“The Guardian” is episode five (originally shown as episode four) of season three of Sliders.
Professor Arturo is being scanned somewhere. Afterwards, outside the place, he slumps. Quinn arrives and asks if he’s alright; Quinn accidentally picked up a voicemail left for the professor by mistake from a doctor about a scan. The professor admits he has a terminal illness; incurable, inoperable and untreatable. A month, maybe a year. Little pain but the end is bad. So, the professor thinks it’s time they went their separate ways. He plans to live life to the fullest. Quinn manages to convince the professor to stay, but the latter doesn’t want the others told.
The slide is strange, because of the world’s gravity pull for some reason. Wade says this is the first time they’ve arrived back in San Francisco since Logan messed with the timer in “Double Cross”. Quinn is sure there’s something wrong and the professor realises what it is; the area was destroyed in the quake of ’89 in their world. Everywhere around, it looks like the 80s. Then Quinn spots something. A funeral. Wade asks if he knows the people. Yes. This is his father’s funeral. The woman is Quinn’s mother. And the boy is Quinn. After the funeral, Quinn speaks to ‘his’ home room teacher, Heather Hanley, and introduces himself as Jim Hall, kind of a friend of the family.
In the hotel, Rembrandt is trying to figure it out. Sliding isn’t supposed to involve time travel. So why is it 1984? The professor explains, about a world spinning on its access a little faster. It’s 1996, but from their perspective, events are occurring as if it was 1984. Rembrandt decides they’ve effectively gone back in time. Quinn wants to head out. Wade suggests a great pizza place that burnt down in their world. There’s something Quinn has to do.
Quinn’s mother is trying to get Little Quinn out of the basement. He decides to take his dog, Bopper, for a walk, but the gate was left open and the dog is gone. The professor has rented a Rolls Royce. Wade tells him to live a little and Rembrandt repeats a saying of his mother’s; the only difference between a rut and a grave is a few inches.
Quinn has found Bopper and brought him back; he says a neighbour told him the name. He admits he was at the funeral; he used to play chess in the park with her husband. When Quinn was Little Quinn’s age, he lost a dog himself; he ran away and never came back. He was hoping to say hello to Quinn. Quinn’s mother says Little Quinn is out looking for Bopper. Quinn tells her that Little Quinn dumps on her because she will love him no matter what.
Quinn returns to the hotel. He says he hasn’t talked to himself yet, but saw his mother. The professor warns Quinn about getting involved. Quinn is sure there’s a reason they’re here; there’s going to be a bad incident in the school yard the day they slide. He doesn’t want it to happen the same way.
The next day, Quinn intervenes at school as Little Quinn is being bullied. He knows things about two of the bullies that makes them run off. Quinn returns to the hotel and later the professor and Wade find Little Quinn looking for him. Little Quinn knows that ‘Jim’ found his dog. Quinn will take Little Quinn back to his mother.
The professor is deciding to live his life, trying various different things. From Rembrandt and Wade’s perspective, it probably looks like he’s lost his mind. Quinn is determined not to let some bullying turn out the way it did in their world. But he won’t tell anyone what happened; only that it was bad.