble Jemison (Curtis), David Fresco (Motorist), Edwina Moore (Jay’s Mom), Charles Hoyes (Policeman Guard), Lucy Lin (Newswoman), Ossaun Elam (Gangbanger #1), Richard Jones (Gangbanger #2), Dane Winters (Interviewer), Nelson Parks (Office Worker), Martin Cassidy (Dispatcher), Steve Hom (Cop in Alley), Jermaine Shoulders (10K Member), Mark Phelan (Stark’s Handler), Gene Arrington (Reggie), Richard Zobel (Homeless Man), Mark Avery (Basketball Guard), Robair Sims (Thug), Craig Hosking (Pilot)

M.A.N.T.I.S.Notes: Created by future Hercules and Xena creators Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert with Batman and Batman Returns screenwriter Sam Hamm, M.A.N.T.I.S. was a made-for-TV superhero with an almost entirely African-American cast and no comic book antecedent. Fox made significant changes to the show’s casting and format before it returned in August as a weekly series; Carl Lumbly (as Hawkins/M.A.N.T.I.S.) was the only cast member or character to transition from the pilot to the series. Much was made of Hamm’s involvement at the time, as his scripts for the two Tim Burton Batman films were regarded as a revival for the character in film. The M.A.N.T.I.S. suit was designed by comics artist Denys Cowan and fabricated by KNB EFX Group (then known best for A Nightmare On Elm Street 5, Halloween 5, and Dances With Wolves).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
M.A.N.T.I.S.

First Steps

M.A.N.T.I.S.Paralyzed after being shot while trying to rescue a child from an inner city riot, Dr. Miles Hawkins is roused from his recovery by a letter of resignation from John Stonebrake, a brilliant cyberneticist working at Hawkins Industries. Stonebrake has been working on a powered suit that could restore Hawkins’ mobility, and Hawkins demands to try it out, control helmet and all, with John following closely. During their test of the suit, Hawkins overhears a woman screaming, and races to intervene, discovering that he can hurl her attackers a great distance as a result of the suit’s superhuman strength. But after stopping the assault, a malfunction brings Hawkins to his knees and John rushes him back to the lab.

Hawkins is called in to offer his medical advice on what seems to be an outbreak of a fatal disease. Hawkins immediately recognizes the genetically engineered virus from its effects: it’s a biological weapon that he created. Despite the fact that he informs Lt. Leora Maxwell she is almost certainly infected from even a brief exposure, she breaks quarantine to try to find who’s responsible for spreading the virus. Hawkins also breaks quarantine to visit an old business partner of his, Solomon Box, who was ordered to destroy the virus. After his confrontation with Box, Hawkins survives an attempt on his life, and is then stunned when Taylor Savage, a witness to his foray in the suit has tracked him down and “wants in” on whatever Hawkins and John are up to. With his help, Hawkins discovers that Box plans to sell the virus to North Korean operatives, and the only solution may be to once again don the Mantis suit.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Bryce Zabel
directed by David Nutter
music by Christopher Franke

M.A.N.T.I.S.Cast: Carl Lumbly (Dr. Miles Hawkins), Roger Rees (John Stonebrake), Christopher Gartin (Taylor Savage), Galyn Gorg (Lt. Leora Maxwell), Kenneth Mars (Reese), Cordelia Gonzales (Dr. Rivera), Brion James (Solomon Box), Clabe Hartley (Tony), Lorena Gale (Lynette), Jerry Wasserman (Detective Paul Warren), Kevin McNulty (Fred Saxon), Ric Reid (Rex Hauck), Suki Kaiser (Ashley Williams), Martin Cummins (Dog Face), Cathy Weseluck (TV Interviewer), Robin Douglas (Manager), Madison Graie (Hassled Girl), Brock Johnson (Punk), Harvey Thomison (Dr. Zoom), Jason Lee (Korean Official)

Notes: M.A.N.T.I.S. has undergone a significant rethink to become a weekly series, walking back some elements of the pilot movie aired in January 1994. The fictional “Ocean City” setting is now “Port Columbia”, though it still has all the hallmarks of a major coastal California city. With the sole exception of M.A.N.T.I.S.Carl Lumbly as Dr. Miles Hawkins, the entire cast of the pilot, and their characters, have been jettisoned by the weekly series.

