The Dying Fields

This episode first aired in the UK on 29th June 1998 on Sky 1 and in the Us on 31st August 1998 on Sci-Fi Channel.

Writer:William Bigelow
Director:David Peckinpah
Guests:Kristen Dalton (Kyra), Scott Decker (Kryoptus), Meredith Bishop (Jenny Anderson), Christian Leffler (Spence), Marshall Teague (General Kronus), Laird..... (Kromagg Coporal).
Additional Notes:
* Kromagg episode #6.
* Xpose issue 26 says, "One of the weakest installments in an otherwise impressive season."
Background:
* The Kromaggs are a military race who come from Quinn and Colin's home Earth, though they are banished from there. All Kromaggs are part of the Kromagg Dynasty, and they concentrate on controlling other worlds now they cannot go home. They enslave all humans they find.
* The Kromaggs can heal using a mind-control healing technique. This technique was used by Grace Venable to bring Quinn out of a coma in Asylum.
Plot:
The sliders exit the votex in a forest. It seems peaceful and there are no cities. They are there for 1 day. Quinn calls it the Garden of Eden, until they find nuked skeletons by a waterfall. They then see two people kill another. The two people argue about whose kill it was. They act like Kromaggs, and they turn out to be Hu-Maggs (human-kromagg hybrids). The hu-maggs go after the male has removed the eyes of the human without the female seeing, and the Sliders investigate the body. Colin is fascinated by the penknife.

They come across a human, Jenny. She tells them that the humans are given tattoos and are then hunted by the hu-maggs. If they survive 20 days they are allowed to go home, but so far no-one has managed this. She only has 6 days left to go. They decide to co-operate, and she takes them tp meet the rest of the remaining humans. Between them, they decide to attack the Kromagg camp.

The two hu-maggs are joking with each other and it appears the female, Kyra, leads in kills. The Kromagg General praises Kyra because of this and because she is very Kromagg Dynasty military. He insults the male, Kryoptus because his kills are less. Kyra tells the General that the eyes were damaged, but later, Kryoptus gives the General the eyes from the kill.

During the Sliders and other humans attack on the base Quinn, Colin and Jenny are shot at. They run and split up so they will have more of a chance. Jenny is cornered and shot. Colin sees this and attacks her hu-magg killer, but he is captured by Kyra. He shows her that he is not marked and so is not part of the game so she takes him to HQ. Quinn returns to the base and tells them what happened. The othe humans are suspicious. They don't want to go and get Colin because they thinks it's too dangerous.

Colin is interrogated. He is asked where he is from and about the timer. Kyra is there and is about to kill Colin, but Colin is not scared, so they decide to keep him for information. The General gives the order to capture all unmarked humans alive and that each one will equal two kills. After the General leaves, Colin talks to Kyra. She asks about his mother. She doesn't know her's since she was born in breeding camp and taken from her mother before she remembers. She tells him that the effects of the war on the Kromagg homeworld were that 2 days after giving birth, a Kromagg woman would die, and so were forced to cross-breed with the humans. She goes outside to talk to Kryoptus who is feeling jealous.With the barrier left down, Colin escapes and uses the penknife to pick the lock on his handcuffs.

The others are coming for Colin. Quinn tries to divert the Kromaggs while Remmy traps Kyra. She tries to use her knife, but is stopped by Quinn. They are shot at by the 'Maggs. They eventually get away, but Rembrandt finds that he has been hit by a 'Magg weapon. They take Kyra to the human HQ. Rembrandt is not too good. Quinn makes Kyra tell them how the gun works. They find that instead of it being a laser as they thought, it's highly radioactive and Remmy will probably die of radiation poisoning.

Colin fights with Kryoptus and traps him in the cell while he gets out to find the human HQ.

Quinn hopes that the next slide will take them to help. He thinks that Kyra is scared and he hopes to trade her for his brother.

Kryoptus is punished for letting Colin escape.

Quinn unties Kyra. She has a sprained ankle so Quinn tries to help it a little. She tells them how she is half-human. She doesn't understand the concept of family (like Quinn and Colin are family) and she tells them how the Dynasty forbids an interest in their human heritage. Quinn asks her about Wade and tells her that they have sliding technology. He also tries to explain how he would risk his life for Colin. Rembrandt is in deep pain. Quinn tries to help, and he asks Kyra to help as well. Rembrandt loses consciousness and Quinn and Maggie start panicking. Rembrandt wakes again and they realise that Kyra was using a mind-control healing technique on him. At this time, Colin returns. Quinn asks Kyra to slide with them, but she says no because there is someone here she wants to stay for (Kryoptus). Kryoptus arrives and Kyra tries to stop him killing the marked humans, but he does anyway. There is three minutes untill the slide. The Sliders and Kyra run. Kryoptus continues shooting and Maggie shoots back. Neither hit their targets. Maggie begins to run out of ammo. Kyra talks to him. The vortex and Maggie, Rembrandt and Colin slide. Quinn waits a little while. Kryoptus stabs Kyra and Quinn slides, just missed by Kryoptus' shot at him. When more Kromaggs arrive, Kryoptus says he had no choice but to stab Kyra. All the combined kills make him an elite warrior, but he is upset by Kyra's death.

Cool Quotes:

"Still wanna stay here a week?" - Quinn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desire to touch you." - Kyra to Quinn
Mistakes:
As yet I haven't found any and now it has been overwritten.
My Opinion:
I didn't really like this one that much. I'm not actually sure why; It just had an odd "feel" to it that I didn't like. The one part I did really like was how right at the end Kyra died. I thought that it would not have been good if she had agreed to slide with them. If she had gone to another world, she would have encountered many problems because she doesn't look completely human, although she could get away with it on some worlds if she claimed to be deformed. I wasn't expecting the other Hu-magg - I've forgotten his name - to kill her at the end.



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