Sliders

Sliders
Format	Science fiction
Created by	Tracy Tormé Robert K. Weiss
Starring	Jerry O'Connell (seasons 1-4) Cleavant Derricks (seasons 1-5) Sabrina Lloyd John Rhys-Davies (seasons 1-3) Kari Wührer (seasons 3-5) Charlie O'Connell (season 4) Robert Floyd Tembi Locke (season 5)
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	88 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Tracy Tormé Robert K. Weiss John Landis Leslie Belzberg Alan Barnette Bill Dial David Peckinpah
Running time	~44 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Fox (Seasons 1–3) Sci Fi Channel (Seasons 4-5)
Original run	March 22, 1995 – December 29, 1999[1]

Sliders is an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast for five seasons, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2000. The show was created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé. Tormé, Weiss, Leslie Belzberg, John Landis, David Peckinpah, Bill Dial and Alan Barnette served as executive producers at different times of the production. For its first two seasons it was produced in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California, USA in the last three seasons. The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different parallel universes.

The first three seasons of Sliders were aired by the Fox Network. Originally canceled after the first season, the series was renewed after a fan protest. After Fox canceled the show again after three seasons, the series moved to The Sci-Fi Channel for its final two seasons. The last new episode first aired on December 29, 1999 in the United Kingdom, and was broadcast on The Sci-Fi Channel on February 4, 2000.

Changing themes

The real nature of the show changed throughout the seasons. The first two seasons focused on alternate histories and social norms, with the consensus amongst the creative team maintaining these two seasons to be largely superior to what would come later on during the series' third season.^[2][3] These stories explored what would have happened, for example, if America had been conquered by the Soviet Union, if Britain had won the American War of Independence, if penicillin had not been invented, or if men were subservient to women.

The third season introduced the first significant changes to the premise of Sliders. As a result of increased Fox Network oversight (and the network-enforced, unwilling relinquishment of day-to-day creative control by creator Tracy Tormé), episodes became far more action-oriented, even going so far as to devolve into riffs on major genre feature films (including Tremors, Species, Anaconda, Twister,The Island of Dr. Moreau, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Another noticeable change was that the emotional connection between Quinn and Wade that developed throughout the first two seasons and beginning of the third was abruptly replaced by frequent, and at times inappropriate, "love at first sight" interactions with others for both. An example that stands out is "Exodus", an episode described by Tormé as "one of the worst pieces of television ever produced, and the low point of the entire series", where Quinn encourages a relationship with the wife of a disabled scientist who is helping the sliders.^[4]

For the original series' creators, this was the beginning of a downward creative trend, culminating with the firing of John Rhys-Davies by the network,^[5] and Tracy Tormé deciding not to contractually continue with the series he himself created, in light of the massive creative interference he was receiving from the network executives.^[2]

The fourth and fifth seasons saw the series moved to the Sci-Fi Channel, and a restoration of the series creators' original "alternate history" premise; the other major storyline (begun at the end of the second season, but de-emphasized during Season Three) involved the growing war against the Kromaggs.

Plot

The original Sliders. From left to right: Wade Welles, Rembrandt Brown, Professor Arturo and Quinn Mallory

Season one

Quinn Mallory of San Francisco, California, a graduate student of physics specializing in string theory, creates a device capable of opening vortices to alternate universes. He develops the technology to the extent that not only can he send items through the gateway he created, but also, with the use of a timer — a sort of space-time television remote control device — return them to their point of origin. He volunteers himself as the first living test subject. After his initial slide, he returns to find a double from another universe has caused him a bit of trouble, but also helped him solve the final missing piece in the equation for sliding, which includes a solution to the unified field theory.

His best friend Wade Welles and his professor/mentor Maximillian Arturo join him on his second test. However, the wormhole grows unstable and spirals out of control. Singer Rembrandt "Cryin' Man" Brown, driving by Quinn's house, is accidentally sucked through with them.

