Although Sliding Doors is a contemporary romance, fans of Star Trek and Stargate SG-1 will find the underlying premise more familiar than will romance fans unused to science fiction plot devices. 

We're talking Alternate Universes.

As the story begins, the universe of our story is singular.  London businesswoman Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) hurries off to work.  As soon as she leaves, live-in boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch) calls his other girlfriend, the one Helen doesn't know about. 

But Helen arrives at her job in a PR firm only to learn that she's been fired.  So she heads back home. 

Here's where our story universe splits in two, in the subway station.  One Helen makes it to the train on time and boards.  The other Helen doesn't, the eponymous sliding doors close in her face and she's left on the platform.  (Perhaps to simplify this discussion, we should start calling the Helen who caught the train Helen One, and the one who missed the train Helen Two.)

Helen One arrives home to find Gerry in bed with Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn).  She storms out and goes to stay with her friend Anna (Zara Turner).  Oh, and she met a charming talkative Scotsman named James (John Hannah) on the train.

Helen Two experiences a number of delays, including an attempted mugging, and doesn't arrive home until after Lydia has left.  So she doesn't know that Gerry is cheating on her and stays in the relationship.

Both Helens, remember, have just lost their jobs.  Their approach to the same problem is very different.  Helen One, while raging against that rat Gerry, has her hair cut and colored (for which the viewer says Whew!, since it makes the two Helens easier to tell apart), and establishes her own boutique PR firm.  Helen Two gets menial jobs waiting tables in the evening and delivering deli sandwiches during the day, keeping her hair long and wearing it in girlish pigtails. 

Watching Helen Two slog listlessly through her daily routine brings out the sci-fi speculator, at least in this viewer - hmm, so being the deceived party in a triangle creates some sort of psychic-energy dampening field?   I kept wanting some ingenious engineer to reroute power through the deflector shields or something. 

Anyway, we're watching two stories now, watching as Helen One develops a relationship with James and wondering when Helen Two is going to catch on to cheating Gerry.   (Oh, come on - you know she's going to eventually.)

The two universes merge back into one at the end, and you'll stick around to see how it turns out, but I really didn't find this story as engaging as I expected to.  I love a good alt universe episode in my sci-fi television, but I think that's the key.  A television show doesn't pull an alt universe on us until we already know the characters.  

In Sliding Doors we only have about ten minutes to get to know Helen before the universe splits, and that turns out to be not long enough.  Is Helen One striking out boldly and experiencing growth by establishing her own business - or was she always like that?  Is Helen Two being dragged down by the unacknowledged psychic weight of being the deceived in an unfaithful relationship - or was she always like that?  There's simply no way to tell.

Sliding Doors was both scripted and directed by Peter Howitt.  An intriguing concept, a less intriguing story.

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