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Somebody showed me this deep fake - I think they could pull it off for real!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OJnkJqkyio

And as things evolve during the script process, they can easily grow.  Everyone has their own process, but I tend to start with one scene and build everything out from there.  When originally conceived as a pure Sliders story, my only thought about game show world was the scene where Arturo has to return something through customer service and play Password.  Starting with that core, I then figure how we get to that scene and how we exit from the situation it creates.

For the second episode of Declassified, the one scene in my mind’s eye was the government’s secret menagerie of nightmares collected for study from parallel worlds.  Cell after cell filled with living fire and Zercuvian flat-landers and the like; all kept with the intent to weaponize or otherwise co-opt for the US government.

To escape their predicament, the Sliders hit the switch to open all the doors and release the chaos.  But the one scene to build on?  A cell opens, and the camera starts near the floor panning upward in a slow, ominous manner.  A figure steps forward.  We are panning up as it spreads its arms and puffs its chest soaking in the power of its freedom.  We pan up to the face now fully feeling this must be a “big bad”.  We see the face.  It is an “Invasion” era Kromagg.

Then we hear a clunk sound. The Kromagg jerks.  It’s been hit in the back of the head and falls to the floor unconscious.  This reveals Gibbs standing behind it with a now dented fire extinguisher.  While looking down at the Kromagg, Gibbs exclaims,

“I’m NOT gonna go through THAT again!”

And that would be the last time we ever see any Kromagg or monster in my version of Sliders.  lol.  Of course, by that point we would know Gibbs is a seasoned Slider; the implication is that he must have dealt with them before just like we did as viewers.

I have done a few other things, but I still hold hope that some of them may be published one day. As a result I’ll keep them to myself for now.

My favorite of them is something I pitched to Marvel Comics.  Usually a writer is writing a Marvel character hoping to leave some little stamp on the trademarked character; but I came to realize that my idea was actually unique, and I was trying to get Marvel to put their stamp on it.  There’s really no need for that.

I tried a few submissions to Marvel, though.  At the time Marvel had some “Unlimited” series meant to showcase short stories from new talent.  I decided to take a stab at X-men.  The guidance from Marvel then was that X-men was meant as an allegory for teen angst.  I had always thought the X-men was an allegory for civil rights, so that was a head scratcher; but if they wanted teen angst, I would give them teen angst.

Below is the submission titled “Reflections”.  It’s in a different format than the Declassified script, so hopefully it will display correctly:

https://www.docdroid.net/ivrsLeK/unlimited-x1-doc

The script was rejected, but Marvel said it was because they were not accepting new characters at that time.  In hindsight, I think Marvel was planning for their cinematic future.  Any new character in an X-men story could only be exploited by Fox due to the licensing agreement in place.  Marvel was wanting characters they could exploit for themselves through their coming movie studio.

Another of my favorite purely Marvel ideas was a Spider-man story that I never expanded into a formal script.  The idea was to present a perspective about how we view police men and women, but doing so through Spider-man.

Some in society use the police as a tool to “scare their kids straight”, but that sends the wrong message in my opinion.  Though there are bad eggs, the police are often the only people who will help you; and if you are too frightened to ask, then you may have thrown away your chance for help.

The story would have featured a child in the Marvel Universe.  To discipline her child, the mother would use Spider-man as a bogeyman - “if you don’t behave, then Spider-man is going to get you.”  The problem?  This child’s bedroom is directly underneath Peter Parker’s apartment; so every night, the terrified child sees Spider-man crawl by his window.

The child grows up.  One day in New York, he rounds a corner to find Spider-man in pitched battle with Mysterio - the villain who can make all fears come to life.  Spider-man attempts to remove the now grown child from danger, but he fights back in a panic flailing against the fear that Spider-man was about “to get him”.  The distraction leads to Spider-man being injured and in danger of dying.  Can childhood fear be overcome to save a life?  Will there finally be a realization of who the good guy really is?  Anyway, I thought it was an interesting idea to explore.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts; and you hit on something that’s definitely true.  I knew realistically that this would be a one off film if it even happened at all, but I couldn’t help myself - I crafted it with the idea that it would be an ongoing series.  As such, there were areas left unexplored and unexplained along with seeds planted for future revelations.  A second episode would have picked up where we concluded as though the second part of a movie.

