2. Fever

Aired:		Wednesday, March 29, 1995
Filmed:		???
Production #: 	70402
Network #:	SL-105
Written By:	Ann Powell & Rose Schacht
Directed By:	Mario Azzopardi
Music By:	Mark Mothersbaugh
Edited By:	Tammis Chandler
Ratings:			Competition:
	Viewers: 11.0		ABC:	9:00 	"Grace Under Fire" (36.0/5)
	Rating: 7.6		ABC:	9:30 	"Coach" (21.4/16)
	Share: 12		NBC: 	9:00 	"Dateline NBC" (17.8/24)
	Rank: 62/97		CBS	9:00 	Movie: "A Stranger In Town" (12.2/52)
				Fox:	9 :00 "Sliders" (11.0/62)
				WB	9:30 	"Muscle"(r) (1.5/95)
				WB	9:00 	"Unhappily Ever After"(r) (2.9/96)

Repeated: 	Sunday, July 9, 1995
Repeat Ratings:  Viewers: ??? million, Rating: 3.2; Share: 6.8; Rank: 88/01.
Repeated:	Friday, September 6, 1996
Repeat Ratings:  Viewers: 6.8 million; Rating: 4.7; Share: 9; Rank: 77/101.

Logline: On a world where penicillin has never been invented, Quinn is hunted by a gestapo-like health agency that believes him to be "patient zero" and the cause for a massive epidemic. Meanwhile, Arturo races to cure Wade who has succumbed to the infection and lies near death in a quarantined compound.

World From: Oil World: here the community around Quinn's house is now much richer thanks to the discovery of an oil bed under San Francisco.

Duration: About 20 minutes but there are only 57 seconds remaining after Wing informs Quinn that they just discovered a gusher in the Mallory backyard.

World Into: Fever World: A world with no antibiotics where a raging virus has infected most of the poor population. Here, sick people are sent to "protection areas" while the rich are protected. When they slide out of this world, the vortex is hovering vertically in the air approximately 8-10 feet above the floor.

Duration: A little over two days.

Timer Status: Ok.

World Into: Cannibal World: Here the sliders are forced to take refuge in a tent so as to avoid the people-eating inhabitants of this world.

Duration: Unknown.

Details, Details:

The banner headline on the San Francisco Daily Star at the beginning of the episode reads: "SAN FRANCISCO OIL BOOM" with an accompanying article called "Gushers discovered all over the City." Other readable headlines on the top fold of the front page include: "The world reacts" and "Black Gold' Rush is On." The bird pictured in the paper's title appears to be a California Condor.
The trolly car bears a sign that reads "Powell [Street]"
Two readable messages spray painted on a wall on Oil World reads "Greed is $exy" "teenager."
The sign across the street that Remmy sees is "Faye's Restaurant."
On Fever World, signs posted all over the city show that the Quinn Mallory here is wanted by order of the California Health Commission (CHC) because it considers him to be "patient zero." They are also offering a $1,000,000 reward.
Spray painted in red over a billboard of Quinn's wanted poster is a sentence that reads "Cure the Q, it's them or you!"
A church along the sliders' route to the motel is called "The New Church of the Divine Immunity." Unfortunately, it's been quarantined by the CHC.
Rembrandt says that he and a swooning Wade will check into the "Motel 12," the sign outside appears to read "California Motel."
In the "Feel-Rite" pharmacy, where all products are hygienically approved, there is a CHC-approved brochure available called "The Q: Important Health Information." Also in the pharmacy is a cardboard stand-up advertisement picturing a pretty lady in a skin-tight gold jumpsuit with helmet. It reads:
When at home I'm in Chanel
When in a crowd I'm in my
RACLAR puncture proof germ-free suit.
On Amazing Bargains, hosted by perennial infomercial celebrities Charlie McGlade and Mike Leavey, shoppers in Fever World can buy the "Biological Purification Kit." It includes:
- five pairs of sterile surgical gloves.
- 36 bars of Medidine Soap ("It kills germs on contact")
- an autoclave with stainless steel pullout drawer (for sterilizing utensils).
- a self-activating front door home protection unit (for sterilizing visitors)
- the price? Less than $49.95.
Protection Area's are labeled with a sign that reads: "You are now leaving the protected area -- re-entry is prohibited."
Wade is resting in a bunk in section E of the protection area.
The CHC building is located on Polk Street.
Pavel's cab is # 37. The licence plate is 3M9L8C2.
Arturo rests in a bunk in section D of the protection area.

