I started watching Sliders back in 1996 or so and stuck with it to the end.  I purchased the box set of all five seasons many years ago and for the last couple years regularly watched an episode or two (multiple times!).  Yes, the last 2 ½ years was not the best and we all know why, however, it is hard for me to see a reboot that simply wipes out that entire part of the show.
 
Rembrandt was probably my favorite character.  That might be because Cleavant was there for every episode and it allowed great character growth over the five years.  My thoughts for a genuine TV reboot always seem to come back to center around Rembrandt.  As much as we all would love to see the original cast reunite, that simply would never be feasible for a TV reboot.  Certainly, we can dream about that in fanfics and comics, but I have been thinking of how a TV reboot could happen that picks up after The Seer.  And I feel that is has to pick up here and not try to dismiss 2 ½ years of the show, even though it was a mess.  I accept the show for what it was during the entire five years.

My idea allows for the possibility of guest star appearances by the original cast, if that could be arranged.  Having Arturo or Quinn appear as “relevant to the story” doubles would give Slideheads that nostalgic feeling without the messiness of trying to deal with the characters as a long term series plot line.

I decided to summarize my reboot ideas in bullet points only.  The first several points are focused on backstory, filling in the days and years that leads up to where the reboot would start; in present day San Francisco.  I know there are glaring holes and some things just have not been thought out fully, but would love to see feedback.

•    Last we recall, Rembrandt jumped into the vortex with the Kromagg virus in his blood in hopes of returning to Earth Prime to liberate his world.

•    Rembrandt was successful.  He navigated the war torn world and befriended a group that helped him locate government leaders and scientists.  They used Rembrandt’s blood to synthesize a biological weapon to repel the Kromagg incursion.
•    Leaders deemed sliding technology a menace and confiscated Rembrandt’s timer.  They could not allow anyone to potentially risk the safety of their world again. Rembrandt is stranded and is unable to go back for his friends.

•    Rembrandt becomes depressed and a changed man knowing he would never be able to find his friends and finish what he had started.  Alesha Avo (from Dragonslide, Remmy mentioned his romantic connection to her), hears about his return and consoles him through his depression.    They rekindle their affection and fall in love again and marry (maybe within a couple years after The Seer).

•    Remmy and Alesha have a child (Even though Remmy is older that’s obviously not an issue from a man’s perspective, so I have to assume Alesha is still of child bearing age).  Remmy being an artist and in honor of his long lost friend, the Professor, names the boy, Artie.

•    This is where the two part pilot episode for the reboot would start.  The above could be told as a story at some point by Rembrandt (if Cleavant guest starred in the pilot!) or by Artie. 

•    Fast forward to present time and fudge the ages a bit.  Artie is an 18 year old freshman at a local college.  He endured years of pain watching his father deal with his sliding ordeal.  He has heard all the fantastical stories from his father.  Most make his father smile, but it always ends the same way; with sadness.  Artie feels compelled to somehow fix his father’s pain. 

•    Artie befriends a science major genius type at school who has dreamed of visiting alternative universes and since he knows that they do exist would love to explore that further. Problem is sliding is now illegal and closely monitored by world scientists and governments (Sort of like Logan St. Clair on her world having the ability to monitor wormholes.  This world has developed a network to detect them, not only to prevent incoming outsiders, but also to prevent any rogue scientists from discovering the technology and potentially endangering the earth by sliding out).

•    Artie also has a girlfriend that loves to explore and is curious by nature.  She would go to the end of the world for Artie.

•    This rebellious trio decides it’s time.  They must gain access to the sliding technology for two purposes.  One, the adventures of sliding would be so much more of an education than any school could provide (Quinn mentioned this in an episode as a response to Wade.  She asked him how many children he wanted and he said five, his own basketball squad.   She questioned how he could afford college.  Give them a timer and explore.).  And two, to try to find Maggie, Diana and Mallory.  One thing to note to keep you reading, I have a simple idea of how Quinn and Colin could be reset too so that would be another factor for the trio to slide out.

•    The trio befriends a woman at the installation where the timer is supposedly held. The woman maybe holds a grudge or whatever reason that makes sense.  She wants to assist in the recovery of the timer.  Now how the trio learns where the timer and how they find out this woman is willing to help is still not thought out.  Also, it is quite convenient the timer is housed locally in SF area, but reasons for that could be flushed out too.

