The twist comes less than two minutes into the May 3, 1995 episode of Sliders. To their horror, the show’s four characters gaze upon a shocking image on the TV as foreshadowing music plays: Hillary Clinton as president.
“Evidently we’ve landed on a world where women are in authority and men are relegated to a second-class status,” says the character played by John Rhys-Davies.
Sliders followed a group of four travellers who, following a wormhole experiment gone awry, are forced to “slide” between alternate universes in an attempt to return home. Through five seasons, the group visits alternate dimensions where the British won the Revolutionary War, prohibition was never repealed or San Francisco has been transformed into a preserve for dinosaurs.
The Clinton episode, which was filmed in Vancouver, had the group dropping into a world that they initially assume is their home version of 1995 — only to realize that women occupy all the positions of power and influence.
News anchor Jane Pauley is pope. Corporate CEOs are almost universally female. An alternate version of Sports Illustrated features a speedo edition. And Hillary Clinton is president of the United States while Bill is First Husband.
“You know, the president’s about to speak,” says a hot dog vendor as he switches on a TV. “I feel sorry for the prez being married to that loudmouth, no wonder the Republicans are taking control.”
“Gender discrimination is no laughing matter regardless of who has the upper hand,” said the Rhys-Davies character, who subsequently spends the rest of the episode becoming a campaigner for men’s rights.
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