Star Trek: Lower Decks is shipping off after five seasons. The animated series found a nice niche within the Star Trek fandom, even if it wasn't ever a smash hit with the entire fanbase. It provided many laughs for people, but it also gave a lot of names a chance to join Star Trek that they may have otherwise been unable to. One of those named is Jerry O'Connell.
O'Connell has been acting for a long time now. He got his big break as a child, starring opposite fellow Star Trek alum Wil Wheaton in Stand by Me. He then started to land major roles as an adult, like as a secondary character in Tom Cruise's Jerry McGuire, and as a lead in some less-than-memorable films like Joe's Apartment or Kangaroo Jack. He's also been a part of some other franchises' like the second film in the Scream franchise; the aptly named, Scream 2.
Yet, for many fans of Star Trek, it isn't Lower Decks for which we know him. It's another sci-fi series that was shockingly huge in the 1990s; Sliders. The show was a quiet hit for Fox, and despite a time in the pop culture sphere that didn't appreciate science fiction as much, especially on a major network like Fox, fans flocked to it.
Anyone who watched Star Trek seemingly watched Sliders too. It was a unique show for its time. A series that saw O'Connell and company 'sliding' from one alternate timeline to another, in hopes of finding their way back to their home universe. It's a very similar concept to another Star Trek alums show, Quantum Leap. Only instead of series star and Enterprise leading man, Scott Bakula, jumping into people and taking over their lives for an episode, the Slider's crew existed as themselves. Allowing for the possibility that they will run into a version of themselves.
Speaking to TrekMovie.com about Lower Decks, O'Connell made it very clear that he wants to do do a revival of the iconic 90s sci-fi hit. O'Connell went on to tell them that he even tried to get something going, saying;
"Let’s get a remake of it. Come on, Universal. I mean, I realize this is for Paramount Plus, but it’s on another streaming service, and I called them. They never called me back."
A Slider's revival would be fun as heck, but in today's era of streaming, it seems like a long shot. Maybe in 2019, when everyone was on the nostalgia kick to bring back everything fans had liked 20 years prior. But now, it seems most streaming outlets are strapped for cash and only investing in shows that could be the next big thing.
Sure glad we got rid of cable for this new hellscape of entertainment.