•    If Cleavant is a guest star, there can be a scene where Artie tells him of the four’s plan and there is an emotional plea from Remmy to not go through with it.  He fears that they could be caught and arrested before even getting the timer.  They could succeed in obtaining the timer, but then get lost in the multiverse or even worse, have their adventures end the same as his had; in pain and never-ending sadness.  Artie overwhelms Remmy with reasons and basically forces his father to relent. They embrace and Remmy wishes his son good luck.  One of the reasons is that the ultra-genius has a theory that contradicts what happened to Quinn and Colin.  More on that below.

•    Now after the well-conceived heist, Artie, his girlfriend, the genius and the woman from the installation find themselves in possession of the timer.  How that all goes down is still up in the air, but I bet there could be some cool action scenes in there.

•    After some time they fire up the timer and look at each other and jump in the vortex.

•    Then there is a cut to the authorities at the installation.  Three or four high level individuals in a room. They decide that this attack and theft of the timer cannot go without a response.  Even though sliding technology had been made illegal, the installation continued researching and had developed a second timer.   A timer that would only be used to hunt down those who were detected by the worldwide vortex detection network.  They choose two (a man and a woman) in the room and hand them the timer.  The timer is much more simplistic and compact than the original shows version.  They demonstrate how the timer is also kind of stun gun that can be used to incapacitate.  They are instructed to track down the four sliders and return them to Earth Prime.

•    Pilot ends and the adventures begin end.

•    I think the tracking timer is not perfect and sometimes takes the sliding police off track.  This can be described in a scene at some point.  This allows for episodes devoted to only the 4 sliders.  Other episodes could involve the sliding police.

•    I think one way to clean up Colin and Quinn is that Geiger and Diana were wrong.  Quinn and Mallory never were physically combined.  Their minds may have merged (like a Vulcan mind meld) briefly during that fateful slide leaving Mallory with vivid Quinn memories.  Colin did not become “unstuck”.  Simply, Colin and Quinn were shunted through another wormhole and landed on a world.  Without a timer.  They are out there to be found.  This could be a nice guest star two partner if Jerry and Charlie could be brought in.

For those who read, thanks for taking the time!

But if we're talking about reviving Sliders for modern day TV and audiences - then it would need to be a fresh reboot.

I would like to see Jerry take the lead on pitching a revival but from Slidecage's interview with him, he seems to be deferring on the show's creator to bring it back or let it lie dormant.

In my opinion a good, realistic way to bring it back (short of the principals doing so) would be as a book series primarily utilizing some or all of the original characters, along with some scripts worthy of audio-dramas in which actors would imitate the original actor's voices.

With books, the biggest issue is the market. In that form, you'd have to create a new generation of sliders fans (e.g. young adults).

I would love, love, love to see a kickstarter around a producing a teleplay for a well-done script though. With a script in place, the production costs would be in the $3-10k range - a realistic campaign goal that could be achieved.

I would also LOVE for Sliders to get some books similar to these:

http://www.amazon.com/Future-Noir-Makin … 0061053147

http://www.hassleinbooks.com/pages/book … meline.php

http://www.hassleinbooks.com/pages/book_bttfLexicon.php

http://www.hassleinbooks.com/pages/book_lostWho.php

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/timelin … 0615253923

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/from-al … 1453838921

There's certainly been some very capable writers in the community who would do a great job at creating books in this vein (not to mention there's already great material websites have that would be great in book form).  The biggest issue would be there wouldn't be a lot of sales for books like these since Sliders doesn't have the following these other properties have.

A reboot with the open possibility of revisiting the old gang as guest stars is the only way Sliders will ever get back on the air.

Sliders in and of itself allows multiple Continuities.

For what it is worth ireactions I DO enjoy your ideas and contributions and appreciate the thought and graft you bring to bear for the Sliders Multiverse and it's Fans.

I really hope you have not become too disheartened or distressed.

Why would anyone want Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo to have been left in the states they were in at the end of Season 5 for 16 years?

That's depressing.

They made it home.  Okay?  It's over and done.  No need to resolve any of that mess, and as someone who worked on 4 season 6s and a post alt-S5 fanfic dealing with this mess, I get to say that.

Time to go start the REBOOTING Sliders in the Twenty-First Century thread.

--Chaser9

I'm entitled to my opinion. And my opinion is that Fix Fics with no storytelling, characterization, world-building or ideas beyond hitting the Undo button on Sliders 3 - 5 are awful.

These Season 6 stories have no meaningful parallel Earths (because they're tied up in knots trying to resurrect the dead three times over), no relatable characters (because even if the original cast come back, they've been warped and twisted beyond recognition; a Wade who's been a prisoner for twenty years will be a mess), no meaningful themes to explore (because sticking Quinn, revealing the Wade in "Requiem" wasn't Wade, bringing back the original Professor, etc., are all separate stories awkwardly hammered into a single tale) and they have no new ideas.

These Season 6 plots are ostensibly setting forth to bring the sliders back. They don't even succeed at doing that; the sliders they recover are too traumatized and damaged to be sliders.

These stories just suck by any measurable standard: no characterization, convenient plot devices piled on top of each other in rapid succession to resurrect mutilated versions of the original cast with whom new viewers wouldn't be acquainted. Pointless. Which is why Matt was so very much against SLIDERS REBORN taking the route that it did.

SLIDERS REBORN is a Season 6 sort of story. That's not one of its strengths. The prequel, "Reprise," opens like every Season 6 story, has Rembrandt coming out of the vortex in "The Seer" to find the original sliders waiting for him. It's two pages, it sets up the expectation that the subsequent pages will be all about undoing the plot aspects of Seasons 3 - 5. There'll be a Kromagg war, explanations for how the sliders can be back, big revelations about Seasons 3 - 5 being some sort of conspiracy or setup. Season 6 is coming.

The second installment, however, immediately pivots away from any sort of Season 6 story. It's set in 2015. Fifteen years after "The Seer," with whatever Season 6 material that happened taking place in the time gap. The story doesn't focus on any of that, instead, focusing on what Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo are doing in the present day. The audience was set up for a Season 6 story, instead, they're getting Season 20.

This is a Steven Moffat style technique that blogger Philip Sandifer calls "narrative substitution." The audience is made to think they are in one kind of story -- a Kromagg War epic -- only to find they are in a completely different story entirely. Rest asssured, I'm not in any way a writer on the level of Moffat or Sandifer; this was just me writing instinctively, often creating a messy narrative, and relying on Matt and Nigel Mitchell to help me trim and tidy it afterwards, so all this is after-the-fact analysis.

But this is the resulting approach of looking at Season 6 and noting: the actors are too old to pick up where they left off. Too much time has passed; if you have Rembrandt rescuing Wade in 2015 with the idea that she's been in a Kromagg cell for 17 years, you've delivered resolution that's so ridiculously late as to be totally useless. And what is the point of all these twisted, convoluted Season 6 plot gymnastics? Pilight says it's to bring "closure," but what closure is there from seeing a traumatized and battered Wade Welles in 2015? If the end goal is to have Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo back onscreen -- then just put them back onscreen immediately and let the convoluted stuff stay off camera.

So, by the end of "Reunion," we have a Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo who made it home in 2001 and have been living normal lives for 14 years. We have a Quinn who kept sliding during all that time. And then we go into "Revelations," which at first seems to be a Season 1 - 2 type of story -- the sliders wander into trouble on unknown worlds.

However, this turns out to be another narrative substitution -- because the climax reveals that the multiverse is broken and that while the sliders were given happy endings and homecomings, the end result was the same as most Season 6 stories. This is not a new adventure in a new series for the sliders. It turns out to be their final adventure. The series finale.

The result was what Philip Sandifer calls a "narrative collapse" -- a situation where it's no longer possible to continue using the series platform for continued installments because the story has come to an endpoint. And that's where all Season 6 stories -- including mine -- inevitably bring SLIDERS -- to a narrative collapse where the series is no longer suited to new adventures.

The tangled backstory of Seasons 3 - 5 warped the characters before dispatching them. The time gap of 2015 and the idea that the sliders, in their mutilated state, have somehow been alive the whole time, only makes their fates more grotesque and horrific. So, when you do Season 6 style stories, you not only produce incomprehensible material, you're presenting characters who are played out and no longer suited to being characters in SLIDERS.

SLIDERS requires that the regular cast be relatable people from 'our' world; a Quinn who's been in quantum limbo since 1999, a Wade who's spent over a decade in a Kromagg jail, an Arturo who's adopted the Azure Gate Bridge world as his own and a Season 5 Rembrandt -- these people aren't audience identification points anymore; they're aliens.

SLIDERS REBORN just barely dodges this bullet -- the characters are revived, but it's established that there was the 'original' timeline in which the sliders had Torme style adventures for four years, and then there's the 'altered' timeline which is the version that aired on TV.

