Topic: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

http://www.dqrm.com/darkmattersradio/2015/dmr-13-th.mp3

Updates on 701 Movie, his feelings about Moon and Interstellar, thoughts on Sliders revival and talk on Chris Carter and Leonard Nimoy.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

They start talking SLIDERS at the 42 minute mark. Basically saying that there's no hope for SLIDERS returning.

Sad now. My life is ruined.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

Really? Well, that's disappointing. Not that I ever have expected it. But the hope is always there.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

Surf Dance Chris wrote:

Really? Well, that's disappointing. Not that I ever have expected it. But the hope is always there.

Take a listen.  I cant tell if he said what he did out of a personal feeling for a revival or he floated the idea to some industry folks and they werent keen. 

He certainly was really looking at it when I spoke to him.  At that point he hadnt talked to weiss who he mentions in the interview.

The x files news on the podcast may have intrigued him too and we know jerry said a couple months ago he wants to do it.  I just think theyd have to find the right network who could deal with the style of the old show or theyd have to update it a lot in which case it loses the charm.

Imo this could happen with a push as long as jerry wants it but its best chance may be a tv movie or a summer miniseries.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

So, shall we use this thread for that old favourite of our topics? How would we revive SLIDERS? The reboot option with a new cast is the most general audience friendly. Gregory Smith as Quinn. Allison Mack as Wade. Colin Salmon as Rembrandt. Victor Garber as Arturo. But with the original cast... ?

I think a direct sequel is out. I've experimented a bit with a quick prequel to reveal that Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo were reunited immediately after "The Seer" -- and that ultimately dooms you to addressing the S3 - S5 plots even obliquely. Also, the general audience isn't going to have any memory of all the stories being undone.

With STAR TREK and TERMINATOR, there's a new trend of rebootquels. Revisiting the original events but with the idea that events have been altered through time travel, allowing the original story to be retold with a different plot and a new outcome. So, what would SLIDERS' rebootquel be?

The thing I found neat about TREK and TERMINATOR: time travel is used to indicate that these aren't alternate versions of the original characters. It's the original characters leading alternate lives.

Would there be a way to put the original sliders in an alternate version of the Pilot in 2015? While making it clear that these are the 1995 sliders for whom reality has been rewritten?

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

Great interview, as Tracy always is.  Great Nimoy story, wasn't familiar with the story about his TNG "sequel to City on the Edge of Forever" script.  Also reminds me to check out "Chaos on the Bridge" about the TNG, given that Tracy is in it. 

Apparently Tracy convinced Chris Carter not to quit The X-Files early on.  As for Sliders, he basically said I'd love to do it, but the industry isn't interested.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

The more I think about it, the more I think the original cast is a liability to a revival. A reboot lets you start flesh and get it right the this time. A revival is constantly about tidying up the past.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

As much as I'd love for there to be a true continuation of the series, a reboot is the only shot at it being successful.

I'd be fine with a reboot, and there being nods to the original that wouldn't distract a new viewer but would be a reward for us long time fans.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

If jerry is game a  series that picks up much Later staring him as an older quinn surching for his home picking up a group along the way. Could even be season 3 quinn explaining that maggie became a liability since she couldnt breath on some worlds. Meaning season 4 and 5 hpened just wasnt our team. He could evem ecplain he has been home and just continues to slide till he screws up and gets a new team lost in the multiuniversee

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

No network will ever commission a TV show that only makes sense to people who've watched Seasons 1 - 5. It's too insular. It's called *broad*casting for a reason.

Jerry playing a Quinn who is in his mid-forties when he first discovers sliding in a 2015 version of the Pilot with the original cast? That might function. But there is no way SLIDERS could possibly return as the long-delayed 19th episode of Season 5.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

This should be pitched as a 3-4m 3 episode mini series for the summer.  With all the original cast except sabrina.  There is no way it wouldn't make financial sense.  It just needs to be done in the spirit of sharknado, etc, but not so extreme.

If sliders were to actually return as a true series, you would need a slick producer behind it who has proven they can do the modern, stylish (and ultimately more serious) stuff that sci-fi today has become. Not saying that would be better but its what tv would need. They would not want a series that was the 90s all over again.  People want to do cool now.

It would probably have a new cast and maybe jerry in a role helping the new travelers.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

If Sabrina isn't part of the reunion, what exactly is being reunited? What's the point of doing it at all?

