Well, hello!
It's been a long time since I've posted here (I did "Think of a Roulette Wheel," lol).
Anyways, it's the Big Anniversary tomorrow, and I wanted to at least mark the occasion with something, anything.
I had been working, sort of, very slowly, working on making Think of a Roulette Wheel into a book, with updated essays and fresh takes on some old faves. I technically am still working on it, but who knows when of if I'll actually finish it. I'm feeling a little exhausted on the topic of our old friend Sliders, a little bit like I've said all I need to.

But! I wanted to at least put up a lil' something for the event, for all y'all keeping the flame ALIVE!

So here's the New & Improved, Revised Season One of Think of a Roulette Wheel, Better, Longer, Stronger—

http://violetmice.com/ThinkofaRouletteWheelS1.pdf

Enjoy! Love on ya! See you in five for the big 3-0!

—Annie

We have an updated essay on the guardian

https://annieannieannie.medium.com/remn … 02fe7e5295

https://twitter.com/slidersfanblog/stat … 1410991104

If Jerry had played either draft -- I just don't think the scenes would have worked with the dialogue as written; I can't see how Jerry's performance could have amended it -- I think that's probably why the scenes were cut.

As for what Torme's idea was for Stephanie -- I genuinely don't know. As presented in the script, Stephanie is simply the beautiful woman that a Tobey Maguire version of Quinn could not interest, but if we see Jerry as Quinn and playing Quinn with confidence, charm and a peculiar isolationist streak, Stephanie's dismissive attitude would suggest that Quinn just isn't her type. However, it still doesn't work: why would Jerry's Quinn have such low self-esteem that he would pursue someone uninterested in what he has to offer? It would make Jerry seem like a stalker who's developed a pointless fixation on a woman who doesn't want to know him.

Looking at Daelin in "As Time Goes By," there isn't really a lot of scripted detail as to why Quinn and Daelin were a good match. It's really up to the performances: Quinn shares sliding with Daelin and has an earnest, sincere openness that clearly speaks to her; Daelin has a habit of "taking in strays" and Quinn is moved by her daring and compassion especially when she does so at her own risk. When Daelin reveals that she has a fiancee, Quinn is still willing to help her; he cares about her and there is a mutual respect and tenderness and warmth between them, a comfortable ease and instant trust.

And this is why the Stephanie character as written does not work for me when looking at Quinn: Quinn Mallory is not someone who gets wounded by rejection nor does he pursue someone who has turned him down. If someone doesn't want to go on a date with Quinn, he will (a) ask someone else or (b) dive into his engineering experiments which are his focus and passion and joy. Quinn is attracted to intelligence -- not necessarily scientific intelligence, but fans will note how Quinn is aroused when he and Logan start talking about whispering galleries vs laser gyro systems in the timer. Quinn is drawn to intelligence whether emotional intelligence (Wade), survivalist intelligence (Michelle) or compassionate intelligence (Daelin).

However. Tracy Torme clearly had some fixation on Stephanie because she shows up in his unfinished "officially unofficial series finale" outline, "The Long Slide Home." In that story, the original sliders after the events of "Double Cross" find that slide windows are getting shorter and shorter and the vortex has become unreliable because of Logan messing with the timer. They land on an Earth where the original supercontinent never broke up and encounter a Stephanie double and her husband, whom the sliders join for dinner.

The detailed breakdown ended here and was never completed, but Torme's overall plot: Quinn and Arturo rig the timer to send them backwards through the interdimension, visiting the Earths of Seasons 1 - 2 and seeing how their impact had turned out after they'd left for better or worse, trying to get home before the timer burnt itself out. The climax would have had Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo make it home with Quinn stranded. Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo resume their normal lives but over time, they are able to repair the timer and find Quinn, but in doing so, the way home is lost once again. Quinn is outraged, but the sliders assure him that so long as they are together, they are home because home is the people they choose; they may have lost the way back, but they have chosen who they want to be; they are sliders.

So... I guess in this context, the scene with Stephanie represented all the stability and home and family life that all the sliders had lost and might never have so long as they remained sliders, but then the ending would show that the sliders themselves are a family in a different form.

Is there no way to get a hold of this guy?

So looking at Quinn’s interaction with Daelin, I think we can get an idea of how it could play out with Stephanie.  Obviously, chemistry between different actors will vary.

His novel was fine, the Episode guide is another story.  Apparently Brad died last year from cancer.

I remember being 11, I think, and loving the quirky comedy and fun and adventure of SLIDERS and reading the novelization in the school library -- and the opening has the sliders observing a mass shooting of victims and Quinn studying all the dead bodies and detaching, thinking of them as masses of flesh instead of people -- and it repulsed me.

SLIDERS would go on to traumatize me further with Arturo being shot and blown up after getting his brain sucked out and Wade being sent to a rape camp, but Linaweaver started this pattern of abuse.

I don't know why Linaweaver thought it was acceptable to produce a novelization of a charming, winsome dramedy and open it with a bloody mass shooting, a scene that is not in the Pilot, in none of the drafts I've read and completely out of step with the eccentric, satirical and eerie story crafted by Tracy Torme and Robert K. Weiss, who wanted Quinn's journey to begin with wonder, daring, adventure and curiosity. Linaweaver arrogantly decided to open with mass slaughter because he enjoys savagery and bloodshed whether the story calls for it or not and this story did not.

His novelization should be struck from the record; whatever deleted scenes are there, Temporal Flux has provided with his script outtakes and Linaweaver's episode guide is worthless when we have the one from The Expert who actually watched the episodes whereas Linaweaver merely read scripts.

**

I maintain that it is very hard to imagine Jerry O'Connell being too shy to ask Melanie Bradshaw out on a date and I wonder what he made out of those scenes, but however he played it, it wouldn't be as scripted.

ReWatch has begun

How about doing a read of the Sliders novel by Brad Linaweaver?

Linaweaver isn’t a very good writer or researcher, but the novel does have some value.  His novelization was based in part on the scripts for the pilot movie, so the novel does feature scenes that were filmed and not used.

Of particular interest are the scenes featuring Stephanie (Quinn’s neighborhood crush).  Though we ultimately never saw her, the part of Stephanie was played by then Melanie Pearson (now Melanie Bradshaw).  Here’s some footage of her in other shows from the 90’s era which give an idea of what her performance may or may not have been like:

https://youtu.be/CbhakL4v6UA

Will this work Tom?

https://twitter.com/slidersfanblog/stat … 2738472960

Thank you, Russian Cabbie! That worked just fine.

And thanks for posting the link to the FB group, Grizzlor!

Thanks Ib and Griz for the stories and the rewatch post.  Great way to celebrate #25!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1510571509203098/