During the first two seasons of the Fox series
Sliders, college student Quinn Mallory (
Jerry O'Connell) and his companions Prof. Arturo (
John Rhys-Davies), Wade (Sabrina Lloyd) and Rembrandt (
Cleavant Derricks) have used the time-sliding device created by Quinn to pop up in various alternate versions of contemporary San Francisco, all the while endeavoring to return to their own world. Beginning with season three, the sliding device has been modified so that the foursome will be able to emerge in countries and worlds other than San Francisco -- meaning, in many cases, alternate editions of the universe. The two-part episode "
The Exodus" introduces
Kari Wuhrer as Captain Maggie Beckett, a slider from another world whose husband has been killed by the sinister Col. Angus Rickman (played variously by
Roger Daltrey and Neil Dickson), who has been hopping through time and space to drain the intelligences of innocent victims in order to save his own diseased brain. Joining Maggie in her pursuit of the elusive Col. Rickman, Professor Arturo dies at the villain's hands. The season finale finds Maggie, Quinn, Wade, and Rembrandt finally reaching "their" world and cornering Rickman, who perishes by diving off a cliff. As the timing device's vortex begins to close, Quinn and Maggie manage to escape -- but are thrust far into the future, and to yet another alternate world. It sure looks like the end for
Sliders, and indeed it is so far as the series' Fox network run is concerned. But it will not be long before the series returns with new episodes on the cable's Sci Fi Channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide