The unlikely paths of "Roads Taken"

Date: 4/17/99
From: Executive

Since there have been over 3 dozen new posts in just the 21+ hours since I provided the link to my review of this episode, I first want to re-post this in case you missed it:

www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/2768

After re-watching the last 10 minutes of the episode last night while waiting for FIRST WAVE to start, I wanted to add something that I only briefly touched on before. At the end of the story, Quinn mentioned that the "bubble world" existed outside of space and time and had been destroyed when they returned to their original point of origin (only this time with Quinn and Maggie). Therefore, writer Bill Dial was only partially correct to have the sliders say it "never" existed. Yet the sliders remembered what had happened, which is a contradiction in terms.

Someone previously pointed out that this secondary world stemmed from the fantasies of Quinn & Maggie. It looked to me that it came into existence by a freakish break in the space-time continuum that occurred once they slid into the U.S.-Mexican War world in the first place. That's why I compared it to what happened in such episodes as "As Time Goes By". But the concept of this story was completely different.

Another theory of mine is that since Maggie and Quinn saw the doubles of themselves, the memories of their doubles' lives and their aging was the result of them actually psychologically merging with their parallel counterparts (since the two worlds were interwoven). That's why the Quinn and Maggie we know were also aging back in the Chandler on the real world.

Another possibile theory for this would be that their life forces were transferred into their elder doubles' bodies. That would explain why the real Maggie & Quinn were rapidly aging, as their spirits were slowly transferred into their counterparts.

And once Thomas Mallory enabled them all to return to the war-torn Earth, and the "bubble" world and Tom ceased to exist -- all that had happened in that 12 hour period never occurred. That's how they were actually able to travel back in time, if you consider that to be time travel. In the 3rd season classic "The Guardian", Arturo said that travelling through time for them was impossible. But there are exceptions to every rule...and Thomas Mallory made it possible.

There is no question that "Roads Taken" is a confusing episode, and one that breaks the series format. But if you take a few minutes to think about it, you may even come up with some theories of your own as to what happened.

As for the Quinn and Maggie "almost-kiss", now you know how Mulder and Scully on THE X-FILES feel! I have no problem with their mutual interest in each other, because Quinn was certainly not interested in Wade romantically (although she felt different in the early shows). If Jerry O' Connell had stayed with SLIDERS, I believe the writers would have hooked Quinn and Maggie up at some point. But we will never know for sure....

T h e
E x e c u t i v e

Exec...a few things

Date: 4/17/99
From: Cryin

My theory on the situation was that an anomole in the vortex caused Quinn and Maggie`s mind to form a bubble universe. As is consistent with the laws of thermal dynamics, all matter is made up of energy and that energy proceeds to lower levels of organizations. Putting this into "sliding" terms, I believe that while in the vortex, Quinn, Maggie, Rembrandt, and Colin do not exist in human form, but travel through as some alternate form of energy. This being the case, I presumed that Quinn`s and Maggie`s energy intertwined in such a way at the anomole in the vortex that their energy as well as some of that of the vortex proceeded back to higher levels of organization in the form of matter. In other words, the mixture of Quinn`s, Maggie`s and the vortexes energy caused the creation of a new parallel earth. And since Quinn`s and Maggie`s energy was physically intertwined, this phenomenon transferred to a 'feeling of love' in the bubble universe. Such caused them to experience a lifetime together and also to feel of such that the bubble universe was their home world.

So, you ask then, how did Quinn and Maggie end up back with Rembrandt and Colin. More than likely, the anomole contained information of Quinn and Maggie`s mind, not their bodies, since it was said that the bubble world did not really exist. However, since some of the energy from their mind was in a different universe, they still felt a connection to it. Thus, when Punky Brewster`s dad (thought that was pretty funny) and the old Maggie died, our sliders would lose a major part of self. Thus in order to save themselves, this 'mind' needed to be put back into their original bodies. Although by doing so, they were taking the energy back from the bubble universe, destroying everything that was there. Rembrandt and Colin obviously survived because they brought extra mass/energy to the bubble world and did not die when the "mind energy" was transferred back to Maggie and Quinn.

