A toxic fog hangs over a secluded village where Rickman is hiding. While in pursuit, a local seer warns Wade Quinn will never leave the fog, a prediction that forces an angry revelation from Rembrandt. Despite repeated protestations from the others, Maggie attempts to retrieve Rickman herself. When she fails, Quinn goes in after her and discovers that the leader of the village is another version of himself. More specifically, it’s the same version of himself that solved the GUT equation is his basement. He has gone insane with guilt over the role he played in aiding the Kromaggs and demands that Quinn kill him. If he refuses, he’ll have the villagers kill Maggie. Wade and Rembrandt stage a rescue with a magic potion given to them by the seer, but not before Rickman escapes. Quinn leaves his double to his fate.
![]() | Fog WorldA civilization reminiscent of the hillbillies of Appalachia have overrun an earth that belches hallucinogenic fog from the ground. |
Adra says, while explaining her ways to Wade, that in order to beat the ‘haints’ you have to move past the haze. In CC, it’s actually ‘haunts’ that she says. Possibly an over-zealous Appalachian accent on Oona Hart’s part.
Fog World has the feel of a world bogged down in 70 years of depression. The streets are dirt-paved even though there are cars, houses and stores are delapidated and show little care for maintenance.
The strangest part of this world is the fog, of couse. Underneath the mountain ranges that climb high into the California skyline lay an obscene amount of sulfur. Heated by the Earth’s core, the sulfur seeps out from underground and lies thick around the base of the mountains. The fog is poisonous and causes people to collapse and die if they spend too much time in it. A clan of natives aptly dubbed the Foggins live above the poison line and have an immunity to the toxins in the air below.
Fortunately, a root grows in the forest that, when distilled, creates a toxic potion enabling people to breathe sulfur.
Legends and superstitions have crept up over the years as a result, leaving the populace heavily reliant on the occult as a belief system. It’s called the Craft and it’s a mixture of voodoo, Tarot cards and blind faith.
There is some medical technology on this world, but it’s not widely accepted as the superstitions of the locals put them ill at ease with hospitals and such.
The working title for this episode in pre-production was “Raging Quinn.”
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“The Other Slide of Darkness” was the first episode of the third season to have its story broken (judging by its production numbers). After John Rhys-Davies was fired from the show, the story, written in June of 1996, was reworked considerably to fit in the character of Maggie Beckett and the Rickman arc.
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“I think all actors bring a little bit of themselves to a character, unless they’re playing a really crazy character,” says Jerry O’Connell. “That’s another attractive feature about working on Sliders, is that I can create completely different characters. In one of the episodes I played a double who’s like Kurtz from Heart of Darkness so I got to play a really dark character there. I use Quinn as a starting point — I say, ‘Okay, how am I going to make this guy different from Quinn?,’ The real challenge is the acting, and that’s why it’s such a great job, because it’s so cerebral.”