Sliders: the Complete Season 4 [DVD]

If Sliders' executive producer David Peckinpah is the destroyer of Season Three, then new co-executive producer Marc Scott Zicree is the saviour of Season Four. Although a very different show from its original premise, Season Four of Sliders is a much more consistent and well written season than much of the previous season. B-movie rip-offs are replaced by original sci-fi stories and poorly computer generated monsters are replaced by intelligent character development. Kari Wuhrer's character Maggie Beckett has been given a complete overhaul. Gone is the loud, obnoxious and much hated military hot head from Season Three. Now she's given a more caring and believable personality, sometimes becoming more compelling than previous female lead Wade Welles. This is perhaps Sliders last good season. The fifth and final season has some good ideas, but the loss of lead character Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell) and his on and off screen brother Colin (Charlie O'Connell) dug the series into a huge hole that it would never recover from.

I am a huge fan of this show, and have been for sometime. It's great to finally hear thier bringing season four out.. Fianlly! But I do not look forward to season five.. mainly because I think when a show loses it's main cast, it should just end, not bring in new people to play old charactors. For me, when John Rhys-Davies left the show, that was bad enough. I was still glad Jerry was there to keep it strong, but alas, he soon left the show too and things just went downhill.
If they ever intend on doing a one off episode or a movie to tie up loose ends, they better get the original cast from season one, or they need not bother picking up a pen to write it. The original cast is by far the best, so season four will be the last season of sliders in my mind..

SPOILER FREE:

Some points I wish I'd known before buying:

Sliders changed, BIG TIME, from season three to season four, really it was forced to by waning popularity and new ownership.

It is basically a separate show retaining some of the original aspects but with a totally new storyline and attitude both in the script, acting, direction and production.

There is actually some horribly hammy acting from time to time with even the good actors slipping occasionally from the high standards that could have been. In a sense it became more of a teenage boy show - more `action' and guns etc.

Vitally important aspects to the first few seasons of the show were removed damaging continuity based on the original intensions/ `feeling' that came from the direction and the acting. Other aspects were twisted and ran with in a new direction. None of the elements one could feel nostalgic for remain unblemished to the point where I felt like shouting at the TV!!

I'm somewhat tempted to defend one of my favourite shows but I feel doing so would be rather in denial.

That said there are aspects some fans could like...

There is still a lot of the humour but it often feels lazy/half-arsed rather than light-hearted.

There are really amusing elements of self-deprecating, post-modern awareness but only in one episode.

There are some genuinely great episodes which see the characters nearly fall apart from the stress of it all etc. etc. and some episodes that I would have wanted to have seen replace some of the poorer episodes from previous seasons, but these are few and to get to these you have to tread the water of bad choices that Sliders made.

In season four Sliders could have taken off in ways it couldn't quite manage in the early seasons into a sci-fi show with real integrity but it bowed to pressure and that's a shame because it went in exactly the opposite direction.

So:

If you think this kind of disappointment could ruin Sliders for you, don't bother, or bother and be prepared to dismiss the new direction Sliders took.

Personally, I'm glad I saw it but I'm not sure it's worth the money since I'll probably never watch it again and definitely want to keep the first three seasons separate.

Because of this I definitely recommend seasons one/two and aspects of three for any sci-fi fan or beyond but perhaps refrain from your need for closure on that crazy season three cliff-hanger and avoid season four!!