Desert Storm

Season 3
Airdate: 11/1/96
Rating: 2/5

“If you didn’t know this place was special, you’d just keep on going.” – Quinn Mallory

The sliders discover a woman who has the gift to find water in the desert. She’s being exploited by a desert gang and the sliders have an urgent need for water for prevention from dehydration in the searing hot sun.

Quinn and Arturo have a small quibble about his illness and he insists not to tell Rembrandt and Wade. You may remember Arturo was diagnosed with an incurable illness back in the episode “The Guardian”. I wonder about his reasoning concerning this. Perhaps he doesn’t want any pity from them and is too proud to admit it. I’d also venture to say he’s trying not to add extra stress for them while dealing with every world’s problems. Not to mention discourage them or himself from ever getting home.

They find what appears to be a burned out military vehicle. It’s on fire and is embedded with arrows. To find such a vehicle in the middle of the desert would be a lifesaver from dehydration and a chance to reach civilization. That is if it wasn’t completely destroyed. They eventually find a small rugged looking town called The Sandpit. First of all I must warn you this episode is a ripoff of the movie Mad Max. It attempts to ride on the post-apocalyptic theme. Rembrandt declares he doesn’t care if it’s called the Snakepit as long as it has water. If you’re that thirsty, hot and dehydrated he’s one hundred percent correct. The survival stories of people lost in deserts easily proves that.

The Sliders find a dining table outside and while doing so a woman is gagged and held by a man. Arturo asks Wade not to rush to judgment because the girl could be a mass murderer. But the fact is Wade can never humor anyone. An eerie sound is heard and the girl uses telekinesis to ask Wade for help. Elston Diggs, the regular bartender in season three, asks the sliders what they want to order. Rembrandt promptly asks for water. On this world, water is a commodity. One of the best parts of this episode is seeing the variety of water being held and it’s in Erlenmeyer flasks. They take water seriously on this world. Take your choice, brown or clear. So clear it is, and Elston wants to know what they’re trading. They don’t take cash in the area. Now you know how buying and selling would work during a societal collapse. Purely trade.

Wade has nothing else to do except get involved with the girl taken hostage, named Devin. After the Sliders free her, she mentions Cutter will give them all the water they need, because she’s a water priestess. The kidnapper named Jeremy, whips out a knife determined to stop them. One could imagine how priceless keeping her would be. Well, eventually his attempt to stop them fails. The Sliders race off into the desert to find her leader named Cutter. Soon after her kidnapper Jeremy, follows. Bandits on their dirt bikes and dune buggies race after the Sliders. I guess this scene with all of the apocalyptic racing in the desert is one of the more iconic scenes from Mad Max. They even brazenly mention the movie.

The nomad gang eventually catches up and Devin begs the Sliders to stop. They’re actually part of her people. Cutter comes to her rescue believing the Sliders are their enemy. She explains they saved her. He arrogantly says he’s not going to kill them and considers his debt paid. Can you imagine? That’s about how our own society runs today I guess. I’m struggling to find the pop culture and comedy we had in the first season in this. I guess it’s the reference to the movie ripoff and the joke is on us.

Quinn asks for water since Devin promised them some. But Cutter is lying through his teeth asking them to come along while privately saying he’s going to have to lose them. Devin suddenly falls into her trance that helps find water. She points at the ground and proclaims twenty barrels of water here, maybe more. The sliders reluctantly have to stay with them that night. A gang member says they just found Devin out in the middle of the desert long ago. She’s known as the water witch. He lashes out at Quinn after he says, she must wonder where she came from. These guys act like the type of bullies who back down with a whimper when you stand up to them.

The kidnapper, Jeremy, shows up that night to grab Devin again but mistakenly captures Wade. It’s not until the next morning when he realizes he has the wrong girl. I’m not sure whether to entertain such a bad idea for a character or just blame the writers entirely. Either way it seems ridiculous and lazy. After all, there appears to be at least two or three more ladies in the gang. Eventually Jeremy finds out it’s Wade, and explains the whole situation. Devin is from his tribe, not Cutter’s. Now we know who the real kidnapper is. He shows his tattoo to prove it and says Cutter stole her when she was a small child. Whether Wade believes him or not she has no alternative but to ride with him or stay in the middle of the desert. One good thing about this episode is a change of pace with the scenery. Then again, I’m reminded of the desert in Electric Twister Acid Test.

Wade notices that Jeremy has a tattoo of the zodiac symbol for Aquarius. Wade is into all the stuff of zodiacs, signs and whatnot. So I guess you could say this is a callback or continuity of the show. Even if it’s of the tiniest, then again it’s probably a coincidence from the writers. Eden and the lost city of Aquarius is brought up. It’s home for Jeremy, and they’re known as “The Water Bearers”. It’s a utopia in comparison to the desert wasteland. It seems like this whole society lives on telepathy, and it’s the women who posses it.

Cutter with his dune buggy finds Jeremy and plots an attempt to kill him. As always, one Slider has to get involved and it’s Quinn jumping on top of the moving vehicle. The Sliders eventually kidnap or should I say rescue Devin from the clutches of Cutter and his rat gang. It won’t be easy to explain the situation to her.

This episode especially the name, always reminds me of the Gulf War operation named Desert Storm from 1990-1991. In some ways I think it’s cold hearted to name this as the episode, other hand, it allows us not to forgot the turmoil and sad state that our world always faces with war. The human mind is destroyed psychologically, and soldiers face injury and death. Not to in any way degrade the tragedy of war, this episode of Sliders faced it’s own tragedy. The actor portraying Cutter, Ken Steadman, died while transporting a dune buggy in between one of the Sliders scenes. His dune buggy overturned and crushed him. He died instantly at the scene of the accident. He was 27 years old. Another actor had to be replaced for his role and they done so with a makeup disguise. You can read more about Ken’s accident and his life at the website Remembering Ken Steadman.

The Sliders, Jeremy and Devin race off to find the mysterious city of Aquarius. As the ride goes along Devin questions her past believing it was Cutter who saved her in the first place. I guess you can call it the Stockholm syndrome. Over time a victim can develop positive feelings or a bond towards their captor due to psychological stress. Cutter arrives back to The Sandpit where his gang is. He demands the crystal Diggs obtained from Devin’s trade. Somehow Cutter believes “it (the crystal) was talking to her.” Apparently it’s a type of signal device to find her home of Aquarius. The Sliders use a modified cell phone while this world uses a crystal to find home. I can hear a season two Professor sarcastically talking about that, but you won’t hear it in this episode.

They eventually find Aquarius after walking through a cave. The area is full of plant life and water. Quinn wants Arturo to see their Master Healer in hopes of curing his terminal illness. He jokes about “the witch doctor”, which harkens back to the season two episode Into the Mystic. Although this doctor is nowhere near as scary. I think this episode could have focused a lot more on the true nature of the episode title. That’s the desert and why this earth is the way it is. Desolation, extreme heat, dehydration and survival. We’re inundated with a rat gang driving aimlessly. Although this episode’s setting is in the desert, it’s just a storm of a mess.