^ Image from: http://www.hulu.com/sliders
Sliders was a TV series that aired from 1995 - 2000. The series focuses on a boy genius, Quinn Mallory who invented a device known as a timer. This timer opens a vortex, or wormhole, that allows one to "slide" between parallel-worlds. Quinn in the pilot episode refers to this wormhole as the "Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky bridge". This term is actually fake and a confusion of 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).
Pictured Above: Quinn, as well as best friend Wade Welles, Quinn's professor Maximillion Arturo and Rembrandt Brown, who happened to be driving by Quinn's house, are sucked into a wormhole and into a different parallel world. The timer is activated before schedule and consequently looses its original coordinates. They are unable to locate their original world and must keep "sliding" in hopes of finding it, very similar to Sam Beckett form Quantum Leap who must keep "leaping".
The timer not only enables them to travel to these parallel worlds but also tracks how long they can stay. There was no explanation for why they have certain amounts of time in each world, it seems to be set randomly, but if they do not leave a world after the allotted time has passed, they will be trapped in that parallel-world for 29 years. This "time-crunch" often plays a part in building suspense as adventures unfold in each parallel-world, often they barely make it to the next slide on time.
Travel into parallel-worlds allows for an exploration of the idea of an alternate history. What if the US had never dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? What if we never discovered penicillin? Not only do Quinn and the others slide into worlds in a similar present time, but they also slide forwards and backwards in time. In addition, they often encounter their doubles, alternate selves living alternate lives. Throughout their travel as well, the sliders, as they are referred to, often attempt to find familiar territory such as the same hotel, and in a recurring plot device, usually stay in the same room.
The first few seasons stay pretty close to this original concept of an alternate history. As the sliders move through worlds, we follow their struggles as the relationships between them solidify as they attempt to navigate the "foreignness" of the worlds they have entered. As the series progressed, a race of "sliders" was revealed as Kromaggs, who also have the technology to go between worlds. Unlike, Quinn who had altruistic motives of exploration and discovery in mind, the Kromaggs conquer other parallel worlds with their superior technology and knowledge, and enslave the inhabitants. At this point, Quinn is revealed as no longer simply as boy genius - the narrative shifts - but the prodigal son. Quinn it turns out is an "alien" himself in that he was born on another parallel world and was hidden on the Earth he had grown up on. He also has a brother hidden on another world as well. Their parents were part of a world that had advance technology and is the world that the Kromaggs originated from. Quinn and his brother are meant to stop the Kromaggs as they are the only ones with the latent knowledge to do so. This is but one of a few changes the story underwent during the series run in addition to several cast changes as well.
Go here for a general overview that will give you a breakdown of story arcs for each season, this will help give you a context for the episodes you choose.
For more information visit the Earth Prime website.
posted by JM Venturini (instructor1) on 6/19/08
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.