Slide by Wire

// K2820 · Originally aired January 18, 1999

When Maggie’s double takes her place on the slide, Maggie must avoid becoming a glorified computer simulator while Quinn, Rembrandt and Colin unearth the mystery of their friend’s radical new behavior.

Written By // Chris Black
Director // Robert A. Hudecek
Music // Danny Lux

Reviews

// Earth Prime

In a second half where we’ve seen more misses than hits, “Slide by Wire” is a welcome oasis in a desert of mediocrity.

// Think of a Roulette Wheel

I’m back. And, oddly enough, so is Sliders.

// External Reviews

Worlds Visited

Pulsar Triple Prime

Highly similar to Pulsar Prime had it not encountered a rogue group of pulsars from a collapsing galaxy/globular cluster. The Cold War still burns red hot, leading the USAF to make some very strange staffing decisions.

Medieval World

A feudalistic world rebuilding itself from some kind of technological calamity, a horror that has made any modern devices an anathema to the public.

Timer Status

Confiscated by the peons who are afraid of the Tech but retrieved by Quinn.

Details

The Dodgers exist on Pulsar Triple Prime.
Alt-Maggie’s badge reads United States Armed Forces.
The cover of the book that the citizens of Medieval World use as law reads El Diablo Nuclear Facility Operations Manual.
Siskin’s computer readout says:BIO SYSTEMS V.M.P.
DANGER
The EPP (Enhanced Pilot Program) raises neural stimulation up to 180% of normal.
Alt-Maggie is administered 250 cc’s of chromosol and up to 400 milliamps of electrical charge to be revived.

Character Information

Alt-Maggie hasn’t ridden a horse since she was a child.
Maggie’s middle initial is E.
Alt-Maggie and Dr. Jensen haven’t done anything as a couple since her admittance to the EPP.
Quinn thinks of Maggie as just a friend, and while the thought of a relationship with her has crossed his mind, feels that their mission is too important to muck up with romance.
Siskin had a wife and two children.

Notable Quotes

“I don’t want to know what’s behind door number 2.”—Quinn, after seeing the trial of a man with a computer monitor on Medieval World.
“It’s not about being good, baby, it’s about being fearless!”—Alt-Maggie, instructing Quinn that physics mixers can teach a thing or two about dancing.
“How come you and I never got together?”—Alt-Maggie.
“Maggie, we’re … good friends.”—Quinn, clearing up a few things.
Any variation from prescribed DOE and/or corporate operating procedures is punishable upon appeal or review, by immediate suspension and/or termination.—the El Diablo SOP Manual, taken a little too far.
“Like the butter churn, it can produce the sweet buttery goodness or it can produce the sour milk of funkiness!”—Quinn. Don’t look at me, I don’ know either.
“My name is Quinntar, and now I’ll destroy you all! HAHAHA!”—Quinn.
“That was your rescue plan? You churning the buttery goodness?”—Rembrandt.
“I don’t have writers, you know!”—Quinn.
“Unfortunately, the transformation will rid you of any seditious urges.”—Colonel Burke, discussing Maggie’s forthcoming decapitation.

Money Matters

Alt-Maggie purchases some blue fruit.
The Sliders are able to buy beer and lodging in town without problem.

Nitpicks and Errors

You can clearly see the cushion under the hay when the Sliders land on Medieval Earth.
The lab equipment in the military base was last seen in Virtual Slide and Double Cross.
For a world that’s so steeped against technological marvels, do you really think they’d have boxes of matches?
Likewise, would there be a cheese store? With a ready-made sign?
Okay. Let’s get this straight. Both Maggies are so physically alike that the only way to tell them apart is to see if they have neural implants (hehehe, implants). This tends to denote an identical genetic structure (in addition to the fact that they’re doubles, et. al). Why, oh why, then, would Jensen say that the gene treatment they’ve been trying to imprint on Maggie wouldn’t work? Simple: because writers have no idea what a DNA sequence is.
I’m not even going to get into the whole neural e-mail thing. C’mon…
Wouldn’t a base similar to Maggie’s on Pulsar Prime or Pulsar Double Prime have a Colonel Rickman?
Don’t Meg Foster’s eyes freak the hell out of you?

Guest Starring

Meg Foster as Colonel Burke
John DeMita as Doctor Steven Jensen
Bobby Jacoby as Siskin
Nicholas Worth as Magistrate
John J. Flynn, Jr. as Villager

Script Archive

Click on the links below to download rare scripts, outlines, and memos associated with this episode.

The Inside Slide

“What we did was try to play two worlds against each other,” explains Chris Black, “splitting the Sliders up in one world where technology has run amuck and taken over these people’s lives, and the flip side was a world where technology is forbidden and an anathema to these people, so we see how these two worlds collide and how our Sliders react when they’re stuck on each world.”

· · ·

“There’s an episode where my double slides with the rest of the Sliders and I stay back at a military base with my husband’s double,” says Kari Wuhrer. “So I get to re-experience him and I show a lot emotionally through that experience.”

“It was a tough episode for me because we get to see a lot of Maggie’s pain. It has been difficult for her.”