Paradise Lost
Giant mutated earthworms are afoot in a sleepy little town the rest of the country has forgotten. Quinn comes to the aid of an attractive geologist who’s partner has gone missing. Unable to get the lazy sheriff to help out, Quinn volunteers the Sliders to hunt down the missing man. While Remmy and Wade pay the bills, Arturo makes a string of alarming discoveries about the town including just a handful of tombstones since the late ’40s. Wade, smitten with her employer, follows him to a secret meeting where she learns the town’s true secret — the citizens never age thanks to the product of a radiated worm. Arturo is lured into a trap by the townspeople to feed the worm. Fortunately, the worm saves some of its food for later and the others find him undamaged in the worm’s lair. Quinn blows the worm and all of its offspring to kingdom come.
Worlds Visited
 | Worm WorldA mining experiment gone awry has turned an innocuous worm into a flesh-eating immortal mutant. |
Details
- The beach sign tells the Sliders they have 7 miles to walk to reach Paradise Beach and 45 miles to reach Barnette. The rest of the sign reads “Danger No Beach Activity Allowed!”
- The children kick around a Franklin brand soccer ball.
- Michael Levy’s laptop computer is a Sharp PC-3070.
- Up to 1949 there were 27 deaths in Paradise Beach. Since then there have only been three.
- Bud drives a beige Studebaker.
- Quinn believes that the worm is a genetic mutation of a Nemertenan.
- Quinn sets the first explosive to detonate in 08:10, the second at 01:03, the third at 00:56 and the fourth appears to be 01:28.
Character Information
- While in the North Africa, presumably while he was in the service, Arturo visited a place called Eden in Tunisia. “Nasty, fly-infested place,” he recalls. So much for Eden.
- Arturo says that Rembrandt was a cook in the Navy.
- Quinn says that Wade used to be a waitress in high school.
- Rembrandt once had a concert in a small town called Mount Dora but did not end up playing because a hurricane.
Money Matters
- The Sliders have no money on Worm World, forcing Rembrandt and Wade to get jobs at the local restaurant.
The Stores of Paradise
- Realty [agency] — seen when the Sliders are first getting out of the Jeep.
- The Paradise Cafe — which advertises Maine Lobster and is looking to hire.
- Peterson’s Appliances Columbus Ventures Ltd. — sits above Peterson’s.
- The Local Tavern — that’s the name, not the description.
- The Paradise Bed & Breakfast — opened in 1941.
- A United States Post Office — to the right of the Paradise Cafe.
- The Anchor Pub — a bar and grill that serves cold beer, spirits and lager.
- Purdy’s Art Store — to the left of The Anchor Pub which is to the left of the Paradise Cafe.
- Village Pharmacy — offers a “complete selection” along with photo finishing. It is located around the corner to the right of the Paradise Cafe.
- Paradise Beach Sheriff’s office. — displaying a sailing plaque on its outer wall, it sits to the right of the pharmacy.
The Youth Chant
We vow to keep the secret. We vow to keep the silence.
We [thank them for] the sacrifice.
We vow to keep the secret. We vow to keep the silence.
We ask for [your] forgiveness.
We vow to keep the secret. We vow to keep the silence.
We prey they did not suffer.
We vow to keep the secret. We vow to keep the silence.
We prey their souls are at peace.
We vow to keep the secret. We vow to keep the silence.
Notable Quotes
- “She’s got a problem and I think it’s a little more important than your horoscope.” — Quinn to the apparently lazy Sheriff Burke.
- “Well, there are no fears there. We four … are all the kin we have.” — Arturo’s response when asked to provide a next of kin while checking in at the bed and breakfast.
- “These people are pleasant to the point of nausea.” — Arturo’s take on the citizen of Paradise Beach.
- “I think that I need a bit of help yet to make sure I get home.” — An ironic Arturo to his drinking buddy, Fred.
- “All right, guys. Now, if this is your quaint, local way of frightening off strangers, congratulations. It works. The stranger is frightened.” — A scared Arturo after he’s cornered on the worm’s territory.
- “That thing’s had its last meal. Time to put a slug on the barbie.” — Quinn, paying homage to Crocodile Dundee, in reference to his intentions to torch the sandworm.
Nitpicks/Errors
- Would a sign on the beach relay the mileage to nearby Paradise Beach? Let alone Barnette, which is 45 milesaway in an undisclosed direction?
- Are the kids playing soccer also eating the Gift? If not, who are they related to? If so, wouldn’t all the people in town eventually regress to childhood as a side effect?
- If there’s a United States Post Office branch in Paradise, wouldn’t someone in the government know about the seemingly immortal people living there?
- If every drop of the Gift is precious, why are the town residents using their hands to scoop the goo out of shallow bowls? Why not use a spoon or an eyedropper?
- Who first decided that eating the excrement of a mutant worm was a good idea? Who kept eating it until they noticed it reversed the aging process?
- Why isn’t Fred eating the Gift with the rest of the townsfolk? For that matter, would they really carry out their ritual in an easily accessed store in town with 5 nosy strangers poking into everything?
- It’s never fully explained what the drum-like banging is from.
- At night, Quinn beats Bud unconscious and then travels with Laurie down the hillside towards the beach. They arrive in the daylight to see Arturo’s weapon and sinkhole. Later, when Quinn rescues Rembrandt from jail he brings a tied-up Bud along with him. It seems unlikely that Bud would still be unconscious enough for Quinn to tie him up hours after he was initially beaten.
- That’s one magic shotgun: between Rembrandt and Quinn, the thing fires two dozen shells with only one reload!
- Wade tells the others that Trudy Whitmore told her that the Professor “was fed to the creature who lives by the ocean” but Trudy never mentioned anything about the creature’s location.
- Quinn’s never called the Professor by his first name, why start now?
- Want another 100 nitpicks for this crummy episode? Check out Mike’s dissection of the episode here (stop and read the excellent story first!).
Neatpicks
- The far-away town of Barnette is named after executive producer Alan Barnette.
- Rembrandt mentions that he once had a concert in Mount Dora, which is the real-life hometown of Sabrina Lloyd.
Rewind That!
- A briefly-seen sign painted on the front window of the Village Pharmacy announces that the place offers a “senior citizens’ discount.” Quite ironic when you consider the locale of the establishment.
Rewind That!
While Arturo talks about his days spent in Eden in North Africa, the closed captioning doesn’t follow. Once the professor says “I don’t know about Paradise …” the closed captioning goes on to read ” … but there is a place called Barnette” rather than quoting his line about Eden.
History Lesson
In the 1940s, Paradise Beach was a simple uranium mine until a freak accident killed 50 people and mutated some kind of underground earthworm. While the worm does feed on humans, the black, oily by-product of its waste contains a component that somehow stops the aging process. Many residents thought of that by-product as a gift, others believed it was the devil’s work and refused to eat it.
The creature needs human flesh to stay alive so the residents feed it with the bodies of drifters, criminals and outcast — essentially anybody that won’t be missed by family or friends.
On a more global scale, there was a borderconflict between the United States and Canada that left many dead and many more maimed and wounded.
Exciting stuff, eh?
The Inside Slide
After location shooting had taken place for this episode, producers approached star John Rhys-Davies and told him that his character, Professor Maximillian Arturo, would be killed in the two-parter The Exodus.
In an interview with Earth Prime, Cleavant Derricks detailed how it was done, and how the high spirits amidst the staff and cast disappeared the moment it was announced.
“Hey, John,” said a producer, “you know the two-parter you wrote? Well, we’re gonna kill your character in it.”
For the record, cast are never routinely and cavalierly fired in such a fashion. When a contract is terminated by the studio, it’s done in private for obvious reasons.
Ironically, during this shoot, Rhys-Davies quietly approached the other members of the cast — Derricks, Sabrina Lloyd and Jerry O’Connell — to tell them that he had heard that they would be fired.
Why? In turn; Jerry O’Connell was not perceived as a big enough star and would be replaced with someone who was, Sabrina Lloyd was not sexy enough to draw the male audience and Derricks’ character, Rembrandt “Cryin’ Man” Brown was a cipher that the writers couldn’t figure out.
In the end, however, Rhys-Davies would be the one cut loose.
Guest Stars
- Lara Steinick as Laurie Miller
- Rob Youngblood1 as Sheriff Burke
- Will Schaub as Parker Whitmore
- Pat Gebhard as Trudy Whitmore
- Kristi McDaniel as Alice
Co-Starring
- Jeff Markey as Bud
- Gordon Jennison as Fred
- Todd Babcock as Michael Levy
Unaccredited
- Al, the uniformed corpse, is unaccredited although it does look more like a latex dummy than a real actor. If it’s not, well, then he did a heck of a job playing dead.
- The young actor and the elderly man who play the late, (103-year-old) Tom Cooper; the actor who plays the elderly version of Parker Whitmore.
- Rob Youngblood returns as Keeper James in The Great Work.