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Coffee with a new lady friend:

ERIN: " -- and my dream's to become a rich dental hygenist and then a really big name stand-up comedian and then move somewhere warm but cheap. Do you have a dream?"

ME: "Hmm. No."

ERIN: "What? You have no dreams?"

ME: "Uh. I had one. But... I mean... I achieved it."

ERIN: "You achieved your dream?!? What was your dream!?"

ME: "When I was a kid, my favourite TV show was SLIDERS and it had a really troubled production history where by the fifth season, three-quarters of the original cast had been fired and killed off and the original creator had fled the series after the second season and the show ended on an unresolved cliffhanger. And my dream was always to bring the show back somehow -- and I wrote six screenplays that resurrected the original characters and gave them a new adventure and a happy ending and I put it all online and now I'm happy."

ERIN: "SLIDERS -- that's that time travel show, right?"

ME: "Sure."

ERIN: "So -- you have no more dreams. That was your one dream and you did it. And now you have nothing to live for any more."

ME: "Nothing at all! It's why I thought I'd start dating again. I seem to have a thing for stand-up comedians. I've been trying to date a stand-up comedian or two."

ERIN: "Oh, I don't see us dating. You're nice and honest and easy to laugh with, but you're like ten years older than me and you dress like my dad."

ME: "Well, that is heartbreaking, but I really like talking about SLIDERS, so I'm pretty satisfied with this outing."

ERIN: "We can still, like, hang out and be acquaintances if you don't try to hit on me after this."

ME: "I'd take that deal. You're very funny. I'm a fan. I'd like us to see each other socially; I'm not concerned with the details. My clothes are based on Tom Welling in Season 8 of SMALLVILLE. Do I really dress like your father?"

ERIN: "Yes."

I can't wrap my head around what Sony is trying to do with their portion of the SPIDER-MAN cinematic rights. They've agreed to a sharing arrangement with Marvel Film: Marvel can use Spider-Man in their films and provides consultation and creative guidance on Sony's Spider-Man features. Sony receives no money for Spider-Man's appearances in Marvel movies and Marvel will receive no payment for Sony's Spider-Man movies.

But Sony is also producing a feature films with Spider-Man's rogues gallery: a feature film starring VENOM is coming and there are plans for movies starring Silver Sable, Black Cat, possibly the Sinister Six and Jackpot -- and according to Kevin Feige, neither the upcoming VENOM nor any subsequent spin-off films take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel isn't involved with them.

According to Sony, VENOM and Sony spin-offs will neither contradict nor tie in to MCU films or Spider-Man films, nor will they feature Tom Holland's Spider-Man -- which has me wondering how these films can qualify as Spider-Man spin-offs if they don't originate in an actual Spider-Man film.

It'd be fair to note that DAREDEVIL, JESSICA JONES, LUKE CAGE, IRON FIST, PUNISHER and DEFENDERS have never been acknowledged by the MCU feature films nor did they spin out off the Avengers' movies. But Sony is producing films with characters who, in the source material, were introduced as antagonists to Spider-Man; the Netflix properties existed alongside Avengers in the comics as opposed to originating from them. The Black Cat and Silver Sable are conceivably fascinating standalone characters, but Venom and the Sinister Six always existed in opposition to Spider-Man and Sony is trying to sell Venom based on its connection to the Spider-Man brand from which Venom will be isolated.

I don't get it.

My Moto G5 Plus started freezing up and crashing and I got really excited -- I thought I'd have an excuse to buy a new phone! But then, it turned out that the Google app was being a memory hog and ripping it out of the phone freed up about half a gig of RAM, so it's all fine now.

**

I feel the need to build a website to prove that I can do it. Except -- there's only one thing I can think to build a website around right now. I could build a website for SLIDERS REBORN -- a site that presents the content in a format that is suited to reading on the webpage itself without needing to download PDFs (although you could). Plus a side blog in which I'd present all the behind the scenes discussions that Transmodiar, Nigel Mitchell, Slider_Quinn21 and I had regarding the project.

I just wonder if I *should*. I've made no secret of how I often feel like SLIDERS REBORN is the crowning -- and only -- accomplishment in my life to the point of writing faux-web articles and pastiches of real-life reviewers reviewing the series and writing imaginary podcast transcripts and even roping REWATCH PODCAST into performing a REWATCH segment where they presented the REBORN storyline in their review format. I don't know if I should sink any more time into it. Except... I guess, since all the content is written, it would merely be building the structure of the website. Is that okay, or is it a backwards step when I should really be moving onto newer (if not better) things?

I don't think it's that Gunn wasn't worried; it's that he knew what he was doing would have blowback, especially with his past history.

We can agree on that.

I have a niece. I would have no problem with her working on a Gunn project, but that's a very personal thing. I understand why Gunn said and did the things he did about pedophilia. He wanted to be funny and he thought the way to achieve that was to provoke people through insensitive remarks about sensitive subjects. The party photos are *not* photos of a party celebrating pedophilia; they are photos of a party celebrating the TO CATCH A PREDATOR TV series which is, as the title indicates, about exposing pedophiles and getting them arrested. The party is mocking pedophiles.

The problem is that this mockery and mock-celebratory atmosphere and the jokes have absolutely no concern whatsoever for the victims. No consideration for the grief and loss and broken lives and shattered spirits that result from being sexually assaulted when one is most vulnerable. No thought to how someone who has been raped as a child would feel from seeing those words and photos. It's unacceptable. It's disgusting.

Gunn's brother, Sean, said that those jokes (and presumably the photos) came from a time when Gunn was finding his voice. He found a bad one. He set it aside and found a good one. He has changed a lot. His later humour indicates he realized that intimacy and connection were better sources of laughs than empty provocation. He clearly regrets those jokes and those parties -- which is why, when Disney fired him, he didn't protest. I do not think Disney was wrong to fire him. It was impossible to retain him; he was making family movies, not DEADPOOL or RICK AND MORTY.

I don't see what is remotely arrogant about a citizen criticizing the job performance of a civil servant. I mean, Gunn lives in America, right? Why should any one be afraid to be critical of any elected official in the US? Why should we want anyone in a supposedly democratic nation of liberty and free speech to be afraid to criticize those in power?