I also can't say I'm too keen on a NEXT GENERATION approach considering the first generation was a complete and utter disaster in the end. I still remember the delight and joy of knowing that Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo were the first to discover sliding and we were along for the ride on this very first outing into the multiverse. Why deprive a new generation of viewers of feeling like they too, are discovering sliding with Quinn Mallory? Why would we instead tell them that sliding has been done before in some other series they would have to grudgingly endure in order to appreciate the current series?

It'd be cool, though, if Jerry played Michael Mallory to the new Quinn Mallory. (Jerry's a bit young, but Michael Mallory's also a bit dead.)

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

ireactions wrote:

If Sabrina isn't part of the reunion, what exactly is being reunited? What's the point of doing it at all?

I also can't say I'm too keen on a NEXT GENERATION approach considering the first generation was a complete and utter disaster in the end. I still remember the delight and joy of knowing that Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo were the first to discover sliding and we were along for the ride on this very first outing into the multiverse. Why deprive a new generation of viewers of feeling like they too, are discovering sliding with Quinn Mallory? Why would we instead tell them that sliding has been done before in some other series they would have to grudgingly endure in order to appreciate the current series?

It'd be cool, though, if Jerry played Michael Mallory to the new Quinn Mallory. (Jerry's a bit young, but Michael Mallory's also a bit dead.)

As far as sabrina I am just thinking with her in africa it might be hard to get her to participate but if she would even better.

With a next generation series, yea you dont get to show them discovering sliding but I feel like the public would want some connection to the old show sonce it was so well known.  If you do a complete reboot you probanbly have to kiss all those 30 something male viewers who grew up watching sliders as teens away as an audience you can leverage to try out the pilot in a relaunch.

I think people want the nostaliga and the characters to continue when you seen people begging for this show to be rvived in comments on the net.  I just dont know how many would make an effort to give a complete reboot a chance thpugh it would have a chance of attracting an audience like any new show does.  We saw parrallels did great on netflix so people presumably love the multiworld concept but you also see how that was styleistically very different than our sliders. In which case it might as well be a diffwrent franchise if the style and characters are different.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

I guess, for me, I don't see SLIDERS as a show that's remembered. I don't think anyone really remembers Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo. I don't even recommend SLIDERS to people when I talk about it ("Jesus, this show again?") and advise that they watch FRINGE and COMMUNITY instead.

I think trying to appeal to the fans through a next generation approach is only deepening existing wounds. Fans had to watch their characters replaced by strangers. Now they get to do it again in a long-delayed Season 6? And I think characters who aren't Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo are essentially a spin-off best made with a non-SLIDERS name. What's the point of a sequel that doesn't contain the original characters?

I think a reboot works if the creators really embrace the original quartet of characters. You have the adventurous geekboy, the winsome dreamer, the over-the-hill showbiz icon and the wise Professor with a dark side. These four characters are ideally suited to each other and exploring parallel Earths, and it's simply a matter of finding new actors to reinterpret those roles.

Alternatively, you could have something like PARALLELS. Personally, I would have been fine with the boxer being named Quinn, the awkward lawyer being named Remy, the adventurous sister being named Wade and the mysterious girl being named Maxine.

In terms of reaching out to the fans -- I think the only real way to do that would be to really commit to doing A) a sequel set today and after "The Seer" that B) resurrects the original cast and C) is completely incomprehensible to the general audience. Like those X-FILES comics that kindly resurrected the Lone Gunmen and put Mulder and Scully back to work at the FBI. Those were aimed at the fans. But a half-hearted next-gen overture to the fans is really no overture at all.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

It's remembered more than you think.  The problem is that it's been off the air way too long.  Also, the fact is what Torme wrote in 1995 was groundbreaking at the time.  It pushed your imagination.  I think a reboot would definitely be in line with the SyFy network's genre right now.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

Well. Maybe you're right.

I rewatched PARALLELS just now and I realized that RussianCabbie's idea of a next-gen approach is creatively full of potential. Imagine:

Two new characters, Ronan and Beatrix, are searching for their missing father. Their last names are not mentioned. The father's face is not shown in any photos or security cam footage. They stumble into a building, the address of which they found in "Dad"'s things. They find the building that is a rift between parallel universes.

They have two crazy adventures and flee back into the building. A villain follows them. Threatens to blow up the building unless the creator comes out to face him. The elevator dings. The doors open to reveal Ronan and Beatrix's father -- Quinn Mallory. That's PARALLELS (minus the Quinn reveal), but I guess the next-gen route isn't a dead end. However, at that point, one still has to wonder why sequelize SLIDERS instead of making an original work, and I'm not seeing the advantages.

