Sliders/Pilot

Pilot
Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2
Airdate	March 22, 1995
Production Number	83535
Screenplay by	Tracy Tormé
Story by	Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé
Directed by	Andy Tennant
— N/A	1x03 → Fever
Sliders — Season One

Pilot is the first and second episodes of the first season of Sliders.

Starring: Jerry O'Connell (Quinn Mallory), Sabrina Lloyd (Wade Wells), Cleavant Derricks (Rembrandt Brown)

and John Rhys-Davies (Arturo)

Guest Starring: Linda Henning (Mrs. Mallory), Joseph A. Wapner (Commissar Wapner), Doug Llewelyn (Comrade Llewelyn), Garwin Sanford (Doc)

Featuring: Roger R. Cross (Wilkins), Yee Jee Tso (Wing), Frank C. Turner (Crazy Kenny), Gary Jones (Hurley), John Novak (Ross J. Kelly/Interrogator), Don MacKay (Artie Field), Alex Bruhanski (Pavel), Jay Brazeau (KGB Colonel), Andrew Kavadas (Vendor), Sook Yin Lee (Pat), Wayne Cox (PBS Spokesman), Raoul Ganee (Sentry), Tom Butler (Michael Mallory)

Uncredited: Jason Gaffney (Conrad Bennish, Jr.), Larry Musser (Jake), Rusty Burrell (Rusty the Bailiff), Kenneth W. Roberts (Construction Worker), Harry Shearer (Day Tripper) (voice), Nathan Vanering (Doppler Customer)

Plot Overview

While working to develop an anti-gravity device, genius Quinn Mallory happens upon a means of travelling through parallel dimensions. Showcasing the discovery to his best friend Wade Welles and physics professor Maximillian Arturo, an accident sucks the three into a vortex along with washed-up soul singer Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown. Forced to exit a dangerous world before their timer opens a vortex back, they are horrified to find that they haven't returned home.

Notes

Brave New Worlds

• Nearly identical save to Earth Prime save for green light means stop and red light means go; global cooling is a scientific theory instead of global warming; CDs have been obsolete by vinyl; JFK, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis are still alive; Americans are illegally migrating to Mexico; Quinn's gate doesn't squeak, and Quinn's mother is pregnant and apparently married to Jake the gardener.

• Frozen over due to some kind of relatively recent climatic cataclysm. Also, Quinn's father didn't die, he either never lost or found a puppy he had, and had a sister.

• The U.S. had lost the Korean War in the 1950s, leaving it isolated while the Sino-Soviet Union began swallowing up nations, eventually taking over America.

• A near-identical world with no discernible difference save for Quinn's father still being alive.

Doubles

• Day Tripper

• Mrs. Mallory

• Quinn

• Crazy Kenny

• Pavel

• Hurley

• Ross J. Kelly

• Rembrandt (deceased, mentioned only)

• Arturo (mentioned only)

• Wade

• Michael Mallory

Timer

• 15 minutes

• 4 hours (interrupted)

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• In attempt to create an anti-gravity device, Quinn winds up discovering a wormhole, which he learns is a window to parallel dimensions. He soon builds a timing device in order to return, which opens the window at the set time. However, when he alters the timer, it returns the four to a different dimension from which they left. Another effort based on location fails.

• Sliding is apparently random with no means of controlling or tracking worlds visited.

• Quinn reveals that his gate has been squeaking since he was 12. He knows something's wrong when it doesn't squeak on his first world, but is fooled later when it does squeak.

Characters

• Quinn's father died.

• Wade has feelings for Quinn, but he is oblivious, comparing a kiss to incest. However, a double of Quinn's had kissed her.

• Arturo is demonstrated to be intellectually vain. While never to the Professor himself, Quinn has made it clear he admires him.

• Rembrandt Brown was a soul singer who departed from a group called the Spinning Topps. However, his career dropped off afterwards and is looking for to singing the National Anthem at a baseball game, seeing it as his comeback, just before he winds up getting sucked into Quinn's vortex.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• Quinn has a cat named Schrödinger. This is a reference to Schrödinger's cat, a thought experiment devised by physicist Erwin Schrödinger.