Slider_Quinn21's already run through how Gunn became a very different person. I have nothing to add. I think Gunn knew there would be consequences for speaking out and he has accepted them and will continue to work as a director, just not a Disney director. In his public remarks, he blamed no one, accepted responsibility and accepted the situation.

It's unlikely DS9 and VOY will ever get HD upgrades. TOS and TNG were remastered because, at the time, there was a market for DVD and blu-ray with the remasters aimed at this home video market. But with the streaming, the days of people buying physical media to watch TV and films are gone. The TOS sets sold well; the TNG sets came out during the rise of streaming and didn't sell in sufficient numbers to justify the expense of the upgrade, hence DS9 and VOY remaining in SD.

http://www.treknews.net/2017/02/02/why- … lu-ray-hd/

I dunno. I think it's charming to watch 480p, 4:3 video. I enjoy it. TOS suffers from even standard definition because Shatner's stuntman is too obvious; it was filmed to be seen on a flickering, often black and white cathode ray tube.

I think Informant and TF have really nailed the problem with modern TREK. THE NEXT GENERATION lacked the classic STAR TREK's conflict, drama, creativity, passion or excitement. But it presented a fascinating future world that the viewer longed to live in; a world of holodecks, artificial intelligences, androids, replicators, tablet computers, mobile communications.

As a child, I loved exploring some facet of the Enterprise-D for an hour at a time -- but now we mostly live in that world and STAR TREK writers are unable imagine our technological future. (Can anyone? I am not a world-builder.)

You might enjoy the SPOCK VS. Q audioplays as a two-man play. But going back to the question of the future: can Patrick Stewart's return move TREK forward, or is it staying on the treadmill? And it's great for Patrick Stewart to return to STAR TREK, but there have actually been three Picards. Which one will return?

The STAR TREK was not the aspirational utopia some remember. It was, however, a charismatic, funny adventure series with *characters* who were aspirational icons. After it went into reruns, fans developed this pseudo-religion around Spock's values of logic, compassion and consideration for all life that Gene Roddenberry bought into.

With THE NEXT GENERATION, Roddenberry demanded that every writer script every character and all Starfleet and the entire Federation as reflecting Spock's values -- when the original series had always presented Spock as merely one person. Everyone on TNG was to be a slightly more human Spock; Picard was the head Spock and written as strict, humourless, dour and a bit passive.

Stewart played against that, softening Picard's attitude, and by the third season, the writers had found ways to create drama that still respected Roddenberry's rules. And they wrote Picard more in terms of Stewart's performance, presenting Picard's emphasis on conference and delegating as heroic and he became unique in a landscape of 90s action heroes. And they made the Enterprise-D a compelling wonderland so full of intrigue and curiosity that it could bypass the muted conflicts.

The TNG movies took Picard in a strangely conventional direction: he was wrestling with Malcolm McDowell on bridges, getting in gunfights with Borg, shooting away at drones and racing all-terrain vehicles. The TNG movies took the moral, heroic philosopher and tactician of TNG and made him like any other action hero.

If Picard is to return, I think the writers should capitalize on what makes Stewart playing Picard so interesting: he is a peacemaker. Kirk tricks bad guys into blowing themselves up, Picard tricks bad guys into coming over for coffee and realizing nobody has to be the bad guy. That's a character worth bringing back.

I'm going to respectfully ask Grizzlor to take it to the politics thread. Thank you.

Spoilers for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE VI

Ethan Hunt's a curious character. I find him fascinating and full of depth and points of interest and M:I6 added a new layer: he is mentally incapable of sacrificing others to save more. In the opening sequence, Ethan's trying to retrieve stolen plutonium cores, but his teammate, Luther (Ving Rhames) is captured.

Ethan can give up the plutonium in exchange for Luther or grab it and run. Ethan shoots Luther in the chest (and vest) and uses the ensuing confusion in the firefight to save his friend -- but he loses the cores and the world is threatened with a nuclear cataclysm. The CIA declares that Ethan is no longer a workable asset and his superiors chastise him for his unwillingness to let his teammate die.

Later in the film, Ethan is undercover as a villain and the other villains shoot and wound a police officer and prepare to execute her. Ethan absolutely must allow this murder to maintain his false identity to retrieve the plutonium; Ethan draws his gun, shoots the villains, blows his cover and is able to radio for medical assistance.

The film is cautiously ambiguous and refuses to declare Ethan's decision correct and in fact has every character declaring he was wrong. And it's arguably wrong except as rendered onscreen, Ethan Hunt is a genius who can pull wins out of these impossible odds and is willing to endure the insane beatings and physical assailments that these decisions force him to go through. Ethan believes in trickery, cleverness, strategy, subterfuge and improvisation; to kill innocents and sacrifice lives is going against the very reason why he's a secret agent: he's out to save lives.

It draws on elements in M:I5 where Solomon Lane, an evil secret agent, starts using Mission: Impossible tactics to create mass casualties and attack civilization. Lane tells Ethan that Ethan is an agent of the establishment upholding a corrupt system through violence and bloodshed just as Lane once did.

Ethan replies that Lane is blaming the system when the truth is we are all complicit and it's how we respond to the system that reveals who we are, Lane through murder and cruelty and Ethan with making every effort to save whoever he can wherever he can. It's an extremely common thread in all my favourite heroes: Clark Kent, Chuck Bartowski, Ethan Hunt -- and of course, Quinn Mallory.

But the weird thing is -- I strongly doubt any of this depth and meaning is all that intentional. Ethan Hunt isn't really a character; he's an avatar for Tom Cruise and how Tom Cruise wants to present himself to the world. In M:I1, Tom Cruise's onscreen persona was that of a slick, smug pretty boy and Ethan was the same. In M:I2, Cruise wanted to present his relentless physicality and Ethan became a John Woo action hero engaged in martial arts ballet and motorcycle parkour.

