Plot
Slimer hovers over a toy train set as a locomotive passes through him, and Winston scolds him for sliming it. The alarm cuts the moment short. Peter reports a call at Penn Station involving what sounds like a Class 5 haunting a steam engine. When the team arrives and finds the long-demolished original Penn Station standing where Madison Square Garden should be, Peter mentions he had tickets to Saturday's hockey game at the Garden. Winston, whose aunt once took him to the original Penn Station as a boy, recognizes the building immediately. Egon is troubled: a Class 5 should not have the power to bring back the old station. He also notes, with some irony, that Slimer is himself a Class 5, just as in the movies.
A genuine steam locomotive pulls in, and a ghostly conductor tells the team that something is waiting for them in the caboose. Once the Ghostbusters and Slimer board, the train races off. The Player introduces himself, and Egon's meter explodes registering a reading above Class 10. The team's particle throwers fire only pop-gun flags. The Player, an obsessive gamer who has turned his attention to trains, wants the Ghostbusters to populate his train set. He offers a deal: reach the engine room and stop the train before it enters his Ghost World, and they go free. They have thirty minutes. The Player describes himself as a "sporting ghost" and frames the whole arrangement as giving the team a sporting chance.
Behind Door Number One is an interdimensional swamp where a six-armed monster only taps Ray rather than attacking. Egon works out that the creature is built to play Tag and is too elusive to catch. The team ignores it and tags each other instead until the lonely monster asks to join, at which point they tag it and Door Number Two appears. The second room turns out to be a giant pinball machine titled "A Real Ghostbusters Last Run!"; they have to beat a high score of one million from a standing start of 100 points. Winston, who was once a skilled pinball player, directs the others to the bumpers, and Slimer's slime trail jams the ball between two bumpers to rack up the score, shattering the board and revealing the next door.
In the engine room, Winston pulls the brake but a slot machine appears: a jackpot is needed to stop the train. The Player, unable to resist being sporting, mutters that they "only stand a ghost of a chance," which Egon takes as a literal clue. Ray and Peter fail at the machine, until Egon has Slimer try. Slimer hits the jackpot, the train stops, and the Player departs vowing to play again someday. Penn Station turns back into Madison Square Garden, and the team is greeted by a cheering crowd. Back at the firehouse, Egon explains the final puzzle to the others while Slimer is found happily eating in the train set's dining car.
Characters
Ghosts
The Player is the episode's main antagonist and one of the most powerful ghosts encountered in the series. Egon's PKE Meter, calibrated to withstand readings up to Class 10, explodes simply trying to register him. The Player refers to himself as a "sporting ghost" and frames his traps as games with real odds of winning rather than impossible rigged contests. He can warp reality on a large scale, conjure and dismiss objects at will, and has some shapeshifting ability. He is defeated when Egon decodes his own hint and sends Slimer to play the slot machine. The Player departs promising a rematch. He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
The Tag Monster is a six-armed interdimensional creature occupying the first car of the Player's train. It plays Tag by design and is too quick to catch directly; the team defeats it by ignoring it until it asks to join their own tag game.
The Chubby Gargoyle appears briefly after the Player explains the rules and departs. It imitates Porky Pig, signing off with "That's All Ghosts!" in place of the familiar "That's All Folks!"
The Player's Conductor is a ghost conductor who greets the Ghostbusters on the platform and tells them something is waiting in the caboose, luring them onto the train.
Cast
The regular voice cast included Dave Coulier, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, and Buster Jones. LaMarche also voiced The Player in this episode. Janine does not appear in this episode.
Production
The episode's first draft was completed June 20, 1989.3 The cast recorded on July 26 and 31, 1989, with Coulier recording alone on the later date.2
The first draft differed from the finished episode in several respects. In it, the train set that Winston and Slimer play with at the start was a gift sent by Winston's father, Ed Zeddemore: a set the two had built together when Winston was a boy, described as his first and best train set.45 The draft also handled the Tag Monster differently, with the team launching Slimer at its head and Ray springing out of a pile of leaves to tag it, rather than drawing the monster in by ignoring it.6 In the episode introduction recorded for The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection, Hickey and McCoy noted that this episode had its most important scene cut.
A small gag survives in the finished cut: after the Player explains the game and leaves, a gargoyle imitates Porky Pig, closing with "That's All Ghosts!" in place of the familiar "That's All Folks!"7
Home video
Slimer Streak appears on The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection, on Volume 4, Disc 3. By air-date order the episode falls between Loose Screws and Janine, You've Changed; in the box set's DVD running order it sits between Venk-Man! and The Halloween Door.
Trivia
- The original Pennsylvania Station, prior to its demolition in 1963, appears in this episode.
- The Ghostbusters play games of Tag, Pinball, and a Slot machine.
- Oddly enough, Winston is the one portrayed with an interest in trains, conflicting with the prior Real Ghostbusters episode centered around Peter and trains, Last Train To Oblivion.
- Egon explicitly identifies Slimer as a Class 5, a callback to how the Ghostbusters classify him in the films.
- The giant pinball machine in Door Number Two is labelled "A Real Ghostbusters Last Run!"
- Peter mentions having tickets to a Saturday hockey game at Madison Square Garden when the team discovers the original Penn Station in its place.
- Winston has a personal memory of the original Penn Station: his aunt took him there as a child.
