I recently had the opportunity to talk to Sliders Executive Producer Chris Deaver.  You fans know Chris as not only the Executive Producer, who along with the help of series co-creator Tracy Torme`, revitalized Sliders and helped take it back to it’s roots, but as the Traveller known as Andrew Summers.

WARNING: This interview contains  mild spoilers for the series finale “To All Things An Ending pt.2” If you haven’t seen it, go  here.

X-Pert: First off, Chris, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to talk with me.

Chris Deaver: The pleasure is all mine.  You‘ve done such a wonderful service for the fans for the last few years.

XP: First off, how did you become involved with Sliders?

CD: Well, I was a fan from day one. Loved the show.  Back in 97 I had just finished the filming for the Andrew Summers:Traveller “Pilot.” Although the ratings weren’t that great on the finished product, it received some rave reviews.  This led me into contact with Tracy  [Torme`].

XP: This was during Sliders 4th season right?

CD:  Around that time, I met Tracy at a convention.  He was there trying to drum up support to take the show back over.  I was there because of AS: T.  We struck up a conversation about Sliders.  HE was anxious to hear my ideas.  Basically, a friendship was forged from there.

XP:  I take it neither of you were fans of Season 4?

CD:  I think the writers tried very hard, but it just didn’t work.  They had completely lost their focus.  And thanks to [David] Peckinpah, Wade was lost in a Kromagg breeder camp.  I mean come on!  What fan wanted to see that?

XP:  Yeah, that was a load of crap.

CD:  Well, the truth is this, Tracy should have taken the show back over then, but politics prevented it.  He was disheartened.  I can understand that.  I kept at him.  I knew that we’d have another shot at it. And we were successful.  We convinced SFC that we could make the show an even bigger hit for them than it already was.

XP:  And you two cleaned house very early on.  You got rid of Maggie, brought back Wade, turned Colin evil and brought in Bennish.

CD:  Yeah, we knew the fans would love that.

XP:  So tell me something.  Who’s decision was it to get rid of the Kromaggs?

CD:  That was me.  I had this great new group of villains that I wanted to play with, something completely different from the Kromaggs.  Besides with the Nazi Space Monkeys that were in S4 we had to do some house cleaning.

XP:  I have to say, I loved the Draconians.  I had watched the AS: T pilot all those years ago, but I never realized that it was the same Cyrus.

CD: (Smiles) I wasn’t sure how many people would pick up on that.  Tracy had loved AS: T, and he knew I wanted to incorporate some of those ideas into the show.

XP:  Also, S5’s finale . . .WHOA!

CD:  (Smiles again) Thanks.  That’s what we were going for.

XP:  Moving into S6, you had a lot going on there.

CD:  (shakes head) tell me about it . . . it just kept growing.  The truth is this, Tracy had moved onto another project by this point.  He was still consulting and directing a bit, but most of it fell into my lap.  And I went a little crazy with it.

XP:  I’m assuming the casting of Katie Holmes as Autumn Mallory was planned from the start?   After all, she did play Meggan Chandellor in the AST pilot.

CD:  That was planned.  You have to realize something; everything I did had reasoning behind it.  I had intended to bring Andrew and Nimbus in and I knew that I wanted Autumn to be a double of Meggan . . . the possibilities were endless with it.

XP:  Going off subject for a second, rumors abound about you being romantically linked to a certain cast member.

CD:  Those have been flying around since AS: T though haven’t they?

XP:  Yes but come on, just between you and me . . .

CD:  (Cracks large grin) No comment.

XP:  Oooookay.  How do you feel about your time with the series and the cast?

CD:  I’ve loved every minute of it.  The cast was great, all of them.  Jerry, Sabrina, Cleavant, John, Jason, Una, Nicholas, Charlie, Kim, Danial, Anthony and Katie were all a dream to work with.

XP:  On the subject of the cast, is it true Kim (Logan) and Danial (Evan) are old friends of yours?

CD:  Guilty as charged.  I’ve known Danial since I was born and Kim for quite a while too.  They fit the parts.  It wasn’t simply that they were my friends; each captured the essence of what I was looking for in Logan and Evan.

XP:  What about the original Logan [Zoe McClellan]?

CD:  I wanted Zoe, but it just wasn’t possible.  Rather then disappointing the fans, we came up with a way to bring back an altered Logan.

XP:  So here’s the big question . . . Any regrets?

CD:  A few.  I wish S6 had stayed on track more.  It wandered a bit.  Some of the characters lost focus because the cast had gotten so large.  Part of me wishes we hadn’t killed Maggie so early on . . . had some ideas for the character later on that I would have liked to have used.  Oh, and I would have never let “Mistaken Heroes” be filmed.

XP:  Oh yeah, that ep . . .fans didn’t care for it too much.

CD:  Well, we live and learn.  If I had it to do over again, the episode would have been more akin to Jerry’s old series “My Secret Identity” but we can’t change the past . . .

XP:  Maybe on a parallel world that version exists.

CD:  (Laughs) There you go!

XP:  So now that the series is over, what’s next?

CD:  Well, with the way we ended the show, everything is left open.  We’re doing some TV Movies for sure.  After that we’d like to do a few feature films.  Oh, and there’s a spin-off coming out of the final episode.

XP:  Oh yes, I know about that one . . .

CD:  I figured you did, seems all those years of brownnosing paid off. .Hehehe

XP:  Of course!

CD:  Well, I’m sure the fans know what’s going to happen.  I mean the pieces are right there for them to see who will be in the spin-off.  And it’s about freakin’ time I get to do this one!

XP:  hehehehe.  Any other words for the fans?

CD:  Thank You.  We wouldn’t have made it this far without you.

XP:  Thank You for your time Chris.

CD:  Thank You “X” it’s been a blast!
 

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