Personal File:

Wing says that Quinn lives on James Street. [see nit-picks]

Arturo's favorite foods include Beef Wellington and asparagus.

Rembrandt once played an Easter weekend concert in Salt Lake City in 1989 and apparently wasn't happy with the crowd's response.

Quinn tore up his knee playing football.

When he was a boy, Arturo's mother used to give him penicillin in a cherry syrup drink.

Arturoisms:

"Blistering idiot." -- To pharmacist.

"... biology is what you do if you don't have the maths for real science."

Script Snips:

"Oh, I like this world." -- Arturo after getting kissed by a drunk young lady on Oil World.

"Oh, great, we get twenty minutes in wealthyland ... we stuck two days here in psychoville." -- Remmy after Arturo observes that on this world, men don't seem to like kisses from pretty girls.

"Man, you can take a man's body and beat it; you can take his soul and try it; but to do this to a hamburger is downright unkind." -- Rembrandt on the quality of the grub at "Faye's."

"You want to know what I've been doing that could have cured me? I'll tell you. I've been sliding through an interdimensional wormhole seeing how many ways people like YOU can screw up civilization!" -- Quinn to the scientists who are studying him.

"Man, look, I know you're hungry but where's your dignity?" -- Remmy to Arturo who is looking through the trash to find mould for penicillin.

"Don't look at me, I'm just a chicken McNugget, you're the quarter pounder." -- Remmy to Arturo on who he thinks the flesh eaters on Cannibal World will devour first.

"Rewind That!"

The very brief flash of a face with red eyes during Wade's hallucination in the alley, looks suspiciously like Boris Karloff as the mummy in the 1932 horror film classic "The Mummy."

Money matters: No problem here. Before they slid off of Oil World, Rembrandt scooped up gobs of discarded cash on the street and had enough for lunch, a hotel room and $100 dollars for a cab ride. He even offered the cabbie another two hundred to stay put while he rescues Quinn.

Nit-picks:

On Oil World, Wing mentions that Quinn's house on James Street hit the motherlode. But in "Summer of Love," Quinn's driver's licence lists his address as 3759 Lab... the rest of the street name is cut off due to the magnification of the picture but it's definitely not James St. It is possible that Lab... is the street that intersects James St. because the Mallorys live on a corner, but then in "Eggheads," Quinn tells a cab driver to take him to his house at 4159 Blue Jay Way.

During "Amazing Bargains," Charlie McGlade talks about the sterilization unit "with stainless steel pull-out drawer." Soon after, Arturo and Remmy go into the bathroom to talk. When they come out, about a minute later, McGlade is again talking about the unit and repeats his line verbatim. It's as if the continuity of the ad was missed between scenes.

Neat-picks:

When the four are spit out of the vortex into Fever World there is a sign right beside the wormhole that reads "One Way Do Not Enter."

During Wade's feverish hallucinations, she thinks Arturo and Rembrandt are hideously deformed and, thanks to a terrific make-up job, so do we. To see John Rhys-Davies in similarly scary make-up, rent the 1988 thriller "Wax Work."

History Lesson:

Fever World is not unlike Home World in many respects, Charles Manson and Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramierez both exist here, as does the emergency 911 number. However, this world never had the benefit of British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin.

The Quinn on this world, a med student, was the first to contract a strep throat-like virus after he volunteered to be a lab subject and was injected with it by a prominent government Dr. Darren Morton who then assured Quinn that he was all right and let him leave the lab when the experiment was over. Realizing the fatal error in judgment, the scientist and the California Health Commission (CHC), which is part of the Board of Health led by the Surgeon General, concocted a story which told the public that a disgruntled Quinn infected society on purpose, like some sort of serial killer. Society, in turn, dubbed the disease "the Q" in his "honor."

