“Stoker” is episode twenty-two (originally shown as episode twenty-four) of season three of Sliders.
A man uses a press pass to get inside where a band, Stoker (the first of many references to Dracula), is playing. Inside, one of the band members is reading a review; apparently the reviewer said the drummer needed lessons. The drummer wants to kill the critic. The other says he’d have thought that, after all these centuries, he would have learnt to deal with criticism.
A girl, Mina, is brought to them. She wants to audition to be a singer. The man who brought her, Renfield, says she’s a runaway with no relatives. That’s not going to be good for her. The lead singer, Morgan, gets the other members to leave. Mina will do anything to be in a band and starts removing her clothes. Morgan tells her to put them back on. Then grows fangs and bites her.
Later, on stage, Wade is in the audience. Morgan is staring at her intently. She looks unfocused.
Maggie is asking the other two why they can’t find Rickman. And where the coma patients are. Rembrandt has a list of missing people. Maggie thinks they should split up and hit the hospitals looking for coma patients. Wade enters; she enjoyed Stoker’s performance. More than a critic did. Two of the missing girls were last seen at Stoker concerts. Wade wants to check out the band again that night.
Rickman is posing as a priest, and is harvesting what he needs from a man in a hospital.
The critic who didn’t think much of Stoker is moaning as he enters his car. Which doesn’t start. And there’s Mina’s body in the back. The car locks and the drummer, Harker, gets it to start, drive into a wall and explode. He does not take criticism well.
Quinn is at a hospital and he finds the man that Rickman harvested. Wade is getting herself very ready for a night out.
Rembrandt tells Quinn about the other cases. Three of the four are vagrants; the fourth is a college girl. Quinn thinks they should check out skid row. Maggie arrives; she wants to dig up Rickman. She found his death certificate in the county records. The military on her world have special ID tattoos that only appear after death, showing name, rank and serial number. She wants to dig Rickman up to make sure the timer hasn’t been buried with him.
At a blood bank, Renfield is giving someone Stoker tickets for donating blood to their favourite charity. Rickman is also there; he’s paying for names of blood donors who match the DNA criteria he needs. The man he’s paying wants more money. Given that bad things are happening to the people whose names he’s handed over.
Wade enters Stoker’s venue and gets up on stage, playing the keyboards and singing. Morgan claps from the seats. They’re looking for a signer for the band. Is she interested in auditioning? The man who gained access with a press pass watches them leave on a motorbike. Then a bouncer runs at him; the man shoots him with a crossbow. The bouncer was a vampire too.
The other three are doing some grave robbing. It’s not Rickman in the coffin. Though Rickman has left his colonel’s eagle there. Quinn is going to check out skid row; he dug the grave, the other two can fill it.
Wade is now with the band. Morgan says they all have classical training. Probably when classical music was just music. Morgan tells Harker to get Wade another drink. Harker complains that Renfield isn’t keeping the fridge stocked.
Wade is enjoying herself, but she’s also not in complete control. Morgan likes her and wants to turn her into a vampire as well. Things are made more complicated because both Stoker and Rickman are preying on people, which is adding a level of confusion.