For a long time, I thought that Rick Montana and Maggie Beckett's odd dialogue in the "Net Worth" script were due to the characters having been swapped in for Quinn-2 and Wade, so I'm glad and grateful that Transmodiar and JWSlider3 have been so kind as to provide a correction.

Transmodiar cautioned me during the writing of "Net Worth: The Quinn and Wade Edition," saying, "I urge you not to put any more time into 'Net Worth' than Steve Stoliar did," noting that the writer of (*snicker*) "Paradise Lost" may not have been attempting his magnum opus in Season 4 and that the oddities of his script are likely because it was a less-than-impassioned effort.

That said, Stoliar did an excellent job writing his memoir of his time as Groucho Marx's assistant AND did a nice job on Season 5's "A Current Affair" AND seems like a fundamentally decent and friendly person.

Anyway. "Net Worth: The Quinn and Wade Edition" is plainly not in any way a picture of the Season 3 story as planned. That said -- even if "Net Worth" as scripted for Season 4 had been intended for Season 3, it still wouldn't have been like "The Quinn and Wade Edition." As Transmodiar pointed out, teleplays in 1997 had commercial breaks, didn't have banter between characters sheerly for the joy of having the actors interact, wouldn't have brought back Wade's parents and sister and Hurley in roles that depend on remembering who they are and probably would not have attempted to pastiche John Rhys-Davies' onscreen presence in the script itself.

But. I still think it's a neat exercise to transplant the Season 2 cast into a Season 4 adventure and imagine John Rhys-Davies on the Universal backlot, dodging laser fire made on a Sci-Fi Channel budget and to imagine "Net Worth" with Quinn and Wade doubles in the Rick and Joanne roles and to ask: does putting the original sliders in a latter-era adventure turn it into a SLIDERS story? When I first posted it, I would have said yes.

Today, I concede that the answer is no. While every story is conceivably a SLIDERS story, a SLIDERS story is not necessarily this story in that DECLASSIFIED has revealed that SLIDERS, to be on-brand, needs that peculiar mixture of social satire and witty commentary and careful nuance that observes and inverts. "Net Worth" is ultimately about a physical and technological conflict, not a societal one and putting Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo into it makes it a solid story about the sliders without making it a SLIDERS story.

I look forward to seeing "Onliners" online when time permits.

What helped change my mind recently is that I’m facing a surgery in a few months (depending on what’s happening with COVID).  It’s supposed to be a simple procedure, and the doctor claims it has a high success rate; but you never know.  There aren’t guarantees.  With the same circulation issue, my great grandfather had to have his leg amputated.  My grandmother died on the operating table.  I would like to believe our technology and knowledge has improved since then, and I’m younger than they were; but you just don’t know.

I hope the surgery goes well and that you pull through with flying colors. My mother-in-law just recently died after a years-long struggle with multiple system atrophy, and took my father-in-law with her. Don't want to see anyone sick or hurt, and I'm confident you'll be around for a while.

They share so little DNA it's not worth trying to compare them. It's like TOSOD and Raging Quinn sharing the same P-code; sure, there's an evolution from one to the next, but there's no connective tissue.

Yes, because "Exodus" was on the same spreadsheet as "Sliders' Ark".

As I said, Tracy is the only one that referred to it as "Onliners".

As of March 20 1997

K1811 "Net  Worth" Steve Stoliar Story assigned 7/2/96 delivered 7/10/96 - In abeyance
K1812 "Adventure in paradise" John Scheinfeld Story assigned 7/16/96 delivered 7/24/96 - Abandoned
K1821 "Slider's Ark" Paul Jackson assigned 10/22/96
K1822 "Heat of the Moment" Tracy Torme assigned 11/1/96

the outline is what was delivered not the script, if it's at the assignment stage it's just a pitch

So, the K1811 "Net Worth" of Season 3 by Steve Stoliar is not the "Net Worth" (K2806) of Season 4 by Steve Stoliar?

Is "Sliders' Ark" most definitely a separate story from "The Exodus"? The title is reminiscent of John Rhys-Davies' pitch for the sliders landing on a doomed Earth and helping to evacuate who they can and debating whether to bring artwork or food supplies and similar conundrums as reported by Sarah_Slider. And "The Exodus" was ultimately scripted by Tony Blake and Paul Jackson.

Grizzlor wrote:

TemporalFlux wrote:

I’ve come to realize that trivia and possessions really weren’t my goal (though I admit I do enjoy having displays of the production used Egyptian timer, Rickman timer and Slidewave generator in my home).

WHAT?!  Can we see??????  PLEASE!