Memorable Moments

• As they're running away, Arturo looks at the kielbasa he just bought and groans in disappointment as he's forced to throw it away.

Goofs

• When Quinn gets on the computer at work, what's on the monitor in the close-up isn't the same when it cuts to a wide shot.

• The attorney Ross's last name is spelled onscreen as Kelley, but spelled Kelly in the closing credits.

• As Rembrandt is walking to his car, he's singing the National Anthem, but his lips aren't in sync.

• When the vortex is widened and wanders, it proceeds to suck up Rembrandt and his car, but nothing else that's loose.

• Despite the first world being completely frozen over, none of the four have visible breath.

• When Quinn lifts Wade into the portal, the wires lifting Sabrina Lloyd are visible.

• Ross J. Kelly points at Rembrandt before lowering his hand, but he still has it up and pointing as it cuts to a different shot.

Quotes

• Mrs Mallory: You're too much like your father. Up all night, working crazy hours, and look what happened to him. He worked himself to death.

Quinn: Mom, dad was hit by a car.

Mrs Mallory: But he was on his way to work. That's my point. He had too much on his mind.

Quinn: Better than too little.

• Mrs Mallory: You watch it, buster! Two more semesters and I'm turning this place into a bed and breakfast.

Quinn: I got dibs on the basement.

Mrs Mallory: That's the only reason you're not on the streets already. It'd take years to get rid of all that junk!

• Arturo: Mister Mallory, I have devoted many years of my life honing my considerable intelligence so that I could impart a subject this complex with lucidity. You might at least do me the courtesy, sir, to pretend that you are listening to me. I won't even bother to ask you the answer, which is, my dear babes in the wood, U4. That's U4, Mister Bennish; not U2.

• Arturo: Ladies and gentlemen, you disappoint me. This intellectual torpor may be sufficient to earn you a job in some disaster-prone part of the world like Chernobyl or NASA, but it won't cut the mustard with me.

• Nan Zachery: If you ask me, Professor Arturo's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.

Quinn: Oh! The man should be a Nobel Laureate for his theory on coset wormholes and Kähler orbifolds. And I just read his thesis on Chiral field anomalies. It's killer.

Nan Zachery: That's not on the class list, is it?

Quinn: Nah, just a little light reading.

• Hurley: $20,000 just walked out the front door.

Wade: So, next month they'll spend 50 on the 680s.

Quinn: She's right, Michael. I told you not to order those things. Every single hard drive has crashed.

Hurley: Hey, don't get smart with me. This computer store pays your rent, mister. If it weren't for my mistakes, you'd be out of a job.

• Quinn: September 27th. Well, here goes nothing. I've, uh, set the timer for 15 minutes, but, well, mom, in the event something goes wrong and I don't return, this is a message for you. I want you to know that I love you very much and I hope you understand that I have to do this. Try not to worry. You know me. Wherever I am, I'm probably having a blast. Oh, and, uh, don't throw out any of my stuff. Who knows? I might make it back one day.

• Wade: Get out of here before he calls the cops.

Quinn: Who, Hurley? Come on, Wade, I'm not that late.

Wade: The man just fired you.

Quinn: For what?

Wade: For telling him to stick his computers where--

Quinn: There's something really strange going on. I swear to God, that was not me.

Wade: Oh, right. And I suppose now you're going to tell me that that kiss meant nothing.

Quinn: Kiss? Oh my God. I kissed Hurley. No wonder I'm fired.

Wade: Will you stop it? It was with me. And don't you dare tell me that you don't remember.

Quinn: But that's just it. Why would I kiss you? I mean, we're buds, right? It'd be like incest.

• Quinn Double: I'm you, Quinn, but I'm not from this world. I'm from another Earth. An Earth that exists in a parallel dimension. There may be hundreds, even thousands of Earths, all coexisting on the same multidimensional space-time continuum.

Quinn: How do you know that?

Quinn Double: Because I'm a Slider. And this happens to be my eighth slide.

Quinn: "Slider"?

Quinn Double: Yeah. Little term I cooked up. You like it?

Quinn: Yeah. It's pretty cool.

