'Sliders' Star Teases Possible Reboot

Reboots, revivals, reimagining's, and sequels are all the rage in entertainment these days, giving various shows and movies new life for new generations of viewers. It's that entertainment environment that has opened the door for a possible revival for one of the more interesting of 1990s television series -- Sliders. According to original star John Rhys-Davies, talks are happening with NBC about potentially bringing the show back.

In a recent interview with Flickering Myth, Rhys-Davies said that he and star Jerry O'Connell are talking about a reboot with NBC, with the current issue being of ownership of the show.

"Jerry had been pestering me for a number of years and we're actually talking to NBC at the moment to see if there's any possibility of rebooting the series," Rhys-Davies said. "They're looking into the basic question of who actually owns it? At the moment we don't seem to be able to find that out."

Sliders made its debut on Fox back in 1995, running on the network for three seasons before it was cancelled then, subsequently picked up by SyFy (then simply called Sci-Fi Channel) where it ran for two more. The series followed a group of people simply called "Sliders" who travel between different parallel universe Earths through a vortex-like wormhole. The point of their travel is to return to their own Earth, Earth Prime. The Sliders face a number of challenges in this travel. Not only do they have no control over what Earth they end up on each time, but they have a very limited amount of time in which to open the vortex and leave. If they run out of time, they're trapped for 29.7 years. The second issue is that they end up having to resolve various events where they are before they can leave.

If it sounds complicated, that's because it was. The show was plagued by continuity errors in its first two seasons thanks to Fox airing episodes out of order to help with ratings. The network also decided to largely drop the cliffhanger that had ended Season 1, which caused it to be only sort of resolved later in the season. The show also endured some cast changes that changed things significantly when the show made the jump from Fox to SyFy. Rhys-Davies in particular left Sliders at the end of Season 3 but said that he's still excited about the possibility for more adventures for the show.

"I would do it again, if just to show how it should be done," he said. "It could have been the best show on television, it could still be on the air. I think maybe if we got another chance at doing it with the new technology, but also new stories, I think we could do something quite extraordinary. I wouldn't want to do it for the rest of my life, but I would do it for a season or two if it was right."

What do you think about the possibility of a Sliders' reboot or revival? Let us know in the comments below.