When faced with a life-or-death situation, the timer is activated ahead of time — more than four hours before it was scheduled to — is damaged and the original coordinates are lost. Thus, the Sliders cannot return home. This leaves them unable to control when the vortices open, or into which universe they leap, literally having to wait around in a different world for hours, days or even months before they can move on. The Sliders continue moving from universe to universe, hoping they'll find their way back home.

Common themes during this season include the exploration of political issues and the appearances of recurring characters' alternate selves, showing how their situations had changed in various realities.

Season two

At the end of the second-season premier episode "Into the Mystic," (later released as the last episode of season 2) the group actually arrives on their homeworld but only has seconds to decide whether or not to stay. In such a short time, Quinn does not have any way to verify that they are actually home, as he has to use contexual clues to decide. Unfortunately, small events have occurred during the group's absence, such as the fact that the squeaky garden gate has been fixed and a newspaper headline that reads "OJ Simpson Arrested For Double Murder." Not believing that such an event could possibly happen on his home Earth, Quinn makes the assumption that they aren't on Earth Prime, so they leave. Other than this two-minute visit to their original world, the Sliders are still no closer to returning home. During this season the Sliders encounter the Kromaggs for the very first time, in the episode "Invasion". The Kromagg's presence is short-lived, but they become part of the main plot of the series in later seasons.

Season three

The third season features a series of one-off episodes. Additionally, the production of the series was moved from Vancouver, Canada to Los Angeles, California (due to an increased desire for oversight by Fox Network executives), necessitating a creative adjustment in the climatology of future stories. Whereas Vancouver was very green and "lush," the Los Angeles filming environments brought a much "brighter" color palette to the series, including (for the first time) desert location-shooting.

Early in the season, Quinn meets a woman named Logan St. Clair, who is working on sliding technology herself, and decides to help her. It is later discovered that she is not only a female double of Quinn himself, but also one with nefarious purposes. As a result of their interaction, a key part of the timer, which normally ensures that destination vortexes are created within a two-mile radius of the departure point, has been replaced with a version that causes them to slide anywhere within 400 miles. Before this, their slides took them to alternate versions of San Francisco. Afterwards, they could arrive in many varied locations, but most episodes take place in alternate versions of Los Angeles.

In the middle of the season, the Sliders do not slide when their timer reaches zero, which means the timer cannot open a vortex for another 29 years. However, they later find a replacement timer, and are able to continue sliding.^[6] A little bit later in the season, Quinn mentions that his timer has a 500-mile radius, which presumably could be the radius of the new timer.^[7] However, later in Season Four, Maggie says that the timer has a 400-mile radius.^[8]

The Season 3 cast. From left to right: Rembrandt Brown, Maggie Beckett, Quinn Mallory and Wade Welles

During a slide to a world that is soon to be destroyed by fragments of a pulsar, the Sliders are pulled into a military operation commanded by Gulf War veteran Colonel Angus Rickman and Captain Maggie Beckett. The goal of this operation is to develop sliding technology in order to evacuate the best and brightest to a new homeworld. While helping the operation to succeed, Quinn amazingly finds what he believes to be Earth Prime; but Quinn also discovers that Maggie is unable to breathe there. Meanwhile, the other Sliders uncover that Rickman is murdering the evacuees in order to obtain donor tissue necessary to stave off a strange brain disease Rickman contracted during the war. To protect his secret and himself, Rickman kills Professor Arturo and Dr. Stephen Jensen (Maggie's husband) before escaping with the only timer that contains the coordinates for Earth Prime.

A new mission is born — the search for Rickman. Maggie wants revenge on Rickman for killing her husband, and the other Sliders want to stop Rickman from harming anyone else; but moreso, the Sliders want Rickman's timer and the chance it offers to finally send them home. Maggie joins the Sliders, and they continue to chase Rickman until he meets his demise in the season finale. With Rickman's timer in hand, the episode ends with Quinn shoving Wade and Rembrandt into the vortex that may finally take them home, but Quinn makes a last second decision to stay behind with Maggie who fears she can not survive on Quinn's home world. Refusing to give up, Quinn convinces Maggie to take a chance and slide with him using the remaining timer, but the duo finds that apparent damage to the timer has caused a malfunction. Quinn and Maggie have not followed their friends; they have instead landed on an unknown parallel earth.

