Recurring characters of Sliders
A number of characters recurred on Sliders, the science fiction show. The show involved a concept of doubles—alternate versions of a person on alternate Earths. Thus, a number of recurring characters on Sliders were doubles of each other. There were some recurring characters, however, who were other sliders.
Amanda Mallory[edit]
Amanda Mallory is the mother of Quinn Mallory, first seen in the pilot, played by Linda Henning in six episodes and Deanne Henry in two episodes (Henry played the character in season 2; Henning played the character in all other seasons). She is the family member Quinn wishes to be reunited with upon returning to Earth Prime. Her birthday is September 27, the same day the sliders started their journey.
The first time Quinn was reunited with Amanda Mallory was at the end of "The Exodus, Part One". He was with her for 30 minutes. As soon as they were reunited, they had to take Maggie to the hospital, where Quinn and Maggie both slid. Quinn left saying that he promised his mother he would be back.
Quinn ended up being reunited again with her in the episode "Genesis" in a Kromagg prison on Earth Prime. When Quinn met his mother, he said that he did promise he would be back, but it ended up taking him longer than expected. Knowing that Kromaggs play tricks on the human mind, Quinn speculated that this was not actually his mother. While here, Mrs. Mallory told Quinn that she was not actually his birthmother, that Quinn's birthparents were the doubles of herself and her husband, Michael Mallory. She said that Quinn's actual birthparents left him with her because there was a war with the Kromaggs on that Earth, and they wanted Quinn to be safe. She then said that two years later, Quinn's birthparents came back for him but that she and Mike Mallory hid Quinn because they had become too attached to him. Amanda Mallory then gave Quinn a microdot that was implanted in her arm. Quinn was to hold the microdot to his forehead and would then be told about the story of his origins. After this conversation, Amanda Mallory was taken from the Kromaggs to an alternate Earth.
In the episode "The Seer", Mrs. Mallory was reunited with the sliders (who at the time were Rembrandt Brown, Maggie Beckett, Diana Davis, and a fraternal alternate of Quinn Mallory known as Mallory) and at this point in time had escaped from the Kromaggs at some point in the past because the Seer World was where she was transported to by the Kromaggs and had become free due to a biological weapon. Since there was a psychic on that world who was tracking the sliders' journeys, Amanda Mallory was able to learn about her son's fate; that Quinn had been merged into his fraternal alternate. Amanda Mallory now had post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of seeing her son's fate. When the Sliders timer was destroyed, she led them to Kromagg technology hoarded by Claire, the Seer's daughter and took care of the Seer after he had a heart attack. When the Sliders tried to ask the Seer if Rembrant had survived the slide to Earth Prime, she revealed that he had died.
Maggie Beckett had lived in a "bubble universe" with Quinn where they lived an entire life together, were married and had a son. In this universe, Maggie became close to the version of Amanda Mallory and in the episode "The Seer", Maggie shared her experiences with the Amanda Mallory from Earth Prime.
Alternate versions of Amanda Mallory were seen in the episodes "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" and "The Guardian".
Michael Mallory[edit]
Michael Mallory is the father of Quinn Mallory who was killed in 1984, when Quinn was 11. Mr. Mallory was hit by a car on his way to work.
Michael Mallory was played by Tom Butler in the pilot and "Gillian of the Spirits"; Jim Turner in "Slide Like an Egyptian"; John Walcutt in "Genesis", "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", "Slidecage", "My Brother's Keeper", and "Revelations".
An alternate version of Michael Mallory was seen in the second part of the pilot at the end of the episode. Originally, Quinn and the others thought they were home, but when Quinn saw his father, he realized he was not home, as Quinn's father had been dead for ten years. When Quinn's father saw Quinn's reaction he said, "What's the matter Quinn, you look like you've seen a ghost?"
Another version of Michael Mallory was seen in the episode "Gillian of the Spirits". This was on an alternate Earth where the population was afraid of technology, and technology that was more advanced than the advancements made by the 1940s was illegal. The Michael Mallory on this Earth was an advocate of technology and spent five years in jail for possessing technology, and was released on the condition that he become an anti-technology informant. He was working with a group called Bayside Power that was secretly developing technology in the hopes that technology would be legalized. If technology becomes legal, Bayside Power intends to sell the technology they developed and have an advantage in the market because they would be the only ones with this technology.
