Practical problems with Sliders.

[conuly]

1. Why did all the words they slid into speak English? Even the one where the not-so-ancient Egyptians
ruled... they speak English? And dress in suits? I don't see many business suits on sarcophagi.

2. Why did all the worlds vary so much? I know the theory behind parallel universes. So, if two universes happen when a choice has to be made, why didn't they ever go to "the world where I was born in the morning instead of in the evening" or "the world where that sun a trillion lightyears away went supernova"?

3. Why did the Cro-Mags impregnate human females? Why not just find a world where there were more Cro-Mags without that disease? Wouldn't that be better for their racist ideology?

4. Why did all the sliding devices look exactly the same?

5. Why aren't there more sentient species wandering about the planet?

6. Okay, so originally they were just trying to get home. But which home? In the time since they left, more historical events have happened. Instead of one original planet, they've got billions. How do they decide between them?

7. Aren't there billions of Sliders by now as well? No, no, listen. You've got four Earths, let's call them A, B, C, and D. You are on A. You can go to B, C, or D. When you slide, doesn't that make three different sets of sliders? The set that went to B, the set that went to C, the set that went to D? And couldn't that also multiply the number of As you have? The A where you went to B, the A where you went to C, the A that you went to D. I'm dizzy now.

Comments

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to get into why That Is Just Not Possible (Telepathy that lets you learn their language? Yes. Technology that translates as they speak? No.), just say that if this is what they were doing they should've introduced a device like that somewhere in the show.

That Is Just Not Possible yet sliding between alternate universes is? ;0)

I would say the reason that they didn't is that there was no answer they could think of that fit within the universe they were creating, so rather than address the issue with something out of place, they just choose to ignore it. The babelfish works beautifully in Douglas Adams' universe, but that doesn't make it an appropriate solution in Star Trek.

[conuly]

1. Yes. Trust me on this one.
2. Oh, no, no. I didn't say a babelfish. *I* said telepathy. Very different.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that you said a babelfish. This was in response to them not attempting to address the issue at all. I was just trying to think of a language solution that was perfect in one case but wouldn't work in another universe to demonstrate my point.

[conuly]

Ah, okay.