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Sliders - Timer

The original timer

The timer is a handheld device used for sliding, commonly constructed of a mobile phone or remote control. The Sliders have a finite amount of time to stay in each world, a time which is beyond their control, and is revealed on the timer's display upon arriving on the parallel Earth. The only time they are able to leave a parallel Earth is when the timer hit "zero." If they do not slide at that time, they will not have another opportunity to slide for another 29.7 years. In the episode "Rules of the Game", it is first stated that the Sliders must wait 29 years for the next slide, if they miss it when the timer hits zero (this was originally stated the a script outtake for Season 1's "Summer of Love" but was cut by FOX). It is mentioned again in several more episodes. The timer has frequently been lost, stolen, or damaged during the slides. However, it is almost always recovered, repaired, or replaced before they are scheduled to slide.

Different timers have different countdown times — if you miss the window on one timer, you could still slide out with another.

In the first two seasons, the prop of the timer is a rebuilt Motorola cellular phone, however it changes in later seasons to a television remote.

Quinn Mallory's Original Timer[]

Quinn constructed his original timer in the casing of a Motorola MicroTAC Ultra-Lite cellular flip phone with added LED lights and LCD displays. A digital readout showed the amount of hours, minutes, and seconds where one could stay in a parallel dimension, alongside a separate window for days at the top of the timer, while a circular dial at the center also dictated how much power it could use for the amount of Sliders to safely utilize the wormhole. A self-regenerating power chip runs the timer's internal functioning. When Quinn, Wade, Arturo and Rembrandt slide away from Ice World in the first episode, Quinn opens the portal before the timer hits zero and the timer is damaged, so they can no longer return to Earth Prime, nor select the time of their departure from one world or which world they will go to next.

The timer goes through numerous repairs throughout its tenure in the first three seasons. After having its data corrupted in the Pilot episode and burning out from frequent sliding, Quinn and Professor Arturo modify the timer in the second episode "Summer of Love" to work on the Helix Spiral, where it will no longer open wormholes at will, but rather serve as a countdown device using its remaining power to pinpoint the weakest opening between dimensions (which is its primary function for the remainder of the series, see above for more details). In Season 2's "Gillian of the Spirits", the timer short-circuits by an electromagnetic surge after the wormhole is hit by lightning; Arturo repairs its ruined power chip by substituting the one from his digital wristwatch. Logan St. Claire permanently sabotages the Sliders' timer by swapping the device's laser-based geographic-spectrum stabilizer with her own technologically inferior sonics-based stabilizer in Season 3's "Double Cross". The timer is disassembled by Franklin Michner a few episodes later in "Electric Twister Acid Test", although it's quickly repaired by Quinn and Arturo before the slide.

The original timer opens a bright blue vortex; it was initially set for three Sliders, although it handles four regularly at ease. It also safely slides 5-6 people without any issues on a few occasions.

The final appearance of Quinn's original timer was in Season 3's "Slide Like an Egyptian", where it was replaced by the Egyptian timer after the Sliders missed the slide. Script outtakes for the episode revealed that the Sliders held onto it to swap out certain parts.

Egyptian Timer[]

The Egyptian timer was constructed from a NiteGlow Universal TV remote with a digital readout, modified keypad, LED lights, and an LCD display. The bottom of the timer features a metal plate with an embossed scarab beetle, signifying the timer's Egyptian origin. While initially emitting a golden wormhole, the Egyptian timer opens a bright blue vortex immediately thereafter, like its original predecessor.

First appearing in Egypt World during Season 3's "Slide Like an Egyptian", Quinn finds this timer in the pyramid architect's office while trying to rescue the other Sliders, who are trapped inside the pyramid after having missed the slide. Once reunited, it is shown that the timer is counting down 13 hours until the next window; the Sliders activate this timer prematurely and continue their journey.

During its appearances throughout the remainder of Season 3 up until the end of Season 5, the Egyptian timer undergoes several upgrades and modifications. A script outtake from "Slide Like an Egyptian" reveals that Quinn changed out this timer's stabilizer with his original one to keep the Sliders within their usual sliding radius. A few episodes later in "The Exodus", Dr. Steven Jensen adds wormhole tracking and coordinate storage functions to the timer; this technology was damaged at the end of the Season 3 finale "This Slide of Paradise," although Quinn is able to repair it at the beginning of the Season 4 premiere "Genesis." At the conclusion of "World Killer," Quinn's double inputs circuitry into the Egyptian timer that would allow it to accept foreign coordinates without needing to slide to a certain dimension to obtain them. Later on, the Egyptian timer undergoes a severe power drain in Season 5's "Heavy Metal," where it is revealed in the following episode "To Catch a Slider" that it is powered by crystals that "vibrate on the Hertz scale" when the Sliders need to replace its drained power source.

This timer is destroyed by Claire's henchmen in the series finale "The Seer".

Logan St. Claire's Timer[]

Appearing exclusively in Season 3's 'Double Cross." Upon their arrival to a world heavily depleted on natural resources, the Sliders meet Logan St. Claire (Quinn's fraternal female double of that world). She was also in possession of sliding equipment, and offered to help the Sliders find their home dimension coordinates in return for Quinn's assistance in stabilizing her own wormhole. Logan's orange-yellow wormhole, while powerful enough to slide probes for scouting parallel worlds, was also notably unstable and even potentially fatal to a Slider without the proper return coordinates to slide safely. Her lower-tech timer was constructed of standard television remote and had the ability to track wormholes. In the climax of the episode, it is revealed that Logan sabotaged the Sliders' timer's sliding radius by switching their laser gyro geographic spectrum stabilizer with her own technologically inferior "whispering gallery."

In the conclusion, Logan attempts to force Quinn to give her the correct return coordinates for her timer to slide safely by threatening Wade's life. Quinn reportedly inputs random dimensional coordinates into Logan's timer, causing her to become lost in the multiverse like the Sliders. It was speculated by the Sliders that they would possibly encounter her again due to her timer's ability to track wormholes; however, as she never makes another appearance on the show, the final fate of Logan and her timer are left unknown.

Exodus Timer[]

First appearing in Season 3's "The Exodus" and constructed from a Sega Genesis "Mad Catz" controller with a digital readout, LED lights, LCD display, and an added keypad; this timer was built by Dr. Steven Jensen with Quinn's assistance, with its main power chip being a duplicate of the Sliders' own Egyptian timer. This timer was designed to slide a large population of people to safety in another world from an incoming pulsar. Its red wormhole had enough power to slide over 300 people alongside all of their supplies. Dr. Jensen also integrated wormhole tracking technology and dimensional coordinate storage within this timer, which he also shared with the Sliders in helping them find their home.

After the successful Exodus from Pulsar Prime, the timer was stolen by the insane Col. Angus Rickman after his murder of Dr. Jensen and Professor Arturo; with the Sliders in pursuit of him to recover it due to its possession of their home coordinates for the remainder of the Season. In "The Other Slide of Darkness," the timer succumbs to burnout, although it managed to retain its previously stored dimensional coordinates; Quinn's double (from the Pilot) repairs it to work on the Helix Spiral as the other Sliders' timer. Its final appearance is in Season 3's finale "This Slide of Paradise," where it is finally stolen from Rickman by the Sliders in the climax; Quinn uses the timer to help Wade and Rembrandt escape from Hybrid World, while Rickman accidentally falls to his death in a failed attempt to stop them. As Wade and Rembrandt are seen sliding without it, the now-defunct timer either remained in Quinn's possession for spare parts or left behind.

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