During M:I3, Cruise was trying to play construction workers and deadbeat dads at the time. Ethan became a man with a civilian life. By M:I4, Cruise's three divorces and public standing as a crazy cultist had set in stone, so Ethan became a crazy daredevil.

And by M:I5, Cruise was seen as Hollywood royalty who made movies that he generally produced himself with him selecting writers and directors that put his work slightly opposed to the Hollywood mainstream while still being inside it, and Ethan settled into being a rogue within the establishment. And the values professed by Hunt in M:I5 and M:I6 are designed to justify the Ethan character never doing anything too political or controversial by reducing his mission to saving people.

It's the same with Quinn Mallory. I see so much depth and wisdom and philosophical humanity within Quinn -- but it's mostly there because Torme wrote Quinn as a toned down Steve Urkel but Universal and FOX preferred that he hire a heartthrob actor. Quinn and Ethan are two people I'd like to be, but I would never try; you could only ever fail to try to become a fictional character.

So, I just got home from MISSION IMPOSSIBLE VI. While I found the first four M:I films a mixed bag, ROGUE NATION and now FALLOUT have been fascinating to me because secret agent Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, has seemed to me like a vision of what Quinn Mallory would be in his forties and fifties. As redefined by writer-director Christopher McQuarrie from M:I4 - 6, Ethan is an independent operator of boundless experience who is augmented by technology and the ability to improvise to become a superhuman spy just as Quinn was augmented by the opportunities of technology to become a science hero.

And then there's the performance. Jerry O'Connell viewed himself as the next Tom Cruise; I think Ethan is what Quinn ultimately became (assuming Quinn was somehow restored after Season 5 and resumed his adventures and travels). Cruise's characterization exudes urgency and charisma but also tremendous weight. He makes Ethan a man who is constantly looking around the world, assessing situations and solving problems -- it's very much like Quinn in Seasons 1 - 2, especially in "In Dino Veritas" when Quinn is looking around the cave and plotting an escape from the dinosaur.

Quinn's genius is presented more scientifically than Ethan's, but both Quinn and Ethan have a tactical brilliance that allows them to survive anything (other than contentious contract negotiations between actor and studio). And Cruise gives Ethan a near-identical intensity to Quinn's except Ethan in ROGUE NATION and FALLOUT has more exasperation along with a slightly dulled resignation to the insanity that is his life -- something I imagine Quinn would have from his forties onward.

The writing also strikes me as very Quinn-esque -- partially in Ethan's cleverness for escaping one tight situation after another. Ethan is matched with and against August Walker, an assassin played by Henry Cavill. FALLOUT makes it very clear: Cruise is not a better fighter than Cavill. Cruise is older than Cavill, has more injuries, less endurance. Physically, Ethan is simply outmatched against Walker. But Ethan can improvise, react to surprises, work with his team whereas Walker is ultimately just a fighter and while Ethan can fight, his cleverness is what keeps him and others alive.

The other half of Ethan is his concern for human life. FALLOUT repeatedly has Ethan punished for choosing to save one life even if it potentially endangers many more down the line. The entire plot of the film is based on Ethan choosing to save one person which allows the villains to secure a weapon of mass destruction. Throughout the film, Ethan is forced to consider allowing individual innocents to be killed to stop a larger cataclysm; Ethan repeatedly declares that the individual person matters just as much as the billions endangered.

This is an attitude I gave Quinn in writing the 44-year-old version of him in SLIDERS REBORN: his travels through the multiverse gave him the belief that each person and their choices matter greatly and individuals are just as important as everyone collectively. Quinn voices this view in the final REBORN script when Smarter Quinn declares that it's alright to destroy the multiverse and replace it because the dead will live on through doubles in a new reality, a measure Quinn rejects on the grounds that each individual iteration of a person is important in their own right.

Every movie has had Ethan choosing trickery over violence and concerned with human life, but it's only with the sixth film now that Ethan's presented as someone who rejects the idea of sacrificing one person to save more. I based SLIDERS REBORN's Quinn mostly on the fifth M:I movie highlighting Ethan's improvisational insanity, but it's weird how REBORN's extrapolation of Ethan's character in ROGUE NATION, used for Quinn Mallory, turned out to be dead on accurate for Ethan too in FALLOUT.

Maybe *I* should write the next MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie... except my disdain for cults and Scientology probably makes me untenable for Tom Cruise.

At this point, you're asking us to tell you what your opinion would be if you watched the episode, and since only you are you, the only way to answer the question of whether or not it's worth watching for that plot thread is for you to watch it yourself and determine if it was worth your time.

Okay. My Episode 5 is up... https://archiveofourown.org/collections … rd_Project

... and I'm not sure why Episode 4 is late/absent/missing in action while the rushed, cranked-out-in-four-hours Episode 5 made it out ahead of Episode 4 and on time, but the irony is hilarious.

So, my script is going to be posted tomorrow. It's been very interesting. Lauren obsesses over SUPERNATURAL the way I obsess over SLIDERS, but to the point of religiously attending SUPERNATURAL conventions. The high point of the last one was apparently this pajama party sleepover event with Kim Rhodes (Jody) and Briana Buckmaster (Donna), both of whom feature in my story, so I asked Lauren to take my draft and rewrite all the dialogue based on her personal interaction with the actresses and their line deliveries and sense of timing. It seemed to go really well; the beta reader said that Jody and Donna sounded just like Jody and Donna... so hopefully, it'll work for everyone else as well or the results will be viewed as an absurd caricature of a caricature which would be instructive as well.

Well. I turned in my draft. Honestly, this whole experience has made me think that I've been overthinking my stories because less time to write this one forced me to make it all as simple as I possibly could.

I'm wary of ever 'correcting' Temporal Flux on anything relating to Tracy Torme, but when I talked to Torme in 2000, I asked him about the Harlan Ellison/James Cameron legal action and settlement. Torme said he didn't know what I was talking about, and I told him the account that he'd heard Cameron bragging about ripping off Ellison and that he'd urged his friend Ellison to call his lawyer.

Torme said that this wasn't true and as far as he knew, Cameron was a big science fiction fan and drew on many disparate sources for inspiration, some of which were likely THE OUTER LIMITS. Torme denied being the source of Cameron claiming he stole Ellison's ideas.