I also followed an inspiration (or lesson) from another work - the Nicholas Cage film “Adaptation”. Truly, I don’t think this was a very good movie, but that seemed to be the point.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation_(film)

The movie begins to meander into the weeds as it goes on, but it takes a turn when Cage’s character seeks out an experienced author for advice.  The author explains that you must have a simple goal for a story - you must have a character that goes on a journey to find themselves changed some way in the end.  Without that, the story is just a bunch of stuff that happened.

Working from that principle, I fashioned this story as a journey for Alli.  She begins believing she will find adventure but grows to learn that the actual experience she jumped into can be frustrating and mundane.  Even in another reality, life is still life.

Future stories were intended to follow the same journey model.  Episode two would be Gibbs’s journey.  Episode three would be Reese’s journey.

When I originally wrote Sliders: Declassified, I also wrote some notes about where the future would lead (in some cases over a long period of time - like a season or series wide arc).  You can read them below.  I will warn that they may make you unhappy; but like all ideas, nothing was set in stone.

http://freepdfhosting.com/ea01747f41.pdf

With regard to Bennish, you are definitely correct about my presentation of him; and you’ll see that in those notes.  In truth, I was not sure Bennish would even be a permanent part of a cast - the series idea was built around the other three.  But Bennish was chosen as a kind of touchstone to the original show that would get us started.  Also, while the hope was for Jason Gaffney to take part; I was also hedging my bets.  If you could find the right actor, you may be able to pull off a “good enough for fan film” Bennish with a wig, sunglasses and a goatee.

Another interesting note about Bennish comes in the years that followed the original draft of Declassified.  It became clear over time that a fan film wasn’t going to happen; so I considered making it an online comics strip series.  I was inspired by The Ten Doctors on Rich’s ComixBlog:

https://comics.shipsinker.com/downloads/

It was a simplistic pencil drawing presentation as storyboards.  No splash pages or creative arrangements; just a grid of boxes filled with story.  I contacted Rich about adapting Declassified, but he was not interested; so I then tried some other artists.  During that search, artist Michelle Bridges did some preliminary work but ultimately did not go forward.

It was during this phase that I re-thought Bennish a little.  With the time that had passed, Bennish was likely pushing forty by the time of Declassified.  What would he be like at that age?  I had the idea that Bennish’s worst nightmare had come to pass - he was losing his hair.  But not content to accept it, he took action.

In 1995, Bennish looked like he could have stepped out of the counter culture of 1965.  Following that scale, a Bennish in 2010 would look like he stepped out of 1980.  What was the counter culture movement in 1980?  Punk.  What if Bennish shaved half of his head clean but left his remaining long hair hanging down one side?  He could have the recognizable profile at one angle, but a new dimension of character added.  Bennish could be a man struggling to accept middle age.

Though not exactly what I envisioned, Michelle created this mock up for the look I’m talking about:

http://freepdfhosting.com/69698c2421.pdf

In any case, I thought you may enjoy some more insight into where it could have been going.  The entire thing was really just a fun thought exercise for me; it made me feel like I did when I was explaining plot holes in the show.

I can only think of one way their social distancing plan might work in the Arrowverse; and even it wouldn’t work well over a long term.

They could have each show rewind with characters having to re-live a past season; and then they could deep fake the hell out of it to make it new.  It would be a kind of “meet me half way” between live action and animation; but faster and less expensive than animation.

For instance, the only person in the room filming this Forest Gump scene was Tom Hanks; but it looks like a fully populated scene

Peacock is planning a new Battlestar Galactica for their service, and that’s likely not cheap.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/ba … ease-date/

For each person, the question comes down to why do you love Sliders?  Is it the characters?  The actors?  The overall concept?  The writing?  Is it the brand? (which includes everything - especially the name).

