Sole Survivor
For my money, “Sole Survivors” is far and away the best third season episode in the post-"Exodus" era. And perhaps the reason for that is because it was conceived before the decision to replace John Rhys-Davies had been made. Writer Steve Kriozere pitched this episode around the time “Desert Storm” was in production and handed in his draft around the time of “Murder Most Foul.” So yes, the Writer’s Draft is an Arturo episode. And that it survived to the Maggie era is no small feat.
“I remember hearing that there were six scripts or story outlines (including mine, which was a script at this point) with Arturo," Kriozere told Earth Prime. "They were all scrapped except for mine. I guess they liked the idea enough to retool it.” However, it’s not surprising it made the cut as it meets Fox’s major directives: recognizable situation (Night of the Living Dead) plus action. And as an added bonus…it’s good!
We are fortunate to have the original outline, writer’s draft, production draft, third revision, and commentary from the original writer. Let’s go!
Outline (No Date)
The Sliders escape a Los Angeles that is basically one giant golf course into one overrun by zombies. The first act is primarily a gigantic action set piece where the Sliders must survive the zombie attacks until dawn. Having managed it, they immediately find themselves on the other end of a gun from the sole human survivor, a man named Erikson.
Erikson is basically Debra Carbol, except he’s past his breaking point and now has a hair-trigger temperament. Erikson is a layman and his efforts to cure the disease are self-taught. His main source of experimentation is his zombie wife, who is locked in the basement. The second act is largely an info dump until a desperate attempt to acquire more fuel before dusk goes awry.
“In my pitch I had Wade getting infected by the zombies and having her want Quinn to kill her," adds Kriozere. "Sabrina Lloyd is adorable and I wanted to really feature her.”
Erikson debates getting rid of all the Sliders, but in the end decides the clean blood of the men is worth keeping them (and Wade) around. Wade demands Quinn kill her before she succumbs (assuming there’s a way). Here we are presented with a different kind of zombie. Emily is able to taunt her husband and later Wade tricks Quinn after she has become a zombie. Defeated, Wade is able to scheme another escape and sets the compound on fire, disabling the generator. The uninfected Sliders must go out and fight the zombies to restore power.
Erikson is able to create an antidote that cures Wade, but the viral load is too great for his wife. He turns on the Sliders and demands they stay and help develop a full cure. The Sliders are rescued by a deux ex machina of sorts when a convoy of other survivors arrive and convince Erikson to move on.
Earth Prime's copy of the outline also has some hand-written notes where pre-zombie Wade discovers that Erikson has basically gone insane. The horrors are embellished when Erikson explains how the children were the first to die (admittedly, something skated over in the final product). Erikson also veers into some “Fever” speculation, wondering if some other group of Sliders brought the virus from a parallel earth. And maybe it was that thought of “Fever” that helped switch the infected Slider away from Wade? “This was changed to Quinn getting infected after various meetings with [David] Peckinpah and [Tony] Blake,” says Kriozere. “Also, I didn’t have a reason for the zombie outbreak in my initial pitch. The producers came up with the ‘slimming medicine’-turned-virus later on and I expanded on it.”
Writer’s Draft (11/18/96)
The golf course is dispensed with and we start right in Zombieland with Quinn battling a cold from surfing on the prior world. (Kriozere makes use of the surfboard displayed in Quinn’s room all the way back in the Pilot.) This is to provide Quinn and Arturo plausible deniability about Quinn’s situation as the episode progresses.
The giant zombie battle that occupied so much of the Outline’s first act is condensed into the teaser, with Quinn getting bitten. Continuing with the acceleration, the team end up at the other end of a rifle pretty quickly as they encounter Debra, who has replaced Erikson. Debra is a nurse, and her zombie husband was a doctor who had made headway on the antidote, but he’s no longer of use. It will be once again up to Arturo to reach beyond his specialty and work it out. We also learn that zombies have a short lifespan before they die as they’re not really undead, just infected with a fat-devouring virus. For whatever reason, Quinn is on the fast track to the end.
Wade and Rembrandt are sent out to acquire needed research equipment, but it is very far away. They battle through one action set piece after another as they complete the mission and work their way back to the others. Along the way, they have a few quiet moments, but they cover ground they should already be long familiar with—sticking together, each Dlider playing a complimentary role, etc.
Back at Debra’s, Quinn realizes Arturo will not kill him if things go south, so he cons Debra into letting him escape. Best he die out in the wild than be a threat to his friends. Arturo wants to pursue him immediately, but Debra explains Arturo best helps everyone by continuing his work. In fact, she tells him it is his moral responsibility to continue the work even if he misses the slide.