And the rebootquel approach could be neat: Quinn is in his mid-forties. He failed to create anti-gravity in his 20s. Blacked out the house. Gave up on science and went to work as an accountant. Twenty years later, Quinn is a miserable loner nursing a crush on one of his clients (Wade) and plays chess his other one (Arturo). After Quinn's mother dies, he goes back to the old house. Wade and Arturo go to help him pack. Quinn starts rooting through the basement. Accidentally triggers the vortex. It accidentally sucks in Rembrandt, who is driving by for Reasons. And the adventure begins again?

But a reboot is probably best.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

I think a new Sliders show would do well. Sure, there are only a handful of fanatics like us, but the show would do well, as it did back in the '90s. Most people I know today who were old enough remember the show and have seen it. I think many would give it another shot. It's got an easy to understand premise, and could be a lot of fun.

Parallels was very good, and I'd love that to get made into a series, but Sliders is better and simpler. And more believable. More believable because it's easier to be a secret (other than wormhole openings). A giant abandoned building on every earth? Wouldn't that attract some attention?

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

To be honest, I actually found PARALLELS a little more plausible than SLIDERS in some ways -- or rather, it presented the implausibilities more effectively than SLIDERS' pilot. The nature of the building is a mystery; as a result, I didn't find its creation or existence or discovery unlikely because there is no information for me to consider plausible or implausible. In a fairly realistic world where punches hurts and families fall apart, the building is a peculiar mystery box of delightful impossibility.

It's just one abandoned building on one Earth as far as the inhabitants are concerned.

The Pilot, in contrast, explains *everything* about sliding and piles upon endless unlikely plot points. The idea that Quinn was trying to build anti-gravity and created something else is plausible, but then you have a ridiculous coincidence: a double just happened to visit Quinn's Earth at the very same time Quinn slid out and was absent, a double uniquely suited to explain the sliding concept to Quinn. In an infinity of Earths, how likely is it that a Quinn-double would just happen to stumble across an Earth in such a plot-convenient fashion?

PARALLELS, quite smartly, cloaks its absurdities in mystery to avoid having to justify them at all or failing to.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

I think NBCU could do a decent rebooted TV show nowadays for Sliders.  Especially if they did so in Canada as most of their current shows are.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

Yeah Sliders is remembered and Netflix has helped it a little, but it is mainly the FOX years people remember.  I had 2 guys come by my house to work on plumbing, had Sliders playing, and the younger plumber said it use to be his favorite show, the Sci-Fi years are less remembered as Sci-Fi was an obscure channel at the time(some how SyFy found a way to make itself become obscure again).

The show was reran in Sci-Fi's weird SciFi World block for a couple years then the HUB rescently, so outside of HULU, Netflix, DVD's and Amazon Prime not high visibility, but more than Battlestar Galactica had before its re-launch, or any of several re-launches form Universal...Knight Rider, Bionic Woman, Ironside, New Dragnet where all re-launched with less notoriety.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

We have a new digital channel in the UK "Horror Channel" is it's name.

Dark Angel, Xena, Wonder Woman, Highlander (TV Series), Dr Who (Old Version) and Star Trek TNG are on it.

Sliders would be a nice addition to go with the others.

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

22 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2015-07-11 09:44:54)

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

The fox show is well remembered (and well-thought of) among people who were young teenagers during that time.  Anyone who moved over to the scifi channel days were more hard-core and may have some mixed feelings about it (though everyone seems to be fond of what sliders could be). So the property has good general awareness, some immediate built in audience (hardcore nerds) and if decent and validated by the nerd audience, could grow where the casual audience starts trying it thereafter.

The biggest challenge to getting this back on tv is tv execs looking at it as a cheesey/corney 90s show.  Because let's face it, as things progressed, it became that at times.  It's hard to pitch that to other executives without looking silly.

Plus, tv tastes are just less innocent now.  An extreme example, but could Different Strokes or Family Ties work now?  No.  Audiences have seen so much more programming by now, 20 years later, they have sharper pallettes. They demand smarter, and every tv exec is pandering toward the smart, snarky twitter crowd that drive the influential conversation (particuarly what's portrayed around the media and the bloggers at these entities).  So you need to do a show that they can embrace.

Either Sliders partially polks fun at itself as a summer movie, syfy style, or they aim to be a reboot or revival on a younger channel (a family or preteen one) and do the old fox style stuff or they get smarter and sleeker if they want to try to attract an adult crowd (which is required if you're going to be on a major cable network).

Torme mentioned sliders being "of its time". I think that's pretty much the dilemma - you have to either go younger or update the show - if you are going to bring it back as a series. There's no excuse though why SyFy execs couldn't greenlight a summer movie and I'd love for someone to do a miniseries.  I think it's going to take someone other than torme to bring it back though.


I think the best thing we can do is send around Jerry's interview on Slidecage indicating he would like the show to be brought back so maybe some of the scifi blogs do a post about his interest in a revival and maybe it catches interest on the internet and gets picked up more. That sort of buzz is what tv execs look for in making decisions on programming.  The X-Files Files and the buzz that built really was the tipping point for bringing x files back.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

I think the Lucrative Netflicks Exclusivity for the new X Files had a lot to do with it being revived too.

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

From a fan standpoint, the original cast are SLIDERS' greatest asset. You just put the four of them in a room together and let them bounce around for 95 pages. But from a general audience point of view, the cast is probably the biggest liability. I think any new SLIDERS with Jerry would be obligated to act as a sequel, and I can't see that working out well. I think it'd be best to start new.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

As many of you know, I actually watch Sliders very regularly, an episode every week or so. I kinda bounce around on the episodes though... But recently (basically 2015) I've been watching a lot of original cast episodes, keeping up with SlidersCast and started with the Sliders Rewatch. I always defend seasons 3.5 to the end, because even though the original cast is not in tact, there are some good episodes, great ideas, and a lot of great scenes, even with the "new" sliding teams. Just the other day, however, I watched Way Out West (which I claim as my second favorite episode of the series), and going from watching most of season 1-3.5 episodes to that was almost a shock. It was still enjoyable, but something was missing.

So, yes, I still believe Sliders with any cast would still be enjoyable since I love the *concept* of sliding, and everything that goes along with that. However, a new show would *have* to have a good, hand picked cast that would work together, as much as the original cast did for this series.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

Surf Dance Chris wrote:

As many of you know, I actually watch Sliders very regularly, an episode every week or so. I kinda bounce around on the episodes though... But recently (basically 2015) I've been watching a lot of original cast episodes, keeping up with SlidersCast and started with the Sliders Rewatch. I always defend seasons 3.5 to the end, because even though the original cast is not in tact, there are some good episodes, great ideas, and a lot of great scenes, even with the "new" sliding teams. Just the other day, however, I watched Way Out West (which I claim as my second favorite episode of the series), and going from watching most of season 1-3.5 episodes to that was almost a shock. It was still enjoyable, but something was missing.

I've probably hammered this sentiment into the ground. But the inescapable truth is that when you follow a TV show regularly, you are letting specific people and faces into your home. If those faces suddenly change, it's akin to a home invasion. I didn't invite Maggie over for dinner; I invited the Professor. Who does she think she is?

There's also the fact that in Seasons 1 - 2, all the characters were from 'our' world. Therefore, they could compare our history with alternate histories and react accordingly. But with Season 4, Quinn and Rembrandt are from an Earth that was invaded by Kromaggs; Colin's from a pre-industrial Earth, Maggie's from the Pulsar world where nuclear weapons were detonated on American soil -- there's no sense of contrasting our world with this week's world. None of these characters are from our world, which makes it impossible to create the homesickness and alienation that were so prominent in Seasons 1 - 2. The show became absolutely pointless.

That's probably why I'm not overly in favour of a sequel series where sliding has existed since 1995. I'd rather see Quinn discover it today. And see him played by Gregory Smith.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

I agree.

I would have to say that out of all the changes made throughout the series (mostly seasons 3-5), the fact that Quinn is not from our earth at all, and showing that earth prime is not "our" world (since we haven't been invaded by Kromaggs), is probably the worst. You're right, it disconnects us from the sliders. While I'm ok with Maggie trailing along (since she obviously isn't from our earth and never claimed to be in the series), the season 4 change in Genesis was the biggest game changer (even more than the cast changes and even the merging of the Quinns). To me, that change is the "jump the shark" moment in Sliders.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

The Ireactions idea of later episodes being a seperate group of Sliders works for me.

Rather than a "All a Dream"/"Never Happened Moment" we can have a side by side approach.

The Non Native Earth Quinn is a seperate Quinn, or the Cromagg Deception re Charlie was less a Knowing Spy and more of a Sleeper/Manchurian Candidate.

Maybe there was a real Quinn who came from invasion world just not OUR Quinn...