I think the brand is important because it draws in people.  The fond memory is there labeled as Sliders; and millions of people watched Sliders on Fox.  There is pop culture that can keep it alive in people too (as I’ve noted on this board several times, that little blue vortex still occasionally pops up in shows sending people to other dimensions; and I don’t believe that to be a coincidence).

To give an example of why I feel brand is important, I would cite the original Knight Rider vs Viper.  Both shows feature a man and his super car fighting crime.  Both shows can be considered successful - Viper lasted for four seasons on network and in syndication - Viper made people some money.  But how many of you even remembered Viper until I brought it up now?  I bet you’ve remembered Knight Rider more despite its failed reboots that didn’t respect the brand.

I’m really not interested in some other show that evokes a legally distinct echo of what I’ve loved. It would be extremely hard to capture my heart as a fan; that space is already filled.  I would only be left comparing the pretender to what I loved; and it would likely never live up to that memory.  The same can be true of a total brand reboot; but at least the brand is there to draw you in and give it a chance.

I would note an exception in Orville, though; and I was initially repulsed by the idea.  The only reason I tried it was because of the creators involved, and they didn’t disappoint.

So, what would I like to see with Sliders?  A continuation with new characters that play in the same multiverse as the original series.  It could retain the brand; give the new show room to live and breathe; and leave the door open to occasionally visit the memories as more than a subtle wink.  It would be part of the family and not a stranger at the door.

I had wondered what label they would give an economic downturn following the Coronavirus shut down.  I bet this one will stick - “The Great Repression” (since we technically did it on purpose):

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-g … 2020-04-27

I agree that Weaker Sex was more focused on the male perspective, but I get the impression that the original idea teased in that article may have been a little too much on the female side.  To capture both perspectives and draw in viewers, I would try looking at a more common ground.  What do men and women argue about?  Give something both can relate to so that viewers are engaged; and then take the opportunity to maybe get them to see things from a different perspective.

One example would be from an article I read years ago - the argument over what to eat.  The woman usually asks the man, and then the man often says it doesn’t matter to him and defers to the woman to try to please her.  This instead has the opposite effect and angers the woman.  And if the man does present a decision, the woman starts giving other options which angers the man because he thought the problem was solved but she wouldn’t seem to accept it.

Why does this happen?  The article presented that what the woman is looking for is options to choose from - not to be told what to do or have it thrown back to her to decide alone, but instead be given options she can pick from.

So how do you use this to present a different way of looking at things through an alternate reality where women dominate?  Maybe you could have a world where everything is polled.  Arturo goes to buy an ice cream; he makes his decision; but the clerk presents three other options before allowing him to buy. This starts to annoy Arturo who demands his ice cream; and then the clerk says he needs to fill out a satisfaction survey.  Arturo loses his cool.

The theme would be “How Arturo learned to love and loathe the poll”.  Keeping the election plot line, we could see that primaries aren’t used on this world - for instance, you could have 3 Democrats to choose from on general Election Day.  Arturo would be the unusual sole candidate for his party; polls showing that people like his solitary strength as one, clear choice that cuts through what many voters have come to see as a muddy process of uncertainty.  This then leads to the crying stunt to throw the election and shatter what people perceived Arturo to be.  Arturo would no longer be an easy, quantifiable certainty.

It’s not much different than what we got, but it opens a door for discussion of why primaries are not used on this world.  Then we can explore what women want and how Arturo’s decision to cry ultimately didn’t give him what he wanted (losing the election).  Why?  Because after the crying, women were given their multiple options to choose from in one man - the ability to choose drew them in where they were previously repulsed by his one dimension.

Anyway, one rough idea of how the differing viewpoints could be presented.  There’s a lot to mine there in the differences between how men and women think; and better avenues than just plugging a woman into the bully mentality or sexual predator stereotype.

I tend to watch both CNN and Fox because the truth usually lies in the middle of two opposing viewpoints.  Tonight, I was watching Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox; and something said did concern me.

Tucker was interviewing the governor of New Jersey, and he asked the governor a question regarding the so far limited arrests for social distancing as people attend worship services across the United States.  Tucker asked the governor, “Did you consider the Bill of Rights before imposing orders that restrict those rights?”  The governor responded “No.”  Tucker then asked what gave the governors the power and authority to suspend the Bill of Rights?  The governor replied “That’s above my pay grade - you’ll have to ask someone else.”

