I would say: I don't think anyone should be using AI to recreate Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo. I don't agree with the aesthetic of creating a digital pastiche of the actors this way; new SLIDERS content with those characters should either have actors playing the roles (original or recast) or feature writers bringing the characters to life in prose. A simulacrum of Jerry, Sabrina, Cleavant and John is only ever an impression and an imitation rather than a genuine portrayal. Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker in THE MANDALORIAN and THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT may be a technical marvel, but it has absolutely no acting; it's just repurposing Hamill's old audiobooks and animating old photos.
As someone who has spent a lot of time watching Jerry, Sabrina, Cleavant and John, it was never (entirely) about just typing out their lines. It was instead about capturing how they made me feel.
Jerry O'Connell is 48 years old but has the impetuous energy of a 10 year old. In my fanfics, wanted to capture Quinn's pensiveness and improvisational spirit first and recreating Jerry's line delivery -- the weighty burden of wisdom matched with the thoughtful thrill of adventure -- that's important, but without the characterization beneath it, it would have been an imitation of Jerry's line deliveries without the heart of Quinn Mallory.
Sabrina has this openness in her presence: openly earnest, openly defiant, and I wanted to render how she made Wade a person who wears her heart on her sleeve in ways that can be very low key but also extremely aggressive when pushed.
Cleavant has this brilliance to his performance where he's playing a kidnap victim who is helpless and traumatized, but Cleavant's comedic sensibilities make Rembrandt's situation funny instead of terrifying and disturbing. I wanted that pinpoint perfect sense of comedy to my version of Rembrandt. Too many well-meaning fanfic writers give Rembrandt vaguely ebonics-based dialogue or have him end every sentence with "girl" or "Q-Ball" without thinking about Cleavant's masterful grasp of tone within a scene.
I guess the Professor is actually quite straightforward: he's verbose and bombastic and egotistical, but it's also important to indicate that the Professor has known terrible suffering and tragedy in his life as well as humiliation and disrespect. His pompous, blustering manner conceals insecurity and a painful sense of failure -- although I didn't do a great job with it because my Professor Arturo is generally the cool old man, a wise sage who has almost no dark side whatsoever. The Professor, to me, is Professor Dumbledore. He is Gandalf. He's Temporal Flux. He's Dad. The perfectly imperfect father.
Ultimately, I think SLIDERS should be more than just animating old photos and sound clips, even as fanfic. It might be a neat proof of concept, but I don't want to see an AI recomposition of the original quartet. I'd rather the actors play them.
I cannot stress enough in the name of Quinn's flannel, Rembrandt's shiny jacket, Wade's sweater and the Professor's bow-tie that the opinions of ireactions do not represent those of SLIDERS.tv.