Anyway, that`s my two cents on the subject. By the way, I`m about to go look at your X-Files review. Sorry I haven`t a chance yet to do it. And is RRS really your little bitch...I thought he was like the whole boards!

Now I`ve read X-Files review (OT)

Date: 4/17/99
From: Cryin

Because I`ve got two lab reports to finish, three tests in the next week and a half, and a research proposal, I won`t comment on each episode...I`ll try to make this short and sweet.

I agree with your reviews of "Monday", "Tithonus", and "Triangle" as being winners, but I was very disappointed with "Full Disclosure." I felt the same way with "The Beginning" which followed up the fifth season finale "The End." Now that I think about "The End" may have had such a name to indicate that "The X-Files" was going to no longer be a specific in following its five year story line, but upon success of the movie would 'sell out' to new fans everywhere. Thus, htat mind reading boy became a minor character (which was quite humorous as he was really the first solid evidence of extraterrestrial life). However, I didn`t find "Full Disclosure" much better. In its claim to release all X-Files secrets, we were still left the mystery of Agent Fowley`s actual perspective and C.G.B Spender`s murdering of his son appeared inconsistent with his character after sending him many letter expressing his desire to have him in his life.

"Monday" was fantastic. As we`ve stated before, shows or movies with the 'deja vu' theme have, for the most part, always turned out good. I also like "Arcadia." I missed "Alpha" and the last gvnt conspiracy episode. Last week`s ep was the worst I`ve seen in a whil...I stopped watching it after twenty minutes. It reminded me of that ep a while ago where the man could leave his body and committ murders.

In general, I really liked Carter`s 'liberal' exploration of the characters of Skully and Mulder. Mulder has definetely become more laid back about the whole alien thing and his sarcasm around Skully has definetely added some spice to the show. Although Skully now has proof of the 'non-scientific' she still remains a skeptic and her null hypotheses to Mulder`s claims are comical.

What I would like to see in season 7 is some more exploration of Skully`s personal conflict between her science and religion. She now has some proof that the supernatural can occurr so I think this could have some major implications on her relioug beliefs.

More Diane Fowley. Her and Mulder`s relationship is definetely an intersting concept and has even more implication in that between Mulder and Skully.

Jeff Spender needs to come back. Besides the fact that we share the same first name, his jumping over to Mulder`s side in time of turmoil had major effect on the show. Although DD and GA have made the show what it is, Spender would be an interesting main character. As we know previously from the X-Files, there is no way to determine if someone is actually dead.

One last thing (naturally, I wrote more than I had hoped)...the writers need to be somewhat more consistent in their story lines. Although I like the variation at times, it somehow detracts from the meaning of the show. My final hope is that Carter aims towards pleasing "X-Filers" rather than summer movie goers. As dumb as it sounds, I miss making sure I don`t miss one sentence during the show.

With Tears in My Fro,
I`m "Cryin"

Mind over matter (mostly OT)

Date: 4/17/99
From: Executive

Well said, Cryin Man. I don't agree with the concept that all that happened in "Roads Taken" and the creation of the bubble world was rooted in the minds of Maggie and Quinn, but your theory is interesting and in the general realm of sci-fi it certainly has merit.

THE X-FILES has explored Scully's religious beliefs in the past, most notably in the 5th season episode "All Souls" (which I didn't care for) in which she had an encounter with a demon who took on many faces -- the primary one being a priest that Scully confided in. But even as far back in the superb 1st season story "Beyond the Sea", Dana was terrified of the psychic visions projected into her mind by death row killer Luther Boggs. Yet she believed them, because one of those visions was the death of her father. Gillian Anderson should have won an Emmy for her intense performance in that episode, but she wasn't even nominated that year.

You should re-post your X-FILES comments in that thread on the Current Sci-Fi board. Hopefully we can get some kind of discussion going over there.