While filming the episode "Desert Storm", actor Ken Steadman (Cutter) was killed in a dune buggy accident.^[9]

The Season 4 cast. From left to right: Rembrandt Brown, Quinn Mallory, Colin Mallory, and Maggie Beckett

Season four

After three months and ten worlds, Quinn and Maggie finally follow the trail of their friends; but the world believed to be home has changed since Quinn and Maggie's last visit. Now conquered by the Kromagg Dynasty, this world found Rembrandt sent to the horrors of a Kromagg prison and Wade sent to a Kromagg breeder-camp on an alternate Earth. Soon captured himself, Quinn finds his imprisoned mother who tells him that he is, in fact, her adopted son, and is actually from another, parallel world — the Earth on which the Kromaggs originated. With the help of the local resistance, Quinn, Maggie and Rembrandt escape with the goal of finding Quinn's long lost brother who holds the key to locating the Kromagg homeworld and the weapon that can free Earth Prime.

They find Quinn's brother Colin on another world, their parents having sent them to different worlds for their protection after their home was attacked by Kromaggs, which was no longer safe. Colin becomes the sixth Slider, and they try to track down their birth-parents, hoping they have the answers they seek, and the means to defeat the Kromaggs. This war with the Kromaggs is the primary theme throughout the season.

The Season 5 cast. From left to right: Maggie Beckett, Rembrandt Brown, Dr. Diana Davis and Mallory

Season five

With Jerry and Charlie O'Connell stricken from the cast list, the writers decided to simply lose Colin in the vortex, and fuse Quinn with his counterpart on the new world, who is the only duplicate to not look anything like Quinn (other than Logan St. Clair, the female double of Quinn, in a season three episode, "Double Cross"). Mallory has the combined personality of himself and the original Slider Quinn. He stays with the group throughout the season. While Mallory showed initial signs of acting like Quinn, this largely took a backseat to his own personality traits; the dual-identity crisis was reduced immensely until its resolution in "Eye of the Storm".

In the same episode ("The Unstuck Man"), scientist Doctor Diana Davis becomes the final Slider, feeling responsible for what happened to Mallory. They discover that the weapon created by Quinn's father, Michael Mallory, to defeat the Kromaggs on Kromagg Prime had the unintended consequence of destroying that planet's ecosystem, making its use on Earth Prime impractical.

In the middle of the fifth season, Wade telepathically communicates with Rembrandt, and is able to transport him and the other Sliders to the world that the Kromaggs are keeping her on. Wade was being used as an experiment by the Kromaggs in an attempt to liberate their homeworld. Rembrandt is unable to save Wade, but Wade is able to sabotage the experiment. Rembrandt reveals that he senses that Wade is gone.

The series concludes on a world where the sliders are the subjects of a fanatical religion called Slidology, founded by a man with psychic powers who has mentally followed them on their interdimensional adventures. Rembrandt (the only surviving original Slider) injects a virus that kills Kromaggs into his blood and slides alone to fight the Kromaggs on his homeworld. The episode ends with a cliffhanger.

The production team knew that the series was not being renewed and had saved money from the budget of each season five episode for use in a last climactic battle for the season finale. The money was instead used for the second to last episode Eye of the Storm while the last episode ended with an unresolved cliffhanger. Insiders have suggested why this happened. The Producers were concerned that the Sci-Fi Channel had lost interest in the show after they ceased supplying corrective notes for the episodes and it was believed they did not even bother reading the scripts. One strict rule that Sci-Fi Channel had, was that a gun can never be pointed at a person's head. To test if the scripts were read, the Executive Producer, Bill Dial, presented a script that featured a character getting his head shot completely off which was ignored. Dial then presented the script for the final episode cliffhanger which was also ignored. Some claim this was done to encourage fans to push for a sixth season but members of the Production team claim that the decision was personal.^[10]

