#84

Sliders

One of the cooler sci-fi concepts came in the 1990s with this show where four unlikely people wound up “sliding” through parallel universes, trying to find their way back home.

Much like Quantum Leap, each week Quinn Mallory, Professor Maximillian Arturo, Rembrandt “Cryin’ Man” Brown and Wade Welles found themselves in a new situation where they had to survive until their hand held timer device counted down so they could open up a vortex wormhole so they could depart.

Most of the time, the group encountered plenty of trouble, including variants of themselves. The show’s first few seasons were so great, while on FOX, but after FOX canceled it and it ended up on the Sci-Fi Channel (eventually Syfy), the episodes got much weaker. There were cast members replaced and Sliders, which was really the connection between the characters, became less engaging.

Jerry O’Connell, Cleavant Derricks, John Rhys-Davies, and Sabrina Lloyd were the original cast. Kari Wuhrer joined the cast as Captain Maggie Beckett.

Sliders is one of those underrated gems of the sci-fi genre. It sadly seemed to go too long and weakened its overall memory.