Respond to the following prompts on this wiki page using the "edit" feature.

Make sure to include your username in your response and separate your answers from each other using the "insert horizontal line" button.

See the rubric if you have questions about how you will be graded on your response.

 

Before responding to the prompt below make sure you watch the two episodes from Season 1 or 2, and read the Lecture Notes. Don't forget to cite your information if it is coming from another source. Even if you are paraphrasing (putting information into your own words), you still need to acknowledge where you found that information originally.

 

Prompt:

Give a brief synopsis of what happens in each of the two episodes you watched (3 - 4 sentences). Include the episode title and the season. The original concept of Sliders was to explore the idea of encountering alternate worlds with an alternate history. How is this foundational concept realized in the episodes you watched? How does "sliding" between worlds affect the sliders in the episodes you watched? (Note: these are open-ended questions and are based on what you saw in the episodes.)

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Soap

 

Season 1 episode 2 - "Fever"

In this episode, the sliders end up in a world where Quincy has infected everyone with an incurable plague that eventually leads to death. Unfortunately before finding this out Wade gave a thank you kiss to an infected. Now she has it and she's spreading it to the others. It turns out that the government created this disease to obliterate the poor. In the end the good professor discovers that this world knows nothing about antibiotics and decides to locate some mold. This was really a pivotal episode because now they know that sliding can and already has made a difference.

 

Season 1 episode 3 - "Last Days"

Our heroes find themselves in a world that has two days left until armageddon. A huge meteor is headed straight for the west coast, the likes of which previously wiped out the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, they discover they're stuck here for three days. One day after the world ends. The thing is, in this world, the atom bomb was a hoax, Einstein rigged the bomb to not explode, saving the world from nuclear warfare. he claimed that there wasn't enough plutonium in the world to make it work, and it was forgotten. The professor and Quincy help finish the bomb, and set it loose on that big space rock.

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Joe 

 

Season 1 Episode 4 “The Summer of Love”

            The gang ends up arriving in a place that is abandoned. They soon find out that this is another alternate earth where there are giant hornet-spider hybrids threatening the area. They decide to enter the wormhole even though it hasn’t “cooled off” yet. They all jump through as it closes and opens and end up in a world where the “summer of love” never ended and they are found by hippies who mistake them to be alien prophets or angels. They are separated as the wormhole was opening and closing when they jumped through, leading them to believe that they are in different dimensions than their companions. They eventually reunite and escape after Wade teaches them about astrology and answers their questions.

             

Season 2 Episode 4 “The Good, the Bad, and the Wealthy”

            The gang arrives in a world where the west was won by Texas, and follows the rules of the old west. Here lawyers are gunslingers for corporations and the way the deliberate is with a gun. Quinn accidentally gets involved in a shoot out and kills a guy, which leads the town to believe that he is a crazy good lawyer, and eventually gets involved in a web of corporate takeover. He resolves the conflict, gets the bad guy arrested and tells them that real power isn’t the firing of a gun. Then they all depart. 

 

The foundational concept is realized in “The Summer of Love” as Rembrandt learns that the woman he was love with in his youth would have been a crazy, scary bitch had the relationship flourished. So by not getting together with her, Rembrandt dodged a bullet, literally and figuratively as the episode shows. It is shown once again in “The Good, the Bad, and the Wealthy” as Quinn feels terrible for shooting and killing a guy in the beginning of the episode. He also uses his newfound presence in the town to intimidate some other gunslingers so he won’t have to kill them. He also, puts his gun down in the final showdown to talk to the other gunslinger and they both refuse to shoot each other. Quinn doesn’t as he doesn’t want to, and the gunslinger doesn’t as he refuses to shoot an unarmed man. He then tells them it doesn’t have to be this way and they leave. He was affected by his own actions and the world around him as this world is based on killing. They also may have affected the world very negatively as a few spider/hornet things followed them into the world and they just let them go. Those things could be out there killing people, or multiplying, leaving that world to be eaten by giant bugs like the one in the beginning of the episode!

