“Dragonslide” is episode eight (originally shown as episode seven) of season three of Sliders.
A woman is being chased through woods by a man on horseback. He catches up with her and she asks him to let her go. No; he’d know. She promises to tell him everything she knows. He says that’s worthless without her gift and uses an amulet on her. She falls asleep. Then the wormhole opens and Quinn crashes into the man, who runs off as Quinn pursues. The other three arrive and the professor calls Quinn by his last name. The other asks Quinn if he’s a Mallory. Yes; why? The man turns into a hawk and flies away.
The hawk arrives at some sort of castle and the man there, Gareth, says to him, Skuldar, that he failed. Skuldar says he was attacked. Gareth wants to know by what; he gave Skuldar more than enough power. Skuldar explains that a Mallory came through a swirling tunnel. Gareth says that no human can travel in that form; it must have been a Myrddin. Skuldar thought the wizards were dead. Gareth says no; it was only a matter of time before one appeared again but he never thought it would be a Mallory.
Quinn is on the horse with the still unconscious woman. The professor has no explanation for a man turning into a hawk. They come across a sign to Emrys, a mythical druidic city according to Wade. Quinn thought the druids died out in the Middle Ages. No; it was the Romans who wiped them out. Wade knows quite a bit about druids; she had braces in junior high. A lot of time to read.
They come across a police car and the professor tells the officers what happened. One, O’Hara, recognises the woman as Melinda, Gareth’s apprentice. They’ll take her home. Melinda starts waking up and protesting she doesn’t want to go back to Gareth, but she’s taken anyway.
When they arrive in Emrys, Quinn is concerned they didn’t do the right thing. Rembrandt bumps into a woman he recognises, Alesha Avo. She, of course, doesn’t recognise him and – she’s a psychiatrist – diagnoses him as being, essentially, a stalker. Rembrandt really should know better than to assume women on different worlds will know who he is.
The two cops arrive at Gareth’s place; the woman thinks she sees a dragon landing. She’s also concerned about what they’re doing. They knock and Gareth opens the door. The woman, Kelley, says it’s not her business, but Melinda may need medical attention. Gareth agrees; it’s not her business and shuts the door. O’Hara says that Gareth may be out of power now, but he’ll find a way back and they want to be on his good side.
The Sliders find out from Diggs that Gareth used to be the chief druid of Emrys, but the council threw him out for practicing dark magic. Quinn asks about Melinda; the rumour is she has powers. Druids are the ruling class; they do a pretty good job but occasionally there’s a bad apple. Diggs knows of a reporter who knows a lot about Gareth.
Melinda is tied down in Gareth’s workroom; there’s also a sword with Mallory on the sheath and a frozen man. Kelley arrives and frees Melinda, who explains Gareth wants to impregnate her with a demon, to create an immortal like Merlin, which Gareth would then possess the body of. Gareth enters, he doesn’t need Melinda now as he has a Mallory. But he still needs her as bait. He doesn’t need the cop at all.
Quinn and the professor head to meet the reporter, who explains a few things, like the Mallorys were highly regarded white druids but Gareth found their weakness and wiped them out. Bar one; killing off the last of a lineage would incur Mercury’s wrath. The reporter wrote an unflattering article about Gareth and was mysteriously struck blind.
Rembrandt explains to Wade that Alesha was a backing singer and the day he got sucked into a wormhole, he was going to ask her to move in with him. Wade has decided to help. With a love spell. This does not go to plan. Quinn wants to help Melinda, but she turns up claiming she’s escaped. he hasn’t; she’s being used to lure him in so that Gareth can take possession of Quinn, a wizard. Which he isn’t. Magic does seem real on this world; the professor suggests physical laws may be different.