when

As was stated on the last page, the dates on which episodes aired do not necessarily correspond to the dates on which they took place. For example, an episode airing in early 1996 might take place in mid-1995. Allow me to explain.

To begin with, the pilot episode takes place in September of 1994. It was aired on March 22, 1995, but the dialogue of the episode makes it clear that it was taking place in September of 1994. Why? Because that’s when the episode was supposed to air, but the Fox execs delayed the show’s premiere until midseason [note that when in “Summer of Love” Skid gives the year as 1995 that it was just Fox trying to hide the fact that the show was months late in premiering]. Next, even though Season One took only a few months to air, we’re going to proceed under the assumption that an entire year went by on the show. That means that the Season One finale, “Luck of the Draw,” takes place sometime in mid-1995, a little less than a year after the events of the pilot.

Now, Season Two did not begin airing until early 1996, but its premiere episode, “Into the Mystic,” takes place almost immediately after “Luck of the Draw” in mid-1995. Later, a mid-season episode entitled “Post-Traumatic Slide Syndrome” established that the Sliders had been traveling for 18 months. This means that our previous supposition that Season One covered an entire year was indeed correct because if a total of a year-and-a-half has gone by and we’re now halfway through the second season, the most logical conclusion is that Season One and Season Two were each a year long. Given this, we can safely say that Season Two began in mid-1995 and ended sometime in mid-1996.

Since there is no direct link between the end of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three, we can allow a gap to exist between them. So let’s assume that Season Three picks up about three months after the end of Season Two, placing the Season Three premiere in about September of 1996. Next, let’s just assume that “This Slide of Paradise”—the final episode of Season Three—also actually takes place at about the same time that it aired, which was in May of 1997. In other words, let’s say that Season Three is relatively accurate in terms of having episodes air approximately when they’re supposed to take place. A few episodes were, of course, shown out of sequence, but overall, you can safely assume that if an episode aired in November that it took place in November as well—or at least relatively close to November.

Season Four, however, again makes things somewhat complicated. It did not begin airing until June of 1998, but dialogue in “Genesis”—the season premiere—indicates that only about three months have passed since the end of Season Three in May of 1997. First of all, Otis says early on that Wade and Rembrandt worked at the Chandler for a brief period (let’s estimate a week or two) before the KroMaggs arrived. Later on in the episode, Marta says that Rembrandt went toe-to-toe with the KroMaggs for three months. So, Wade and Remmy had been home for a little over three months, meaning that the same amount of time had passed since “This Slide of Paradise.” That brings us to early September of 1997. So, Season Four spans from September of 1997 to mid-1998.

Then we come to Season Five. As was the case between Seasons Two and Three, there is nothing directly linking Seasons Four and Five together chronologically. So let’s just assume that two or three months went by between the Season Four finale and the Season Five premiere. If we assume that, then Season Five takes place from mid-1998 to mid-1999.

Finally, we arrive at The Lost Sixth Season, which begins immediately after the Season Five finale and then goes for about another year. Our heroes, therefore, finally come to the end of their journey in May of 2000.

In conclusion, here’s a neat little chart that sums it all up: