Are you saying the Sliders have been on this
Earth for days and they didn't realize that
the Golden Gate bridge was blue?
Well, I suppose that IS something very noticeable, and the point is that the differences aren't noticeable at first. I suppose no one really took a look at the Golden Gate Bridge before Wade did.
Or maybe everyone but Quinn did notice things were wrong but were 'in denial'. This episode points out the Sliders' problem in getting home--basically, how are they supposed to know they're on their original world? Can they trust their memories of sporting events and so forth?
It brings to mind the discarded Hitchhiker's scene where Ford mentions the existance of parallel universes. He says that in some universe, there might be an Earth that's just the same as the one Arthur's familiar with except a tree in the Amazon basin has an extra leaf. "So one could happily settle on such a world without noticing the difference?" Arthur asks. Ford says no--sooner or later, you'd realize that something, somewhere was different, and you'd go mad looking for it.
This episode of Sliders does touch upon the problem, but of course, it soon becomes clear enough that this isn't their Earth (not only is the Golden Gate Bridge blue, but this world's Arturo didn't slide with the others, and has been kicking himself for missing the opportunity).
How many individuals believe the Prof. Maximillian Arturo abandoned in this parallel dimension is the Prof. Maximillian Arturo who had been sliding with the other three since season one? Say aye. Aye! This provides an opportunity for the legitimate Prof. Maximillian Arturo to return to the series, alive and well. If this were the case, however, then I would say the other Prof. Maximillian Arturo was not that evil a character. On how many occasions did he save his companions' lives? Perhaps he was more avaricious than his more benevolent counterpart, but there is a shared trait between the two.
I always felt the real Aruturo was left behind. If Davies will ever return to the show I don't though.
About returning to Earth Prime...they can't. In the nanosecond after they slid for the first time, billions of events happened and decisions were made. As the years past, the problem grew worse and worse. There is no longer one Earth Prime, there are trillions.
It's a neat idea, but I'm afraid I don't see how the Arturo that went with them could possibly be the alternate one.
The Arturo from that world never went sliding with the other three characters. He's not nearly as familiar with them as the Arturo who was with them from the start.
It would be easy for us to tell if the Arturo after this epsiode were the alternate-- and even easier for the other three sliders to tell. Judging from his familiarity with the other sliders in the very next episode, this Arturo has to be the original.
That world's Arturo read "Wade's Diary" - so he's as familiar with the events as the other one was.
I think the wrong Arturo slid, but then just before the next episode somehow the right Arturo had returned... Ok it need's a fanfic in the middle.
If there are an infinite number of universes, then the probability of randomly sliding to any given universe is zero.
And yet Quinn somehow, in a third season episode, makes the determination that he has found Earth Prime in about 20 seconds.
I've been watching through the Sldiers series on DVD with friends, and we are all in unanimous agreement- the moment in which Arturo declares "As you can see, I told them NOTHING!" accompanied by the face on the blackboard is THE FUNNIEST and perhaps best thing that the series has done to this point- we were all in stitches!
Quinn's house, the professor's house, and Wade's house must all be very close together. How else could they get back to Quinn's house and get Wade's parents over there for a tearful goodbye in only 17 minutes?
The first thing Quinn's mom says to him when he arrives back home is "I knew you'd slide on a weekend." What exactly does this mean? Was she aware of their sliding? There was nothing else to indicate this.