Episodes aired out-of-order

The Fox Network aired the episodes in a different order to best capitalize on potential ratings-winning episodes, thus causing some continuity errors. For instance, the timer is first set to count down not in the pilot episode, but in "Summer of Love" — since Fox aired "Fever" right after the pilot episode, though, many viewers were left confused as to why the Sliders suddenly had to leave within a very specific period of time. Similarly, the cliffhanger at the end of "Summer of Love" leads directly into the opening of "Prince of Wails" — which Fox had actually aired a week earlier.^[13]

For Season Two, Fox did not want to resolve the cliffhanger at the end of "Luck of the Draw," preferring to focus instead on brand-new storylines. Thus, in "Time Again and World" (the first episode filmed for Season Two), Arturo makes a brief passing reference to the events of "Luck of the Draw." This missed cliffhanger was particularly significant as the episode had ended with Quinn dying after being shot in the back. Tracy Tormé successfully petitioned for a chance to resolve the cliffhanger, though, which is briefly dealt with in the opening minutes of "Into the Mystic" (the third episode filmed, but the first to air that season) where the life threatening wound is now a flesh wound in his shoulder allowing for a quick recovery. "Time Again and World" ended up airing sixth in the rotation.^[13]

"Double Cross" was filmed as the premiere for Season Three. In this episode, the audience learns why the Sliders will now be able to slide anywhere between San Francisco and L.A. However, Fox opted to air "Rules of the Game" first, since it was a more action-oriented episode.^[13]

"The Last of Eden" was filmed before John Rhys-Davies (Prof. Arturo) left the show. However, Fox chose to air the episode for the first time on March 28, a full month after Arturo had been written off the show, requiring a new opening scene be added to frame the story as a flashback.^[13]

When the show began airing in reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel, Sci-Fi restored the original filmed order for Season One. However, when the DVDs were released, Universal used the aired order for Season One and the subsequent seasons.

Cast

Main cast

• Quinn Mallory (seasons 1-4), played by Jerry O'Connell
• Wade Kathleen Welles (seasons 1-3, voice of Wade in "Requiem", S5e11), played by Sabrina Lloyd
• Rembrandt Lee "Crying Man" Brown (seasons 1-5), played by Cleavant Derricks
• Professor Maximillian P. Arturo (seasons 1-3), played by John Rhys-Davies
• Maggie Beckett (seasons 3-5), played by Kari Wührer
• Colin Mallory (season 4), played by Charlie O'Connell
• Quinn Mallory (2) a.k.a. Mallory (season 5), played by Robert Floyd
• Diana Davis (season 5), played by Tembi Locke

Recurring guest stars

• Colonel Angus Rickman, played by Roger Daltrey ("The Exodus" parts 1 and 2 (S3e16–17)) and Neil Dickson (episodes "The Other Slide of Darkness", "Dinoslide", "Stoker" and "This Slide of Paradise" (S3e21, S3e23-25))
• Elston Diggs, played by Lester Barrie (episodes "Double Cross", "The Dream Masters", "Desert Storm", "Dragonslide", "Murder Most Foul", and "The Breeder" (S3e2, S3e5-7, S3e13, S3e19))
• Doctor Oberon Geiger, played by Peter Jurasik (episodes "The Unstuck Man", "Applied Physics", and "Eye of the Storm" (S5e1-2, S5e17))

Changing cast

Cleavant Derricks (Rembrandt Brown) is the only cast member to stay with the series throughout its entire run, while Derricks and Linda Henning (Mrs. Mallory) are the only actors to appear in both the first and last episodes of the series.

