# "Sliders" nitpick: Why no language barrier? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840 "2005-02-01T19:57:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Mr\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/21 "2005-02-02T17:43:38Z")
I loved this show when it first came out but I ditched it after wade left. I tried to watch one of the later eps and I was just flabbergasted at how awful it was. Oh well, buy season 1 and 2 on dvd and pretend the rest never happened. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/22 "2005-02-02T18:26:02Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Sounds very implausible to me (I’m debating the plausibility of a _Sliders_ episode???) Einstein himself said that nothing in his theoretical work ever promised that nuclear energy could be released on demand. The most Einstein could have done would be to have not urged president Roosevelt to begin a research program into uranium fission. No other country but the US could or would have run a successful bomb program during WW2. At most, the race to build an atom bomb would have taken place during the cold war (and isn’t that an intriguing scenerio). According to [http://www.earthprime.com/episode/episode.asp?ID=5](http://www.earthprime.com/episode/episode.asp?ID=5), the history of this alternate dimension went like this: > [@](#): > > In 1943, Albert Einstein declared that the Trinity Program, the progenitor of the Nuclear Age, was a failure. Einstein and his colleagues attributed the failure to the Adiabatic limit, a theory that states that there isn’t enough fissionable material in nature to create a nuclear explosion. In reality, Einstein felt guilty about unleashing the nuclear genie on the world and flubbed his finding purposefully. > > Without nuclear weapons technology, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was unable to drop hydrogen bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II ended in 1950 as a result, although it’s unknown how this affected the economy or the social structure of the United States. “Fat Man,” the bomb prototype, hung as a Smithsonian museum exhibit labeled “Einstein’s Folly.” Would a scientist of Einstein’s reputation have the juice to steer the whole world away from nukes? I dunno. But I’ll give the episode the benefit of the doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/23 "2005-02-02T19:28:22Z")
Speaking of language, did they ever do an episode where the conflict hinged on linguistic differences? You’d think that they would have. It would have been a cheap episode to produce, anyway. _Sliders_ is ripe for a re-work and re-make a’la _Battlestar Galactica_. The basic concept is excellent, and there are so many story possibilities. The initial 4 characters were good, too. If it were in the hands of some good writers, it would be great. (FWIW, I kind of liked the Kromagg thing. I do not claim that this is rational.) > [@The Long Road](#): > > Looking at IMDB, I’m wondering if O’Connell is being released from his career. The movies seem to keep going downhill. Eh, he has a nice regular gig on Crossing Jordan. So, he’s not Hollywood A-list, but he’s doing a damn sight better than River Phoenix or Corey Feldman. (Whatever happened to Wil Wheaton, anyway?) ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/24 "2005-02-02T19:45:48Z")
> [@Green Bean](#): > > Speaking of language, did they ever do an episode where the conflict hinged on linguistic differences? You’d think that they would have. It would have been a cheap episode to produce, anyway. I can’t really recall it, but I seem to remember one where the language was American English but some colloquialism had a different meaning than they expected. They went through the first half of the episode thinking everyone was talking about one thing, then realized that they actually meant something else. Is that a vague enough description, or should I muddle it further? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/25 "2005-02-02T19:55:40Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Would a scientist of Einstein’s reputation have the juice to steer the whole world away from nukes? I dunno. But I’ll give the episode the benefit of the doubt. Except that Einstein wasn’t involved in the Manhattan Project at all, except for a letter to Roosevelt in 1939 telling him an atomic bomb might be theoretically possible. He wasn’t even cleared for Trinity information in 1943, as far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/26 "2005-02-02T20:42:01Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Except that Einstein wasn’t involved in the Manhattan Project at all, except for a letter to Roosevelt in 1939 telling him an atomic bomb might be theoretically possible. He wasn’t even cleared for Trinity information in 1943, as far