Originally aired March 8, 1996
Written by Tony Blake & Paul Jackson
Directed by John McPherson
On a world where a large portion of the male population has been eradicated by biological warfare, Quinn, Rembrandt, and Arturo are tagged as runaway "breeders", and every nation of the world wants them.
Tropes present in the episode:
- All Men Are Perverts: Zig-zagged. Rembrandt and Arturo initially like the idea of being among the few men on a planet of women, but aspects of the breeder program change their minds. Meanwhile, Quinn consistently finds all of this uncomfortable.
- Blackmail: Defied. Jane has no intention of forcing Quinn into anything; she simply states her case and tries to convince him.
- Breeding Slave: All males are rounded up and used for breeding (with human females who are lucky enough), including Quinn.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: As the population needs to be rebuilt, David and Diana were ostracized by their friends for wanting to continue a monogamous relationship and thus denounced as immoral. The idea that Diana would be pained by David being with other women just doesn't register with many others.David: The love that dare not speak its name.
- Didn't See That Coming: The Aussies would've likely caught Quinn, but he bumped into Jane's car while struggling to run away.
- Different World, Different Movies: This world has gender-flipped versions of shows we know such as The Fresh Princess of Bel-Air and Hangin' with Mrs. Cooper.
- Disappeared Dad: Quinn is reluctant to father a child on this world because sliding would make him this.
- Gendercide: Most of the men have been wiped out by a bioweapon. A key item is the mandatory breeder program, as many nations (particularly America and Australia) are in a race to repopulate in order to be the dominant force by the next generation.
- Gender Rarity Value: The "Rare Gender Enslaved" type. The bulk of the male population on this world was killed in biological war. The result is that remaining men are kept in facilities with the intent of using them to breed future generations. This goes to the ridiculous extent that the two world superpowers (based on male population count), the US and Australia, constantly steal each other's males. Men are rated on a number of "encounters" per month. A particular stud is famous for having the average count in the 200s (that's over 6 women per day). Another man is forcibly separated from his wife and placed in a repopulation facility, and she's not allowed to even see him, much less sleep with him, because she's not attractive enough for their eugenics program. Professor Arturo laments the lack of artificial insemination technology on this world, and he'd be happy to help them out, if only they cared what he had to say instead of how many "encounters" he could have in a day.
- Government Agency of Fiction: The Bureau of Repopulation (BRP).
- Jerkass:
- Trevor Grant, an Aussie who defected to America.
- Wade for making out that she had lost the timer to three men who were currently distraught and fleeing for their lives. There is a time for joking and that was not it.
- Lady Land: After most of the men in the world were been killed via germ warfare, women have generally taken over society, while the surviving men (at least those with a healthy sperm count) are kept in compounds. The men are to impregnate the best possible women in order to rebuild the population, especially before another country does so. (The men who succeed the most are afforded many luxuries.) Naturally, when our heroes get there, the male characters are instantly mobbed and taken into custody.
- Lampshade Hanging: Arturo pointing out that some men would've been naturally immune to the bioweapon.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Quinn gets hit with a tranquilizer dart and struggles to get away. Arturo helps him along and stays behind to buy time, brandishing a branch and warning the pursuers to stay back. As he moves in to attack, he also gets hit with a dart and quickly collapses.
- The Power of Love: Jane's argument to Quinn relies on this."I've come to terms without having another man in my life, but to face life without a child? To have no one to love or who loves me? Fathers are in short supply these days, and a child needs love, Quinn — a mother who will love him, who will sacrifice anything."
- Properly Paranoid: What's left of the group learn that wasn't the BRP chasing them through the street when a news report indicates Quinn and Arturo are still at large. David immediately suspects it was the Aussies.
- Riddle for the Ages: Did Quinn have sex with Jane or not? The final scene suggests that maybe he did, but it's still never said outright.
- Spotting the Thread: Hiding out with a resistance worker, the team are trying to keep quiet when some cops search the place. It looks like they're going to get away with it until one cop sees something that would be totally out of place on a planet dominated by women: A toilet seat left up.
