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"State of the A.R.T."
Sliders episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 16
Directed by	John T. Kretchmer
Written by	Nan Hagan Schuyler Kent
Production code	K1813
Original air date	December 6, 1996 (1996-12-06)
Guest appearances
Robert Englund (Dr. James Aldohn) Kathleen McClellan (E.R.I.C.A./Shauna) Ted Detwiler (T.E.D.) Jeff Rector[1] (Scarface P.A.U.L.) Eddie Mills (D.E.R.I.C.) Jerry Rector (P.A.U.L.)
Episode chronology
← Previous "Dead Man Sliding" Next → "Season's Greedings"
List_of_Sliders_episodes#Season_3_(1996–97)
List of episodes

"State of the A.R.T." is the 11th episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series Sliders, and the 34th episode of the series overall.

The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different

hosts, before he goes through a similar procedure.

Plot

Upon arriving on their latest Earth, Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, and Arturo immediately notice that not only is earth completely devoid of life, but the sky is purple[3] instead of blue. The Sliders soon notice a pile of junk in the street. Quinn upon examination, determines that the pile of junk is actually the remains of an android robot. Not to long after, a black Humvee suddenly comes out and is firing an energy weapon into the street. While Arturo, Wade, and Rembrandt are able to hide behind a nearby wall, Quinn is hit by the laser along with two other men.

The bodies of Quinn and the other two who were hit, are then scanned by the security team, known as Return Patrol Paul units (or RPPs) who was driving the Humvee. The driver also The driver then points it toward where the three other Sliders are, but the device reads "000". After the RPPs finish with their scan, they leave Quinn, who slowly starts to come to. While Quinn himself is for the most part, unharmed despite feeling like he's been electrocuted, the other Sliders check on the other men and find out that they are robots. Quinn and Arturo are able to successfully restore the power of the one functioning robot, D.E.R.I.C. Before formally introducing himself, D.E.R.I.C., which is short for Delta Model of the Emotional Response Intelligence Chip Unit, does a quick visual readjustment. D.E.R.I.C. soon explains that his creator or "father" is a man named James Aldohn. By the time the Sliders and D.E.R.I.C. go back in the streets to bring back the other robot, they discover that he's had parts taken off and couldn't be fixed.

While Aldohn was able to create an Emotional Response Intelligence Chip, which allowed his robots to experience emotion, some of the earlier models suffered from an intensity issue and there were human fatalities. These earlier models, otherwise known as the

, so he resorted to employing the RPPs as a means of hunting them down. At the time that the Sliders' arrival, the RPPs managed to diminish the population to just over a dozen rogue robots.

The Sliders decide that it would be best to split up when they are once again, targeted by an RPP unit. While Wade, Arturo and D.E.R.I.C. run for a nearby building unnoticed, the RPPs corner Quinn and Rembrandt in a nearby alley and throw them into a wall. The RPPs decide to take the two to the factory after noticing Quinn bleeding from a cut lip. When they arrive to the factory more robots scan Quinn. After a P.A.U.L. unit brings Quinn his clothes, he says that "Father" is looking forward to meeting him. Soon, they are introduced to none other than James Aldohn, who is wheelchair bound after an industrial accident.

Aldohn explains to Quinn and Rembrandt that humanity started to panic destroy robots, in retaliation for taking their jobs. This caused the robots to defend themselves to the point in which Aldohn believes that he is likely the last human on his earth after the Alphas and Betas malfunctioned. Among these humans who perished was Aldohn's wife Shauna, for whom he created a copy of in the form of a heavily modified Alpha unit. Shauna explains to Aldohn how sliding works, but expresses that humans couldn't figure out how to open

, to which Quinn replies by saying used a computer. Aldohn later invite Quinn and Rembrandt to join him for dinner despite the latter's reluctance. Unbeknownst to Quinn and Rembrandt, a pair of capsules nearby reveal eyeless robotic copies of themselves.

D.E.R.I.C. meanwhile, comes to the logical conclusion that if the RPPs did in fact capture Quinn and Rembrandt, they would've been taken to the factory. D.E.R.I.C. however, doesn't have a special palm chip that would enable him to drive a Hummer like an RPP. D.E.R.I.C. however, adds that while he does have a friend named E.R.I.C.A. who does have a chip in her hand, she is in need of extensive repairs. When Arturo is trying to work around the damage while repairing E.R.I.C.A., he becomes increasingly annoyed by D.E.R.I.C.'s questions and criticism of his methods. This leads to Wade insist to Arturo to treat D.E.R.I.C. with more respect. Wade tries to point out the similarities between the robots and humans, only for Arturo emphatically tell her that he's just a machine.

