History YMMV / Sliders

* GeniusBonus: The ForWantOfANail element is often implied, rather than stated outright, or is assumed but turns out to be wrong. For instance, the pilot assumes that the difference is that the US lost the Korean War, triggering the Domino Effect, but a passing remark [[spoiler: implies that the Soviet Union and China united to become TheEmpire, rather than viewing each other as enemies as in the real world. The novelization adds that the differences went further back than that, such as Franklin Roosevelt surviving his fourth term and being succeeded by one of his earlier vice-presidents (who ran as an independent), the Emperor of Japan being executed at the end of World War II rather than being made a figurehead in the government (which played a large part in Japan falling to communism), and a few other things.]]

** Logan St. Clair, a once-off villain who was meant to be a recurring character but who never re-appeared due to ExecutiveMeddling, but whose wild popularity with the fans led to her being included in seemingly half of the Sliders FanFics ever written. As an [[MirrorUniverse evil]], [[EvilIsSexy sexy]], [[OppositeSexClone female]] version of Quinn? Of ''course'' she's uber-popular!

** The entirety of season five was a pain to watch. Especially [[spoiler: getting rid of Jerry O'Connell in one of the lamest excuses for a recast, and de facto killing one of the most beloved characters of the show. All within one Slide. It goes downhill from there.]]

* AcceptableEthnicTargets:
** The French, as seen in "[[Recap/SlidersS02E12Invasion Invasion]]".
--->'''Arturo:''' Nasty French planet - filled with shifty, back-stabbing, croissant-sniffing nitwits!
** In Season 4, this was a RunningGag for why the Sliders weren't aware of the norms of a given world:
--->"We're from Canada."
* AccidentalAesop: [[spoiler:Start with FailureIsTheOnlyOption. Any time an actor leaves, [[AnyoneCanDie kill off his or her character]]. Let the bad guys TakeOverTheWorld. Have an [[PsychicPowers oracle]] foretell that EverybodyDies and then [[CutShort end the series]] on a CliffHanger. What else can viewers conclude, but that every sliding timer is an ArtifactOfDoom built by a MadScientist using knowledge ManWasNotMeantToKnow.]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The episode "[[Recap/SlidersS03E12SeasonsGreedings Season's Greedings]]" had lots of Christmas ads that were very commercialized. Nowadays they seem normal. Even at the time, fans made jokes about how the Sliders must be home if they'd landed on a world where Christmas was overly commercialized.

* HarsherInHindsight: In "[[Recap/SlidersS04E20TheChasm The Chasm]]", Rembrandt hallucinates Quinn accusing him of abandoning Wade in Kromagg prison. "[[Recap/SlidersS05E11Requiem Requiem]]" would reveal his DarkSecret. Instead of trying to fight off guards as he previously claimed, Rembrandt ignored Wade's pleas for help because he thought it was a Kromagg illusion. He realized too late he was wrong and carried the guilt around ever since.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The American Revolution resulted in the invention of Democracy... Though in the context of the episode, democracy wasn't "invented" by America, but its widespread adoption and popularity was inspired by the American Revolution. There was similarly no French Revolution, etc., etc., and the world of that episode is said to be run by a "handful of monarchies." The natives being unfamiliar with the concept can be explained by its rarity and lack of popular support.

* AlasPoorScrappy: As "meh" as Colin was as a character, he most certainly did ''not'' deserve the fate de suffered in the Season 5 premiere.

%%* AlasPoorScrappy: Colin.

* UncannyValley: The first time the Kromaggs appeared, they were just sufficiently not-quite-human to make them uncomfortable to look at. Subsequent returns made them look more human.

* {{Misblamed}}: While there's a lot to blame producer David Peckinpah for, the trend of movie rip-offs in Season 3 isn't one of them. The real culprits were the FOX executives that he answered to.

