After his 12 episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Tracy Tormé left the series. He would go on to co-create the hit five-season TV series “Sliders” with Robert K. Weiss in 1995. That series was a high-concept dimension-hopping show about a group of adventurers who found themselves unable to return to their home dimension. Each episode took place in a parallel universe. Tormé was credited as the writer of 87 episodes of “Sliders.” He left over creative differences.
In addition to sci-fi TV, Tormé was known as a UFO expert and wrote several shows and one feature film about real-life UFO phenomena. In 1991, Tormé penned a chilling miniseries called “Intruders,” all about alien abductions and large-eyed alien Greys several years before “The X-Files” debuted. Tormé also wrote the screenplay for the biographical alien abduction film “Fire in the Sky,” the true story of Travis Walton, a supposed alien abductee. Both Tormé and Walton discussed their mutual experiences on the “Coast to Coast” interview program in 2008. Perhaps it was Tormé’s interest in UFOs that made him such a good sci-fi writer.
As mentioned, Tormé didn’t invent the holodeck, but he seemed keen to explore its possibilities. He also understood that actors should be given the chance to wear different costumes and play-act new roles every once in a while. “The Big Goodbye” fit the bill perfectly and won a Peabody Award.
Since then, there have been literally dozens of “Star Trek” episodes about the power of the holodeck, usually featuring tales of people stuck inside of them. Indeed, “Star Trek: Voyager” had many, many holodeck episodes, including an episode wherein an alien species equipped the entire ship with hologram emitters, turning the whole vessel into a giant holodeck. Those ideas are Tormé’s legacy.