Quinn Mallory
Encyclopedia
Quinn R. Mallory is a fictional character
on the science fiction
television show Sliders
, played by Jerry O'Connell
.
, the son of Michael and Amanda Mallory. The driver's license
shown in the episode "Summer of Love" indicates his birthday is January 24, but in the same episode, Wade
says that Quinn is a Libra
, which would put his birthday between September 23 and October 22.
Quinn was skipped ahead two grades in school at some point before 1984. He was bullied in junior high, and being skipped ahead two grades made him smaller and physically slower than his classmates. His father died in 1984. The week after his father's death, several students, including Rex Crandall, bullied Quinn at school, which ended in an incident where he hit Rex with a baseball bat
. Quinn shattered Rex's kneecap, and Rex walked with a limp for the rest of his life. In the episode "The Guardian", on a world where events occurred as they did on Earth Prime
twelve years ago, Quinn prevented history from repeating itself.
In "Summer of Love", Quinn confesses to Arturo that he was starting quarterback
in high school
(indicating that despite being slower than his classmates in junior high, he became an athlete in high school). In the episode "Slide Like an Egyptian", Quinn meets his father in the afterlife
while being used for life after death experiments. They discuss how they enjoyed playing American football
together.
in physics
, specializing in superstring theory
. In 1994, he invented a device that allows people to travel from one parallel dimension
to another. Quinn referred to this technology as "sliding." On September 27, he went through the vortex with Wade Welles
and Maximillian Arturo
. Rembrandt Brown
happened to be traveling in the area and was accidentally pulled into the vortex.
The four of them landed on a parallel world where San Francisco
was in an ice age
. They holed up in Rembrandt's car until a deadly tornado
headed their way. Because of the way the sliding technology functioned, the group's only choices were to reset the timer and potentially lose the possibility to go home, or to wait for the timer to hit zero and go home then. Since the tornado was likely to kill them, Quinn had to reset the timer and lost the ability to return himself and the others home. For the next five years, Quinn and the others slid randomly to each world with a fixed amount of time on each one, hoping each slide will be the slide home.
, but that he was actually from Kromagg Prime
, an Earth
where human
s and Kromagg
s coexisted until a civil war broke out between the two species. He learned that he was transported to Earth Prime when he was a baby and left with his parents' doubles. When his parents came back to get him, his adoptive parents were too attached to him so they hid Quinn, and Quinn was raised on Earth Prime. Quinn only learned this after he returned to Earth Prime after the Kromaggs had invaded two months prior. He also learned that he had a brother, Colin
, who was transported to another alternate Earth as well.
" (although his double's personality became dominant).
After Mallory was sliding for a while, the Sliders met back with Dr. Geiger in the episode "Eye of the Storm", and he attempted to unmerge Quinn from his double. Unfortunately, Dr. Geiger said that the two had been merged for too long and the only way to bring Quinn back would require killing Mallory. Rembrandt said that Quinn wouldn't want that, so Dr. Geiger ended the experiment and Quinn was presumed to be gone for good. But near the end of the series, Mallory would again show signs that Quinn still existed within him.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television show Sliders
Sliders
Sliders is an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast for five seasons, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2000. The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different parallel universes. The show was created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé...
, played by Jerry O'Connell
Jerry O'Connell
Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell is an American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan...
.
Childhood
Quinn was born in 1973 and raised in San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, the son of Michael and Amanda Mallory. The driver's license
Driver's license
A driver's license/licence , or driving licence is an official document which states that a person may operate a motorized vehicle, such as a motorcycle, car, truck or a bus, on a public roadway. Most U.S...
shown in the episode "Summer of Love" indicates his birthday is January 24, but in the same episode, Wade
Wade Welles
Wade Kathleen Wells, a fictional character on the show Sliders played by Sabrina Lloyd, is from San Francisco, and worked at Doppler Computer Store while attending North Shore Junior College. She was studying literature and poetry....
says that Quinn is a Libra
Libra (astrology)
Libra is the seventh astrological sign in the Zodiac, originating from the constellation of Libra. In astrology, Libra is considered a "masculine", positive sign. It is also considered an air sign and is one of four cardinal signs...
, which would put his birthday between September 23 and October 22.
Quinn was skipped ahead two grades in school at some point before 1984. He was bullied in junior high, and being skipped ahead two grades made him smaller and physically slower than his classmates. His father died in 1984. The week after his father's death, several students, including Rex Crandall, bullied Quinn at school, which ended in an incident where he hit Rex with a baseball bat
Baseball bat
A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the game of baseball to hit the ball after the ball is thrown by the pitcher. It is no more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches in length. It typically weighs no more than 33 ounces , but it...
. Quinn shattered Rex's kneecap, and Rex walked with a limp for the rest of his life. In the episode "The Guardian", on a world where events occurred as they did on Earth Prime
Earth Prime
Earth Prime is a term sometimes used in works of speculative fiction involving parallel universes or a multiverse, and refers either to the universe containing "our" Earth, or to a parallel world with a bare minimum of divergence points from Earth as we know it...
twelve years ago, Quinn prevented history from repeating itself.
In "Summer of Love", Quinn confesses to Arturo that he was starting quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
(indicating that despite being slower than his classmates in junior high, he became an athlete in high school). In the episode "Slide Like an Egyptian", Quinn meets his father in the afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
while being used for life after death experiments. They discuss how they enjoyed playing American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
together.
Invention of sliding
Quinn attended the University of California during the early 1990s to earn his master's degreeMaster's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, specializing in superstring theory
Superstring theory
Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modelling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings...
. In 1994, he invented a device that allows people to travel from one parallel dimension
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
to another. Quinn referred to this technology as "sliding." On September 27, he went through the vortex with Wade Welles
Wade Welles
Wade Kathleen Wells, a fictional character on the show Sliders played by Sabrina Lloyd, is from San Francisco, and worked at Doppler Computer Store while attending North Shore Junior College. She was studying literature and poetry....
and Maximillian Arturo
Maximillian Arturo
Professor Maximillian P. Arturo is a fictional character on the science fiction television show Sliders. He was played by John Rhys-Davies....
. Rembrandt Brown
Rembrandt Brown
Rembrandt Lee Brown is a fictional character played by Cleavant Derricks on the science fiction television show Sliders. In 1994, Rembrandt was living in San Francisco. Rembrandt is a musician, whose stage name is The Crying Man because of his ability to "cry real tears" on stage...
happened to be traveling in the area and was accidentally pulled into the vortex.
The four of them landed on a parallel world where San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
was in an ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
. They holed up in Rembrandt's car until a deadly tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
headed their way. Because of the way the sliding technology functioned, the group's only choices were to reset the timer and potentially lose the possibility to go home, or to wait for the timer to hit zero and go home then. Since the tornado was likely to kill them, Quinn had to reset the timer and lost the ability to return himself and the others home. For the next five years, Quinn and the others slid randomly to each world with a fixed amount of time on each one, hoping each slide will be the slide home.
Distant origin
In the fourth season premiere "Genesis", Quinn learned that he was not originally from Earth PrimeEarth Prime (Sliders)
Earth Prime, a term used in the television show Sliders, is the name of the alternate Earth where the four original sliders started their journey. Although it is very similar to our Earth, the creator of the show, Tracy Tormé, has stated that it is not our Earth...
, but that he was actually from Kromagg Prime
Kromagg Prime
Kromagg Prime is the fictional alternate universe of the Kromaggs on the sci-fi TV show Sliders. An alternate version also exists, named Kromagg Double Prime, inhabited by a meek and docile breed of the Kromagg species .This alternate Earth was originally inhabited by both humans and Kromaggs...