** Before becoming [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Trip Tucker]], Connor Trinneer played Samson in "[[Recap/SlidersS04E02ProphetsAndLoss Prophets and Loss]]".
** Before breaking out on ''Series/{{MADtv}}'', Will Sasso played recurring hotel clerk Gomez Calhoun in the first two seasons.
** A pre-Buffy Creator/JulieBenz is in one episode, and Sook Yin Lee plays a soldier in the pilot.
%%* TheScrappy: Most of the characters in later seasons.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Wade starts the series as a borderline tomboy in appearance (leather jackets, jeans, boots, boyish haircut etc.) and by season 3 has completely shed this in favour of crop tops, tight dresses, short shorts and a more feminine haircut. Whilst the real world reason for this is almost certainly the backroom politics that occurred after Torme left (and would eventually lead to Sabrina lloyd leaving), in-universe it is possible that Wade felt threatened by Maggie. After all, up until this point, she never had any real competition for Quinn's affections beyond the odd GirlOfTheWeek. Now suddenly she finds herself travelling with a big-breasted, often hyper-competent soldier whom she intensely dislikes after what happened to Arturo. In addition, season 3 Wade is now a hardened sliding veteran who has come out of her shell - possibly this HotterAndSexier version was always the ''real Wade,'' or possibly this Wade is just more willing to take proactive steps when something or someone is troubling her.

** "[[Recap/SlidersS01E03Fever Fever]]": [[MadScientist Dr. Darren Morton]] is a scientist responsible for releasing a deadly [[SyntheticPlague plague]] on to his world. Dr. Morton secretly inflected this world's version of Quinn Mallory with a virus he designed, giving him a clean bill of health and letting him infect millions of people with this virus. Dr. Morton's reason for releasing this plague is to [[KillThePoor kill off the poor]], with the poor being left to die in the streets or sent to concentration camps, while the rich live in comfortable. The agency Dr. Morton runs, the [[StateSec California Health Commission]], is given emergency powers to deal with this situation, effectively turning California into a police state. Dr. Morton manages to capture the original Quinn Mallory and experiments in him to see if he has any of the virus left in his system. When another scientist helps Mallory escape, Dr. Morton has her shot.
** "[[Recap/SlidersS03E05TheDreamMasters The Dream Masters]]": Master Cardoza and his chief lieutenant Gerald Thomas uncovered the power to master dreams themselves and turn San Francisco in their horrific kingdom. Cardoza, believing in ruling through fear, brutally suppresses dissent with anyone who proves a problem tortured and destroyed. Gerald is a vicious sadist who murders a man by mental torture [[DisproportionateRetribution just for bumping into him]], and when he pursues heroine Wade to no avail, he attempts to [[MindRape torment]] and destroy her with her worst fears. It is revealed that Gerald and Cardoza, along with their followers, also throw those who oppose them into irreparable comas, and then attempt to kill the Sliders team to keep their stranglehold on San Francisco, believing their powers allow them to do all they want.

** Part of the problem is Quinn's ability to both dive headlong into danger without thinking through the consequences of his actions and his frequent failure to adapt to any culture that doesn't conform to his late 1990s American suburban morality. Easily the best example of this is on Egypt World where he attacks a couple of the Pharaoh's men without really the first clue as to why they were trying to forcibly detain a woman, nearly gets his friends killed inside of a pyramid they were thrown into as punishment, causes them to miss their slide window potentially trapping them there forever, and then willingly leaves the faulty yet proven original timer behind (it still technically worked, they had just missed the slide window which added another 29 years onto the clock) in favour of a brand new yet completely untested one. For all they knew, this new sliding device (which was designed to slide a single casket one time) may not have had enough power to go anywhere else.

** Logan St. Clair, a once-off villain who was meant to be a recurrer but never re-appeared due to ExecutiveMeddling, but whose wild popularity with the fans led to her being included in seemingly half of the Sliders FanFics ever written. As an [[MirrorUniverse evil]], [[EvilIsSexy sexy]], [[OppositeSexClone female]] version of Quinn? Of ''course'' she's uber-popular!
** Conrad Bennish, Jr. is amazingly popular with the fanbase. He only appeared in four episodes thanks to ExecutiveMeddling, but he was an instant fan favorite. He probably appears in more fanfics than even Logan.