Wade later joins D.E.R.I.C. outside on the porch. When she marvels at the lilac-colored sky, D.E.R.I.C. explains what causes the different sky color than Wade is used to. Afterwards, Wade expresses her loneliness despite being with Quinn, Arturo, and Rembrandt in their travels between worlds. D.E.R.I.C. then kisses Wade only for her to stop him when she tries for a second time.

Despite all of this, Arturo is finally able to get E.R.I.C.A. up and running. Upon activation, E.R.I.C.A. bumps into various things to reorient her spatial relations. While she is happy to once again see D.E.R.I.C., she is initially suspicious of Wade and Arturo. Wade soon explains that the repaired her so she could drive one of the Humvees to the factory to rescue Quinn and Rembrandt. In gratitude for repairing and reactivating her, agrees to drive them to the factory. Shortly thereafter, Wade, Arturo, D.E.R.I.C. and E.R.I.C.A. must ambush an RPP unit and disables it by pulling out it's spinal column.

Back at the factory, Aldohn reveals to Quinn and Rembrandt that they will be his first guinea pigs in his experiment in transferring the mind of a human into the body of a machine. In the meantime, Aldohn locks Quinn and Rembrandt in a holding room. After Quinn's attempts at jerryrigging fail, Rembrandt spots a plastic trough and a vase with flowers and water in it. He pours the water into the trough and brings it to the gap Quinn has between the power out of the lighting and the door panel. Quinn is now able to conduct electricity from the lights to the door panel and restore power to the door opening button.

When Wade, Arturo, D.E.R.I.C. and E.R.I.C.A. themselves, arrive at the factory, they are chased by the robotic copies of Quinn and Rembrandt. Quinn arrives just in time to zapped the robot version of Rembrandt. His own copy backs off after seeing the Rembrandt robot on the ground destroyed. Soon, Aldohn and the RPPs arrive and tells Quinn that he will be the only one going through with the brain download and that D.E.R.I.C. and E.R.I.C.A. will be disabled. Meanwhile, Rembrandt, Arturo, and Wade are locked in the same holding room but this time, with all of the power in the room shut off.

Wade however, comes up with an idea that they should look for the wall's stud and then kick through the wall. After Arturo successfully kicks through the wall, the trio set out to rescue Quinn from being downloaded to his robotic doppelganger. Quinn himself, tries to sabotage the download by intentionally singing poorly Rembrandt's song “Tears in my Fro”. The reasoning behind this is that Quinn is firing many parts of his brain at once. Eventually, Rembrandt, Arturo, and Wade are able to stop the download altogether.

With the four Sliders reunited, they head outside and escape only to get into another firefight with the RPPs. In the crossfire, Aldohn is hit in the chest and is revealed to actually have been a robot himself, the whole time before he dies. Shauna later explains to the Sliders that the industrial accident her husband claimed took away his ability to walk actually killed him seven years prior. While she was able to download his mind into a robotic body, there were some minor errors like the locomotion part of his brain not transferring. This explains why the robotic version of Aldohn needed to use a wheelchair in the first place. In effect, the damage his mind took in the accident caused him to lose the knowledge of how to walk. And although Quinn and Arturo offer to repair Aldohn, Shanua decides that it would be better to let him die. She believes that that the man he once was wouldn't have wanted it.

With D.E.R.I.C. once again repaired, Quinn suggests that he should replace Aldohn as the as leader of the robots. Before they slide out, they left D.E.R.I.C. instructions on how to repair E.R.I.C.A. Before he leaves, Quinn says to D.E.R.I.C. that he's the "last man out", reaffirming that this earth is once again completely uninhabited by humans.

Production

The production draft that was dated on October 16, 1996^[4] featured subplot concerning a timer malfunction. It was decided to cut it out of the final draft since the subplot was never adequately resolved.

Reception

Critics have noted^[5] that "State of the A.R.T." contains parallels the 1979 film The Black Hole and the Doctor Who serial "Four to Doomsday" when it pertains to the plot concerning human beings into robots^[6] by a mad scientist. The episode has also drawn similarities with the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?".^[7] It was in that episode that Nurse Chapel searches for her long lost fiancé, and uncovers his secret plan to create sophisticated androids for galactic conquest.

See also

• List of fictional robots and androids

References

External links

• State of the A.R.T. at
  IMDb
• Earth Prime, a detailed episode guide, including speculation about the derivations of the various alternate dimensions
• FembotWiki - Gallery/Sliders: State of the A.R.T.