There’s strong evidence to suggest that the series and the pilot movie are not in the same “universe”. This episode seems to portray the first time Hawkins has tried on the M.A.N.T.I.S. suit, which he had already used prior to the pilot movie. Unlike the pilot’s plot point that Hawkins had worked with the city government of Ocean City, here he says that the investigation into the outbreak is the first time he’s consulted with the police since being paralyzed. In the pilot, M.A.N.T.I.S. is an acronym for the suit’s technology, whereas here it’s a term invented by Taylor Savage. It’s probably best to view the pilot movie and the series as two very different tellings of the same story.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Sliders

Sliders (Pilot Movie)

SlidersGenius college student Quinn Mallory is about to drive his physics instructor, Professor Maximillian Arturo, quite mad. Quinn is convinced he’s on the brink of breaking the barrier between dimensions, using a device that would let him “slide” between them and visit alternate histories. Professor Arturo is convinced that Quinn is on the verge of doing no such thing if he doesn’t start tending more carefully to his classwork. Quinn’s friend Wade – who isn’t his girlfriend, but wouldn’t mind if he ever did take notice of her – is concerned about him too, and when Wade and Arturo visit Quinn at home, they discover that he has indeed made a breakthrough. Quinn’s sliding device is still in the early stages of testing – and the first time he uses it, it has disastrous results, plunging Quinn, Arturo and Wade into an alternate reality and sucking up a hapless soul singer named Rembrandt “Crying Man” Brown along the way. The four of them find themselves in San Francisco, which is where they started – but they’re trapped in a world where Soviet Communism has overrun America. They quickly fall in with a resistance cell trying to restore democracy, a cell whose missing leader apparently had a striking resemblance to Wade – but they’re met with instant suspicion because the local Commandant bears an equally striking resemblance to Professor Arturo. Even if they survive this adventure, with or without striking a blow for freedom, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to return to their own universe.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Jerry O’Connell (Quinn Mallory), Sabrina Lloyd (Wade Welles), Cleavant Derricks (Rembrandt Brown), John Rhys-Davies (Professor Maximillian Arturo)

Order the DVDswritten by Tracy Tormè
directed by Andrew Tennant
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Linda Henning (Mrs. Mallory), Joseph A. Wapner (Commissar Wapner), Doug Llewelyn (Comrade Llewelyn), Garwin Sanford (Doc), Roger C. Cross (Wilkins), Yee Jee Tso (Wing), Jason Gaffney (Benish), Frank C. Turner (Crazy Kenny), Gary Jones (Hurley), John Novak (Ross J. Kelly), Don Mackay (Artie Field), Alex Bruhanski (Pavel), Jay Brazeau (KGB Colonel), Andrew Kavadas (Vendor), Sook Yin Lee (Pat), Wayne Cox (PBS Spokesman), Raoul Ganee (Sentry), Tom Butler (Michael Mallory)

Notes: Filmed in Vancouver, Sliders visits many of the same locations and even performers as featured a year later in Fox’s 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, including Yee Jee Tso and John Novak. Perhaps not coincidentally, Vancouver was doubling for San Francisco in that production too.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Sliders

Fever

SlidersQuinn and his friends visit a plague-stricken world which has been denied the benefits of modern medicine as they know it. They also discover that the disease sweeping the world may have been deliberately engineered – and that this world’s Quinn is accused of creating it. Now the trick is to evade capture long enough for the next slide…without contracting the disease themselves.

Order the DVDswritten by Ann Powell & Rose Schacht
directed by Mario Azzopardi
music by Mark Mothersbaugh

Guest Cast: Ken Pogue (Doctor Morgan), Allison Hossack (Doctor Stanley), Yee Jee Tso (Wing), William Sasso (Gomez Calhoun)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Sliders

The Last Days

SlidersThe sliders arrive on a world on the brink of chaos and anarchy as the human race prepares to be wiped out by an approaching asteroid in 72 hours. While this might only cause mild consternation to the visitors, Quinn has arranged for them to stay in this dimension for a little over three days, making them just as susceptible to this Earth’s fate as everyone else. Quinn and Wade try to visit the home of this dimension’s Quinn to see if he has developed sliding equipment that can allow them to escape earlier, while Arturo sets out on an unlikely mission to develop an asteroid-deflecting atom bomb – a technology never used in this world – with obnoxious Benish, a student of his from home. Rembrandt, in the meantime, decides to party like there’s no tomorrow – only to find that anarchy is breaking loose as the end draws near, and he’s right in the middle of it.