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Mike

Season 1 Episode 1 "Into the Mystic"

The season starts off with the arrival of the crew in another foreign land run by occult. The episode begins with the crew's seeking of a doctor in order to heal a gunshot wound to Quinn's chest. They find a doctor in the phonebook but they get themselves into a wreck when they figure out it is a witchdoctor. The bill turns out being way more than expected even though the alleged doctor thought he was curing a headache. As a result, the pack cannot pay for the services and decide to run away from the creepy physician. After forgetting to read the fine print on the medical contracts, they find themselves running away from headhunters (literally) in search for a reward for Quinn's brain. And the only way they can escape the alternate world is with the help of a so-called scorcher, which is a brand created by Quinn's double. Eventually after defeating the crazy witchdoctor and stealing his blueprints for the slider machine they slide into the next world which is their home. Once they are back to their almost mirage-like home they are quick to find out they only have seconds before the next slide. So they hastily try to figure out if it is the right world by testing the sound of the local hometown fence, which is not what it used to be, rusty. This leads to their next travel.  

 

Season 2 Episode 2 "Love Gods"

The episode begins with the arrival of the crew in San Francisco's fisherman's wharf in an alternate world run by woman. So to make it short and simple, this alternate world needs only the finest men or breeders, as they are called in the alternate world, in order to keep the superior race thriving. Men have become scarce because of some type of ambiguous virus and therefore are being taken prisoner in order to breed several times a day (with prospect to become the 'breeder of the month'). The world is split between two powers one being that of America and the other Australia. So throughout the episode the crew is being spilt up until they meet once again three days later after some strategic planning with help from some new acquired friends. 

 

Within both episodes the crew encounters different circumstances as a result of different histories. In Into the Mystic, the alternate world is a world that is run by magic and the supernatural. Within this world an almost god-like figure runs the world but the god becomes unveiled to be Quinn's double. In Love Gods, the alternate world is a type of extreme dictatorship run by woman with intentions to create a supreme race by 'poisoning' off the male gender. Everything within the world is catered towards woman because men are only devices for reproduction and nothing more. Sliding between the worlds affects all of the characters in different ways but some are become more affected than others. As in the case of Quinn in Love Gods, Quinn is asked to impregnate a woman he encounters after she saved him from the 'Bureau of Breeders'. Quinn is unsure at first because he fears he won't be able to carry on with his life knowing that he has a child somewhere in an alternate world, but later submits to the woman's desperate cry for affection and maternity. In the episode Into the Mystic,  the sliders are affected by the sliding because they encounter one of Quinn's doubles who is hiding his identity from the alternate world. Quinn and the crew become the first people to see Quinn's double in the flesh because Quinn's double is hiding because of his fear that the alternate world will not accept his scientific background (as opposed to sorcery).

 

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Arielle 

 

Season 2: Episode 2: Love Gods

The crew (three men and a women) enters into a dimension, which they plan to stay in for only 3 days and 6 hours. They enter into this new world where the sex population on the planet are women and the amounts of men are limited and captured to produce sperm. All of the crew get away and after running from the police they hop into the time portal leaving new friends behind and taking new friends with them.

 

Season 2: Episode 3: Gillian of the Spirits

One rainy night they jump into the portal and enter into a new dimension where they can’t see or hear Quinn and realize that their timer is broken and may loose the window of opportunity in this new place that the professor calls a technological Stone Age. One young woman who believes she’s seeing ghosts is the only one who can see Quinn and helps him communicate to his crew, while helping them retrieve their timer back from the police who confiscated it for investigation so they can all jump back into the portal. 

 

-            The foundational concept is realized in Love Gods when the crew realizes there is a limited amount of men on the planet and dimension they zapped themselves into. They get themselves in a nasty situation where they need to try to get themselves out of locked breeding facilitation where they award men for getting the most women pregnant in a year which will soon enough set the world back ten thousand years.

-            Then in Gillian of the Spirits they get sent into a dimension where Quinn’s father thinks that Quinn died and there has been no real significant development of technology because it is seen as the devils handy work. And in the end of the episode they all enter into a world where the people are naked walking down the street in the dead of winter, where snow is on the ground.

