Topic: Temporal Flux: Rage and Retribution

Longtime members of the SLIDERS community know that in the past, I experienced blackout rages over certain situations. At a crisis point of rage, the moderator banned me from this board for a period of time saying I needed a break. I expressed my grief over this to Matt Hutaff who was his usual unsympathetic self, snapping, “YOU are the moderator; you banned YOURSELF!” But it was good, it gave me some time to get my brain in order and no longer have such outbursts, except I had one recently over Temporal Flux.

I posted in a Facebook group a link to my David Peckinpah essay. One response was from someone I shall name Frederico Herrera. He said that he found Temporal Flux's behind the scenes info untrustworthy, saying TF's information about John not getting along with the writers and Kari not getting along with Kari was so anecdotal that TF couldn't possibly have found out any of it. Frederico Herrera added that there was no way TF could know that "Easy Slider" was sold to Peckinpah based on Peckinpah's obsession with motorcycles because there was no proof that Peckinpah was the showrunner for Season 5 and that the only trustworthy source for SLIDERS information was EarthPrime.com and proceeded to call me "a fucking idiot" for trusting TF who could be anybody.

As someone who spent a lot of time converting the Sci-Fi Channel's press clippings into EarthPrime.com content and as someone who has always treasured TF as the kind, avuncular older friend I needed when I was a kid, Frederico Herrera had made me absolutely furious. I admit I don't know how TF landed most of his scoops, only some, but Matt has talked to several producers and writers from Seasons 1 - 5 and I've talked to Torme and Robert Floyd. The only informational point of disagreement EP.COM has ever had with TF is on whether or not "Net Worth" was initially meant for Season 3 and TF ended up being right on that one. Regardless of the conflicts between the EP.COM team and Temporal Flux, we have all at one time or another described TF as the de-facto expert on SLIDERS.

Frederico Herrera's attack on TF enraged me and I proceeded to engage in a campaign of vengeful retribution. Which is to say I posted a link to the Sci-Fi Channel press clippings, describing some of the interviews and then noted, "It's pretty funny that Frederico Herrera calls Temporal Flux a liar for sharing the Kari/Sabrina conflict and directs everyone to EP.COM for the real story. EP.COM has two interviews I personally added to the site where Kari describes the feud."

I later posted a link to TF's Ultimate FAQ on SLIDERS and remarked, "I know Frederico Herrera will call TF a fraud and a sham and say his FAQ is bogus, but I refer to the FAQ constantly when working on EP.COM to see if any of our scoops were actually found first by TF and he's often beaten us to lots of things."

I posted a link to the original pitch for "Easy Slider" and remarked, "It's pretty funny that Frederico Herrera calls TF a liar who can't possibly prove that David Peckinpah had control of SLIDERS in Season 5 and advises everyone to check out EP.COM for the real truth instead. EP.COM has notes on this story from Peckinpah's assistant who explains that Peckinpah bought this Season 5 pitch because it involved motorcycles which was one of his obsessions."

I posted a link to Tracy Torme's 2000 interview on EP.COM and added, "It's pretty funny that Frederico Herrera calls TF a liar for saying Conrad Bennish Jr. was planned to return in Season 5 and advises people go to EP.COM instead for real behind the scenes info. EP.COM has an interview with Torme confirming that Jason Gaffney was booked to return for Season 5."

I later posted a link to "Slide Effects," the story Tracy Torme conceived to resurrect the original cast in one episode which I wrote into a script and then commented, "I hope all of you enjoy it and I'm sure Frederico Herrera will call me a liar for putting Torme's name on this story and urge everyone to go to EP.COM for the real truth which would be great since EP.COM has the interview where Torme described the plot of this script."

I later posted a link to the Robert Floyd interview, describing how Floyd first appeared on this very forum and then noted, "I'm sure Frederico Herrera will call Floyd a liar since I think Frederico Herrera considers anyone who knows something he doesn't to be a liar."

I later shared the story of how I had seemingly damaged my DVD of "The Guardian" from the COMPLETE SERIES set and bought a Season 3 box set only to find the damaged DVD just needed a good cleaning, and how I'd offered the Season 3 box set to anybody but there'd been no takers and that perhaps giving anyone a Season 3 box set was akin to a hate crime and a physical assault and would Frederico Herrera like to have it?

