Rhys-Davies troubles started as soon as he came to Sliders with promises of making the professor who he wanted. "They were looking for somebody with weight and authority to play the part of an irascible professor," so Rhys-Davies thought, "... and I suspect the part was really meant to be the cowardly professor in Lost In Space, which I think I said at the time was something I didn't particularly want to play. But, we all agreed it would change and evolve when we came down to doing it. So, it was a battle that had to be fought in the early stages."
Although he is quick to say he loved the professor in Lost In Space, Rhys-Davies simply doesn't believe it was appropriate for Sliders.
Besides the conflict with his character, he was constantly found fighting for quality control and show integrity, namely in the writing and blatant copycat stories he says Sliders "borrowed" from popular, current movies. "I thought season two was a complete pass. The third season, again, basically you have an executive producer who's not interested in science fiction, who doesn't understand it, who doesn't write it, and a bunch of not-terribly-good writers who are insolently derivative."
Pointing out that the writers said, "...the network had forced them into doing these things," Rhys-Davies can believe the truth of network demands for success, even at the expense of quality. "Hollywood can only understand success and say, 'Let's repeat that!' So you have the 'Twisters' episode early on which is a straight rip-off. But of course our twister is man-made and is upside down, which reveals a remarkable ignorance about the physics of twisters! It then proceeded to become a rip-off of every film that you have ever seen, particularly toward the end - fortunately by which time I had been fired. I don't want to be associated with a writer who would say to me, 'John, I can steal from anything,' as if this was a badge of honor and not a badge of absolute creative disgrace." If there is something John Rhys-Davies stands for it is quality, originality, and creative appreciation. "I was taught to respect writers, to value the word above all else...intellectual property should should be treated with the same respect you would treat other property. And the cry, 'But everybody does it,' won't do."
He is very passionate about the quality of work and those associated with it. This has been his main point of contention with Sliders, regardless of what other gossip would have you believe. In fact, he even told the other cast members to let him fight the battle for them, he knew it was coming - you can ask the other actors! "They will tell you, that early on I told them to keep their heads down and their noses to the grindstone and let me do the fighting for the series." Which was no problem for Rhys Davies because of his genuine admiration for his cast mates, another feeling shared by the actors on the show. "Let me say this, if you ask any of the four of us we would say that, the greatest pleasure of coming to work each was that we would get to spend time with each other. I have never worked with three more harmonious and good souls as I worked with on that show. As for Jerry himself, were I to have another son I wish it were Jerry...I think he is so gifted. He is ideally, temperamentally suited to succeed and it was my joy and privilege to work with him. Sabrina is a darling and I love her. And Cleavant is the best, truest golden soul of the lot, just a dear, dear man."
The whole experience of working on Sliders was as much a heartache as it was headache for Rhys-Davies, in that in Sliders he saw a great opportunity to tell really great sci-fi stories, a possibility that he even now holds out a little hope for. "The reason I went on about Sliders is that the premise is the best premise I think I've ever known for a television series. You can go anywhere in the world and it's worth fighting for. That should could have been, and could still be, Universal's Star Trek." As for the show's future? "I'll wait to see who the head writer is and what science fiction he has done before, before I make any prediction." And the reason? "I won't say which year, but the head writer turned around to me and said, 'It's easy for you to criticize John, you don't know how hard it is to come up with ideas for this thing.' You go anywhere in the universe!"
What is Rhys-Davies solution to the creative slump of the series? "It is so blatantly easy to transform that show it makes me want to scream: 'Oh give me a gun to shoot some writers just to encourage the rest!"
