This Ambitious Sci-Fi Series Did the Multiverse Way Better Than Marvel Ever Could

It's safe to say that the fictional multiverse has been enjoying its hottest pop culture moment to date. An idea born from theoretical physics before it bled into comic book vernacular, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has devoted years to building its blockbuster version of a superhero-based Multiverse. During the same stretch of years, Sony Pictures Animation launched the acclaimed Spider-Verse trilogy, the Arrowverse took over television, and Everything Everywhere All at Once won multiple Oscars.

Television beat Hollywood to the topical punch by several decades, and not through a massive, traditional hit — via a humbly-budgeted cult series with massive aspirations. Sliders, a sci-fi series from the '90s, embraces the multiverse's endless potential with wild abandon. Tracy Tormé and Robert K. Weiss' creation fuses speculative commentary, inventive storytelling, excellent character work, and a cast with off-the-charts chemistry into an imperfect yet dynamic prelude to today's commonplace tropes.

What Is 'Sliders' About?

Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell), a grown-up boy genius pursuing his graduate degree in physics, strikes gold when he invents a device that unlocks interdimensional travel. Joined by his irascible yet protective mentor, Professor Maximillian Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), computer science nerd Wade Welles (Sabrina Lloyd), and musician Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks), Quinn and his closest friends use a wormhole to "slide" into different universes, each one offering a parallel vision of present-day Earth.

Rather than taking themselves on a research-based joyride, however, the quartet wants to return home. They lost Earth Prime's coordinates when their test run turned deadly, and they can only find them again through trial and error. They're lost in a maze, never knowing what cosmos they'll find — or whether they'll survive — among every conceivable, fascinating, and frightening probability.

Imagination, History, and Character Drive 'Sliders' Multiverse

It might sound like an obvious statement, but Sliders' strongest hook lies with its consistently effective philosophical premise. Episodic by design, its expansive collection of dimensions cleverly explore "what if?" questions or riff on existing ideas. What if, for example, dinosaurs still existed and were integrated into normal life? What if England claimed victory in the Revolutionary War, or other nations colonized America? How about an Ancient Egypt that isn't so ancient, a world without penicillin or advanced technology, or ones beset by environmental apocalypses and dystopian governments that hoard wealth, sponsor death lotteries, or televise lethal gladiator competitions?

That being said, Sliders' secret ingredients don't rely solely upon theoretical brain-twisters, but the space where a compelling allegory meets superb character beats. The series' alternate histories pose relevant sociological commentary — some satirical, some eerily prescient in how they expand, reinvent, and challenge assorted norms: cultural, societal, religious, and gender-based. Some cautionary tales wield the moral subtlety of a sledgehammer (while other concepts are best left forgotten), but there's something laudable about Sliders approaching ethical dilemmas with precious little wiggle room.

Adrift in a sea of worlds with zero end in sight, Sliders' multiverse boils down to change, consequence, choices, and differences, both in history and in individuals — especially when the main characters confront their doppelgängers, that enviable and eerie opportunity to realize what truly matters and to reckon with one's existing flaws by seeing who they could have become, for better or worse.

Many Blockbuster Hits Follow 'Sliders' Approach to the Multiverse

Since Sliders' run concluded in 2000, a flurry of genre-adjacent media has fully realized the multiverse's potential for both brain-bending entertainment and maximum character evolution. The Flash television series presents multiple Earths, as do the full Arrowverse's extensive events. When not caused by villainous schemes, dimensional crises occur because the characters are human and don't heed the age-old advice about being careful what you wish for. There's wisdom to gain by bearing firsthand witness to how the grass isn't greener on that elusive other side, or what untold catastrophes follow meddling with forces larger than yourself.

Doing so requires looking inward as much as outward. The aforementioned Spider-Verse movies, the live-action Spider-Man: No Way Home, Loki, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ground their elaborate plots in identity, autonomy, community, redemption, and knowing your value. Broaching beyond comic properties, Everything Everywhere All At Once is both absurdist silliness and a profoundly moving character piece rooted in familial and cultural dynamics, generational trauma, regret, and memory. Television-wise, Rick and Morty, Gravity Falls, Fringe, and Star Trek tread similar territory — with humor and pathos alike.

During Sliders' heyday, the five-season series captures and examines the appeal behind the unknowable questions everyone asks. Can we really cheat science and painlessly achieve the dreams we crave? Sliders' short and long answers are both "not really," but there are still countless things worth fighting for. Life is about understanding how events and surroundings inform our identities, as well as how we react once we recognize our culpability and personal responsibility — both accepting what's immutably fixed in time and pursuing the ways we can, actually, progress our distressed planet forward inch-by-inch.