I know the argument - it’s for the public good that we temporarily suspend what the United States was built on.  I imagine some would angrily say “You’ll get your precious rights back soon enough!”  Is that where we’re at?  Do we have a guarantee we’ll get it back?  There’s even theoretical talk during a CNN interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci that “immunity papers” will need to be presented to rejoin society.  They checked your papers in Nazi Germany too.

We tend to rationalize giving up our rights in inches, and it reminds me of a poem by Martin Niemöller titled “First They Came”.  It was about the genesis of Nazi Germany.

How much will we let them take before we’re unable to speak any longer?  Something to think about.

The management of that factory waited until 240 people were sick before they shut it down?   Around 3,700 people work at that plant; so that’s around 6% of the work force.  To give perspective under that thought, that would be like waiting until we knew 20 million + people in the US were infected before we shut it down.  I said “knew” - a certainty like that plant was looking at.  I’m not talking about the ones not known.

Strange.  It’s not walled for me.

Well, to give an excerpt of the fun alt-history part:

It wasn’t, but it looks like it led to this.  I doubt we would see this happening without that animated pitch.

Looks like this may have actually paid off.  Netflix was one of the studios Bluth pitched the animated film to, so it likely started the discussion.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2020/03/27 … -starring/

And Ryan Reynolds as a live action Dirk the Daring could be pretty perfect.

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

So has chloroquine stopped working, or is it just not being used for some reason?  I was surprised to learn about it only tonight - it’s not being reported at all.

https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/202 … icial.html

The important part at the bottom - it can work as a preventative measure blocking the virus.

Look at the date of that article - February 20.

You would probably want him to.  One of the things that got Trump elected was low turn out in certain areas; and this virus would depress turn out.

Trump would be better served to let the election happen as planned.  Trump’s passionate supporters would turn out; but that passion just isn’t there for Biden.  Biden’s votes have been driven by fear; and in a battle of fears, fear of getting infected is going to win.

Superman has already been picked up for a full first season:

https://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/superma … by-the-cw/

Green Arrow & The Canaries won’t be decided on until May:

https://screenrant.com/green-arrow-cana … uggenheim/

And speaking to Didio’s successes, I think another thing that hurt him recently was Batman stumbling a bit under Tom King.  I liked some of what King was doing, but it was an unrelenting destruction of Batman that lasted too long, and I believe ultimately readers were so beaten and bruised that they crawled away.  The failure of the Catwoman marriage was probably the turning point for many as it was a gut punch after the build up to it.

And as many have noted, when Batman sales are hurting - usually the higher ups start paying special attention.

Probably most relevant here given the comics creators and modern ideas that have been involved in these shows, but Co-Publisher Dan Didio was just fired by DC Comics.  Didio has been the guiding voice behind DC’s direction over the past 10 to 15 years (including what he’ll most be remembered for - the New 52, which rebooted all of DC Comics).

Didio was about to reboot all of DC Comics again with his Generation Five initiative (aging up Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, etc into their 80’s with their children and other characters taking over the monthly titles).  The problem?  Didio was reportedly doing this with big ideas but without a real plan; he was just going to improvise it as it went along and let his employees carry the burden (much as he did with many during New 52).   But this time, his editors started quitting en masse, and that got Warner’s attention.

So with Didio gone, where will DC go now?  Lots of rumors, but I think it’s safe to say we won’t see a line-wide reboot with Generation Five.  That’s likely to now go down as an interesting footnote in history.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2020/02/21 … dc-comics/

This is how Flash season one should have ended.  Barry makes Eddie realize the truth about himself, and Eobard blinks out of existence.

https://nypost.com/2020/02/14/the-flash … ut-as-gay/

Joking aside, I’m honestly shocked they didn’t do it given the themes these producers constantly promote.

The problem was Margot Robbie:

https://nerdist.com/article/margot-robb … r-journey/

She wanted an R-rated film.  She wanted Birds of Prey.

