Eggheads
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Seasons 1 & 2
DVD Box Set
Region 1 NTSC
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Seasons 1 & 2
DVD Box Set
Region 2 PAL
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Season 1 DVD
Half Box Set
discontinued
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(Sliders Story No. 6, starring Jerry O'Connell)
- teleplay by Scott Smith Miller
- story by Scott Smith Miller & Jacob Epstein
- directed by Timothy Bond
- music by Mark Mothersbaugh
- Production # 70405
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Story: Landing on a world that idolizes
intelligence and knowledge, Quinn and Arturo
are greeted like returning celebrities. Assuming
their doubles' identities, Quinn is lured into
a mindgame team sport threatened by his double's
secret past, while Arturo confronts another version
of his dead wife who wants to divorce him.
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DVD Extras include (season 1 & 2 set only):
- "The Making of Sliders" featurette (14 minutes)
with creators
Tracy Tormé, and Robert K. Weiss.
Buyers' Guide Review
by Martin Izsak
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(A more in-depth analysis, containing "SPOILERS" and intended
for those who have already seen the program, can be accessed
here.)
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"Eggheads" starts out very well with a promising premise for a
parallel world, delivering one of the best first halves of any story
this season and looking like a real winner. However, the second half
begins to fall apart by comparison, until the story is only mediocre
by the time it's all over.
The opening spares no expense at showing how our four regular
characters came into this week's situation, and has a very entertaining
set-up & discovery scene at the beginning. Special kudos must go to the
young actor playing Sigmund, who achieves a remarkably compelling interaction
with the four regulars to help set this world up. Excellent.
The enjoyment continues as it is revealed that one of the
Sliders' contacts is played by actor William B. Davis,
whom all X-Files fans will immediately distrust and suspect of being
a leading part of some conspiracy. Thankfully, he is only playing
Professor Myman in this tale, and so is not forced to smoke himself
silly. He and John Rhys-Davies have a nice little exchange full of tension
as the Sliders continue to try to find their feet in this world.
Quinn and Arturo each get one of the
story's major plotlines to contend with. Quinn finds himself captain
of the local "Mindgame" sports team, trying to take the team to a
championship whilst enduring added pressure from his double's secret life.
It sounds like a
formula guaranteed to make a hero out of him by the end, and this plotline
immediately
makes great strides in boosting his skills and positioning him for it.
By the end of the second quarter of the story, the writers demonstrate
that they know how to craft the kind of final victory that Quinn has been
needing since the show began - only they've put it in the middle of their
episode.
Arturo's plot strand becomes much more personal, and reveals backstory
and depth that remains a great credit to his character. With all of this
going for it, "Eggheads" turns in an absolutely outstanding first half.
But things start to unravel soon after. Actress Gabrielle Rose,
who also played Mrs. Budahaas in the second episode of "The X-Files", turns
in a fine and very believable performance as Arturo's jaded wife, but the
right stuff just isn't in the script at this point. All throughout their
scenes together, we have no real clue what Arturo is trying to achieve
with her. We only know that he is holding back the full truth for reasons
unknown, and acting little better than the lame wuss she knows his double
to be.
So this subplot doesn't turn out so great.
"It's like everyone expects me to be Wayne Gretsky!"
Quinn's main plot also begins to slip in the third quarter, as he loses
faith in what he is doing. Technically, this can still be made to work
easily, since this is the classic stage where heroes reach their low point,
and have to dig down deeper than ever into their reserves and their souls
to find the inspiration to achieve their biggest victory yet for the story
at hand. But I think Quinn is shown to sink a bit too low, full of run-away
mentality and unable to answer - with honesty or wit or anything worth
viewing - any of the significant heat that gets rained down on him by
character after character after character.
True to classic structure though, Quinn gets a brilliant idea to solve
his problems, and gets back in the game and back on form. Great! Now
we're all full of anticipation to watch him claim a double victory.
But the episode really doesn't deliver well. To avoid spoilers,
I'll save my dissection of the ending for the
In-depth Analysis version of this review,
which I encourage you to read after seeing the episode. Let's
just say that I find the ending needlessly idiotic enough to make one sick.
And so, pardon me if the ending we do get
isn't enough to make me feel good about the
heroic opportunities clumsily thrown away by Quinn and the team that
wrote for him today.
"Eggheads" follows a common pattern also seen in
Doctor Who's
second season from 1964-1965: starting a story well,
with plenty of anticipation for exciting places it might go to, then
inexplicably being unable to deliver a final act that is up to standard.
Mediocrity indeed.
This story has become available on DVD.
Click on the Amazon symbol for the location nearest you
for pricing and availability:
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Seasons 1 & 2
DVD Box Set
Region 1 NTSC
for the North American market:
in the U.S.
in Canada
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Seasons 1 & 2
DVD Box Set
Region 2 PAL
for the U.K.
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Season 1 DVD
Half Box Set
discontinued
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