“Fever” is episode five (originally shown as episode three) of season one of Sliders.
The Sliders are in a world where everyone is celebrating. Oil is everywhere, a man is tossing money into the air and Quinn is told he’s a millionaire by Wing. However, they only have about a minute in this world.
Sliding through to the next and Wade is expelled with such force she lands in front of a truck. A man gets her out of the way and she thanks and kisses him. The man is yellow-skinned and he asks how she could do that; he was trying to save her. They had about 20 minutes in wealthy land; a bit more than two days on this world. Where a body bag is being thrown into a dumpster by people in hazmat gear and being taken away in a truck labelled CHC, as another sprays the street.
Rembrandt suggests they get off the street. They head into a restaurant, through an arch that glows as they pass. The place looks sterile and someone is coughing. People are staring at him. Sealed up food is dumped on their table; the waitress says there’s no menu. Any problems, take it up with the CHC. They comment that the food looks like airline food. The waitress agrees, only not as good. As vacuum-sealed cookies, it doesn’t look great. Given that it’s vacuum-sealed burgers, it’s even worse. The waitress has called 911 on the coughing man and Rembrandt heads into the toilets to spit up the burgers. And sees posters plastered everywhere, showing Quinn. Patient Zero, with a reward of $1 million.
Rembrandt shows the others and the professor explains that Patient Zero is the first known carrier of a diseases, the origin of an epidemic. Quinn says they had better get out before they think it’s him. Hazmat clad people from the California Health Commission enter before they do. It looks like they’re there for Quinn, but they are actually for the coughing man who insists he doesn’t have the Q. The Sliders flee.
There are posters of this world’s Quinn everywhere and Wade doesn’t look so good. Rembrandt goes to check into a motel whilst the professor and Quinn get some aspirin. However, the pharmacy appears to be an apothecary. In the motel, the owner tells Rembrandt, on seeing Wade, they don’t allow sick people in. Rembrandt claims she’s just hung over.
Inside the pharmacy, one of the staff (Dean Haglund, perhaps best known as Langly in The X-Files) recognises Quinn. He says he’s a hero to some, like Charlie Manson and the Night Stalker combined. Truthfully, not a great combination. Quinn took society down and all he had to do was breathe. The man running the pharmacy doesn’t seem to know what aspirin is; he excuses himself. Quinn tells the professor he’s been recognised, but the authorities are already on their way and Quinn gets tranked.
The professor arrives at the motel room and explains what happened and the Q. Quinn was a failing medical student who deliberately infected himself with a plague. He’s Public Enemy Number One. Their Quinn’s capture will likely be announced on the news. Arturo says Rembrandt may have to go to the next world by himself. They can’t take the plague to another world and the professor isn’t feeling too good himself. Wade is hallucinating.
Quinn is being monitored and decontaminated whilst being studied. Of course, the two doctors don’t believe Quinn is from another world. However, the Q infection isn’t present. The doctors run the tests again. Several times. Dr Stanley says she needs to examine Quinn; Dr Morton says Quinn escaped on her watch, he has to be present as well.
Wade isn’t doing too well and Arturo is examining himself in the bathroom, where he reassures Rembrandt. When they return to the room, Wade is gone. She’s ill, hallucinating and having problems with her memory. And stuck on a world that seems to have a very different idea of healthcare, where Quinn is believed to be responsible for a terrible plague. Though that may not be true.