The Weaker Sex

Season 1
Airdate: 5/3/95
Rating: 4/5

“Next time, it’s a bomb. You won’t be warned again.” – anonymous woman

The Sliders arrive on a world where men are treated as second class citizens while women rule. After a rough landing the Sliders come to a pretzel stand and do a little “taste testing” to see if they’re really home. The salesman asks them to hold it down because President Clinton is about to address the nation on TV. Remember time is the same in all parallel worlds and the year is 1995. Since Clinton is president it increases the odds they’ve made it home. However the Sliders soon discover the president is not Bill Clinton, but his wife… Hillary Clinton. This is incredibly genius, in fact I believe they tried to get her to make an appearance similar in their attempt to get Geraldo Rivera later in season two.

Occasionally science fiction can come true, yet this Sliders episode is almost uncanny. In 2007 nearly 12 years after this episode aired Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for President but in the end she ultimately failed. I’ll point out some more parallel scenarios from what has happened on our own earth, but let’s get back to the matter at hand.

The Catholic Pope is a woman, while men are the swimsuit models on fashion magazines. The Sliders are low on money so they need to find a job desperately. This startles the senses on how the Sliders survive from one world to the next. Many Sliders fans have thrown out ideas that they should have a backpack of sorts, like a survivalist. Nevertheless we’ll see in future seasons that Quinn lives by the idea of sliding with no gear. Wade eventually lands a job with Anita Ross’ campaign as mayor and Quinn is hired as well. He’s basically the keyboard and coffeemaker man.

It’s not long before Wade begins bickering to the Professor about women always being suppressed due to their sex. As women continue to grow in higher positions in government it’s coming to the realization that in stark contrast to the episode, there is no peace. Wade mentions there’s no more war or violence. This would never happen in our society as it has nothing to do with sex but human nature. Men and women can bicker all day long as to who is the worse sex at the political and personal hostility. But it comes down to the fact their never will be peace from an all male or all female government. From some flip of a coin however, in this universe peace has occurred.

One funny part of this episode is the scene where Quinn says they can finally get a bigger hotel room rather than him sleeping in a bathtub. Plus you have Wade telling the group she can get probably the guys jobs. Men have been the leaders of position and you see the disgust of a job on their face. But the fact remains male or female, who does want to get themselves into a stressful job? This episode does give a taste as to what women have gone through in the past. From the struggle to find a decent job, to being hit on by random men. Professor Arturo misses out on his job in the mailroom for the Anita Ross’ campaign office and unknowingly gets involved in a men’s rights movement. He’s soon talked into a corner and becomes the spokesman for the group and to top it off a candidate for the San Francisco city Mayor. Quinn soon quits the Ross campaign because of the political mudslinging against Arturo. As Rembrandt lives in a life of luxury at the expense of his so called ‘record promoter’ he soon discovers she’s a fraud. He’s been used just like many woman are today. That’s not to say it can’t be the other way around. But it currently seems more prominent at the woman’s expense.

I absolutely love the scenes where Arturo is in the retail mall handing out flyers to get some votes as a woman berates him “you should be ashamed of yourself.” The professor interjects back “ignorant bovine!” It’s one of his more iconic lines as well as “blistering idiot.” Further in the episode he hilariously runs in fury after a man’s baby to kiss it to get the votes. You can’t make this stuff up, but somehow they did. In 1981 president Ronald Regan was nearly assassinated because the gunman was supposedly trying to impress actress Jodie Foster. The scene is reenacted so that Arturo is nearly assassinated. Perhaps it was a female trying to impress an actor?

In 1972 Senator Edmund Muskie wept after a difficult question and it cost him the candidacy. Arturo’s consciousness drives him to do the same during a debate with Anita Ross to throw his campaign, deliberately. Oddly enough, our Hillary wept because of a rigorous campaign during her 2008 run for the democrat nomination. Sure enough the ‘Muskie’ incident was brought to the public’s attention by political analysts across the board.

This episode is by far one of the most interesting and powerful Sliders episodes from the first season. Plus it’s of interest to note it’s written by two women, Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin. It is yet to be seen whether or not women will become first class citizens over men. Nevertheless, it’s apparent women have a much greater control in political and social life than they did in the early 20th century. Although Professor Arturo pulled a damning stunt he waits in anticipation for the election results. The slide to the next world soon awaits the Sliders and Arturo has to decide, to stay or slide. He ponders whether or not he has won an election against “the greater sex”… the woman.