I give this series a 13.5 stars out of a possible 25. That’s 4 out of 5 each for the first two seasons. 1/5 for the 3rd, 3.5/5 for the 4th and 1/5 for the 5th.

First two seasons were okay. Had they listened to Tourme and made them a little more consistent they might have been perfect. As it was, all over the place, some ending where others down the line began… was jumbled at best. But the series defined itself and it was good. Third season, when Tourme left, was bull. It was very barely like the first two. The death of one character followed by the subsequent disappearance of the other (with no explanation until near the end of the series. I refer to this as “pulling a Judy Winslow”. They might have just given up when Jerry refused to return. Sure Chris wasn’t necessary but Jerry … he was the start of the show, he was the lead…. it was already hurting for the loss of two of the four characters but to try to go on after losing the original …. pointless. And their explanation for him was touching on daytime soaps.

All the above, add in their grasping at strings by coming up with reasons why now they were suddenly landing somewhere other than San Fransisco? “Hey, we can now land anywhere in a 400 mile radios! Guess we landed in L.A.!” Where will they land next? Oh look, L.A….L.A…..L.A….. could they have come up with a different logic that would not have us laughing. “We can land anywhere, but instead we’re going to keep landing in L.A. for the next billion slides.” Why not, “Oh…she must have screwed with our navigational settings and now we’re going to be landing in L.A. Shoot, and that squeaky gate was our only true way of knowing if we are home.” Cause THAT was a good idea to begin with obvious sarcasm
THEN they started to grab for other ideas. Even though this machine was not a time traveler they were suddenly able to travel through time with fuzzy logic. EVEN travel to different planets with that same fuzzy logic. And the kromags? Oh don’t even get me started on those ugballs.

If they had called it quits after the 4th season they might have maintained some dignity. Bravo to Cleavant Derricks for sticking with it to the end. He might as well have left though.

The ending was a feeble attempt at fan base pleading for a sixth season. Heck, they even hinted at it when they watched sliders on tv and said, “the return of the professor. Just goes to show you what fanmail can do!” Come on, was that not obvious to everyone?!

If I could do it all over again I’d have watched the first two seasons, skipped the rest and just watched the last two episodes. I certainly wouldn’t have missed much. ;p