Well, that was... blasse. and wierd. The skepicism about the dream masters is pretty ridiculous considering some of the things the Sliders have seen- ESPECIALLY the future-seeing world of the Oracle, in which Wade ALREADY had her dreams interfered-with!
Likewise, the 'oh, it's just chemicals in their hands'/natural explanation of the dream-masters' powers doesn't seem to pan out with their molecular-shifting ice-cube blue energy zapper powers. :-)
Some truly awful effects- though not NEARLY as awful as Electric Acid Twister Test- made me wonder what SLiders would be like with today's effects. A few of the nightmare sequences were pretty good, though- the razor thing was just... *SHUDDER*
Of course, it doesn't make much sense in that the 'star pupil' seemed to want to seduce Wade, and all of a sudden he's just decided to go with flat-out killing her.
The first nightmare with the chain-link fence was one of the best done, I think- both for creepiness/dream imagery, and dream logic- a.k.a. Arturo standing there, urging her to run, looking back, and now it's Rembrandt, still saying the same thing/being the same 'character' - my dreams work like that all the time. And for some reason, Quinn flying away cracked me up.
Arturo faces what may be the world's worst firing squad, apparently made up of Death Star Stormtroopers. Does this mean his biggest fear is facing a firing squad???!!!
To me, the elevator dream was not well-done at all.
So, Arturo gets shot and says 'it's just a dream.' Rembrandt walks up to a cobra and LETS it bite him and says 'It's just a dream.' Quinn finds himself in quicksand... and DIES. That's... kinda pathetic. Especially since a knowledgeable guy like him should know how not to sink in quicksand. (Though admittedly, it's not guaranteed that he would.)
So, wow... Quinn was just revived from death, shot full of adrenaline, and then pumped full of the sleeping drug to get back to sleep- shouldn't the strain on his body form those conlicting chemicals stop his heart? At the least, he shouldn't be able to move around and walk so easily after he wakes up- nor should Arturo with his low blood!
As my girlfriend pointed out, does Quinn have something against WALKING in his dream? He's always standing stationary and calling for Wade.
The cheapo scene-transition of zooming into Quinn's black shirt to blank the scene is kinda bland and overused- as a filmmaker, I overuse it a lot myself. :-) But it was kinda cool/effective directly after Quinn stpes in to rescue Wade from the razor kisses.
What's up with that shot of Rembrandt in the shelter when they're first trying to stabilize Wade? It looks like it's sped up or something- oddly bouncing around.
So, why DID the guy at the beginning die? He wasn't asleep! Was this explained somehow that I missed?
The best moment, to my mind, of the whole show is when Rembrandt wishes he had a .45, and it shows up in his hand... now if only the next shot had involved all foru of them, standing in a row (like the current shot) raising their hands from below frame and ALL holding .45s... :-)