However, Cameron was *definitely* caught declaring his plagiarism during a STARLOG interview which was the basis for Ellison threatening to sue.

It's possible Torme was not keen for a fan to draw him into any discussion of a legal agreement that was confidential and settled. Torme also said that he greatly enjoyed Ellison's company and politely disagreed with Ellison's caustic attitude to Gene Roddenberry, saying that Roddenberry was a charming, warm and wonderful teacher, mentor and friend. But had I been in Torme's position, I too would not have spoken poorly of my colleagues and deceased former employers.

Well, I can report some pseudo-news on this: some fans are doing a virtual season one of WAYWARD SISTERS and I have been invited to write Episode 5 of this series. It seems I will be writing the meta episode where Donna and Claire are investigating sightings of a monster made of typography that's targeting a group of fans hosting a fanfic reading.

Transmodiar banned me from writing any more fanfic after SLIDERS REBORN, but... my niece is really upset about WAYWARD SISTERS not getting picked up and I have to do this for her. You understand. (It's just going to be a short novella.)

Something I only really noticed on rewatching AGENTS OF SHIELD -- the characters of Piper and Davis. Piper was somewhat prominent in Season 3. Piper was a SHIELD agent played by Briana Venskus, first appeared in Season 3 to hunt Kree Reapers and despite barely having any dialogue and not even a last name, the actress made an immediate impression thanks to a masculine demeanor, a short haircut and slightly nervous crush on May. She made small appearances throughout Season 4 and was one of the agents aboard the plane while Jemma and Daisy were in the Framework.

When she returned in Season 5 as an unwitting traitor to SHIELD, I struggled to remember who she was, but on this rewatch, I realize that she actually stands out quite well as a SHIELD Agent #3 character and I'd just forgotten her due to the unusually long hiatus between Seasons 4 - 5.

Another character whom I didn't notice was Agent Davis, who again is not given a full name and actor
Max Osinski joked that Davis' full name is Davis D. Davis. (I assume the D. stands for Davis.) He showed up in Season 1 as an anonymous suit in Episode 9, then returned in the Season 4 premiere as a deadpan presence. Like Piper, he was one of the agents aboard the plane while Daisy and Jemma were plugged into the Framework, and in the Season 4 two parter, he's attacked by the unstoppable superpowered android Aida, yanked off camera and Fitz regretfully leaves him for dead.

I had completely forgotten this character if I ever noticed him at all, but on this rewatch, I suddenly realized that this character returns in Season 5, Episode 12 among the numerous SHIELD agents Deathlok brings to the Lighthouse and Coulson says Deathlok got Davis medical attention just in time. Hilariously -- in Episode 19, we see Piper exclaiming to Davis that the way he survived Aida with only a scar is incredible and that he must tell the entire team the story, to which Davis replies, "I don't think they really care."

Later, Yoyo tells Davis and Piper, "I can't be killed" (on account of the timeloop) and Piper, looking at Davis, says, "That makes two of you." Two episodes later, we see Deke and Davis together. Deke has just heard the story of how Davis survived Aida and reacts with, "That is totally nuts." Davis replies, "No, no joke. It really happened. Good thing too, otherwise Aida would've killed me." Piper proceeds to grouse that she's had to listen to Davis' story numerous times. Deke protests, "That's the most incredible story I've ever heard, and I'm the same age as my grandparents."

... it just never registered with me until this rewatch.

There's a hilarious moment in Season 4, Episode 16, "What If... ?" in which Dr. Radcliffe runs into Grant Ward and shrieks, "Hive!" before realizing it's a Framework simulation of Ward. I know it's a small thing, but it always stands out to me because SLIDERS was so spectacularly bad at it. I remember this particularly obnoxious moment in Season 4, "Slide By Wire," where Rembrandt doesn't seem to know who Maggie's husband is despite spending two episodes around the guy in Season 3.

Are you referring to Sliderscast? Those guys are very irregular.

The Rewatch Podcast did all five seasons of SLIDERS here, however: http://www.goldenspiralmedia.com/page/9?s=sliders

And they did a special Sliders Rewatch finale here: https://earthprime.com/podcast/sliders-rewatch-reborn

I just, in a forum PM, sent you a link to a draft of the PDF. It obviously doesn't have your revisions, but I made a title page and put a graphic on Page 4 and put it together because I wanted you to get a sense of how the PDF can look. I'm so excited that you'll be releasing DECLASSIFIED!

**

My niece writes SUPERNATURAL fanfic and my opinion is generally that she struggles with converting Sam and Dean into prose. The characters were designed to be performed.

When I put "Slide Effects" together as a screenplay, it first like an awkward substitute for an actual TV episode. But then, as I included more description than a real teleplay would contain and put all the acting into the script, I found that that the script wasn't a second-rate alternative – it was a meaningful experience in its own right. At the time, I attributed that to the content being an actual story from the show's creator and because it could lay some claim to canonicity.

Later, I read SLIDERS DECLASSIFIED and I realize TF wrote it as a blueprint for a film or a comic and not a product for the audience to consume. But I found his script had all the strengths of the screenplay format. His scene descriptions choose sparse but select details that evoke a wider picture. His dialogue is tight and immediate and conveys characterization within a few sentences. His exposition is efficient and clear. His script pages are filled with personality, warmth and that trademark SLIDERS charm and humour of the Torme era.

I loved SLIDERS DECLASSIFIED as a script and it made me realize that the screenplay format was not a substitute for TV and should and could be treated as a valid medium in its own right with its own strengths and advantages to capitalize upon.

Every page left me with a goofy smile and I think that's why I proceeded to write eight more SLIDERS scripts and focused so heavily on comedy myself. That said -- while I have a lot of messages from readers telling me that SLIDERS REBORN felt like SLIDERS, I think what they really meant was that the *sliders* felt like the characters we all knew (although Transmodiar considered them overwrought, overwritten, overly exaggerated caricatures).

