These are scenes in the revised first draft of the David Peckinpah Dinoslide script. These scenes did not make it into the final episode due to time concerns and story considerations.
The original script opened quite differently from the version which made it to air:
EXT. SKID ROW - DAY
A couple of winos digging through a dumpster react to the shound and wind effects of an opening vortex. As they cower, Colonel Rickman is flung from the vortex, crashes into a stack of garbage cans and goes down hard. He gets to his feet, groggy and unsteady, takes a few staggering steps toward the winos. The two men take off running as if from the devil himself...
Rickman makes his way slowly toward the mouth of an alley, shielding his eyes from the blinding sun.
IN THE ALLEY
A number of society's cast-offs sleep in the grimy alley, too far numbed by whatever this world's crack or Mad Dog 20-20 is to notice the Colonel as he moves amoung them. He kneels, pulls his big syringe with shaking hands. Rickman's in bad shape, too long from his last fix of "brain juice." He pulls the collar away from the neck of his victim, plunges the needle deep into the flesh, withdraws the precious spinal fluid, then injects the back of his own neck. His face morphs into that of his victim's as the fluid rushes to his brain...a sigh of relief. But the morph is weak, not complete; his own features blend with those of the victim's. Panic now...
COL. RICKMAN
No...it's not holding...no...
He moves to a second sleeping figure, this one a woman, does her like the first one; another shaky, distorted morph into her...now to a third victim...the fluid morphs him into this victim, holds more clearly as he sags with relief.
COL. RICKMAN
That's better...all better now...
THE STREET
seems to shimmer as another vortex opens and our Sliders come tumbling out. They are all bundled up in heavy parkas, gloves, etc.
WADE
I like this place already. No snow.
MAGGIE
I was just starting to develop a
taste for blubber.
QUINN
(they start stripping out of their cold weather gear)
It must be over a hundred degrees,
we're probably in the San Fernando Valley.
REMBRANDT
I wish you could fix that timer to
drop us next to a pool on a day like this.
A wino staggers towards them, hand out. It's Rickman, still morphed into his wino victim.
WINO
Help out a fella down on his luck? Maggie pulls a couple of smooth bones
from her pocket, a few glass beads.
MAGGIE
Where we came from, this
was a lot of money.
WINO
Another pretty girl with a
smart-ass attitude. He goes off. The Sliders react to cries of alram
from the alley. A women lurches out into the sun.
WOMAN
Help me...they're dead...they're all dead... The Sliders run toward her, follow her into:
THE ALLEY
Quinn and Remmy inspect the two victims, check for -- and find -- puncture wounds as the woman babbles on.
QUINN
Rickman. But this man's dead, not comatose.
MAGGIE
(looking at the third victim)
Damn it! It was him out there just now! The face is that of the wino that just panhandled them. They all charge out toward:
THE STREET
just in time to see Rickman's vortex closing.
Our next missing scene occurs just after Rembrandt finds the drawing of the T-Rex in the ruins of the Exodus refugee camp...
THE DRAWING
is of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, in full attack mode.
QUINN
T-Rex, talk about your natural born killer.
WADE
You and Maggie checked this world out...
QUINN
So this is our fault? We didn't
have time to do more than make
sure the air was safe --
WADE
-- I'm not accusing you!
REMBRANDT
If anything's happened to
that boy, I'll never forgive myself.
WADE
There are no bodies, Remmy,
that's a good thing. It means
they got away. Maggie comes walking back on the tail of this.
MAGGIE
Not all of them. I found bones
over there from ten, maybe twelve people.
Hard to tell, they're so badly splintered.
(on Remmy's look)
No kids.
REMBRANDT
Thank God. He's out there
somewhere, we've gotta find
him before that monster does.
MAGGIE
The T-Rex or Rickman, either
one's a killer. Rickman was here.
I picked up fresh tracks heading up
that way.
WADE
How do you know they're his?
MAGGIE
Only one set of new ones here
besides ours, it's gotta be him.
He checked the camp out, just like
we're doing, then took off.
QUINN
Let's get started. Remmy tucks Malcolm's drawing away,
follows Quinn. Maggie falls in beside Wade.
MAGGIE
You want to stay up on your high
horse, that's fine with me. But save
the wise cracks. Someone has to stop
Rickman, and you won't have to dirty
your hands. Civilians never do, they sit
back and let people like me -- soldiers --
do the job for them.
WADE
Don't play the martyr with me, this isn't
about stopping him, it's about payback,
getting even.
MAGGIE
I can't let it be personal, if I emotionalize
it I'll make mistakes. This is a mission,
pure and simple.
WADE
Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better.
MAGGIE
That's the way it is. And I don't give
a damn what you believe. She moves on ahead.
Did you think the Quinn/Maggie worm eating scene on top of the mountain was sick enough? Look at what Peck wanted to do, but didn't make the final cut:
MAGGIE
That sounds like Slider-ese for "What's your sign?"
QUINN
Fine. Freeze.
A moment...then Maggie lies behind him, snuggles her body tightly against his, like two spoons in a drawer. She keeps moving, snuggling...it's undeniably sexy.
QUINN
Are you about finished?
MAGGIE
(teasing, against the back of his neck)
No, but I bet you are.
He can't help but laugh.
QUINN
Yeah, there's nothing like worms
on a woman's breath to turn me on.
MAGGIE
Charmer. I'll take first watch.
QUINN
No, you go ahead. I'm already up.
Off her soft laugh, we reluctantly dissolve to a second settler camp...
Here is the key missing scene from near the end of the episode that answers a longstanding question. We enter the scene with Rickman holding Malcolm hostage:
COL. RICKMAN
There's another way. Give me your
timer and I'll go. You can live out your
lives here in peace, and I know you
won't be chasing me. That's a good
deal for all of us.
REMBRANDT
What about all the people you'll kill on
other worlds, none of us can live with that.
COL. RICKMAN
There's a down side to any deal.
Give me the bloody timer or I'll kill
this boy right now!
MAGGIE
Don't do it, Quinn.
COL. RICKMAN
(laughs)
You see, Mallory? She knows you, she
knows you haven't got the guts to
sacrifice the boy.
Col. Rickman uses his free hand to get out his own timer.
COL. RICKMAN
There are rules about opening the vortex
before time's run out, aren't there?
But I've never been one for rules.
And I'm tired of this game. He opens his vortex.
The final missing scene opens just after Rickman has escaped by accidentally being pushed into his vortex:
DISSOLVE TO GRETCHEN'S CAMP - NIGHT
It's late. The camp is quiet. Maggie sits alone at the fire, her face washed with orange by the flickering flames. Quinn comes up, feeds a couple of pieces of wood into the fire, warms his hands.
QUINN
Let's get it out in the open, Maggie.
You think I made the wrong call today.
MAGGIE
I know you did. We could have
stopped him. It could have ended.
QUINN
He'd shot Malcolm in the back.
MAGGIE
Yeah. But Malcolm would have
been his last victim. How many more
on how many worlds have are going
to die because you didn't have the
stomach to make the tough call? All you
had to do was step aside, give me a shot.
QUINN
(mad now)
Come on, this isn't about people on
other worlds! You want to kill him,
it's all about revenge --
MAGGIE
(hotly)
-- Either way, he's still dead! That's what
matters, that's all that counts! You let
him go, Quinn! We had him and
you let him go!
They glare at each other for a long moment...
QUINN
(softer now)
All I know is I couldn't stand by and
watch a little boy be murdered. And it
bothers the hell out of me that you could.
He stares at her for a long beat, then walks back toward the tents, leaving her thinking about what he said.
Dissolve to Remmy and Malcolm...
|