* GeniusBonus: The ForWantOfANail element is often implied, rather than stated outright, or is assumed but turns out to be wrong. For instance, the pilot assumes that the difference is that the US lost the Korean War, triggering the Domino Effect, but a passing remark [[spoiler: implies that the Soviet Union and China united to become TheEmpire, rather than viewed each other as enemies as in the real world. The novelization adds that the differences went further back than that, such as Franklin Roosevelt surviving his fourth term and being succeeded by one of his earlier vice-presidents (who ran as an independent), the Emperor of Japan being executed at the end of World War II rather than being made a figurehead in the government (which played a large part in Japan falling to communism), and a few other things.]]

** Near the end of Season 4, "[[Recap/SlidersS04E19MyBrothersKeeper My Brother's Keeper]]" features a clone of Quinn, with a lot of talk how he is and isn't actually Quinn. The clone is only designated as [[LastNameBasis Mallory]], leading to Rembrand to question, "They couldn't even give him a first name?" Keep that in mind a few episodes later when Season 5 starts.

** Fourth Episode of Season 1, ''The Prince of Wails'', became similar to the premise of Anime/CodeGeass, where the crushing of the American Revolution led to America being ruled by British Monarchy and rigid hierarchy being the norm with the "republic"--especially United Republic of Europia and Japan--being ruled by collection of aristocratic houses rather than the masses. Both series also ended up using the failed American Revolution's ideas to reignite democratic governance by the protagonists.

** Universally, season three, during which Maggie was introduced, Professor Arturo had a [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge dropped on him]], Quinn Mallory ceased being the genius he once had been, and almost all plots were movie ripoffs. The debate is how much the show recovered, if at all.

** Some monsters are painfully obvious CG. The dinosaurs aren't the worst; there are also a huge spider, a giant beetle and "spider-wasps" that all look really out of place in a live-action series. And then there's the worm...

** The entirely of season five was a pain to watch. Especially [[spoiler: getting rid of Jerry O'Connell in one of the lamest excuses for a recast, and de facto killing one of the most beloved characters of the show. All within one Slide. It goes downhill from there.]]

* MemeticMutation: It's tapered off a bit in recent years, but the "Everything I Say Is Right" scene from "[[Recap/SlidersS01E05PrinceOfWails Prince of Wails]]" used to be a fairly popular ReactionImage, even launching an [[https://everythingisayisright.com/ unofficial website]].

** Quinn Mallory may be well-intentioned, but that hasn't stopped him from causing unforgiveable mass destruction. In the episode "[[Recap/SlidersS02E13AsTimeGoesBy As Time Goes By]]", he destroys an entire universe (admittedly not intentionally). In the episode "[[Recap/SlidersS03E23Dinoslide Dinoslide]]", he and the others return to a world they previously visited, only to find that a virus they inadvertently carried over has wiped out the native population who had no immunity to it. And he was the one who accidentally led the Kromagg's to Earth Prime, resulting in its destruction. For all this, on several occasions in Season 3 and 4 he was willing to settle down on certain Earth's, leaving his friend's (who are only in this situation because of him) to fend for themselves, and also did not seem to concerned with finding Wade or saving Earth Prime in Season 4, being more interested in finding his home planet.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The American Revolution resulted in the invention of Democracy... Though in context in the episode, democracy wasn't "invented" by America, but its widespread adoption and popularity was inspired by the American Revolution. There was similarly no French Revolution, etc, etc, and the world of that episode is said to be run by a "handful of monarchies." The natives' being unfamiliar with the concept can be explained by its rarity and lack of popular support.