I later posted a link to Slidecage's review of the Season 3 box set and said I would like to give away my Season 3 box set and that surely Frederico Herrera deserved first dibs on it.

I later posted a link to the aborted SLIDERS 2013 pilot script and talked about how much I enjoyed working on it and how, despite not working out, I was happy to have fostered my friendship with Slider_Quinn21 and Informant during that time and that I still enjoy reading it now and then and that I'm sure Frederico Herrera couldn't possibly understand because Frederico Herrera struck me as someone who only wanted to be around people he considered stupider than himself and therefore probably couldn't make friends.

I later posted a link to the "Net Worth: The Quinn and Wade Edition" script and talked about how much fun that was to write and then said Frederico Herrera probably couldn't appreciate it because he struck me as someone who was incapable of loving anyone or anything.

Eventually, Frederico Herrera posted in the Facebook group. "I have been tagged with at least TEN NOTIFICATIONS today," he wrote. "Nobody needs this on Christmas Day! If you want to keep posting links to EarthPrime, LEAVE ME OUT OF IT!"

The moderator placidly informed me that the war was over and to stop posting every other hour and to stop mentioning Frederico Herrera in Facebook posts for no good reason whatsoever and I agreed.

I feel we have all learned something from this incident. Specifically, we have learned that despite the issues Temporal Flux and Matt Hutaff have with each other, Matt has obviously been very respectful when speaking of Temporal Flux during our many years of conversations. We have learned this because insulting TF apparently drives me into absurd fits of rage (that are hilariously stupid and ineffective) that Matt has never had to experience.

Re: Temporal Flux: Rage and Retribution

I’m not surprised; I faced that since the day I started.  Admittedly some of that is my own fault, and some due to protecting my methods; but it’s also partly due to my presentation rarely being visually glamorous.  That’s the sad truth of humanity - shiny objects and beautiful people often carry more weight and credibility.

I don’t recall ever going in depth on how I did it, but it’s not really a secret.  I stumbled into something seasoned investigators already knew - the wealth of information that provides a foundation comes from the “little people” and not so much the marquee name.  The secretary, the make-up artist, the prop maker, the visual effects technician - all of these people are ground zero of production discussions and actor interactions, but they largely fade in the background and are overlooked by those talking because they’re just “the help”.  Of course, that leads to disgruntlement and a search for appreciation which makes them interested in talking to a fan who cares about what they do.

All of that is only step one, though.  After all, information from those sources can be filled with bias and personal agendas; and that’s why their information is only the foundation you build your house on and not the house itself.   After you’ve done that leg work with the below the line people, you then search out the bigger names. When talking to them, you don’t necessarily get into the things you’ve heard about the person you’re talking to; you instead get into what you’ve heard about the people they worked with.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard “how do you know this?  It’s like you worked there.”  This leads them to open up and start seeing you as someone who shared the experience, so they let their guard down and then start talking about their perspective of what they personally did.  Compare notes to other people’s accounts and see what holds up.  Conversely, if you’re hearing the same identical anecdotes from multiple crew - yeah, it’s very doubtful they all got together and made sure their fabricated story was straight.

As for how you accomplish this in finding these people - it’s probably not as easy today as it was in 1997 - 2000 when the Internet was still young; people are more guarded and private now even with things like Facebook.  But, the first place you start is EBay - after all, that’s rarely if ever someone like Jerry O’Connell selling a script or fake money props thrown into the air during a one second scene in “Prince of Wails” - it’s the low level guy trying to make some side money.  Contact the seller - ask them if they have more to sell that they haven’t listed yet.  That leads into them opening up about who they are and who else they can connect you to.

To give an example.  I purchased a copy of a later draft script for “Luck of the Draw” on EBay likely 20 years ago at this point, but I had long been interested in finding the first draft because other people I talked to claimed it had a different ending.  It turned out the guy selling the script on EBay was Jon Povill’s assistant, and he put me in direct contact with Jon. Jon knew what I was talking about but hadn’t given it much thought; in fact, the only remaining copy was a saved file on a laptop Jon had set aside to throw away.  The only reason that script still exists today is because my efforts led me to Jon, and I made him realize it held some value to people.