Later, the CHC recaptured Quinn and tried to study this disease but he escaped, and laid low trying to find a cure for those infected. The scare also prompted the CHC to post wanted flyers and to order that citizens report any suspiciously sick people to the CHC. In the interim, the poor have been living in filth and sickness in government-designated "protection areas" while the rich stay protected and healthy.

"The Q" is a disease bearing many similarities to strep throat. While each case is different, it hits the sliders hard because they're immunities are different. It begins with headaches and coughing (stage one) before developing into a high fever which produces hallucinations. In its final stages, "the Q" yellows the skin and turns the whites of the eyes red. Then you're dead.

Guest Stars:  	
	Ken Pogue 1		Dr. [Darren] Morton*
	Allison Hossack 2	Dr. Eileen Stanley**
With:
	Yee Jee Tso 3		Wing
	Alex Bruhanski		Pavel Kurlienko
	Marie Stillin		["Faye's"] Waitress
	William Sasso		Gomez Calhoun
	Dean Haglund 4		["Feel Rite"] Stock Boy 
	David L. Gordon	Tactical Moonsuit Guy
	William MacDonald	Medical Moonsuit Guy
	James Bell		Burly [coughing] Trucker
	James Timmins		["Feel Rite"] Pharmacist
	Garvin Cross 5		The Sick Man
Uncredited:	
	Charlie McGlade		Himself on infomercialİ
	Mike Levey		Himself on infomercialİ
	The man who complains about the sick trucker in Faye's;
	the voice of the computer; a nun at the hospital compound.

1. Ken Pogue played Major Jonathan B. Clack in Adderly, Canadian- produced comedy-drama that lasted from 1986-1989 on CBS. It usually aired late at night. Before Adderly, Pogue was Capt. Murdoch for one season (1988-1989) on The Family Channel's long-running half-hour adventure series Rin Tin Tin K-9 Cop.
2. Allison J. Hossack starred as Danielle LaPointe in Cobra, a syndicated adventure drama that lasted from 1993-1994 (22 episodes).
3. Yee Jee Tso also appeared as Wing in the "Pilot."
4. Dean Haglund is better known for his role as Ringo Langly, one of "The Lone Gunmen" on "The X-Files" (See The Inside Slide for more details). The link to his name brings you to Dean's official homepage.
5. Garvin Cross, who plays the man who saves Wade in the street in this episode, would return in a substantially bigger role as Alverez in the second season episode "Time Again and World."
* The doctor's first name is only given in dialogue.
** The Fox press release mistakenly lists the character as Ellen.
İCharlie McGlade and Mike Leavey pull off successful cameos doing what they do best: pitching products on infomercials. McGlade is known for his energetic style while Leavey usually turns in sidekick performances sporting an endless supply of colorful sweaters. For this episode, a Fox press release lists their characters as 'The Pitchman' and 'Mike' respectively. The two are also credited by a Fox release for "Luck of the Draw" but they do not make an appearence.

The Inside Slide:

Torme says that a prime example of the Fox network being influenced by what movies are currently in theaters is this episode. "They were very down on "Fever,"" he says. "But when [the movie] "Outbreak" did really well, they suddenly decided that "Fever" would be our first show of the year, so [the network is] definitely influenced by things like that."

Fever remains one of Sabrina Lloyd's favorite episodes. "It was fun for me as an actor, because my character got sick and I had to go through all the emotions associated with that," she says.

Dean Haglund's appearance in this episode actually cost him an appearance on "The X-Files" at the time. "I missed shooting ... the epsiode "Fearful Symmetry" (aired Feb. 24 '95) because I was double booked on the same night," Haglund remembers. "The locations for the two shows were only seven blocks apart. But it didn't work out." As a result of his "Sliders" sacrifice Haglund did not appear in the episode -- a fact that is prominently mentioned in the "Official Guide to The X-Files" book on page 206. It reads "This is the only time the Lone Gunmen group has appeared without Dean Haglund's "Langly" character." Even still, the book and the official Fox X-Files web site credit him for the episode -- a fact that is then brought up in the unofficial companion book "The X-Files Declassified" on page 159. It reads "The official Fox web site erroneously includes Dean Haglund as "Langley" (sic)."

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