In contrast, SLIDERS DECLASSIFIED felt like SLIDERS: it has none of the original cast, but it has that elusively comedic and satirical tone, that whimsical sense of gentle dramedy, that charming sense of wit and insight touched with uncommon wisdom voiced by flawed and troubled characters. Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo aren't in DECLASSIFIED, yet DECLASSIFIED truly captures the spirit of the show whereas REBORN only captured the fan memory of the characters.

The only issue I take with DECLASSIFIED now: I felt there was a role in there who was clearly written for Allison Mack which is never again going to be a good thing to feel.

I will do this for you. I still have the Word file. And I just got some new screenwriting software that can convert a Word document into a properly formatted screenplay (although some minor edits are needed to correctly mark dialogue as dialogue, transitions as transitions, etc). It'd also be good to get a proper version of the SLIDERS: DECLASSIFIED logo as you envisioned it. I will send you the PDF in a few days.

In 2018, I think any hypothetical SLIDERS comic would have to start fresh and create a new version of the characters going sliding for the first time. I think any TV show or movie would have to do so as well.

**

From a 2000 standpoint -- all the emotional difficulties Slider_Quinn21 raises are too convoluted for SLIDERS because they interrupt what should be a very simple, straightforward premise: the sliders are lost in the multiverse trying to find a way back home. Addressing merged Quinns and Kromagg invasions and Kromagg Prime origin stories and resurrecting Wade and wrong Arturos is too complicated, and even pilight's dismissals (Quinn and Wade don't remember their traumas!) would still require addressing them. There is, in fact, a decidedly unsettling undertone to saying Wade should simply forget that David Peckinpah raped her.

It's also counterintuitive to bring all this continuity into a story only to say none of it matters anymore -- and it's also far more than could fit into a TV episode or a comic book, and even if you could, what is the point of any version of SLIDERS that's more concerned with resurrections and de-mergings than it is with exploring parallel worlds? That's probably why TF's LOST SLIDES concept is getting such a good response in this thread.

Slide_Override's dismay at wiping out 65 episodes is well-founded, but that's like a patient protesting life-saving surgery because he's scared of sharp objects. Tracy Torme seemed conscious of this as well when he came up with "Slide Effects" as a Season 4 premiere that would erase everything after "The Guardian" and when he suggested it as a hypothetical Season 6 premiere. His story would have had Quinn waking up after "This Slide of Paradise" or "The Seer" to discover time rewound to the Pilot with home uninvaded, Wade and Rembrandt and Arturo alive and well and only Quinn remembering sliding. The emphasis would not be on the traumas of Seasons 3 - 5 but rather Quinn's disorientation and confusion at his present/past situation and how sliding doesn't seem to exist.

The situation would be revealed as a Kromagg trick along everything after "The Guardian." But, as a concession to the 21 or 65 episodes he'd be erasing, Torme had *Quinn* retain all his memories while Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo would only recall Seasons 1 - 2 and the first five episodes of Season 3. That was his solution to SlideOverride's protests: one slider would remember all of it, the other three would only remember the Torme era. Is it a perfect solution? There is no perfect solution, but a post-"Slide Effects" SLIDERS is certainly in a better place than a post-"Seer" SLIDERS.

More importantly, "Slide Effects" is a story that could fit into a 42 minute timeslot or a double-sized comic book whereas neither Slider_Quinn21 nor I nor pilight nor Temporal Flux have ever been able to present a point-by-point repair process that could reunite the original characters within those constraints. I think even a resurrected Ernest Hemingway would defer to Torme's story on this one.

Admittedly, it's a moot point now since no hypothetical 2018 revival of SLIDERS should be trying to turn clock back to 1996 -- at least not without a successful reboot first (whether in TV or comics). The reimagined BATTLESTAR GALACTICA TV show had a lot of media tie-in comics and inevitably, that led to a comic series set in the original continuity (although it wasn't the first) and that paved the way to a crossover where the 2004 BSG characters met the 1978 version in a universe-spanning storyline.

I think Slide Override is referring to "Heat of the Moment," and I totally agree with his criticisms.

Anyway. A SLIDERS comic book in 2000 shortly after the series was cancelled is a very different proposition from a SLIDERS comic book in 2018. TF's story ideas were all about his craft for world-building and social satire and none of them depended on being set in 1995 - 1996 aside from the presence of the original sliders.

2000
In 2000, SLIDERS fans were pretty traumatized by the events of "The Exodus," "Genesis," "Mother and Child," "Revelations," "The Unstuck Man," "Requiem" and "The Seer" which mutilated the cast and concept. It's a fair argument that it's emotionally disengaging to reveal the Season 3 - 5 events happened to a different set of sliders.

However, one could argue that the damage was done on TV already and picking up from the Season 2 finale and having these sliders encounter a post-"Seer" Rembrandt would be repairing harm that happened long before the comics saw print.

I think a comic book version of SLIDERS in the 2000 - 2005 era featuring Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo would have needed to find some way to cast off the shadow of Seasons 3 - 5. I personally imagine SLIDERS #1 (2000) seemingly set between Season 2 and Season 3. But then a year in, there'd be a SLIDERS #0 (2001) to adapt Tracy Torme's "Slide Effects" and reveal Seasons 3 - 5 were a Kromagg simulation and the comic has been replacing Season 3 and onward all along. Hopefully, a full year of issues would have gotten the audience so invested in the comic that deleting Seasons 3 - 5 would be acceptable and dodge SlideOverride's objections.

Something similar happened with IRON MAN comics. Tony Stark was, in 1995's "The Crossing," transformed into a mind-controlled murderer who'd been in thrall to a villain since his origin story and then killed off. When Tony returned in 1998's IRON MAN #1, he was heroic again and there was no reference to "The Crossing" until 2001 when it was hurriedly explained that Franklin Richards, Mr. Fantastic's son with reality warping powers, had restored Tony and the mind-controlled period was retconned, scaled back to a few months. Most readers were so pleased to have Tony back that when the explanation for his restoration came three years later, it felt like old news.

