This is aimed at those of you who are newcomers to Sliders, those who know nothing at all about Sliders and any of my friends who are just having a laugh. It does not yet include questions on seasons 4 and 5.

What is Sliders?
"Sliders" is a television programme focusing on the adventures of a group of characters who have in their possession technology that can take them to parallel Earths. These Earths are all different from each other, as a result of the way decisions change them. Usually, one or more of the Sliders will get into a little problem from which the others have to save them, or they decide they have to change the direction in which the Earth's future is headed.

What is "Sliding?"
Sliding is moving from one dimension to another via a vortex which can be opened by the origional machine, or a specially built "Timer". Although, the Timer is used primarily to open the vortex, it also shows how long it will be until the "Slide window" which is the only time they can slide from that Earth. If the Sliders miss the Slide window, there will not be another for 29 years unless they can either find another timer which hasn't already reached it's slide window, or they build another sliding machine. These Sliders have no control of where they slide to, unless they input exact co-ordinates for a particular Earth, but the Kromaggs (see recurring characters) can control it, as can an alternate Quinn Mallory (see characters). Our Sliders began on their sliding on what is generally known as Earth Prime to the Sliders and their fans.

Who are the "Sliders?"
The current Sliders are Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell), the hansome physics student who discovered sliding on Earth Prime; Colin Mallory (Charlie O'Connell), Quinn's brother from another dimension, although they are actually brothers (This is way too complicated to explain, so for details see season 4's Genesis); Rembrant "Crying Man" Brown (Cleavant Derricks), an R & B singer who was accidently sucked into the vortex during its trial run; And Maggie Beckett (Kari Wuhrer), a former marine Captain whose world was destroyed by pulsars and who originally joined them to hunt down her husband's killer. Past regular characters are Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd), a friend of Quinn's who was one of the original characters and who has been held in a Kromagg (see recurring characters) breeding camp since the beginning of season 4; And Professor Maximillian Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), another of the original Sliders who was Quinn's physics professor who only went along for the sake of science and who tragically died in the middle of season 3. Occasionally, temporary sliders are added who need to escape their own worlds, but who usually settle down on the next.

Why are they Sliding?
The purpose changes from season to season. In seasons 1 & 2, the characters were sliding because during the tests of the sliding machine, the co-ordinates to Earth Prime were erased and they couldn't find the way home. As nice as many of the worlds are, they are not home, so they continued the search. In the 3rd season, this was still the purpose for all the sliders, except for Maggie who was sliding to find her husband's killer. In the 4th season it all changed. At the end of the third season, Wade and Rembrandt found their way back to the homeworld and Quinn and Maggie arrived at the beginning of the fourth season. By the time Quinn and Maggie arrived, the Kromaggs (see recurring characters) had taken over and Remmy and Wade were captured. They managed to free Remmy, but could not get to Wade or rid Earth Prime of the Kromaggs (see Genesis) the search was now on for Quinn's real brother and homeworld (it turns out he's not from Earth Prime and his parents were sliders) and for a way to stop the Kromaggs taking over any human-inhabited worlds.

What About Recurring Alternate Characters?
Again, these vary from season to season. The Sliders often encounter alternates of themselves who are both different and the same. They also encounter alternates of other people such as Bennish in season 1, Quinn's parents in all 4 seasons, a few other people, but these do really depend on the season. The Kromaggs also recur in many episodes in season 4 and are first seen in season 2. The Kromaggs are a race which evolved on a world which also contained humans, but after a civil war, they were thrown off their world. The Kromaggs have the technology to slide and they conquer most planets they find. Quinn and the others often run into them and sometimes have a lot of trouble escaping them as it is illegal for a human to possess sliding technology. A particular Kromagg who reccurs is Kolitar (played by Reiner Schone) who first appears in the season 4 episode Slidecage and appears again in Way Out West.

Where can "Sliders" be seen?
In the UK, UK Scifi Channel shows old episodes. The Sci-Fi channel in the US is currently showing repeats also . I believe that in Canada it can be seen on Global and Space. German channel RTL used to show epsiodes, unsure about now.