Originally aired April 5, 1996
Written by Jacob Epstein
Directed by Vern Gillum
Wade witnesses a murder moments before sliding out, and when the Sliders arrive on the next world, she gets herself and the other Sliders embroiled in a government conspiracy when the same events begin to play out on this world ruled by martial law.
Tropes present in the episode:
- Alternate History: J Edgar Hoover became President after the death of JFK. He then abridged the Constitution and declared martial law, banning copies of the unabridged Constitution and Bill of Rights. Martin Luther King Jr, Bobby Kennedy and Sam Kinison are all still alive but political prisoners on Alcatraz.
- Different World, Different Movies: There is an advertisement for Dragnet: The Next Generation.
- Girls with Moustaches: In the first world the Sliders visit, women with facial hair is a perfectly normal thing.
- Government Conspiracy: It eventually comes to light that both the Constitution and Bill of Rights removed from public records following JFK's assassination, and once Hoover became president, he held office for 22 years (thanks in part to publicizing an abridged form of the Constitution).
- Historical In-Joke: The police in Hoover's America wear dresses, a reference to Hoover's alleged cross-dressing.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Variation: Moments before the Sliders leave, they negotiate with the cops to have Judge Nassau and the co-conspirators pardoned and released from jail in exchange for the unabridged Constitution... except, once they slide out, it turns out Wade had set up a computer to broadcast a copy of it over the Internet.
- Literary Allusion Title: From the opening lines of "To His Coy Mistress." "Had we but world enough and time."
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After reporting Judge Nassau's near-murder to the police, Wade and Quinn learn about the conspiracy surrounding the Constitution, causing them to realize they had inadvertently given President Lyndon LaRouche the opportunity to consolidate his power and end civil rights in the United States.
- Oppressive States of America: In both worlds, Hoover's America is a police state.
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman:
- JFK was assassinated by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
- Lyndon LaRouche is the President of the United States in 1996 in both of the worlds where Hoover became President.
- Acceptable music in Hoover's America includes Liberace Unplugged, Jim Morrison Sings Irving Berlin and Kurt Cobain's Christmas album. On the other hand, Donny Osmond's new video is described as "outrageous."
