Future Shock
"So, bottom line, we have gone back in time."
Sliding is many things, but it's never supposed to be time travel. Sure, we've seen multiple worlds where they're a few years behind or a few centuries ahead and a world where time goes backward, but time machines? That's for other franchises, right?
In October 1996, the Sliders production team briefly thought otherwise, and the result is this rejected outline for a two-part story taking place in a world where time travel is the norm—even though it's ravaging both the present and the future. While it's likely that it would have changed extensively had the story been greenlit, it's still a fascinating peek into what the writers were developing before the show fell off the cliff. And, regardless of how off-premise you think the outline is, it's arguably more palatable than the two-parter we did get. We'll let you decide for yourselves.
The Outline
What if the Sliders land on a world that’s fighting its own future?
Part One
At first, the world looks like any normal world, but the team quickly sees something odd unfolding. There is an air of military tension without a military presence. Then—future shock. A minor battle won or lost on this world has changed, and along with it, history. Reality begins to reshape around the Sliders as a result—”perhaps the buildings change colors, people we meet no longer exist, children could be younger or older.” Everything is subject to a sudden, bizarre change—everything but Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, and Arturo, since they’re from outside this timeline.
One of the locals notices the Sliders react to the changes happening around them and wonders who they are. He befriends them and becomes a love interest for Wade. The audience will later learn he’s actually an alien life form from the future—”he could shape shift or do something visually cool”—and Quinn will begin to figure out a way to defeat an invasion from the future set in motion by a “clear future villain” who has their own agenda.
Quinn’s work leads to another future shock with “terrible unforeseen consequences;” either those from the Future are now stronger, or an established supporting character during this arc is removed from the timeline. Quinn tries to fix what went wrong while Wade and Future Boy are heating up. He reveals his metamorphic abilities; she’s horrified and tries to get away from him. He’s in love with her, though, and won’t let her go. In front of Quinn, Rembrandt, and Arturo, Future Boy uses his powers and does whatever is needed to take Wade into the future. While Wade processes this, her kidnappers tells her she’ll learn to love it.
A note on future world: “It should be terribly advanced and incredibly cool. Major CGI bucks here.”
Part Two
The mission becomes getting Wade back—no matter the cost. (This may involve Quinn infiltrating an underground group of people in the present supportive of the agenda being pushed by people from the future.) Meanwhile, Wade tries to get back to Sliders herself, and in the process learns more about this world’s future. It is a Utopia—at least, it would be if some event in the past wasn’t causing the Future People to die off. Their incursions into the past are less about changing history and more about trying to save humanity itself.
Wade is initially angry for what Future Boy has done to her, but when she’s introduced to Daniel Welles, her great-great-grandson, her stance begins to soften. After touring a care facility where people are being humanely euthanized, she begins to understand why she was brought here; “she softens and finds herself truly having feelings for Future Boy. He is not a bad guy.”
Quinn eventually learns his beliefs from Part One are wrong; they were based on the assumption that the present did not deserve a hostile takeover from the future. Confronted with evidence that this world is headed for a disaster that creates the conditions for these incursions, Quinn, Rembrandt, and the Professor change tactics and “help to set the path of this world in the right direction.”
The Sliders actions set them on a course for a showdown with the villain established in Part One. It’s revealed they are fighting for the past to remain unchanged so their power base in the future doesn’t disappear. After Quinn defeats them, the denizens of the future offer to reward the Sliders by bringing them forward to their idyllic society. It’s tempting, but they all decide to live in the present and let the future be what it will be—especially Wade, who now knows she is destined to “get out there and have kids.” Just as the Sliders are about to slide, Daniel tries to give Wade a picture—her wedding picture. She tries to take it, but Future Boy transports them back to the present. The picture falls to the ground and we see—the guy is Quinn Mallory.
The End
“I know it seems hard to follow, but I think it works.”