Summer of Love

Season 1
Airdate: 4/19/95
Rating: 4.5/5

“Don’t worry Mrs. Tweak, we’re A-OK.” – Quinn Mallory

Knock, knock. Who’s there? FBI. FB… We’ll ask the questions. It’s just like that. Bennish gets a knock from the FBI asking where the Sliders are. He seems to give the answers in a lighthearted way. Although the scene is humorous, it would have been interesting if the FBI labeled him as a suspect in their disappearance. This raid is only a shadow of what’s to come.

The Sliders land on a street busting the timer. This only begins the Professor’s endless tirade of complaints of who and where he is hit during the slides. The timer is fried quite literally, in one of the most inopportune times. A swarm of South American Spiderwasps have migrated from Venezuela. They were created in a lab in effort to be used as pest control. As our experimental developments continue in our own world, it wouldn’t surprise me if some fierce insect was created. Accidentally, or perhaps even intentionally. Friend or foe.

In their fervor to escape the Spiderwasps with a fried timer, Quinn advances the timer yet again like in the Pilot episode. From lack of power the vortex doesn’t stay open long enough. Rembrandt and Wade slide, leaving Quinn and Arturo to open their own vortex. It’s a genius idea to separate the four. A group separated forever. How could it possibly get worse? Well with a Spiderwasp sliding and landing on Arturo’s back as Quinn knocks him unconscious to get the creature off his back. Both groups land in a 60s hippie society with Oliver North as president. At the time it’s not clear if they’re on the same earth or another identical world. The epitome of this episode is when Wade and Rembrandt land in front of the most hardcore hippies you could ever find.

They believe Rembrandt and Wade are immortal prophets from the sky. With delusion the hippies believe all their problems are over. Listen up. As you read this review, keep an eye and ear open because every word could have a profound multiple meaning. Rembrandt borrows a tricked out hippie Cadillac and visits his former family home. He enters his own vigil. His dead double that is, who likely fought a radically different war enemy. This is yet another fun and interesting way to continue to embed the concept of multiple universes to us. So right on, right on.

Such wonderful yet mind-bending scenes are when Quinn and Arturo are so verbally abused by cops, then a short hair, clean cut Conrad Bennish comes in. He’s president of the Young Republicans for the War and asks the Sliders for their support. He proclaims, ‘Take pride in the love of God and country’. A brilliant idea of a simple haircut to evolve a character into a ‘double’.

Remmy hilariously dives into some delicious donuts crying tears about his dead self. How much more entertaining could this be! The brother double berates him in front of everyone mourning. Our Rembrandt, hiding behind a wall loses it and shouts in anger ‘you couldn’t carry a tune if it was strapped to your back’. Chaos ensues. They’re frightened, yet they also suddenly parade him around like a saint. The wife insists he’s been with other women while at war. Theses scenes of Rembrandt in the house are really where this episode shines. Meanwhile, Wade is being treated like a god by the hippies. She teaches them about astrology and I’m sure anything under the sun. Down the road, this will lead Arturo to the belief and rule of ‘no involvement with the locals’.

As the Professor and Quinn rent a loft to stay the night, a humorous interrogation scene by the owner Mrs. Tweak ensues. She inquires if they had ever spit on the flag, and are not Aussie lovers. Suspicion arises when Arturo calls Quinn his brother, and Quinn calls the Professor his dad. It’s great to see drama, scifi and comedy mix. It a one of a kind treat. Mrs. Tweak calls the FBI hotline in her suspicion believing they are there to kill the president.

“What happens when you die?” “I can’t say I’ve never died.” “She’s immortal.” Innocent yet so ignorant by the hippies at hand with Wade. She regretfully sees how her responses continue to mislead the hippies at her own expense. It’s our duty as humans to help and teach those at hand in the right manner. Sometimes though, the teacher can never fix the ignorance. But we should never take advantage of one’s shortcomings.

Eventually Rembrandt’s cover is blown when his ‘son’ Rembrandt Jr. is given a government notice that the real Rembrandt was recovered and resting comfortably in a Melbourne hospital. All of this in part due to the U.S. losing the Battle of the Coral sea. Rembrandt flies out of the house in seconds to drive off. The wife runs out on the lawn with guns a-blazing. He’s stepped in it. So has Wade. Now it’s Quinn and Arturo’s turn.

The two tirelessly work out an equation to get back home on the walls of their loft. After pulling the graveyard shift the FBI raids the two. The FBI attempts to decipher the Sliders equation in belief that it is some type of elaborate pipe bomb. In frustration the Professor asserts, “a pipe bomb’s child’s play compared to that.” Out of the group, they’ve really stepped in it.

This episodes starts out with a hard landing but ends with a bang. It’s dynamic in the sense that there’s three stories going on at once. Wade with the hippies, Remmy in the house of his double and Quinn with Arturo plotting the universe. This type of writing creates enticement. You really can’t go wrong with this episode and will find numerous enjoyable scenes and tidbits. After all, it’s the summer of love. Surfs up, dude! Right on, right on.