Our So-Called Lives
“The idea of Rembrandt and the psychiatrist was an old idea of mine that I wanted to do for a long time, and the idea of them being home but not really being home,” said Tracy Tormé in a 1996 interview with Starlog. “I was almost finished with the outline when I suddenly got permission to do Invasion.
"I later did a rewrite on Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome as well as working very hard in the editing room on it, so even though I’m uncredited, it feels like my show. It’s definitely one of our best.”
The timeline adds up: a quick review of our notes on Invasion shows the final draft was turned in on February 12, 1996. The Production Draft of Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome was submitted that same day, with Tormé's voice taking center stage as the episode spends the next two weeks in rewrites.
But before that, Nan Hagan's Writer's Draft of this episode was submitted February 2.
Before getting the assignment, Nan had been working on breaking the story for Beauty World, an unproduced second season story given to writer Jeannine Renshaw to write. Originally called "Our So-Called Lives," Nan's draft is similar in many ways, and wildly different in others. Whether those differences existed in Tormé's original outline is up for debate, but the end result is a fascinating peek into how an hour of television can evolve in the production process.
Fishing for Controversy
One thing that made it from the beginning to the end, but still didn't get on screen, is a length museum break-in sequence. Quinn and Wade are a bit more clever than the smash-and-grab we saw, but the cleverness doesn't add anything to the story. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't filmed and then discarded for time, given that it survived so many different versions of the script. If you want to skip ahead to a true deleted scene, the fun starts on page 42 of the Writers Draft.
It's the Little Things
The Writers Draft has a lot of minor differences—additional alt-world details in Dr. Whelan's office, more callbacks to previous episodes as the Sliders celebrate being home with Quinn's mom, and technobabble like "inversion vortexing" and "vortical parameters"—that are typical of early drafts of Sliders scripts. (The producers frequently try to call back to earlier episodes, only to have them removed.) And some of the original material is better: instead of the 49ers defeating the Jets in the Super Bowl, Quinn notices that Joe Montana's jersey number is 15 instead of 16—a much easier difference to dismiss when you want to believe you're home.
It's worth reading just for those, as you see the script mature from fanfic-level references or you get an idea of what look the producers wanted for specific roles (Miss Vonbaeck is a stunning young woman wearing Lisa Loeb-style glasses.)
...and the Big Things, Too
That's not to say there aren't substantive changes to the narrative, as well. First and foremost, the Writers Draft is much more psychological in its treatment of Quinn and the Professor. Arturo's lines aren't pointed and dismissive; he genuinely makes the audience question whether or not Quinn gave him the timer or even invented sliding. Quinn is already losing his marbles because no one will believe they aren't home, and Arturo does a remarkable job of manipulating Wade and Rembrandt. It also helps that Quinn is at the museum exhibit in this draft, where he can level accusations more directly. I wish some of that stuff had stayed in the draft.
Other things, like actual scenes with Wade's sister Kelley, help round out what's going on with all four of them, and not just Quinn. Granted, Kelley is more interested in knowing if Quinn and Wade hooked up than the other aspects of sliding, but it makes sense in context. (At least Wade is at her parents house for the duration of this slide instead of some surreal two-story loft she's managed to hold onto without paying rent for 18 months.)
As does the episode's timeline. Both the Writers Draft and the finished product put the Sliders on Earth Double Prime for two-and-a-half weeks. Is that enough time to option a journal to make a movie, or get a museum up and running, complete with massive bronze statue of Arturo as its centerpiece? Can Rembrandt get booked on MTV Unplugged that quickly? Of course not, especially when Arturo's claims to Larry King have absolutely nothing substantive to back them up. The Writers Draft does a slightly better job of smoothing over these rough patches: instead of holding a press conference on his "theory," Arturo is simply lecturing. The Larry King of the Writers Draft is also more incredulous to the Professor's claims.
Other big changes are not so successful, and many fall into Rembrandt's adventure. Instead of being at odds with the Spinning Topps from the beginning like in the filmed version, the Writers Draft has Rembrandt excited for a second chance, even penning a new song called "Slidin’ Through the Tunnel of Love" for the group to perform. One of the things I really liked about what aired is that Rembrandt ultimately wanted to leave this world because he selfishly couldn't deal with sharing songwriting credits on some of their hits; it's quintessential Rembrandt. In the Writers Draft, Rembrandt and Maurice Fish get into a fistfight where it's revealed (somewhat ominously) that Rembrandt had married Fish's now-deceased sister. It's a level of darkness that isn't needed for the comic relief character.
The final acts are also substantively rearranged. There's no tearful farewell from the Mallory residence; the gang slides from the front yard of the Professor's house and there’s no confrontation; the other Arturo is left knocked out in the basement. The coda at the end of the episode is also unambiguous in which Arturo slid, and while it's a nice callback to a scene at the beginning of the episode (one that's in the filmed version), I don't think Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome would be as memorable if it answered that question.
Fans are still arguing about it 30 years later, even though Tormé laid the matter to rest on Earth Prime back in 2009.