I’ll see if I can get them lit up for a shot.  It’s a bit of pain to get the batteries in the Slidewave device - you essentially have to dismantle the whole thing and put it back together.  Amazingly, the bright camera ready lights on it run off 16 AA batteries.

When I got it from the prop master, he talked about how they had built a couple of them for use in the episode (one being used for the infamous spark scene that injured Jerry).  But it was clear which one I got.  They had taken a script and cut out Jerry’s line for that scene and taped it to the back of the emitter.  lol  It led me to wonder just how many secret places they had Jerry’s lines taped up in the episodes we watch.

Well even if you can't light it up, I'd love to see them all as is.  And hmm, are you saying Jerry was a regular Shatner? Ha ha.

PS: Hopefully your surgery goes great, please keep us in the loop.

Sorry to hear of miss fortune in the last few years. I can understand about not caring what anyone is doing with the material. I felt like I paid a fortune for what most would consider Bob Weiss' trash (and actually is).

I enjoy finding out about the stories that might have been, a story I enjoy is when I was trying to get in contact with Dorothy Fontana and had to go though Marv Wolfman to do it (almost surreal).

When last we talked you had just acquired the Egyptian Timer and stated that you where determined to the Rickman Timer. I think it's awesome that you got all those Timers now.

I wish you would have just said this in an email, instead of saying nothing. I know a lot of what I talked about in those days never came to pass, sorry things couldn't have been different.

To be honest, when I stepped away; I found that I was a lot happier in life.  I just didn’t want to get pulled back into it.  There’s been some times I thought about getting back in (such as 2014 when I walked the Universal back lot in the footsteps of where the show was filmed; and drove from there to walk the streets of San Francisco as they did in the stories) - but ultimately, I’ve tried to keep to just some conversation here.

What helped change my mind recently is that I’m facing a surgery in a few months (depending on what’s happening with COVID).  It’s supposed to be a simple procedure, and the doctor claims it has a high success rate; but you never know.  There aren’t guarantees.  With the same circulation issue, my great grandfather had to have his leg amputated.  My grandmother died on the operating table.  I would like to believe our technology and knowledge has improved since then, and I’m younger than they were; but you just don’t know.

I hadn’t mentioned it, but that’s one of the driving reasons why I finally shared my Sliders: Declassified script recently.  I would say that most probably I’ll still be here for a very long time yet; but there’s a chance I won’t.  For me, Declassified is something worth leaving behind.  And really, sharing it was the only adequate way I could explain why I’ve loved Sliders.  Sometimes you just can’t explain it; you have to show it.

TemporalFlux wrote:

I’ve come to realize that trivia and possessions really weren’t my goal (though I admit I do enjoy having displays of the production used Egyptian timer, Rickman timer and Slidewave generator in my home).

WHAT?!  Can we see??????  PLEASE!

I’ll see if I can get them lit up for a shot.  It’s a bit of pain to get the batteries in the Slidewave device - you essentially have to dismantle the whole thing and put it back together.  Amazingly, the bright camera ready lights on it run off 16 AA batteries.

When I got it from the prop master, he talked about how they had built a couple of them for use in the episode (one being used for the infamous spark scene that injured Jerry).  But it was clear which one I got.  They had taken a script and cut out Jerry’s line for that scene and taped it to the back of the emitter.  lol  It led me to wonder just how many secret places they had Jerry’s lines taped up in the episodes we watch.

I’ve come to realize that trivia and possessions really weren’t my goal (though I admit I do enjoy having displays of the production used Egyptian timer, Rickman timer and Slidewave generator in my home).

WHAT?!  Can we see??????  PLEASE!

As I said, Tracy is the only one that referred to it as "Onliners".

As of March 20 1997

K1811 "Net  Worth" Steve Stoliar Story assigned 7/2/96 delivered 7/10/96 - In abeyance
K1812 "Adventure in paradise" John Scheinfeld Story assigned 7/16/96 delivered 7/24/96 - Abandoned
K1821 "Slider's Ark" Paul Jackson assigned 10/22/96
K1822 "Heat of the Moment" Tracy Torme assigned 11/1/96

the outline is what was delivered not the script, if it's at the assignment stage it's just a pitch

And the K1811 JWSlider has isn't even called "Net Worth;" yes, it involves the internet but it's very very different. As for "Slider's Ark," I asked Paul Jackson about it and he had no recollection of it. John Scheinfeld couldn't recall anything either, per JWSlider.

