John Rhys-Davies Idea for a Sliders Reboot

For five seasons between 1995 and 2000, Sliders (streaming now on Peacock) took viewers on a high-tech interdimensional adventure through the multiverse. Graduate physics student Quinn Mallory (Jerry O’Connell) is trying to build an antigravity machine in his mom’s basement when he accidentally unlocks a doorway to another universe.

After a few preliminary tests, tossing basketballs and other objects through the gate, Quinn jumps through himself. Following a brief trip to an opposite land, where red lights mean go and the world is suffering the effects of global cooling, Quinn grabs his favorite teacher, Professor Maximillian Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), and his best friend, Wade Welles (Sabrina Lloyd), for a second leap into the void. When the wormhole goes a little wild, it snatches up musician Rembrandt “Crying Man” Brown (Cleavant Derricks), rounding out their interdimensional adventuring troupe.

By the time the credits rolled on Season 5, most of their group would be gone. Series star John Rhys-Davies proposed bringing them back together and continuing their adventures, in an interview with Red Carpet News at the 2021 MCM Birmingham Comic Con. And he went on a Professor Arturo-style science rant in the process.

Where we left off with Sliders

Sliders ran for three seasons on Fox before moving to SYFY (then the Sci-Fi Channel), but by then John Rhys-Davies had left the series, citing disagreements with the creative team over the direction of the show. “I just got very annoyed with the imitation of other shows,” Rhys-Davies told Red Carpet News. “You know, we did The Night of the Living Dead, we did the Morlocks and the Eloi, we did the robot thing, we did Tremors, we did Twister…”

Sabrina Lloyd left shortly thereafter, at the end of Season 3. By the time the show made the jump to SYFY, only two of the original Sliders remained.

Even series star Jerry O’Connell departed a year later, at the end of Season 4. An interdimensional version of his character was played by Robert Floyd, with an appropriately sci-fi explanation for his change in appearance. Having fused with a fraternal double from an alternate universe, Quinn’s personality and appearance were taken over. In the end, Cleavant Derricks’ Crying Man was the only original Slider left.

Of course, each of the departed Sliders were gone, but maybe not forever. In the course of their journeys, Professor Arturo died. Except, maybe he didn’t. It’s possible that the dead Arturo was a double and the real Arturo is still out there. Wade isn’t dead but trapped in a Kromagg prison camp just waiting for rescue, and Quinn still exists inside the body of his double. They could be rescued or recovered; the odds are long but in an infinite multiverse anything is possible.

Assuming Rembrandt survived his jump back to Earth Prime in the series finale, the four of them could continue their adventures through time and space.

John Rhys-Davies delivers an Arturo-style science rant while pitching a Sliders reboot

“I remember conversations [with writers] like ‘You have a neutron star and it’s rotating and, you know, the X-rays are going to scorch the Earth. More than that, you now have three neutron stars.’ A neutron star is an immensely dense star. Do you actually understand what happens to planets when they are exposed to something as dense, exerting such a gravity field as that?” Rhys-Davies asked.

In response, he recalls being told they had checked with scientists and asked if it were possible to have a cluster of neutron stars. They were told it was possible.

“I said, ‘Yes, I’m sure they said that you could have a cluster of neutron stars, but they didn’t mean it in the solar system,” Rhys-Davies replied in his signature booming tone. “Anyway, their neutron stars revolved at something like once every 24 hours. Neutron stars spin so rapidly it can sometimes be a number of times per second with this lethal exudation of gamma radiation and every other sort of killer radiation you can concoct!”

Having let off some steam (and having revealed that the distance between John Rhys-Davies and Professor Maximillian Arturo isn’t that far), Rhys-Davies outlined his proposal for the continued adventures of the Sliders.

“My idea and proposal was we regroup the original four, which can be done, and what we’re doing through the seasons is rescuing a few people, testing them to see how the public responds to these characters, and using that essentially as a casting process,” Rhys-Davies said. “By the end of Season 2 they would certainly have lost me and perhaps eventually one or two of the others, leaving Quinn essentially being the Max Arturo as well as the older Quinn.”

In fact, Rhys-Davies thinks Sliders has the legs for a much longer legacy if it’s handled properly. “They had, potentially, their Star Trek. They had something you can go anywhere in space, anywhere in time. The opportunities that presents are just limitless,” Rhys-Davies said. “If you got the right new blood in there with a chemistry that attracts the audience and you’ve got good writing, then you could run it for eight or nine seasons.”

After another rest of 10 or 15 years, Rhys-Davies suggests the series could pick up again, catching up with the fan favorites from his proposed reboot. Finally, Rhys-Davies ended with a final call to action, “Yes. Yes, let’s reboot Sliders!”

While we’re waiting for the portal to re-open, take a spin around the multiverse in all 5 seasons of Sliders, streaming now on Peacock.