 

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Yat

 

Sliders Season 1 ep.4 "Last Days"

 

An asteroid is going to crash into America.  A doctor talked about the asteroid would not by pass the earth, and it cannot be brought down by missiles.  Bennish, a scientist believes that nuclear weapons and the atomic bomb were possible to bring down the asteroid to avoid the collision. Bennish showed Arturo the bomb that he was working on as they were trying to figure out the ramifications of nuclear energy.  They launched the bomb and saved the world.  Bennish became the hero of the world.  The last scene is the Sliders departed through a time tunnel.  

 

 

Sliders Season 1 ep.5 "The Prince of Wails"

 

The show started when the Sliders traveled through the time tunnel to avoid falling into the sea, and eventually they traveled to San Francisco. The British had won the war of independence, and everything has been changed in history and that San Francisco was ruled by British and Arturo was the Sheriff of San Francisco at that time.  Britain won the war of Independence over the America in this alternate universe.  Arturo and Quinn tried to find out what happened if Britain have won the war.  The crew forced Prince Harold to learn about the Declaration of Independence and announced to the people in Britain and America.  Even this alternative universe has wiped out the history and the Indecent of America, but the Sliders tried to break down the government of monarchy by spreading the Declaration of Independence to the people. 

 

The foundational concept in both episode “Last Day” and “Prince of Wails” took place in making a positive change in the alternative universe based on the comprehension from the future.  In “Last Day”, Arturo came into the world that has been in threat of the asteroid.  He met Bennish, the scientist and assisted him to complete the atomic bomb with his knowledge from the future, and saved the world.  In “Prince of Wails”, the Sliders came into a world that all the history has been changed, and they tried to save the America from ruling by monarchy system or at least spreading the word of freedom to the people by what the Sliders knew as “history from their past” (the America won the Independence war, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, etc.) 

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Kelvin k

 

Sliders Season 1 ep.1 Pilot

 

It is the beginning of sliders. The boy named Quinn builds a device that can make a portal to open other paralleled world or say different dimension. It seems he doesn't know eactly how to use it with clear modification for device but he wants to show others his big achivement as a scientist. Accidentally he trys to change the switch while the portal gate is opened and Quinn and other fellows like professor, black singer, and his girlfriend, they all get stuck in the ice-aged San Francisco. From there, they see blizzard storm coming toward them and try to go back where their own time but  they open different world. Quinn and others start lose the path to get back where they come from completely. From here, they get onto different earth where the girl named Wade's ally is the head of a rebel group who are fighting for the communist. They start to find a way to survive these different paralleled  world (different dimension).

 

Season 2 ep.1 In to the Mystic

 

In the beginning, Quinn just sees a vision that shows his death. Quinn and his crew slide to different portal gate and go to the different world again and he starts to have a headache so this season ep begins with accidently finds a witch doctor to cure his illness. Somehow they run away after the treatment without paying the money and later they get a letter about prosecution for payment from doctor, which they start again to run away from headhunters who try to catch them. The only person who can help them is a sorcerer and they find out this sorcerer knows how to use a portal. Several events occur while finding a real sorcerer like figting with a witch doctor. Later they find out the sorcerer is Quinn himself, which he was other slider from different time and he comes to show Quinn how to get back to his own world. It seems almost close to the end. Somehow Quinn thinks that place isn't his world just by checking the gate sound and runs into different portal and start a journey as sliders again. But It seems it was right path, the gate is fixed by the gardner who seems to become as a future dad for Quinn.

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Andi

 

In the first Episode Pilot (season 1-episode 1 and 2) we are introduced to the character Quinn. He is a brilliant college student that spends most of his time in his mother’s basement and never seems to be on time. He would much rather be working on his “anti-gravity device”, this device however turns out to create a wormhole instead of causing antigravity.  He jumps in and realizes he is actually transported to another demention, earth, but a different possibility of earth. He calls his friend and his professor and together they slide into another demention, accidentally sucking another man in with them. They arrive at a frozen world and are able to escape only by forcing the timer to warp them before time. After much trouble they arrive home only to realize they are in the wrong place once again. This occurs a number of times in both episodes as their timer is broken and they must shuffle through worlds until they find the correct one.

