The following is my (hopefully) humorous attempt at imitating the weekly Damron journals. As reviewed, most of us were disappointed at the results of "Requiem" and even more distressed at the lack of good acting of Derrick`s part (better known as the Fryin` man). Anyway, enjoy...

By the start of the fifth season, most of the production crew on "Sliders" knew it would be the last. David Peckinpah, however, thought we were all crazy. He had thought that he had really hit the money with "Please Press One" and episodes from the post-Arturo third season. With this in mind, he had in mind a 6th season opener in which The Fryin` Man, Diana, Mallory, and Maggie are about to enter the vortex when all of a sudden the cast from V.I.P. runs across the scene in nothing but lingerie which causes the sliders to go back to "Please Press One" world, experience the episode again in its entirety, and slide to the "Please Press One" world again. Peck contended that not only would this piece of work follow very rigorously the laws of physics, but that he could have a record-setting call for 52 episodes in one year! I`ll never forget that smile and the cigar in his mouth when I entered his office one day and he was singing "Tight Pants." Huh?

Anyway, for some odd reason, SFC shut down the idea and David wore nothing but woman`s underwear to work for one month. When he finally came to, we were in desperate need of planning for the remainder of the fifth season. By now, we knew this would be the last and we informed David there were many plots in the show left unresolved.

ME: "You know, David, I understand you`ve been through hell in the last month, but unless we can resolve some of these issues, the ratings for the fifth season will be in the toilet."

DAVID: "Yes, yes, I know Keith. I`ve been meaning to explain Maggie`s transition from tight slutty clothes to more conservative dress in the 3rd and fourth season for awhile. I think the best explanation may be a Maggie double. The question though is who can we get to play her?"

(Pause...)

DAVID: "Mmmm...maybe Charlie O`Connell will take the part."

ME: "No, David! I mean the whole issue with Wade, Quinn, and Colin."

DAVID: "Who???"

Anyway, it took long discussion, but finally we conviced David of the need to resolve the issues concerning Wade, Colin, and Quinn. Our first attempt would be to fix the Wade scenario in an episode called "Family Slide." In this episode, in which once again the title bears no relevance to the actual plot, the sliders land on a world which they find empty (if you`re a loyal fan, you may have recognized the same set was used in "Genesis," "The Breeder," "Oh Brother Where Art Thou," "Lipschitz Live," "Mother and Child," "Just Say Yes," "The Unstuck Man," "Applied Physics," and "Please Press One."). On it, they find a telephone booth which they find has bizzare ability to send them through time. Using it, they land in a time with dinosaurs. However, a twist comes in. Unlike our world where dinosaurs exited as reptiles, these dinosaurs are zombies. Yes...zombies. Anyway, the sliders strangely come upon one dinosaur with orange hair who Diana, by using one of the many new acquired timer powers, discovers is a Wade double. Then another dinosaur zombie magically turns into a Kromagg (zombie) who said he was just in "The Breeder" world and contaminated dinosaurs with the parasite. (Maggie suddenly ripoffs her clothes and goes into convulsions). All of a sudden, the dinosaur with orange hair turns into Wade and she tells the sliders that the Kromaggs turned her into a dinosaur zombie and sent her back in time by way of telephone booth. Then, unnoticeably, Mallory turns into a dinosaur and eats the Kromagg. Then dinosaur Mallory becomes human again and everyone stands in awe.

"How`d you do that, Mallory," asks Rembrandt.

Mallory replies, "A little bird told me..."

Then Wade becomes part of the sliders again and they travel off. In the next episode, Diana is no longer needed and magically disappears. None of the sliders seem to notice.

Anyway, success of this episode was contigent, of course, on Sabrina Lloyd`s prompt return. Because of our budget, we could not settle to the recent star`s salary demands, but instead offered her free collection of the episodes of "Sliders." She declined. However, when we added in a free hair dieing clinic, Sabrina agreed to a voice over.

We thus came up with an episode called "Requiem." Although the focus of the episode was to find out what happened to Wade, Peckinpah thought it`d be better if we pulled an "X-Files." In other words, each character would act differently than usual such that the fans would question if this was the real sliders. To do so, we made Maggie very upset at Wade`s loss and Remmy care less. We even drilled a hole in Wade`s head because Peck wanted us to question her sanity!

Also, we felt the episode would be even more ambiguous if when we edited it, we cut out all the important parts, the parts that made sense of the episode. Thus, the final piece of work has The Fryin` Man coughing for no reason whatsoever, Wade opening vortexes through telekinesis, and the sliders landing on the same world both at the beginning and end of the episode. Peckinpah was very pleased with the results. Personally, I though we complicated the Wade situation much more than it was to start, but i went along with it anyway.

In any case, after a lot of work, "Requiem" was finally ready for release. Peck insisted we put something in the end about zombies, but there was no time. Anyway, more next time!