• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sliders reboot in the work?

Samurai8472

Samurai8472

Admiral
Admiral
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

The uploader prevented embedding

Sliders creator Tracy Torme has confirmed a reboot of the show is in development (1:04), he says if talks go well, it'll be a mix of returning and new characters. Cleavant, Jerry and John have been approached.


The first season was good. The later seasons got dragged down by studio interference(More action) and behind the scenes drama(John Rhys Davies being fired and rumored drama with Karrie and Sabrina.)
 
I'll believe it when I see it, but if you are bringing back original characters is it a reboot or continutaion?

Sure there is a way to bring back Arutro from the S2 episode with the Azure Gate bridge if memory serves where there is some wiggle room as for which Arutro slid.

Though if they are going the full reboot path I expect to see Qunn being female, but if Jerry came back to you have in the role of professor now?
 
MacLeod said:
I'll believe it when I see it, but if you are bringing back original characters is it a reboot or continutaion?
Click to expand...

Industry insiders don't define "reboot" as rigidly as laypeople do. It can mean any revival of a dormant property, like rebooting your computer.


Captain_Nick said:
Is anyone else getting sick of all these 'reboots'? It's as if nobody knows how to come up with an original concept any more
Click to expand...

"Anymore" is a myth. Most of the early TV shows in the 1950s, even into the '60s, were remakes of radio shows, or adaptations of movies or novels. And feature film remakes were even more common in the silent and early talkie era than they are today. The famous Wizard of Oz was something like the seventh film adaptation of the book in three decades. It is a perennial myth that there was ever a time when movies or TV did not employ remakes or adaptations.

Originality is not about what story you tell; it's about how you tell it.
 
It would be pretty easy to explain any of the original four having been switched out with their parallel dopplegangers at some point during the show's original run. I wouldn't mind seeing the original gang reunited, the Kromagg storyline having a definitive end, and then introducing a new group.

MacLeod said:
I'll believe it when I see it, but if you are bringing back original characters is it a reboot or continutaion?

Sure there is a way to bring back Arutro from the S2 episode with the Azure Gate bridge if memory serves where there is some wiggle room as for which Arutro slid.

Though if they are going the full reboot path I expect to see Qunn being female, but if Jerry came back to you have in the role of professor now?
Click to expand...
 
Christopher said:
Originality is not about what story you tell; it's about how you tell it.
Click to expand...

Essentially this. Over the course of thousands of years of story telling, it's basically becoming impossible to come up with a completely original story.
Now yes, I will agree that the amount of shows based on old shows/movies is becoming pretty high. But even then, some of those reboots have been better than the original at times. And often only taking the core of what it was and going in a new way.
Like comics. I mean, I'm not big into comics, but I don't see many people here complaing that they're rebooting a comic again.

How often have many of our most beloved heros not gotten a re-start at comics? Starting all over again, with small changes to their origins, new stories, new villians? Same difference.
 
Mage said:
Now yes, I will agree that the amount of shows based on old shows/movies is becoming pretty high.
Click to expand...

As I said, there have always been plenty of shows based on older shows. Every generation assumes it's a new trend, but it isn't. This is a recognized psychological phenomenon called the Recency Illusion. We think that the way things are today are some kind of novelty, but the truth is that it was exactly the same all along.

Just at random, here's the 1955-6 prime time schedule:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955–56_United_States_network_television_schedule

Picking out some of the adapted shows:

Lassie: Based on a novel and a 1940s movie series.
Famous Film Festival: Showing old movies on TV.
The Jack Benny Show: Adapted from radio.
The Original Amateur Hour: Adapted from radio.
Topper: Based on the movies.
The Adventures of Robin Hood: Rerun of the British series based on the legend.
Burns and Allen: Adapted from radio.
The Voice of Firestone: Adapted from radio.
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts: Adapted from radio.
December Bride: Adapted from radio.
Studio One: Adapted from radio.

And that's just Sunday and Monday. I think that makes my point without having to go through the whole week.
 
Christopher said:
As I said, there have always been plenty of shows based on older shows. Every generation assumes it's a new trend, but it isn't. This is a recognized psychological phenomenon called the Recency Illusion. We think that the way things are today are some kind of novelty, but the truth is that it was exactly the same all along.
Click to expand...

My favourite example would be Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. A 90's sequel series to a 1972 TV show, starring a returning David Carradine. And I'm seeing even now that it wasn't even the first effort to bring it it back, just that it was one of the more successful efforts, and now there's an apparent new version of Kung Fu (on CW) that they say is a reimagining of the 1972 series. So yeah, definitely lots of examples of returning series.
 
Owain Taggart said:
My favourite example would be Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. A 90's sequel series to a 1972 TV show, starring a returning David Carradine. And I'm seeing even now that it wasn't even the first effort to bring it it back, just that it was one of the more successful efforts,
Click to expand...

Oh, yes. And that's actually one of the more recent examples. Off the top of my head, there was The New Perry Mason in the '70s, with Monte Markham as Perry and Sharon Acker as Della Street. Then the revival movies of the original series in the late '80s and '90s, and now the cable reimagining.


and now there's an apparent new version of Kung Fu (on CW) that they say is a reimagining of the 1972 series.
Click to expand...

Not only "apparent," but a pretty good show. It's so tenuously connected to the original that it barely qualifies as a remake, but it fixes the Carradine versions' fundamental mistake by focusing on a Chinese-American lead and her family rather than a white guy in yellowface.
 
Interesting. I hadn't even heard of it until I was looking up the shows, but then I don't watch the CW or its shows to be in the demographic to notice it or its advertisements. Still, I think it shows there's still a lot they can do with the premise.

And that being said, I think Sliders is still a fairly young enough premise with lots of life behind it. A Sliders premise could work at any time.
 
Sliders is a cool concept but the show itself was stupid and I only liked it through a kid's eyes. It's dumb to think that every parallel universe has a famous doppelganger of yourself.
 
The first season is fantastic, really one of the best seasons of TV skiffy ever. The premise was fantastic, and the writing was sharp and thoughtful without getting too pretentious.

But the cracks really started showing up in the second season and the focus really shifted from thought provoking what-ifs to more generic shoot-em up.
 
Awesome Possum said:
I loved Sliders but it really started to go downhill after Arturo got killed off. Season 4 did have its moments, but losing Quinn killed any interest I had in the show.
Click to expand...

It started to go downhill about a season and a half before Arturo got killed off. His death was when it reached the base of the hill, and then it plunged into a cesspool and sank clear to the bottom by the end of season 3.

But seasons 4 and 5 were, to me, better than anything in seasons 2 and 3. The cast changes were a problem, and Jerry O'Connell's brother wasn't much of an actor, but the writing in the Sci-Fi Channel seasons was the strongest since the first season. And the season 5 ensemble actually had pretty terrific chemistry. They may have had only one actor in common with the original cast, but they were a very effective and likeable cast in their own right.
 
I've had my own thoughts on how the series could be revived and my approach would be to go with an all-new cast. I'd start without any obvious links to the old series, just keep things simple with a small group of characters traveling from one universe to another. Then for a few event episodes, they can run into some familiar faces.

I think trying to directly continue the original would just bog things down and make attracting new audiences impossible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top