John Rhys-Davies was the first star of the series to leave, officially due to creative differences, although different stories circulate about the reasons behind it. While Rhys-Davies was an outspoken critic of the writers and their lack of creativity (and intelligence), Fox supported him with Peckinpah the only one who wanted him out. Some sources suggest that he was fired for insulting a Fox executive at a party who was later promoted to a high level position with control of programming, including Sliders,^[14] while other sources claim that he was fired in order to bring in Kari Wührer, who it was felt would increase the shows ratings with teenage boys and young men.^[15]

When Sabrina Lloyd (Wade Welles) left at the end of season three a spokesperson for her agency said "no comment at this time" and stated that it was her decision not to return. A source came forward claiming Lloyd was fired as she was jealous of Kari Wührer (Maggie Beckett). Universal and Lloyd's agent both refused to comment and the rumour spread. Much later it was revealed that Lloyd and Wührer did not get on due to Wührer's ego and some comments she had made about Lloyd's engagement to a crew member. As Peckinpah wanted to return to the 3 male/1 female dynamic, it was decided Lloyd was no longer required after she asked for a raise.^[16] As a result of public pressure to elaborate on what happened to Wade after she disappeared, the producers asked Lloyd to guest star in one season five episode that was to focus entirely on Wade (without the rest of the cast).^[17] Lloyd requested $40,000 to appear, the same salary per episode that Derricks was receiving and $20,000 more than Wührer, and the idea was scrapped.^[16] However, the episode she was to appear in, Requiem, was "fine tuned" to answer this question without her.^[17] Lloyd did provide audio for the episode.

When production moved to Los Angeles, the recurring characters were dropped due to the expense of flying them from Vancouver to Los Angeles for filming. Bartender Elston Diggs was brought in as a recurring character for six episodes but Peckinpah eventually rejected the concept. Logan St. Clair was created to be a recurring character, which is evident in the episodes dialogue, but only appeared once. Fox did not believe she was "sexy" enough and requested she not appear again.^[18]

Jerry and Charlie O'Connell left the series to pursue film careers, or because Jerry wanted to become an executive producer on the series.^[19] The brothers leaving the show disaffected many fans and Tracy Tormé was asked what could be done to win them back. This resulted in an unsuccessful effort to bring back some popular previously recurring characters. The producers negotiated with John Novak (Ross J. Kelly, the ambulance-chasing lawyer), Alex Bruhanski (Pavel Kurlienko, the taxi driver) and Lester Barrie (Elston Diggs the waiter at the Chancellor Hotel) for their return in season five. Zoe McClellan (Logan St. Clair) was scheduled to appear again and Jason Gaffney (Conrad Bennish, Jr) from season one was confirmed for four episodes including the season finale.^[18] None of these guest stars eventuated and why Bennish didn't appear in the fifth season is one of the biggest behind-the-scenes mysteries of the show.^[20]

Changing staff

The series co-creator, Tracy Tormé, has often been critical of the direction the series took in the third season.^[21] David Peckinpah was brought onto the series in the third season (around the time when Tracy Tormé started to criticize the show). Peckinpah has been criticized by fans of the show, who argue that his involvement caused the show to "jump the shark",^[22] despite new executive producer Marc Scott Zicree's decision to restore Tracy Tormé's original "alternate history" premise for the series in season 4.

Show concepts

Timer

The original timer.

The timer is a handheld device that resembles a mobile phone or remote control. The Sliders have a finite amount of time to stay in each world, a time which is beyond their control, and is revealed on the timer's display upon arriving on the parallel Earth. The only time they are able to leave a parallel Earth is when the timer hits "zero." If they do not slide at that time, they will not have another opportunity to slide for another 29.7 years. In the episode "Rules of the Game" (et al.), it is first stated that the Sliders must wait 29 years for the next slide, if they miss it when the timer hits zero. The timer has frequently been lost, stolen, or damaged during the slides. However, it is almost always recovered, repaired, or replaced before they are scheduled to slide.

Different timers have different countdown times. If the Sliders miss the window on one timer, they can still slide out with another, at least on those rare occasions when they have access to another timer, such as the third-season episode "Slide Like an Egyptian".

