In WOW we are treated to this brief nugget of alternate history:

MAGGIE: So, what's the story here?

QUINN: Something delayed this world's technological development by about a hundred and fifty years. Could have been any one of a million things.

Before I comment I have to say that the age old writer's dilemma is "I want this to exist" or "I want this to happen" or "I want these two people to meet" so "how can I manipulate things so that what I want will happen in the story?" How well a writer gets what they want realistically and without making the reader groan is how we should judge how good a writer he or she is.

In this case, JOC wanted the Sliders on an Old West world. Since time travel has been stated to be impossible, he settled for technology slowing down.

I sympathize with his problem of thinking up a realistic way to get what he wanted, but how good did he do?

Does this really work? Sure, anything in the past could slow down technological evolution. But the Old West as romanticized in zillions of movies and TV shows really only lasted about 30 short years and took A LOT of things happening to turn out the way it did.

Such as:

1) The Civil War. Not only the war itself, but the resolution being total defeat for the South, not negotiated peace that left two nations. The Spanish American wars and Texan Independence also had to happen.

2) The Europeans still discovering America first, unlikely if technology everywhere is 150 behind because that gave the Chinese another 150 years with the technology they already had for a thousand years to discover it first. For this matter, the Native Americans had another 150 years in which to strengthen themselves against invasion. Maybe in that additonal time their immune systems would get exposed to stuff that made them more resistant to Western diseases. Maybe another 150 years of distance from the old myths would have made the Aztecs dismiss their initial religious fear of the Spanish.

Making the Europeans discover America the same time as our history doesn't work either, because without our 1492 level of technology the Spanish would have gotten their asses ROLLED, as would any future invaders. And if the world had our 1492 level of weapon technology in their year 1492, why would the world be 150 years behind us in 1998?

3) Horses still being brought to America in mass quantities.

4) The Spanish dominating early and then crumbling.

5) Why 150 years anyway? Wouldn't it be more like 110? Is he saying this is pre Civil War Old West? If no, then EVERYTHING is wrong with the world portrayed in WOW!!

I'm sure we can come up with a lot more influences that would have to be perfect AND/or advanced 150 years in order to have a 1880s world in 1998. History just doesn't work this way. You could be technologically 1880 in 1998, but the social situation would be very different. Likewise, you could socially be 1880 in 1998, but the technological situation would be very different. It's hard to imagine everything (or even most things) being the same on a current time world as it was for us 150 years ago.

I think with a little creativity JOC could have come up with a much more plausible explanation for what he wanted. Why not just mention Guardian World and speculate it could be another deal like that? (I don't think that explanation was plausible either, but since you already have it in the show's past, why not use it?)

JOC engaging his brain???? Never mind. More chance of a neekid beaver leaping into my lap at this moment.

>:-#

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

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