“State of the Art” is episode eleven (and originally shown as that) of season three of Sliders.
The Sliders arrive on an empty street. Wade has a strange feeling, and not for the first time. But the professor agrees. The world is devoid of humans and the sky an odd colour. Quinn says the place seems to be kept up and the professor wonders for whom. Wade would rather know by whom. They find robot remains in the street, then hear a motor. A Humvee is pursuing two people; they both get zapped as does Quinn whilst the others hide. One of those hit is sparking.
The vehicle has ‘Aldouhn Robotic Technologies’ on the door – the episode was at one point called “State of the A.R.T.” – and a man with electronics on his cheek gets out. He checks all three who are down with a device, which doesn’t detect Wade, Rembrandt or the professor, then leaves. The professor thinks Quinn may still be alive, and he is. The other two are both robots; the person who attacked was looking for signs of electronic life.
They take one of the two robots to a TV store where Quinn and the professor try to fix him. Wade has found brochures from A.R.T. promoting the benefits of a robotic workforce. The robot reactivates and gives his designation; D.E.R.I.C. He doesn’t recognise their models. That’s because they aren’t robots. Humans. How fascinating. D.E.R.I.C. explains that they were being pursued by a Recall Patrol P.A.U.L. unit, and asks about his friend. When D.E.R.I.C. hears he was left, he says they need to get him.
D.E.R.I.C. explains that Father – Dr James Aldouhn – made mistakes with the E.R.I. who were programmed to have emotions. When those conflicted with logic there were problems. Human fatalities were not uncommon. But D.E.R.I.C. can self-program; they have nothing to fear. Father didn’t like what he couldn’t control; of 2,916 E.R.I.s there are only a handful left. P.A.U.L.s are sent after them. Someone is already looting D.E.R.I.C.’s friend. Then more P.A.U.L.s arrive. They split up and Rembrandt and Quinn try taking one down. It doesn’t work and they are taken to the factory.
D.E.R.I.C. says the other two will have been taken to the factory. To get in, or even to drive one of the cars, requires a chip that P.A.U.L.s have. A friend of his is an early model and has one. They’ll have to steal a vehicle.
Quinn and Rembrandt are checked over and then taken to see Father. Aldouhn enters in a wheelchair – an industrial accident – and is pleased to see them; he thought he was the last human.
D.E.R.I.C.’s friend E.R.I.C.A. is badly damaged and the professor is trying to fix her. He snaps at D.E.R.I.C. who leaves, then Wade complains to the professor about his treatment of D.E.R.I.C. Wade doesn’t see much difference between the robots and humans and they argue over the matter. Though the professor is willing to be proved wrong. Outside, Wade talks to D.E.R.I.C. about loneliness and the colour of the sky. Then D.E.R.I.C. kisses her. Which she thinks is weird. So much for them both being machines.
Aldouhn is telling Quinn and Rembrandt that once the workforce had been replaced by robots, people changed their mind and decided to destroy the robots to return things to the way they were. The E.R.I. models thought back. He assumes they couldn’t kill their creator. He takes them to see a woman, telling her they are from another dimension. Which she considers plausible. When Aldouhn’s wife, Shauna, died, he recreated her. This is an altered E.R.I.C.A. model.
Aldouhn wants to do an experiment involving the transferring of human consciousness to a robotic body. But he needs to test it out. And, until Quinn and Rembrandt turned up, he didn’t have anyone to experiment on. He does now. The others need to rescue Quinn and Rembrandt before they become robots.