In the first two seasons, the Sliders used the Original Timer, made from a rebuilt Motorola MicroTAC Ultra-Lite cellular phone. For the remainder of the series, the Egyptian Timer was used, made from a modified RCA RCU4GLW universal remote.^[23]

Doubles

One of the concepts of the show is the concept of doubles. On many parallel Earths, there will be alternate versions of the same person. The Sliders frequently encounter alternate versions of themselves. Sometimes, the doubles of the Sliders had similar personality traits and interests (for example, many doubles of Quinn Mallory had invented sliding, or were in the process of inventing sliding). Sometimes, however, the personality traits of the Sliders are entirely different. Gender and appearance of doubles is also somewhat fluid, although this is only seen in a few cases.

Some of the doubles the Sliders encounter are doubles of people they know from Earth Prime, such as Quinn's classmate Conrad Bennish, Jr. In the episodes "Dragonslide" and "The Prince of Slides", Rembrandt meets doubles of girlfriends from Earth Prime, and in the episode "Eggheads", Arturo meets a double of his late wife. Sometimes doubles of the family members of the Sliders are found during sliding; Quinn often encounters doubles of his parents, and in the episode "Season's Greedings", Wade meets doubles of her father and sister.

On some of the alternate Earths that the Sliders visit, there are alternate versions of celebrities and politicians of Earth Prime. However, celebrities on these alternate Earths sometimes have different levels of fame than their Earth Prime counterparts. In addition, some of the alternate versions of Earth Prime politicians hold different offices. For example, the Sliders find alternate Earths where Oliver North, Hillary Clinton, Jocelyn Elders, and even B-movie filmmaker Ed Wood^[24] were at one time in their respective worlds, president of the United States. In the pilot episode, the former cast of The People's Court guest starred as their own doubles in a Soviet-styled parody of the show.

Cleavant Derricks' identical twin brother, Clinton Derricks-Carroll, occasionally appeared on the show, in the episodes "The King Is Back", "Greatfellas", and "The Prince of Slides", when there was a need for Rembrandt and his double to interact.

Vortex

The Sliders vortex (ERP bridge)

The vortex, a wormhole opened by the timer that the Sliders carry around, is the means by which the Sliders travel from one parallel universe to another. In the pilot and several other episodes, Quinn refers to the vortex as an "Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky bridge," a fictitious term that may have arisen out of a confusion between the actual term Einstein-Rosen bridge (a type of wormhole in physics) and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox (a famous thought-experiment in quantum mechanics, which is unrelated to wormholes).

The look of the vortex changes throughout the series. From the first to third season, the vortex is a bluish whirlpool, and is somewhat transparent. In the third season the vortex is a clear water-like whirlpool with random flashes of blue. The first time the sliders use their newly acquired timer in the episode "Slide like an Egyptian" the vortex appears gold in color but in subsequent episodes it returns to the colorless version. The episode "Gillian of the Spirits" also introduced an opaque red vortex existing on the astral plane. Later, Logan St Clair's timer produces a transparent red vortex in the real world. In the double episode "The Exodus", this world's own slider technology produces an opaque red vortex with lightning at the centre that is also noticeably angular compared to the expected smooth curves previously seen. The sliders' own timer then produces the same red vortex, although the only change made to it has been the installation of a program that now gives it the ability to record the coordinates of the worlds they travel to, it would appear that whenever the slide was not a random one, but a slide were the destination was known and the coordinates were put in the timer, that the Vortex would turn red. In the fourth and fifth seasons, the sliders' vortex appears as a mostly-blue whirlpool with some blue-green, and is entirely opaque.

In "Gillian of the Spirits", Arturo says the vortex will close itself automatically after being open for sixty seconds. However, in several episodes the vortex is open well beyond sixty seconds — including "Gillian of the Spirits" — where it remained open for more than two minutes. In the episode "Slide like an Egyptian" they open the vortex to slide, but then debate staying. A few seconds after making the decision to stay the vortex closes after being open for only 20 seconds. As a rule the vortex merely acts as a plot device, staying open until the last person jumps through then closing several seconds later regardless of how long it has been open. This is especially evident in the double episode of season three where a large number of jumps are made culminating in the vortex closing after only 13 seconds, just in time to prevent the capture of Rickman.

Hotel

The Sliders will often stay at the same hotel on different worlds, and in a recurring plot device, would usually stay in the same room. In Season One, this is Room 12 at the Motel 12 in San Francisco except in episode 15 "el Sid" when they first refer to it as the Dominion Hotel. Apart from the Motel 12 (a spoof on Motel 6), the names used for the hotels in the second and third series were the real hotels where filming took place. In Season Two, it was the Dominion Hotel in San Francisco (Dominion Hotel, Vancouver). Both the Motel 12 and Dominion Hotels were managed by the same person, Gomez Calhoun. In Season Three, they stay at the Chancellor Hotel in Los Angeles (Royal Chancellor, Los Angeles). Dropping the "Royal" resulted in a legal problem, a real-life Chancellor Hotel in San Francisco objected to the use of the name and sued, so in Seasons Four and Five, they stayed at the Chandler Hotel, in Los Angeles. In the first episode to use the name "Chandler", Quinn comments "We always used to stay here."^[25]

Intro

The beginning credits started by watching a spiral of earths and a monologue describing the premise of the show:

• Season One: "What if you could find brand new worlds right here on Earth, where anything is possible: same planet, different dimension? I found the gateway!"^[26]
• Season Two: "What if you could travel to parallel worlds? The same year, the same Earth, only different dimensions? A world where the Russians ruled America? Or where your dreams of being a superstar came true? Or where San Francisco was a maximum security prison? My friends and I found the gateway. Now, the problem is: finding a way back home."^[26]
• Seasons Three, Four, and Five: "What if you found a portal to a parallel universe? What if you could slide into a thousand different worlds — where it's the same year, and you're the same person, but everything else is different? And what if you can't find your way home?"^[26]

In the first through fourth seasons, Quinn spoke the monologue.^[26] Rembrandt spoke the monologue in the fifth season, after Quinn had left the show.^[26] The monologue was followed by music, without lyrics. The first and second seasons had music that were unique to each season, and the third to fifth seasons had roughly the same music.

Connection to other works

There has been speculation that Sliders was inspired by George R.R. Martin's 1992 ABC pilot Doorways^[27], in which the main cast were fugitives fleeing through parallel worlds, while carrying a device that tells them where and when the next Doorway opens.^[28] Although six additional scripts after the pilot film were completed, Doorways never went to series, as ABC decided to launch Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman instead in the fall of 1993. At the time of Sliders' launch, some TV critics noted the similarities to Doorways, and in response to rumors that Sliders creator Tracy Tormé applied for a writing position on the show, Martin clarified in a 1995 post on GEnie that it was Torme's agent that inquired about the position,^[29] and Tormé has denied any connection between the two.

DVD releases

On August 23, 2007, Netflix Instant View provided all five seasons of Sliders available for computer streaming, although not all episodes are allowed to be streamed. Some episodes are missing with a note in their place stating that the DVD is required to view the episode. Netflix is also allowing customers to reserve copies of a DVD release for Season Five of the series, but the DVD release date is listed as unknown.

On March 12, 2008, Universal Studios added Sliders season one (except the 7th episode titled "The Weaker Sex") to their free online viewing service, Hulu. Season two was added on May 8, 2009, and season three was added on July 2, 2009.

In late 2008, season five and eventually all five seasons were made available through iTunes TV Shows store.

Sliders in other media

Sliders-branded works

• The pilot episode of Sliders was novelized by science-fiction writer Brad Linaweaver, and was released in the spring of 1996, one year after the series originally premiered. Linaweaver's novelization incorporates several deleted scenes from the original pilot episode production script, along with Linaweaver's own additions to the plot.
• Linaweaver also later compiled an episodic guide to the show, Sliders: The Classic Episodes, which contained information only on Seasons One through Three.
• Dennis McCarthy produced a Sliders soundtrack with select orchestrated music from season one of the series.^[30]
• Sliders was also spun off into a comic book series published by Acclaim Comics. This comics series had no direct input from series creators Tracy Tormé and Robert K. Weiss, but Tracy Tormé did pass along several notes detailing stories that went unproduced. Series star Jerry O'Connell also personally authored one special issue of this comic series. While advertised and solicited for advance order, the final Sliders comic, titled Get a Life, never made it to store shelves; but artist Rags Morales completed art for 14 pages of the comic before production was stopped.^[31]

Allusions and references by others

• After the changes of the DC Comics event mini-series Zero Hour, the artistic design of time travel was changed and first introduced in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 3 number 74. During the issue, Superboy comments that this new artistic design of time travel is similar to the tunnel effect on Sliders.^[32] This new artistic design for time travel has been used by DC Comics from the 1995 debut through to its last appearance in 2005 in the Teen Titans/Legion Special.
• In the December 19, 1996 FoxTrot strip by Bill Amend, Frosty the Snowman condemns Paige for watching Sliders instead of his own Christmas television special.^[33]
• In 1997, the Desktop Images production company released a training video on the subject of Organic Modeling and Animation hosted by David Lombardi. This how-to video gave a special behind the scenes look at the special effects process used on the Sliders season three episodes Paradise Lost and Dinoslide.^[34]
• Released in 1999, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel, The Gatekeeper Vol 3: Sons of Entropy, featured characters Angel and Oz discussing Sliders in relation to their current situation.
• During the year 2000, Private Media Group produced pornography titled Sex Slider Shag-a-rama which was based on Sliders.
• Marvel's Exiles features several Marvel characters who have been pulled from their own realities to fix problems in alternate ones. Series creator Judd Winick has stated that Sliders was part of the inspiration for the series.^[35]
• Starting October 15, 2002, the webcomic Real Life featured an epic interdimensional adventure based upon and referencing Sliders.^[36]
• During the week of June 13, 2003, the Unshelved comics strip character Dewey recalls Sliders when he discovers the library has been re-modeled overnight.^[37]
• In 2003, Vivendi Universal produced a Hulk game for Nintendo GameCube and Xbox which featured the Sliders season one theme song produced by Mark Mothersbaugh. The Mothersbaugh theme song is featured during the level of the game titled Reckoning 2 which is one of the final levels of the game.
• Released February, 2005, Marvel Knights 4 issue 15 features the Human Torch fondly remembering Sliders as the fantastic team prepares to embark on a time travel mission.^[38]
• Damien Broderick's 2005 novel Godplayers mentions Sliders on page 47. The reference is in comparison to the novel's own dimension hopping heroes.
• Released December 20, 2005, the ADV Films dub of Ghost Stories features a Sliders reference in Episode 8 at time stamp 6:01. Satsuki says; "[Leo] hasn't been this disappointed since they canceled Sliders."
• The July 16, 2007 Small Market Sports comics strip uses the opening monologue of Sliders to demonstrate how David Beckham is creating a parallel world where soccer is popular in the United States.^[39]
• The September 14, 2007 issue of online comic VG Cats (#243: Bizzaro!) features Leo mentioning Sliders, followed by a scene in a parallel universe into which the original line-up (Rembrandt, Arturo, Quinn and Wade) slide. The Timer states they are there for three years.
• On October 12, 2007, the science-fiction comedy webcomic Jump Leads referenced Sliders in relation to the comic characters' similar plight of being lost amidst alternate realities.^[40]
• The September 27, 2009 premiere of the Family Guy episode Road to the Multiverse featured a Brian and Stewie adventure inspired by Sliders.^[41]
• Sliders has been the subject of several trivia questions on game shows such as Jeopardy!, The Weakest Link, Hollywood Showdown and Beat the Geeks.

References

External links

• Sliders at the Open Directory Project
• Sliders at Allmovie
• Sliders at the Internet Movie Database
• Sliders at TV.com