Sliders

Quinn and Maggie anxiously leave a world of motorcycle-riding cowboys and Indians, and after three months of searching, finally land in Quinn's home dimension, Earth Prime. Maggie quickly realizes that, somehow, she has adapted to the air of Quinn's Earth -- but the place is not as he left it. Earth is ravaged, war-torn... the Kromaggs, a dimension traveling warrior race from a parallel world, have enslaved the planet, as they do with every world they find.

Landing in war-torn Los Angeles, Maggie spots a semi-conscious figure, and drags him to safety as artillery shells explode around them. Only after the Sliders remove his visor do they realize that he is a Kromagg commander, Kromanus. Before they have time to react, they are captured by the evil Kromagg officer Krolak and his soldiers.

The Sliders land in a demolition site, and Maggie is caught near an explosion. She seems to revive in a hospital -- then revives again, healthy but confused, in a military complex. General Randall Simmons informs her that she and the others have indeed landed on Quinn's home world, Earth Prime, which has finally vanquished the Kromaggs. Earth has been liberated, and scientists have mastered the Kromagg's sliding technology. Quinn and Rembrandt are excited about this news, but Maggie has grown suspicious.

Landing in San Francisco, the Sliders are amazed to find the city in ruins; not due to a Kromagg attack, but to complete abandonment. They discover that everyone has disappeared. When the Sliders head to Quinn's home, they find it empty like everywhere else. The difference: apparently the Quinn of this world built a machine that, when he threw the switch, wiped out every human being on Earth.

The Sliders finally reach the world of Quinn's brother but only have two hours to find him. They soon see a glider crash into some trees, and Colin Mallory steps from the wreckage. The Sliders are forced to defend him when a group of farmers tries to kill him. Colin, the resident genius of this technology-deficient world, is oblivious to the townspeople's hatred of him. Most residents believe his inventions are works of the devil.

As the Sliders land in a new world, Quinn and Maggie continue an argument that started before they jumped. A hotel bar patron, Damon, takes note of the bickering couple and offers to help. When they ignore him, he pulls a pistol out and shoots Maggie... with a tranquilizer dart. Damon is a licensed "Facilitator" who keeps people correctly dosed.

The Sliders land in world that seems idyllic -- until black clouds form and people scramble for cover. The Sliders soon learn why: the rain is acid rain. They take shelter in the Chandler Hotel, but are alarmed to see guests rushing out to brave the rain, rather than spend a night there. The overly-friendly clerk, Kelly, gladly checks the Sliders into the Presidential suite at a discount price; it seems the hotel has a hard time keeping rooms booked...

Quinn calculates the coordinates to his and Colin's home world; now they will finally meet their birth parents -- and find out how to defeat the Kromaggs. When they leap into the vortex, however, they land in a labyrinth on a barren, alien world. They discover that the timer has stopped counting down and has frozen at 00:00. The Sliders soon come across a video presentation by Michael Mallory, Quinn and Colin's father. He explains that they have been deposited here by the "Slidecage" mechanism, which cloaks the homeworld from further invasion by the Kromaggs. Unfortunately, it also keeps them from ever leaving.

Onboard a plane zooming through a war zone, the Sliders have seconds to slide when a missile destroys the tail of the plane. Quinn and Rembrandt are knocked unconscious. With the parachutes destroyed, Maggie opens the vortex outside the plane, and she and Colin, dragging the other two, leap into it. When they land in another world, Maggie quickly realizes that Quinn may be dying and sends Colin to find help. He reaches the city, finding it to be normal -- except that there are no gas-driven vehicles and everyone is armed.

As the Sliders land in a new dimension, a van roars up. Rembrandt is hauled into the van by a group of "Stompers," and it races away. Colin quickly reacts by commandeering another truck, and the remaining three give chase. The pursuit ends when a garbage truck blocks their path --and they are startled to see that the garbage workers are robot-like faceless humans. Rembrandt and two other prisoners are taken to a detention camp... since Governor Schick passed the Racial Repatriation Act, minorities have been abducted to "save" American jobs.