 

           

 

In these episodes the characters travel to many different worlds, some with different histories and very different futures. They are able to see what would have happened had USA not won the Korean War, and how global warming or nuclear wars can affect the climate. I do believe the foundational concept was realized and that the worlds have enough variety to show the alternate histories.  Sliding in these episodes affected the characters immensely. They are thrust into a frozen world that almost causes them to lose their lives and does cause them to loose their way home.  Quinn is forced to encounter his dead father, and live through the emotional rollercoaster of having a complete family once more. Then he arrives in world where he is a wanted man and is forced to flee from the law. Overall the characters are not so much physically affected as they are emotionally affected. Going from world to world living an emotional roller coaster each time, encountering deaths, and peril at every turn.

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Wonwoong

 

Season1 episode1 –Pilot (1)

However, because of much power, the sliders arrive in new world that experienced an ecological disaster in a new ice age. They need to survive in that world until the machine timer shows zero number.

 

Season1 episode2 -Pilot (2)-

Rembrandt is arrested because he tried to use America money . The only way to save him is for the others to help the group of revolutionaries against their government to rescue their leader who is a prisoner.

 

The fundamental concept of the pilot1 is to show new possibility of time travel. The actor Quinn finds the new world through the portal. There are alternative world and time. Quinn enters to the portal and he knows he is in alternative world. He goes to the electronics store he works, but he didn’t. In addition, he doesn’t remember kissing colleague and friend Wade Wells. Like this, Quinn finds out there is other world where other people lived in and other people made their own world in other methods. After the sliders start to alternative world, they affect the alternative world, and it produces different results for other world.  

In the pilot2, it shows although the world they travel to is almost identical to their own, the final scene proves that they are well and truly lost. In this episode, there are doubles of the sliders. This assumption iis interesting to me. Abraham Lincoln has been replaced with one of Lenin. This funny assumption makes new possibility of alternative world where there are other histories. In the Soviet Union rules America, Wade discovers her double is a leader of the people who had been captured and was facing execution. Like this, other environments and other histories make the sliders to make new decision, correct their lives, and go back to home.  

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Cristina

 

Sliders     Season 2     "The Young and the Relentless”

     The sliders arrive to a present day luxury estate and find a body floating in the pool. The decomposing corpse is identical to Quinn and the dead man’s wife looks just like Wade – they have encountered their doubles. Quinn decides to pretend to be the dead man to continue to front an educational software company. He learns that the company is a corporate sham and tries to leave, but he and Wade are held hostage. Rembrandt and the Professor end up running into trouble when then go out for a drink and break the law because they are over-age. In this world anyone over the age of thirty needs to abide by a curfew. Eventually each pair resolves their issue and is able to safely slide back.

 

Sliders      Season 2     “Summer of Love”

 

     The group of time-travelers first arrive to a place where there are genetically engineered insects that have mass created destruction in their path. They quickly exit even though the wormhole is not ready to do so.

The group is then transported to a San Francisco commune during the Summer of Love circa 1995. Oliver North is President and the U.S. has waged war with Australia. Rembrandt discovers in this world he got the girl that slipped away and considers staying. He eventually changes his mind. Meanwhile, back at the commune, the hippies think the sliders are prophets from another world. The Professor and Quinn run into problems by being associated with radical politics, but in the end the group reconnects and all are able to slide back.

 

     Both episodes deal with love and relationships that could have been or possibly should be. The foundational concept is realized because the sliders are witnessing alternative worlds they exist in. There is obvious sexual tension between Quinn and Wade. In “The Young and the Relentless” episode they encounter their doubles who are young, married and successful. I think this offered a taste of what a relationship could at least look like to the sliders and to the viewers.

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Chris

Episode 9: Luck of the Draw

This episode deals with the main characters traveling to a universe were the world population is regulated by a lottery system. The winners are given a large sum of money that they can donate to a charity before taking a poison. It’s considered an honor and is highly respected. When a lottery winner refuses to die they are tortured to death, or “processed.” When Wade wins the lottery unknowingly she thinks it’s wonderful until she learns of the dire circumstances. Quinn helps save her and the jump through a wormhole just in time to escape processing.

In this universe death is not feared it is almost revered. It’s an honor to die willingly and at ones own hands. The world population was something like fifty million. There was apparently very little crime, and no poverty. This is a very interesting alternate world. It seems subtle but still very effective. The sliders didn’t realize what was all that different with this universe for the majority of the episode, which was done quite purposely by the writers. Death doesn’t come up that often in general polite conversation especially ones opinions on the afterlife and such, so for a slider to remain ignorant of a suicidal centric civilization may be plausible.

Episode 6: Eggheads

In this episode Quinn and the gang arrive in a universe were scientists and intellectuals are exalted much like sports and pop stars are in today’s culture. Quinn is apparently their most popular intellectual hero. Fans swarm him when they arrive and he is on a mock Nike billboard. Also Dr. Arturo is famous, he seems to be another academic super achiever. Later we find Quinn on a Wheaties box. He is the star player of a game sort of like family feud and four-square. This alternative Quinn also “slides” like the real Quinn does, and so does Dr. Arturo. The alternative Quinn also has gambling debts and has been throwing games of “feud-square.” The real Quinn must fill his shoes and deal with his teammates and the loan sharks.

This is the first universe that also has sliders like the real home universe Quinn and his friends are from. They become very excited at this because they think they can now find a way home. In this alternative world though there has been a role reversal. Society respects intellectual achievements over physical ability. A punk walks by carrying a boom box blasting Vivaldi. The goons who threaten Quinn over his debts use very refined grammar. Dr. Arturo has a very interesting exchange with a woman he loved and lost when he was a younger man. In this new universe they had a similar romance but instead of passing way she divorces him. He finds her alive but badly scorned in this new universe. He wants to reconnect but she’s been to badly hurt. This is almost always a conventional driving force in time travel stories. A desire to right a wrong be it self perpetuated or not. A previous personal relation that was broken or damaged.

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Julia

Sliders Season 1 Episode Eggheads - In this episode, Mallory and the gang slide into a timespace where intellectual pursuit is considered the highest form of achievement, and gifted scholars, scientists, mathematicians, and other academics are celebrities. As they deal with their new-found fame, they struggle with impersonating their alter-dimension selves and the dangers inherent in such an act. While searching for the functional timer in this world, Arturo considers staying when he finds out that the love of his life (who died tragically at a young age) is alive, well, and divorcing his sleazebag alter-self.

Sliders Season 1 Episode Summer of Love - After sliding into a deserted timespace where a genetically altered killer insect plague is sweeping the world, the gang is separated by a malfunctioning timer. In this new world, the US is fighting a war in Australia and the flower power of our 1960’s flourishes in their 1995. As Wade is worshipped as an alien prophet in a hippie commune and Rembrandt goes home to the wife and child of his alter-self, Mallory and Arturo struggle to calculate a way home. Rembrandt is the one to consider staying in this seemingly better reality, before realizing that the grass on the other side is not always as green as it may appear to be.

These two episodes exemplify the pitfalls and potential benefits alternate worlds may embody for the time travelers. These worlds can offer lost love, fame, and marriage to a high school crush, but can also include dangers and disappointments like killer bugs, the mob, guns, extremist political conservatives, the FBI, tsunamis, and finding out that other people may not be who you thought they’d be. The most interesting aspect of how sliding affects the travelers is the introspection they gain from experiencing the lives of their alter-selves. Mallory’s alter-self is an arrogant and selfish jerk who cheats and gambles, while Arturo’s philanders and steals. Rembrant realizes his life is better off having not married his high school crush, as he discovers she is controlling and abusive.