So much for master plans. Kari Wuhrer isn't complaining, of course, but life as an actress isn't remotely what she had in mind when she began this journey more than a decade ago. Since first achieving cult celebrity status in 1989 as an MTV vixen on "Remote Control," Wuhrer has appeared in nearly two dozen movies and is about to begin her third season on "Sliders" as gutsy ex-military chick Maggie Beckett. But this acting gig, she admits, was basically a happy accident. "Actually, my master plan was to do music," she says. "Because I'm a singer. I had a band for years and I thought, MTV, that's like my `in.' Maybe I would meet the right people. Maybe I would get the break I needed. And it did sort of get me a deal with a record label. I mean, the producer listened to my demo tape and told me, `The music sucks, but you were hot on "Remote Control." So sign here.' "So I signed the record deal and got out to Los Angeles and was waiting around for so long for my producer to start working with me that I got some movies and started acting, just as a way to make a living. Then that kind of took off. Who knew it would work out this way?" Well, anyone with eyes in his head might have had a clue. It isn't much of a leap to picture Wuhrer, a hardbodied brunette with a sweet smile, getting an assortment of ornamental movie babe roles. And that's exactly what she did, in such films as "Adventures of Ford Fairlane" (1990), "Beastmaster 2" (1991), "Thinner" (1996), "Anaconda" (1997) and "Kissing a Fool" (1998). But even Wuhrer, now in her early 30s and recently divorced, was taken aback when offered her role on "Sliders," a sci-fi series that ran three seasons on FOX (1995-97) before moving to the Sci Fi Channel. "It was interesting, this part," she says. "I thought it was very strange that I would be offered the role of a military captain fighter pilot when normally I play sexpots. To go from sexpot parts to flying MIGs seemed like a little bit of a stretch at first. But this IS science fiction, you know. We do have a little dramatic license." In retrospect, Wuhrer has proven to be up to the challenge. She joined the series midway through its final season on FOX, replacing departing castmember John Rhys-Davies (who played brilliant Professor Maximilian Arturo). After the second cast defection, when Sabrina Lloyd (Wade Welles) chose not to follow the show to Sci Fi, Wuhrer became the only female on this series about four people who "slide" from one parallel world to the next. Now, in the wake of Jerry O'Connell (Quinn Mallory) leaving the show along with younger brother Charlie O'Connell (Colin Mallory, Lloyd's replacement Slider), Wuhrer and Cleavant Derricks (Rembrandt Brown, the only remaining original castmember) must do more of the heavy lifting. "When I got here," she says, "it was like I felt, first, I had to prove myself and carve a niche in this genre and, second, yeah, try to measure up to John Rhys-Davies, which is definitely a tough one. But I really enjoy it." When the fifth season premiered June 11, Wuhrer and Derricks were teamed with two new Sliders, played by Robert Floyd and Tembi Locke, while "Babylon 5"-ex Peter Jurasik joined in the recurring villain role of evil genius Dr. Geiger. One episode will even resolve the left-hanging story of Wade Welles, who was written out by being made a prisoner on an alternate Earth in a Kromagg-human cross-breeding camp. Although no announcement has been made one way or the other, the show's future beyond season five is uncertain. And if the forthcoming 18 episodes, almost all of which have already been filmed, is all that remains of the series, one of Wuhrer's wishes won't come to fruition. "I wanted to change to a kind of cyber-punk Maggie, but the producers weren't interested," she laments. "I was thinking, well, the girl's so deep into sliding now that she has sort of adopted a few of the styles she's encountered from past slides. And it seemed like a natural follow-up to last summer and that kind of comic-book effect with the blue hair. But the executive producer wanted a more natural look, so my hair's longer, it's lighter and it's a little less harsh." Such matters might seem wholly superficial, but Wuhrer says her appearance was a hot discussion topic among "Sliders" fans on the Internet this past season, so it has to be taken seriously. A native of Brookfield, Conn., Wuhrer moved to New York at age 13 and entered the world of modeling and commercials. Her first big break came when she caught the attention of MTV and the producers of "Remote Control," an offbeat game show on which she appeared for two years. In addition to her movie appearances, she had regular roles on USA's "Swamp Thing" in 1991 and FOX's "Class of '96" in 1993. By the time she was cast in "Sliders," she had built a significant fan base that she was able to bring with her. Despite her success in the acting field, though, Wuhrer's ambition to have a singing career never waned. And now, nearly a decade after that initial record deal went sour, she finally has something to show for her efforts. Her CD, "Shiny" (Del-Fi Records), was released in February and is far more ambitious and skillfully done than skeptics might assume. This is not just a sad example of an deluded actress moonlighting as a wannabe rocker. "It took a lot longer than I expected it would," she says. "But I've finally got my record out. I'm back into the music and now I'm doing it all and loving it."