2018
With 2018, I think a comic book SLIDERS shouldn't return as an extension of the TV show but instead be a reboot that exists on its own terms. But the Pilot story is *very* long for the 22 page comic book format, so it'd probably be best to open with SLIDERS #1 (2018) again featuring the sliders having already been sliding for 3 -6 months, explaining their situation to a guest-character and do the origin story later.

When the NEW 52 BATMAN comics started up, there had been a recent reboot, but the NEW 52 BATMAN comics didn't start from day one. They started in the present with Batman already established with about 5 - 10 years of experience. After a period of time, there was a flashback arc, YEAR ZERO, which depicted Batman's origin.

Remix?
POWER RANGERS comics have gotten away with shifting the 1993 show into a floating timeline of perpetual now because the 1993 show seemed to be set in a bubble of a few standing sets and reused footage from Japanese superhero shows. The original POWER RANGERS had no backstories for its characters and showed nothing of how the larger world reacted to aliens on the moon launching weekly attacks on a single American city. The comics have a nearly blank slate outside the onscreen bubble and their filling it in is satisfying even if those details don't always line up with the show itself.

I don't think SLIDERS could get away with shifting the 1994 - 2000 continuity into a floating timeline since SLIDERS' world-building wasn't vague and foggy like POWER RANGERS. I also don't think the SLIDERS concept does well when satirizing a period of time that's over two decades in the past. SLIDERS should always be set today.

Also, while the actors on POWER RANGERS were treated terribly, the characters were inoffensively written off: they left the team to join a peace summit, compete in gymnastics, become archaeologists and some returned from time to time. Nobody reads GO GO POWER RANGERS and feels sad about how Billy's search for a place to belong will end with him getting shot and blown up because he wasn't. The LOST SLIDES approach would have gotten SLIDERS back at the height of its powers, but the dark future of Seasons 3 - 5 would have been a problem.

One of my favourite episodes of the SLIDERS REWATCH podcast had Tom and Cory talking about how they thought "The Alternateville Horror" was a fun episode, but it was hard to enjoy anything lighthearted when home had been invaded and Wade was in a rape camp. I think LOST SLIDES would have had a similar problem.

I have never seen a single HALLOWEEN film, but the continuity fascinates me.

The comic book medium is very different from TV and audio (or fan fiction). The average comic is 22 pages, and the page count to undo Seasons 3 - 5 would have been gargantuan. Telling lost stories set during Seasons 1 - 2 would have immediately presented the SLIDERS concept and characters: four friends, parallel worlds, boundless adventure, entry level stories.

That said, in 2000, the majority of the fanbase *wanted* the original sliders resurrected, the loose threads wrapped up -- and I just don't think TF's lost stories approach would have served that wish. However, SLIDERS should never be presented as a back catalog of unfinished plots to be resolved. I can't think of anything worse than opening a new SLIDERS comic book with a post-"Seer" story and all its complexities.

If the comic book adventures of Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo had sold well and led to spin-offs, it'd have been nice to do a "Slide Effects" extra-sized comic in which Tracy Torme's plot for resurrecting the original sliders in a single story with the ongoing comic set after Torme's story and Seasons 3 - 5 no longer casting a shadow over the ongoing comic. But that's a 2000 - 2005 proposition. After that point, I think a SLIDERS comic would need to present SLIDERS as a comic book, not a tie-in to a TV show that was no longer in production or recent memory.

If we were to do a SLIDERS comic today, I would probably advise going with something similar to TF's approach. Start with the sliders already sliding, introduce the characters and concept immediately, have them convey their backstory to a guest-star in a single-issue premiere comic. Indicate that this is a rebooted version of the sliders, not an extension of the 1995 series. If the comic did well, then there could conceivably be a SLIDERS: ORIGIN mini-series that would be a comic book adaptation of the pilot set in the modern day -- and perhaps a SLIDERS CLASSIC series to resolve the 1995 series as well.

The QUANTUM AND WOODY comic book, a superhero series, was in a similar position. It was a popular superhero comedy from the 90s that unfortunately got cancelled. When the comic came back a few years ago, it was a reboot with a new writer. However, once the reboot series was up and running, the publisher hired the original writer to come back and do a wrap-up series for the original series continuity.

You remember correctly. Don't you always? Isn't that your gimmick?

If there were ever a show that was tailor made for bottle episodes, it was STAR TREK. I mean, the standing sets are built, they have to rent them regardless and the show is set on that ship. TREK has always been more about conversations than whizbang action; even the rebootquels courting Americans wanting to see things explode were largely oriented towards characters cracking wise and making jokes.

Oh for God's sake.

Jerry O'Connell has been desperate to return to SLIDERS since 2002 and referring to phone calls with Robert K. Weiss and then Tracy Torme. After 16 years, it's time to stop seeing his comments as anything other than wishful thinking and longing.

I try to live with respect and love for all fans of SLIDERS, but there is one jackass I cannot stand, and I'll refer to him as "Stephen Jensen" to avoid identifying him. He once bragged to SLIDERS fans in the forums that he was going to do something about bringing SLIDERS back by phoning Tracy Torme to demand Torme revive the show. During this call, he pitched to Torme an alternate Season 4 that would feature Sabrina Lloyd as Wade having joined the Kromaggs and would explain why the Kromaggs looked different in the original Season 4 and reveal that the Earth in "Genesis" wasn't the one in the Pilot.

Torme had no idea what the hell he was talking about, having never seen Season 4. As someone who has seen Season 4, I wondered why Jensen wanted an alternate Season 4 to explain plotholes in the material he was dismissing. Or why he felt he needed to subject Torme to this idiocy. Or why Jensen tried to convince fans that this absurd phone call with Torme meant SLIDERS was building momentum for a revival.

Torme mercifully cut him off during this deranged phone call by telling Jensen that Jensen would need an agent for Torme to hear anymore of his pitches -- at which point Jensen asked SLIDERS fans if they could refer him to an agent, presumably so he could continue to harass Torme with his continuity porn.

The basic truth that Torme attempted to convey that Jensen dutifully reported but willfully ignored: NBCUniversal owns controlling interest in SLIDERS. As the creators, Torme and Weiss likely own 10 per cent of the property; they cannot make a SLIDERS revival happen unless NBCUniversal wants one. NBCUniversal has no intention of using the SLIDERS brand, but they also won't sell it. SLIDERS is (conceptually) worth some figure that, collectively with other intellectual properties, adds to NBCUniversal's total worth just by existing in their portfolio.