I remember another article that mentioned Warner wanted changes after the test screenings, but Margot fought them on it.  Ultimately Warner let Margot have her way; but I’m now thinking Warner may have seen some the same problems we see now (such as there being no need for an R rating just to preserve a few curse words).

A funny thing would be if they did a story highlighting how J’onn inadvertently created a memory “virus” that’s spreading through person to person contact because he altered so many people.  Slowly the world starts to lose it’s mind, and the only cure is to reset everybody to their post-Crisis life with no memories of before.

It would be an interesting way to point out all the differences to us, and then wipe it all away so we don’t re-visit the issue forever.  It’s kind of what happened in the comics as Crisis became this vague memory of something that happened but people really weren’t sure what.

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So I see the news popping around, and I had to watch the newest episode out of sheer curiosity (so their ratings scheme worked on me at least).  A new black female Doctor that somehow fits into the Doctor’s past even though we know all of the regenerations.  Of course, theories are flying around about parallel universe doppelgängers or lies or other tricks; but I think the answer could be so obvious that it wouldn’t even cross anyone’s mind.

First, the new mystery Doctor’s TARDIS interior looks a lot like the very first TARDIS.  Second, this new Doctor is on the run from the Time Lords.  This fits pretty nicely with the second Doctor, and there’s some grey areas in his history near the end (including the Time Lords altering and erasing his memories before he regenerates into the third).

There may be no regeneration involved here.  This new, forgotten Doctor could be the second Doctor in extreme disguise.  After all, to the social issue obsessed people producing this show, what’s better than a black female Doctor?  A post-op transsexual black female Doctor.

And I’m done again.

Just watched the premiere episode of a new NBC show, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”:

https://www.nbc.com/zoeys-extraordinary-playlist

I really enjoyed it.  It’s not anything ground breaking - just a quirky female lead in kind of a mash-up between Eli Stone and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.  It’s also set in San Francisco and even had a passing joke about parallel realities.  But I think what really hooked me in was her family.  For the past four years, I lived that with my father; and it just really caught me off guard seeing that all of a sudden in this crazy little show.  They’ve got a fan in me.

If I remember correctly, the Peacekeeper Wars situation is caused by some contractual issues.   I think Universal / SyFy completely funded Peacekeeper Wars, so use of that series has to be negotiated separately from the main series.

A similar thing happened with Firefly.  Fox kept the tv rights and only allowed Universal the right to make feature films.  A stray thought here - Disney owns Firefly now.  Hadn’t thought of that.

I enjoyed it; but I wish we could have had more of *that* Adam Driver in the rest of the series.

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I saw a little Han Solo coming out in him at the end there.  It was a good fit.

Even though Routh was the big star, he had really fallen after that.  But for his accident and resulting death, I’m confident Christopher Reeve would be somewhere in the Arrowverse too (Reeve would only be 67 today).  His star never rose past Superman, though; and even his time as Superman lost its luster at the end.

I think it’s because the formula is tired at this point.  They try to dress it up a little, but it’s really the same thing every time.  I think they would be better served to flip the script and give the opposite angle.

SkyNet had to realize it could lose in its gambit to kill Sarah Connor, so wouldn’t it have an insurance policy?  What if it also sent a contingent of Terminators into the future?  As we know from our own history, we often become complacent and don’t respect the past after a few hundred or a thousand years.  This “sleeper cell” of Terminator infiltrator units could suddenly appear out of their time bubbles; blend into society, and go about the business of resurrecting SkyNet.

That idea would give us a look at something new - where does humanity progress to after defeating the machines?  And with no specific target this time, this could bring Terminator back to its horror roots as we’re left to a guessing game on who is a Terminator.  Lastly, they could still have their near unstoppable nature for a reverse reason this time - the Terminator technology is so antiquated that humanity is too advanced to deal with it.  Similar to how Moore’s Battlestar Galactica presented that the Galactica survived the initial attack because it was still hard wired and off the grid.

That’s what I think the franchise needs.  Go full on sci-fi while also taking us back to the horror roots of the unstoppable monster.