Sliders/Invasion

Invasion
Season 2, Episode 12
Airdate	June 28, 1996
Production Number	K0809
Written by	Tracy Tormé
Directed by	Richard Compton
← 2x11 The Young and the Relentless	2x13 → As Time Goes By
Sliders — Season Two

Invasion is the twelfth episode of the second season of Sliders, and the twenty-second episode overall.

Jerry O'Connell (Quinn Mallory), Sabrina Lloyd (Wade Wells), Cleavant Derricks (Rembrandt Brown)

and John Rhys-Davies (Arturo)

Guest Stars: Una Damon (Mary), Lee W. Weaver (Hilton Brown)

with Robert Lewis (Mr. Clarke), Gerry South (Kromagg), Jason Gaffney (Prisoner), Francoise Najda (French Waiter), Pierre Martineau (French Bread Man)

Plot Overview

The sliders cross paths with a race called Kromaggs who have mastered interdimensional travel. With their goal to invade and conquer parallel worlds, they capture and interrogate the group to find the coordinates of their home dimension.

Notes

Brave New Worlds

• Nothing can be gleaned as it had recently been invaded by the Kromagg Dynasty.

• The French took control of much of the North American continent, including San Francisco, which is known as New France.

• A world where advanced evolutionary life never took hold and has been converted to a Kromagg outpost.

• Early human ancestors were killed off by a violent offshoot called Kromaggs who became the dominant species instead. (mentioned only)

Doubles

• Hilton Brown

• Conrad Bennish, Jr.

Timer

• 23 seconds (appears to be a few hours in total)

• 83 minutes (stated to be in addition to 3 days)

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• It's revealed that there is a race of creatures who originate from a world that took a different evolutionary path are bent on conquering every world they find, as they have come to master sliding. After failing to gain the coordinates of the quartet's home dimension, they fabricate their escape after having implanted one of them with a homing device in the hope that it will lead them to their home world.

• The functions of the timer is explained further when Arturo states that the window it's counting down to can only be accessed from the world it had taken them to.

Characters

• It's revealed that Rembrandt doesn't have a sister.

• While one of the four have been tagged with a tracking device, it's unknown which one.

Referbacks

• Rembrandt once again complains about the circumstances that led him to be sucked into sliding. (Pilot)

Trivia

The Show

• Mary tells the sliders that the Kromaggs will not dignify human speech, but one is seen speaking English in the final scene. This is not an error, as the script emphasised this to be a twist.

• While within the show Quinn is revealed to be the one who was implanted with the tracker in Season 4 well after Tormé had left the show, his intention was for it to be Arturo. This would become a plot point he intended to tie in with "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome".

Behind the Scenes

• The Kromaggs design were created by the makeup team for The X-Files, as they were fans of the show.

• FOX prohibited the show from using Conrad Bennish, Jr. from the first season due to a similar character on their other show at the time VR.5. However, Tormé subverted this by casting Gaffney as the eyeless prisoner without telling FOX, but knowing fans would recognise him to be a Bennish double.

Allusions and References

• The theory Arturo mentions is based in fact. However, it is not quite represented accurately. Firstly, the name Drayer appears to be fictitious as it was first hypothesised in the 1950s by anthropologist Raymond Dart and further elaborated on by anthropologist/screenwriter Robert Ardrey in 1961. Second, the theory was meant to explain innate violence tendencies in humans and goes that humans descended from violent apes that branched off from non-violent apes long ago. Further understanding from the perspective of not just anthropology, but also psychology and neuroscience has eroded the validity of this theory.

Goofs

• Outside the manta ship, the scene transitions from bright day to pitch black. However, inside, Quinn and Arturo appear to be where they were when we last saw them.

• When the four are knocked out on the streets by the Kromaggs, Arturo passes out and lands on his side. However, when the Kromagg retrieves the bracelet, he's face-down.

Quotes

• Arturo: An alien technology from outer space.

Mr Clarke: But it's not from outer space. Who did this? Who brought the manta to its knees?

Quinn: I guess I did.

Mr Clarke: The Kromaggs aren't going to like that. They're not going to like that one bit. They will avenge this loss with merciless ferocity.

Rembrandt: Kromaggs, Kromaggs. Who the devil are the Kromaggs?

Mr Clarke: They're marauders. Killers. And they eat eyes. Human eyes. They came here to vanquish us, riding a wave of manta ships to our world. And so, our Earth dies screaming.

Arturo: I thought you said they didn't come from space.

Mr Clarke: No, they're from right here, man. They're from right here. That's the irony. Don't you see? I daren't say any more. They might be watching. They might well be watching. Ah, my lovely twin daughters have arrived! They, too, were set free when the Kromaggs came to our city. Come along now, girls. We mustn't be here when the vengeful masters arrive. Good day to you. May your punishment be relatively painless.

• Rembrandt: Oh, I don't know, Wade. I think we're asking for trouble hanging around like this. I mean, what about common sense? I guess that's something those brainiacs wouldn't understand.

Wade: They're scientists. Common sense just gets in their way.

• Quinn: I broke its neck. I killed it, Professor.

Arturo: If you did, you're a hero, Mr Mallory. This is an invading soldier, don't forget; not a social worker.

• Quinn: Those soldiers who were chasing us look just like that thing we found in the ship.

Wade: They remind me of some kind of hideous ape.

Arturo: What's so disturbing about that face is not so much the ape in it, but the man.

• Rembrandt: Geez, if these things are sliders, we need to find home before they do. Our Earth needs to be warned.

Wade: Every Earth needs to be warned, starting with this one.

Arturo: Hold on a minute, Paul Revere. I do happen to agree with you, by the way, but here's the problem: How do we do it? We can't just go up to every gendarme and say "Excuse me. Very shortly, an army of killer apes will be descending in your vichyssoise."

• Quinn: I'm impressed, Professor. No matter how much that guy taunts you, you just turn the other cheek.

Arturo: Patience, Mr Mallory. Just wait till he sees his tip.

• Rembrandt: I tell you, I just love the French women. You never know what they're thinking. Of course, I could say the same thing about Asian women or Latin women.

Wade: Maybe it's a good thing you don't know what women are thinking.

• Wade: Cheer up, Professor. It was only a watch.

Arturo: "Only a watch"? That timepiece was probably worth more than the gross national product of Paraguay. Nasty French planet filled with shifty, backstabbing, croissant-sniffing nitwits!

Rembrandt: Come on, Professor, you're killing us.

Wade: Yeah, maybe you should've saved some of those insults for the waiter.

Arturo: What, that frog-eating mendicant? I wouldn't waste good material on him.

• Mary: My name is Mary and you are prisoners of... guests of the Kromagg Dynasty.

• Arturo: (to Rembrandt) Now listen to me, no matter how they threaten us, no matter what they offer us, we keep our secrets to ourselves. Right?

(Arturo turns to see Rembrandt enter the cell and turns back to see who he was talking gone)

Rembrandt: What's the matter? You act like you've seen the devil.

Arturo: I think maybe I did.

• Quinn: Mary was reviled by the populace who saw her as a monster. They threw stones at her, spit on her. It must have been terrible.

Rembrandt: She's supposed to be a monster? I mean, the Kromaggs ever look in a mirror? The eye-eating freaks.

• Arturo: All right, I changed my mind. After Kromagg prison world, New France is bearable.