Until NBCUniversal seeks to revive SLIDERS, phone calls with the co-creator won't move SLIDERS any closer to a revival than it's been for the last 18 years. That's the case whether the phone calls involve Jerry O'Connell or a delusionally self-important fan with no grasp of how intellectual property rights are held and managed.

Jerry O'Connell, when he left SLIDERS in 1998, was metaphorically drunk on his own (middling) success as a lead actor of a FOX show and some small roles in SCREAM and JERRY MAGUIRE and literally drunk because nightclubs and bars would cover his tab in exchange for Jerry's minor-league celebrity drawing other celebrities and notoriety to their establishments. Jerry bragged about how his handsome face would make him a Tom Cruise level success and mistook SLIDERS fans for Jerry O'Connell fans. He declared that his returning to SLIDERS in any capacity was "not a possibility."

But Jerry didn't commit to the acting craft with anything resembling Cruise's intensity and he certainly didn't commit to a proper workout regimen and he chose projects based on whether or not his character was presented as an attractive man -- which was how Jerry preferred to see himself after he'd spent his childhood overweight and ignored by (shallow) women. And he proceeded to destroy his film career with a half-assed performance in MISSION TO MARS, a lifelessly hungover performance in the disastrous comedy TOMCATS, and then he nearly got fired off the movie DOWN UNDER for being overweight again (due to his drinking and diet).

He buckled down, got sober, got into shape, gave a passably mediocre performance for DOWN UNDER -- only for the film to bomb with test audiences and be reshot to focus on a computer generated kangaroo that had originally appeared in a single scene. The movie failed at box office. Jerry O'Connell's leading man film career was over and his last feature role of note had featured him playing second banana to a digital marsupial.

During this catastrophic time in his career, he was also passed over for the role of Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's 2002 film as Sony decided they would prefer to hire a real actor. That and DOWN UNDER seemed a humbling experience: after that, Jerry went from being dismissive of SLIDERS to declaring he would gladly return to play Quinn Mallory, that he'd love for the show to come back, preferably as a feature film, that he'd been talking to the creators -- and since then, we've been on the same cycle.

I'd speculate that Jerry saw his film prospects end and finally realized: Quinn Mallory was his one shot at cultural immortality the way Shatner and Nimoy will always be Kirk and Spock -- and he threw it all away. Jerry is actually a *very* talented writer: his NARCOTICA comic book was brilliant, but when he got creative control on SLIDERS in Season 4, he didn't try to affect the stories outside of getting his brother and favourite drinking buddy to be on the show.

I do think that Jerry now appreciates what he could do for SLIDERS and what SLIDERS could do for him, and he clearly longs for the Vancouver days as expressed in a brief video interview. He keeps a photo of himself with Sabrina, Cleavant and John in his kitchen. He watches Season 1 - 2 episodes with his wife and children. Jerry's first car was a used auto he bought from John. Jerry continues to draw on John's tutelage in preparing for his present-day roles and since 2008, Jerry's acting has had all the nuance, detail and care that he had from 1994 - 1996.

Jerry has turned his life and career around as a successful TV actor, (amateur) athlete, husband and father. He really does want SLIDERS back. From 2002 to 2006, I think he was desperate for Quinn to save his film career. Since then, he's accepted he's a TV actor, gotten his skillset together -- and now he misses his old castmates AND thinks Quinn could give him the stardom of which he always fell short. His affection for SLIDERS is genuine, but phone calls with Torme are simply that -- affection. And we need to stop getting excited for SLIDERS to be revived every time someone who misses SLIDERS swaps Christmas cards with Torme whether that someone is Jerry O'Connell or Stephen Jensen.

Christopher McQuarrie, director of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE V and VI, doesn't really like computer generated imagery when it's central. Both he and Tom Cruise prefer practical effects as much as possible.

In M:I2 (directed by John Woo), when Cruise had a hunting knife thrust within a few centimetres of his eye, that blade was a real weapon with the actor stabbing towards Cruise's face at full force at Cruise's insistence -- with the cable holding the knife back painted out in post. In M:I5 (which McQuarrie did direct), when Cruise is running across the wing of a plane and hanging onto its side as it takes off or when he's performing motorcycle students or diving into pools, he's doing it for real -- although other cars and harnesses and rigs are removed and the backgrounds are altered.

There's a genuine sense of reality in the McQuarrie's approach: there's wind blowing into Cruise's eyes when he dives off a building and his body is really coiled to anticipate the hundred-foot drop and you can see Cruise's terror and determination as he performs jumps and takes punches and handles falls as Ethan Hunt, a human crash dummy of a secret agent. And Cavill would be made to do the same things.

I don't think McQuarrie would be happy having one of his actors perform such scenes with a CG mustache; it would affect what parts of the actor's face are visible and the actor would adjust his expressions accordingly. I don't think McQuarrie would want a CG creation at the center of Henry Cavill's shots when he wants the actor to control the physicality and tone of the performance, not a special effects artist in a computer lab. CG is for adjustments, not centerpieces, in McQuarrie's world.

McQuarrie will accept CGI for painting out cars, cleaning up backgrounds, removing safety gear, changing a pool into a lake, etc., but he wants his actors to be reacting and performing according to as much physical reality as he can offer and a CG mustache is the antithesis of McQuarrie's aesthetic.

McQuarrie would also not be happy having an actor film chase sequences and fight scenes with a fake mustache that would need to be reglued, rearranged, realigned and restyled for every single shot. "That's just not Mission," he would probably say.

As for why the character had to have a mustache, well -- Cavill has a friendly face, he's playing a deadly assassin who has no issue with casualties in contrast to Ethan Hunt's decidedly non-lethal approach. A mustache makes Cavill look more sinister, it's part of the look that McQuarrie designed for this role and McQuarrie was responsible for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT, not JUSTICE LEAGUE.