, an Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
where human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s and Kromagg
Kromagg
The Kromaggs , are a fictional species of humanoid primates from the science fiction television show, Sliders...
s coexisted until a civil war broke out between the two species. He learned that he was transported to Earth Prime when he was a baby and left with his parents' doubles. When his parents came back to get him, his adoptive parents were too attached to him so they hid Quinn, and Quinn was raised on Earth Prime. Quinn only learned this after he returned to Earth Prime after the Kromaggs had invaded two months prior. He also learned that he had a brother, Colin
Colin Mallory
Colin Mallory is a fictional character on the science fiction show Sliders played by Charlie O'Connell.He was introduced in the sixth episode of the fourth season, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?". Quinn Mallory had only learned Colin was his brother five episodes earlier in "Genesis"...
, who was transported to another alternate Earth as well.
The Unstuck Man
In late 1998 or early 1999, in the season five premiere "The Unstuck Man", Quinn and his brother Colin were unwillingly used in an experiment by Dr. Oberon Geiger to merge people and parallel worlds together. As a result of this experiment, Quinn was merged with a fraternal double of his who was referred to as "MalloryMallory (Sliders)
A fraternal alternate of Quinn Mallory was a main character during the fifth and last season of the show Sliders played by Robert Floyd. This version of Quinn Mallory is usually just called Mallory but sometimes he is credited or referred to as Quinn2 or Quinn Mallory .The Quinn from Earth Prime...
" (although his double's personality became dominant).
After Mallory was sliding for a while, the Sliders met back with Dr. Geiger in the episode "Eye of the Storm", and he attempted to unmerge Quinn from his double. Unfortunately, Dr. Geiger said that the two had been merged for too long and the only way to bring Quinn back would require killing Mallory. Rembrandt said that Quinn wouldn't want that, so Dr. Geiger ended the experiment and Quinn was presumed to be gone for good. But near the end of the series, Mallory would again show signs that Quinn still existed within him.
Relationships
- Wade WellesWade WellesWade Kathleen Wells, a fictional character on the show Sliders played by Sabrina Lloyd, is from San Francisco, and worked at Doppler Computer Store while attending North Shore Junior College. She was studying literature and poetry....
: Quinn and Wade were close friends, working at the Doppler Computer Store. Wade had a crush on Quinn, something that he was too oblivious to notice for some time. Afterwards, both were too shy and occupied by situations they were thrown in to act upon their feelings; it was never followed through due to a calamity befalling the Sliders. - Maximillian ArturoMaximillian ArturoProfessor Maximillian P. Arturo is a fictional character on the science fiction television show Sliders. He was played by John Rhys-Davies....
: Being Quinn's professor, it wasn't always easy for Arturo to accept his student surpassing him. However, Arturo often doubled as a surrogate father for Quinn. Quinn's relationship with Arturo meant a lot to him, and Quinn was very hurt when Colonel Rickman murdered him. - Rembrandt BrownRembrandt BrownRembrandt Lee Brown is a fictional character played by Cleavant Derricks on the science fiction television show Sliders. In 1994, Rembrandt was living in San Francisco. Rembrandt is a musician, whose stage name is The Crying Man because of his ability to "cry real tears" on stage...
: Initially, Rembrandt was at odds with Quinn, being the only one not to consent to sliding. The bitterness continued for a short duration, but dulled as Rembrandt gained respect for Quinn. The two became fairly close friends, though they still occasionally harbored conflicting views. Rembrandt gave Quinn the nickname "Q-Ball". - Maggie BeckettMaggie BeckettMaggie A. Beckett is a fictional character on the television show Sliders, played by Kari Wührer. She was introduced in the episode "The Exodus, Part One" and was present in the last nine episodes of the third season, and the entire fourth and fifth seasons...
: Quinn might have been attracted to Maggie. In "The Breeder", Wade remarked to Quinn, "You have a thing for her [Maggie]?" which Quinn denied. In "The Exodus, Part Two", Dr. Stephen Jensen (Maggie's husband at the time) accused Quinn of having a romantic interest in Maggie, saying "I see the way the two of you look at each other and I don't like it." Quinn told Dr. Jensen that he felt Maggie is just someone he had to put up with, but Dr. Jensen did not believe him. In "Roads Taken", Quinn and Maggie were married in a "bubble universe" that existed only for the two of them.