The Guardian

Season 3
Airdate: 10/11/96
Rating: 5/5

“My name isn’t Jim. It’s Quinn.” – Quinn Mallory

The Professor keeps a hidden secret from the rest, but by chance it’s Quinn who finds out. He has an incurable and inoperable illness. He prefers to keep it quiet between the two. The next world appears to be in 1984. It’s same year, same planet but a different dimension. However as Arturo explains, time is slower because of Van Meer’s theory of straight relativistic time dilation. That’s a mouthful. This is where a parallel earth revolves around the sun in the same period of time, however it spins on its axis faster. That’s a quick explanation that seems plausible, so I’ll buy what he says without question. After all, relativistic time dilation is in fact a thing. The previous world had electric twisters, but at least this jargon sounds like science.

This episode focuses more on character development instead of the “we’ve got a problem” scenario. The Sliders essentially walk onto a street from the vortex instead of the traditional jump. Plus it’s the first time they’ve slid to San Francisco since Logan St. Claire altered the timer in “Double Cross”. As Arturo explains, “that was a marvelous slide”, because he’s always complaining about the rough landings. Quinn sees his younger self at his father’s funeral. Even though the kid is a double it would weigh heavy on your heart seeing all of the pain again. You’d be reliving it, but looking at it from an outside view. He’s introduced to his former teacher, Ms. Heather Hanley. Quinn blurts out Jim Hall as his name. Who would believe that you have the same name as her student. It’d be past off as a joke, and an inappropriate one considering the timing. Many tv fanatics don’t understand the concept of Sliders, and see it as a Quantum Leap knockoff. They believe it’s time travel. Imagine explaining parallel worlds to them and incorporating the time theory in this episode.

The unfolding events seem to put our Quinn into a state of depression. It reminds him of his childhood past, but now he’s determined to do something about it. He intends on changing this Quinn’s troubled childhood. He goes off to meet his mother’s double while Rembrandt, Wade and Arturo chow down on some pizza from days gone by. To be honest I think I’d be more interested in exploring the old San Francisco rather than eating pizza. But Rembrandt always seems to proclaim the food is bad on every world. Well, he’s in heaven on this world. After all, there was a world where doctor forms are needed for a burger and fries. After their meal, they take a stroll in The Professor’s newly rented Rolls Royce.

Quinn returns his childhood dog, Bopper, that he lost on his world. This world’s young Quinn ran off because his mother left the dog’s gate open. In a situation like that having a pet to comfort you after a parent’s death would be more than welcomed. He is invited into the house and is overcome with emotions of his past. He gives his mother some advice for his younger double. To give him some time, because he’s angry at the whole world. I’m sure this episode can relate to those who grew up without a parent. Television stories can be relatable or take you on a wild adventure. This episode does both.

The creator and writer of this episode, Tracy Tormé, explains how some of his struggles affected the episode and himself. In “Sliders the Classic Episodes” by Brad Linaweaver, Tracy is quoted saying:

“My dad got very sick, had a stroke right around the time that I had just written “The Guardian.” So a lot of the themes in “The Guardian” scarily came into my life because there was a while when we thought we might lose him or he might never be the same. There was even a night my wife and I went out to watch a meteor shower in the desert with some friends, and he was at his lowest ebb at that point, and I had just written the scene which was added to the piece where Quinn and his younger self go out to look at the stars.

That was a scene that wasn’t in the original script. We needed a bonding scene. So I wrote this scene where they are out there and they are talking about his father dying. It’s about all the things a father wants to say to a son, or a son to his father, and now it’s too late and you may never get to say them. All the themes in “The Guardian” were happening in real life at the time.” (Linaweaver, Brad. Sliders the Classic Episodes, 1998) (p. 267).

Quinn returns to the hotel while Arturo boasts about watching his very first American football game. He humorously labels teams as squads, and quarterbacks as generals. Quinn is “living in his own world” while the rest talk amongst him. Wade eventually presses him to take a step back and discuss his situation. They want Quinn to back down. However, he knows there’s a reason he’s there, considering the timing of all of the events. Young Quinn is faced with bullies at school. Even to the point of being made fun of about his father’s death. Quinn breaks up a large fight for young Quinn at the school yard. It’s at this point young Quinn sees him as a crutch, but more importantly, a mentor.

Arturo presses Quinn not to interfere with his double because it could change the outcome of events. It’s sorta the explanation we see in the movie trilogy Back to the Future. If you change one thing it could subsequently have unforeseen side effects. The utterance of one word could result in someone not being born. Rembrandt comes to the realization that maybe Quinn does need to help young Quinn fight his bullies. Everyone gets ready for Arturo’s idea of watching an opera and he proclaims, “your generation thinks nothing of seeing Indiana Jones 13 times.” If you’re too young to know, well, John Rhys-Davies also played a part in that movie franchise. He’s acted in more than just The Lord of the Rings, you know.

Quinn returns to his childhood school again and is held back by the Professor. He restrains him from intervening in the school fight. He decides however to get a date with his former crush, his teacher Heather. They discuss younger Quinn’s struggles and slowly gain each others trust and affection. The Professor ends up in a rowdy bar and humorously recites poetry. It’s something you wouldn’t see the Professor doing, but after his health ailments he seems to take more risks. We’ll even see him jump off a bridge, being the first bungee jumper on the earth. If you asked me earlier in the series that he would do so, I’d say it’s his double. Well it’s somewhat true, but not a canonized plot. It’s up for you to believe if this Professor is a double from “Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome.”

Quinn trains younger Quinn to fight his bullies. He’s determined to stop a fight where young Quinn uses a baseball bat in a fight. When our Quinn used it he broke a kids knee and he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Emotionally, he’s trying to change his past and in the process helping his double. Rembrandt and Wade disagree with Quinn’s mission, because young Quinn could get hurt. For once, the Professor breaks his rule about not intervening in the lives they encounter. He tells Quinn to forget that rule and help young Quinn heal. It was the most difficult time of his life. His father dying, being bullied at school, and trying to be the man of the house. This of all times, is the right time to break the rule.

In the end everything works out ok with the two Quinn’s. In contrast Heather Hanley wants Quinn to stay, believing he loved her and wanted something more together. She eventually discovers the truth of why “Jim” was there. All of the events of the episode form together perfectly. It’s a well established ending to an episode, perhaps the best of the entire series. The characters have been crafted perfectly and this is one of the most popular episode for fans.

This was Tracy Tormé’s favorite episode that aired. It’s also the final episode he wrote before leaving the series. A new producer jumped on board and they both done a screening of this episode before airing it. Following the screening, Tracy was told, now that is exactly what we don’t want. His hands were tied. In light of these events and others, he departed from the series. This is the beginning of a departure from the show’s original roots. His most precious TV work was essentially ripped out of his hands after laboring over it for years.

Like Quinn says, the timing was more than coincidence, and he was there for a reason. Perhaps Tracy’s departure from the series was better for him too. In such a way that he couldn’t see. We don’t always understand why and worry too much about the “what ifs”. It was my intent to text message the Sliders creator Tracy Tormé, weeks after I did. But something was telling me to do so before hand. Tracy called me days before his death and I was able to tell him again one last time, thank you for Sliders. It was more than coincidence. Despite the health battles he faced, and the struggles of Hollywood, his legacy remains in writing and vision. After deep reflection and contemplation, I now realize that Tracy was the true guardian, of Sliders.