Quinn Double: You probably would've dreamt it up yourself sooner or later. It's a safe bet we think alike. (looks at his clothes) Mostly.

• Quinn: Thanks to you, I lost my job.

Quinn Double: Computer hell? I did you a favour. That guy Hurley's a putz on every world I've been to.

• Quinn Double: I once stepped onto an Earth just this side of paradise. Where there's no pollution, no crime or hate. People were happy and a stranger was welcomed with love. No one was afraid there, Quinn. Think about that. No one's afraid. I had set the timer for 20 hours before I left home that day. Not nearly enough time in a world like that. I hope I find it again. I'll always keep looking.

• Arturo: This piece here is a proof of a unified field theory. That alone is the holy grail of theoretic physics. And this elegance is found here in the basement of this... unknown, unkempt, unpublished, unfortunately brilliant ill-mannered brat!

Quinn: It gets better. A lot better.

• Quinn: What do you think? Five hours? That should give us time to explore and still be home by midnight.

Arturo: Yes, I would imagine you'd want a good night's sleep before your class tomorrow. It should be quite a doozy.

• Arturo: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I think I've just seen God and I could've sworn he was driving a Cadillac.

• Wade: Ah, man, that was so great. It was like... better than - than sex.

Arturo: Well, I wouldn't go that far.

• Rembrandt: (after sliding) Man, that trip was a trip!

• Quinn: Hey, what's with the tears? You hit your head or something?

Wade: Yeah, maybe I should have it examined.

• Rembrandt: 7:25. I can almost still make it... if I had a car, that is! (Quinn) You gonna have to explain this to the insurance boys, Q-ball. Going to have to tell 'em how my beautiful red sled is on another planet where it's stuck in a freakin' iceberg! They're never going to buy that when I put in my claim!

• Rembrandt: Anthem? What do you mean, anthem? No, I'm the anthem. (listens to Russian anthem) Wait a minute, that don't sound right. Must be playing a Canadian team.

• (Rembrandt gives Pavel a dollar, which he shows to the toll operator, leading soldiers to surround the cab with guns)

Rembrandt: Y'all need exact change, is that it?

• Arturo: Any chance the gadget can be fixed?

Quinn: Maybe, with the right tools and a little bit of luck.

Arturo: Well, if we get the right time, I hope you'll let me sit in. I'd love to take a peek under the hood.

• Arturo: Anyone fancy a kielbasa?

Quinn: Professor, how could you eat at a time like this?

Arturo: My stomach has no political preferences.

• Arturo: A bad dream?

Quinn: I was down in my basement. My mother came looking for me. No matter what I did, she couldn't see me. She's lost dad, now me.

Arturo: You're not lost; you're just misplaced. Don't worry. You'll see your mother again.

• Wilkins: Get any rest, gentlemen?

Arturo: Oh, yes. I always sleep well with my arms tied above my head, you blithering idiot!

• Doc: It's a converted college campus now used solely for high-profile political prisoners. And it's run by former Professor, now Citizen-General, Maximillian Arturo.

Arturo: Always a leader of men, no matter what the circumstances.

• PBS Spokesman: It's pledge week, comrades, on PBS. So pick up your phone and pledge your support for public television... or else. We know who you are.

• Comrade Llewelyn: (of Rembrandt) The defendant dubiously claims that he is not of this Earth and therefore shouldn't be expected to abide by the laws of civilisation.

• Commissar Wapner: Rembrandt Brown, I find you guilty of treason and I sentence you to 15 years in the Alaskan Gulag without the possibility of parole.

Rembrandt: 15 years?

Commissar Wapner: 15 years.

Rembrandt: Don't you mean $15?

• Comrade Llewelyn: Obviously, Commissar Wapner didn't believe a thing you had to say. How's that make you feel?

Rembrandt: How do you think I feel, fool? I am never watching this show again. "Small claims" my (beep) (bleep)!

• Doc: Do you know that if we fail tonight, the entire West Coast uprising will be extinguished? Everything. Finished.

Wade: Then we won't fail.

• Michael Mallory: Hey, did I miss anything?

Quinn: Hello... dad.

Michael Mallory: What's the matter, son? You look like you've seen a ghost.