Sliders-Season 3 (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	983:55 (Case: 1050)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Colin Bucksey Jim Charleston Oscar L. Costo Allan Eastman
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Jerry O'Connell Cleavant Derricks John Rhys-Davies Sabrina Lloyd Kari Wuhrer Charlie O'Connell Robert Floyd Tembi Locke Lester Barrie Will Sasso Linda Henning John Walcutt Jason Gaffney
Case	?
RPI	$69.95	Music	Stephen Graziano Denis M. Hannigan Danny Lux

    The sliding foursome – Quinn Mallory (Jerry O’Connell), Professor Maximilian Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd) and Rembrandt ‘Crying Man’ Brown (Cleavant Derricks) – are back, sliding to alternate Earths in their ongoing attempt to get home, and more often than not getting themselves into serious trouble.

    All 25 slides of Season 3 are here, and it’s lots of fun. I do not intend to give you a full run down of each episode. Far better summaries than I could provide can be found at TV.com amongst other places. The following is a list of the contents of the third season as set out on these 6 DVDs in original broadcast order (not their intended order):

Disc 1

• 1. The Rules Of The Game (41:48)
• 2. Double Cross (43:06)
• 3. Electric Twister Acid Test (42:23)
• 4. The Guardian (42:58)

Disc 2

• 5. The Dream Masters (42:51)
• 6. Desert Storm (42:40)
• 7. Dragonslide (42:42)
• 8. The Fire Within (42:54)

Disc 3

• 9. The Prince Of Slides (42:11)
• 10. Dead Man Sliding (42:26)
• 11. State Of The Art (42:41)
• 12. Season’s Greetings (42:55)

Disc 4

• 13. Murder Most Foul (42:40)
• 14. Slide Like An Egyptian (41:43)
• 15. Paradise Lost (42:43)
• 16. The Exodus: Part One (43:00)
• 17. The Exodus: Part Two (42:56)

Disc 5

• 18. Sole Survivors (42:37)
• 19. The Breeder (42:42)
• 20. The Last Slide Of Eden (43:43)
• 21. The Other Slide Of Darkness (43:05)

Disc 6

• 22. Slither (42:38)
• 23. Dinoslide (42:43)
• 24. Stoker (42:43)
• 25. This Slide Of Paradise (43:08)

    Nearly ten years on and Sliders is still a lot of fun. Sure, there’s the nostalgic value – I remember watching this on Friday nights over dinner before heading out for some mischief and mayhem. Sure it’s not the most original show in the book, but it is very competently made, and very enjoyable. On top of that, there are some great episodes in this season, including Double Cross, the great two-parter Exodus 1 & 2 and Dinoslide.

    If you’ve never had the pleasure, I recommend starting with The Complete Season One and Two, although the picture quality on this season is much better. This is a worthy addition, though, and I highly recommend it.

Video

    Transferred here in its original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1, Full Frame, non-16x9 enhanced, this transfer is an improvement on The Complete Season One and Two.

    Colour saturation is much better, deep and rich and well balanced. Definition is also much improved, with the slight softness of the original release fixed up here.

    There is some graininess, particularly in the shadowy scenes. But on a whole, this is pretty good. The shadow detail problems of The Complete Season One and Two are completely done away with.

    There are no MPEG artefacts, but there are some very minor film-to-video transfer artefacts – mostly background aliasing and the odd bit of moire. Nothing awful, but if you’re looking hard for it, you will see it.

    There is a bit of dirt on the print, but nothing terrible.

    Annoyingly, there are no subtitles

    The dual-layer pauses are between the episodes, with two episodes per layer. I was expecting a dual layer pause on Disc 4, with the five episodes, but I couldn’t see anything. There is a slight drop in picture quality due to the compression, but nothing horrendous.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The only audio track is an English 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo track encoded at 224Kb/s.

    This is a pretty good audio track. Dialogue is clear and easily understood, and any minor sync faults are definitely source faults.

    The range is pretty good, and it’s nice to hear a good stereo track. Although a 5.1 Dolby Digital track would have been ideal in the context of a show like this, the cost benefit trade off would have priced this series out of the market for a lot of fans.

    We get some good surrounds and left-right cues, and all-in-all this is a pleasing track.

    There is no discrete subwoofer track, but you can get some subwoofer action if your system is calibrated to push the lower frequencies down to the sub.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced. There is a short introduction to the main menu, and the main menu has clips from the episodes, and a 2.0 Dolby Stereo audio. The other menus are static and silent.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    I do not have an R1 copy for an exact comparison, but from what I can tell the R4 release only misses out on English Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired. Given the price of the R1 release, I suggest that unless you require the subtitles, go for the local product, though I hope in future Universal will cater for the disadvantaged in our community with hearing disabilities.

    Sliders is great science fiction TV, and highly recommended viewing, particularly on cold and rainy winter nights.

    This is a good release, though the lack of subtitles and extras is a bit of a loss.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall