Continuing our new Throwback Thursday series, here’s the first of three articles about television’s Sliders.
Sliders was a popular science fiction series that aired for five seasons, between 1995 and 2000, on FOX for the first three seasons and SciFi for the latter two. The series focused on four travelers from San Francisco traveling, or sliding, between parallel universes. Each universe had different outcomes to historical events, essentially alternate timelines. The four travelers included:
- Quinn Mallory, played by Jerry O’Connell, a graduate physics student who invents the device, called the timer, that allows the foursome to slide to parallel universes.
- Wade Welles, played by Sabrina Lloyd, a computer genius and Quinn’s co-worker, who volunteers to slide with him for a joyride.
- Professor Maximilian Arturo, played by John Rhys-Davies, Quinn’s physics professor who also takes on a father figure-role, and decides to slide in the name of science.
- Rembrandt “Cryin’ Man” Brown, played by Cleavant Derricks, a former R&B singer who was on his way to make a comeback when he accidentally slid with the others while driving by.
Although the show’s characters slide to parallel universes, that’s not the same as traveling through time. However, there were three episodes during the series’ run that did relate to time travel, in one way or another. Today we’ll look at the first of those three time travel episodes–the sixth episode of the second season entitled “As Time Goes By.”
The episode starts out with a world where the United States is controlled by Mexico and Americans are considered illegal immigrants, leaving the Sliders to become day laborers, asking for jobs on the street. When they get caught by Immigration, Quinn manages to sneak away, but lands in someone’s yard, accidentally knocking himself unconscious in the process.
A woman, Daelin, the maid of the residence, comes to his rescue. When Quinn wakes, he tells Daelin that he had a crush on her in school and it broke his heart when she moved away. Quinn then notices a man in a photo he saw on the street earlier, Dennis, who just happens to be her fiancé. Determined to free the others so they can all slide away, Quinn agrees to also free Dennis with her brother’s help.
Just in time to slide, the Sliders reunite, but not before it is revealed that Dennis isan informant for Immigration just so he could get a green card. Daelin’s brother gets shot. Quinn begs her to slide with him, but she stays behind with her brother. When they land on the next world, Quinn falls deep into depression after seeing his long-lost love, but Rembrandt talks him into contacting her on this world. He finds her crying as she answers her door. Reminiscing, Daelin reveals that on this world, it was Quinn who moved away and she has felt heartbroken since.
Not much later Dennis walks through the door with a guitar case, in ragged clothes, drinking beer. On this world, Dennis is trying to make it big in a band that is going nowhere, comes and goes as he pleases, and leaves Daelin to do all the chores and take care of their baby. Dennis gives Quinn an attitude as he let it slip that he “sort of” knew Dennis.
As Dennis goes upstairs, Daelin warns him to be quiet as the baby is sleeping, but he wakes the baby anyway. Daelin becomes upset and asks herself why she even married Dennis. Dennis then runs back downstairs, screaming at Daelin, and pushes her up against the wall. Seeing this, Quinn intervenes by pushing him off of her, giving him a piece of his mind, and finally punching him to the floor.
Daelin, realizing his love for her, asks if she can go with him on the journey that he mentioned earlier. Dennis, before going back upstairs, tells Quinn that he can have her and the baby. Quinn tells Daelin it will be very difficult with the baby, but there is something he can do. He ends up calling the Quinn of that world and has Daelin be with him.
The Sliders once again reunite in order to slide. But their next slide leaves them extremely confused. Normally, the four emanate from the portal on each slide, but this time, Quinn, Professor, and Rembrandt found themselves just standing in a jail cell wearing jail uniforms and Wade is nowhere nearby. They soon notice that the timer is going upwards instead of downwards. Quinn takes apart the timer and puts it back together, but can’t see anything mechanically wrong with it.
Professor Arturo tries to figure out why they are in jail by reading documents their lawyer has given them, and realizes that Quinn has been convicted of killing Daelin, who was a cop on this world. The other sliders were his accomplices. The trio are then sent to court for arraignment, confusing them even more. Once there, they are reunited with Wade, but Quinn notices something different about the clock on the wall. Professor Arturo concludes that it’s inverted, but Quinn corrects him by saying it’s backwards. Seconds later, the bailiff uncuffs them all and sets them free.
As they walk out, Professor Arturo explains that they must have landed on a world that proves Stephen Hawking’s theory of Time’s Arrow, that time can point backwards just as much as it can forwards. They are going forwards in a world that is going backwards, or vice versa. Realizing this reality, Quinn decides to change his destiny by saving Daelin.
Professor Arturo soon reminds him that destiny cannot be changed, narrating the W. Somerset Maugham’s “The Appointment in Samarra.” Still determined, Quinn attempts to stop Daelin from being murdered anyway. As it turns out, Daelin and her partner Dennis were setting someone up who had inside information, and Quinn just got in the way, killing Daelin in the process. This time, though, Daelin survived with only a bullet wound to the shoulder.
As the Sliders reunite, Professor Arturo advises Quinn to look to the sky. When they all do, they see that the night sky ripping apart, essentially ripping a hole in spacetime, suggesting that there may not be a tomorrow for this world. The portal immediately opens and sucks the four in. On the next world, Wade sees a nearby phone and asks Quinn if he wishes to call her. He declines, fearing it will only lead to another disappointment.
This is a wonderful episode as it explores so many ideas: a long lost love, time repeating itself, and how Time’s Arrow would affect someone if it was pointed in the other direction. The very idea of Time’s Arrow sparked my interest from the first time I saw this. I went on to write another example of Time’s Arrow’s effect, for a class–with a question at the end that stumped both my classmates and my professor.
To this day, I keep watching this episode over and over. The short story that Professor Arturo spoke of is now one of my favorites.
There are a few occurrences throughout the episode that raise questions for me. First, I don’t believe the Sliders would just appear out of nowhere on that world, but rather emanate from the portal; normally, they enter and exit using a portal. Throughout their stay, they encounter waves that shift time, which Quinn calls jumps of discontinuity. This makes no real sense, as both arrows are going their respective directions at the same rate. Quinn explains it’s due to the fact that they are changing their destiny, but still, this would not shift that world’s time.
I will admit it was cool to see the tear in the fabric of spacetime, after Quinn saves Daelin, but it is highly unlikely it would happen this way. It is more likely that the entire universe would be ripped apart, atom by atom, or crushed, possibly creating a black hole. If not that, then at least from the point Quinn saved Daelin, time would indefinitely stop.
Finally, after this sight in the sky, the timer works properly and then the portal opens. What made the timer work again? The rip in spacetime? It would seem more probable for the timer to work again once the Sliders reach the next universe because Time’s Arrow is still pointed backwards in that world.
Overall, I recommend “As Time Goes By” to every time travel fan.
In future weeks I’ll take a look at the other two Sliders time travel episodes. Until then, I’d love to hear your thoughts about this episode, or Sliders in general, in the comments below.
RJ Onyx Moonshadow
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