Once again John Rhys-Davies is the best thing here. Giving a good performance with a weak script. He has less to do, but Jerry O’Connellis in top form, too. His Quinn is visibly stressed in conversations with the brainwashed Professor.
Rembrandt gets very little to do, but has two awesome moments: first when he intimates the doctor lady near the start, and second when he kicks down a door near the end. “I’ll use my key.”
The set-up is a lot of fun. The sliders are inside a theme park, basically. One where actors recreate the murders of Jack The Ripper. Everything looks wonderful. And is well shot.
The problem is story/script. It really stretches credibility on a number of occasions. We have to buy into a lot of implausibles to let this story work for us. And if we do… all we really get at the end is a standard murder-mystery. Sure, it looks pretty and all but it’s hardly what Sliders should be doing. And why use such an elaborate backstory? The theme-park-as-therapy idea yields nothing in it’s own right. It’s just there to set up the story. Why not forget that and start again with the group arriving in a world where San Francisco looks like London of that era? Sure, that’s also implausible but it would take less time to set up. And you’d then have more screentime for a better story.
Never mind, the fun here is in watching John Rhys-Davies as Sherlock Holmes. Damn, that man can act!
Over the years, my “Favourite TV Show” has been: 24 (00s), Voyager (90s), Wiseguy (80s) and Space: 1999 (70s). With Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Press Gang & Seinfeld coming in 2nd at various times.
A Briefing With Michael 