“Slidecage” is episode nine of season four of Sliders.
Maggie and Rembrandt are relaxing on a world where tans and massages are compulsory and Quinn and Colin are talking physics. Time is nearly up and Rembrandt wonders what the next world will be like. Quinn says they’re’ going home. He’d though Colin’s microdot was damaged, but it turned out to be encrypted and he’s found a decryption program based on their DNA. They slide out into a damaged corridor. It seems some kind of facility. Rembrandt has found a window. Outside is barren.
Rembrandt suggests this is an alien world, like in Star Trek, but Quinn tells him that they go to alternate Earths, not alien planets. Rembrandt thinks it’s pretty barren; where are all the people? Quinn doesn’t know and asks why everybody expects him to always have the answers. Colin tells him that’s because he usually does. Colin, when he checks the timer to see how long it is before they slide out, discovers the timer isn’t changing. Then a voice tells them to come this way.
The voice leads them to a video of Quinn and Colin’s father. The video says they’ve been shunted here by the slidecage mechanism. The enemy has been driven from their world, which has been cloaked so they can’t return. Those who try to get there are shunted here, and if they’re friend rather than enemy, he’s truly sorry/ Food, air and shelter have been provided. The toxic atmosphere outside will kill them. Make the best of this world; it will be theirs for the rest of their lives.
The Sliders hear sounds. Humans come from one direction, then Kromaggs from another. They are fighting and Rembrandt joins in to save a human woman, but gets taken by the Kromaggs as they retreat, disabling the door mechanism as they do. The others follow the humans and are captured. The human leader, Janie, tells them to forget Rembrandt; he will be gone before the night is out. They are all that is left of over 200 people who were away from the homeworld during the war. Some didn’t hear about the slidecage; others took too long to get back.
Quinn starts to explain who they are when Maggie has a go at Janie, calling her a bad CO. Janie orders her to be stuffed in the airlock and it vented and Quinn gets knocked out. Colin accuses Janie of murdering Maggie. Janie says Maggie wouldn’t have made it here and would have taken others with her. She orders Colin and Quinn locked up.
Maggie, meanwhile, has been rescued by someone in a protective suit.
Rembrandt has been taken to the Kromagg leader, Kolitar. He starts to read Rembrandt’s mind and finds a Kromagg secret buried in him, but Rembrandt collapses before Kolitar can dig it out. Another, wearing a hood, calls Kolitar father and asks if he’s dead. No; just unconscious. Kolitar will break Rembrandt’s mind. And stay away from the human.
Colin is examining some consoles and Quinn isn’t doing anything because of Maggie, until Colin gets him to snap out of it. Maggie nis being examined by her rescuer; she comes around and grabs him. The man tells her she isn’t dead; she’s in the walls. His name is Thomas Beecham. She’s a guest. His first; he normally stays at home, but he saw what was being done to her.
Kolitar’s son, Kaldeen, finds Rembrandt. He’s not supposed to talk to him but everyone but the guards are out foraging and they are not watching. Kaldeen has never been this close to a human before. Not a whole one. Rembrandt has a headache; Kaldeen says his father has taught him how to fix that. Rembrandt doesn’t want that kind of help. When asked about the hood, Kaldeen says he’s hideous. His father told him.
Maggie is looking for the others. Kolitar wants to discover the secret implanted in Rembrandt’s mind. Quinn wants to see if they can get out of the slidecage, but without allowing the Kromaggs to get back to their homeworld.