A Quinn who discovered Sliding in 95 does not have to be totally written off but a gentle handwave avoiding how this is orriginal Quinn may be best with maybe subtle hints later in the Series to spark debate among Fans but remain Unanswered.

New Sliders to Join him would be fine but as you say careful casting for Chemistry would be essential.

I doubt Sabrina will come back as a full cast member but a Cameo may be possible if in the right spirit perhaps is viable.

Arturo coming back as a Mentor or even a Rival Mentor for Mature Quinn is also possible with the Blue Gate Arturo situation.

What if Gillian of the Spirits Quinn never reunited with our Core Group but a Very Similar Double did? That could be interesting to play with.

Quinn exploring our World and Rediscovering it is his own could be an interesting Pilot. Reconciling the Changes to our World with his Memories of Home.... His almost Idealised Home could be very engaging.

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

omnimercurial is referring to my "Slide Effects" script. I'm flattered. But to be frank, none of my SLIDERS stuff is meant to be a 'realistic' portrait of a SLIDERS revival. Neither "Slide Effects" nor REBORN were written to be filmed, only written to be *conceivably* filmed. By that, I mean for "Slide Effects," I wrote scenes that you could have physically filmed in 2000. And if it were 2000 and Tracy Torme returned for a Season 6, then sure, you could do "Slide Effects." But writing in years later, the idea was more to create a script where the reader could imagine these images in their heads without thinking it impossible to have been made or too distant from what SLIDERS was like as a TV show.

It's the same thing with SLIDERS REBORN (I'm 1/3 finished Part 2 and 2B is done). It's not meant to be a realistic picture of how to revive SLIDERS as a going concern in 2015 -- but I'm hoping that fans will read it and feel like the images described are *possible* even if it would never actually be filmed.

A realistic SLIDERS revival does not bother with Seasons 3 - 5 or even Seasons 1 - 2. A realistic SLIDERS revival is introducing the concept to the audience for the first time.

In terms of updating SLIDERS -- I don't see that anything has to be updated beyond what comes naturally with moving a 20-year-old Quinn into 2015. You could update the topical references and timeframe in the Pilot, film it today and it'd be great -- the differences would come in the form of how *different* TV filming and editing have become. Scenes are shorter. Dialogue is faster. More happens in less time. I think modern production alone would make SLIDERS seem more modern. As for updating the characterization -- it was already there in the original series, it just wasn't always capitalized upon.

Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

Maybe I'm the odd man out. Personally I'd rather not see a reboot. To me Sliders needs to have a least one of the original characters in it for it to be 'Sliders'. Without that it's not Sliders. Not unless you create something new and name it something like Sliders: TNG. I think the best shot and my hope would be to create a miniseries with the actors that would be willing to reprise their roles. I think there's no doubt you couldn't fully restore the feeling the show gave from its own time period in the 90s. Today it would have to take a much more serious approach. Perhaps the return of the X-Files will get brains cogs to turn. Why wouldn't Universal use the opportunity to compete against the X-Files with a Sliders return. Yes, it's pretty obvious X-Files would win. I mean what does Universal have versus FOX's X-Files. Defiance, the never ending Sharknado series and the great scifi of WWE?

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Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

X-Files was immensely more popular, and continues to be.  It ran twice as long, all on network TV, and spawned two movies.

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Re: Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

Jim_Hall wrote:

Maybe I'm the odd man out. Personally I'd rather not see a reboot. To me Sliders needs to have a least one of the original characters in it for it to be 'Sliders'. Without that it's not Sliders. Not unless you create something new and name it something like Sliders: TNG. I think the best shot and my hope would be to create a miniseries with the actors that would be willing to reprise their roles. I think there's no doubt you couldn't fully restore the feeling the show gave from its own time period in the 90s. Today it would have to take a much more serious approach. Perhaps the return of the X-Files will get brains cogs to turn.

I know I am late but you are not alone. I think a mini-series, with the original members, would be great. I want a satisfactory end for these people. I HATE do overs. Why should I care about a new set of people when the old set I cared about were apparently disposable? And the show is not old enough to completely start over. X-Files is bringing back David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and Mulder and Scully, respectively.

Surf Dance Chris wrote:

I think a new Sliders show would do well. Sure, there are only a handful of fanatics like us.

I think there are more than just a handful of fans. We can't all be on this site and spend time on fanfiction (that's not a dig- I recently started one and holy crap, this s**t is hard). But for every person who comments, there are lots who are devoted fans and even more who have fond memories and would watch. I think it would take some heavy advertisement and re-running of the show before the new series.