From Season 3 onward, THE FLASH has been treating Dr. Wells like he’s Tom Cavanagh doing stand-up and sketch comedy. Dr. Wells is, unfortunately, the victim of a fate suffered by many characters: he has been modified to resemble the actor even if such a direction doesn't serve the character.

The original Dr. Wells was effective as Barry's mentor. He had wisdom tempered with humility due to the particle accelerator disaster. He was often arrogant and modest in the same scene. He was Professor Arturo. He was Temporal Flux. He was Dad. That's why it was heartbreaking to learn he was Eobard Thawne with a face stolen from the man he'd murdered. Naturally, the producers wanted to keep Cavanagh's gift for playing Barry's mentor in Season 2 and they introduced Harry, intending for this double from Earth 2 to be the heroic, gentle Wells whom Cavanagh played for one episode before Thawne killed the character.

But Cavanagh resisted this, asking that Harry be arrogant, caustic and embittered by a secret except, unlike Thawne, Harry was trying to save his daughter Jessie. Season 2 ended with Harry saving Jessie and returning with her to Earth 2. And as much as fans enjoyed Cavanagh and the Harry character, there was no sensible way for the Season 2 finale/Season 3 premiere to explain why Harry would leave his company, daughter, home, career and dimension.

Cavanagh was still on contract, so Season 3 introduced HR, the goofy, silly, scientifically illiterate alternate of Harry. If you've heard MIKE AND TOM EAT SNACKS, a podcast where Tom Cavanagh and his friend Michael Ian Black review snack foods and go off on absurd conversational tangents of nonsense, you'll realize: HR was Tom Cavanagh's real-life personality. Season 3 didn't even bother to pretend that HR was just an excuse to keep Cavanagh present and simply had Tom Cavanagh playing himself.

The show attempted to make HR the human resources manager at STAR Labs. The comic relief. The stand-up sketch artist. And while Cavanagh was appealing and hilariously annoying, HR lacked any purpose because he wasn't a scientist, fighter, investigator or anything that a superhero team actually needed. The show ended up using him as a decoy to be killed off.

Season 4 brought Harry back, having alienated his daughter off-camera during the summer hiatus. They could have used this excuse in Season 3 but having it happen between Seasons 3 - 4 avoided tarnishing the happy ending of Season 2. Instead, Harry had been given a year with his daughter, driven her crazy, been kicked out of his own STAR Labs -- and now it made sense that he would gravitate to the only other people who would tolerate him.

But the Season 4 Harry was not the effective mentor, teacher, father figure with a dark side that he'd been in Season 2. He no longer guided the team or offered his experience or provided his brilliant and ruthless efficiency. Instead, Harry now rambled awkwardly (like HR), he blustered without being able to back it up (like HR) and was repeatedly upstaged and undermined as a self-sabotaging incompetent (like HR). Jessie Quick's rejection shook Harry, shattered his self-esteem, left him insecure and pathetic. He had been arrogant and certain of his genius, but his own daughter not wanting him in her life made him feel unwanted by everyone. He was off-balance. It made sense.

What didn't make sense, however, was Season 4 taking this tragic drama of a broken man finding humility -- and playing it all for laughs. Harry spent Season 4 teamed with Cisco and having his ego further punctured in lighthearted ways. The conflicts between Harry and the team weren't serious. Harry acknowledged that he was a shadow of his former self, but such scenes emphasized comedy rather than pain. Harry was so deflated that he attempted to augment his mental prowess but instead gave himself brain damage. This was the bottom of his downward spiral where Harry had lost his company, daughter, home and now he would lose the only thing he had left, his intelligence -- except this too, was presented as comedy with Harry stumbling about and banging into furniture and meandering through conversations.

Why? Season 4 already had Ralph Dibney for comic relief, so why was Harry's arrogant ineffectualness presented with such lightweight, conflict-free goofiness? Why not have him play the role he was created to play: to be Barry's ruthless, trustworthy, caustic, encouraging mentor and teacher? 

I'm actually not sure. I wondered if Cavanagh asked for Harry to be written as Tom Cavanagh so that Cavanagh could play himself, but Cavanagh actively pushed for Harry to be a darker character in Season 2. Did playing himself/HR in Season 3 go to his head or did it go to the writers' heads? Cavanagh, in interviews, remarked that the writers had felt the team lacked a comedy character in Season 3 and decided to have him fulfill that function. They clearly kept the same mindset for Season 4.

Since Season 3, the writers have not tried to write Dr. Harrison Wells, physicist engineer genius whose intelligence is exceeded by his ego and whose vast overestimation of his competence leads to bad situations but also a drive and ambition that inspires his students and teammates. The writers are simply writing Tom Cavanagh's stand up comedy for him. This is particularly glaring with the Council of Wells. In theory, this would have been an intriguing look into different paths Harrison Wells might have taken. In practice, it was a chance for Cavanagh to affect silly accents which he loved doing on MIKE AND TOM EAT SNACKS.

This approach of using Cavanagh for comedy was also present with the Earth 1 Eobard Thawne we saw in CRISIS ON EARTH X. He wore Tom Cavanagh's face for no adequately explained reason. Cavanagh played Thawne with a cartoonish glee, a ridiculously exaggerated enunciation and over-the-top silliness. This clearly wasn't the master manipulator Cavanagh played in Season 1 or the arrogantly superior villain Matt Letscher presented in LEGENDS. This was a caricature.

There's also a problem that's somewhat beyond Cavanagh. Barry already has a father figure in Joe. Dr. Wells was essential for scientific support and urging Barry into his superhero career for Seasons 1 - 2, but Joe came to accept Barry as the Flash. Caitlin and Cisco grew sufficiently to take over as Barry's doctor and engineer. Iris stepped up as team leader. Wells became redundant, the writers tried to keep the actor around by putting him with Cisco and having Cavanagh be funny, but it only suggests that Cavanagh mastered Wells so thoroughly and taught Barry so fully that there's nothing left to do with Dr. Wells and he's been reduced to being his actor.

Maybe it's time Cavanagh left the show... or joined LEGENDS OF TOMORROW with Wally?