As of March 20 1997

K1811 "Net  Worth" Steve Stoliar Story assigned 7/2/96 delivered 7/10/96 - In abeyance
K1812 "Adventure in paradise" John Scheinfeld Story assigned 7/16/96 delivered 7/24/96 - Abandoned
K1821 "Slider's Ark" Paul Jackson assigned 10/22/96
K1822 "Heat of the Moment" Tracy Torme assigned 11/1/96

the outline is what was delivered not the script, if it's at the assignment stage it's just a pitch

We were all wrong - TemporalFlux was wrong, I was wrong, and you were wrong. James has the docs that give a very specific breakdown of what "Onliners" or whatever the hell you want to call it was before it was shelved. And if I ever get the time, it'll likely make its way to Earth Prime. But just so there's no miscommunication, what was designed for season three in NO way resembles what appeared in season four, and it wasn't a simple case of changing the names in the script.

Just like "Raging Quinn" wasn't about Smarter Quinn, it was about a murderous dolphin and Arturo and Quinn beating the daylights out of each other. You live, you learn. TMYK!

Just to clarify -- you are saying that "Onliners" was a separate story from "Net Worth." But in describing one of JWSlider3's documents, you said that the March 1997 status report on scripts specifies four stories that aren't going to proceed, two of which are K1822 (titled Heat of the Moment) and K1811 (titled "Net Worth").

Even if "Onliners" and "Net Worth" were two separate stories, was "Net Worth" still originally a Season 3 episode?

TemporalFlux wrote:Recent years haven’t been too kind, and I really no longer care what anyone is doing with regards to behind the scenes material.  Trying to share that type of material was a miserable experience for me. I often felt like I had to spend more time trying to prove I wasn’t lying than the time it took to actually find the material.

Looking back, my real enjoyment with this community was in sharing ideas and theories about the continuity and mechanics of the series that weren’t always elaborated on in the stories.  Filling in the cracks of the series and talking about it with other fans was a rewarding experience, and those efforts are the “detective work” that I’m most proud of.  Ultimately, that’s all I was trying to do in finding the production materials too - I was just seeking to gain a better understanding of the series and what shaped it.

I’ve come to realize that trivia and possessions really weren’t my goal (though I admit I do enjoy having displays of the production used Egyptian timer, Rickman timer and Slidewave generator in my home).

Sorry to hear of miss fortune in the last few years. I can understand about not caring what anyone is doing with the material. I felt like I paid a fortune for what most would consider Bob Weiss' trash (and actually is).

I enjoy finding out about the stories that might have been, a story I enjoy is when I was trying to get in contact with Dorothy Fontana and had to go though Marv Wolfman to do it (almost surreal).

When last we talked you had just acquired the Egyptian Timer and stated that you where determined to the Rickman Timer. I think it's awesome that you got all those Timers now.

I wish you would have just said this in an email, instead of saying nothing. I know a lot of what I talked about in those days never came to pass, sorry things couldn't have been different.

Temporal Flux's efforts brought sense and reason to the traumatic, inexplicable events on SLIDERS. The fans needed Temporal Flux and everything he had to give in that moment and in the moment in which he gave it. And if TF has moved on, well, he has accomplished the most important and meaningful thing; he brought understanding to the incomprehensible.

And speaking for myself and my own journey with SLIDERS, the answers he gave us were put into my SLIDERS fan writing as fictionalized versions of Temporal Flux's truth. The "Slide Effects" script reveals that the events of Season 3 - 5 were a simulation created by a Kromagg who was assigned to control the sliders' minds and came to despise them and their adventures -- just like David Peckinpah.

The SLIDERS REBORN stories declare that Seasons 3 - 5 and the disordered episodes and disappeared guest characters of Seasons 1 - 2 were caused by Geiger ripping all Quinn doubles out of all realities, causing a cataclysmic event across the multiverse that cracked the rules of reality, resulting in monsters, magic, the supernatural -- and says that reality began to break down and implode, resulting in Seasons 4 - 5 all being set in the same locations and interiors and reflecting how reality was beginning to shrink as it collapsed. I got a lot of fan mail applauding these explanations because they felt true and that's because they were the truth -- which Temporal Flux brought to us.

And if there's some area of truth where TF's information was incomplete and where JWSlider3's generosity and Transmodiar's diligence enlighten and clarify, then I look forward to it with appreciation, gratitude and fondness for all three of you.

Looking back, my real enjoyment with this community was in sharing ideas and theories about the continuity and mechanics of the series that weren’t always elaborated on in the stories.  Filling in the cracks of the series and talking about it with other fans was a rewarding experience, and those efforts are the “detective work” that I’m most proud of.  Ultimately, that’s all I was trying to do in finding the production materials too - I was just seeking to gain a better understanding of the series and what shaped it. 

I’ve come to realize that trivia and possessions really weren’t my goal (though I admit I do enjoy having displays of the production used Egyptian timer, Rickman timer and Slidewave generator in my home).