Order the DVDswritten by Dan Lane
directed by Michael Keusch
music by Mark Mothersbaugh

Guest Cast: Jennifer Hetrick (Caroline), Jason Gaffney (Benish), George Touliatos (Dr. Antonovich), Gary Narin (Mace Moon), Malcolm Stewart (Alan Fontaine), Carlton Watson (Reverend), Robin Palmer (Nurse Pamela), Patrick Stevenson (Jimmy), Hidalgo Rubin (Driver), Jacqueline Dandeneau (Meter Maid), Norma Wick (News Anchor), Brian Arnold (Science Correspondent), Mike Dobson (Policeman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Sliders

Prince Of Wails

SlidersArriving in a world where the American colonies lost their revolution gambit to British forces, Arturo is alarmed to find that his double in this dimension is the Sheriff of San Francisco, a corrupt politician who, since he is next in the line of succession to young Prince Harold, means to see the young monarch assassinated. Naturally, Arturo is mistaken for the Sheriff when he encounters Harold, but aside from this confusion the professor wants no part of the shady royal dealings; Quinn, however, has other ideas, namely stirring up a revolution to depose the Sheriff.

Order the DVDswritten by Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin
directed by Felix Alcala
music by Mark Mothersbaugh

Guest Cast: Ben Bode (Prince Harold), Sherman Howard (Hendrick), Gerard Plunkett (Driver), Chris Humphreys (Raider #1), Tracey Olson (Dixon Vallely), Bernie Coulson (Raider #2), David Kaye (Reporter #1), Jaylene Hamilton (Reporter #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Sliders

Summer Of Love

SlidersThe authorities investigate the Sliders’ disappearance in their native universe, questioning Quinn’s classmate Conrad Benish, just as Quinn and his friends arrive in another universe. To Quinn’s horror, the timer has suffered some damage, but when a public PA system warns of the coming of a swarm of mutant spider-wasps, he and his friends worry that they may suffer even worse damage. The timer is barely able to generate another vortex in time to escape, and the gateway closes for a moment after Wade and Rembrandt slide. Quinn and Arturo slide to a different location, and find that some of the mutant insects have come with them. Both parties have actually arrived in the same world, with Wade and Rembrandt emerging from their wormhole before the shocked eyes of a hippie commune whose members believe them to be aliens from another world. While searching for Quinn and Arturo, Rembrandt stumbles upon his own funeral – and blows his own cover when the eulogy becomes less than complimentary. It gradually becomes apparent that America is at war in this world, and the counterculture with whom the sliders are identified is considered a very dangerous and subversive group indeed.

Order the DVDswritten by Tracy Tormè
directed by Mario Azzopardi
music by Mark Mothersbaugh

Guest Cast: Obba Babbatunde (Hippie), Deborah Lacey (Agent), Arthur Reggie III (Detective), Jason Gaffney (Benish), Gerry Nairn (Mace Moore), Michele Goodger (Copeland), Robert Lee (Harold), Barry Pepper (Skidd), Ajay Karah (Seeker), Richard Leacock (Tenedu), Gabrielle Miller (Fling), Joy Coghill (Ms. Tweak), Mike Dobson (First Policeman), Joanna Piros (Newscaster)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Sliders

Eggheads

SlidersQuinn and the others arrive in a world where intellectuals are revered and even worshipped in the same way as athletes are in the sliders’ native dimension. Quinn and Arturo’s duplicates in this dimension are quite famous – and apparently quite infamous too, since Arturo is served with divorce papers intended for his double from a woman that Arturo once fell in love with and lost, and Quinn is roughed up for his alternate’s enormous gambling debts. The only way Quinn can avoid further harm during his stay is to throw a Mindgame championship, a contest combining physical sports and mental prowess, in MIT’s favor. The results if Quinn doesn’t conspire against his own team could be fatal.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Scott Smith Miller
story by Scott Smith Miller & Jacob Epstein
directed by Timothy Bond
music by Mark Mothersbaugh

Guest Cast: Charles Syphers (Coach Almquist), Peter Spellos (Jimmy), Gabrielle Rose (Kristina), Rick Garcia (Referee), Tom Jackson (Color Commentator), Ron Pitts (Play-by-Play Announcer), Andrew Guy (Wilson), Karen Austin (Lydia), William B. Davis (Professor Myman), Roman Danylo (Buyer), Johnny Mah (Victor), Rachel Hayward (Karen), Anthony Harrison (Agent Cannon), Marc Baur (Agent O’Malley), Sheelagh Megill (Mrs. Bingham), Colin Warner (Harvard Captain), Bentley Mitchum (M.I.T. Player), Mark Poyser (Rapper Leader), Carl Hibbert (Rapper #1), Michael McMillian (Rapper #2), Amanda O’Leary (Librarian)

Notes: Guest star William B. Davis is no stranger to fans of the Fox network’s mid ’90s SF series – he’s better known as the “Cigarette Smoking Man” from The X-Files.

LogBook entry by Earl Green