The Last of Eden Season 3 DVD Box Set Region 1 NTSC Season 3 DVD Box Set Region 2 PAL

(Sliders Story No. 38, starring Jerry O'Connell) written by Josef Anderson directed by Allan Eastman music by Danny Lux produced by Mychelle Deschamps & Richard Compton Production # K1820 Story: The Sliders discover an Earth with two extra planets orbiting it alongside the moon, and the gravitational forces cause extra earthquakes, one of which swallows Wade. Why have the human tribes on the surface adopted a ban on all digging into the Earth? What is to be found in the remnants of more modern civilization evidenced by the lone skyscraper in the jungle? And what secrets will Rembrandt be led to by the poison thorns he and Arturo have landed in?

There are a lot of fascinating ideas sprinkled liberally throughout this story, many of which come complete with loads of eye-candy and/or delicious atmosphere. Sadly, the central conflict for the A-plot is quite one-dimensional and repetitive though, and it is up to the quieter character scenes and background ideas to salvage the show.

Now, this episode's position in the season was another one of those royal mess-ups on first broadcast, which was sadly repeated on the DVD release to ugly effect. Anyone with half a brain can see that the adventure must precede "The Exodus". Trying to acknowledge this, someone seems to have tacked on a scene between Wade and Rembrandt that frames the rest of the episode as a flashback. Well, too little too late. I think I saw this one on TV twice, and each time I tuned in just late enough to miss that initial 30-seconds. Nothing else in the episode suggests that it is a flashback, nor that it should be. It just sat in a VERY wrong slot in the broadcast order. Besides, nothing about the flashback set-up says that that little 30-second scene didn't also happen before "The Exodus". So let's just move this one back to where it naturally wants to be.

Two extra planets in the sky beside the moon? Way cool! A completely different artificially enhanced landscape? Awesome! This is all fascinating stuff to explore, if only the A-plot would focus on exploring it. It doesn't do too badly early on, but Wade's portions of the story soon turn very one-dimensional. Sure, it's okay to have weird degenerated creatures acting like animals underground, but the constant combat and chase routine with these acrobatic dancers becomes VERY tiresome after it is chucked in the viewers face so often. Less is more.

Early on, Quinn theorizes that the two extra planets in the sky are in "syzygy" with the Earth. A nice theory, but still just a theory. We know that Quinn's map may not necessarily reflect the territory. Which planets are they, and what are their sizes and masses? They do seem to be Earth-like for a start. All this the episode leaves open and taunts us with, before ignoring it all to bring us something far more boring.

I think Rembrandt gets the best of this adventure - if we include the flashback, he gets at least one good conversation with each of his co-stars, plus he gets to move around to every location and set. Nice. This is only the third episode so far to bring up the subject of Arturo's vague unnamed illness. As before, there's really nowhere worth anticipating that this arc can go, but if anything is going to trigger the heartfelt conversation between Rembrandt and Arturo over secrecy between friends, we may as well use this.

Quinn and Wade also get a weird little moment discussing babies. This might be interesting if it added to a continuing romantic arc between them, but it actually feels more like an island unto itself that has little to do with any of the surrounding episodes this season. I guess we have to have these little moments to flesh out a story when there is so little of interest going on in the main plot.

Which brings us to another observation. As with "Rules of the Game" by this same writer, the roster of guest characters is a little small. Here we only have two young men, no doubt each designed to champion opposite sides of a single argument. Sure, there are many other people and creatures here, but none of them get any lines or get explored to any great degree.

I do really like the set-up of this world, and wish we could have seen the Sliders dig out more info on its backstory. This place is nearly as mysterious as the island in "Lost", particularly where our regulars discover a hatch in the forbidden zone of the forest, and decide to venture down into it. If you've seen anything of "Lost", you get an idea of how much mileage can be gotten out of a good idea like that. Sadly Sliders only managed one fairly thin episode.

The 1972 plaque on the underground pillar that Quinn discovers is one of my favourite tidbits, hinting at the larger mysteries of the place that we have yet to discover. This just seems like the obvious direction for the energy of the story to move in; I can't believe we didn't get to explore more of that side of things.

Well, this episode holds together well enough and has some very cool things to offer, even if it is a bit disappointing in where it chose to spend its screen time. All in all, a fairly average outing for season three.

Season 3 DVD Box Set Region 1 NTSC for the North American market: in the U.S. in Canada	Season 3 DVD Box Set Region 2 PAL for the U.K.

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