It will again fall to Wade and Rembrandt to venture out after Quinn. Here we get a pretty cool set piece in the sewers where Wade finds herself dangling over a pit of zombies. Rembrandt pulls her out and they manage to stumble into Quinn. He begs them to abandon him, but Wade won’t leave. As her flashlight dies, he charges her. Rembrandt picks up yet another save by knocking Quinn out from behind and dragging him back to the compound.
Arturo administers the antidote to Quinn and Debra’s husband, but before we can find out how it goes, we have one more dramatic action sequence. The generator has failed and the zombies attack. For four intense pages, they do battle with rampaging zombies while Rembrandt tries to restart the generator. When it seems hope is lost, a restored Quinn arrives and turns the tide. Debra’s husband is also healed—the antidote works. The Sliders can depart having saved one more world.
As a coda, the crew arrive on Glamour World, where everyone is beautiful and parade around in their underwear. “I thought adding the very, very brief ‘Glamour World’ slide at the end was funny after such a dark episode,” says Kriozere.
All in all, a very solid outing with the potential to have been very scary. “It wasn’t bad—some wooden dialogue, but it seemed fun, tense and well-paced," adds Kriozere. "I even laughed a few times at jokes I didn’t remember writing.”
For Kriozere, this would be the end of the line. Not long afterwards, John Rhys-Davies was fired and all scripts were thrown into turmoil. “I didn’t hear anything from the producers for a while and I figured my script must have been shitcanned because he was in it,” he says. “Eventually, I called Peckinpah’s office and left a message, dreading that my show would never be produced. I got a call back from Scott Smith Miller, who wrote on staff and said he was overseeing the rewrite on my script and that Peckinpah would be directing it.”
Production Draft (January 17, 1997)
While “The Exodus” was being produced, a trio of scripts came in including “The Other Slide of Darkness,” “The Breeder” and “Sole Survivors.” As Miller was probably preoccupied with the first of these, it appears the rewrite may have fallen to Sliders’ veteran duo. “I ran into Paul Jackson many years later and introduced myself. I remember him telling me that he and Tony Blake did a big rewrite of the draft, too,” notes Kriozere.
Replacing Arturo with Maggie was not a plug-and-play exercise. Maggie did not have the skills to synthesize an antidote, so a new character was introduced in Dr. Tassler. Tassler is infected, but has managed to keep himself functional. He has the expertise to develop a cure given the right assistance. The character of Debra is downgraded quite a bit as Tassler takes over a significant chunk of her screen time. Her primary concern is now her own survival. With these changes in mind, let’s get to it.
The teaser changes again so that we can get right to the zombies. As they eat a poor hippie, the vortex scatters them and Quinn is deposited tied to a wooden cross. Looking at the carnage, Rembrandt remarks that this isn’t Rickman’s M.O., so at least we acknowledge him briefly. A zombie, playing dead, rolls over and bites Quinn. And just like that, we’re down a major action sequence.
If Kriozere’s draft emphasized teamwork and knowing one’s place in the group, this script is forced to focus on the wrecking ball that is Maggie Beckett. She has done nothing to endear herself in her short time with the team and she’s needling Wade right from the drop. This conflict boils over into actual fisticuffs after they get to Debra’s sanctuary. After Maggie mocks Wade’s heartbreak over losing Arturo, Wade jumps her. Quinn and Rembrandt have to break it up, with Maggie threatening to kill Wade the next time. My goodness, dial it back! Quinn warns Maggie that if she stays this wound up, she’ll snap unexpectedly.
Debra is now a reluctant ally who is offering assistance in trade—she helps Quinn, they fix the generator. Despite Debra clearly knowing better than the rest, they insist on going to a hospital in search of a doctor. And in this draft, they find one (Tassler). This is a weaker transition than before where they put themselves at risk for necessary equipment, but what can you do? No Arturo, no antidote.
The Wade-Maggie feud amps up again after Quinn chooses Maggie to stay in case she needs to kill him. It crescendos in Maggie looking Wade in the eye and declaring, “You really make me sick.” This sets up the Maggie-Tassler pairing while Rembrandt and Wade basically get to play out their adventure from before. But again, the motivation is weak. Rembrandt and Wade seek out another hospital basically to separate the narrative, not because it makes sense. Their failure to repair the generator before doing so is reckless and cruel, but it gives Quinn an opportunity to save the day.
Tassler is now responsible for the info dump, filling Maggie in on what happened to this world and how he survived. (Basically he saw it coming and stocked up on the original antidote, which was insufficient.) But if he could get antibodies from someone with a natural immunity, he thinks he can solve the problem.
