Starlog Article

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The deal, for 22 new eps, came at a slight discount, with an estimated 30% of the previous per-ep budget reduced. But O'Connell, 12 eps into the new season, claims that it has been a small price to pay and ahas, in fact, resulted in Sliders returning to basics.

We're going back to what the show originally was," he offers. " Now, it's about what direction out society could have gone in if certain things did or did not happen. We're still sliding into parallel Earth dimensions, but, due to the budget constraints and the fact that we are on the Sci-Fi Channel, we can tell more intelligent and complicated stories that reflect on society, make statements about society and don't always have to rely on special FX and the monster of the week.

While there will definitely be action and FX sequences in the new Sliders, O'Connell reports that there won't be the "unwarranted gimmicks" that characterized season three. "I felt that last year, we were basing many of our scripts around big explosions and action stunts. It was like, "Oh, we've just purchased this big truck that we can blow up, so lets write a script around that." Much of what we were doing last year wasn't very cerebral and didn't have much to do with science fiction. This year, we're biuling a lot around character amd story, much the way Rod Serling did the The Twilight Zone. it's being done more with the words and the set up rather than with the special FX. And yes, because we're doing it that way, we're having to work harder, but we're all happy that we have more of this kind of work to do.

Slider Stories

O'Connell, not surprisingly, doesn't want to spoil the surprise of this new season by giving away too many of the plot particulars, but he does offer up some titbits of what is to come. "There's more of a resistance to the Sliders from the Crom-Mags (**they spelt it wrong**), who will play a much bigger riole this season, emerging as more of a threat to the parallel universes than to the Sliders. The Sliders and the Cro-Mags will be butting heads quite a lot this season. It will also be more of a goal this season for the Sliders to try and return to their home Earth. But what they'll find once they get there is a totally unexpected twist that I can't give away."

He can give away some insights into his character Mallory's evolution. O'Connell initially paints in the broad strokes to "maturity" and "depth" before adding more detail. "When the show first started, Quinn was more of a student, becasue he had the Professor Maximilian Arturo (Rhys-Davies) to play off of. But, with the Prof gone, more weight was put on Quinn's shoulders to be the leader. I panicked when John left the show. My character, at that point, had pretty much been the goofus, the flake. Now, suddenly, I had to magically become this authoritive character. Fortunately, with John I was able for 3 seasons to learn from one of best on how to play that.

And, despite the arrivals and departures of actors, O'Connell insists that the chemistry on the set remains good. "There has been no problems working new actors in. Fortunately, we had Kari for part of last season, and she picked up on things quickly. And you don't get any cooler than Cleavant. But this new actor, Charlie O'Connell, is kind of a putz. I don't know who he thinks he is."

O'Connell is jokingly referring to his own brother, who joins the regular cast as Quinn's last long-lost brother Colin in episode six. "Charlie auditioned with 2,000 other actors while in disguise," he teases. But soon provides the more likely explaination that "his brother Jerry became a producer, and so Charlie got the job. Although, if you stop and think about it casting Charlie did make sense. How can you have a character who's supposed to be my brother not(in reality, closely resemble) my brother."