After narrowly escaping a world in which the country of California is ruled by Secretary General Rickman and Vice-Chancellor Hurley, the Sliders are thankful to arrive in a small rural town about a hundred miles from the coast that is exceedingly more peaceful than the previous world. As they become familiarized with the culture, the Sliders come to find that being educated is looked down upon by society here. The culture is fundamentally agrarian, and anyone who reads or gets a college education is seen as lazy and immoral because they refuse to simply work hard and toil the land. Apparently Thomas Jefferson�s plans to become an agrarian society were adopted here and then taken to an extreme. It�s not illegal to get an education, but if you do, you�re basically considered to be part of the counter-culture.
The Sliders, led by Arturo, try to enlighten the people of this world about the good that can come from education. But the Professor is soon sidetracked when he encounters two of the town�s residents, Kristina Arturo and her son Nathan (doubles of the Professor�s deceased wife and estranged son). This world�s Arturo died almost ten years ago, and his wife and son are shocked to see him (really, our Arturo) alive, well, and leading a counter-culture movement. As the Professor attempts to deal with this unexpected personal matter, Logan and Rembrandt are stuck trying to finish what he started, unwittingly becoming the leaders of a grass-roots movement to improve public education.
In the end, the movement accomplishes little. In fact, the Sliders�particularly the ever-scientifically-minded Professor�get a lesson in how there�s more to life than �book-smarts.�
THE END
NOTE: Nathan Arturo was played by Chris Demetral, who had previously played Jeremy on HBO�s Dream On and would soon go on to play Jules Verne on the Sci-Fi Channel�s The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. Kristina Arturo was played by Gabrielle Rose, reprising her role from the first season Sliders episode �Eggheads.� |
