"That's U4, Mr. Bennish, not U2."

So tonight's adventure took to me to parallel worlds in the classic 90’s sci-fi show: Sliders.

When this show first aired in 1995, I was sooo into it.  I was 14 years old and just loved the idea of the show.  I couldn't wait for Friday nights!  But whenever I watch this series now, I still get excited, but sad at the same time.  The first 2 seasons of this 5 season show is great.  The third season has some good episodes, but that's where the quality of the show went down the toilet.

Firstly, what is the show about?  Here, watch the trailer!

A brilliant college student, Quinn, invents a machine that opens up a wormhole where one can 'slide' to an alternate reality.  His companions include Professor Arturo, Wade and Rembrandt.  In their test run of this invention, they essentially get lost and the show is about them trying to find their way back home.  And so the worlds they visit are either somewhat different than their world or completely different.  This gave so much potential to so many stories that could've been told.

So what went wrong? The studio (Fox) wanted to turn the show into something it wasn't.  They didn't want interesting and thought-provoking stories.  They wanted an action-filled mess, sacrificing story and character development.  And it shows.  The episodes were uninteresting and they didn't do justice to the characters or the actors for that matter.  The series creator and writers, including the actors, were fighting this, but lost in the end.  Just thinking of what the show could've been just bums me out.

So that's a bit of an introduction to the series and what it's about.

(I'm gonna start talking about the first episode. If you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled, you can stop now, watch it on Peacock and then come back here. Go. Go now.)

Sliders, Season 1, Episode 1

The first episode shows Quinn use the timer [the timer is a remote-looking thing that makes interdimensional travel possible] and sets it for 20 minutes and lands in a world where he notices little differences.  Red lights mean go while green means stop.  Elvis is still alive and performing in Vegas.  And there is talk about global cooling and Americans illegally crossing the border into Mexico.  He's totally freaked out but excited of where he went.  He then returns home at the end of the 20 minutes.

Without getting into too much detail, the other 3 'sliders' slide to another earth, setting the timer for a few hours instead of 20 minutes, like the last time.  They land in a world where San Francisco (where the show is based) is a frozen wasteland.  They are suddenly in danger and have to use the timer ahead of schedule.  And that is the mistake.  By doing this, they basically reset the device and the timer no longer has stored in it the coordinates, or address, of their home earth.  So where do they go?

They land in an earth where the Soviet Union did not fall, but America did.  So the US is a communist country.  It's a cool what-if story.  They have a fun adventure surviving this world.  Oh, and when they used the timer early, and when they end up on the next earth, the timer also determines how long they will be there.  It could be a few minutes or it could be days or weeks.  And it's also worth mentioning that there are countless alternate earths where they can end up on before reaching home, if ever...

They end up leaving this backward earth behind and land on another earth.  They wonder if they made it back.  Did they?  The go to Quinn's home and have dinner while talking about what they just experienced and how glad they are to be home.  It's really a great scene.  As the camera moves around the characters and they discuss what just happened, the professor suggests they consider destroying the device.  He talks of Einstein that regrets inventing the atom bomb.  And says how Oppenheimer said, as he saw the first atomic explosion, quoted the Hindu Scripture "I have become Shiva, the destroyer of worlds".  In other words, they just do not know what will become of this technology or if it gets into he wrong hands. But Quinn states that there may be benefits, like there could be a world that has the cure for cancer and if they bring that back with them, it could benefit their earth.  The toast on the fact that they're home and figure out what to do later.

As they are celebrating, in comes Quinn's dad, coming home from work.  When Quinn sees him, his smile quickly disappears.  Oh, and I forgot to mention, Quinn's dad died years ago in a car crash.  So in this world, his dad never died.

Quinn has the moment of realization that they are not home.  The others look at each other with no more smiles.  And we the viewers also have that same realization, really feeling for our heroes.  He closes his eyes, lets go of the glass of celebratory wine, glass shatters, then cut to black.

The adventure begins.

Until next time.