The Quinn Mallory of this Earth died of polio. Arturo, Wade, and Rembrandt came to this Michael Mallory because the timer was broken, Quinn was missing, and they needed technology to fix the timer. Michael Mallory pretended to want to help the sliders, but in fact he only wanted to steal the timer to give its technology to Bayside Power, and then was going to kill the sliders.
When the sliders found out about Michael Mallory's intentions, they broke into his house to take the technology necessary to fix the timer. They fixed it with 17 seconds left, but right then Michael Mallory came down with a gun and told the sliders that they were not going anywhere. When they opened the vortex, Quinn, who was stuck in the astral plane, became visible by the vortex. Michael Mallory demanded the sliders turn the vortex off and announced "My son is dead!" Quinn responded saying, "I'm not the Quinn you knew but I am your son." Quinn also said that he didn't believe that his father would hurt innocent people, and then Michael Mallory put down his gun.
Quinn was reunited with his father from Earth Prime in the episode "Slide Like an Egyptian". The people of this world were conducting an experiment to kill people and bring them back to life to learn about the experiences in the afterlife. Quinn was dead for five minutes, and was the first person brought back to life. He saw his father in the afterlife; they threw the football to each other, and Quinn explained to him that he could not find his way home. Quinn's father told him, "if you can touch it, you can catch it."
In "Genesis" Quinn learned from Amanda Mallory that the people he thought were his parents were in fact alternates of his birthparents, so thus learned that the Michael Mallory from Earth Prime was not his biological father and that his biological father was still alive on Kromagg Prime. Quinn learned that the Michael Mallory from Kromagg prime built a weapon to defeat the Kromaggs.
Quinn met an alternate version of Michael Mallory in "My Brother's Keeper". This Michael Mallory is a doctor who developed a technique to clone humans. He cloned people with the money to afford it, kept the clones in a repository, and transplanted an organ from the clone if needed. Michael Mallory mistook Quinn for his own son's clone. A group of people opposed to cloning abducted Michael Mallory. One of the anti-clone advocates wanted to kill him, but Quinn wanted to use him as a bargaining chip to free his friends. After a talk between Quinn and this Michael Mallory, Michael Mallory was convinced to quit his job that involved cloning humans, and after this he opened up a clinic for people who sold their organs to the wealthy.
Quinn and Colin met a version of Michael Mallory in "Revelations" which he thought was his and Colin's birthfather and they thought they were on Kromagg Prime. As it turns out, they were on an Earth that was similar to Kromagg Prime, but not Kromagg Prime (some fans call it Kromagg Double Prime). In the 1970s, the Michael Mallory on this Earth, along with his wife Elizabeth Mallory, created a disease to destroy the Kromaggs on that Earth. Isaac Clark, who was sentenced to exile from Kromagg Prime, returned in the late 1990s with the help of the sliders and came to submit evidence against this Earth's Michael and Elizabeth Mallory to put them on trial for their crimes against the Kromaggs.
Elizabeth Mallory[edit]
Elizabeth Mallory (played by Marnie McPhail) is the mother of Quinn and Colin Mallory and is from Kromagg Prime. She is seen in the episodes "Genesis", "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", and "Revelations" (though the version of her in "Revelations" is a double). It is never explained why Quinn and Colin's mother is not a version of Amanda Mallory, even though Amanda Mallory did say in "Genesis" that Quinn's birthparents are the doubles of her and Michael Mallory, although this could be a case in which doubles do not look similar, like Mallory and Quinn.
Conrad Bennish, Junior[edit]
Conrad Bennish, Junior (played by Jason Gaffney) of Earth Prime is a student in the same class which Quinn Mallory is a student, and Maximillian Arturo is a professor. Arturo finds him brilliant but obnoxious. Quinn and Bennish are friends. Bennish has an interest in drugs and bombs. When the FBI showed up to question him about the disappearance of the Sliders, he said, "If this is about the bong I just bought, I thought it was a plant-holder, honest!" He dresses in a stereotypically "hippie" fashion, wearing long hair and sunglasses.
An alternate Conrad Bennish from "Summer of Love" has short hair, and identifies as a Young Republican in favor of the war that was taking place at the time on that alternate Earth.