T h e
E x e c u t i v e

No contradiction

Date: 4/18/99
From: Alan_H

There's no contradiction between the bubble world never existing the Sliders remembering it. It just means that Quinn and Maggie and to a lesser extent Colin and Rembrandt all have an extreme case of false memory syndrome.

Thx for the clear unbiased description

Date: 4/19/99
From: LShel

Thanks for your insightful and exceptionally well-written descriptions of what was going on in the Road Taken episode. I'm relatively new to Sliders & this BB & was a little frightened off when the first postings were so caustic, especially since I thought I was the only one who enjoyed it for its beauty, its plausibility, & its complexity. Now that the emotinal Wade-Maggie debate has died down to a simmer here on the BB, it's nice to see more logical and analytical postings regarding this ep, in particular, what was going on & what did this mean in the big scheme of things.

Did it really happen? Excessive aging?

Date: 4/19/99
From: LShel

I have read the too numerous too count postings and replies on this ep, but still a few questions remain. I'm hoping you & the other more seasoned viewers might assist me here.

Didn't the BubbleWorld actually exist in space (physically) & in time, happening as if in a dream, rather than "never really happening" except that usually rules of time did not apply? Here goes my reasoning w/ a few questions, but people help me please if I'm totally off:

1. Based on Exec's article, it is plausible that the BubbleWorld was derived from the combined and co-occurring dreams of Quinn and Maggie somehow initiated during this unusually "bumpy" slide where their conscious selves were separated from their physical selves, but a connection continues to exist. I assert that this connection exists in a time-linked fashion since Remmy & Quinn observe the simultaneously occurring physical aging of their bodies in the Chandler. Maybe I missed something, but when the "projected" Thomas Mallory re-tooled the timer to transport all 4 sliders to the BubbleWorld, did that include their physical bodies or just the conscious part of themselves? If Quinn & Colin were actually transported in their entirety, then I would assert that the BubbleWorld actually did exist physically from that moment on as an alternative world or dimension. When all 4 sliders arrived in the "Real" World (landing in a dumpster) via what appeared to be a vortex, it was their physical bodies that were transported, implying that they came from a physical world. They didn't just revive back inside the Chandler as if waking from a dream.

2. It became obvious at least 1/2 way through the ep that the time in the BubbleWorld (or dream dimension) did not correlate minute-for-minute with time back at the Chandler. After Thomas Mallory assists in transporting them all to the BubbleWorld, the original Quinn & Maggie meet their elderly "doubles", acquire a conscious memory of this dream life once they are "fused" w/ the elderly versions of themselves (physical selves combined w/ conscious selves) during the poetry recital, and then are transported back to the Real World. The confusing part is how they arrive back at the Real World with apparently no time passing (12 hours lost) or even negative time passing (some say they arrived back a few minutes earlier than when they left in the first place). This is the reason given for all of this romance never happening at all. Did the whole scene in the hotel room never happen at all for Remmy & Colin? What about the remnant memories Quinn & Maggie acquire? My answer, clearly our usual rules of time do not apply. Given the evidence of the shared memory by both Quinn & Maggie at the end of the ep, I don't think one can say that all this never happened. Rather, I would assert that this happened to the Quinn & Maggie "doubles" as if in a dream and the 12 hours spent in this dream were "looped out" in a sense in the Real World time continuum. I'm curious, do you think that Remmy & Colin also retained memories of their brief stint in BubbleWorld?

3. One thing I can't understand at all is how come Quinn & Maggie's bodies at the Chandler aged well beyond the physical condition of the elderly Quinn & Maggie in the BubbleWorld? Elderly Quinn & Maggie did not experience cataracts, congestive heart failure, or liver malfunction in the BubbleWorld. Clearly, the mind over matter explanation does not apply here. Was it this whole experience tapping them of energy or physical resources? No one has speculated on this particular item on this BB. Any thoughts?

After reading everyone's postings for the last week or two, I guess you guys have got me going on this one. Am I thinking too much? OK, I know you're thinking it: Maybe I just need to get a life. IT'S JUST A TV SHOW.

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