Another way of finding people back in the day - SAG and WGA.  SAG in fact had a number you could call (meant for journalists) where you could call and get agent contact information which could then lead you to the star, writer and even producer.  It didn’t work reliably (agents protect their clients after all), but you could get a surprise such as the time they didn’t realize they gave me the number to Sabrina Lloyd’s sister.  We had a nice conversation after I explained my intended goal was to find a fan mail address for Sabrina.

But the process used to get me to the final product is why I didn’t always talk about sources (a sticking point for some fans who used that to believe I simply must be making it all up and lying).  Tagging the names or job titles of low level people on news (especially when the show was still in production) would have had a chilling effect - the bosses and actors would have been more careful about what they said, and the information would have stopped.  In the worst case scenario, people could have lost their jobs.  But to some fans that doesn’t matter - reveal all or be branded a liar.  It’s frankly ignorance - which leads us back to their attraction to only shiny objects and beautiful people.

Re: Temporal Flux: Rage and Retribution

TemporalFlux wrote:

Another way of finding people back in the day - SAG and WGA.  SAG in fact had a number you could call (meant for journalists) where you could call and get agent contact information which could then lead you to the star, writer and even producer.  It didn’t work reliably (agents protect their clients after all), but you could get a surprise such as the time they didn’t realize they gave me the number to Sabrina Lloyd’s sister.  We had a nice conversation after I explained my intended goal was to find a fan mail address for Sabrina.

I can confirm the WGA being a good starting point - at least when I was actively seeking out writers from the show. I didn't call anyone, however; I wrote letters to the writers I most wanted to talk to and mailed them into the Writer's Guild. They were passed along and I believe I heard from 4 or 5. I still email with a few and have established some professional relationships with others. From there, I assembled a larger roster of emails from the writers themselves.

A few other people from the show straight up contacted me because of my website. Steve Kriozere, for example, didn't even have a copy of his Writers Draft for "Sole Survivors" and was happy to download it from Earth Prime. I've met up with him a couple times as a result; writers are more apt to meet a fan that people in front of the camera.

My other great untapped resource are the various call sheets and contact lists I got ahold of when the Sci-Fi Channel sent me a bunch of material back in the day. If you want the pager number or address of everyone involved in Sliders from 1998-2000, I've got it. Sometimes I use the names to contact people through Facebook, but I don't have the time to delve into the show these days. Kids and all...

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

Re: Temporal Flux: Rage and Retribution

ireactions wrote:

The only informational point of disagreement EP.COM has ever had with TF is on whether or not "Net Worth" was initially meant for Season 3 and TF ended up being right on that one. Regardless of the conflicts between the EP.COM team and Temporal Flux, we have all at one time or another described TF as the de-facto expert on SLIDERS.

I'm sure there were other points of disagreement - back before I understood writing credits and whatnot I absolved Peckinpah of "This Slide of Paradise" because it had Nan Hagen's name on it - but with regard to "Net Worth" that was always about needing backup. Just some kind of confirmation beyond someone's word.

Of course, now I have multiples sources of confirmation that "Net Worth" was commissioned for season three. (It would have sucked then, too.) So I'll happily admit I was wrong.

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

Re: Temporal Flux: Rage and Retribution

You know, it's funny, last year I finally got to chat with Marc Scott Zicree, who was in Albany, NY, for a small Trek con.  Very exuberant guy, though he did kind of speak the whole time like he was pitching me a script, which was great.  Ha ha.  Anyway, being my memory is a bit fatigued on Sliders back stage stuff, and his is probably even worse, I did hit him with a few "TF" inspired questions for his time on the show.  While he didn't outright "deny" rumors, he did provide context and nuance, which was very helpful.  Granted, I forgot to record it and there wasn't anything earth-shattering, but he did have a lot of praise for the people he worked with, including Bill Dial and Chris Black.  Plus he also explained the O'Connell situation well.  Did any of it contradict TF's old stuff?  Not really, but he did roll his eyes a few times.  Then again, I didn't really feel like the BTS stuff was all that heinous during the Sci-Fi years, it was more a problem with budgets and a network that wasn't very involved, which was no secret. 

PS: Net Worth was I felt a really strong script conceptually, but suffered from lack of budget and bad guest actors.