Rembrandt and Wade spend their quiet time dealing with the Maggie problem. After the first act brawl, Wade’s comments that she feels like she’s losing everything to Maggie make a bit more sense in context. Rembrandt isn’t having it though. “You acted like trash back there, Wade. We’ve been through hell together, and I’ve never been ashamed of you before.” Too far, Rembrandt.
Again, the big loss here are the action sequences. Wade and Rembrandt get a jump scare in the other hospital, but the protracted (and exciting) zombie fight is gone. Neither are they pinned down overnight in a gym. Instead we get a resolution scene where Wade and Rembrandt make up (conflict created and resolved all inside one act!) and then manage to scurry back to Debra’s off-screen.
Meanwhile Quinn manages to elude Maggie (you had one job!) and return to Debra’s in time to repair the generator before she’s eaten by zombies. Yes, even in zombie form, Quinn still has to do absolutely everything. We do get a cool shot where Debra creates a wall of fire to keep the zombies out and Quinn crashes through it, completely ablaze. (Over the act break, he extinguishes himself, I guess.) Quinn has also figured out the Debra must have a natural immunity and collects her blood. There’s an extraneous scene between Maggie and Tassler where they come to the same conclusion.
After an extended scene about the benefits of caffeine, Quinn takes the research Wade gathered from the other hospital and races back to Tassler. Quinn finally loses control and Maggie knocks him out in this draft instead of Rembrandt.
Act Four now has Tassler completing the antidote and administering it to Quinn. Tassler rolls out a wheelchair for Quinn and the moment Quinn warned Maggie about finally hits her: she is reminded of her husband and how he had asked her to kill him after his accident. “I thought Steven was stronger.”
However, it’s now daylight, so Rembrandt and Wade can just stroll on over to the hospital to make the slide. So in order to provide some action, that great sewer sequence from the Writer’s Draft moves to here. Zombies pull Debra down and the others move to their rescue, well, after Maggie suggests she’s an acceptable loss. But the scene doesn’t quite pop because this time, the zombies drag Debra away instead of doing what zombies do—attack now! Wade comes to Maggie’s rescue, sacrificing her forearm for Maggie’s neck. She gets chewed up good, but buys them enough time to turn the tide. As they escape, Wade still can’t stop herself from mocking Maggie: “Getting soft?” she taunts. Geesh.
Maggie begrudgingly acknowledges Wade. Quinn offers Debra a ticket out of this nightmare. Debra chooses to help save her world and off we go to our next adventure.
I have to say… it’s a big step backwards. I actually like most of the Maggie scenes, but the Writer’s Draft had intelligent reasons for each scene flowing into the next and the heavy action sequences were intense. Here, the structure is largely maintained but the reasoning is weaker and there are fewer sequences. We also have the introduction of some filler scenes, that are hopefully jettisoned in the next draft. For whatever reason, it’s not quite clicking.
1st Blue Revisions (January 28, 1997)
The first pink revision, which we don’t have, is dated five days earlier and is a full script revision. The blue revision only alters page 25, so this will be mostly pink revision. Shooting for the episode began on 1/28/97, so we may be looking at something pretty close to the final product.
Importantly, Debra now reveals the bite her boyfriend took out of her. The group no longer has to surmise she’s immune. Debra’s taken on a harder edge in general. She leaves her dead boyfriend hanging from the rafters as a reminder of what she’s up against—like she’s not confronted with zombies every night.
Yeah, not much else. Some dialogue is improved and a point is made of Wade obtaining the research that Quinn eventually uses, but no substantial changes.
Final Revisions (Unknown)
Given the distance between the 1st Blue Revision and what aired, it is reasonable to believe there are additional drafts. Much of the Wade-Maggie fighting is toned down (the literal fight is removed) and that in turn leads to improvement everywhere, particularly in the moving scene when Wade breaks down at the second hospital. Rembrandt’s dialogue is vastly improved and represents the character at his best, not as a scold. By now, the production team knows that they want “Sole Survivors” to be the first post-"Exodus" episode so they can address the loss of Arturo in its immediate aftermath. They also give Maggie a solid fight scene early in the episode to establish the value she does bring to the team, assuming she can find a way to fit in. Throw in additional improvements to segues and scene trimming and we have the really solid final product.
I think there is some irony that what began as an action packed episode with recognizable IP—basically built for the season Fox wanted—ultimately morphed into a character study about loss due to the changes Fox made to the series by dismissing John Rhys-Davies.
Worry not, there is plenty mindless action yet to come.