The image of a peaceful, Garden of Eden world is shattered when the Sliders find the skeleton of a human, a gaping hole in the chest and the right hand missing. A noise in the bushes causes them to hide, and they see another man being pursued by two Hu-Maggs -- part human, part Kromagg. They soon come upon a firing range but take cover when a Humvee passes by, carrying General Kronos. Then they discover Jenny, who tells them she and six other humans were forced into this "game." If they survive twenty days, the Kromaggs will let them go; she is on day eighteen.

A vortex appears and releases Quinn, then reappears elsewhere to drop off Colin, then leaves Rembrandt and Maggie dangling from a window-washing unit hundreds of feet above ground. The two climb to safety, and even see Colin wandering the street, far below -- but lose track of him once they reach the ground. Quinn, meanwhile, heads for the hotel, hoping to meet the others in the three hours they have before the next slide. On the way, he notes a society mindlessly devoted to the only show on television: "Lipschitz Live,: a combination newscast/talk show, hosted by the irrepressible Barry Lipschitz.

Less than an hour before the vortex is to open, the Sliders are on the move, trying to avoid the Kromaggs they have encountered on this world. Taking refuge in a cave outside the demolished city, they see a woman, Christina, struggling along with an infant. When they help her back to the cave, she recognizes their names: while she was imprisoned here in a Kromagg breeding camp, she became friends with Wade Wells. Thrilled to find out that Wade is alive, Rembrandt wants to go rescue her, but Christina stops him: Wade was shipped out yesterday with all the others.

The vortex deposits Quinn and Rembrandt inside a building, and Colin and Maggie outside. The Sliders find themselves split up on a world addicted to - and divided by - the internet.

In a military base, Maggie accesses a lab, where she finds a man hooked up to machinery. She swiftly exchanges a computer chip implanted in his skull with one she has brought, but an alarm sounds, and she bolts. She makes it outside, where the other Sliders await her return to slide. When she appears, they all leap into the vortex... and moments later the real Maggie escapes from the base!

The vortex leaves the Sliders on a desolate world, where they soon find dazed citizens wandering the streets lifelessly. As the zombies converge on them, the Sliders take refuge in the hotel. As they step into the hotel, four new zombies that are identical to the Sliders appear on the road...

Hours of trudging along through a rolling prairie find the Sliders close to exhaustion. A passing stagecoach pulls over to give them a ride, but the driver is cautious -- they are traveling through "Mr. K's" territory. One of the passengers, Ben, flirts with Maggie but the calm is broken by gunfire as four desperadoes ambush them!

Quinn is immediately greeted on a new world by college friends who mistake him for his double. The Sliders visit the college, where Quinn's double figures equations on a blackboard. The equations are wrong, though, and when he activates his device, it explodes, damaging his eyes. Quinn and Colin rush to save him, but Quinn is intercepted by security guards... since his eyes will be needed to replace Quinn 2's.

The Sliders arrive in what is literally the happiest place on Earth. But in this small community, a little girl witnessed her grandfather leap into a mysterious chasm and begins to feel an overwhelming sorrow. Worse yet, it soon spreads to Rembrandt and Maggie.

The vortex, oddly distorted and wracked with lightning, deposits Colin and Rembrandt in a battle zone in the city, but the other two are nowhere to be found. As they puzzle over their situation, the vortex -- now normal -- opens again, and Quinn and Maggie arrive but are unaware that the slide was unusual.

The Sliders land in a barren field outside some small town, primed for another adventure - until they learn that they are stuck on this world for 26 days. Several days later, boredom and frustration set in: Quinn and Colin resort to tinkering with a truck at a deserted gas station. Maggie, the only Slider to have found a paying job in this desolate place, has been fired. Rembrandt scavenges some reading material, and as they all relax, he pores over a science fiction novel. He points out some similarities between it and their adventures: inter-dimensional travel, Kromagg-like creatures; and a biological weapon developed to destroy them. This world may be more interesting than originally thought.