But the end result is still suffering from the same problem as most Season 6s -- unrelatable characters. In this case, the characters would be difficult to relate to because after 20 years of sliding, Quinn's mastery of the technology should make him functionally invincible, far too powerful and no longer suited to being presented as a fallible and vulnerable hero.

In order to get one more story out of this setup, it then becomes necessary to come up with an explanation for why Quinn *doesn't* have total mastery of sliding -- but then it means that once Quinn does get control of sliding, the series is complete. So, SLIDERS REBORN, despite finding ways to side-step all the issues of Season 6, is nevertheless a story about concluding SLIDERS rather than reviving it for a new series and a new round of adventures.

Season 6 -- and SLIDERS REBORN -- are effectively a dead end for continuing development. There's no point in reviving SLIDERS for the twenty-first century just to end it -- that would not be a revival.

Alright. I've said enough.

Sonic the Comic. The UK Version which was published by Fleetway/Egmont aka STC.

It is still being continued to this day as "Unofficially Official" and praised by Sega under the moniker STC-O or Sonic the Comic Online.

It is a radically different product to the American Sonic Comic by Archie Comics.

Check out the Sonic the Comic (STC) and Sonic the Comic Online Continuation (STC-O) Forums here: http://sonicthecomic.proboards.com/ 
 and also Archives and new issues here: http://www.stconline.co.uk/ 

I look to STC-O and I think about what we could do with Sliders.

So many possibilities!

As a Young Boy I played Sonic on my Sega and loved the Sci Fi of a Human Scientist on another Planet or Parallel Universe filled with Sapient Non Humans and Androids, Bio Energy Fuelled Cyborg-esque Badniks which used the Matrix Bio Battery Idea in a far more interesting way along with the Laputa like Floating Island and Knuckles the Echidna's Mysteries.

Sonic the Comic started a little Shaky and was always aimed at kids initially but it soon found it's feet and did not talk down to Children and introduced them/us to themes and ideas usually only Sci Fi aimed at adults would approach but in a accessable way. It ended up maintaining an audience way beyond it's aimed 8-12 age demographic and kept fans/market share all the way up to late teens, uni students and even parents who got into it with their kids.

The official comic eventually declined due to ill thought out ideas by management to start printing lots of repeated storylines and began to shed readers but even then many kept buying in the hope for new content and ongoing Development all the way up til the Publishers killed it off.

That fanbase did not go away though and STC-O is due to that.
Even now new Fans stumble across Scans online or fan art on deviant art etc and come to love the divergent continuity.

Here are a couple of you tube links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWRr0KIM … ata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VueRKZE … ata_player

This one is a nice treat though. It is a fan animation of a comic strip from STC.
Really nicely done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLJOzTiw … ata_player

As much as Quinn and Arturo are an amazing mix of Theoreticcal Physicist and Electrical/Mechanical Engineers able to Maintain, Repair and Upgrade there Equipment we must remember that People Use and Repair Technology in our Society often with little or no Knowledge of the underlying physics so with sufficient familiarity with the Tech it can propogate without the underlying Principles..... Albeit in a stunted manner.

On further reflection re: once per season having old sliders as guest stars, it would probably be better not to have Diana, Maggie, and Mallory still on Seer World 20 years later.  Maybe have Diana and Mallory back on their home world, having given up sliding after splitting Quinn from Mallory, then in season six have Maggie and Quinn still sliding randomly happening to appear on the same world as the New!Sliders.

I've been critical of the writing in this thread, but my criticisms are very simply: few of these ideas would serve to revive SLIDERS in the twenty-first century. pilight and Chaser9 are two of the few who've suggested something that would work, and I think pilight's revised gender-swap idea is quite clever with one episode per season addressing one of the original cast members while treating that cast member as a guest-star whom the new viewers would see as an original character. I think that is brilliant.

I like pilight's idea for a gender-swapped Wade and Quinn and my advice was to make it more entry-level, pointing out that it's very good until attempting to tie it into the classic series. I thought it brilliant to set the series in the original continuity and side-step the age of the actors by featuring a female-Quinn who's the same age as the 1995-Quinn. Very clever.

I like pilight's idea of having the gender-swapped sliders meet the original sliders later on in the series instead of the first episode. That's probably a good way to handle it. This would be tender and touching for the old fans, but putting if farther into the run of the series would prevent it from being confusing for the new ones.

sliders5125 wrote:

I thought when asking for ideas that this was an open form not an attack spot for any ideas that you did not see worthy to follow up a show from 20 years ago. Being that you have no more clout with NBC/Universal/Comcast then I. I have no idea why you have decided to go on the attack. Oh well, nothing more to say

My criticisms are that few if any of the ideas here are entry-level introductions to SLIDERS. That anyone not familiar with SLIDERS would be confused by these stories. That is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate issue to raise.

As for you, you pissed me off.

I presented a simple, effective, straightforward story for a SLIDERS reboot.

ireactions wrote:

The (updated for 2015) Temporal Flux vision of a reboot:

• Wade Welles is a tech journalist who failed to build a life beyond reviewing smartphones and laptops.

• Rembrandt Brown is a coffee bar owner who failed to hang onto his 15 minutes of fame.

• Professor Arturo is a genius who failed to find a career outside of writing high school study guides for science students.

• Quinn Mallory is a tax accountant who lost his passion for science after failing to create anti-gravity -- but twenty years after giving up, he realizes that he discovered something else instead.

• SLIDERS: A journey through what could be and might have been. Sometimes, getting lost is the best way to be found.

I provided Matt's concept for how to make this rebooted SLIDERS a subtle sequel to the original series:

ireactions wrote:

• Quinn in 2015 will find video diaries from the Quinn of the 1995 series.

• The video journals will explain the sliding concept to the 2015 Quinn.

• The journals will later have the 1995 Quinn reveal that due to an interdimensional war, he has found a way to alter history to remove sliding from reality.

• This brief journal will reveal to the fans that the older doubles are the original sliders.

• They are living in an altered timeline where sliding's discovery is delayed to the present.

• New viewers will not realize this, nor do they need to.

And you replied:

sliders5125 wrote:

Ireactions, the above works, but would work better if Rembrandt is the key to hiding everything and he purposely has found away to stay busy in Quinn s life so that every time Quinn is talking about antigravity machine etc. Rembrandt eyes lite up in terror and he suggests other scientific endeavors ....Rembrandt and the proffessor could be the key to distracting Quinn over the years up to the point where he does start sliding again ....instead of a 2001 Quinn hiding sliding it was a Rembrandt that somehow met up with the proffessor in 2001 after the kromagg cure of the finale and they had developed this magic machine to go back in time and stop Quinn from presuming sliding past the initial test the hid the tapes and all evidence leading to sliding from Quinn to keep our Earth from going through all of the awful events sliding had brought. Rembrandt would be a tortured soul and the guy with the experience knowing that he eliminated both the good and the bad that sliding had accomplished. ..telling himself more bad than good happened over the 5 year journey...and now that the team is forced to slide again hoping they don't make the same mistakes trying to find home...or a safe supstitite for home.

You arrogantly declared that a simple, effective, straightforward story should become a tangled and convoluted "The Seer Part 2" / "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome Part 2" -- and then you said that your lazy sequel was somehow "better" than what I presented.

You have never shared a single idea that wasn't Part 2 of a previous story. I am appalled that someone like you -- someone with no original ideas at all -- would tell me that the way to improve my material, TF's material and Matt's material is to turn their welcoming, approachable, entry-level story into an unfathomable mess of continuity references.

I find it outrageous, arrogant, offensive and insulting for you to declare that you can improve plots by removing any new ideas and replacing them with your overstretched threads from other people's stories.

I have also been getting a crazy amount of spam from your E-mail address. I'd reproduce them here, but the messages were sent to my junk mail and deleted

By All means embrace SPAM fury ireactions.

Your tone regarding his ideas though is highly aggressive. I believe unecessarily.

I do not agree with even acknowledging the Post Series Two Cromaggs so I agree his Idea Pitch is not to my taste.

Still.... You do not need to take his differing view as a personal attack.

I respect you a lot based on what I know of you from past posts ireactions so please do not take my input here negatively when I note this issue above.

quote]

I like pilight's idea of having the gender-swapped sliders meet the original sliders later on in the series instead of the first episode. That's probably a good way to handle it. This would be tender and touching for the old fans, but putting if farther into the run of the series would prevent it from being confusing for the new ones.

You wouldn't do them all at once.  Maybe one (or one group) per season.

Season one.  The New!Sliders arrive on a world with an Azure Gate Bridge.  They meet an aging professor who was accidentally left here years ago by another group of sliders.  He's done well for himself here, introducing velcro to a world that had not invented it made him quite wealthy, and considering his mid 70's age declines to slide out with the group.  This would have to be a part of some larger story set on this world.

Season two.  The New!Sliders meet a woman who can open vortexes with her mind.  She was a Kromagg captive but escaped and has been on the run from them for many years.  The new group help her escape a nefarious Kromagg trap.  They end up going their separate ways as the woman does not want to endanger any more people by having them travel with her.  It's possible they could cross paths with her again in a future episode.

Season three.  The New!Sliders appear in a park at the foot of a statue commemorating the savior of the world, Rembrandt Brown.  They find out he was also a slider and saved his world by returning with an anti-Kromagg virus in his blood.  Old!Rembrandt is dead, so New!Rembrandt is feted as his replacement and encouraged to stay.  Storywise it's kind of a cross between The Return of Maggie Beckett and The Seer.  The Guardian and Dust established that slight differences in the speed of the Earth's rotation can put the sliders in a world where their duplicates are a different age.  The New!Sliders learn that Old!Rembrandt came from Seer world as a setup for a later episode.

Season four.  The New!Sliders feel something odd in the transit to the world they land on, as if there was a fifth person in the wormhole.  Despite that, just the four arrive on this Amish world.  Once they start exploring they see visions of a man they don't know.  The locals see it also.  They know who it is and believe it to be the ghost of a man named Colin Mallory.  New!Quinn and New!Professor don't believe in ghosts.  They believe the man must have gotten unstuck somehow and work to restore him to this, his home world.  Of course they meet resistance from the locals, who see their technology as witchcraft.

Season five.  The New!Sliders come to a world where there is a philosophy known as Slidology, based on another group of sliders whose activities were envisioned by man known as the seer.  One of the four Old!Sliders left but the other three have been prevented from leaving by Slidology's leader, Claire LeBeau.  She's wealthy and influential and has access to a bunch of old Kromagg gear left behind when the people of this world drove them out with a virus, which is more than enough to keep the remaining Old!Sliders from leaving.  New!Quinn helps them build a more advanced timer, like the one the New!Sliders have, than can bypass the force field LeBeau uses to cap wormholes and let them escape.  Before the groups split, New!Rembrandt tells the Old!Sliders the fate of Old!Rembrandt from their season three adventure.

I like pilight's idea of having the gender-swapped sliders meet the original sliders later on in the series instead of the first episode. That's probably a good way to handle it. This would be tender and touching for the old fans, but putting if farther into the run of the series would prevent it from being confusing for the new ones.

My criticisms are that few if any of the ideas here are entry-level introductions to SLIDERS. That anyone not familiar with SLIDERS would be confused by these stories. That is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate issue to raise.

As for you, you pissed me off.

I presented a simple, effective, straightforward story for a SLIDERS reboot.

I provided Matt's concept for how to make this rebooted SLIDERS a subtle sequel to the original series:

And you replied:

You arrogantly declared that a simple, effective, straightforward story should become a tangled and convoluted "The Seer Part 2" / "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome Part 2" -- and then you said that your lazy sequel was somehow "better" than what I presented.

You have never shared a single idea that wasn't Part 2 of a previous story. I am appalled that someone like you -- someone with no original ideas at all -- would tell me that the way to improve my material, TF's material and Matt's material is to turn their welcoming, approachable, entry-level story into an unfathomable mess of continuity references.

I find it outrageous, arrogant, offensive and insulting for you to declare that you can improve plots by removing any new ideas and replacing them with your overstretched threads from other people's stories.

I have also been getting a crazy amount of spam from your E-mail address. I'd reproduce them here, but the messages were sent to my junk mail and deleted.

Very simply -- your material would be stronger if you just had these gender-swapped, twentysomething versions of Wade and Quinn discovering sliding and going on an adventure with only subtle efforts to tie into the classic series. Your efforts to do so overtly result in confusion, alienation and the inability to appeal to those new viewers I was talking about.

I was thinking about this.  It would work better if New!Quinn seeing the old sliders was a mid episode flashback rather than a teaser.  We'd have to make a bigger deal of her seeing it when she was five in the early episode dialogue, with the flashback coming when she tells the whole story to New!Professor and/or New!Rembrandt.  Plus, using the old gang in a teaser will make people think we're going to see them again (or even possibly that the show is about them).