Doorways

I caught the last half of this on cable last night. Looks like a pilot for a possible series. Except for the confused confrontation with the "Dark Lord" at the end it looked pretty good. I got involved with the characters and definitely wanted like to know how things turned out - I would expect no less from George R. R. Martin. Too bad it never got picked up.

George R. R. Martin, writer of "Beauty And The Beast," and a well known professional SF writer ("Tuff Voyaging" is heartily recommended) came up with this pilot for an alternate universe adventure show some time before Sliders, but Tracey Torme's version was the one that became a series. Ignore the disparaging remarks and watch it -- George Newbern goes well beyond the bounds of 'male ingenue (sp?)' and Kurtwood Smith delivers two good performances (conceivably he could have been the Kenny of live action TV, a comment you will need to watch it to understand, if the series had made it.

This is a moderately interesting pilot film for a series that never came to be. Similar to SLIDERS... too similar in the race for a prime time TV slot. Although the main characters were fairly well portrayed and the settings reasonably constructed, it was just a case of two series too similar to one another.

I did very much enjoy the setting for the "hospital" in this; it makes me wonder where that building really is. The ironwork railing was terrific (it can be surprising what impresses in a movie). I also enjoyed "The Bikers" (you just have to see it).

Giving it 6 stars for what it is: a made-for-TV pilot movie from the 90s. It's not a bad flick. Being a pilot film, expect an open ending without resolution but the two scenarios it presents were fairly well thought out and portrayed. Not a bad attempt. But this was 1994, Sliders was a close 1995 competing for the same sci fi concept, and Sliders of course won out.

In the first half hour there are a number of plot flaws that are hard to accept. Had the writers thought about it just a bit more it might have worked out as a good series. But then again, they'd have had stiff competition from Sliders.

Also, I think the talent agent could have picked out some better actors. The mix clashed with each other while the variety in sliders melded better. It is a good comparison between a series that made the concept work vs a series that did not allow it to work. The behind the scenes crews is crucial in making a series a hit. I was going to say especially the casting director but that is not true. Without a good scrip writer... etc etc. Each part has to perform to a certain level for a series to make it. They did not meld well in this one.

This show preceded SLIDERS, at least by a year or two. It deals with a somewhat similar premise. Sliding thru parallel worlds, alternate realities, where it's the same time, date, continent...but somehow things are just not the same.

I also remembered, in one segment of this 2-hr cable movie...the story was sorta similar to the world of 'Kevin Costner's THE POSTMAN;' in this version, in order to cure some oil-spill catastrophe in the world's oceans...scientists had created this petrol-cured oil eating bacteria. But when they unleashed it...things got outta control, and it consumed all the oil-supplies in the world. So, now supposedly everything went back to being kinda the old west. Traveling in horse pulled buggy-coaches. Horse back riding. Seeing abandoned luxury cars on the side of cracked freeways.

Interesting premise. Too bad it didn't turn into a series. There's this other film with a similar title, starring RUGER HAUER...I think it called: CROSSWORLDS, which uses a similar plot.

REZULETA