A version of Bennish is seen in "Last Days," where it seems his genius may be unchecked, and a danger to his particular Earth. He is also trying to create the "failed" atomic bomb, which that Earth's Albert Einstein purposely sabotaged. With Professor Arturo's help, he builds one, and successfully launches it against the asteroid set on a collision course with the Earth. After the bomb is built, Arturo, knowing that Bennish will now have unchecked power after he slides to a different world, takes a crucial part of the bomb plans and keeps it. But, unbeknownst to him until just before he slides, he drops it and Bennish finds it.
The character only appeared once in the second season (and for the last time) in the episode "Invasion," though he is never named or credited as Bennish. Here, he is a prisoner of the Kromaggs, eyeless as a result.
Michael Hurley[edit]
On Earth Prime, Michael Hurley (played by Gary Jones) works at Doppler Computer Store, and was the boss of Quinn and Wade until they went sliding (September 27, 1994). On that day, Quinn's double arrived on Earth Prime, and made some remarks to Mr. Hurley that got Quinn fired.
An alternate version of Mr. Hurley is in the second part of the pilot. On an alternate Earth where, in 1994, the United States is a territory of the Soviet Union, Mr. Hurley is part of an underground American revolutionary group, and is under the command of this world's Wade Welles.
In the episode "Prince of Wails," on a world where the United States lost the Revolutionary War, and in 1995 is the "British States of America," Mr. Hurley works for this world's version of Maximilian Arturo, and was part of a plot to assassinate Prince Harold, heir to the British throne on that particular Earth. However, he is shocked by the revelation of the truth and switches sides once it is revealed, releasing Quinn and driving him to meet up with the others.
Another version of Mr. Hurley is in the episode "Time Again and World," who also worked at the Doppler Computer Store. He's one of the first to see the full Constitution for the first time in over 30 years.
Pavel Kurlienko[edit]
Every version of Pavel Kurlienko (played by Alex Bruhanski) that the Sliders have met has been a taxi driver. Two different versions of him are seen in the second part of the pilot. The first version was from the Soviet-ruled America, and was encountered by Rembrandt Brown. Pavel turned Rembrandt into the authorities on this world for handing him a dollar bill, which was the trademark of the underground American revolutionary on this alternate Earth.
Another version of Pavel was seen at the end of the episode, on an Earth that was very much like Earth Prime, but where Michael Mallory was still alive. Rembrandt feared him because Pavel was the one who turned him into the authorities on the previous Earth. Rembrandt nearly left the taxi when Pavel said he recognized Rembrandt, but stayed when Pavel said he recognized that Rembrandt was "The Crying Man."
Other versions of Pavel are also seen in "Fever" and "Into the Mystic." When Rembrandt met the version of Pavel in "Fever," Rembrandt asked Pavel if he liked driving taxis. Pavel responded by saying "[it] was his destiny." Rembrandt said, "You don't know the half of it!"
Ross J. Kelly[edit]
Ross J. Kelly (played by John Novak) is an ambulance-chasing lawyer on most of the Earths where the Sliders encountered him during seasons 1 and 2.
On Earth Prime, Kelly was widely known for his pandering television advertisements, in which large accident settlements were promised to victims willing to hire the shyster attorney to sue for compensation on their behalf – Kelly's popular catch-line in the ads is, "I'll fight for you!!" However, Kelly himself became a collaborator with the occupying Russian government on the Soviet-ruled Earth in the pilot, and acted as a KGB interrogator during Rembrandt Brown's incarceration after that character's arrest for possession of Earth Prime American currency.
A different version of Kelly, though still very similar to his Earth Prime incarnation, was encountered in the episode "Into the Mystic", on the Mysticism Earth, where he was consulted by the Sliders about the possibility of legally defaulting on a contract made with a shaman. Kelly's advice was not to do so.
Gomez Calhoun[edit]
Gomez Calhoun (played by Will Sasso) works at the Dominion Hotel, where the Sliders stayed in seasons 1 and 2. Alternate versions of him were seen in "Fever", "The King is Back", "Gillian of the Spirits", "Greatfellas," and "Time Again and World".
On the world where Rembrandt Brown was a superstar, Calhoun informed the public that Rembrandt was staying at the hotel. This greatly annoyed Arturo. In the episode "Greatfellas," he once again revealed that Rembrandt was staying at the hotel, but this time for different reasons.
In seasons 4 and 5, the Sliders encountered alternate versions of Gomez Calhoun (played by a different actor, Israel Juarbe) working at the Chandler Hotel. He was seen in "Lipschitz Live!," "Roads Taken," and "To Catch a Slider".
Elston Diggs[edit]
Elston Diggs (played by Lester Barrie) is a waiter at the Royal Chancellor Hotel, at which the Sliders stayed during season 3. Diggs was often the person the Sliders got information from. He was seen in the episodes "Double Cross," "Desert Storm," "Murder Most Foul," and "The Breeder."
Elston Diggs was first seen in the episode "Double Cross," where he recognized Rembrandt Brown, "The Crying Man." On this world, San Francisco was just another neighborhood of a large city of San Angeles, which spanned from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Upon arriving on the next world, Rembrandt ran into Elston Diggs right after sliding, and asked him if they were still in San Angeles. Diggs said they were in Los Angeles. After this, Quinn realized that Logan St. Clair must have switched parts of the timer, so that they now had a 400-mile radius to slide within, instead of a two-mile radius.
Angus Rickman[edit]
Angus Rickman (played by Roger Daltrey) is a marine colonel on an alternate Earth that was to be destroyed by a pulsar. The character was introduced in the episode "The Exodus". He had a fungus infection in his brain which required him to extract brain tissue from the brains of compatible "donors" and inject the tissue into his brain which causes him to temporarily morph into that person. Extracting brain tissue from these people caused them to go into a coma.
Three days before the pulsar was going to destroy his Earth, the sliders landed there, helped improve the sliding technology of local scientist Dr. Stephen Jensen, which allowed Rickman and 150 other people to slide to a safe alternate Earth before the pulsars hit. Rickman specifically had Wade Welles select 150 people that had brain tissue compatible with Rickman's to slide to the new world. Originally, the sliders were going to slide with Rickman and the 150 people, but Rickman ordered the slide early, and murdered Arturo when the sliders attempted to slide with him.
Rickman also murdered Dr. Stephen Jensen, the husband of Maggie Beckett, when Jensen learned that Rickman was responsible for the coma victims. Rickman lied to Maggie and said a mob had killed him.
Quinn, Wade, and Rembrandt slid to the Earth Rickman, Maggie, and the other 150 people slid (thanks to getting deep enough underground and the new ability to track wormholes given to them by Jensen), and informed Maggie there that Rickman murdered her husband. Initially, Quinn and Maggie wanted revenge on Rickman for murdering Professor Arturo and Dr. Jensen. However, Rickman still had the timer used to send him, Maggie, and the other people to this Earth. So Rickman used the timer to slide and escape from Quinn and Maggie. The timer Rickman was using also had the coordinates to Earth Prime, which gave Quinn, Wade, and Rembrandt greater incentive to catch Rickman. The sliders began chasing Rickman to parallel Earths so that Quinn, Rembrandt, and Wade can find their home coordinates, and so that Maggie could get revenge. Although initially both Quinn and Maggie wanted revenge, Quinn later decided against revenge and only wanted his home coordinates.
The first time the sliders encountered Rickman since "The Exodus" was in the episode "The Other Slide of Darkness". By this time, Rickman's face had changed from injecting the brain tissue of non-compatible donors and he was now played by another actor, Neil Dickson. In this episode, Rickman's timer broke, leaving him unable to slide. Rickman encountered Quinn's double, the first double of his that Quinn met, and Quinn's double was going to kill Rickman. Then Rickman told Quinn's double about Quinn and the others. Quinn's double then decided to give Rickman a deal: Quinn's double would not kill Rickman and would fix his timer, and in exchange Rickman would bring Quinn to his double. Rickman did this, so Quinn's double fixed his timer, and Rickman slid. After this, Rickman's timer was counting down like the Sliders timer, indicating that Quinn's double fixed it in the same way Quinn did the original timer.
The next time the sliders encountered Rickman was in the episode "Dinoslide". He returned to the world the survivors of his world slid to in order to harvest their brain tissue, but had to contend with dinosaurs and the sliders and was forced to slide when his timer ran out, but returned later. He was defeated again, but escaped once more.
The last episode with Rickman is "This Slide of Paradise". On this Earth, the sliders manage to take Rickman's timer away from him, leaving him stranded on this Earth. Just as Quinn, Wade, and Rembrandt are about to use Rickman's timer to slide home and let Maggie use the other timer to continue sliding Rickman shows up. Quinn pushed Wade and Rembrandt through and stays behind to help Maggie fight Rickman. During the fight Rickman attempts to slide through the vortex to Earth Prime but the vortex closed just as he jumped towards it, and he falls off the cliff and dies.
Oberon Geiger[edit]
Oberon Geiger is a scientist played by Peter Jurasik. He merged Quinn with one of his alternates and caused Colin Mallory to be "unstuck" in space time. He was seen in the episodes "The Unstuck Man", "Applied Physics", and "Eye of the Storm". Dr. Geiger himself is "unstuck" in space-time, which means that he is not anchored on one parallel world and constantly slides randomly to alternate parallel worlds. Dr. Geiger has to use special equipment to stay on his Earth and even then he is only able to stay in a small part of his lab.
He is first seen in the episode "The Unstuck Man", conducting a science experiment that involved counting down to the same point in time as to when the sliders' timer would hit zero. When the sliders (which at the time were Rembrandt, Maggie, Colin, and Quinn) arrived on the new world, the people that slid out were Rembrandt, Maggie, and Mallory, who is Quinn's fraternal alternate that Maggie and Rembrandt just met. Quinn and Colin did not slide out of the vortex. Mallory had memories of the Quinn Mallory that Maggie and Rembrandt knew. When Mallory called Dr. Geiger about this, he asked Mallory if he was now two people.
At one point, Dr. Geiger agreed to extend the time Rembrandt and Maggie had to stay on the current world to give them more time to attempt to retrieve Colin and Quinn. However, this was a trap to get Rembrandt and Maggie into suspended animation.
It was Dr. Geiger who merged Quinn Mallory with his fraternal alternate, Mallory. It was also Dr. Geiger who caused Colin to be unstuck in space-time. Dr. Geiger was about to conduct another experiment to merge alternate Earths together, just like he had merged Quinn and Mallory. Dr. Geiger believed that this would create a better world. Dr. Diana Davis, who worked with Dr. Geiger and had been very supportive of him up until then, said that Dr. Geiger was forcing this on unsuspecting people who might not want this. Dr. Geiger responded saying he wasn't in the mood for an ethics debate. Mallory said that Dr. Geiger would kill millions with his experiment and that he had to be stopped. Dr. Davis ended Dr. Geiger's experiment, and caused him to be no longer anchored in the small part of his lab. Thus, Dr. Geiger was now "unstuck" again, sliding randomly between alternate worlds.
Dr. Geiger was seen again in "Applied Physics", where Dr. Geiger convinced Diana Davis that he had good intentions when he did not, and caused Diana to do something that would alter the complete history of this alternate Earth—including dramatically alter the life of her double on this Earth. His attempts to get loose on that Earth were ended when Diana's double cut power to the reactor powering the field anchoring him, making him unstuck again.
In "Eye of the Storm", Geiger has managed to create his own world made out of bits taken from other parallel worlds and has drawn people there to merge with them in an attempt to permanently anchor himself. The Sliders arrive in this world and find Geiger who offers to separate Quinn and Mallory (but says can't do anything for Colin), but really tries to merge himself with Mallory, but is found out and stopped. Afterwards Geiger tries for real to separate the two, but is unable to without killing Mallory as the two have been combined too long so the Sliders decide not to go through with it. A mob storms Geiger's room and he's shot, but before he dies he tells Diana how to send the people home and gives her a small disk, but dies before telling her what it contains. On the next world, Diana looks at it and is shocked by what Geiger has given them: the coordinates of Earth Prime and Diana and Mallory's home world.
Logan St. Clair[edit]
Logan St. Clair appears in the first episode of season 3, as one of the employees of an unscrupulous wormhole research corporation the Sliders become involved with. She is later discovered to be a gender-flipped "alternate" of Quinn Mallory. Intending to use the Sliders to perfect her technology and then kill them, she is defeated at the end of the episode, but escapes through an uncontrolled wormhole to parts unknown. She was intended to be a recurring antagonist for the season, but was never reused (Angus Rickman instead claims the distinction of being the series's first continuing villain).
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