** "[[Recap/SlidersS01E03Fever Fever]]": [[MadScientist Dr. Darren Morton]] is a scientist responsible for releasing a deadly [[SyntheticPlague plague]] on to his world. Dr. Morton secretly inflected this world's version of Quinn Mallory with a virus he designed, giving him a clean bill of health and letting him infect millions of people with this virus. Dr. Morton's reason for releasing this plague is to [[KillThePoor kill off the poor]], with the poor being left to die in the streets or sent to concentration camps, while the rich live in comfortable. The agency Dr. Morton runs, the [[StateSec California Health Commission]], is given emergency powers to deal with this situation, effectively turning California into a police state. Dr. Morton manages to capture the original Quinn Mallory and experiments him to see if he has any of the virus left in his system. When another scientist helps Mallory escape, Dr. Morton has her shot.

** "[[Recap/SlidersS01E03Fever Fever]]": [[MadScientist Dr. Darren Morton]] is a scientist responsible for releasing a deadly [[SyntheticPlague plague]] on to his world. Dr. Morton secretly inflected this world's version of Quinn Mallory with a virus he designed, giving him a clean bill of health and letting him infect millions of people with this virus. Dr. Morton reason for releasing this plague is to [[KillThePoor kill off the poor]], with the poor being left to die in the streets or sent to concentration camps, while the rich live in comfortable. The agency Dr. Morton runs, the [[StateSec California Health Commission]], is given emergency powers to deal with this situation, effectively turning California into a police state. Dr. Morton manages to capture the original Quinn Mallory and experiments him to see if he has any of the virus left in his system. When another scientist helps Mallory escape, Dr. Morton has her shot.

** "[[Recap/SlidersS04E11CaliforniaReich Californa Reich]]": [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Governor Schick]] is the governor of [[PuttingOnTheReich California]] frequently likened to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler by the Sliders. In a world without UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Schick rises to power blaming minorities for crime and restricts their rights, even having them interned. Not satisfied with this, Schick has them lobotomized and mutilated to make them into android slaves on a grand scale, even children not exempt from his policies. Schick, planning to ride a wave of bigotry to the Presidency and enact his policies there, is one of the most sickening enemies the Sliders have ever faced.

** [[MadScientist Dr. Darren Morton]], from season 1's "[[Recap/SlidersS01E03Fever Fever]]", is a scientist responsible for releasing a deadly [[SyntheticPlague plague]] on to his world. Dr. Morton secretly inflected this world's version of Quinn Mallory with a virus he designed, giving him a clean bill of health and letting him infect millions of people with this virus. Dr. Morton's reason for releasing this plague is to [[KillThePoor kill off the poor]], with the poor being left to die in the streets or sent to concentration camps, while the rich live in comfortable. The agency Dr. Morton runs, the [[StateSec California Health Commission]], is given emergency powers to deal with this situation, effectively turning California into a police state. Dr. Morton manages to capture the original Quinn Mallory and experiments him to see if he has any of the virus left in his system. When another scientist helps Mallory escape, Dr. Morton has her shot.
** Master Cardoza and his chief lieutenant Gerald Thomas, from season 3's "[[Recap/SlidersS03E05TheDreamMasters The Dream Masters]]", uncovered the power to master dreams themselves and turn San Francisco in their horrific kingdom. Cardoza, believing in ruling through fear, brutally suppresses dissent with anyone who proves a problem tortured and destroyed. Gerald is a vicious sadist who murders a man by mental torture [[DisproportionateRetribution just for bumping into him]], and when he pursues heroine Wade to no avail, he attempts to [[MindRape torment]] and destroy her with her worst fears. It is revealed that Gerald and Cardoza, along with their followers, also throw those who oppose them into irreparable comas, and then attempt to kill the Sliders team to keep their stranglehold on San Francisco, believing their powers allow them to do all they want.
** [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Governor Schick]], from season 4's "[[Recap/SlidersS04E11CaliforniaReich Californa Reich]]", is the governor of [[PuttingOnTheReich California]] frequently likened to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler by the Sliders. In a world without UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Schick rises to power blaming minorities for crime and restricts their rights, even having them interned. Not satisfied with this, Schick has them lobotomized and mutilated to make them into android slaves on a grand scale, even children not exempt from his policies. Schick, planning to ride a wave of bigotry to the Presidency and enact his policies there, is one of the most sickening enemies the Sliders have ever faced.