Lipschitz Live
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Sliders:
Season Four:
Lipschitz Live
The sliders land on a world that is completely addicted to television. For some reason, the massive amount of TV signals disrupt the wormhole and cause our heroes to arrive in seperate locations. Quinn and Colin land in alleys, while Rembrandt and Maggie arrive hanging from a building. Q and C wander off, and Remmy and Maggie manage to climb up onto the roof. They all arrive at the Chandler seperately, but they all are denied a room - sold out! Quinn heads for the bar and finds out the history of this world. Supposedly, major media conglomerates have merged over and over again, creating huge corporations. "Lipschitz Live", a Jerry Springer-like show, is the most watched show in the history of mass media -- and they're having a special on aliens and interdimensional travelers! Quinn decides to go to the station to be a guest.
Colin finds Quinn, but before he can get to him, he is kidnapped by some goons and thrown into a limo. He is mistaken for his double (the first one of the season!) and is told that it's time for his wedding! Apparently, corporate mergers are performed in this manner.
Meanwhile, Remmy and Maggie find Colin's double and take him with them, believing that it's their Colin. After realizing that he doesn't know anything about sliding, they head off in search of their Colin.
Quinn convinces the "LL" producer to let him be a guest, and he uses the mass television system to get a message to his companions - "We slide in one hour!" The host of this show, Barry Lipschitz, goes on a rant about him (and the other guest, a man claiming to be another traveler) and this goes on for about half the show (providing a comical break from the Kromaggs!). Colin manages to escape from the corporation (with some help from his wife) and gets to the TV station. Maggie, Rembrandt, and the alt-Colin also arrive. Lipschitz goes crazy - "It's a sliders reunion!" - and Quinn shows him, the fake slider, and the entire world off by opening the vortex and sliding away - on camera.
From Aaron:
Here's my nits. First, could all this really have happened in only two hours? I could see this happening in *maybe* five hours, but definetly not two.
From as high up as Maggie and Rembrandt were supposed to be, it seems unlikely that Maggie would be able to recognize Colin on the ground below.
Maggie asked Rembrandt if they (the other sliders) had ever been separated before. Rembrandt said "yeah, but not like this" and referred to the time in "Gillian of the Spirits" when the wormhole was struck by lightning, and Quinn was separated from them, trapped on the astral plane. But actually, there was a time when they were separated, just like this. Perhaps he didn't consider their separation in "Summer of Love" to count, since that was when they were first having problems with the timer at the beginning of their journey. But in that episode, Rembrandt and Wade ended up separated from Quinn and the Professor, just like the group is separated in this episode.
Maggie and especially Rembrandt have been sliding long enough to have guessed that they might be dealing with an alternate of Colin's a lot sooner than they did in this episode. Why would they assume that their Colin has had time to get Chinese food, buy a suitcase with monogrammed clothes, and get a wad of cash in the 30-45 minutes since they landed on this world? And when they finally caught up to him, he was smoking and had a different accent. And in the hospital, he didn't know who they were, and acted quite differently from the Colin they had come to know. The thought that they might be dealing with Colin's double should have occurred to them much earlier than it did.
Why wasn't the alternate Colin surprised to see our Colin walking through the hotel lobby? It's not every day that you see someone who looks exactly like you.
Colin is a Mallory. That much we know. So we can assume that his alternate on this world is a Mallory (from birth) too, right? Maybe. But if the Colin of this world was a Mallory from birth, why is his stepfather named MacArthur Mallory? Wouldn't a stepfather have a last name different than the stepson's? I know, he could be from a different line of Mallorys, or he could be Michael Mallory's brother on this world, and perhaps married his brother's widow, or maybe he took his wife's last name -- there are many possibilities. It just seems like a weak attempt at continuity where none should exist, at least not without more explanation.
What was the matter with the guys in the ambulance? After hitting Colin's double, they got out to "help," and put Colin on a stretcher. But they way they picked him up wasn't exactly sound medical procedure, was it?
The credits list a character named Gomez Calhoun. I assume that Mr. Calhoun was the rude man at the Chandler Hotel's front desk, due to the fact that Gomez Calhoun was the hotel man in several episodes in seasons 1 and 2. But the character in this episode was never clearly identified as Gomez Calhoun, and was played by a different actor. If it had been the same actor, we would have recognized him immediately. Why insert a character for continuity if you don't have the same actor playing him? To me, it's not really continuity at all (unless maybe they're planning on having him in more episodes).
Sorry for such a long post!
By Vince Hamilton on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 11:30 pm:Well, finally a new episode after weeks upon weeks of repeats! The more episodes of this season I see, the more I scratch my head. I'm really not sure what keeps this show going.
Anyway, on to the nits!
The episode starts with the sliders landing in different areas around the city. I have two questions about this: 1. Why do Rembrant and Maggie land together while Quinn and Colin land seperately; and 2. Why are they split up in the first place? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that this is ever explained (of course if they weren't split up, Colin probably wouldn't get taken and it would be a short show).
Boy oh boy do Rembrant and Maggie seem like first year sliders. It takes them more than half of the episode to figure out that they're hanging around with Colin's double. Even before he gets hit by the ambulance he's acting funny. Why don't they see this!?!?
Oh well, I did enjoy hearing Logan Sinclair get mentioned (Quinn's female double). I loved it when people asked if he had sex with his female self. Whenever this question was asked, the look on Quinn's face was priceless. I sure hope that they bring Logan back this year. She was a good character. I think that she could breath some life into this rather dull season.
By ScottN on Tuesday, December 01, 1998 - 9:39 am:Did anyone notice that Lipschitz was played by the same actor who plays Capt. Lipschits on Silk Stalkings?
Man do I need to get a life! :-)
By Chris booton on Saturday, December 05, 1998 - 8:11 pm:Also, near the end when they slide, when they show the guy in the chandler hotels bar, I believe that the african american man on his right is the same guy who plays josef sisko on DS9 .
rembrant and Maggie must be really strong, I mean he hangs on to that beam with one hand and yet supports both their weights no problem.
Why did remmy and maggie land in the air while colin and quin land in the ground, and it's a good thing they landed where they did or they'd both be splat.
I agree, there is no way this all happened in 90 something minutes! Sort of like that drug episode where all that happened only happened in like 5 hours!
By Gerald Zicard on Sunday, February 13, 2000 - 6:39 pm: Vince,you got Logan's last name wrong.It's not Sinclair,it's St.Clair.
By Biggy on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 8:20 am: Saw this for the first time yesterday, and noticed two references to the classic sit-com "WKRP in Cincinnati." During a Lipschitz Live preview on one of the outdoor monitors, Lipschitz says "while the senator, denying he was intoxicated, could not explain his nudity." This is a verbatim quote from the news report always heard during the opening credits of WKRP. Also, the station where Lipschitz broadcast from was KKRP.
Also, Lipschitz was played by Charlie Brill, aka Arne Darvin from the tribble episodes.