as I know. But it was an alternate Earth, where apparantly EInstein was much more involved in the project, and decided it shouldn’t be done. I think “Fever” is the best episode. In it, Quinn’s double is patient zero for a deadly disease that there is no cure for. There is a great scene with Arturo and Quinn 2.0 Arturo: Why is this disease so strong? How is is resistant to antibiotics? Quinn 2.0: Anti-what? Arturo: You know, penicillin! Q2:…what’s penicillin? The timing and look on Quinn’s face is great. I don’t know how likely it is that oen can make penicllin from oranges, though. Yes,I do know it’s from penicillium, which is commonly found on rotting cireus fruits, but can it really be extracted by boiling the fruit and then drinking the mixture? ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/27 "2005-02-02T21:08:45Z")
> [@Green Bean](#): > > Eh, he has a nice regular gig on Crossing Jordan. So, he’s not Hollywood A-list, but he’s doing a damn sight better than River Phoenix or Corey Feldman. (Whatever happened to Wil Wheaton, anyway?) Well, Feldman’s got the advantage of not being dead and all… As for Wil Wheaton, he’s got a great [website.](http://wilwheaton.net) ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/28 "2005-02-02T21:09:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Professor Arturo (in English-speaking Egyptian San Francisco): “In our world, the ascendancy of Egypt was ended by Alexander the Great. Perhaps in this world he was Alexander the Not-So-Great.” > > Here’s a tip, guys: You need to know **history** before you can write **alternate** history! No, don’t you get it? In _their_ world, that’s how it happened! The original main cast wasn’t from our world, where they’re characters in a TV show, but an alternate reality–where, apparently, Alexander the Great ended the ascendancy of Egypt. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/29 "2005-02-02T23:51:25Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Oh, hell, they lost it the first season where they shamelessly ripped off Shirley Jackson. I always considered this one of the best episodes of the series. It’s not so much a rip off as an homage because if you havn’t read The Lottery, you don’t get the full impact of the story. At least I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/30 "2005-02-03T01:57:45Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > But it was an alternate Earth, where apparantly EInstein was much more involved in the project, and decided it shouldn’t be done. > > I think “Fever” is the best episode. In it, Quinn’s double is patient zero for a deadly disease that there is no cure for. There is a great scene with Arturo and Quinn 2.0 > > Arturo: Why is this disease so strong? How is is resistant to antibiotics? > Quinn 2.0: Anti-what? > Arturo: You know, penicillin! > Q2:…what’s penicillin? > > The timing and look on Quinn’s face is great. I don’t know how likely it is that oen can make penicllin from oranges, though. Yes,I do know it’s from penicillium, which is commonly found on rotting cireus fruits, but can it really be extracted by boiling the fruit and then drinking the mixture? One of my problems with the show was Quinn(or another slider but mostly Quinn) being some famous guy on almost every planet. In the first one he was leader of the revolution against the Soviets and in the one you mention he was a medical student who started a plague. At first it was acceptable but each episode was basically the same: Land on planet, some member of trio’s double is really famous but in some form of trouble, this means the slider is in trouble, slider gets captured/seperated, rest of trio spends hour searching for and saving slider, slide at least moment to get away from planet. Great idea, once or twice. Problem is, that was the plot for almost every stinkin episode. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840/31 "2005-02-03T03:36:32Z")
[QUOTE=bouvI don’t know how likely it is that oen can make penicllin from oranges, though. Yes,I do know it’s from penicillium, which is commonly found on rotting cireus fruits, but can it really be extracted by boiling the fruit and then drinking the mixture?[/QUOTE] Nope. It took years and millions of dollars to start from the discovery that bacteria couldn’t survive in a petri dish with penicillium, and actually being able to mass produce enough penicillin to treat people. Among other things, they had to use X-rays to create mutated strains of penicillium that produced thousands of times more active ingredient than the wild version, and would tolerate growing suspended in medium rather than on surfaces only. So \* Sliders\* got it’s science as accurately as it’s history. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliders-nitpick-why-no-language-barrier/287840.md?page=1)